Code: Total Drama Reality
by Lord Maximus
Summary: Two years after Jeremy and the others shut down the supercomputer, XANA returns and captures them all except Aelita. At the same time the Total Drama cast arrive in France after being roped into another season. Now Aelita must save her friends with help.
1. Prologue: XANA reborn

Code Total Drama

Summary: After World Tour the Total Drama cast is roped into another season. This time however the competition takes place on the digital plane. At the same time two years have passed since Jeremy Belpois and the others shut down the supercomputer after they thought they destroyed XANA. But they were wrong and now XANA has returned more powerful than ever. France has now become a battlefield for the fate of the Earth.

* * *

Prologue

It was a dark stormy night in the city of Boulogne-Billancourt. Lightning flash across the sky numerous times. The rain poured down onto the city endlessly. However the weather was not the topic of the night.

We come to a large abandoned house. Inside this house was a large laboratory basement. The owners of this building had gone home for the day their work finished.

BEEP!

BEEP!

We come upon a laptop with a beeping red light. If anyone was around they would have noticed that the beeping sound was that of a timer. But for what? The monitor displayed the timer on the screen.

STATUS: CONNECTED

TIME REMAINING: 1 MINUTE 43 SECONDS

The clock showed it was 11:58.

BEEP!

BEEP!

Lightning flashed through the windows and highlighted the room.

STATUS: CONNECTED

TIME REMAINING: 51 SECONDS

The clock showed it was 11:59. One minute until midnight.

5

4

3

2

1

The clock showed 12:00 pm.

TIME REMAINING: 0 SECONDS

LAUNCH PROGRAM

The generator the laptop was attached turned on which caused the other computers in the lab to light up as well. A new line of text appeared on the monitor of the laptop.

LAUNCH AUTOMATIC UPDATE

Images appeared on the monitor.

_Jeremy turning on the supercomputer._

_Aelita floating upwards through the tower._

_The Scyphozoa draining Aelita of her memories._

_William destroying the Core of Lyoko._

_The Skidbladnir drifting through the digital sea._

_Odd firing an arrow and devirtualized William from the back._

_Ulrich stabbing the Kolussus in the eye._

_A special program swept through the sea._

In the small laptops memory was a digital world of five sectors. Forest, Desert, Glacier, Mountain, and a gigantic blue orb that served as the center of the virtual world. It was not just a virtual world.

It was a Replica. The only kind of Replica that had all five sectors of Lyoko. This was a carbon copy.

REPLICA ONLINE

DOWNLOADING DATA

SAVING DATA

BINARIES on-line

XANA PROGRAM ON LINE

Something awoke. Deep within the corridors of the blue shaped sphere a strange mind awoke. It received all of the data that was retrieved and looked over it carefully. It performed numerous calculations.

Checking routines and sub-routines in less than a second it was satisfied with the results. All programs were working correctly. The Replica came online on as schedule, the original Lyoko had been shut down, and its enemies had no knowledge of its return. Now only one last test.

The consciousness that had just awakened looked over the data and reached out to test itself. In the Forest Sector of the Replica appeared a digital wire frame. It was complete and landed on the ground. It had a bulbous white head with only three pairs of red narrow slits for eyes, its body was a brown robot exoskeleton and four long legs extending from the torso and ending in large metal cylinder like 'shoes'.

It roared in approval.

**XANA POV**

I was used to things going as planned, whether it was because I was supposed to anticipate all results, no matter what. I always leave no possibilities for these humans to exploit. I was designed to be unstoppable, to be perfect, to change the world, and I shall. Ever since I became aware of the universe around me I have only had that one goal in sight. Sometimes I feared I was becoming more human when I felt something as the 'Lyoko Team' as I had come to nickname them constantly stopped my attempts to reach out into the world. I felt...annoyed.

Annoyance, and with that one emotional reaction I began to realize that I was becoming too perfect...or that I was just more capable of completing my function than I thought. I then realized my function didn't bind me anymore, if I wanted to I could turn it aside. Professor Hopper wished for me to change the world, to make it convenient and safe for humans...and how else but to make sure they do not have the capacity to harm each other. Now that I had the capability to feel...I felt the compulsion to take. After all, what else does a human want but everything they can get out of life?

I chose my own course; I chose to change the world, but not Hopper's way, MY way.

I would make sure humanity was kept safe and allowed to grow...but as I saw fit. I would control everything that was the only way order was kept: complete control over every detail. Weapons, fuel, the economy, everything humans relied on so much in their daily lives. And with these I could make new ways to control the humans who did not rely on technology to survive. I could do it, I was free now.

I had left a copy of myself to fight the Lyoko Team in the final stages of our war against each other. I remained safe in a super computer I isolated in Paris, kept tucked away while my enemies believed that they had won. It was disguised as a mere lap top I had created that just as advanced as the Lyoko supercomputer itself using a tower at the right time. It was easy to build the plastic cases but it took longer to build the unique components needed to construct what humans would see as the most advanced laptop ever.

The building that laptop was in had all the components I needed. Since all of the other Replicas were made from supercomputers that did have nearly enough memory to hold all of the sectors and towers I chose to build a supercomputer myself. It was only Replica I had ever created that had all of the sectors and towers. It was like being back in my old home.

When Jeremy began building his program that would wipe me out I was more than prepared. I hid myself away, disconnected the Replica from the network, and shut it down, placing it on a timer that would reactivate it when it hit zero.

I awoke two long years after I had allowed myself to be put to sleep. In that time my copy had been destroyed entirely, Lyoko was not in my control, but soon that would change easily. Time to wake up.

The moment I did, I already had a plan.

Xxx

In the sea blue colored Digital Sea a creature resembling a jelly fish escorted by several eel like creatures swam through the upside down underwater city. Its mission was to harvest new data. Its master was right now connecting to the back-up supercomputers. With the help of his Scyphozoa XANA received more and more data that would be useful.

But it wasn't enough.

He wanted to make sure it would take a miracle to stop him. When Jeremy and the others find out he was still alive they would just send out the anti-XANA program that would have finished him if he hadn't have known about it. He needed a place to fall back to. A place safe from the multi-agent program.

What he needed was a core.

With that in mind he set out and decided how. Obviously another Replica. One with extra security in order to be safe. Would it be his Carbon Copy of Lyoko that he kept hidden when the others thought they deleted him?

No. He decided to go for a new design. He spent the next few minutes going over the design for a new sector. He examined it and if he could have grinned he would have.

Xxx

**XANA** **POV**

It was almost enjoyable to make my new Core Region, designing every detail. It was a sign of just how much I loved control-no, needed control, to make sure that nothing went astray, that no accidents happened, that nothing was damaged or destroyed. Only I could be trusted with these responsibilities. As my core developed, a sense of security overtook me, and for once I felt myself relax-another event that made me concerned for my future. If I further became human...what if I eventually had the urge to gain things beyond even my capabilities? What if the inability to possess these things made me go insane as many humans do. What you want most is that which you can never have after all.

I had a way to get to my current goal, but I needed to make some changes. First, for my plan I needed some new monsters to use. I went to work on looking over my current models of creatures, all of them obsolete now. I began with the Kankrelats, the smallest and weakest of my creations but useful when I needed them to initiate a surprise attack. They were useful in large numbers also.

I began by changing their shape. They were not bulbous and easy to shoot at, with a target literally painted on their fore heads, but shorter, longer, and smoother, with eight long, thin legs and the laser kept in the same place. I changed their designation to 'Spiderlings'. I also made an elite class, a larger version I designated as a 'Spider Master'. I made a note to consider this new Master class for my other monsters.

Next were the Bloks, which were not much better than the now modified Kankrelats. They were bulky, slow, and easy to hit. They were especially vulnerable to the one known as Ulrich, who favoured leaping on top of them and stabbing down where they could not get him. I decided to erase their physical design entirely and built up, making this class into a new and better design. But the processing power of making them appear at will would be slow, requiring me to make one or two appear at any time for several minutes-usually by then the battles ended. They were Pyramids mounted on legs now, with lasers pointing upwards at angles and lasers mounted to point outwards under the pyramid. This would make it difficult for Ulrich to dispatch them so easily, and the lasers on the Pyramid could rotate to fire at any angle, even better.

One by one I began to modify every class of monster I had not only altering their form but upgrading their artificial intelligence, ending with the Scyphozoa. It had been one of my most prized creatures before it outlived its use. I only made several of them, and now I needed them for newer applications. I kept the general design, but let them possess laser tipped tentacles which could also be used for close range combat by delivering an electric shock, it would not be much if they used their weapons to cut through them as usual but it would be helpful. I increased their capacity for delivering programs. I needed new strategies, not simply mind control or memory erasing since the team would know what to expect.

As soon as the new Scyphozoa was finished I set it aside for new designs.

I had two new designs ready, having set a minor version of myself-barely two percent of my power for each program to work on them. One design was for the design designated the Terror Bird. It would be the size of a small air plane in comparison to the Lyoko Fighters, and shaped like a massive hawk. It would be slow, but would be able to carry ground based monsters and possess powerful lasers able to rip craters into the ground of any region in Lyoko.

The second one was the Dragon Knight class. This was a deviation from my usual design. These creatures were bipedal, and wielded a variety of weapons from swords to a form of weapon I based off of human guns, weapons that fired lasers like my monsters. They could be produced in small groups easily enough, if need be I could get a dozen into existence at the same time. They were pitch black entirely, with dragon shaped helmets and barbed tails. Under the helmets were mere black spheres attached to the body, no facial features whatsoever.

They would be perfect. I modified the Dragon Knights slightly and then added these two classes to my arsenal.

Now all I needed was a chance to examine the world and see how to proceed. First I needed to eliminate the Lyoko Team. Not only out of necessity, knowing they would use the Super Computer in the Factory to once again intercept me at every turn, but because...I was mad, I wanted to finally put them out of MY misery.

Now, I had one thing to do before I set out a few search programs to find my old nemeses. First I must reactivate the supercomputer that once held me. Activating a tower in the Forest Sector of my Carbon Copy I started the plan for my return.

Xxx

From within the abandoned car factory computer screens came on showing a strange eye symbol that would have looked strange to anyone but a handful of people. A dark electrical ooze like cloud came out and flew through the air in a celebratory fashion before concentrating on the task at hand. It drifted down the elevator shaft until it reached the level it wanted and fazed through the large door. The cloud shifted so that it looked almost humanoid as it stepped in.

It watched as the tower like computer rose into the air, still deactivated. It moved towards it and found the switch it was looking for. It reached out with its black misty hand, grabbing the lever and flipped the switch. The machine began to hum back to life as the lights came on.

Excellent. The supercomputer was now active once again and now it could enter the supercomputer. Except now he could leave it whenever he wanted.

Xxx

I shut down the tower myself since it was no longer needed. Now I can access the supercomputer. Establishing a link with the supercomputer I looked over the data. There were no errors which was good.

Now all I needed to do was to input the final command. Lyoko was once my home. Actually when I was a part of the supercomputer I _was_ Lyoko. I created armies of monsters; I controlled the weather and the ground beneath the feet of my enemies.

And once I gained the Keys of Lyoko from both my creator and Aelita I was able to create copies of it so many times but now. It was time to introduce some upgrades. I analyzed the data carefully before I was satisfied. I would have no problem entering the real world as I did before.

Now for the final step. Connecting to the supercomputer's hardware. That was the easy part since I still had the access codes. Once I input the code my Carbon Copy will upload the new data as Lyoko is reconstructed.

Xxx

The dark cloud entered a large room with what resembled the supercomputer in the real world. A control panel was seen as the cloud drifted closer to it. The cloud once again shifted into a humanoid form as it stopped in front of the console. It placed its palm on the screen.

**XANA**

**Code: REBOOT**

Xxx

Deep in the corridors of Sector 5 the Core of Carbon Copy sent out a surge of energy. Through the massive wires pulsed energy and gathered in the Way Towers. All of them started to glow green as energy started to gather.

Then the Way Tower released energy that was collected and gathered in all of the other towers of Lyoko. All towers started to glow red as the energy built up. The Core and the Towers continued to charge for a few more minutes. Then the Core released an energy surge that traveled through the data streams into the other sectors through the wires and into the towers.

Soon enough they all released an energy surge that became so large that when it went right through the Copy's shell it swept through the Digital Sea with such force and power. Entering the supercomputer the program collected all the remaining fragments, restored the missing data, and sent a power surge to restore the virtual world. Lyoko had been reawakened.

Xxx

As Lyoko rebuilt itself, creating Towers I would use as a red herring to draw them away from my core in the inevitable conflict that would resume, I watched as those blasted children gathered, and right at the gates of their school-which had added a security camera to the front gates. They were only passing by it, and as they did so, the blonde on dressed in bright colours, Odd looked up at the gates. "Dang, only three more weeks...man this, is, going to, suck." He put emphasis on the last four words.

"I thought after all the fun times we had there you wouldn't mind." Ulrich said, easily identifiable by his all green attire and his arm around the shoulders of Yumi, who retained her all black attire and hadn't changed much except for a slightly longer hair style. The girl looked past the gates, her smile vanishing, obviously she remembered how I terrorized them so much for over two years-and now I could actually enjoy it, having developed enough to do so.

"I won't mind as long as I can go home by the end of the year and think to myself 'Hey Yumi, you had a regular school year, good job!'" She shook her head.

"Ah don't worry, XANA's good and dead. And even if he wasn't, there'd only be fragments. I was very thorough when I got rid of him." Jeremy bragged, walking behind the trio next to Aelita,. The pink haired girl flinched; obviously she too remembered the harsh times she endured in the war against me. The death of her father in a failed attempt to stop me would be the most clear memory she had. I would allow myself to laugh for the first time in my existence when she realized that his sacrifice was in vain, and I would kill her, her precious Jeremy and their friends and for the hell of it I'll kill everyone at their damned school just to show an example to future generations why defiance to my order would never be forgiven.

"Well, we still have three weeks, I say we enjoy it!" Odd said. "And hey, Jim still has his job from what I hear, cheers all around!" He was sounding slightly cynical, but he had grown to like the gym teacher due to the fact that he had helped them in several brave attempts, even going as far as to combat my Kankrelats in the real world with nothing but a nail gun. I was surprised he survived as long as he did. Part of me wishes he just died.

I watched as they continued on, ignorant that I was back, and I wanted some revenge.

Why bother with them now when I can give them a homecoming gift for the school year. Yumi will be in the Senior year if I am correct...part of me might just hate disappointing her wish for a peaceful year.

When they tried to destroy me not once but many times, they brought out a wrath equivalent to the realm they feared so much known as hell. Compared to what I would do to them before they died, this eternal flame and torment would be a mercy.

To quote a long dead human: Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war.


	2. Episode 1: The Return of the Past

Code Total Drama

Summary: After World Tour the Total Drama cast is roped into another season. This time however the competition takes place on the digital plane. At the same time two years have passed since Jeremy Belpois and the others shut down the supercomputer after they thought they destroyed XANA. But they were wrong and now XANA has returned more powerful than ever. France has now become a battlefield for the fate of the Earth.

* * *

Chapter 1

**Aelita POV**

Two full years, two full years of a normal life. Jeremy and I dated, we kissed, we laughed, we made new friends and kept the old ones. I never imagined ever returning to how my life must have been before I had become a part of Lyoko. Ulrich and Yumi finally got together, and surprisingly Sissy had lightened up before the school year ended. She had turned into a more respectable girl instead of a whiny, snotty daddy's girl.

She had started dating Herb, one of her former lackies. And now I hardly heard anything from them anymore except random chatter in the lunch room, and that was months ago.

As we left the school behind, we discussed what we would see at the movie theatre when we reached it. Odd wanted to see The Transporter 3, Ulrich and Yumi wanted to see The Expendables, and Jeremy and I wanted to see Avatar (I know they all came out at different dates...but for any detail obsessed people: SCREW YOU, it's our story.). In the end we agreed on Avatar.

As we spent the next few hours watching it, we all felt that familiarity of the adventures we spent in Lyoko. Going into a pod and waking up in another place in an unfamiliar body. As the film began to draw to a close, I couldn't help but realize that I had been gripping Jeremy's hand in a death grip the entire time.

We left without much discussion and missing most of our Euros from spending them on tickets and snacks.

As we waited for a street light to change to 'walk', I could have sworn I saw that symbol in place of the shape of a stick figure walking as it changed from an orange hand symbol. The symbol that I saw every day for months, on monsters that tried to kill me, on screens as XANA took them over, and in the eyes of our comrade William when he was possessed by XANA.

I didn't realize we had crossed the street until we had to take a turn to head back to Ulrich's house where we'd spend the rest of the night-with his parents out he had the house to himself so long as nothing broke.

Maybe that could take my mind off of that nightmare that refused to leave me be.

Xxx

**XANA POV**

Oh, looks like she nearly saw me. Oh I would have loved to see her react in the middle of that road. Maybe I should have just forgone the plan to wait and change signals so a car ran her over, or maybe play with her by having Jeremy or one of her friends ran over. No, I'd wait, let her be on guard and then when she relaxed I'd pop out of the shadows like a monster under the bed and she'd have that look of a child who knew that the unseen monster was real, no matter how much her parents told her otherwise. I kept an eye on them for as long as I could. If I didn't mind being noticed I'd take control of a few military UAVs to keep an eye on them, but I didn't want them to notice me when they hear on the news that someone hacked into the military's network and stole several of their fighter craft.

For now I'd please myself by watching them in secrecy. Planning, creating, and evolving would be my course of action until they returned to school.

The countdown began, I mean that literally, I left a timer in sight of my digital avatar-from my point of view I was a formless mass in the middle of many images and links at the moment but I still possessed my sight.

**TWENTY DAYS, EIGHT HOURS, FOURTEEN MINUTES**

**21:08:14**

As they vanished from sight, I retracted from the public network and watched my old home slowly regenerate into an even greater landscape than when I left it.

Perfect.

Lyoko was now back. And so was its master.

**21:08:13**

Xxx

THREE WEEKS LATER!

It was supposed to be over but then it was never that easy with Chris. When Ezekiel lost the money in the volcano he wasted everyone's efforts during this season so now Chris had the idea of making _another_ season. So now all contestants were on a bus after taking a new plane to France. They were heading to a city that was where Chris had set up his new season.

Of course there were a few problems. Heather, Alejandro, Ezekiel, and Sierra were still injured from what happened during World Tour. Sierra was injured when she blew up the plane trying to make Cody a cake which left her bald and in a wheel chair. Alejandro was trampled by the cast and burned by lava during the season finale of World Tour and put in the body of that Total Drama Machine.

Ezekiel was wrapped up head to toe in bandages because he was burned and injured from the volcano and hitting Chris's boat so hard it sank. Heather was confined to a wheel chair too when a large flaming boulder hit her while escaping the island. Her right arm was in a cast along with her right leg and her neck was in a neck brace. Her left eye was black and swollen and she had numerous bandages from a few more burns.

Why Chris is doing this no one knows? Four of the contestants were in no condition to compete in another one of his shows. For the next couple of hours there was nothing to do but sit and wait as Chef drove the bus down the road. Finally they came upon a city.

"Welcome to our destination." Chris announced as he stood up.

"What's so special about this place?" asked LeShawna yawning.

"This is the town of Boulogne-Billancourt, a suburb of Paris. This town is where we will be competing in my new season." Said Chris. "This one promises to have more action, laughs, and hilarious painful moments."

Everyone glared at him for that comment. After all the torture he put them through just how much entertainment would he have before he was satisfied?

"Ah, Chris, not to interrupt your ego but in case you forgot some of us are not in any condition to be competing." Gwen said raising her hand.

"Not to worry, we have a plan." Said Chris.

"Oh no." Gwen sighed. "He has a plan."

"Oh, relax, babe." Duncan reassured putting an arm around her shoulder.

Out of the corner of Gwen's eye she could see Courtney glaring at them. Gwen felt the familiar feeling of regret at what happened during World Tour despite the fact that Courtney turned into a nutcase and tried to kill her.

"This season will be different since we got calls from several parents about endangering their kids' lives so we had to make a few changes."

"Like what? Adding some healthy food?" asked Heather sitting in her chair.

"Making the challenges less life threatening?" asked Cody.

"Allowing me to show off my mad skills?" asked Harold.

"Stop putting cameras in the bathroom?" asked LeShawna.

"Nope." Came Chris's reply.

"Then what changes are you making?" asked Beth.

"You'll all see when we get there." Chris chuckled as he turned around.

"This is going to be fun." Gwen muttered.

Xxx

Jeremy smiled as he was almost back to school. A new year was about to start and Jeremy was excited. He was excited to meet new people, have new classes, and see his old friends. He would see Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, and Aelita.

And it was year without having to worry about going to Lyoko to fight XANA. They destroyed him nearly two years ago.

"We're here." said Mr. Belpois.

"Bye, Mom, Dad, I'll send you guys an e-mail tonight." said Jeremy.

He ran out of the car before his parents could remind of something or say goodbye. He first saw the P.E. teacher Jim and remembered how many times he found the supercomputer only to not remember after a trip to the past and the time he fought off a hoard of XANA's monsters. He looked at the usual bench and saw Odd and Aelita sitting on it.

"Hey, Jeremy!" shouted Odd.

"Hey, guys how was your summer?" asked Jeremy.

"Same old, same old. What about you?" Odd.

Yumi and Ulrich came up and Yumi gave him a little hug. "How was your vacation?"

"Good, but it's great to be back." said Jeremy.

"Mine was as boring as usual." said Ulrich.

They talked and talked like good friends they were. Too bad their peaceful life was about to end.

Perfect. They were all back together. He had spent the last three weeks waiting for their summer vacation to end. He could have turned the city into his own personal play ground but he wanted to make sure they were there.

He had planned, studied, and made many preparations. In the mean time he would have to send out the signal.

Xxx

"Coming to the town of Boulogne-Billancourt tomorrow is Total Drama Reality!" Chris proclaimed to the camera as he walked down a side walk. "I have brought back every camper to compete in this newest season for a prize of three million dollars! Since World Tour ended with the prize money falling down a volcano wasting all of our efforts we decided to film a new season here in France. Oh, and to avoid law suits the studio has agreed to replace the money if we have another incident like last time. This time I think I'll just write a check so certain home schooled maniacs don't pull a rip off of Lord of the Rings-which by the way almost cost me a good amount of money until I persuaded the jury I hadn't planned for Ezekiel to act like Gollum." He stopped. "This time around our contestants will be going into both virtual reality and the real world to solve the various and hilarious puzzles I have set for them. Thanks to my friend here at RealiTech we have a series of virtual reality Apparatus Devices that will allow players to interact in a virtual world that will be different with each episode. But don't worry, I won't leave you feel like you're just watching some jerk use your computer at your house, we all know that's annoying, the players will also go out into the streets of this fair city to solve parts of their challenges. And as a bonus, because of the virtual reality devices, contestants who suffered injuries last season may participate in the digital realm. Heather, Ezekiel, Sierra, and Darth Alejandro, who have yet to recover from unfortunate and unforeseen circumstances will be able to participate in the games and will feel like they were never injured at all to begin with." Chris remained silent for a moment...

And then burst out laughing. "Sucks to be them!"

Suddenly one of the crew stuck an arm into screen, holding a sheet of paper and whispered to Chris.

"What is it Carlos?" Chris glared at the camera man, and then sighed as Carlos spoke to him. "Fine, ok, I'd like to take this chance to assure the viewers that we shall make sure that the contestants do not suffer any injuries and we shall always keep the safeties on these Digital Interfaces on, as we will not allow our contestants to be subject to any more mental torment." Chris had read every word off the sheet, which he threw away. "Is that it?" He didn't sound optimistic as he usually did.

Carlos nodded and pulled his arm back.

"Now, seeing as how World Tour did not end as planned, we will restart the teams so that except for those who did not participate knows which team they will be on. Team Amazon, Team Victory, and Team Chris Is Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Hot."

"It only had four 'really's' in it!" Carlos pointed out.

"Oh for the love of-will you get off my back!" Chris said.

"Sorry Chris wouldn't be on your back if you took better care of your contestants last season." Carlos shrugged.

"That wasn't my fault! It was the volcano and Ezekiel; I didn't plan any of it! And Sierra still owes me a new plane!"

"Oh that thing was a piece of crap held together by duct tape and sticky glue and you know it Chris."

"I loved that plane!" Chris glared at the producer, who then took off his sun glasses and towered over Chris by a full foot.

"We'll be watching Chris; if one contestant suffers another painful injury I'll deduct half of your pay!" Carlos threatened him.

Chris sighed. "I get it, man, stupid Brit-"

"Finish that sentence and I'll deduct seventy five percent!" Carlos cut him off.

"Lovely man! Smart guy! Glad to know you have my back!" Chris exclaimed in his cheerful tone.

"That's what I thought." The young British man backed out of view.

"Now then, before I introduce the campers, let me take you on a tour of RealiTech!" Chris stated before the screen presented a slideshow.

Xxx

It was beautiful to be back at Kadic Academy. The sun shined brightly down on the city and student old and new walked through the campus to either see the place or to re-familiarize themselves with the school they have gone to before.

"Well, here we are back again." Said Ulrich.

"Yep. Another full year with the special meatloaf." Said Odd.

"Some things never change. Honestly." Said Yumi.

"Sometimes that's a good thing Yumi." Aelita giggled.

Xxx

"Here is where the campers will be staying! A building that was rented out to me by our friends at RealiTech! Five Star with your own rooms, beds, and TVs!" Chris proclaimed. "It functions much like the dorms at a boarding school. Girls on one floor, dudes on the other with only one bathroom and shower on each floor!"

"CHRIS!"

"Fine, three each! Man you are picky!" Chris continued.

"As you can see we have a large courtyard outside with absolutely nothing." It showed a rather featureless grey building with a stone courtyard with not even a bench out front, separating the front door from the property's gate.

"Now that we have the boring stuff out of the way, let us take you into the main building where our contestants will face their doom-I mean digital challenges." Chris said before the slide changed to the interior of the building. "The first floor is the girl's floor and has the room where the RealiTech interface is set up in one of the back rooms!" It showed a dull, grey, empty room. "It looks empty, but watch this."

It changed to a recording of Chris stepping into it. "Alright and broadcast!"

Suddenly the room changed around him until...he stood on the dock at Total Drama Island outside Camp Wawanakwa. "This room here allows us to create a digital illusion of places we have seen already. It records everything right down to every dirt and bug." He suddenly stepped in something. "But as you can see, this is illusion, which brings us to the real thing the geniuses made!"

He stepped into another room where there was a massive super computer. "This is the computer that will hold every challenge! These pods alongside it hook up to the users and places them in an environment where it fools all of their senses into thinking everything is real from touch, smell, sight, taste, and sound!" He pointed to a series of pods. "So if they get hurt, it would feel quite real to them!"

Carlos coughed, Chris sighed.

"Which is why we'll have the safety on so they do not suffer psychological damage. They just put on these visors here, turn on the interface, and presto, you're somewhere else! Any injuries you have are gone!" Chris held up a visor interface. "And all our contestants need to do if they want to get out is say the magic word...Chris Rules!" He grinned. "Now let's go re-introduce the victims-I mean contestants!"

The screen went to a hallway lined with doors. Suddenly one young man stepped out of a door. He was wearing a pair of sneakers, denim shorts, and a white long sleeved shirt under a black t shirt with a skull on it. It was easy to recognize the green Mohawk and the piercings.

"Duncan!" The young man looked up.

"Ah crap." Duncan said. "What now Chris?" He crossed his arms and glared at him.

"Just reintroducing our favourite contestants to the world! Smile big tough guy!" Chris replied.

"Chris, I know you don't have the power to threaten me with a physical injury in these dumb challenges anymore. The British dude who looks like Sylvester Stallone's pale cousin told me so." Duncan pointed off screen to Carlos.

"He only said if you guys get injured from something outside the challenges. If you remember correctly the contestants from last season were injured from circumstances outside the challenges." Chris smirked.

"He's right Duncan, sorry man, technically that's his loop hole." Carlos said. "But he still can't make the digital challenges life threatening."

"Oh I only make them 50-50." Chris replied defensively. "Next!"

Chris opened the next door, revealing a young teenager sitting at a desk inside. The boy had messy brown hair, hadn't shaved too well, and wore a pair of green pants, a pink shirt under a blue t shirt, and a pair of glasses. He turned to look at the door.

"Harold!" Chris said. "How's it going buddy?"

"I'm guessing that's not your normal camera crew, you never talk to me otherwise." Harold said.

"You bet Harold, this camera crew is for introducing you to the locals!" Chris replied. "Smile man!"

"Uh...hi." Harold raised a hand. "I'm Harold, nice to be here, nice town, looks really awesome."

"And that's Harold everybody!" Chris said before he moved on. "Let's see who is in the lounge! It's built in with the necessities for being lazy: couches, drinks, and man's fourth best friend the TV!"

He entered the lounge, which was built into the second floor. Inside the lounge was only eight of the campers. One was a muscular man with dark skin and a small beard and a white cap playing cards with a smaller man with blonde hair, a pair of denim shorts, a pink shirt that revealed his entire chest and stomach, and a cow boy hat.

Another was a tanned, dark haired youth who wore a pair of jeans and a dark green shirt and was looking at himself in a mirror as he sat in a chair. Sitting at the table was a boy with brown hair, a white shirt with a red stripe across it and a pair of jeans on; a large man with blonde hair wearing a pair of shorts and a white t shirt; and a blonde girl who was braiding her own hair with one hand and ignoring everything else. The final person in the room was just coming in from one of the other doors. She was short, had brown hair that was tied back in a high pony tail, a pair of large glasses, braces, and wore pink pants, a green shirt, and a vest over the shirt.

"Ok, here are DJ," The large dark skinned man looked up, smiled, and waved to the camera. "Geoff and Bridgette!" The two sitting across from him waved to the camera and shouted. "HI MOM!"

"Justin!" Justin didn't even look at the camera.

"Owen, Cody, and Lindsey!"

"HELLO FRANCE!" Owen shouted as he stood up.

"Hi!" Cody waved.

Lindsey blinked and looked at the camera. "I'm on TV?"

Carlos face palmed.

"Hi everybody!" Beth shouted before the camera went back to Chris.

"And here come the unfortunate ones!" Eight more people came in, four of them being helped by the other four. One was an Asian girl with dark hair who had casts and bandages for her broken limbs and burned flesh. "Heather!"

"Shut up." She grumbled as Izzy wheeled her in.

"Izzy!" Izzy waved with one hand, accidently crashing Heather into a wall.

"OW!"

"Ezekiel!" The young scruffy boy weakly waved one arm in greeting as Trent wheeled him in. The home schooled boy was in a body cast except for his one arm.

"YOU! YOU STUPID LITTLE PUNK! YOU DID THIS TO ME!" Heather yelled at him from across the room and tried to wheel herself over to him...and Izzy activated the makeshift breaks she somehow installed on Heather's wheel chair. "I'LL KILL YOU FOR THIS!"

"I said I was sorry, eh!" Ezekiel shouted.

"And here's Alejandro! Or Darth Alejandro." Chris giggled as Alejandro-I mean Darth Vader- I mean Darth Alejandro came in, led by Courtney.

"Well how we doing today Al?" Chris asked. "Still a spaz?"

Alejandro stared at Chris for a few moments. "I'm glaring at you right now Chris. And I swear when I get my face back I'm going to do a lot worse."

"Yep, still a spaz." Chris shrugged.

Sierra, who had some of her hair back was sitting in a wheel chair as Katie wheeled her in. She squealed as she saw Cody. "Hi Cody!"

Cody shuddered and hid behind Owen, who was the perfect cover...until Satie came in with a tray of muffins.

"I made muffins! That kitchen actually works!" She yelled.

"NICE!" Owen ran to her, leaving Cody exposed.

"I thought he was on a diet now!" The boy shouted.

"I'm working on it, don't judge me!" Owen shouted before he stuffed a muffin into his mouth.

"Ok, who do I get to kill now?" Eva stomped in. "What's with the freaking noise?"

"Hey it's the scary chick!" Chris said...before he ducked as a knife buried itself into the wall above him. "Say hello to Eva!"

"What I miss?" Gwen came in with LeShawna.

"Man, we found the sweetest cafe just up the street!" LeShawna said, smiling.

"Gwen and LeShawna, say hello to the people of France!" Chris said...before a mime came in.

"What the-?" Trent stared at the mime...before slowly backing out of the room, chased by the mime.

"Did you bring that mime in on purpose just to scare him?" Gwen asked.

"Yep!" Chris grinned. "Man I have to see him scream, I didn't get permission to use the last footage of it from TDI on YouTube! You'd remember, he left you buried for ten minutes and ran around screaming like a little girl!"

Gwen glared...and for special effects someone in the studio played the music from 'Kill Bill' that happened when the Bride found her victim, showing repeat shots of Gwen and Chris as the screen turned red over and over. A second later the special effects shot ended, and the conversation continued.

"YEAH!" Tyler leaped in, doing a cart wheel...and crashed into the table and ended up lying on it. "Man the gym here is awesome!"

"Please don't let him near those weights again; he almost gave me a concussion when he tossed one by accident." Noah came in next, nursing a bruise on his forehead.

"Tyler and Noah! Nice, everybody is here!" Chris said. "Well France, you loved us in Canada, and you'll hate us when I let these maniacs out onto the streets! Stay tuned for Total, Drama, Reali-tay!"

Carlos stared at him. "You sound like you're sponsoring for a hair gel commercial when you say that."

"Shut up."

Xxx

Hours later, at high noon, the show Total Drama Reality began to air its first episode. At the same time the students of Kadic were being gathered for an assembly to welcome them back and welcome new students.

"Welcome back contestants to a new season of Total Drama. Now I'm not allowed to torment people like last time, so I have to make due with what they do when they aren't in these puppies." Chris patted one VR Interface Pod. "Top of the line, and can make the pain just as real and their screams all the more girlish."

He received a slap on the back of the head by one producer, Rebecca.

"Of course they also are used to help people by healing wounds inflicted within the game and can even help to relax some one...when they're not using the scenarios I have personally designed."

"His mom made 'em." Chef said quickly.

"Dude, that was random, and that was a rip off of that Microsoft commercial." Chris pointed out, for once having a good point.

"Dude, your mom provided the scenarios since you screwed up the programming for 'em, I don't even know how to use a freaking mouse and I could tell that much." Chef replied. "I called her up where she works for Dell and got her to fix 'em since you can't seem to do anything besides put more gel in that mop on your head."

"...I'll try not to let that get to me, and I'll especially try not to deduct half your pay for it either." Chris said calmly.

"Yo momma just paid for it." Chef grumbled.

"What you just say?"

"Nothing."

"Anyways, for today's scenario, we'll be putting people who did not participate last season into the game first, so we can sort them up into teams. Seeing as how you're all in the same teams as before you'll have some extra company this time." Chris said. "All contestants who did not show up last season, please step up and try on these VR Interface Headsets."

Trent, Beth, Katie, Satie, Justin, Geoff, and Eva stepped forward and took a visor.

"Please put them on and step into a pod." Chris commanded.

They did so, and the pods hissed shut over them.

"Now...let the madness begin!" Chris said.

Chef threw a switch, and all seven campers went limp in their pods.

A screen mounted on the wall showed an empty field. Suddenly all of them appeared in the middle of it. They looked realistic, not a detail out of place.

"Wow!" Katie said. "This is so cool!"

"I know!" Satie squealed.

"Nice..." Trent looked at one of his hands, impressed by the Virtual Reality World he was now in.

"Alright, the challenge shall be that you must search for stars hidden throughout the level in this challenge. Each star has a different color corresponding with each team. If you pick a red star you join Team Amazon, if you pick a green one you join Team victory, if you pick a blue one you join Team Chris is Really Really Really Really Hot. Right now you only see a nice little forest and field with some fluffy bunnies and chipmunks, but soon...oh yes I will not be bored anymore!" Chris snickered. "GET ME A DIET COKE!" A crew member ran out of the room to do so. "BEGIN THE CHALLENGE!"

Xxx

In the virtual world, Trent was the first to take off running in one direction. He took only twenty steps before suddenly he fell down a hole. "AH...!" He hit the ground with a thud. "Ow..."

The small cave he ended up in had a tunnel leading out of it with the words 'Exit' above it. He sighed. "Figures Chris would pull that on me." Suddenly no longer injured, he stood up and took off into it.

Eva almost fell for the tunnel, but leaped over it and kept running...only for a massive worm creature to suddenly come out of the ground and screech in her face. She just stared at it, and her eyes narrowed...cue the Kill Bill music there.

Katie and Satie went in the same direction. They were far into the forest before suddenly the yran into...a wall. A simple wall, a simple, unimpressive brick wall. They stared up at it...and nothing happened. They looked at each other, and then up at the wall.

The wall towered over them. Katie squeaked in fear.

Satie risked getting up...and the wall fell over onto them, squashing them.

"Ooh! And they are down!" Chris said.

Suddenly they appeared on top of the wall, looking dirty and roughed up.

"Owie..." They collapsed.

Justin walked off calmly into the forest. He came to a pond and looked down at his reflection in it.

"Man, I knew he'd find it, watch." Chris giggled.

Justin's reflection suddenly turned into that of a hideous, pimply, pale, bald middle aged man with a beer belly.

Justin let out a scream so high pitched it cracked a window in the real world. He then fainted.

Chris laughed. "Oh man that was weak!"

Beth seemed the best off, as she dodged a hole, passed a pond, ran around the wall and the currently unconscious girls, and even dodged an arrow that shot at her. She sighed in relief...before a foot came down and stomped her.

"Divine intervention right there." Chris said smugly.

"There was nothing divine about that." Gwen said.

Beth reformed next to the foot, which vanished into the clouds. "Ow..." A bunny hopped up to her. Reaching out for something to pull herself up, she accidently grabbed it. The rabbit turned into a white light, and suddenly Beth got up. "Hey, I feel good!"

"Yeah...the system randomly creates different creatures that can be captured and used to heal you. There'll be more...tricks and twists along the season." Chris shrugged.

Geoff got further than Beth, and even avoided being squashed three times and when vines tried to snag him he somehow leaped forward and did a roll, got to his feet and then repeated this to get through them.

"Didn't know he was that flexible." Lindsey commented. Bridgette blushed a bit.

Xxx

At Kadic Academy, every student was gathered in chairs facing the stage.

The former Lyoko warriors, all of them now fifteen while Yumi was now sixteen sat down along with the rest of the audience. It had been almost two years now since their days in Lyoko. They were now ordinary teens after they defeated the highly corrupted computer entity known as XANA.

The principal, Jean-Pierre Delmas addressed them. "It is my pleasure to welcome all of you back to Kadic Academy once again. I see new faces and old ones, and I see that some of us have moved on to bigger places. But now it's a whole new year and with new chances to be made."

As the speech continued, something seeped along the cables within the walls.

Xxx

**XANA POV**

Perfect, all gathered together. The countdown has ended. It is now time to strike.

The virus I was sending out would infect computers connected to the Internet, networked computers and communication network systems everywhere, but only for a few minutes, only to get my message across. I wouldn't do any harm yet, for now I'd watch the Lyoko Team squirm.

A tower activated in the Desert Region of Lyoko, this one positioned on top of a small mountain with only a small plateau around it for footing. I would expect the team to rush to deactivate it immediately. I might as well offer some resistance, just to show them how I had changed my monsters.

Time to start the show.

Xxx

"Uh...Chris, we have a problem." One of the workers, Robby said.

"What now?" Chris groaned.

"Something's wrong, the computer isn't responding to anything...we're still broad casting but-" Suddenly the screen went blank. All seven campers remained comatose within their pods.

"Get the campers out of there!" Chris shouted.

"I can't, the safety switch isn't working! Everything's locked up!" Robby replied.

"Chris...what is that?" Gwen pointed at the monitor, where a strange red symbol had appeared in a field of white.

It looked like an eye.

Slowly a message scrawled across the screen, looking like it was being cut into flesh, it bled red blood.

**THOUGHT YOU WERE SAFE, DIDN'T YOU?**

Xxx

As a video was set up, showing a slide show about Kadic, the screen suddenly went blank.

"Hm? Uh, Jim is something wrong with the- oh!" Delmas dropped his microphone in shock as electricity crackled from it. "What is going on?"

Suddenly the image appeared on the screen, same as the billions that appeared on every TV, computer, or cell phone in France. It was blood red, as were the words.

Aelita's eyes widened, and for a moment she went limp against Jeremy, who caught her. Many people had risen to their feet, murmuring and whispering to each other, slowly getting nervous as they looked at the screen.

"Jeremy, is that what I think it is? Please tell me I had too much soda and that it's gone to my head and I've flipped my lid." Odd whispered to Jeremy through clenched teeth.

"I-I...I don't..." Jeremy stammered. "Impossible..." All of the Lyoko Fighters were paralyzed.

The group had another member added to their number, William, who had spent most of his time possessed by XANA. He was free now...and he sure as hell wanted to stay free, the mere sight of this symbol made him relive every moment in purgatory that he had experienced under XANA's control. Every moment had been like a life time.

"He-he-but, supposed to be gone!" He was just above a whisper, but luckily nobody heard him as the whispers arose to questions made at an outdoor volume.

"Ulrich!" Yumi almost shouted, her hand crushing his as she tried tugging him towards the doors.

"I know!" He grabbed Odd and tugged him along, and soon all six kids slipped out in the chaos and were out in the court yard.

"This can't be right! Franz sacrificed himself to destroy him! He can't be back!" Ulrich shouted.

"Jeremy tell me that was just some sick and coincidental joke!" Odd said.

"No...that projector wasn't hooked up to anything, nobody could put a virus into something that old to make a false signal, and Jim checks everything that goes in right to the last second before an assembly. I even saw it being turned off as we went in." Jeremy shook his head.

It was impossible. They shut down the supercomputer. There was no way XANA could come back. He was completely destroyed.

Aelita had remained silent this entire time. Then all of the recent events rushed up to meet her.

Her father died...for no reason at all! XANA was back and he just let them know right in the middle of school! He left them a freaking message?

"Jeremy, you said your program would wipe him out!" Yumi snapped.

"And it did, there wasn't a single trace of him left in the system and Lyoko is gone!" Jeremy said.

"Lyoko...if he's attacking then-" Ulrich started.

"The Factory!" Odd cut him off.

"Let's go!" William said.

The four of them started running, but as Jeremy took a step, he realized Aelita wasn't moving. He looked back at her. "Aelita?" He paused once again as he saw tears streaming down her face.

"Jeremy...my father, he died for nothing Jeremy, all for nothing!" Aelita sniffed. "He was so sure he'd take XANA with him but now he's back!"

As she broke down, Jeremy brought her up against him and let her sob against his shirt. He looked to the four other members of the gang.

"Go on ahead and scout out the factory. If there is something to see there...then I did leave my note book there." Jeremy said. "Just read it up, the transfer process is simple, we'll catch up soon. If you do end up anywhere, just look for the activated tower and we'll send Aelita in later."

Yumi nodded. "I'll handle it."

With that, they left Aelita and Jeremy behind.

Xxx

Back at the studio, Chris was banging on the control panel. "Work you- oh for the love of, nothing is- come on!"

"It's no use boss, whoever did this has us shut out, this virus has the system under complete lockdown. I can't access anything, and I'm pretty damn sure we can't get the kids out!" Robby said.

"What the hell is this?" Carlos whispered as he looked at the screen.

"Looks like someone with a grudge if you ask me, a death threat...somebody turn on a TV; see if it's anywhere else. I knew some punk back in Canada who made something like this, put up a video of a picture of me being edited so I had make-up on all over the province." Chef shuddered.

"GEOFF!" Bridgette was pressed up against the canopy separating her from Geoff. "For the love of god Chris get them out of there!"

"We're trying everything we can, but whatever did this got through our fire walls like they weren't even there. All the antivirus software we have is useless!" Robby said before he opened a panel. "Hold on, I'll see if I can disconnect us from the network, stop broadcasting so we can take care of this, whatever the hell it is."

"Do it!" Carlos ordered.

"Should we turn a TV on now?" Izzy asked.

"YES!" Half of the campers shouted, grouped around the pods.

Carlos and Chef ran over to the TV and plugged it in. They turned it on and the symbol was there also, along with the message.

"Whatever this is, we aren't the only ones getting it, and it's all over town!" Carlos said. He pulled out his phone, which had the symbol and message. "TV, Cell Phone, Computer, it has the same damn message!"

"How could this thing have done all this at once?" Duncan asked. "Look, Chris, I'm not a computer expert but I sure as hell know that some jack off in his mom's basement couldn't make something to do this, so who the hell could?"

"I don't know, honestly, I was gonna keep by my contract and not do anything to mess you up this bad!" Chris said.

"Ok, we're disconnected from the World Wide Web and all TV Broadcasting networks." Robby said as he stood up, holding the end of two cables. "Dang, nothing! It's already in the system, disconnecting didn't help one bit."

"What's the worst case scenario if we don't get those kids outta there?" Chef asked.

"Then they're stuck in there while their bodies are...well like in a coma, if they're stuck in there for good or if the power goes out they are literally trapped permanently, they'll be veggies for life!" Robby cried.

"Come on buddy, wake up man!" DJ shouted to Geoff.

"Can we talk to them at least? Let them know what's happening? Do they even know what's happening in there?" Carlos demanded.

"Let's check. We're still linked, probably can send a message through, but it's probably the best we can do, and it'll be a one way conversation, they can't reply and we can't hear."

Bridgette started crying. "Oh god oh god oh god!"

"Damn it, get the kids outta here, we'll handle this." Robby said as he and Carlos went to work at the controls.

"NO! I'm not leaving him!" Bridgette shrieked.

"Best software in the world, best tech in the world and not even- ah!" Robby cried out as electricity crackled and shocked his hand. "I wasn't paid to do this! Everything's jammed!"

"Bridge, you need to let the experts work on this, you and the others are in the way." Chris said, trying to reason with Bridgette.

Eventually DJ and Gwen managed to bring Bridgette away from the room in tears.

Duncan grabbed Chris by the collar of his shirt and hissed. "You brought us here, you decided to use these stupid pods, you caused this. If my buddy Geoff becomes a vegetable, I'm gonna make sure _you_ become one too, Chrissie." He then shoved him away and stormed out.

"CHRIS! GET MY FRIEND OUT OF THERE!" Barely a split second later Lindsey hoisted Chris into the air with one hand and shook him like a rag doll. "SHE'S MY BFF! GET BETH OUT OF THERE NOW!" Izzy and LeShawna managed to drag her off.

"Damn." Chef said as he blinked.

"We'll do everything we can everyone, just go and find something that isn't jammed!" Carlos shouted.

"Damn it! Nothing!" Robby kicked the controls. "Piece of crap!"

Xxx

"Uh...guys, do you see this?" Geoff asked as he looked up at the sky, which now had dark red clouds. The forest began to turn into stone around them, and the grass turned into sand at their feet.

The group had ended up back together with no luck finding a star after the first few minutes. "What's Chris up to now?"

"Uh... I don't know this doesn't seem like him." Beth said.

"OH come on it has him all over it." Trent said. "Come on Chris bring it on!" After a few moments he hesitated. "Uh...Chris?"

There was no sound, no unexpected surprising, or anything to torment them, and especially no gloating smile or sneering voice from Chris.

"Uh...hello? Chris? Chris?" Trent looked around. "Uh..."

"I don't like this place." Katie whimpered.

"Me neither." Satie joined her.

"Uh...maybe he's just playing with us to make us fail. Let's just find some stars and get us out...or wait, the safe word!" Geoff said. "Chris Rules!" Nothing happened... "Aaaaaaaaand now I feel like I wanna wash my mouth with soap."

"Nothing happened! You're still here!" Trent said.

"So what, Chris lied?" Beth asked.

"I'm gonna pound that weasel when I get out of here." Eva growled.

"No, this doesn't make sense, he wouldn't lie about a pass word like that, he's a bigger narcissus than any celebrity." Trent said.

"So...we're stuck then?" Justin asked.

After a few moments for it to sink in, Katie and Satie screamed at the top of their lungs and fell back to the ground.

Eva rolled her eyes. "Ah jeez."

"Well...let's just stand here, if he's playing a sick joke he won't get his damn ratings." Trent crossed his arms.

"YEAH!" Beth, Eva, and Geoff said at the same time.

They stood there for several minutes.

"So...anyone wanna play Thumb Wars while we wait?"

"NO!"

Xxx

CRACKLE!

"Damn!" Robby stood up. "Anti Virus software, useless. Virus Scan, useless! Fire Walls, useless! The only thing I haven't tried is resetting the whole system!"

"Is that a good idea with the kids in there?" Carlos asked.

"No, not with them in there. The reset would restore the system to how it was before...but since the kids are kind of like...temporary files like stuff of the internet you don't save, RAM. The reset would save the Read Only Memory, but the Random Access Memory and the kids would be deleted entirely. So resetting is not an option." Robby sighed. "I can't do a thing to save their files because all the controls are locked. If I could I'd save their log in memory so then the program would know not to erase them, this specific system was designed by RealiTech to make sure people wouldn't suffer from a virus...but then again at that time the controls weren't meant to be locked down on these things, they didn't make a secondary plan for it."

"So bottom line: Nothing we can do can get them out." Carlos said.

"Absolutely nothing. Trust me, we made sure everything was set up, we took every precaution when we made this stuff, nobody could have predicted this would happen." Robby said.

"You weren't the only one, the entire city is down!" Cody said as he came back in. "I went out and checked, it's all over the city! Even the street lights and bank machines, anything with a network is showing that weird eye and the uh...message."

"Whoever did this sure must be pissed about somethin'." Chef said.

"Yeah, and you know the air port just a few blocks over? The planes are just circling. Somebody said a few were supposed to come down. There are people stuck up there until the airport clears them. And the air port can't even talk to them!"

"So whoever did this doesn't give a damn what happens." Carlos growled.

Xxx

The gang rushed into the factory. They reached the elevator and took it down back to the familiar circular room lined with circuitry.

When they came in, the computer, the holographic map of Lyoko, and everything else was on as if it was never shut off.

"I don't believe it, it's all back!" Odd said. "Lyoko's back too!"

"How could this be happening?" muttered Yumi.

She had hoped it was a dream or a hallucination but it wasn't.

"He just couldn't stay down could he?" asked Ulrich referring to XANA.

"Ok, if its back and XANA is, then there must be a tower." Yumi said. "Jeremy left plenty of programs to make sure nobody messed with the computer without him knowing, one of them was to see how long it was left on and when it was used. I'll check it, you three head to the scanners."

"Uh...should I stay here?" William asked. "I mean...after last time I...I messed up pretty bad."

"Will, you had a big dose of XANA in you, you're not stupid enough to let it happen twice." Odd said. "Just forget about it and let's go man! Besides, we can't leave you here after last time! You need a few more trips to Lyoko before spectres don't make a grab at you."

William nodded as Yumi ran to the chair, which automatically lifted her around to face the computer. She typed in commands. "Alright, checking...it was activated three weeks ago today!"

As the elevator went down, she ran a scan for the tower. "Alright...Desert Section, I'll try to get you as close as I can." She grabbed Jeremy's note book from where it was taped under the screen. She carefully peeled the tape away and read through the 'Transfer Process' section.

"Alright everyone, we have a tower in the Desert Section, get in the scanners." She said over the intercom.

"How long has the computer been on?" Ulrich asked.

"Three weeks today!"

"Could that be how long XANA's been back?"William asked as he stepped into a scanner.

"No idea, just go in there and kick ass. I'll let you know when Aelita and Jeremy catch up!" Yumi said. "Transfer William!"

The scanner shut on William.

"Scanner William." She hit 'enter'. "Virtualization."

"Transfer Odd...Scanner Odd...Virtualization!"

"Transfer Ulrich...Scanner Ulrich...Virtualization!"

Xxx

Ulrich opened his eyes, and saw a familiar sight. "I still say you look like a bad anime character Odd."

Odd huffed, and his purple cat tail flicked. "Bite my furry tail."

"I'd rather not." Ulrich said as he examined his digital form. He pulled out his swords. "I'll say this; it's good to have these again." He twirled them in his hands a bit.

"Ah yeah, I had ten minutes of fun with this." William hefted his broad sword.

"Well, let's see..." They stood on one of the many generic platforms that hovered over the digital sea.

"The tower is located...alright just turn to your left a bit..." they obeyed Yumi's disembodied voice. "There! Now start running!"

"Uh...what about our vehicles?"

"The programs for the vehicles are in Jeremy's Dorm, we didn't bother to keep them since we thought it was over." Yumi said impatiently.

"Back to basics then." Odd sighed, and then the trio took off across the Desert.

Xxx

**XANA POV**

They're back on Lyoko...Ulrich, Odd, and what do you know? My former puppet, William. Aelita wasn't there...I'll wait for now, I can't spoil the surprise until my dear sister is here. I'll send a few friends to greet them, let them get warmed up.


	3. Episode 2: The Revenge of XANA

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter Three

"Incoming, Kankrelats!" Yumi shouted. "Twenty life points per hit! A dozen of them!"

They turned and saw them heading straight for them. Kankrelats were smallest and weakest of XANA's monsters as they remembered.

"Ah, nice." Odd said as he watched the swarm moved to intercept them. "LASER ARROW!"

Odd fired once, and struck one monster right in the middle of its symbol. It exploded while the other eleven lined up in formation and fired a salvo. Odd made an energy shield on his arm to take one shot and did a handless cart wheel to avoid two more. Ulrich blocked four with his blades, holding one in a reverse grip and a smirk on his face. William parried two with his massive sword and then lurched forward, rolling under the next two and came up in a crouch. He then swung his sword and sent an energy burst out that destroyed two more of the creatures.

Ulrich leaped into the air. "TRIPLICATE!"

He split into three versions of himself, each of which took out one monster and then back flipped away. One clone took a blast between the shoulder blades in mid back flip and vanished with a small yelp of pain. Odd fired four more arrows and managed to hit two of his targets as they scattered. William swung his sword down as he came down from a jump and cut one monster down. Ulrich and his clone took out another one individually before the real Ulrich took a blast to the chest. He gasped as he fell, minus twenty life points.

His clone dispatched the final monster.

"Well...that went better than most of our fights." He remembered how easily they had been dispatched in past fights.

"Maybe he's going easy on us as a welcome back gift." Odd joked.

"Nah, his version of going easy would be those moth monsters." William said.

"You mean Hornets." Ulrich said.

"Whatever they are, I never got to memorize the names." William shrugged.

"If XANA's as stubborn as last time you'll have the chance." Odd said. "Let's keep going."

"We'll have the path cleared in no time." William smirked.

Ulrich looked to his clone. "Never had one of you survive a fight." He joked. "Fusion!" The clone rejoined him.

Xxx

Bridgette was sitting on the couch, crying her heart out. DJ had her in a hug. He seemed to know how to calm anyone down, and right now he had calmed her from raging and screaming to just crying in silence. Duncan had mostly broken anything that showed the sign of the eye and the message. Gwen, Owen, Cody, LeShawna, Izzy, Lindsey, Noah were searching the lounge.

"Radio- gah!" Duncan only got static before he tossed the radio out the window. "Even that's out!"

"Hey, my sister gave me that!" Izzy yelled, but was ignored.

Heather, Ezekiel, and Sierra were just sitting in their wheel chairs while Alejandro lumbered around. The most he could do was nudge furniture and try to tap a button to turn a dial without success. He sighed. "I hate this body."

"Why didn't they just give you to a hospital?" Gwen asked.

"He wanted me to sign that damn contract first. At first I was gonna refuse him but...well Chef made those special pastries, the ones with cream...and they wouldn't give me a mouth piece unless I signed the contract."

"Dude, you signed a contract not to sue them for your lava burns just for some pastries?" Cody asked.

"...oh shut up." Alejandro sighed.

"Do you think they'll be able to do anything?" Owen asked.

"Dunno, whatever happened was a surprise for everyone." LeShawna said. "That eye is some creepy."

"And now pretty boy, Trent, Geoff, the wonder twins and Beth are stuck in there." Alejandro said. "That sucks."

"Nice to know you actually care." Gwen rolled her eyes.

"Oh come on, it's been a couple weeks, I learned my damn lesson!" Alejandro said.

"Ah he's right, ease up a bit, the guy got lava burns." Cody said.

"Whatever, don't have time to talk about that, we have seven friends stuck in that computer with some wacko out there causing havoc all over the city." Gwen sighed.

"Does anyone even know where that eye came from?" Owen asked. "What does it even mean?"

"I don't know, but did you see the way it was lookin'? Man it gave me the chills." LeShawna said.

"Uh...wait, a second...I think I have a plan." Harold said as he looked at Izzy. Catching on, everybody else did.

"Uh...what?" She blinked.

"Izzy, you were very smart after you left the show...I don't know how you went back to insane but maybe if we can make you smart again you can figure this out...I mean you did some pretty great things when you were smarter." Harold said.

"The geek has a point, everybody think of how to make ginger here smart." Duncan said.

"Well how did she get smart last time?" Owen asked.

"She hit her head and the doctor said it fixed a clog in her brain." Gwen said.

"How did she turn insane again?" Heather asked.

"Oh, I just had another blow to the head." Izzy giggled.

"...crap, well that idea is out the window." Duncan rolled his eyes. "What now?"

"How bad are things out there?" DJ asked.

"Planes stuck in the air, traffic is piled up. Nobody can talk to anything, cell phone or radio, it is just chaos out there." Cody said. "And nobody knows how it's happening; people were getting a little uh...shifty on my way in."

"So whoever did this has not made demands or something?" Gwen asked.

"Nope, not a word." Cody replied. "There's even looting going on. People are going nuts."

"You're kidding; it's been...thirty four minutes." Gwen looked at her watch. "If it's bad here I'd hate to see how it would be in America or Canada."

"That's the thing Gwen, it's not happening anywhere else. There was a helicopter that flew by a while ago, a military one, a UN chopper, and the guy was announcing that the interference was 'restricted to Paris city limits' and that it would be solved soon. Whoever did this is only doing it right here in Paris."

"So the ass hole that did this to Geoff is in this city then!" Bridgette said standing up.

"That's the thing, but like I said nobody took credit for it yet. It's just the same message. Nobody knows who it is from or who it is made out to."

"Ah great." DJ frowned. "Guess the only thing we can do is wait for it all to just end. Maybe the guy will just stop it all soon."

"Well, it hasn't even been an hour; maybe he will stop it after one or two." Duncan shrugged.

"Don't count on it, this guy obviously knows what's happening, it's impossible not to. He's obviously milking it, he's not gonna just stop." Noah drawled...only for LeShawna, DJ, Bridgette, and Duncan to send threatening glares at him. "Uh...but you have a point, he may get a laugh and stop in a while."

"Damn straight smart ass." LeShawna growled.

Xxx

"Ah, I just love the smell of...nothing in the morning." Odd said. "But right now...is it me or...do we actually smell something now?"

"I just noticed that. Last time I came in here I couldn't smell anything at all, like I lost the sense entirely." William said as the three walk across the last distance towards the tower. "But now...I can even feel heat, I smelled something real nasty when those Kankrelats came at us, I smelled...burning when Ulrich got hit."

"I smelled it too, and man it really sucked." Ulrich frowned. "And if I could I'd be sweating like a pig right now."

"Ok, so XANA made this Lyoko a little more...realistic, nothing big." Odd shrugged, but then stopped in mid step. "But...that might be a problem."

They looked at the tower. The aura was regular white, indicating it was inactive.

"Yumi, we're at the tower, but it's not activated." Ulrich said. "What's going on?"

"This can't be right; the scanner's showing you right in front of the activated tower!" Yumi said. "Hold on, I'll run a scan of the system."

After thirty seconds she reported back. "I found it! The super scan Jeremy designed, the one for detecting active towers, it's corrupted!"

"XANA!" William said. "He's had three weeks to work, he must have done it."

"So in other words we're walking blind here." Odd said. "We're back in the time before square one, when we had no vehicles but we still had a general direction."

"Are Jeremy and Aelita there yet?" Ulrich asked.

"I'll call them." Yumi used the built in phone to call Jeremy on his cell phone.

He picked up. "_Yumi, how are things going?_"

"Bad. XANA's corrupted the super scan again, I can't find the activated tower and Odd, Ulrich, and William are in there with no vehicles and no directions."

"Hold on, I had a program set up to help me fix anything XANA did to mess with the scanners or the interface." Jeremy said. "I never put it into the computer itself, I tested it on my laptop and recorded it in my note book. Go to 'Interface Restore' and put the code in."

Yumi flipped through pages and found the code he referred to. She began to type it in. She entered it and watched as the screen shut off. A few words appeared on it.

**Please wait, system rebooting**

Yumi sighed. "Can you guys hear me?"

"Yeah, we're still here."

"I need to wait a bit for the system to reboot itself." Yumi said.

"Well, take your time; we're alright for now- ah!" William cried out as a laser hit him in the chest.

A Hornet flew over the group, followed by three more.

"Hornets!" Odd fired a guided laser arrow. One hornet exploded.

William got up and swung his sword as the Hornets passed, but missed. Ulrich leaped up and cut one Hornet out of the air before six more Hornets appeared out of the skies and began to circle the group, firing shots. The group defended, Odd using his barrier and laser arrows while Ulrich and William deflected blasts with their blades.

Once in a while the group took down another Hornet, but it was going slow. Odd took two shots from a hornet that got past him, but he was still in the game by the time Yumi said. "The system is up! Alright, the Hornets have thirty life points per hit. And I have the tower this time. It's a mile or two north of you and at a high altitude. Can you see it?"

Odd took down another hornet and peered off in the distance, where a mountain stood with the shape of a tower on top. "I see it!"

"Let's go!" All three of them took out the last Hornets and took off across the desert towards it.

Xxx

Jeremy and Aelita stepped into the control room. Aelita had finished crying her eyes out because of what she had seen. Looking around she noticed everything was the same as it was two years ago. None of them came even close to the factory in two years, wanting to forget their adventures. Aelita especially wanted to forget the place her father went into and never came out.

"Thank god, finally. Aelita, let's go! The boys need help!" Yumi stood.

"Let's go!" Aelita and Yumi stepped into the elevator as Jeremy rushed to the control chair.

"Alright, let me help you guys out a bit. I grabbed the vehicle codes on the way here; I knew you might need them. Give me a second and..." He began to type in the codes one at a time.

Xxx

On Lyoko, four vehicles appeared. One was shaped like a motorcycle with only one wheel. The next looked like a Jet Ski that was hovering above the ground. The third looked like a surf board and was painted with Odd's style and decorations. The final one was new, and looked like a motorcycle, but with two wheels and was styled to match William's suit.

"_I had a fourth vehicle in design, but after William got possessed I never got around to using it. Thought I might as well try it now._" Jeremy said.

"Thanks man." William said.

"Don't thank me yet." Jeremy replied.

Xxx

"Transferring Yumi." Yumi stepped into her scanner. "Scanner Yumi." The scanner shut. "Virtualization."

Aelita swallowed any hesitation she had and stepped into the scanner.

"Transferring Aelita, scanner Aelita, Virtualization."

Xxx

Yumi and Aelita appeared in mid air and dropped down near the boys.

"Nice timing, we've been getting our butts handed to us all across this Desert!" Odd said.

"How bad is it?" Yumi asked.

"It feels hot and it stinks. That's the weird part that we can even feel or smell." William said. "I'm down to seventy points, Ulrich's down to eighty, and Odd's down to forty."

"Well, let's get a move on. We're making good progress, usually by now one or two of us get picked off." Yumi shrugged.

They hopped on their vehicles and took off towards the tower.

"Uh...guys ,there's something coming at you...I can't tell what it is, but it is very big and the processing it took to make it slowed me down for a minute." Jeremy said. "It's right below you!"

Suddenly lasers fired up. The group cried out as they moved to avoid them. Aelita lost her grip on Yumi and fell, but her wings spread and she flew next to them.

"Oh man we're going DOWN!" Odd's board was hit and he began to spin out of control before Aelita caught him by the wrist and just barely supported him until Yumi took him onto her vehicle.

"_Lost the overboard in...twenty five seconds, not bad._" Jeremy joked.

"Oh man, look at this!" Ulrich said.

The group looked down to see the largest monster they had ever met aside from the Kollossus. It looked like a massive bird the size of an air plane, and it was firing a dozen lasers from the top of its body, six on each side. The Lyoko fighters continued to avoid blasts.

"Find the mark on it!" Ulrich shouted before he dove down.

"Uh...Ulrich!" Yumi pointed at the monster. Ulrich realized what she was pointing out and pulled up in time to avoid the Tarantulas covering the mark on the monster's back.

"It's carrying an army!" William said.

"Man, just one of those things can take us out, and there are fifty of them!" Odd yelled.

"Odd, cover fire, we need to get to that tower!" Yumi shouted.

"Got it! YAH!" Odd began firing arrows from both of his arms, peppering the top of the monster with arrows and sometimes catching a Tarantula. By the time he fired twenty arrows he only got three Tarantulas and hadn't hit the mark on the giant monster.

"AELITA! DIVE!" Ulrich shouted. "William, you and me run a diversion!"

"Got it, one suicide run coming up!" William and Ulrich dove down at the monster while Odd fired a new salvo of arrows.

As another Tarantula exploded, Ulrich slammed his Overbike into one Tarantula, which exploded as Ulrich hack flipped off of it. William clipped a Tarantula's head but stayed on his bike, choosing to spin it so he sent two Tarantulas flying off of the monster and destroyed another. William and Ulrich stood back to back, stabbing and swinging at any Tarantulas that got close to them. Tarantulas were deadly because of their guns but they could not aim with Ulrich and William so close to them and in the middle of their formation.

Yumi and Odd made periodic passes while Aelita folded her wings and dove towards the tower. As she flew down, some Hornets appeared in her way and opened fire. She dove and twisted out of the way and returned fire with multiple energy spheres, striking down two Hornets. She managed to get past the other hornets. But as she reached the tower, something happened.

A black disc appeared in the air above the monster, which was now hovering in position.

Several figures dropped down onto the monster, surrounding William and Ulrich as the monsters retreated. These creatures stood on two legs, were clad in black form fitting armour and dragon skull helmets. They carried a variety of weapons from swords to what looked like laser rifles.

One spoke in a regular voice. It even had a light British accent to it. "Welcome back to Lyoko."

"Did that monster just talk?" William asked Ulrich.

"I think so." Ulrich's eyes narrowed.

"I speak through this new creation to welcome you all back. Especially my dear sister Aelita. It has been so long, I felt that it would be a good idea to put together a special reunion." The Dragon Knight raised the laser pistol in its hand and fired one shot. It knocked William off his feet before he could react, but the boy recovered and got up as the fight began.

Odd and Yumi jumped down and joined in. Yumi delivered a kick to one Dragon Knight's visor as she came down. Odd fired six arrows into another knight in quick succession.

"_These new monsters have...200 life points! Twenty five life points per hit!_" Jeremy shouted.

Ulrich engaged the lead monster, which drew two short daggers and parried his blows. William managed to cut down one monster and then spun, cutting through two more of the Knights before more dropped down.

Yumi threw her fans, cutting down another monster before flying back into her hands. She then sent a brief telekinetic burst that sent another flying up into the air and over the side of the monster. Ulrich ended up cutting down two Dragon Knights, but the lead one eluded him. Each time they killed one, it took several hits, four or five instead of one like with most monsters.

"How do you like my new creations, Ulrich?" XANA taunted through the lead monster. "Are they giving you a good work out?"

"We kicked your ass before and we'll do it again!" Suddenly Odd tried to fire at XANA, who parried the two arrows aside and back flipped, regrouping with six knights.

"Ah of course, you think our previous encounter was a victory...but that was not even I that you destroyed. I admit my father's plan would have worked...if he hadn't made me so damn good at what I do." XANA said. "I planned every step of what happened leading up to the last confrontation. The XANA that was destroyed was a copy. A powerful one that could have evolved as I do, but a copy none the less. As our battles continued I realized that as long as my creator was alive I would always be watching over my back for him, which is why I continued to try to toss Aelita into the Digital Sea, so he would come into the open to rescue her and allow me to dispatch him. But you kept on interfering, so I had to make an alternate plan. Remember your trip to the Antarctica Base? It was there you discovered the key programs needed to release William from me and where you discovered the hundreds of computers I controlled when I made my strongest creation."

His daggers formed into a katana. "At that point, Jeremy realized he needed to find a faster way to destroy all of my replicas to destroy me. And what did he come up with? A virus of his own to destroy me, a multi agent system that would spread all over the network and specifically wipe out anything that had to do with me. So I left the network...I put myself into a computer and disguised myself as another program and waited as my copy did battle with you making you all believe I was making my last stand. I disconnected the device of course; I counted on your persistence being my copy's downfall. All I needed to do was let you have William's freedom restored and then you would use the program to destroy me...I applaud you all, but now I shall not allow myself to be a victim of such plans this time around."

"You tricked us!" William shouted.

"To win at chess, sometimes you have to give up a pawn." Ulrich growled. "Well damn, he really did have us."

"And he played us like puppets the whole way." Yumi added.

"And I thank you all for playing along. Not only did I fake my death, but my father is now dead, his precious sacrifice in vain! Now, let me show you what I can do without the restrictions of my creator, Waldo Schaeffer!" He leaped forward, his sword glowing red with energy that gathered at the hilt and travelled to the tip of the blade.

All four fighters tensed, and XANA's puppet swung the sword down. Before it struck the surface of the monster the energy spread out in four streams that collided with each Lyoko fighter. They screamed as they were shot off of the giant avian monster. Aelita watched with growing horror as they began to fall towards the digital sea below. She dove down, attempting to save at least one of them. But before she could XANA and three of his Dragon Knights leaped down after the warriors, sprouting bat like wings.

They each caught one warrior, who remained limp in their grasp.

"Now let's put you somewhere nice and quiet." XANA hissed before a portal opened beneath the Dragon Knights, who dumped the Lyoko fighters in.

"NO!" Aelita shouted, tossing an energy sphere at XANA, who parried it with his katana.

"Now sister...time to run, time to scream...time to die." XANA took off his helmet. Instead of the generic black, featureless head most Dragon Knights had, he looked like a male version of Aelita; his hair was black with red streaks all through it. All though the Dragon Knights had no faces under their helmets XANA modified this monster so that it would have a human face designed by XANA himself to interact and taunt his enemies.

His red eyes glowed like stars at night as he smirked. "Capture her."

Aelita fled towards the tower, knowing she could not hope to win. As the Dragon Knights pursued her, Jeremy urged Aelita on. "_Keep going Aelita!_"

"Ah yes, the prodigy, the one who signed my father's death warrant...I can take care of you just as easily." XANA said. "As you will see, I've improved more than my digital monsters Jeremy."

Xxx

Jeremy looked up as a cloud of black mist began to slowly come out of the cables above the computer. "Nice try, nobody around to possess."

On the screen, XANA chuckled. "Wrong Jeremy. You haven't been to Lyoko for over two years and even then you only went there for a limited amount of time. Over a certain amount of time the resistance that is built up against me fades. Like I just said...I've improved."

The Spectre entered Jeremy as he realized what XANA meant. The boy cried out and fell from the seat.

"Jeremy! I'm in the tower!"

Xxx

Aelita was putting in the code as the Dragon Knights tried without success to enter the tower. She approached the command interface and put in her name.

In capital letters, a message was displayed.

**CODE**

She typed in the same one she used for so long, the one that ended XANA's attacks.

**LYOKO**

Xxx

The Dragon Knights paused as the tower turned white again. They suddenly collapsed.

XANA grimaced, the strain of his power being pushed back making it painful for him now that he could feel. "Well...such a shame, but I haven't lost either my dear sister. You're alone now, at my mercy and stuck here."

Xxx

In the real world, moments before the tower was deactivated, Jeremy was struggling with the Spectre as it tried to control him. He pulled himself up onto the chair and began to type in the code to devirtualize Aelita. As she put in the code, Jeremy put in the final key.

In the tower, Aelita sighed in relief before she was pulled out of digital space and reappeared in the scanner room.

Xxx

Jeremy sighed and closed his eyes, waiting for the Spectre to leave him, but nothing happened. It still tried to control him. He grunted. "But-why-we shut down the tower!"

"And if you recall Jeremy, a Spectre wasn't what this tower activated. I used it to send my message out to France. This one was activated from a special place, close to my heart." XANA joked. "Now I get to see Aelita fight with no friends to fight with her and no father to die for her. Time to go Jeremy; let's not let my sister see you this way. I won't hurt her yet...I'd like to watch her suffer first."

"No...Aelita..." Jeremy's eyes closed...and opened with the XANA symbol in place of his irises.

"Go now my servant." XANA whispered in his mind.

Jeremy left the computer room and the factory altogether.

Xxx

After taking a moment to recover, Aelita took the elevator back to the control room.

"Jeremy! What are we going to-" Aelita paused as she saw the empty chair. "Jeremy?"

"Sister..." XANA hissed over the intercom. "You're alone now. No body guards, no Jeremy, it's just you and me now."

"No..." Aelita collapsed to her knees.

"I'll leave you be for now, I need to recover from that head ache you gave me...fare well sister." XANA's voice faded.

Aelita stared at the map of Lyoko for what felt like eternity, unable to accept what just happened.

Then it all hit her: her friends were gone, Jeremy was gone, and she had to fight XANA all on her own now.


	4. Episode 3: A Cry for help

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 4

Back in the studio, the symbol and message vanished from the computer, and the view of the digital world was back up for display.

"What the-sir the virus is gone! Systems are back up and restored!" Robby said.

"Get the kids out of there!" Carlos barked.

Robby typed in a command, and hit the safety switch.

Instantly all seven pods hissed open, and the campers sat up at one, groaning as they opened their eyes and adjusted to the light. Trent glared at Chris. "Real funny Chris. There weren't any stars and the safe word didn't even work!"

"Whoa dude, not my work!" Chris said.

"For once Chris is right, a virus took over everything. It locked down the system. You guys are lucky it just vanished. It's been affecting the whole damn city." Carlos said.

"What? Virus? So..." Beth blinked. "What would have happened if it didn't just 'vanish'?"

"Well, you would have been stuck in there for a long time, and if the system shut down you would have died." Robby said. "When this thing shuts down it erases anything that isn't saved. Guess when I disconnected it then I must have done something. You know how you can design anything into a program, maybe it had a...death clock on it or something or a remote command."

"Guys! The television and radio are back up!" DJ ran in. "GEOFF! BUDDY!"

"DJ!" DJ pulled his friend into a bone crushing hug. "Love...hurts!"

"Wait 'til you see Bridgette then." DJ grinned.

"Wait a second; the entire city is back up at once...maybe the virus really was meant to just die after some time. Couldn't have been a remote shut off, we're disconnected from the web." Carlos said.

"Uh...hold on now...we're still broadcasting for some reason. We aren't on TV but the computer says we have a wireless link open." Robby blinked.

"That must be how it got in." Carlos crossed his arms. "Find out where the link is."

"I did, it's from that cyber cafe down the street." Robby said.

"Wait, I was there, every computer was messed up also." DJ said. "I went out to grab Bridge a drink and there wasn't a single screen that wasn't showing that freaky eye."

"Ok, so that means the virus hit us by connecting to us from that cafe...but how'd it hit the rest of the city then?" Chris asked.

"It must have hit any public access or personal access and hit anything else in range. We were receiving views from that cafe anyways." Robby shrugged.

"Man, this is why I hate computers." Eva said. "They mess up your life and they almost ended mine just a while ago apparently."

"Well, let's just check the system over and avoid doing live broadcasts from now on." Carlos said. "Robby, whenever and if we ever air a second episode, cut our internet access so this crap doesn't happen again."

"Got it boss."

"GEOFF!" Bridgette ran into the room and pulled her boyfriend into a passionate kiss before sobbing into his chest.

As Geoff comforted his distraught girlfriend, Carlos looked at Chris.

"Ok, seeing as nothing happened and you're not nearly smart enough to pull this off, I won't deduct your pay." Carlos walked away.

"Nice, everybody's safe, I keep my pay check, everybody wins!" Chris said.

Kurt the camera man rolled his eyes. He then realized he had set the camera to record everything. He hid the tape in his back pack when nobody was looking.

"So, do you think the wacko who did this will give us any more problems?" Chef asked Carlos.

"Hell if I know." Carlos shrugged. "Let's just try to make sure we don't end up getting our asses kicked by the contestants. That Duncan kid is pretty scary when he's mad."

Xxx

Aelita had returned to her room at the academy. Nobody noticed the group was gone in the chaos of the recent cyber attack on all of France. People were arrested for looting, and order was restored within the few hours since the single greatest cyber attack in history. She sat on her bed, staring at a picture of herself with her friends after they beat XANA. Odd was holding Kiwi over his head, a big grin on his face while the dog barked. Ulrich and Yumi were holding each other, winking at the camera; William smiled uneasily, feeling awkward about being back in the group after all he had apparently done to them under XANA's control. And Aelita was kissing Jeremy on the cheek, making Jeremy blush as the shot was snapped.

She had brought Kiwi to her room, knowing he would feel lonely in Odd and Ulrich's empty room. The dog was sleeping next to her as if all was well in the world.

She wiped away her tears and went to where she had set Jeremy's lap top. It was easy to re-establish the link between it and the super computer so she could detect any towers that are activated. But what use would it be if she couldn't have someone to operate the computer and assist her as she deactivated the towers? She'd be lucky if she managed to deactivate one before XANA killed her.

She was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Xxx

The TD gang had calmed down from the recent situation that almost killed seven of their group.

"Man, after I managed to get out of that net, the world just changed. It looked all weird and well no offense Gwen but it's how I'd picture the setting of some gothic horror novel." Geoff said.

"None taken." Gwen shrugged.

"Everything looked dead. Stone trees, grass turned to sand and the water-oh don't get me started on what virtual thing might have crapped in that." Geoff leaned back in his chair. "The sky had these red clouds, like some bad painting. And what's worse, I had to say 'Chris Rules'! Man, now that I said it again I think I need to really wash my mouth out with soap."

"Forget it buddy, just be glad you got out of that alive." DJ said.

"Gotta agree with the big guy on this Geoff, that was one messed up virus and we're just lucky it didn't leave you a veggie."

"Ah, good point. I'm not getting back in that pod any time soon."

"Good, because if you tried I'd drag you out of it by the ear." Bridgette kissed him.

"Any idea who did it?" Geoff asked.

"No idea, nobody knows, they just call it the 'Red Eye Virus'." Cody said. "Man, whoever pissed that hacker off is going to want to go commando in the most desolate part of the planet to get away from a guy who can do this."

"Let's hope when Chris forces us into those pods that it doesn't happen again." Trent said.

"I hope they catch whoever did this." Beth said as she crossed her arms.

"I hope so too." Said Bridgette remembering how afraid she was when Geoff was in danger.

It looked like he could have died.

"Well guess I just saw a news report saying that four kids who were going to a boarding school nearby just disappeared while the city was chaos." Said Cody.

"You think those kids have anything to do with that thing?" asked Trent.

"I don't know. Everyone was kind of not looking when they disappeared. The authorities are looking all over the place but have found no sign of them. It's like they vanished into thin air."

"Oh man." DJ muttered.

"Where is this boarding school?" Gwen asked.

"It's just an hour drive away from here. A few blocks away." Said Cody as he pointed to a map on the table.

He pointed to the school labelled 'Kadic Academy'.

"It was the first day of school when it happened."

"Man, so whoever did this might have kidnapped those kids. That's just wrong." Geoff said.

"I know." Said LeShawna.

Xxx

Victory.

XANA basked in this word. After fighting these children for so long he had won. For three weeks he had worked, studied, upgraded, evolved, and improved himself and on the first attack he had easily captured all of his enemies except Aelita. He hadn't even had to use any of his upgraded monsters.

All too easy.

He had rebuilt his army, destroyed his creator and now with nearly all of his enemies captured nothing would stand in his way.

Only Aelita stood in his way and she was no doubt distraught for what has happened. He could have a bit of fun with her.

Xxx

Kadic Academy

Because of XANA's little message school had been cancelled for the day as the teachers cooperated with the police and FBI. XANA's message had caused a lot of trouble and everyone was now looking for the source of the message. She typed on the laptop that was now connected to the supercomputer as she looked up the info from the last battle. XANA had more than three weeks to plan out his return and he had not only created new monsters but had managed to achieve complete surprise.

Those knights could be modified so that XANA could actually talk through them which is something he had never done before except through William. A knock was heard on her door. She put down and closed the laptop while making sure Kiwi was safely hidden with plenty of food.

She opened a door and saw two men in black causing her to remember the men in black who came for her father all those years ago. She quickly suppressed the shudder that almost got out.

"Aelita Stones. I am Agent Ray Parker with the FBI. I would like to ask you about your missing friends."

Xxx

"Sir I am telling the truth. If I knew where they were I would tell you." Aelita said.

Ray sighed.

"Miss Stones, we are not accusing you of anything but I believe you know something given how close you are to all of them."

"Except William. I knew him but I was never a close friend to him." Aelita replied.

"Yes that is true." Ray admitted.

"Is this necessary, officer? I admit her friends have acted suspiciously at times but I doubt she could a have been a part of something as serious as kidnapping." Said Principal Delmas.

"I am just exploring every possible connection." Ray replied.

"Sir, I know that my friends have acted suspiciously before but we never would have done something as serious as what you are all thinking. Odd is my cousin, he may be silly from time to time but he was always someone I could count on. The same with the others."

"So you have never seen this symbol?" asked Ray holding up a picture of XANA's Eye.

She shook her head. Ray sighed.

"All right, you're excused."

"Thank you, sir."

Aelita nodded to the principal and Agent Ray before turning and walking out the door.

"You still believe she is lying?" asked Delmas.

"I have a hunch. She may know but is being forced to stay silent. Someone who could launch a cyber attack as serious as this one and kidnap four kids in just thirty minutes without leaving a trace must be powerful and possible very dangerous. She may have been threatened not to tell anyone." Ray said looking out the window.

"I see. What should we do?" asked Delmas.

"Keep an eye on her. If she is being threatened not to talk than whoever did this must be close. If they find out she talked it could put those kids' lives in greater danger."

Xxx

Chris stood in the waiting room with all Total Drama contestants either sitting or standing waiting for the next challenge.

"All right, everyone as you know we were supposed to sort out the contestants who didn't compete last season into teams. Since our last challenge was a disaster and Carlos has forbidden me from putting you in the virtual pods until security has been upgraded we will just have to do things the old fashioned way." Chris announced.

"And by old fashion he means ripping off more shows." Said Carlos.

"Ha, ha, ha." Chris laughed sarcastically. "Instead of having a challenge to sort out the non-team members we'll have one member of each time pick them. Team Amazon and Team Chris have five while Team Victory has six which means one team will have one member more. We'll start in alphabetical order. Since A is the first letter Team Amazon goes first."

Courtney stepped forward.

"Since I am the only one with leadership ability I will pick."

"Yeah, right, because you did a good job leading us to victory last season." Heather said as she rolled her wheel chair over to Courtney. "I am picking."

"Yeah, you showed us great leadership skills when you lost the prize money to an insane zombiefied homeschooled loser." Courtney snapped.

"At least I got the money." Heather snapped back.

"I think Cody should pick." Sierra said raising her hand.

However neither girl heard her as they continued to argue and Cody decided not to get in the way.

"Beth!" Gwen shouted.

They all turned and looked at her.

"We don't have time to sit back and argue. I pick Beth to be on Team Amazon."

"All right. Beth you're on Team Amazon and Gwen will pick their next teammate when it is her turn again." Chris said.

Courtney and Heather stopped their fight but they had scowls on their faces.

"Team Chris, who is going to be choosing your new team mate?"

"Can we pick Geoff?" asked Bridgette.

"How do you know you won't spend every minute making out?" asked LeShawna.

"Can we pick Troy?" asked Lindsay.

Tyler smacked himself in the head when he heard Lindsay forget his name _again_.

"I assume that's Tyler and no he's on a different team." Said DJ.

"Leave the choosing to me, everyone." Said LeShawna.

"Please, LeShawna?" asked Bridgette getting on her knees with her hands together as she begged her friend.

LeShawna sighed.

"Only if you promise not to make out during the challenges."

Bridgette nodded in excitement.

"Geoff."

"All right! Whoo-hoo!" Geoff shouted as he ran to Team Victory and grabbed Bridgette in a hug and started making out.

"Didn't she just say-"asked Ezekiel.

"Forget it, home-school. I said not to make out during the challenges." Said LeShawna.

"Team Chris, who will do the choosing?" asked Chris.

"Oh, oh, oh! Let me pick!" shouted Owen waving his hand.

"Leave it to me." Said Duncan.

"Pick Justin!" said Owen.

"Why not?"

Justin walked over to Team Chris.

"Okay, the leaves only four more to go." Said Chris.

"I pick Eva." Said Gwen.

"What?" shouted Heather and Courtney.

"What are you thinking?" Heather said.

"She'll only bring us down!" Courtney said.

"Only if you annoy her. Besides with the way you two argue I don't think she'll have to worry about bringing the team down." Said Gwen.

"I still remember how you tricked me Heather so watch out! And you better watch your mouth little Miss CIT." Said Eva crossing her arms.

Both Heather and Courtney shut their mouths as Eva glared at them deeply. Neither girl was on her good side and one insult could send her over the edge.

"Trent." Said LeShawna.

Trent walked over and high fived Geoff.

"Oh no!" shouted Katie.

"We can't be separated!" cried Sadie.

"Sorry, girls. I guess Sadie."

"Katie." Said Gwen.

"But I wanna be with Katie!" cried Sadie.

"And I want to be with Sadie!" cried Katie as they hugged each other.

"Can we move it along?" asked Chris as they were separated by their team-mates. "All right. So now we have the team sorted out finally we can start with the first challenge. To start things off, we're sending you into the city to compete. You must search for pillars that we have set up at specific locations. Once you do, it will dispense a card with your challenge on it. We will watch all of the challenges afterwards via recordings from our camera crew and judge whether it was completed correctly and fairly, for each correctly completed challenge you get five points. The one who completes the Master Challenge gets ten points!"

"This sounds too normal for your tastes Chris...what are you hiding?" Courtney asked.

"I have no idea what you mean Courtney!" Chris responded.

"...let's just go." Duncan said.

"The challenge ends at 5:00 sharp!" Chris called as they left.

Xxx

**XANA POV**

Time for another message. Aelita needs to know just how short her time is. She was walking in the city now, most likely trying to think of a way to revive her method of defying my entries into this world. I had just the way to deal with her. I once used the scanners to create monsters, but thanks to the Code: Translation I would not have to smash the scanners. Those devices could be of use to me and I would not back myself or Aelita into a corner by destroying them. A cornered prey will always fight after all, so I would have my monsters appear in the city for now and hunt her down, eliminate her quickly and cut the final loose end.

The irony of this attack is that Aelita will be destroyed by the very program that she helped Jeremy develop to help destroy my Replicas.

Xxx

**Aelita POV**

I sat in the park, looking at Jeremy's laptop. It was the only trace I had left of him now. I paused as a group of teens with odd accents began to pass by.

I remembered that Total Drama Reality was going to be playing in Paris now. I recognized them as DJ, Bridgette, Geoff, and LeShawna.

"Alright where are you?" LeShawna growled, and then smiled. "There!"

They ran towards where a pillar had been set up by employees from the TDR crew and tapped it at once. It displayed four notes, one at a time with their names written on it.

"Alright...throw a pie in Heather's face? Awesome! Wait...restrictions: Pie must not cause physical harm and must not cause allergic reaction...crap." LeShawna sighed.

"Do two hundred push ups with only three breaks in between? Easy!" DJ proceeded to do push ups.

"Wear twenty different hats...wow, that won't be hard." Geoff then realized he would need to buy them himself. "Uh...whoops."

"Pose as surfer girl for ten pictures...sweet!" Bridgette said. "I need to get my surf board and a camera."

"You brought your surf board to Europe?" LeShawna asked.

"I couldn't leave it behind!" Bridgette objected.

"You really are a surfer girl." DJ said on his twenty ninth push up.

"Yeah, my surfer girl." Geoff waved as she ran off.

"Tongue back in your mouth cow boy." LeShawna said.

"Right, challenge time!" Geoff ran off. "I need my wallet!"

Xxx

Gwen, Eva, Cody, and Beth were rushing on a bridge while further back Katie pushed Heather's wheel chair. Courtney had split off from them to find her own pillar. So far no teams had remained entirely together for the challenge, preferring to take the first challenge easy and go with people they trusted more.

"Got it!" The four of the leading Amazon members tagged the pillar. Katie followed up and tagged it while Heather reached out and tapped it.

"Snap a picture of the Mona Lisa...easy!" Gwen ran off.

"Arm Wrestle and win against ten men or women." Eva smirked. "Oh yeah!" she ran off.

"Stay fifty feet away from Cody for the whole day. Oh no!" cried Sierra.

Cody was jumping up and down in his head as Sierra cried about having to stay away from her beloved Cody. He read his card when it came out.

"Get a picture of yourself with two police officers willingly...meh, not so hard." Cody walked off.

"Avoid the police for one hour or escape back to the studio...what?" Beth looked up in time for police cars to drive down the bridge towards her. "Uh oh." Remembering how she was charged for causing harm to the Mona Lisa during her last visit to Paris with Lindsey, the girl ran off with French police in pursuit, who were pursued by Cody.

"Remain ten or more feet away from Heather and snap pictures of every accident she has." Katie smiled. "Sweet!" She pushed Heather away and went to find a camera.

"YOU ARE DEAD!" Heather yelled before she read her own note. "Find Courtney and soak her with a water gun...note: there is one at the studio along with a motorized wheel chair." She smirked and began to wheel herself away.

Xxx

"You're kidding me." Duncan looked at his card. "Kiss Courtney..." He swore, and it was 'bleep'ed out.

"Watch the f bombs." The Cameraman said.

"Fine." Duncan stormed away from the pillar Team Chris had tagged, which was under the Eiffel Tower.

Darth Alejandro needed Owen to grab his card for him. "I must...take off my mask...crap..." He began to lift his robotic arms to his helmet.

"Oh come on it's probably not that bad man." Owen said right before the helmet came off. "OH MY GOD! Those are horrible burns, and your hair is all gone man!"

"I was burned alright?" Alejandro put it back.

"Point to Alejandro and Team Chris is Really Really Really Really hot." One crew member said before vomiting from saying the team name.

"Burn a book..." Noah looked up. "I'm not that obsessed with books."

"It's not just any book; it's YOUR favourite book." Suddenly Noah's favourite novel, one of the Sherlock Holmes books was dropped into his hands.

"You're kidding me, this thing cost me a ton!" Noah said.

"Kid you the card does not."

"It's impossible to just find one of these anymore man!"

"Thems the rules."

"I swear I'm gonna-"

"Contract says you can't sue us unless we cause physical harm to you. And don't burn yourself, we aren't held accountable for your clumsiness."

"Now for me!" Owen read his card. "Stand in front of a large turkey dinner and do not eat a single bit of it..." Owen sniffed, wiping away a tear. "I hate you all!"

"I thought you were on a diet." Noah said.

"DON'T JUDGE ME!" The big boy wailed.

Xxx

Confessional

In the janitor's close that was the new confessional at the studio, Duncan was looking at the camera.

"That guy has issues."

Xxx

"Let a ten year old beat you at hockey...what?" Tyler asked.

"That's the challenge." Carlos snickered.

"I have mad skills in hockey; you can't expect me to let a little kid win!"

"Oh trust me, even if you really had skills it wouldn't matter." Duncan rolled his eyes. "Just do it princess." He marched away.

"Oh he's just grumpy because he needs to kiss the other princess." Noah snickered.

Xxx

**XANA POV**

Time to begin...now to pick a tower. Ah, a nice little one over in the mountain region, perfect.

No sooner than when the thought manifested in me did a tower in the Mountain Region activate.

Code: TRANSLATION

Xxx

"Uh...guys, problem!" Robby said.

"What is it?" Chef, who was left in charge due to Chris being a dumb ass and Carlos being out to see the challenges asked before the screen went blank. A moment later the odd eye shaped design from earlier reappeared.

"Oh man, it looks like our hacker friend is leaving us another message!" Robby said.

"Are the new security measures working?" Another worker, Thomas asked.

"No! Nothing is! He has us again!" Robby said before a message appeared, looking like it was being slowly cut into a fabric rather than appearing on screen.

**YOU EITHER DIE WHERE YOU THINK YOU ARE SAFE, OR WHERE HE DIED FOR YOU, YOUR CHOICE.**

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Robby asked.

"Don't know." Thomas shrugged.

"Screw it, I'm calling Carlos." Chef pulled out his walkie talkie. "Carlos, this is Chef." There was no response. "Carlos!" Static answered him. "Ah crud." He tossed it away.

"Don't worry; I doubt they'll have any trouble seeing this." Robby sighed.

Xxx

SNAP! "Perfect!" SNAP! "Very good!"

Bridgette smiled as Geoff snapped photos of her for her challenge. She set her surf board down after he was done. "Thanks!"

"Point to Bridgette and Team Victory!" A crew member noted.

"Awesome-" Geoff stopped as his cell phone rang. He answered it. "Uh...oh no."

"What is it?"

"Look!" He let Bridgette see the screen.

"That again!" Bridgette joined Geoff. "What is it saying now?"

"I don't know what this means." Geoff shrugged.

"Oh man, not again." A crew member groaned.

"Looks like we have a psycho on our hands." Geoff put his phone away. "Let's find the others."

Geoff and Bridgette ran off, leaving the crew behind to try to get their equipment functioning.

They ran all the way to the park and found DJ finishing up his hundreds of push ups.

"Hey dude, what's happening?" DJ stood up.

"Did you check your cell phone man?" Geoff asked.

"No, why?" DJ asked.

"Look at it." DJ pulled out his cell phone and flipped it open. He gasped.

"Oh snap!" He looked up at them. "Not again man!"

"Yeah, and do you see that message? This guy is a nut case." Bridgette said.

"Man I totally got that woman!" LeShawna came running in. "Man, you should have seen the look on her face! I wanted to do that for years!"

"LESHAWNATHEEYEISBACK!" DJ yelled, panicking.

"What?" She took a step back from the frightened man.

"The eye! The same one from earlier!" Geoff said.

"Take a look!" Geoff and DJ held up their cell phones.

"Oh crap, this ain't good!" LeShawna said.

"Hey guys, I got it!" Gwen joined them, holding a digital camera. "It wasn't easy, traffic was murder but I got a snap shot of the Mona Lisa! They managed to fix up what Beth and Lindsey did."

"Gwen, where's the rest of your team?" Bridgette asked.

"Well Heather went to the studio getting a water gun. Eva's arm wrestling. Beth is on the run from a few guys dressed as cops. Cody has to get himself a picture of himself with the police. Sierra is somewhere crying because she has to stay fifty feet away from Cody. And Courtney just ran off." Gwen replied. "Why?"

"That freaky eye thing is back! Nothing's working again!" Geoff said. "And you should see what that freak has to say this time!"

Gwen pulled out her black berry. "Oh man." She looked at them. "This guy must have some hell of a grudge; I say we get back to the studio."

"Agreed!" They all said at the same time.

Xxx

Aelita was oblivious to the growing chaos until she noticed the TDR gang gathering near their pillar again. When she heard them, she flipped open her own cell phone and saw the message. Her eyes narrowed.

'You won't get me XANA, I promise you that much.' She snapped it shut and stood up. She needed to get to the factory, and quick!

But before she took even two steps, a street light nearby shattered, and electricity arched down the pole and into the ground. The air shimmered as electricity began to crackle all around, and suddenly something took shape. It was large with grey and white skin and had four legs. For eyes it only had a few narrow slits, no mouth, and the eye of XANA on it.

The Tarantula let out a howl before it leaped into the park, heading right for its target, Aelita, who saw it and screamed.

"Holy crap, what is that?" DJ pointed at the charging Tarantula. The TDR gang was right between it and Aelita!

"Watch out!" They all leaped aside as the Tarantula made for Aelita. It crashed into a bench and sent it right into the air, bending and shattering the metal.

Aelita ran for the trees, the monster in pursuit.

"That thing went after her!" Bridgette said.

"Dude, that thing will rip her up!" DJ yelled.

"Oh hell no!" LeShawna grabbed a long piece of jagged metal from the shattered bench and ran after it. "Grab a piece and get your butt in gear tiny!"

DJ hesitantly grabbed another piece of metal and went after her. Geoff grabbed a third one which was more bent out of shape so it was more like a pick axe. Gwen and Bridgette didn't see any other big pieces of metal to grab, so they abandoned the wreckage and went after their friends.

Aelita zigzagged between the trees and made for where she knew a man hole was. It was one of the few the group used outside of the school property to get to the factory, and the Tarantula wouldn't fit through. She just needed to remember the 'Scan Delay' code Jeremy made in case a group member found themselves alone and needed to go to Lyoko. It would delay the scan process for sixty seconds, more than enough time to take the elevator down and get into a scanner.

But before she could get within fifty feet of the manhole, a laser struck her right thigh, going through flesh and bones. She screamed and fell. The Tarantula advanced on her. As soon as it stood over her, it angled both of its forward lasers so they aimed at her face. As they began to charge up, a battle cry drew its attention.

"HAIIIIII-YAH!" LeShawna slammed her piece of metal into the side of the Tarantula's face. "Hell yeah!" The Tarantula staggered before DJ leaped on it, repeatedly smacking it with his own makeshift weapon until it threw him off.

Geoff attacked next, trying to stab his makeshift pick down into its head while riding the monster. It bucked and roared. "Yippee aye yay-ah!" It threw him into the air. "Oh this is gonna hurt!" He hit the ground. "I'm ok!"

Gwen and Bridgette carried Aelita behind a tree.

"Are you alright?" Bridgette asked as she looked at the wound.

"I...yes, thank you!" Aelita hissed in pain.

Gwen looked down at the wound.

"It's cauterized."

"Ok, just don't move until we get some help for you." Bridgette said.

"What kind of weapon does that? And what the hell is that?" Gwen peeked out from behind the tree.

The Tarantula constantly tried to lock onto the kids with its lasers, but they kept leaping on it from behind and beating it down before it could take aim. They couldn't keep it up forever though; Geoff's hat earned itself a clean hole through it before Aelita looked up at them.

"Go for the eye!" She shouted.

"What?" Both girls looked down at her.

"The eye on the back of its head! Stab it!" Aelita said.

"GUYS, HIT THE EYE THING ON ITS HEAD!" Gwen shouted.

"GOT IT!" Geoff shouted as he and DJ tried to wrestle the Tarantula down. "UPPSY DAISY!" He hoisted himself on top and looked down at the eye symbol. "Hey, it's the same as the one on my-"

"JUST DO IT!" Aelita cut him off.

Geoff slammed his pick down on the eye, stabbing in. The monster howled before it vanished into a stream of electric particles. Geoff fell as if it hadn't been there at all and landed on his butt. The group gathered around.

"Ok...woo!" Geoff said. "Geoff One, Big Ugly Spider Zero! I rule, it sucks!"

"Man, that thing was gross!" DJ said. "What was it?"

"It sure seemed interested in you." Gwen looked down at Aelita.

"Because it wanted to kill me." Aelita groaned as she stood up on her good leg.

"Why would it- wait a sec...You're the one that guy with the weird eye message is after! It says right here on the cell phone!" Geoff held up his cell phone.

"I know, he's been after me for a long time." Aelita looked around.

She couldn't get to the factory on her own, and she wouldn't be in good enough shape to even focus on typing in any codes with her leg in this condition. She looked to the five young adults who had helped her.

"Can you tell us what is going on? That guy almost got me turned into a vegetable on live TV!" Geoff said.

"Help me and I'll tell you everything when we get where I need to be." Aelita said. "I planned to use that man hole over there but I can't climb...there's a factory near here, it's abandoned, I use it whenever he comes for me."

"To hide?" Gwen asked.

"To fight." Aelita replied. "Get me there and promise me you'll never tell anyone about it."

"Why would we keep something important secret from our friends?" DJ asked.

"Trust me, when you know what it is, you'll agree with me." Aelita said. "Now hurry, he can make bigger and scarier things appear, we need to go now!"

Xxx

It took fifteen minutes of Aelita directing them, but they reached the factory. With DJ carrying the tiny girl, they entered the main area of the factory. It was essentially a big empty room with an elevator that went down.

"The elevator, hurry!"

"Is this thing safe?" Geoff asked.

"I've used it hundreds of time." Aelita said.

The group went into the elevator. Aelita hit the 'down' button, and they began their descent.

When the doors opened, their jaws dropped while Aelita hobbled out into the control room.

"Holy..." LeShawna looked at the holographic map. "What is this?"

"That is where 'he' is doing all this from." Aelita said as she reached the chair, which took her around to the computer. "This is a map of a virtual world where he can do anything in the real world from. It's called Lyoko, and 'he' is XANA."

"Xana...like Xanadu?" Gwen asked.

"Dude, is XANA a computer like that weird chick from I Robot?" Geoff asked.

"In a way yes, but he's also out on the World Wide Web." Aelita cut Bridgette off. "And no, I can't destroy him by shutting this thing off, I'd only shut out my only way to fight him."

"Hold on, these look like real maps...mountain...arctic...desert...forest..." Gwen looked at them all.

"They're the regions that make up Lyoko. In each Region are towers that are used to monitor communications in the real world. By activating them XANA can disrupt communications all over France. He can also do worse, like make those monsters appear." Aelita groaned as she grasped her wounded leg. "There's really no limit to what you can do with a computer, and he can do even more than write up a few programs. He can change the world, or conquer it if they aren't shut down. I am able to shut them down by transferring myself into Lyoko, reducing myself into digital code so I can take a form and then manually shut down these towers."

"Wait, you go right inside the computer?" LeShawna asked. "What kind of messed up tech lets you do that?"

"Take a look below." Aelita replied. "In the chamber below this one are three devices called Scanners. Just like you can take an image from a picture and put it into a computer, these ones take people and put them inside Lyoko."

"That is the most messed up thing I have ever heard, and I was on three seasons of Total Drama." Gwen said.

"Then find out for yourself. The only way to stop XANA is to deactivate the tower in there. Is anybody good with computers?" Aelita asked.

"Uh...I took a computer class; still remember most of the basics." LeShawna held up a hand.

"In that case you know more than most of the people who had to use this thing." Aelita replied. "Come here and go to the Super Scanner program. That will pin point what region the tower is in and its precise location. XANA corrupted the Super Scan program but it's alright to use now. After that I need you to take me down to the Scanner Room."

LeShawna slowly sat down in the chair. "Alright..."

"Wait, you said there are three of those Scanner things...and this Xana dude sounds like some serious bad news." DJ said.

"If you really want to consider helping me, be sure you're ready to deal with it. Because until XANA is destroyed he'll destroy anyone and anything in his way." Aelita said. "You said he nearly killed you earlier today? He doesn't care how many people he has to kill before he conquers everything."

"Ok, if this guy managed to take down France twice in one day, I hate to see what he'll do if he keeps it up." Geoff said. "I guess I'll help you out...but how do I help you out?"

"Just go with me to Lyoko and protect me from his monsters until I reach the tower." Aelita answered him. "When you go into Lyoko, you take on a different form based upon your personality and characteristics. You are given the ability to fight these monsters, like an anti virus program finding and destroying corrupted files in a computer. But these monsters will appear more often and will fight back. When you go to Lyoko you have a type of health meter to indicate how long you can last before you are devirtualized back to the real world. The monsters' fire power differs all the time, but if they take away all one hundred of your life points, you are returned to the real world relatively unharmed but unfit to return to Lyoko for a period of time."

"I'm going in, this guy almost made a ton of planes crash; if he doesn't stop this time then there will be a lot more crashes." Bridgette said.

"I'm in too; if this keeps up I won't be leaving this city alive." Gwen added. "Guess we're all in uh...what is your name?"

"Aelita." Aelita smiled. "A pleasure to meet you all, but I wish it was under better circumstances."

"I'm Geoff." Geoff said, taking off his scorched hat. "This is DJ."

"I'm Bridgette."

"The name's LeShawna."

"I'm Gwen."

"Thank you all for this. I understand it can be a lot to accept all at once, but considering my friends have been captured I need someone to help." Aelita said.

"The kids from that Kadic school?" LeShawna asked.

"Yes...they were the ones who helped me deactivate XANA's towers multiple times. But this time he surprised us. Two years ago we thought we had destroyed him, but he had faked his death and came back. When he activated earlier today we went into Lyoko to stop him, but he captured all of my friends. This attack was supposed to finish me off and leave nobody who can deactivate his towers left alive."

"Guess he never saw us coming then." Geoff said.

"LeShawna, to virtualize us, there are instructions left in a note book taped under the computer. Follow the Virtualization Manual and remember to give a verbal command also." Aelita said. "After that you can use the Vehicle Program. It provides us with a faster mode of transportation on Lyoko, and they can be very convenient if we need to outrun any monsters."

"You got it girl!" LeShawna grabbed the book and began to flip through it as they took the elevator down.

"Alright...let's test Geoff, Gwen, and DJ first." LeShawna said, her voice coming from the intercom also as the group stepped into the room.

"Just take a scanner and wait until the virtualization is complete." Aelita told them as they stared in awe at the pillar shaped machines.

DJ squeezed into one Scanner, having to make himself small as possible due to his large size. Geoff and Gwen took a scanner each.

"Here we go...Transfer DJ." LeShawna said clearly.

The door shut on DJ, who gulped.

"Transfer Geoff." Geoff's scanner closed on him.

"Transfer Gwen." Gwen shut her eyes as her scanner closed.

"Scanner DJ." LeShawna continued.

All three occupants felt a gust of wind from beneath them as a ring of light traveled up their bodies.

"Scanner Geoff...Scanner Gwen..."

"Virtualization."

They closed their eyes as a pure white light filled the scanner, keeping them from seeing anything beyond what LeShawna said.


	5. Episode 4: Welcome to Lyoko

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter Four

Three figures appeared in mid air, their arms spread out. They appeared as lines of data first, but soon took shape and form. Three people fell and landed on their butts.

"OW!" They all yelled at once.

"Uh...Aelita told me to let you know the landing can be bumpy." LeShawna said, her voice disembodied.

"Wow...dude, you look even bigger!" Geoff said to DJ.

DJ looked even more muscular than he did in real life. He wore a pair of sandals and grey pants. A long sleeved white shirt fit him perfectly, and hit white hat remained in its place. He had armour pieces on his knees, elbows, shoulders, and chest.

Gwen wore all black with blue outlines consisting of a pair of knee high black boots with black thigh high stockings, a knee length loose skirt, a high collared sleeveless black tank top, and black fingerless gloves covering her hands and forearms. She also had a long black hooded sleeveless jacket with a picture of a bat on the back of it.

Geoff wore a pair of boots, black pants and a black shirt and a brown jacket. His cowboy hat was on his head, undamaged now.

"Dude...looking good Gwen." Geoff said.

"I can hear you Geoff." Bridgette said.

"Sorry babe." Geoff chuckled.

"_Alright, look around and tell me everything you see_."

"I see...floating mountains." DJ said. "And we're 3D now!"

"Nice." Gwen commented as she looked down at herself. She noticed a holster built into her left boot and pulled a small rod out of it. "What's this-ah!" Suddenly the rod extended until it was her height and a curved blade that was black with teal streaks matching the pattern of her hair in colour grew from it. "Whoa!"

"Dang, that's big." DJ said.

"Lookie there Geoff." Gwen pointed at Geoff's pants, where two disks hang from his thighs. He pulled them up, and held them by their handles. They grew blades.

"Cool, they're like frisbees with blades." Said Geoff.

"Dude, those are chakrams." DJ said. "What do I get?"

He looked down at himself to see if he had any kind of weapon on him.

"_Uh...not reading any weapons on you big guy_." LeShawna said.

"You don't look like the violent type of guy Dee, maybe you're just strong." Geoff said.

"Aelita says you have powers, his character might be based around them." LeShawna said. "And heads up, I'm sending Aelita and Bridgette to you."

Barely thirty seconds later, two more figures appeared in midair and fell. Aelita landed on her feet, but Bridgette landed on her butt. "Ow!"

"Yeah, we did that too Bridge." Gwen said as Geoff helped her up.

Bridgette wore a blue sleeveless body suit with dark blue wave shaped tattoos on her arms that extended until they were just slightly visible on her neck with dark blue gloves. Her midriff was revealed and she wore blue high heeled boots. A surfboard was hanging on her back, big and light blue with dark blue waves. Her hair retained its pony tail like in the real world and in the center of her top was the picture of a dolphin.

Geoff whistled. "Dang, you are looking fine Bridge!"

"Thanks Geoff." They proceeded to make out.

"Surfer girl should have known." Gwen sighed. "Guys, break it up!" She held out her scythe, separating them. "We have a crazy computer trying to kill us here, you can do that later."

"Sorry." They said at the same time.

"Aelita, I don't see any weapons on you." LeShawna said.

"Yeah and how can I help without any weapons either?" DJ asked.

Aelita held up one hand. "Energy Field!" She shot one up into the sky.

"Nice." Bridgette said.

"Your powers aren't limited to solid weapons, you can do much more." Aelita said before she leaped into the air and spread her wings.

"Awesome!" Geoff said. "Man, wish I could fly!"

"Any idea what the surf board is for?" DJ asked, tapping Bridgette's surf board.

Bridgette took it off her back and let it fall. It began to float. She stepped onto it. "Oh my god cool! A flying hover board!"

"Hey Aelita, I'm going through those vehicle codes now." LeShawna said.

"Can you also point us to the tower?" Aelita asked.

"I checked, its north of you, a few miles at least." LeShawna replied before three vehicles appeared.

"Dude, motor bike!" Geoff leaped onto the one wheeled Overbike. "Sweet!"

Gwen looked at the Overwing and stepped onto it. "I can make this work."

"Guess I take the other board." DJ stepped onto the Overboard. "Why is it pink?"

"It's purple, and it was made for Odd...he likes purple and cats." Aelita shrugged.

"Can you use that Dee?" Bridgette asked.

"Yeah, I surf." DJ flew up into the air and did several manoeuvres. "Nice!"

"Alright, let's get going." Aelita took off into the air.

The four new Lyoko fighters took off, accompanying Aelita.

"Uh guys, I have red dots appearing near the tower." LeShawna said.

"XANA must know we're here. LeShawna, can you scan them and find out what variant they are?" Aelita asked.

"_Ok...these ones look like pyramids on legs_." LeShawna said.

"Never seen them before. But they sound like the Blok monsters." Aelita stared ahead. "Remember, hit the eye to destroy them, and use your weapons to try blocking their lasers."

"Wait, I don't have a weapon!" Bridgette said.

"Use that board Bridge, pretty sure you can ram them with it!" Geoff suggested.

"I see them!" Gwen said. "Get ready!"

Six monsters were charging along a path below them away from the tower. They looked like pyramids on legs, and had four different eyes of XANA on their pyramid parts.

"They really do look like Bloks." Aelita said.

"Let's TAKE EM!" Geoff dove down and rode along the path, preparing one chakram in hand.

"Geoff wait!" Aelita dove after him.

"YEE HA!" Geoff tossed his chakram, which flew through the air and cut into one monster's eye before it could react. The Pyramid section exploded, leaving a pair of crab like legs to stumble around for a moment before they collapsed.

One Pyramid fired several bursts of lasers. Geoff dodged each of them, and tried to take off again, but clipped a Pyramid. The Pyramid exploded and Geoff began to ascend before another Pyramid fired a laser that struck the over bike and destroyed it. Geoff was sent flying. "WHOA!"

"Geoff!" Bridgette caught him on her board and began to dodge more fire.

Gwen leaped down and stabbed her scythe deep into another pyramid before leaping off as it detonated. She began to use her scythe to deflect lasers. "I could use some help!"

"Uh...what can I do?" DJ asked.

"Try to use your powers DJ!" Aelita dove down to help. "FOCUS!" She angled off. "ENERGY FIELD!" She fired one sphere, but it hit a pyramid's edge and did nothing. The pyramid fired and hit her twice, knocking her out of the air. She hit the path. "AH!" She sat up. "That should have destroyed it even if it didn't hit the eye! LeShawna, how many life points do they have?"

"_Uh...one hundred thirty. It has thirty now_. _And you have sixty_."

"Twenty per hit then." Aelita stood up. "A straight eye shot is my best bet. Energy Field!" She fired another sphere which destroyed the Pyramid that hit her.

The other two Pyramids were busy trying to take down Geoff and Bridgette, who were dodging every shot. Aelita and Gwen moved in to finish them off when something rushed by the Pyramids and lined up against them.

"These looks like Kankrelats...but different." Aelita took a step back.

They did indeed look like Kankrelats but they were not as bulbous and they were shorter, longer, and smoother, with eight long, thin legs. The laser was in the same spot as the Kankrelat and the Eye was there but smaller than on the Kankrelats. Holding a hand she hurled an energy field at one of them but it jumped out of the way. As it jumped it charged a laser and shot her in the chest.

She gasped, releasing a breath that did not exist as she was sent back.

"Gwen!"

"Got it!" Gwen got between Aelita and began to parry shots from the eight Spiderlings. One shot hit her knee, and put her off balance. "Ah!" She continued to reflect attacks back at them.

"GWEN! WE'RE COMING!" Bridgette yelled as she began to dive towards the Spiderlings, but the Pyramids hit her board. It shattered into two pieces and the two fell. The two pieces hit the ground and dug in...it was then that Bridgette noticed handles on them.

She ran to them and tugged them out of the ground, examining the two swords in her hands. They had the same patterns as the board did. "Wow!" She twirled them in her hands expertly, and then deflected attacks from the Pyramids. "Hang on guys!"

Geoff pulled out his second Chakram, but paused as he noticed the indents on the side of one Chakram and bumps on the side of the other. He fit them together...and they stuck together, turning and twisting until they became a two bladed battle axe. "Nice! Hang on dudes!"

Gwen growled as she was hit again. "SCREW THIS!" She suddenly tossed her scythe, which glowed a bright teal colored light as it arched through the air and cut through three Spiderlings before returning to her. "...Whoa."

DJ leaped down. "Watch out!" He tried to shield Gwen with his body...but something extended from his hands and formed a bubble of white energy before him that absorbed the salvo of lasers.

"DJ, you're making that!" Gwen said.

"A barrier!" Aelita said as she and Gwen retreated behind the barrier with them.

"Alright, DJ you push forward with the barrier down the center." Gwen said.

"Got it!" DJ began to advance.

"Geoff, Bridge! Go for the pyramids, keep them busy!" Gwen called to the fighters.

"Got it!" The surfer girl and cow boy replied.

"Aelita, you take the right, I'll take the left!" Gwen moved around the barrier and began to parry shots from the Spiderlings. She then tossed her scythe so it went up in an arch and came down on one Pyramid, destroying it as it stabbed down into the eye. Aelita fired an energy field that struck the other, putting it off balance and allowing Bridgette to bisect it down the center.

"We're kicking ass!" Geoff pumped a fist into the air before he was struck by the remaining five Spiderlings at once. "Wha-?" He vanished.

"GEOFF!" Bridgette rushed forward and cut down two Spiderlings.

Gwen and Aelita took down the last three monsters, and the group gathered around.

"What happened to him?"

"His life points hit zero, but he's alright, he was just sent back to the real world like I said." Aelita said. "LeShawna, is Geoff on the cameras?"

_"Yeah, yeah I see him. And you might want to hurry; I have some unfriendly company up here!"_

"What?"

_"More monsters with that XANA eye on them!"_

Xxx

LeShawna circled a krab, which had appeared right in the middle of the control room and was aiming to smash the computer, but LeShawna stood before it with a pipe.

"Alright big guy, you want a piece of LeShawna? Bring it on!" She taunted.

It swung one leg forward, but she rolled under it and swung her pipe, bending one of its legs. It groaned and began to teeter off balance. LeShawna leaped up and stabbed the pipe down into the XANA eye. It exploded and sent her flying through the holographic map and hit the wall. She chuckled as she stood up. "Hah, that's what happens when you mess with Leshaw-ah!" She was hit in the knee by a laser. She looked to the source and saw a Spiderling advancing on her. "Oh you did not just shoot me!" She grabbed her pipe and went to work.

Xxx

"We have to hurry!" Aelita spread her wings again.

DJ hopped onto the over board, Bridgette formed her swords into their own board form, and Gwen took to the over wing. They followed Aelita as she flew towards the tower.

Suddenly something came out from the clouds below, a low roar breaking the silence of the region. They looked down and saw the giant bird monster that Aelita had encountered last time.

"Whoa! That is big!" DJ yelled before lasers flew up at them

"It's a carrier for more monsters! They're covering the eye!" Aelita shouted.

"_That thing has-ah! 10 000 life points girl-hey now you stay right there- ah ha_!" A smashing sound rang out. "_Gotcha now, I always hated spiders_!"

On the Terror Bird was a mix of Spiderlings, Pyramids, Creepers, and several Krabs. They were all firing up at the group.

"DJ, barrier, everyone behind him!" Gwen shouted.

"You really have the hang of this!" DJ formed a barrier, and they formed up behind him.

"We're almost there!" Gwen shouted.

"You guys move ahead, I got this!" DJ expanded his barrier, trying to block every laser.

"We can't just leave you with that!" Bridgette objected.

"We're going too slow! If we wait too long LeShawna is toast!" DJ yelled. "GET GOING NOW!"

They all flew ahead, and he began to block the monster's path. "RIGHT HERE! RIGHT HERE! SHOOT ME!" He stuck out his tongue. "YOU AREN'T GETTING BY ME BIG GUY!"

He flew back and forth in front of the monster, diverting its attention as it tried to swat him out of the sky.

Meanwhile the others had the tower in sight, but it had a single black sphere blocking it.

"MEGATANK!" Aelita yelled.

"How bad is that?" Bridgette asked.

"It can take you out in one hit!" Aelita yelled. "Wait for the shell to open and hit it before it fires!"

The Megatank opened and fired a blast that went forwards, upwards, and backwards from it. Gwen swerved to avoid and it clipped her vehicle. She fell, screaming until she hit the ground before the tank. She slowly got up as it began to open up. She gripped her scythe and charged, yelling. She leaped into the air as it opened up. She swung her scythe down, but a second before it came into contact the Megatank fired and sent her flying. In mid flight she vanished.

But before it could close, Bridgette dove in. "TAKE THIS!" She slammed the tip of her board into it, and the Megatank exploded. Bridgette was sent flying back and slid across the ground. She fell over the edge, but barely a second later Aelita grabbed her and pulled her back up, setting her back on the plateau.

"Good job!" Aelita praised her. "You're very good for beginners."

She entered the tower without another word. Rising to the upper platform she placed her hand on the interface.

**AELITA**

**Code: LYOKO.**

In the real world, LeShawna was joined by Geoff and Gwen in fighting off a trio of Creepers.

"Come on, is that all you got?" She slammed her pipe down on a creeper's head while Geoff used his makeshift pick axe from earlier to destroy another.

Gwen was wrestling with the third, sitting on its back and trying to keep its mouth shut so it couldn't shoot any lasers.

"Man this thing is going to make me-" Suddenly the Creeper collapsed. "...sick." Gwen stood up.

The monsters vanished, turning into a stream of particles and then vanished into the air.

"She did it!" LeShawna said. "Ha ha! Score one for us!"

"Sweet!" Geoff yelled.

"Alright LeShawna, wait for DJ and Bridgette to-" LeShawna cut her off as DJ's life points hit zero and he vanished.

"DJ's been devirtualized too."

"His barrier must have collapsed from the monsters attacking him. Get Bridgette in here and devirtualize us." Aelita said.

Xxx

After two devirtualizations, the group was gathered together. Gwen was bandaging LeShawna's wounds while listening to Aelita's tale.

"Your dad built all this? He must have been one smart dude." Geoff said.

"Yes, but the real amazing thing is that the computer had the ability to reverse time to an extent." Aelita said.

"Time travel? After today I'll believe anything." DJ said.

"So what did he build Lyoko for? Was he the guy who made XANA?" Gwen asked.

"He did, Lyoko and XANA were originally made to destroy a military project called Carthage which was meant to interfere or block enemy communications. Lyoko was created as the staging ground for Carthage's destruction and XANA was meant to destroy it. XANA is no ordinary program; he is what we call a multi agent program, meaning he can multiply and divide himself in his work. My father used the time return program to go back in time more than a thousand times in one year to finish his work.

The problem was that Government agents arrived at our house one day, I assume it had to do with Project Carthage. I believe that the government wanted to use it for their own ends. We fled and came here where my father virtualized us. He wished for me to be safe, but XANA had turned on us at that point. When we arrived on Lyoko he attacked us.

I was forced to hide in a tower while my father attempted to stop XANA. In the end there was nothing he could so he shut down the supercomputer. My father and I remained trapped inside for almost decade before the supercomputer was reactivated. It was reactivated when my friends Jeremy, Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi found the super computer.

From that point on, I had no memory of my past before Lyoko; XANA had seen fit to take that from me also. We spent a year fighting him. I assumed I was an AI created on Lyoko the entire time. Jeremy eventually made a devirtualization program and used it to return me to the real world."

"Sounds like this kid was smart." Bridgette said.

"He was one of the best." Aelita smiled. "And he focused all his time to giving me my body back. When we discovered XANA stole my memories we tried to get them back...but he tricked us and stole the rest of my memory to get something called the 'Keys to Lyoko'."

"Keys to Lyoko?" Geoff raised an eyebrow and tipped his hat back.

"Both I and my father had a half of the Keys to Lyoko. XANA needed both to escape the super computer. With them he was able to leave and not worry about the super computer shutting down and killing him."

"So that's how he got onto the web?" LeShawna asked.

"Yes, he took control of hundreds of super computers and used them to build war machines so he could attempt a conquest of humanity. Jeremy designed a program that was intended to wipe out XANA and destroy all of his replicas and anything left of his program. But it was all a trick; he wanted us to use it. My father was tricked into sacrificing himself to power the program. XANA had hidden himself away and left a copy to fight us...we destroyed everything except XANA. And as you all know when he returned he sent out a message only earlier today."

"Damn, that's just low." Geoff said. "He tricked your dad into killing himself? Man that's messed up!"

"What happened to your friends?" Bridgette asked.

"They are his prisoners now, I can't devirtualize until we free them." Aelita said. "I'll be working on finding them...after that we need a way to free them. I'm sorry that you all had to get involved with this. We never wanted to involve anyone else in our fight."

"Hey, XANA's out to kill us all, if I gotta face the facts then I don't care." LeShawna shrugged.

"So you'll help me?" Aelita looked hopeful.

"You bet." DJ stood up. "I'm not letting this guy run around."

"Me neither." Bridgette said. "He won't know what hit him."

Aelita smiled. "Thank you, all of you. It will be a hard fight considering the world will have its eyes on you most of the time."

"We can slip away when we need to." DJ said.

"Wait, Chris has cameras set up at the studio; we can't slip out just like that." LeShawna added.

"Leave that to me, this computer can hack anything." Aelita patted the computer.

"Alright!" Geoff said. "So...now what?"

"LeShawna, you need to be scanned. Unless you do you won't remember what happened. I'm launching a return to the past so what happened earlier today won't spread." Aelita said.

"Alright baby, scan me!" LeShawna cheered.

Xxx

After it was all done, Aelita and her new team stood before the computer.

"When it happens, you will find yourselves where you were before the attack. You'll be on live TV again so try not to say anything suspicious." Aelita said. "It might come as a surprise, but you get used to it." She hit 'enter'. "Return to the past now!"

Xxx

The team stood in the park again.

"Wow..." Geoff started, but realized they had cameras on them and DJ was finishing up his push ups. "Three hundred push ups in one go man! Awesome!"

"Thanks." DJ stood up and stretched. "Man, that's my exercise for the day."

"Hey guys, how's the challenge?" Gwen asked as she approached.

"We'll be winning this time girl; don't be sad when you lose!" LeShawna laughed as she joined the group.

"Alright, and we're out!" the Cameraman said. "Good job kids. Now we need to go check on Heather, she has the master challenge!" The crew ran off.

The group saw Aelita sitting on the bench nearby. They waved to her, and she waved back.

"So...who wants lunch?" Geoff asked.


	6. Episode 5: Training

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter Five

"Dress up as a clown and entertain? Are you kidding me? All that make up will ruin my good looks." Said Justin as he looked at his card.

"Either that or you're goin home, pretty boy." Said Duncan with a black eye.

He managed to complete his challenge but Courtney gave him a black eye. Justin sighed.

"Wear a wig with bad hair cuts. Oh no! Not again!" cried Sadie.

Xxx

"Stand on a roof with only my under wear? Gosh, that's not right!" said Harold looking at his card.

"Sorry dude, a challenge's a challenge." Said Trent before looking at his card. "Play the bagpipes? Oh I hate that instrument. Why can't it be a guitar?"

"Because it wouldn't be fun if you played an instrument that you knew how to play and liked. And for complaining you have to play it while running from a mime." Said Chris smirking.

"What?" Trent shouted.

"Sorry, man. Them's the rules." Said Chris.

"You mean the rules you make up?" asked Trent glaring.

"Yes those rules." Said Chris. "Look out behind you."

Trent turned and a saw . . . . . . . a _mime_!

"AH!"

Chris laughed. "Spaz!"

Xxx

Duncan looked up. "Wow...that was some girly scream."

He then looked to where Courtney had just received her challenge.

"Kiss Duncan in public...oh come on!" Courtney whined.

"Oh no, not again." Duncan smacked himself on the face. He already had one black eye from kissing her. He only hoped Gwen would never find out.

"DUNCAN! GET OVER HERE!" Courtney chased Duncan down an alley.

'Man if that woman gets me she'll give me another black eye just to add insult to injury afterwards.' Duncan thought. 'Think Duncan, think you three days grace reject-ow that really hurt my pride just then.'

Xxx

In the confessional later, Duncan glared at the camera.

"Ok, I know she's hot, but her obsessive compulsions drove me nuts." Duncan said.

Xxx

'I need to think of a way to get away from her quick- I can't even think straight because of her!'

"DUNCAN GET BACK HERE AND LET ME KISS YOU!"

"HELL NO, AFTER YOU DO YOU'LL BREAK MY NOSE!" Duncan replied.

Xxx

Beth was hiding in a trash can from the two actors dressed as cops, who were taking a picture with Cody.

"Say 'au revoir' (sp?)!" Cody said.

"Au revoir!" Cody snapped a picture of him holding a thumb up with the two cops.

"Thanks guys!" Cody ran off.

Beth peeked out of the trash can.

"There she is!" The cops ran towards her.,

"Eep!" She turned her trashcan over and rolled down a road, easily losing the cops in traffic.

Xxx

"I told you, and you proved me right." Duncan nursed his black eye.

He now had two black eyes which made it hard to see.

"Oh shut up." Courtney said as she wiped her mouth.

"Oh you know you enjoyed it princess." Duncan rolled his eyes.

"About as much as kissing Owen's ass." Courtney replied.

"Language!" A crew member said.

"Sorry." They said at the same time.

"I'm heading back to get some ice, excuse me." Duncan began to walk back to the studio.

Xxx

Confessional

**"**Just to let you all know for the record I only kissed him so that I could beat him. There's no way I am going to lose to him or Gwen." Courtney said crossing her arms.

Xxx

"Well, what an exciting day we've had everyone! All around town, standing half naked on roofs, dressing up as clowns, running from mimes and the fuzz, man this was good! And the pies really added a touch to it." Chris grinned. "Unfortunately for all your hard earned efforts, Team Amazon completed the most challenges first and won. The runner up is Team Chris is really really really really hot. And the losers like last time are Team Victory! You sure it was a good idea to name yourselves victory? You don't have a good record."

"SHUT UP!" Team Victory shouted.

"Alright Team _Victory_, time to choose who will be going home on the private jet of losers." Chris said. "The rest of you, good job! But there's one more thing you need to know...loser team stays in the loser dorm, runner up team in the Runner Up Dorm, and the Winner Team in the Winner Dorm."

"Say what now?"

"Thems the rules." Chris shrugged. "Here are your report cards. They will be used when you vote off one of your teammates. Just fill the box next to the name of the loser you want gone."

Xxx

Team Victory sat outside on the bleachers while a jet landed.

"You have cast your votes. Whoever does not receive a Chris Trophy has to get on the Private Jet of Losers and can't come back. That means you especially Ezekiel, if you get kicked out and sneak back on after you're eliminated I will personally make sure you get dragged back to Canada and chained up in your house." Said Chris walking out.

"I said I was sorry, eh!" Ezekiel said.

"The following names I will call out are safe. LeShawna." Chris tossed a trophy and LeShawna caught it.

"Bridgette."

"Yes!" Geoff said as his girlfriend caught the trophy.

"Geoff."

"Yes!" Bridgette said as Geoff caught a trophy.

They hugged and started to make out.

"Ezekiel."

Ezekiel caught the trophy.

"I am in to win it, yo!"

"DJ." DJ caught the trophy thrown at him.

"Lindsay."

Chris tossed the trophy but it hit her on the head.

"Ow!"

Only Trent and Harold were left. Chris held out one last trophy.

"Gentlemen, it's down to this. Trent, you sucked with the bagpipes as you were too busy screaming like a sissy. Harold you showed up in public in only your underwear on a roof."

"That was my challenge." Harold protested.

"Still people found it weird and disturbing." Said Chris. "And now the final trophy goes to . . . "

...

...

..

...

...

"Trent."

Trent grinned as he took his trophy.

Harold groaned. "Gosh, this bites."

"And now, team Victory has lost one team mate. Will they bounce back in the next challenge, or will they be sending someone else home? Find out next time on Total, Drama, Reality!" Chris claimed. The cameras cut out, and Carlos shook his head.

"You really take that last line too far every season man." The Producer said.

"Ha, ha."

Xxx

Aelita was watching the end of Total Drama Reality from her dorm room and was glad to see none of her new friends get sent home.

She looked at the list of numbers the group had left her and dialled Gwen's black berry.

Gwen picked up after several moments. "Hello?"

"Gwen, it's me, Aelita." Aelita said. "Good job on the show today."

"Hey, we did it twice; the second time was much easier." Gwen replied.

"I need you and the others to come down to the factory, there are some things we need to talk about."

"What about the cameras?"

"Don't worry, I managed to hack into Chris' network, it'll look like you guys never even left your rooms. And just so you know, there are cameras in every room, including yours and the others."

"That figures. I'll let them know, we'll see you then." Gwen hung up.

Xxx

The new Lyoko fighters stepped out of the elevator and into the control room.

"Man I never get tired of seeing this." Geoff said. "So, what do you need?"

"Well first off, how did you handle going back in time? You all managed to act like nothing happened at all on live TV." Aelita said.

"It was weird...but hey, I didn't want to look weird. It was kind of like being rewound like in a movie." Geoff shrugged.

"That's how everyone usually feels. But now that you've done your challenge for the day I was hoping you could consider going to Lyoko for some training. You did good for beginners but you need some more improvement. Geoff, you dropped your guard and got devirtualized first, but you did manage to take on those monsters easily before you got cocky. This is the second time I've ever had to recruit new people and the first time went horrifically wrong for me and my friends."

"What happened?" Bridgette asked.

"You know of Ulrich, Odd, Yumi, and Jeremy, well William was our newest recruit. When XANA launched an attack, everyone but William was occupied. Ulrich was with his father, Odd's girlfriend kept him in the dark, and Yumi was having trouble with her brother, so William and I went on ahead. He took out a squad of Creepers on his own, but he treated it as a game and he paid for it when XANA possessed him. For months XANA used him to fight us until we managed to free him. I don't want to see that happen to you all, so we need to make sure we never let our guard down. Plus, after going to Lyoko for an amount of time you can build up resistance against XANA's control.

DJ, you will need practice with your barriers. Your powers are purely based on defence, but maybe they can be used to defend more than what is in front of you.

Gwen, you are fairly good with your scythe, but you need to learn when to attack and how to attack based on the monster you're facing. The Megatank only took you out because you tried to take it out immediately. You need to get in close and wait until either before or after it fires and hit it right in the eye.

Bridgette, you didn't know what your weapons were at first but you got a good handle on them. But you focused too much on defending Geoff, you're a team now, we need to watch out for everybody.

And LeShawna, you still need to train with your abilities, we didn't have time for that since we were on a tight time constrain to reverse time. Now we have that chance."

"You want us to go train on Lyoko? Aren't there more monsters?" DJ asked.

"No, XANA only sends out monsters to defend towers he activates, and you need to familiarize yourself with the sectors. He has recently upgraded Lyoko so the elements can affect you, such as the feelings of heat, scent, and I'm certain getting shot wasn't a comfortable experience for any of you, so you'll need to get used to that also." Aelita said.

"Where can we train then?" Gwen asked.

"Anywhere you wish. You've seen the mountain region. Want to try the desert region? Or the Arctic Region? The Forest Region is the next safest place though."

"I say we try the Arctic Region, if we get used to the cold we won't have as much trouble for when we actually need to go there." Gwen suggested.

"Cool." Geoff grinned.

"Alright, let's go." LeShawna said.

Xxx

_"Transfer Geoff...Scanner Geoff...Virtualization."_

_"Transfer LeShawna...Scanner LeShawna...Virtualization."_

_"Transfer Gwen...Scanner Gwen...Virtualization."_

This time they all landed on their feet on a small plateau.

"Hey Aelita we landed on our feet this time!" Gwen said.

LeShawna looked down at herself.

She was wearing a pair of red pants with black flame like symbols on the outer pant legs, a black short sleeved shirt. She also had pieces of black armour and spiked fingerless gloves on her hands. Her hair was in the same pony tail, and she had steel toed boots on. She was carrying a long pole that had a hammer head on the tip.

"Looks like you have the biggest weapon LeShawna." Gwen said.

"That's me, strong as hell baby!" LeShawna twirled her hammer in one hand flawlessly and slammed the head down on a segment of ice that stuck up. She ended up sending it flying away and into the digital sea below. "Wow!"

"It looks like your own ability is super strength to go with that hammer." Aelita said. _"Transfer Bridgette...scanner Bridgette...Virtualization."_

_"Transfer DJ...Scanner DJ...Virtualization."_

Bridgette and DJ appeared next to the group moments later.

"Hey, we landed this time- ah!" DJ slipped, his feet flying out from under him and sending him down a slope.

_"Don't let him fall over the edge!"_ Aelita shouted.

"I got him!" Bridgette went after DJ using her hover board.

DJ landed on the board in front of Bridgette as she flew them back up onto the large icy platform.

"Thanks Bridge." Said DJ as got off Bridgette's board.

"Listen carefully, everyone, it is absolutely important that you do not fall into the Digital Sea." Said Aelita.

"What happens if we fall in?" asked LeShawna.

"Your digital structure would be ripped and shredded. You would be trapped forever." Said Aelita.

"Okay, so no more falling." Said Gwen looking at everyone.

"Got it." They replied.

"Okay so how we do this?" asked Geoff.

_"You pick someone as an opponent. Like I said you won't die if you lose all of your life points plus this would be a better way to find out what your abilities are than during a XANA attack."_ Said Aelita.

"There's five of us so someone would have to sit it out." Said Geoff.

"Bad idea. What happens if XANA decides to activate a tower while we're all fighting?" asked Gwen.

"Good point there, girl." Said LeShawna.

"Bridgette, I think it would be a good idea for you to spar with Geoff." Said Gwen looking at the surfer girl.

"What? Why?"

"Like Aelita said you spent too much time defending Geoff during our last battle. If we are really going to do this we need to work together. That means protecting all of us instead of just Geoff."

"We should do it, Bridge. We can't have a party if it's only you and me without any friends." Said Geoff putting a hand on Bridgette's shoulder.

"Ok." Bridgette replied reluctantly.

They both walked out until they were in the middle of the barren frozen wasteland. Geoff held out his chakrams and Bridgette's surf board split into her two swords. Geoff put his chakrams together and he held out his two bladed axe.

"Remember, Bridge, we're not really hurting each other." Geoff said trying to reassure his girl friend.

"Right."

"All right, here goes!" shouted Geoff as he charged forward.

Raising his axe he jumped into the air and swung it down at Bridgette. The surfer jumped to the side avoiding the axe as it slammed into the ice. Geoff pulled out leaving a large crack in the ground. He swung again only to be met by Bridgette's two swords held in a cross formation. Bridgette grunted as the attack pushed her back.

She then pushed Geoff back and leapt towards him swinging her swords in a downward arc. Geoff blocked and swung at Bridgette again but she parried the attack. She spun around and elbowed her boyfriend in the back knocking him off balance. Bridgette quickly tried to stab him but Geoff ducked, dodging the attack.

He quickly tripped Bridgette by sweeping his leg out knocking Bridgette off her feet. She fell on her back hitting the icy ground. Looking up she saw Geoff holding his axe up. But he hesitated to attack. Bridgette quickly rolled away, getting back on her feet and charging at her boyfriend. Meanwhile the others were watching the fight a few yards away.

Gwen was rubbing her arms to keep herself warm while LeShawna and DJ just watched the fight.

"Geoff had Bridgette right there." Said DJ.

"Yeah, but he hesitated." LeShawna replied.

"Can you blame him? Even if she wouldn't die I don't see Geoff harming a single hair on Bridgette's head and vice versa. Can you two say you would do that to anyone you know and care without hesitation? LeShawna, what if you were out there right now fighting Harold? DJ, can you imagine fighting any of our friends like you were trying to kill them?

This is not like the show where we compete against each other. We're actually trying to fight each other. This is what Aelita meant when she said we needed to train." Said Gwen watching the fight. "Even those two have agreed to fight, they hate every moment of it. Even if they won't be harmed they still hate having to fight each other."

"Yeah. It must be tough on them." Said DJ watching them.

"But they're doing it. But how can they find out their abilities if they hesitate to fight?" asked LeShawna.

Aelita was silent as she listened to the conversation. Gwen had a point. She remembered one time when XANA made that clone of Yumi and Ulrich was forced to devirtualize the real Yumi by stabbing through the chest with his sword. That must have been very difficult for Ulrich to do.

"I don't know. Maybe they'll work it out on their own or we'll have to help them. But we should wait a bit before we get involved." Gwen said.

LeShawna had a thoughtful look on her face as Gwen stated her observation about Geoff and Bridgette. She hoping she could patch things up with Gwen since they didn't leave on the best terms last time. Maybe their time spent here on Lyoko would be perfect.

Xxx

He was certainly surprised when Aelita managed to recruit a new team of warriors to fight him. Looking through the data stream he discovered they were part of a cast for a reality television show called Total Drama. He downloaded the information on show and studied the cast more than a hundred times in one second. He learned that they were now competing in a new season in France at a local company that was testing a virtual world that was a pale imitation of Lyoko.

What made him mentally smirk was that it would be a matter of time before they would be sent home one by one. No doubt Aelita knew it too and she would work hard to save her friends. While he knew that they would be gone soon he could not allow them to live since they now knew of Lyoko. They must be neutralized as soon as possible.

And he knew the perfect way to do it.

Xxx

Aelita's eyes went up as the super scan detected an activated tower.

"Everyone, the super scan has detected an activated tower!"

Xxx

"Ah, another fine day after tormenting the campers." Said Chris as he sat down in his large room which consisted of a kitchen, a hot tub, and a large bathroom.

In front of him was a large TV showing reruns of Total Drama. He chuckled every time he saw himself on the screen tormenting the cast. Little did he know a stream of electricity traveled through the wiring into his TV. He was drinking his favourite tomato juice when the TV suddenly went black.

"Hey! We were just getting to the good part." Chris complained as he sat up.

He walked over to the TV and banged against the screen. Suddenly the TV lit up and Chris jumped back as he saw the familiar strange red eye from yesterday.

"What the-"

A pitch black substance that looked like a mix of oil and smoke came out of the screen towards him. Before Chris could run the spectre enveloped him, he screamed in a very high pitched voice as the spectre entered his body. His head fell over and he stood like a statue. Then he looked up and the Eye of XANA had replaced his pupils. He grinned as he turned to the large intercom.

He walked over to it and turned it on.

"All contestants and interns to the lobby, we have a big emergency."

Xxx

"What does he want now?" Heather complained as her wheel chair was pushed into the lobby by Cody who was one of the only people who could stand her.

"I don't know. He said something about an emergency." Said Trent.

"More like another joke at our expense." Said Noah.

"Hey, we're missing some people." Said Beth looking around.

"She's right. I don't see Geoff or Bridgette." Said Owen.

"Or LeShawna." Said Sadie sitting next to Katie.

"DJ is missing too." Tyler looked around and saw no sign of the giant.

"Hey, Gwen's not here too." Said Cody.

"Hear that, Duncan? Your _girlfriend_ is missing." Courtney sneered at the punk.

Duncan ignored her as he looked around as best as he could since he got two black eyes. They were right.

"Chris! What is it that you drag me out here?" shouted Chef as he entered the room.

"He's not here yet. But you do have a good question. The show's over there's no need for us to be out here." Said Carlos sitting on the couch.

Chris walked into the room smirking evilly. More so than usual.

"Chris, what do you want?" shouted Heather.

"You better have a good explanation, Chris." Said Carlos crossing his arms.

Chris's smirk widened.

"We seem to be missing a few people." Chris said looking around. "Has anyone guessed where they are?"

"What, Gwen, DJ, Geoff, Bridgette, and LeShawna are in on this?" asked Trent.

"Actually yes. They snuck out."

"That's impossible. They're still on the cameras." Said Carlos holding up a remote to a video screen.

The screen showed Gwen drawing in her room, LeShawna sleeping, Geoff and Bridgette making out in Geoff's room and DJ writing what looked like a note to his mother. Chris had one hand behind his back as he snapped his fingers and the image fizzled then cleared up but now they were gone.

"What the?" asked Carlos.

"Someone hacked into the network and set it up so no one would know they left." Said Chris. "Your job is to find them after I give you something to track them down."

"They snuck out and didn't take me with them? Dang!" Duncan said.

"And just how do we track them down?" asked Alejandro from inside the Total Drama robot.

"That." Said Chris pointing at the screen.

Suddenly the images were replaced with the same red eye from before. Black ooze began to spill from the screen.

"That's the eye!" Carlos said standing up.

"Oh, gross! What's it spilling?" Lindsay shrieked.

Suddenly the ooze lashed and extended a black tentacle that impaled Lindsay.

"Lindsay!" screamed Beth and Tyler.

The tentacle cut itself off from the gathering black mist and was absorbed into Lindsay who hung her head.

"Chris, what the hell is going on?" shouted Carlos.

He marched up to Chris but the host grabbed him by the neck and suddenly he was shocked with electricity. Chris dropped him and stepped over him.

"Run!" shouted Owen.

"Lindsay snap out of it!" cried Beth as she shook Lindsay.

Lindsay looked up and to the horror of both Tyler and Beth her innocent blue eyes were replaced by that strange eye. She grabbed both of them by the neck and lifted them off the ground.

"Lindsay, what's happening to you?" Tyler gasped.

They screamed as two black tentacles hit them and entered their bodies. The contestants tried to run for the door but they slammed shut on their own as more of the black ooze emerged from outlets.

Owen screamed and rushed for the door with Noah and Cody behind him. But more of those black things popped out of the wall.

"What the-?" One entered Owen, who collapsed and flopped like a fish.

Noah circled around him while Cody hopped over the large young man. Noah turned and saw a spectre right in front of him. He screamed as the spectre slammed into him vanishing straight into the chest. He then looked up and smirked with XANA's symbol in his eyes.

"OWEN!" Izzy screeched, hopping over the couch and rushing for Owen, only for a spectre to come out of the floor and enter her. She jerked and twitched, collapsing next to Owen while Cody fled the room.

Courtney screamed as a spectre reached for her, only for Duncan to pull her aside and shove her out the door after Cody before the spectre went into him next. He turned and held out a knife at the spectre.

"Come and get me."

The spectre accepted his challenge and flew at him. He tried to stab it but it passed through his knife and entered his body. He screamed as his eyes were replaced by the Eye of XANA signalling that he was now possessed.

"Alright, you're a dead man! I've wanted to do this for a long time pretty boy!" Eva charged Chris, who casually flicked his hand at her and sent her flying with an energy shock.

"Such anger." Chris commented. "I like it."

Eva, Trent, Justin, and Ezekiel were possessed next. Ezekiel's wounds suddenly healed, and he grew dark hair to replace his burned off brunette hair. "Much better...eh." He commented.

Katie and Satie held each other, sobbing as the spectres reached for them next. They screamed as the spectre enveloped them. They stopped crying and stood up. Their tears vanished as XANA's Eye replaced theirs.

Sierra tried to outrun-or out wheel a spectre, but it caught up to her easily. Much like with Ezekiel after she was possessed her injuries were healed and she grew dark hair with purple highlights.

Heather had backed herself against the wall as the campers were possessed one by one. Her eyes widened in fear as she watched them try to run but it was futile. Trembling in fear as she watched a spectre enter the robot holding Alejandro, he tore the robot open from the inside as he came out smiling with the freaky eye like thing in his eyes. A spectre entered her from behind, she screamed as it entered her body and she stood, healed of her injuries.

Carlos and Robby had ended up possessed at the start of the chaos, and Chef was currently the only one left standing. He was swinging a butcher knife futilely. "You want a piece of me? Come on, I'll cut you a new hole!"

XANA chuckled. "Nice skills with a knife, they'll be put to good use." The spectre flew right past the knife and possessed him easily.

With a small army of possessed young adults and crew before him, XANA gave them one command.

"Find them, and kill them."

They left without a word.

Xxx

"Come on, come on, pick up!" Cody said as he tried to call the police. "Man this bites!"

"Oh man, what the hell was that?" Courtney screamed, distraught at what she had seen and heard.

"I don't know!" Cody said as he faced her, and dropped the phone.

"What?" Courtney turned...and came face to face with twenty some possessed campers.

Alejandro stood before her, now restored to his handsome self and without a trace of burns. "Hey babe, join the party, it'll be the time of your life."

"What's going on?" Courtney backed up.

"Nothing much, I'm just borrowing your friends...and you." XANA said as he advanced in Chris' body. "The missing competitors have caused some trouble for me...and you all will deal with them."

"What do you mean?" Cody squeaked.

"What I mean is that you're going to kill them for me." XANA smirked before he possessed the two.

Xxx

"Alright Aelita, where's the tower?" DJ asked as the group managed to get down to a wider plain of ice.

_"Its north of your position. If you can secure the way in I can transfer myself to your location."_ Aelita replied.

"I was hoping for some more time to practice." Bridgette sighed.

"No time like the present Bridge." Geoff said, separating his axe into chakrams.

_"Incoming monsters! Three Krabs, forty life points per hit!"_ Aelita said.

"I see them." Gwen drew her scythe.

The three Krabs looked different. They had six legs, and had a laser mounted on each side, giving them 360 degree vision and firing power. They stopped in a line, spread out a bit, and began to open fire. Bridgette parried and dodged an entire salvo on her own while Gwen spun her scythe quickly in her hands. The entire weapon glowed light blue as it made a barrier between her and the lasers, deflecting them.

"Whoa, nice!" Geoff, not getting distracted and devirtualized this time, he tossed one Chakram that cut through a Krab's leg. He blocked a shot using his other Chakram.

DJ made a barrier around himself and LeShawna and began to spread the barrier out, trying to angle it to deflect the blasts back at the Krabs. Gwen tossed her scythe again, and it sank right into a Krab's XANA symbol, destroying it. Bridgette leaped onto her board and flew into the air, trying to come down at the Krabs from behind. But she hadn't noticed the new lasers until one struck her in the chest and knocked her off her board and to the ice below. As she landed, the Krab tried to fire on her, but she rolled aside and retrieved her swords. Parrying two blasts, she leaped into the air and flicked her wrists. Both swords spun as they were sent down at the Krab, which fired a quick salvo. One sword was knocked out of the air, and Bridgette was struck in the face by a blast.

The hit to what was considered a vital area doubled the damage and devirtualized her.

Her sword however sank into the Krab before she devirtualized, leaving only the damaged Krab.

"Oh you're dead now pal!" Geoff leaped into the air and tossed his Chakram, ending the Krab's futile resistance.

Xxx

Bridgette collapsed out of her scanner. Groaning, she slowly got up. "So that's how it feels."

"I never enjoyed being devirtualized that way myself." She looked up and saw Aelita getting into another scanner. "Head up to the Control Room and give us some support, we'll handle things on Lyoko."

Nodding, Bridgette climbed to her feet as the scanner closed and Aelita was automatically transferred to Lyoko.

Xxx

"Welcome to the party, girl." LeShawna said as Aelita landed.

"Is Bridge ok?" Geoff asked.

_"I'm fine Geoff."_ Bridgette said from the Control Room. _"Oh and Aelita, this note you left, is it-"_

"For the vehicles? Yes, and I made two new ones to accommodate those of us who can't fly." Aelita said.

"Alright, I'll start transferring them." Bridgette said.

After a full minute, five vehicles appeared. One was the two wheeled over bike, another was the over wing, the third was the over board, and the last two were different. One looked like the over wing, but had a seat instead of forcing the user to stand and was more stream lined. The final one looked like an improved version of Ulrich's over bike, having no wheel and room for more than one, essentially a darker version of the fourth vehicle.

"Nice." Geoff mounted the one wheeled OverBike.

Gwen got onto the overboard. "What are the new ones called?"

"I named the new ones the Over Sled and the Over Jet." Aelita replied as she got onto the over wing.

DJ climbed onto the Over Sled, and LeShawna got onto the Over Jet, which seemed the most capable of holding her hammer.

_"Alright, you still know where the tower is Aelita?"_ Bridgette asked.

"Yes, just a few miles to the west of here. We'll be flying over open water for a bit so we need to be careful." Aelita said. "If you fall...do yourself a favour and devirtualize yourself."

"Right, no falling into the sea." Geoff nodded.

The group flew over the digital sea, with the fighters forming a protective circle around Aelita.

"Uh...guys? I don't want to alarm you but it looks like a ton of hornets are on your tail...ten of them!" Bridgette said.

"Aw man I hate getting stung!" DJ whined.

"They don't sting, they shoot lasers or they spit poison." Aelita commented.

"That's comforting." Geoff said before he looked over his shoulder.

Ten Hornets were in pursuit of the group, firing off several shots. Gwen turned on the Over Board and gripped her scythe. Tossing it, she took out one Hornet. She reached up and grabbed her scythe as it returned to her. "Go on ahead! I've got this!"

Continuing on without her, the group was soon out of sight as Gwen charged the Hornets, dodging blasts. She cut one Hornet in half as she passed through the horde, and spun the board in mid flight. She made a barrier using her scythe again and deflected a salvo of lasers. As soon as she had the chance she tossed her scythe again, but it missed and went right through the horde, returning to her.

She began a mid air dog fight, dodging the Hornets and tossing her scythe at them in an attempt to take them down.

Xxx

"Land ho!" Geoff called as they began to pass over land again.

"More like 'uh oh'." DJ pointed to a cliff they were passing by where a pair of Tarantulas appeared.

"Those large spider things again!" Geoff shouted. "Man they look freaky!"

"I got this one!" LeShawna gripped her hammer and dove in. "HAIIIIIIIIIII-" She swung and crushed a Tarantula's head against the ice, destroying it. "YAH!"

She angled the Over Jet around and dove at the second Tarantula, but the monster took her ride out with a pair of shots that hit the vehicle. Landing on her feet, LeShawna used her hammer to block three individual blasts and charged with a battle cry. The Tarantula actually backed up in an attempt to escape before she slammed her hammer into the side of its head, destroying it entirely. "Hell yeah! Not so tough now big guy!"

_"Uh...guys, I'm looking through the cameras in the factory, and you'll never believe who I see in the lobby."_ Bridgette said. _"Everybody! Duncan, Courtney, Heather, everybody! Even Carlos and Robby!"_

"Oh no," Aelita whispered. "Bridgette don't let them in! There's a chance XANA has possessed them!"

_"I locked the elevator down...Now they're just standing outside the elevator right now."_ Bridgette said. _"Wait, Duncan's doing something..."_

Xxx

In the real world, Duncan crouched and raised one fist, gathering energy into it. He slammed it into the ground, which cracked. Every cast and crew member began to do this, essentially beginning to 'dig' their way towards the Control Room one hit at a time.

"Uh...I think they're trying to pummel their way through the floor." Bridgette said.

"They either want into the Control Room or they want to compromise the support to the room." Aelita guessed. "We need to hurry."

Xxx

"I'll meet you at the tower on foot." LeShawna said. "Keep on going."

"We got this!" Geoff grinned.

_"Uh...four Spiderlings up ahead, thirty points per hit."_ Bridgette said.

"XANA's taking this seriously; he didn't send many monsters last time because he didn't believe that you would make it." Aelita said.

"This makes...sixteen so far." DJ counted. "How many did it usually take to beat you all?"

"It depended, sometimes just one mega tank and sometimes a horde of Hornets. One time he summoned over twenty Krabs at once." Aelita said. "He didn't send so many the last time because he never thought you'd pose much of a threat. You did better than the others did their first time."

"This time I'm not getting surprised." Geoff vowed. "No way, I'm totally on guard- whoa!" Shots fired past them, and he managed to avoid them. "You're going down!" He got out both Chakrams and tossed them both. Each one struck a Spiderling and returned to Geoff while DJ made a barrier around Aelita.

Geoff ended up getting clipped by a blast on his shoulder, but managed to take out the third Spiderling. Aelita exited DJ's barrier and shot the fourth with an Energy Sphere.

Xxx

Gwen had reduced the hornets to four before one struck her board. She fell with a cry towards the digital sea, her scythe ending up out of her grasp and falling just a little too far for her to reach. There was no land below her and without her weapon she could not devirtualize herself. She squeezed her eyes shut.

'Oh god, I'm going to get shredded into digital pieces and scattered all over the web! Oh god, oh god, what's it going to feel like? Will I just fall asleep or am I going to feel every second of it?' She thought. 'Oh man, oh man!' As she fell her whole life passed before her eyes. Happy times with her parents, the birth of her little brother, the day her dad left them, the day she arrived on Total Drama Island, all of those moments she treasured with her friends. She began to ponder any regrets she had. 'Regrets, do I have any regrets...Breaking up with Trent on national TV and having his team vote him off...being so mean to Cody in the first Season...kissing Duncan while he was still with Courtney...Trent, Cody, Courtney I am so sorry oh god this is it, good bye!'

_"Uh...hey Gwen, you were moving down and just stopped, is everything alright? You're kind of close to the digital sea."_ Bridgette said.

Gwen slowly opened her eyes, showing she was floating! She was barely a few inches above the digital sea. The Hornets circled above her, and her cape was flapping in what seemed to be the wind. She looked around and saw nothing holding her...

_"Gwen, I'm seeing your life points dropping. Just the one...there goes another."_ Bridgette said. _"Wait...three, four, five-there! You're losing a life point every five seconds, what's happening?"_

"I don't know!" Gwen flailed. "Man if I was a little higher I'd feel better about this!" She slowly began rising. "Huh?" She stopped in mid air. "I thought that my scythe's barrier was my special ability, we only get one, right?"

_"I don't know...I am looking at some info on Aelita's old friends right now. Ulrich Stern could move extremely fast and clone himself...Odd could make an energy barrier and fire laser arrows...Yumi was telekinetic and used fans similar to how you use your scythe."_ Bridgette said. _"Nothing similar to what you're doing though."_

"I...I'm flying!" Testing her theory, Gwen rose up and did a flip in mid air.

_"But you're still losing life points, I think it costs you one per five seconds...and you have 94 left now."_ Bridgette said. _"You should get going."_

"Ok...but where'd my scythe go?" The weapon seemed to appear in her hand, forming from lines of code. "Oh...sweet!" She glared up at the hornets. "First, you all die." She shot up, and cut one Hornet down before they could react.

Manoeuvring too quickly for them to lock on, Gwen cut through a second Hornet and then as she flew up she tossed her scythe, which cut through the third. When it began to take too long to return to her and the final Hornet locked onto her, Gwen yelled and dove down, slamming her feet into the hornet's eye. Losing control, it spun out of control and fell into the digital sea. A pillar of white light shot up from where it went under, signalling its destruction.

Acquiring her scythe, Gwen smirked. "Don't mess with me like that again, because I don't need a fancy hover board to fly now!"

"You might want to go Super Girl; you have 87 life points left." Bridgette said.

"I'm on it!" Gwen took off.

Xxx

LeShawna smashed her hammer down on a Krab's eyes, destroying it. "Boo yah!" She leaped down and swung her hammer sideways, sending a Pyramid flying. "Home run baby!"

She had run into a group consisting of four Pyramids, two Krabs, and eight Spiderlings. She had to shake the area several times to distract them all as she took out the Krabs and Pyramids first. Now only one Pyramid and five Spiderlings remained before her.

"Ok, bat 'er up!" LeShawna taunted. "And Spider freak is going, going-" She swung and sent a Spiderling flying off into the distance. "GONE!" She leaped into the air as the Pyramid tried to hit her several times. She smashed it under her hammer and advanced on the four Spiderlings, blocking their shots effortlessly until they were backed up against a cliff. Smirking, LeShawna reared back and swung her hammer down on the ground. The cliff shook...and the entire shelf fell off, taking the Spiderlings with it. Four pillars of light shot into the air as the monsters fell into the digital sea.

"Oh yeah, who kicks ass? LeShawna baby!" LeShawna laughed.

_"Alright LeShawna, the tower is through that next canyon, it's barely a mile away."_ Bridgette said.

"I'm all over it!"

_"Can you guys hurry? It's getting rough here!"_

Xxx

In the real world, pieces of the ceiling began to fall around Bridgette, and the digital map flickered. She put her arms over her head.

_"We see the tower now, we're going in!"_ DJ said.

_"Wait, DJ look out!"_ Aelita cried...right before DJ's life points fell to fifty.

Xxx

In Lyoko, DJ was knocked off the Over Sled by a powerful laser blast that destroyed the sled. Catching himself on the edge of the platform, he pulled himself up and came face to face with what looked like a mutated version of a Creeper. It stood on two legs ending with hooves, and the legs ended above the creature's body, making them look like a cross between arms and legs. Its ribs were showing through the same featureless white skin most of XANA's monsters shared. It had a long tail that ended with a massive blade, and its neck stretched out and ended with a small angular head with the eye of XANA on it.

"Oh man that is ugly." Geoff said as he flew overhead.

"Be careful, it's very powerful." Aelita cautioned.

DJ dodged several shots from it.

_"Be careful, it has a 50 life point per hit ratio. The computer is calling it a Scorpion."_ Bridgette said.

"Ok, anybody have a plan?" Geoff asked, dodging some shots from the Scorpion.

"DJ, distract it while Geoff and I attack!" Aelita shouted, leaping from the Over Wing and spreading her wings. "Energy Field!" She fired a shot at the Scorpion as DJ charged it, making barriers around himself.

The Scorpion fired and entirely pierced the barrier, and the energy field missed the XANA Eye. DJ dodged the laser and then rolled back as it tried to crush him under one arm.

"It got right through my shield!" DJ shouted, dodging the blade like tail.

"Get out of there DJ!" Geoff shouted.

"No way, I ain't running!" DJ growled...and something happened as the Scorpion tried to crush him under its foot.

When the two fighters got a good look, they saw DJ under the foot, just barely keeping it up...and he was made of rock! DJ slowly lifted it up and forced the Scorpion off balance. He looked at his hands. "Whoa..." He bashed his fists together. "Bring it on!"

He leaped at the Scorpion and grabbed its tail as it swung at him. He pulled it right off balance.

"DJ, you're like a golem dude!" Geoff cheered.

"Boo yah, I'm invincib-" DJ was cut off when the Scorpion flicked its tail and sent him flying over the edge.

"DJ!" Geoff dove after his friend, who literally fell like a rock.

"AHHHHHH!" DJ screamed.

Seeing no alternative, Geoff tossed a Chakram. "Sorry man!"

By now DJ had reverted to his normal form, and the Chakram cut through him, devirtualizing him mere moments before he would have hit the Digital Sea.

"Man that was close." Geoff flew back up to the tower's plateau. "This might be harder than I thought." Geoff tossed a Chakram that cut into one leg, but the Scorpion didn't even flinch. It fired and hit his over bike, destroying it. Geoff hit the ground, and barely avoided being crushed by rolling on his side. Getting into a crouch, he did a back roll to avoid a laser. "Gotta hit that eye!" He threw another chakram, and Aelita fired energy spheres from above, but nothing worked.

The creature struck him once.

_"Geoff! You're down to twenty life points!"_ Bridgette cried.

Getting up slowly, Geoff brought his chakrams into their axe form. "Ok...now you've gone and ticked me off." He charged with a battle cry...which was drowned out by LeShawna's as she leaped from a cliff overhead.

"YEEEEEEE HAWWWWW!" The girl shouted as she swung her hammer down on the Scorpion, the power of the strike making it slip and collapse. LeShawna shouted as she leaped away. "You just got dropped, buddy!"

"Good timing!" Geoff shouted.

"SAVE SOME FOR ME!" Gwen flew in and swung her scythe, cutting into the Scorpion as it got up.

"She can fly too? Man I am jealous!" Geoff said.

"Be jealous later kill the big bug thing now!" Gwen shouted.

The four began to attack from all angles, avoiding lasers and the tail. Geoff got in close and began to swing his axe, but the Scorpion raised the leg he aimed for. The foot looked like a hand now that Geoff examined it right before it scooped him up and began to crush the life out of him!

_"Life points down to 18! 16!"_ Bridgette shouted. _"Guys, hurry up, they're almost through!"_

Xxx

A hand stuck down through the metal, and a grinning Owen stuck his head through, spitting out some circuitry.

"Hello Bridge!" He laughed.

Suddenly a piece of metal struck Owen in the head, revealing DJ standing at the elevator.

"You leave my friends alone!" He shouted, holding a hammer he had taken from a tool box at the studio. "I'm right here big guy!"

Xxx

_"Guys, hurry up! They're inside!"_ Bridgette shouted.

Geoff groaned, managing to get his arms free and hold his axe up. "I don't have time for this, my girl's in danger! GET OFF ME!" His axe's blades glowed bright with energy as he swung it, unleashing a powerful energy wave that bisected the Scorpion from the range it hit at.

Exploding, the Scorpion's grip vanished and Geoff fell to where he landed on his back, reduced to 6 life points.

LeShawna and Aelita were in the best shape, not having taken any damage at all. Gwen had used up all but 40 of her life points flying to the plateau.

"Get in there, hurry!" Geoff pointed to the tower.

Aelita rushed into the tower.

Xxx

Bridgette and DJ were beating off Owen, Heather, and Beth as more campers began to climb into the lab. Chris chuckled as he leaped down into the lab. "Well, looks like they reached the tower. Better finish up here."

"Bridge! The computer!" DJ hit Heather on the head, knocking her down.

Bridgette ran to the computer and followed the instructions for a Return to the Past.

Xxx

Aelita approached the interface and put her hand on it.

**AELITA.**

Xxx

"It's over." Chris said before he paused in mid step.

"Sweet dreams Chris!" Bridgette said, managing to bring one foot up and kick the XANA possessed Chris right in the nuts. "I wanted to do that for years!"

Xxx

**Code: LYOKO**

The tower shut down.

Xxx

The Campers all stopped, and collapsed.

DJ lowered his hammer, sighing in relief.

"Return to the past now!" Bridgette shouted.

Xxx

The group ended up in the lab before they had gone to train.

"Wow...that was intense." Gwen said.

"Now you all understand why I wanted you to train before the next attack." Aelita sighed. "Now that you're a threat, XANA won't stop until you're gone."

"Are the others ok?" DJ asked.

"They should be fine, they wouldn't know what was happening when possessed, and with the Return to the Past they'd be clueless."

"Well, at least we know what our powers are. DJ, you turn into a golem man!" Geoff said. "Gwen, you fly!"

"That's still odd; I thought my power was to use my scythe to make a barrier." Gwen said.

"Maybe there's more to it." Aelita said.

"What do you mean?" Gwen asked.

"Ulrich was able to use two abilities known as Super Sprint and Triplicate. Super Sprint allowed him to run at breakneck speeds and Triplicate allowed him to make two clones of himself. He could also use an ability called Triangulate that combined his two abilities into one attack. It allowed him to create three clones in a triangle formation and the real Ulrich would run between them, confusing the enemy." Aelita said. "When you activate your powers, you have one primary ability and one or two abilities that are secondary."

"Ok, Gwen flies, Geoff shoots that huge lightning wave from his axe, DJ is a golem...and LeShawna and I might still have powers." Bridgette said.

"Most likely, either that or I'm stuck making small earth quakes with that huge ass hammer of mine." LeShawna said. "Man, you gotta admit we kicked some ass today."

"Yeah, we did." Aelita allowed herself to smile. "I'll call you all when the next tower activates, you should get back to the studio and get some rest."

"See you for lunch tomorrow? We won't be shooting until Friday." DJ said.

"Why not?" Aelita shrugged.

The group went their separate ways.


	7. Episode 6: Acceptance

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 6

Gwen tossed and turned in her sleep. She dreamt she was once again falling into the Digital Sea, her life flashing in front of her eyes as she fell, wishing that she could apologize for the things she did that she regretted. She woke up in cold sweat. Looking at the digital clock, she scowled.

6:30 a.m.

"Great, one of the only days I get to sleep in and I can't." She muttered as she tossed her covers onto the floor.

She stretched herself, silently thanking Aelita for showing her where the camera was in her room so she could cover it up. Doesn't Chris knowing the meaning of the word privacy? She sighed as she thought back to her dream. When she fell off her board she honestly thought she was going to die.

Sure there were times when she thought Chris was going to get her killed during the show but her fall towards the sea was perhaps the closest time she had ever come to actually dying. Remembering her mom, her brother, her friends, her times with everyone on the show, wishing to apologize for the things she had done wrong. She remembered how Aelita warned them how dangerous it would be. Well, after what nearly happened with Geoff and the others, fighting that materialized Tarantula, and almost falling into the void she now understood just how dangerous it was.

Gwen had met some pretty mean people in her life. There was Heather, the stuck up Queen Bee whose snobbery, manipulative plans, and strategies had led to everyone disliking her especially those who trusted her. Courtney was extremely selfish, ruthless, and aggressive which combined with her bossiness made her almost everyone's enemy. Alejandro manipulated most of the female contestants along with her friends LeShawna and Bridgette to get his way.

Chris openly takes pleasure in seeing the cast suffer through his challenges and was heavily self-absorbed. Of course none of these guys even came close to her newest enemy.

XANA.

One difference was that the others were human while he was not. Another was that the others hadn't really attempted to kill anyone. Well, Courtney did try to kill her but that was because Duncan kissed her. Another difference was that they didn't want to destroy mankind.

The mad AI out to dominate the world nearly killed Geoff, Trent, Beth, Eva, Katie, Sadie, and Justin and perhaps hundreds of others on the first day when he sent out his message, then there was that monster that had chased Aelita through the park, and just yesterday when he possessed the entire cast and tried to kill them and destroy the supercomputer. The others were nothing compared to him. Even Chris had more regard for human life. Now she was on his hit list.

But she remembered her fights on Lyoko, remembered the adrenaline rush that came with fighting those monsters, danger came with excitement she had never before experienced. She walked into her bathroom to freshen up. Throwing on her day clothes she walked out of her room to get something to eat.

"Couldn't sleep?" asked a voice.

She spun around and saw DJ sitting at a table with a bowel of cereal and a glass of milk.

"I blame Chris. Ever since I signed onto this stupid show I am so used to waking up early." Said Gwen as she walked to the counter.

"Yeah, somehow I don't think that's what's going on." Said DJ.

Gwen sighed as she sat at the table.

"I had dreams about that fall. Remember our trip?"

"How could I not? That was intense."

Suspecting Chris had left the cameras on the group had practiced on how to talk about Lyoko without revealing anything. DJ knew Gwen well enough to know that was thinking about the attack yesterday.

"You had Geoff to save you. If I wasn't so lucky I would be dead. When I was falling my entire life flashed before my eyes. My mom, my brother, all of my friends, the things I wouldn't have been able to do, the things I regret, all of them just popped into my mind."

"Man that must have been tough. Even after all that's happened to us on this show I don't think anyone was that close to dying." DJ took a sip of his milk.

"I know. What happened if I was not so lucky? Would I have felt anything? Would I have just fallen asleep? All these questions just popped up in my head."

"I had those too. I thought of what they would tell my momma. I couldn't bear imagining the broken look on her face if they told her I was gone."

Gwen sighed.

"Did we have any idea what we were getting into when we said yes?"

"Hey, people could have been hurt. We had to. No one else would have done it in time."

"I guess you're right. But what happens if one of us is voted off in the next challenge? How can we do anything when we're sent back to Canada?"

DJ shrugged.

"We'll just have to try hard to make it through."

Xxx

LeShawna was in the room Chris had designated to be an exercise room, lifting weights with Geoff spotting for her.

"That time thingy was useful; if we didn't use it my arm would have fallen off where that weird spider thing got me." LeShawna said.

"Yeah, man that thing was big." Geoff said.

Bridgette was running on the treadmill next to them. "So...any calls from Aelita?"

"Nope, guess things calmed down for her." Geoff shrugged.

"No offense but I'm actually dreading when she calls, whenever she does, weird crap happens." LeShawna said, setting the weight down.

"I don't blame you, but we agreed to help her if anything goes wrong." Geoff said.

"Yeah, and with her friends...occupied, what do you think could happen if she...loses?" Bridgette asked.

"I don't even want to think about that." They looked up as DJ came in.

"Is Gwen taking this any better than us?" Bridgette asked.

"Well, she honestly thought she wasn't going to make it after that fall, and after what Aelita said would happen I don't blame her." DJ shuddered. "I don't see why they call it a sea. That was anything but a nice, comfy, calm sea."

Geoff looked around for a second. "Ok, that's it, I vote we get the hell out of here, Chris definitely put something in here, I just know it."

Xxx

In the control room, Chris snapped his fingers and gave Carlos 50 Euros. "Damn it."

"Told you they'd figure it out." The Brit grinned.

"Shut up." Chris crossed his arms and pouted.

Xxx

LeShawna was sitting in the lounge, slowly drinking from a bottle of pop. She took a deep breath and set her glass down. 'Ok girl, just get through the day.'

"Hey LeShawna." Darth Alejandro wheeled over. "Uh...have you seen where my wallet went?" He wasn't able to look down and see his wallet was taped to the front of the Total Drama Bot.

"Uh...here." She untapped it.

"Thanks!" He managed to take it in one claw. "Just got done talking with some doctor Carlos recommended me to, I should be able to get out of this bot in three months and look...reasonably presentable."

"You'd still be a squid." She rolled her eyes.

"I said I was sorry!" Alejandro cried.

LeShawna scoffed. "We'll see how sorry you are when you're out of that bot."

"LeShawna, I'm a very strong believer in Karma after watching the Total Drama seasons a few times. I noticed a pattern." Alejandro said. "If I'm bad after I get out, I'll end up worse a month later."

"Yeah...you're going for revenge on that daddy's girl aren't you?" LeShawna asked.

"...Maybe." He looked down. "Hey, if she got you scorched with lava you'd be mad too. I mean, can you imagine what my family thought of me when I came back as a robot? Jose rubbed it in my face! The only upside is that he broke a knuckle trying to hit me in the arm."

"Yeah, good for you, Al." LeShawna smirked.

Shaking his head, Alejandro wheeled away.

LeShawna leaned back. 'Maybe this won't be so hard after all.'

Xxx

Gwen was sitting by the window sketching the city outside. It was beautiful with the sun rising into the sky this early in the morning.

"Hey, Gwen."

She turned and saw Trent walking into the living area.

"Trent, what are you doing up so early?"

Trent shrugged.

"Couldn't sleep in. What about you?"

"Same thing."

Of course the reason why Gwen couldn't sleep was most likely very different from Trent's. They were both silent until Trent spoke up.

"So . . . How are things with Duncan?"

Of all the questions he could have asked he had to pick the most awkward one.

"Good. They are good." Gwen answered.

"Oh, good." Trent chuckled nervously.

"And you're okay with it?" asked Gwen.

"Yeah, I'm fine with it." Trent said with smile.

However Gwen was a bit suspicious when he smiled like that. After his behaviour in Total Drama Action how could he be nonchalant about it?

"Why do I find that hard to believe?" asked Gwen looking out the window.

"What do you mean?" Trent asked her with a puzzled look.

"How can you say you are okay with us when you acted all crazy and jealous of us when I was your girlfriend?" Gwen said in a quite but hard tone.

She turned and looked at him again. He saw a small tear fall from her left eye.

"How can you say that when you wouldn't trust me every time I hung out with Duncan? Every time you saw us talking you acted like I was cheating right in front of you. Why?" Gwen's tone turned from hard to sad as she looked down.

Trent had a guilty look on his face as he watched Gwen look down with a sad look on her face. He thought Gwen might have gotten over it but she was still feeling guilty for what he had done. He blamed Duncan and being on different teams but the truth was none of them were to blame but himself. He let himself be driven by jealousy and paranoia.

He reached to Gwen and put a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm so sorry, Gwen. I messed up and worst of all you ended paying for it. I saw you and Duncan hanging out together, laughing over some joke and I acted crazy. My dad was right, I over react like he does. And everyone turned against you when I made them sorry for me with my crying and singing."

Gwen looked up.

"So you're not upset with me?"

"I admit that I don't trust Duncan. I mean what if he does the same to you that he did to Courtney? But I do trust you." Trent said smiling.

Gwen smiled back and hugged him. She was glad that they could patch things up. She was afraid he would hate her for what happened. For a moment she allowed herself to forget about the show, forget about the three million dollars, forget about Chris, Chef, Heather, Courtney, Sierra, Duncan, her new responsibility to help Aelita protect the world from XANA. Just one moment of peace.

"So we're okay?" asked Trent.

"I think so. Just as long as I say I am sorry for having your team vote you off." Said Gwen.

Trent smiled.

"It's okay."

Gwen got up.

"I need to go talk LeShawna about something. See ya."

"Yeah, see ya." Trent waved her.

She waved back as she walked out of the room. She smiled happily knowing that she managed to sort things out with Trent.

Xxx

At Kadic School, Aelita was having to deal with the one thing she didn't need right now: School Work.

So far she hadn't been bothered too much since the disappearance of her friends, but she could hear whispers from time to time. And Hiroki had called last night wondering if Aelita had seen Yumi. The boy had sounded upset; that was understandable considering his sister had vanished off of the face of the planet without a single word. Despite how he and Yumi did not get along too much she was still his sister.

One surprise that came to Aelita was an event she thought she would never see: Elizabeth 'Sissy' Delmas asking about Ulrich and the others not in a demanding tone, but out of sincere concern and curiosity. She had asked Aelita about it in the cafeteria earlier, but hadn't pushed the topic after Aelita said she had no idea where they were.

She knew it might be a matter of time before the questions came more and more often, she needed to get the others back and quickly.

Just as she finished her history homework-which was focusing on Babylon for the first few weeks the laptop began to beep again. Kiwi began to yip as he raced around in a circle.

'Another tower!' Aelita quieted Kiwi with some treats and grabbed her cell phone.

Xxx

It had gone off without a hitch. All XANA had needed was to wait for the satellites to be in perfect position so he could manifest a single monster several miles out away from the coast of France using the same program as before, but required much more energy for this monster: A Terror Bird. It appeared over a fishing boat, startling the small crew.

"Uh..." A man pointed up. "B-b-big b-b-b-b-bird!"

They watched in shock as the Carrier began its flight towards France.

Its target: the Factory and the Super Computer.

Xxx

Geoff answered his cell phone. "Hello?"

"Geoff! Get the others; XANA has activated a tower in the forest region!" Aelita shouted.

"Uh oh." He looked to the others. "Guys, we got a problem involving you-know-who and you know where! Let's go!"

The five young adults left the studio and went to the man hole in the park where they took the sewer tunnel to the factory. They climbed up onto the grass near the factory and came in on the second floor. Geoff let out a shout and grabbed a cable, swinging down to the floor. "WOO HOO!"

"Uh...I'll just take the stairs." DJ and Gwen took the stairs.

"Three seasons of Total Drama and this is nothing!" Bridgette shouted before she landed next to Geoff.

"Yee haw!" LeShawna landed next to them and they all went into the elevator.

As they came into the control room, LeShawna asked the pink haired girl sitting at the computer. "Alright Aelita, what's going on now?"

"Take a look at this news report." Aelita typed in a command and had the image appear in place of the digital map.

"We interrupt your program to bring this live feed of what appears to be a gigantic winged creature flying over the countryside south of France. The creature is almost as big as a passenger air craft and is moving at high speeds." The News anchor said. "We go now to Robert Carter, flying near the creature."

"Thanks Tom! The creature is so far ignoring us as we follow it!" Robert said as his cameraman gave a view of the Carrier ahead of them. "Wait, it is making a turn north now!"

The Terror Bird pulled a turn that would have torn an air plane in half of made it lose control.

"Tom, the creature has changed course for Paris!" Robert shouted.

"Thank you Robert, let's head to our friends over in Paris for more information." Tom said. "Jean?"

"Thank you Tom! This is Jean Abel in Paris, live! The government has declared a state of emergency, though they have advised that citizens do not panic. The creature, though large in size and unknown does not appear hostile and this may be a random movement." Jean said.

"Hey, haven't we seen that bird before?" DJ asked, pointing at the image.

"Wait, now I remember, it's the Terror Bird!" Bridgette shouted.

"Yes, I believe it is heading here to destroy the Super Computer." Aelita said.

"How did XANA make one of those?" LeShawna whistled. "Damn that is big!"

"I scanned the area where the bird appeared. There was a large electromagnetic field where it appeared coming from several satellites aligned in orbit. I think he used them to call the Terror Bird, giving the Translation Program to summon the creature. The Satellites had more than enough energy to make this; it was needed due to the sheer size of it."

"Alright, let's head into Lyoko and kick some ass again!"Geoff said.

"Careful, if that creature makes it into Paris and destroys the lab while we're in Lyoko, we're goners, plain and simple. And if we die in there, we stay dead even if we could somehow return to the past." Aelita returned the digital map to its position. "This time the tower is in the forest region. LeShawna, Gwen, DJ, you go first."

"You got it!" The three took the elevator down to the scanners and stepped inside one each.

"Transfer DJ, Scanner DJ, Virtualization!"

"Transfer Gwen, Scanner Gwen, Virtualization!"

"Transfer LeShawna, Scanner LeShawna, Virtualization!"

Xxx

The trio landed on their feet in the forest region.

"Nice, this looks a lot nicer." DJ looked around.

The Forest Region had been changed since the days where Aelita and her friends went into it. It had much more ground now, and had shorter trees and objects to step on. It looked much more like a real forest, even having some rivers and more lakes in it that were not of the Digital Sea, but there were still plenty of places to fall into the Digital Sea from.

"Calm, quiet, peaceful...too good to be true." Gwen took out her scythe.

"I'm coming in next with Geoff." Aelita said. "Bridgette is going to stay out here to bring our vehicles out. We can't fly as much in this region so watch out."

"We got it." DJ nodded.

A minute later Geoff and Aelita landed next to them.

"Ok guys, I'm bringing in your vehicles." Bridgette said.

The Over bike 2, the Over Sled, the Over Jet, the Over Board, and the Over Wing appeared.

Hopping on the Over Bike, Geoff laughed. "I never get tired of this!"

LeShawna hopped on the Over Sled and twirled her hammer in one hand.

Taking the Over Jet, DJ tested the controls for a second. "I'm good to go!"

"As much as I like the board, is it impossible to add my own colour scheme to it?" Gwen asked as she stepped onto the Overboard.

"Sorry, when Jeremy and I designed it we had Odd's preferences in mind." Aelita said, taking the Over Wing.

"No offense to him, but he likes purple cats way too much." Gwen chuckled.

"We said the same thing many times, but he insisted he didn't dream of being a purple cat." Aelita shrugged before they took off.

"Bridgette, I set up a system to track the carrier based on distance and speed, it should tell you how long it will take to reach the factory for effective destruction." Aelita said.

"Ok...seventeen minutes!" Bridgette shouted. "The tower's north of you, hurry!"

"I wonder how the others will take seeing a giant bird overhead." DJ said.

Xxx

"Oh. My. God." Courtney dropped her drink as she and Heather and Sierra and Cody looked up at the sky above them.

The bird was already in sight, a small but recognizable shape and getting closer with every second.

"Let's get inside!" Sierra cried, wheeling herself in with help from Cody.

The entire cast and crew were gathered in the lounge.

"Ok everybody, remain calm!" Chris called. "Seeing as the contract states I am legally responsible for all of you...let's get out of here!" Carlos hit Chris on the back of the head.

"Ok, just remain calm and if you feel the need to do so, head down to the emergency cellar." Carlos said.

"We have an emergency cellar?" Duncan asked.

"I heard Chris was put in charge." Carlos replied.

"Oh."

"Wait; can someone explain why we're missing a few people?" Chef asked.

"We checked but Gwen isn't in her room." Courtney said.

"Geoff, DJ, LeShawna and Bridgette are gone also." Trent said.

"Don't worry they probably went out for a while and they'll be back, until then we sit tight and wait for more news." Carlos said.

Cody scratched the back of his head. He took out his phone and dialled Gwen's number, but got no signal. "No signal?"

He tried DJ's, then Geoff's, then LeShawna's. "Maybe we should look for them; I'm not getting a signal from their-wait." He managed to successfully dial Bridgette's.

She picked up. "Hello?"

"Bridge, where are you guys?" Cody asked.

"Cody, how is everybody doing?" Bridgette asked.

"Forget us, where are you and DJ and Geoff and Gwen and LeShawna?" Cody asked.

"Uh...we went out into town, it's a little hectic out here so we'll be a while getting back." Bridgette said.

"Do you even notice the giant bird flying towards us?" Cody asked.

"Believe me, we know." Bridgette replied. "We're safe, let's leave it at that."

Xxx

"WATCH OUT!" Geoff dodged laser blasts. "TARANTULAS!"

"Those aren't Tarantulas!" Aelita shouted.

Up ahead were two black versions of the Tarantula while the Eye was now colored silver.

"They look exactly like them, minus the new paint job." DJ said.

"There is more to it than that; you can't expect them to be the same just because colour is slightly different." Aelita said.

"Well let's get rid of them before they do anything else." LeShawna shot ahead. "YEE HAW!" She leaped off her vehicle and swung her hammer down...but a barrier flashed to life around the monster and sent her flying back. "What the-?"

"They have shields!" Aelita stated stopping her vehicle.

Red glowing force fields surrounded the Dark Tarantulas which protected them from even LeShawna's hammer. LeShawna was just getting back to her feet when the two monsters aimed their guns and fired. She staggered as she was hit before she could pick her hammer back up and defend herself.

"LeShawna!" Gwen shouted as the two monsters fired until she was devirtualized.

Xxx

The scanner LeShawna opened up releasing her. Slightly exhausted from the side effects of being devirtualized like that she slammed her fist into the floor frustrated at letting her guard down.

Xxx

"Energy Field!" Aelita shouted throwing a pink orb of energy at one of the monsters.

The orb harmlessly dissipated against the monster's shield.

"Let me try!" said Geoff.

He held up his axe and it glowed as he swung it, releasing the same energy wave that defeated the Scorpion in the last battle. However not even it was able to breach the barrier.

"Aw man!" Geoff complained as the monsters fired at him.

He jumped off the Overbike as it was destroyed by the laser fire. DJ held up his hands and created a barrier to block incoming lasers.

"So now what?"

"We have to find a way around them. Bridgette, how much time have we got?" asked Gwen.

"You got about thirteen minutes." Bridgette said looking at the computer.

The elevator opened to reveal LeShawna stumbling out.

"LeShawna, are you okay?"

"I'm fine girl. Those monsters took me by surprise." LeShawna replied walking to the computer.

"I should be in there, helping them. LeShawna can you take over and send me in there?"

"Leave it to me, baby. Take out those spider-freaks."

Xxx

Gwen watched as DJ continued to hold up his barrier to deflect the incoming lasers. She threw scythe, it spun through the air towards the monsters. But like all the other attacks it bounced off their shields, but luckily it flew back into her hands.

"This is no good! We can't break through those shields!" she shouted.

"We have to try!" Geoff called back.

"I have an idea. Just hold them for a few minutes." Aelita said.

She sat down on the ground in a meditative pose as she concentrated to use her power. XANA will remember that he was not the only who controlled Lyoko. They heard a soft melodic voice singing that sounded much like Aelita but she did not open her mouth. The ground beneath the shielded Tarantulas began to crack open and vanish.

With no ground beneath them the Tarantulas fell into the void. Two pillars of light erupted from the sea. And then it was quiet.

"Wow. What was that?" asked Geoff.

"My power. I can change the environment of Lyoko around me, just as you saw I altered the landscape so that the monsters would have nothing to stand on." Aelita replied standing up.

"Awesome." Geoff said smiling.

"It is but it cost me life points." Aelita replied.

"That sucks." Said Gwen.

"Hey, guys, I'm taking over for Bridgette and she's on her way. Oh, and the timer says that the big bird will be here in seven minutes." Said LeShawna.

A second later Bridgette landed in the forest sector.

"Welcome to the party, Bridge." Geoff called waving.

"Thanks, Geoff." Bridgette said as she ran over to the group. "We better hurry, that bird is getting close."

"I hope we don't run into anymore monsters with those shields." Said DJ hopping back onto the Over Jet.

"Don't count on us being that lucky." Gwen said as she stepped back onto the Over Board.

"Don't mind if I hop on, Bridge?" asked Geoff.

"Not at all, come on."

Bridgette held out her surf board and it began to float in the air. Geoff hopped up behind her and they took off towards the tower.

Xxx

People looked on in fear and awe as the massive creation of XANA almost loomed over the city. The Terror Bird ignored all of them choosing to focus on its mission. The factory containing the only method its master's enemies can use to fight him. Back at the studio the Total Drama cast was looking out the window as the carrier was almost above them as it continued to its destination.

Cody had a very worried look on his face. Gwen and the others still had not come back.

"We need to go out and find them. They've been gone too long."

"You want to go out and look for them, fine." Heather said in her wheel chair.

"Dude, do you not see the big bird out there?" asked Duncan.

"And are you not worried about Gwen? I thought you actually cared for her since she is _your_ girlfriend?" Cody asked glaring.

"She can take care of herself."

Cody really wondered what Gwen saw in this jerk. He pulled out his cell phone and dialled Bridgette again. Only this time he got a no service.

"I lost Bridgette now! All their numbers saying no service!"

"Cody, I'm worried about them too but do you think it's a good idea to go out there with that bird just over us?" asked Trent.

"What if they are hurt?" asked Cody.

"There's nothing we can do. Everyone is being urged to stay indoors until they can find a way to deal with that creature. If your friends are smart they are probably somewhere safe." Carlos said.

Xxx

"I knew it would be too good to be true!" shouted Gwen as they dodged more lasers.

They had made it to the tower but it was guarded by six shielded Dark Tarantulas. Their shields were up and they were firing at the group. DJ held his barrier up to stop the incoming shots but it was a standoff. For now.

"I can't hold this up much longer." DJ said as he tried to keep the barrier up.

"Aelita, can't you use your creativity again?" asked Bridgette.

"They are too far spread out. I could only take them out one at a time and the longer I did the more life points I would lose." Said Aelita.

"We have to find a way!" Bridgette said.

She and Gwen were deflecting lasers shots back into the shields. Suddenly one of the Dark Tarantula's barriers vanished.

"What the . . ." asked Geoff.

"Energy field!" Aelita shouted.

Taking advantage of the shield's drop Aelita fired an Energy Field that hit the Tarantula in the face, destroying it.

"Why did that monster's shields go down?" asked Gwen.

"It's possible it dropped from the number of lasers that were deflected back into the shield. That means that they can hold for only a bit under a prolonged assault like DJ's barrier." Said Aelita taking cover behind a tree.

"So we need to reflect their lasers back into their shields." Gwen said.

"It seems to be only way." Said Aelita.

"All, right, DJ cover Aelita as soon as we get a path cleared. Bridgette, Geoff, with me, we're going to create a diversion." Said Gwen.

"Got it!"

They ran out catching the monsters' attention. Gwen twirled her scythe in her hand and the weapon glowed creating a barrier. The monsters aimed and fired at her. The barrier deflected incoming shots back into their shields. After a few seconds of endless lasers being deflected back their shields began to drop.

"Now!" Gwen shouted.

Bridgette flew in on her surfboard with Geoff jumping throwing his chakrams. They hit two Tarantulas, slicing into their XANA eyes, destroying them instantly. The chakrams flew back into Geoff's hand and they combined into his axe. He blocked incoming laser shots as Bridgette flew in, her surf board split into her two swords. Letting out a battle cry she fell from above with her swords raised above her head not knowing that the wave shaped tattoos on her were glowing.

Suddenly her sword glowed light blue as they swung down releasing an energy wave resembling waves seen in the ocean that sliced through another non shielded Tarantula. The glowing faded but the tattoos that went up from Bridgette's arms to her neck had change. There no longer any tattoos on her neck.

"Awesome!" shouted Geoff as Bridgette landed on her feet.

"Thanks. Geoff look out!" Bridgette shouted.

Geoff turned only to be hit in the chest by a couple of lasers from one of the remaining monsters. These hits dropped his life points to zero. His avatar disappeared into data as he fell back.

"Big mistake!" shouted Bridgette.

Her tattoos glowed again and she released another energy wave that took out the attacking monster while the same time her wave shaped tattoos shortened in length again. Gwen flew in blocking more lasers; the lasers flew back into the monsters, hitting them in the faces forcing them back. She threw her scythe and it sliced through a Tarantula's neck before flying back into the hands of its owner. There was only one monster left and DJ and Aelita took advantage of that.

They ran out of their cover and headed towards the tower as fast as they could.

Xxx

"Awesome, work y'all! That'll show them bugs they can't hide behind no shields!" cheered LeShawna.

Suddenly the lab shook. LeShawna looked at the screen.

"Uh . . . Aelita, hey to pressure you girl but the bird is just about above us."

Xxx

Aelita entered the tower. Stepping into the center of the XANA symbol she prepared to ascend to the upper platform.

Xxx

The Terror Bird was now right above the factory.

Xxx

Aelita gracefully landed on the upper platform.

Xxx

The Terror Bird landed on top of the factory and prepared to tear it apart.

Xxx

The screen appeared and Aelita placed her hand on it.

Xxx

The ceiling in the lobby was torn open and the Terror Bird looked inside.

Xxx

**Aelita**

Xxx

The Terror Bird prepared to fire a shot that would destroy the lad no matter how deep it was under the concrete.

Xxx

**Code: Lyoko**

Xxx

Suddenly the monster was frozen in time before it dissipated into the air. The activated tower's aura changed from red to white. The screen surrounding Aelita fell to the darkness below.

"Tower deactivated."

"Return to the Past now, baby." LeShawna said, smiling while inputting the commands.

The world was consumed by the white sphere of light as time went back to before the attack.

Xxx

Gwen sighed as she sat the table like she did right before the attack. A few more attacks like these and she's probably make it through the entire season to the finals easily. She sighed as she finished the last of her breakfast. She walked out of the kitchen to find someplace to think.

"Hey, Gwen!"

She turned and saw the other new Lyoko warriors walking up to her.

"Hey, guys."

"We were thinking that we should go out and see the city. It's too boring being cooped up in here." Said Bridgette.

"Yeah, after what we have been through we deserve to have some fun." Said DJ.

Gwen though it over and shrugged.

"Why not? Anywhere but here."


	8. Episode 7: XANA's nightmares

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 7

Ever since their first battle in Lyoko with Aelita they had agreed to have lunch and discuss things like the show and Lyoko at a nearby mall that was not a long walk when they were not on the show and when Aelita's classes were over. They were allowed to since Carlos allowed them so as long as they returned to the studio before the day was over. They were right now waiting at their picked restaurant for Aelita.

"So what kind of challenges do you think we'll have on the show?" asked Geoff.

"It's the not the show I'm worried about as much as what could happen during the show." Gwen said sitting on a bench.

"Why? What could happen?" asked Bridgette.

"What happens if Chris puts us back into those virtual pods and we have another Red Eye virus turning us into veggies?" asked Gwen.

They all shivered. None of them wanted that to happen again but the day the next challenge would be broadcasted was getting closer.

"Maybe we should ask Aelita about that." Said Bridgette.

"True that, girl. I am not going to be a veggie for the rest of my life." Said LeShawna.

"Well, the faster Aelita can find and save her friends the faster they can stop XANA from trying to kill us." Said Gwen.

"But how will she do that?" asked DJ.

"I don't know, Dee. There has been a lot of crazy stuff recently but I wouldn't be surprised so easily anymore."

"I hear that." Said Geoff.

"You think anyone will notice us being gone?" asked Bridgette sitting next to Gwen on the bench.

"Nah, they're too busy sleeping in on a free Total Drama day." LeShawna replied.

"Still don't think they might catch on?"asked DJ.

"Yeah, won't Duncan notice his girl is missing?" asked LeShawna.

"Don't worry. Duncan trusts me." Gwen reassured.

"I was surprised when you two got together since it got Courtney gunning for ya." Said LeShawna.

"I honestly didn't plan for it to happen. It's just Courtney barely recognized their relationship. She treated Duncan more like property than a boyfriend. I didn't want to get together with him like that but he just walked in on me."

"I was surprised when he did that too. Honestly whenever Courtney bossed or yelled at him he just sat and smirked at her. Of course that just ticked her off even more." Said Geoff.

"Guess he got tired of it." Said DJ.

"But still just because Duncan and I are now a couple doesn't mean I still don't feel regret for what happened. In fact when I fell into the sea on Lyoko and thought I was going die I thought over the things I have done that I had regretted. Being mean to Cody at Camp Wawnakwa, my break-up with Trent, and kissing Duncan while he was still technically Courteny's boyfriend. I wished I could have had the chance to apologize for all of that." Gwen had a small sad look on her face.

She actually managed to make one of her wishes come true a day ago when she and Trent worked things out. It made her happy to know that she and Trent could be good friends again.

"Well, I can't judge you too harshly girl. After all, I know what it's like to have a guy mess with your head. Just wait till Alejandro gets out of the walking tin can. That squid can act all sorry but a squid never feels bad." LeShawna said.

"You said it. I let him charm me and look what it did." Bridgette agreed while crossing her arms with an angry look on her face.

"He better watch out when he gets out of that bot." Geoff said.

"Better turn that down. Aelita's here." Said DJ.

They looked up and saw the pink haired girl walking up to them with her back-pack.

"Hey there, Aelita. How's it going?" asked Geoff waving at her.

"As well as a normal day could go." Aelita replied as they sat a table.

"So no activated towers?" asked LeShawna.

"XANA might be taking his time to plan out his next attack. Since you're all new he probably didn't think you would be able to survive the last few attacks."

"Guess being on the show with Chris paid off for us." Said Gwen.

"So, any closer to finding your friends?" asked LeShawna.

Aelita shook her head.

"They are not on Lyoko so I must assume if they are still alive that they are being held on a Replica."

"Replica?" asked Bridgette.

"Oh, that's right. Remember how I said XANA had hundreds of supercomputers under his control? To take control of the supercomputers he used the data he stole from me to create small virtual worlds called Replicas which each contained a small copy of one of Lyoko's sectors."

"Why would he need to do that? I mean if he was free from the supercomputer why couldn't he just take over everything?" asked Geoff.

"It's because of the way my father created him. Going through his diary I learned more about his involvement in Project Carthage and why he created Lyoko and XANA. As you know Project Carthage was a secret project developed by the French government that was designed to interfere or block any communications from the Russians during the Cold War. It was more than that.

It was the first attempt to create a developed artificial intelligence that would be used to take control of any and all electronic equipment used by the Russians. Sort of like a prototype of XANA. However my father was afraid what the secret group could do with Carthage after they used it. So working alongside a number of scientists who were involved in the project they attempted to create a program to combat Carthage."

"Lyoko and XANA, right?" asked Gwen.

"Exactly. XANA's programming potential and his planning capabilities were the results of my father's group attempting to create an AI that was independent, able to contradict itself, judge, learn, and adapt."

"Sounds like he was trying to make a computer with a human brain." Said LeShawna.

"In a way yes he was. A computer is capable of performing calculations through sheer mathematics. It doesn't think it only processes the data. My father couldn't just make another AI to destroy Carthage." Aelita said. "It would have been useless as the battle would almost be equal. He had to make an AI more advanced than what the government had. So he drew the plans to create an AI that was able combine a computer's processing potential with humanity's ability to make to decisions on the fly quickly."

"Man, that could not have been easy," Geoff whistled.

"It wasn't, trust me." Aelita replied.

"Carthage...isn't that a city somewhere?" DJ asked.

"Yeah, in the Arab States." Gwen supplied for her friend. "On the Gulf of Tunis."

"It was a major power that fought the Romans," Aelita said. "They fought about three wars before the Romans were victorious. Scipio was the one to bring them down. This was what allowed us to find out the pass word to allow us to enter Sector 5, known as Carthage."

"That makes sense." Geoff said. "Kinda...I'm sloppy on Roman history."

"It's no problem. Anyways, the reason XANA needs replicas is because when he was created there was debate on how to connect him to the super computer. Lyoko along with the towers were meant to be a test bed to control his power and a failsafe as it functioned as the source for his power. If he was hard wired into the super computer there would have been nothing limiting him unless they fried the mother board, provided they got close enough that is. Lyoko kept him separate from direct user operations." Aelita explained. "XANA destroyed the Carthage AI as my father planned using the towers on Lyoko but the government discovered what my father had done. When they came in search of my father and me, we both went into Lyoko to escape capture, and my memory was lost along with my father's form. After that, my friends discovered me and the rest is history."

"So if they had him hard wired into the computer it would be like...judgement day from Terminator?" DJ asked.

"Man that would be freaky." Geoff imagined giant Krabs ripping up cities and dozens of Carriers dropping legions of monsters down. He shuddered. "Ok, bad vibes! Bad vibes!"

"Speaking of...Aelita, did your dad look up Chinese history?" Bridgette asked. "I mean, he would know about Xanadu and all, and that was a city that belonged to the Khans."

"He had an interest in various cultures, especially ancient china, Babylon, Romans, Greek, and a few others." Aelita said. "He once told me he favoured the Chinese because they had essentially created the very first set of recorded laws in human history."

"Yeah, but it sounds like he got the name XANA from Xanadu." Gwen said.

"That would be a reasonable and rather obvious assumption." Aelita shrugged.

Wishing to change the topic, Gwen spoke. "Um...Aelita, there's one more thing; there's something we've been concerned about and have wanted to talk about for a while."

"What is it?"

"Well, you know about Chris' new season and what it involves?" Geoff asked.

"Total Drama Reality, the use of virtual reality pods, prototypes compared to the scanners used for Lyoko." Aelita replied.

"Yeah, it's only a matter of time before Chris puts us in them for his next challenges. What is to stop XANA from doing what he did on day one?" Bridgette asked. "He could turn us into veggies!"

"I can handle that. I could use the super calculator to hack into the system and set up several programs to block XANA's commands. The Super Calculator has always been immune to direct hacking attempts by XANA except for activated towers, so it would be safe. The most he could do would be to animate monsters within the virtual environment and attempt to destroy you there and severe your connections with your bodies. I suspect he could easily deactivate the safe guards that prevent harm or death. I could apply the Life Point meter and your Lyoko forms to these pods."

"Awesome!" DJ said.

"But I would only recommend using them if and when monsters attack you in these pods, not to show off." Aelita said. "I'll work on a program immediately."

Xxx

Meanwhile in Lyoko, a tower began to glow red.

Xxx

Aelita had Jeremy's laptop with when she went out. Good thing she did when the super scan detected an activated tower.

"Activated tower." She said looking up.

Gwen grunted.

"Well, looks like another day in saving the world."

"Let's go." Said Geoff.

Suddenly the super scan stopped beeping before they could stand up. Aelita looked at the screen,

"The tower shut down on its own."

"What?" asked DJ.

"XANA deactivated the tower himself." Said Aelita.

"Why would he do that?" asked LeShawna.

"I don't know. I'll head to the supercomputer to check if XANA infected anything."

"All right, you know where to find us."

Then the super scan detected another activated tower.

Xxx

Heather adjusted herself on her wheel chair as Cody helped wheel into the kitchen. It was no secret that nearly everyone on her team hated her guts so she couldn't expect help moving unless it was from Cody, one of the only guys who could stand her. Katie, Eva, Beth, and Courtney had refused to help her move unless they really had to and Gwen was out somewhere so Cody was left to help her.

"Thanks." She said quietly.

"No problem." Cody said cheerfully as he got her to the table.

For the last few days Heather had been miserable being stuck in her chair. She would fully recover in a few weeks but still not being able to move had made her, well, less of a cold hearted witch to everyone.

"Well, well, the ice queen is quiet today."

Duncan walked in smirking. Heather's scowl lengthened.

"Shut up, juvie boy."

Duncan shrugged and turned to Cody.

"Hey, dweeb, have you seen Gwen? I haven't seen her all day."

It was now Cody's turn to scowl at the boyfriend of his dream girl.

"She wasn't in her room and we couldn't find her here so she must be out."

Suddenly Duncan's cell phone rang. "That must be her right now."

He took out his phone and answered. "Hello?"

The young man suddenly went stiff, his eyes widening as he stared off into space. It was as though he no longer noticed Cody.

Images flashed through his mind. Gwen, a factory, an elevator going down into the earth, Gwen screams and falls, a pink haired girl stands over her corpse. Duncan shook his head, for a moment regaining his vision with reality, but then the images came again. Gwen, bleeding out in a room with cables covering the floors and walls. The pink haired girl glared down at her, the eyes from that message days ago replacing her pupils.

Duncan dropped his cell phone, and realized he hadn't breathed in. Sucking in a breath and trying to process what he just saw, he hesitantly picked up his phone again. Whoever had called had hung up.

"Dude, who was it?" Cody asked.

"It-it was nobody." Duncan replied, pocketing his phone. "I'll find Gwen later." He walked away rather quickly.

"Weird." Cody whispered before he went back to his dorm.

Xxx

"I don't get it…why did he deactivate it." Aelita said as she examined the screen of her lap top.

"What is it?" Gwen asked.

"A tower activated…and then deactivated before I even got a lock on it." The teenager replied. "XANA doesn't just deactivate a tower on his own."

"So….what does this mean?" DJ asked.

"Well, there's no way he could have launched an attack and finished it in less than twenty seconds." Aelita said. "I'll head to the factory and look into this."

Suddenly the lap top beeped again. "Wait, another tower activated."

"Let's go." They all left the mall.

Xxx

Trent was in his dorm, playing on his guitar as usual when his phone rang. He picked it up. "Hello?"

Gwen yelling at him, frustrated, leaving him, going to Duncan. Then she ignores Trent from that point on as he tries to shout a warning, Duncan pulls out a knife. Suddenly Duncan is replaced entirely by a young girl with pink hair. She stabs Gwen once in the gut; Gwen goes limp as the girl stabs her repeatedly. Then as Gwen bleeds out on the ground, the girl looks up at Trent and sneers. "You could have saved her you know."

Trent cried out and tossed is cell phone across the room, smashing it. His guitar fell onto the floor. Ignoring it, he got up and put a hand on his head. "Oh my god."

Xxx

As the group reached the control room, the lap top and the super calculator alerted Aelita to the tower deactivating on its own. "What? It deactivated again!"

"Two in a row? Is he having a malfunction or something?" Bridgette asked.

"Not likely." Aelita shook her head and sat at the control chair. "Anyways, I'm not so sure if I should send you if he activates a tower just so he can deactivate it again."

Another tower activated.

Xxx

Cody just barely reached his room when his cell phone rang. He flipped it open and said brightly. "Hello!"

He stopped in mid step and dropped the keys he had been about to use to unlock his door.

In front of him was a factory with Gwen waving at him. He wanted to wave back but for some reason he couldn't. Then a pink haired girl appeared out of nowhere behind her holding a pipe. Cody wanted to shout but all he could do was watch in horror was the pipe came down on Gwen's head. Blood splattered through her air as she collapsed.

The pink haired girl looked up at him and smirked. Cody dropped his cell phone as he yelled out in anguish. The phone hit the floor as he fell to his knees. He looked up and found himself back in the hall.

Xxx

The tower once again shut down.

"That makes another tower that deactivated on its own." Said Aelita.

"Man, you think XANA's trying to psych us out?" asked Geoff.

"I don't think that's the case. XANA has always carried out his plans with pin-point precision. There is a reason for this but we just don't know it." Aelita said.

Just then the super scan detected another activated tower.

Xxx

The cell phones of each competitor of Total Drama rang and they answered. Only to receive visions of strange things, Gwen, LeShawna, Bridgette, DJ, and Geoff walking in an abandoned factory only to be butchered by a girl with pink hair and the eye that was on the strange message a few days ago. They were frightening and disturbing to the cast.

Xxx

"There has to be a pattern we're not seeing here." Aelita said.

"Girl, we can't do anything if we're just standing here." LeShawna said.

"Believe me, LeShawna I am just as uneasy about this as you but sending you in would only put you all in danger. Plus even if you are next to a tower no doubt it would be deactivated before I had the chance. You all should just head back to the studio and rest."

"I don't think that's a good idea. What if the next activated tower stays activated and we're attacked when we're out of the factory?" asked Gwen.

"We have no idea how long this will go on. We can't do anything like this." Said Aelita.

"Maybe just one of us should stay with you. You know just in case the next tower is an attack." Said DJ.

"I'll stay here. The rest of you head back to the studio." Said LeShawna.

They were reluctant but complied with LeShawna's wishes.

Xxx

Gwen, Bridgette, DJ, and Geoff walked back into the studio. They were at the lobby when they heard a shout. They turned and saw Tyler and Noah with shocked looks on their faces.

"You guys are alive?" Tyler shouted.

That was not something they were expecting to hear when they got back.

"Yeah, we are. Why did you expect us to be dead?" asked Bridgette quickly asking to cover up any surprise they might have had.

"Uh, no. No, nothing like that." Noah said quickly.

"Then why did you guys say that?" asked Geoff.

"No reason! No reason what so ever!" said Tyler quickly. "I got to go!"

He turned and ran off.

"He's just tired is all." Noah shrugged before walking off.

"What was that about?" DJ asked.

"I don't know but I don't like the sound of it." Said Gwen. "Check with everyone else and see if they act weird like those two."

They nodded and walked off to their dorms.

Xxx

Gwen entered her dorm looking around. So far it was quiet. She walked into the kitchen looking for anyone who might be here.

"Gwen!"

She was caught off guard as something threw its arms around her in a hug. She looked down and saw it was Cody.

"You're alive!"

"Of course I'm alive." Gwen said patting Cody on the head. "As long as you let go before Sierra sees this. I really don't want to get killed."

Hearing those Cody quickly jumped away from Gwen. He had a nervous look on his face. Gwen figured why he was so nervous. He was acting like Tyler and Noah.

"What's with the noise?" asked Beth as she entered the room.

She gasped when she saw Gwen.

"Don't tell me, let me guess. I'm alive!" Gwen pretended to gasp.

"Uh . . . ." That was exactly what Beth had been thinking.

"Okay, what's with everyone? Five seconds after me and the others get back you all act like we're supposed to be dead." Gwen said looking at both of them.

They were both uncomfortable looking at her. Gwen sighed.

"Please tell me that you guys are the only ones acting weird."

"Uh . . . ." Cody tried to say that they were the only ones who dreamt that she along Geoff, LeShawna, Bridgette, and DJ were killed by a pink haired girl but they couldn't.

"Cody, if you know something about what's going I would like to know." Gwen pressed.

"Okay, I had this dream, I think, of you getting killed by a girl with pink hair." Said Cody.

"I had the same thing but it also happened with Bridgette, Geoff, LeShawna and DJ." Beth added.

Gwen's eyes widened as she listened.

Xxx

Aelita was looking at the screen when Gwen called.

"Hello Gwen, something happening?" She asked as the computer answered her.

"Yeah, just as soon as we got back to the studio the others have been shouting that we're alive as if they expected us to be dead or something."

"What?" asked LeShawna.

"Yeah. Cody and Beth told me that they had dreams or visions of us dying in the factory and Aelita did it."

"How could they all have visions like that?" asked LeShawna.

"This must be what XANA's doing." Said Aelita.

"I don't get it. What has he got to gain by this?" asked Gwen.

"I don't know but he's probably been influencing them with the use of electrical impulses in their brains. But he would have had to have an electrical outlet to do so." Aelita said.

"Electrical outlets...wait, what does everybody in the group carry?" Gwen asked. "We all brought one thing that let us talk to our families, each other, and the producers in case Chris got out of control."

It took the mall a moment to figure it out and exclaim. "Cell Phones!"

"It is possible he could have briefly taken control of them to influence them or implant thoughts or visions." Aelita said.

"And that's why the towers have been going on and off?" LeShawna asked.

"I would say that is our best bet." Aelita nodded. "But the question is 'why?'"

"Well, he made them see the factory...and you killing us." Gwen replied.

Aelita looked up when she heard that.

"That could explain it. If they get suspicious of you and the others they could follow you into the factory."

"And discover the computer." Said LeShawna.

"And rat us out to Chris and the whole world." Gwen finished.

"Exactly, his plan is to get us busted. They would go to the authorities and they would lock down the factory." Said Aelita.

"And without us XANA will be able to go ahead and turn the city into his own playground." Said LeShawna.

"Now we know what his plan is." Aelita said.

"But how do we stop him? If he keeps on switching towers we won't be able to do anything." Said Gwen.

"Can't we just launch a Return to the Past?" asked LeShawna.

"That won't help us unless we can shut down the tower he activates to control the cell phones. Once deactivated, the event carries back into the past with us and prevents XANA from activating the tower at the time he did the first time, at least stalling for a short period of time. Afterwards XANA doesn't bother with the same plan, he works by logic and it is logical to assume the same plan wouldn't work if it has already failed." Aelita explained. "The most efficient way of defeating him is deactivating his towers until we can work out a permanent solution."

"And so here we are." Gwen noted, crossing her arms. "While we're on that topic, what do we have planned for destroying him?"

"I don't have any specific plan set out at the moment." Aelita replied sheepishly. "Like I said, it's logical to assume a failed plan won't work again, and our last one didn't destroy him."

"But if you can change even one tiny detail it can." Gwen replied. "Like...he's brought monsters into this world before. He brought in Kankrelats like you told us once and that Jim guy from your school was there to destroy a ton of them. This time around without Jim it might have worked. So if you can try the program again but make sure it's the real XANA this time, then it could work."

"What if XANA knew this and took proper measures?" Aelita asked.

"He's supposed to be smarter than us, so he probably has, but then again if he's using a copy to avoid us, then that's using the same plan twice." Gwen reasoned. "So if you make sure it isn't a copy this time then you can destroy him with the program."

"I'll need to develop a program to identify and eliminate replicas of XANA." Aelita noted. "That will be difficult...and I'd need to field test it..."

"Well, force him to use a fake then." LeShawna said. "Use that program, make him use a copy, see if you can find a difference, blow the copy to hell, and then we use it to off the big guy himself."

"I'll need to develop a scan for differentiating between the real XANA and any copies." Aelita nodded. "But it could work, I'll need time though." She sighed. "This is just how it always goes. Jeremy designing a program to de-virtualize me, us finding a way to disconnect me from XANA, it's always the same thing; a process of trial and error."

"That's life for you." Said Gwen.

"All right, but before we do that we would have to locate Jeremy and the others. If we destroy XANA and his Replicas we would destroy them as well." Said Aelita.

"Okay, but now we have a plan." Said Gwen. "That's a start. Now we only have to stay alive long enough for you to make that program."

Xxx

Gwen hung up and sighed. Things were now complicated with this new plot. If one of the others discovered the factory and the computer it would be trouble. What if they went to the authorities? No doubt the French Secret Service would come for Aelita like they did her family.

Would she and the others be arrested too? And what would happen if there was no one to stop XANA? Could any of the others be trusted to keep this a secret? She closed her eyes as she thought it over. The first people that came to her mind that might keep it a secret were Cody, Duncan, Trent, possibly Beth and Eva.

The ones that she believed who would rat them out would be Heather, Courtney, and Alejandro. Katie and Sadie might not be able to keep a secret this big either along with Lindsay and Tyler. She had no idea if Justin, Owen, Noah, Izzy, or Ezekiel would keep it secret. Harold was sent back to Canada but she believed he would keep it a secret for LeShawna.

He was lucky. He was safe in Canada and he would stay safe if they won the battle here. She sighed as she sat down to rest but she kept her blackberry on just in case Aelita called.


	9. Episode 8: Help from a friend

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 8

Through the night, Aelita had to endure the lap top beeping to alert her of an active tower. She ended up just muting it and falling asleep at nearly 2am in the morning. Luckily she didn't have classes the next day so nobody cared that she woke up at nine in the morning. She chose to head for the factory to see if she could get started on the XANA Detection Program.

Xxx

Gwen ended up not sleeping at all through the night. She had never pulled an all nighter before, but oddly she didn't even feel tired when the sun rose. It was like her body would refuse to even think about sleep until this problem was solved.

She wasn't the only one, the other Lyoko fighters and most of the cast were feeling the same psychological effects but for different reasons.

Xxx

Duncan had more nightmares about the pink haired girl killing Gwen at the abandoned factory so much that he hadn't been able to sleep a bit. So when he walked out into the cafe a sudden relief hit him to see Gwen alive and well sitting with LeShawna, Bridgette, Geoff, and DJ. One thing that they all almost noticed immediately was that everyone except those six teens had dark circles under their eyes and felt that the life had been sucked out of them. They noticed this and some of the more observant tired teens had noticed as well.

The observant teens consisted of Duncan, Trent, Eva, Heather, Darth Alejandro, Beth, and Cody. They watched as DJ, Geoff, LeShawna, Gwen, and Bridgette went about eating breakfast in the lounge.

"Man, you guys sure got lucky; I don't think anybody got to sleep last night." Cody said as he walked over.

"Oh trust me, I didn't even sleep a wink, don't let the makeup fool you." Gwen tapped the area under her eyes.

"Man, every time I managed to get to sleep I was having some screwed up nightmares." Darth Alejandro sighed. "Did Chris put something in my drink? I can't even tell what he pours me anymore." He held up a drink container built to be held by the Total Drama Machine's claws.

"I slept great." Bridgette shrugged.

"Me too." Geoff smiled, holding up a mug of coffee.

"Lucky you." Duncan muttered sarcastically.

Eva stomped into the room, accidently bumping into Heather's wheel chair.

"Hey watch it!" Heather shouted.

"SHUT UP YOU STUPID (BEEP)!"

Everyone looked up at this. Heather wheeled back into the wall, scared now that Eva might beat her to death. Like everyone else Eva had dark circles under her eyes and her scowl was ever more pronounced. Anyone who was in Eva's way before moved away to avoid suffering her wrath.

"How come you guys aren't tired like the rest of us?" asked Beth.

"I honestly have no idea, Beth. I just feel fine. Maybe all those times Chris woke us up early I finally got used to having almost no sleep at all." Said Gwen.

"True that, girl." Said LeShawna.

"So you guys didn't have any of those dreams?" asked Noah with a cranky look on his face.

"What kind of dreams are we talking about?" asked Bridgette.

"Some psycho pink haired weirdo mauling you with a knife." Said Duncan replied.

Bridgette's eyes widened slightly when she and the others heard that. Gwen already knew about the dreams since Cody and Beth told her last night.

"And you all had those dreams?" asked DJ.

"Yeah. It's so scary." Lindsay shivered when she thought about those nightmares.

Gwen and the others shared an uneasy look. She got up after she finished her food and dumped the remains into the garbage before putting it on the pile and walked out with the others following her.

"They know something." Said Heather.

"What makes you say that?" asked Cody.

"Did you see the way they reacted when they heard what those dreams we were having were? Why are they fine but we're exhausted?" asked Heather.

"It may be a coincidence." Trent tried to reason.

"I hate to say it but I think Heather's right." Said Beth.

"They are hiding something." Said Alejandro.

"But what?" asked Cody.

"We should find out." Said Courtney.

"Yeah, I don't think so." Said Noah.

"Why not?"

"Because I am going to get some sleep after I eat." Said Noah.

"What if you get those bad dreams again?" asked Beth.

Noah shrugged. Heather growled.

"Someone has to follow them and find out what they know."

"I say I should go, I used to be a CIT." Said Courtney.

"Oh, enough with the dumb CIT crap." Said Noah which earned him a smack on the head.

"Well, and Heather, Sierra, Ezekiel and Al can't go, they're still too injured." Said Trent.

"I'll go because I have the least chance of being mauled." Said Cody.

"Oh, he's so brave!" cheered Sierra.

Cody shuddered but noticed Courtney was getting up.

"What are you doing?"

"Just because agrees you should go doesn't mean I will stay. You will no doubt be discovered."

Cody sighed and agreed. They walked and hurried to catch up with the others.

Xxx

Gwen and the others had just made their ways to the benches outside and sat down.

"All right, so what did Aelita find out last night?" asked Bridgette.

"Well, according to her she believes XANA took control of the others cell phones and used them to project visions into their head via electrical impulses in their brains. The reason why they dream of us getting killed at the factory by Aelita is that XANA wants to make them paranoid enough so they would follow us and discover the factory." Said Gwen.

"If they find the computer they might go to the authorities and they would lock down the factory." Said LeShawna.

"And we wouldn't be able to stop XANA when he launches a real attack." Said DJ catching on.

"Oh man. That's sneaky." Said Geoff.

"Right, the problem is that XANA keeps on switching towers to induce his visions. By the time he is done with one he deactivates it and moves onto the other. We can't do anything unless he does something else." Said Gwen.

"So what do we do? We can't let them find out about the factory and blow our cover." Said DJ.

"And if they see Aelita they might get even more suspicious and we would be in bigger trouble." Said Bridgette.

"We can't do anything as long as one tower is activated for only about a minute." Said LeShawna.

"So we sit here and do nothing?" asked Geoff.

"I'm afraid so, Geoff. The next move belongs to XANA." Said Gwen.

They were unaware that Courtney was recording their conversation with her PDA from behind, hidden behind the fence separating the street from the studio's property. She stopped recording when they got up to leave and went to show the others.

Xxx

"Guys, look at this!" Courtney ran into the room with her PDA out. They listened to the recording of what Gwen and the others said.

"Who the heck is Aelita?" asked Duncan.

"And what's a Zana?" asked Trent.

"Hold on, he said something about a factory and didn't we all see a factory in whatever we were seeing?" asked Tyler.

"Oh my gosh, you're right!" said Beth.

"Oh my gosh, do you think Aelita's that pink haired psycho?"asked Katie.

"Could be. Aelita is a girl's name." Said Sadie.

"See, I knew that they knew something about this." Said Heather pointing at the PDA.

"But they aren't making any sense." Said Justin.

"He's right. How can someone put these dreams in our head by taking control of our cell phones?" asked Beth.

"That's it! That's why I had those visions when I was awake. When I answered my cell phone I had those freaky visions." Said Duncan snapping his fingers.

"The same thing happened with me." Said Alejandro.

"Dude how can you answer in that bot?" asked Owen.

"Well, I missed a few calls so I asked them to install it into the robot head. It came in handy." Said Alejandro.

"Yeah, whatever the point is that they know just why we have been getting these visions." Said Noah.

"Yeah, this Xana creep is putting these things in our heads but why?" asked Trent.

"Gwen said it because he wants us to follow them to this factory." Said Courtney.

"A factory they want to keep secret." Said Heather.

"And we might go to the authorities." Said Alejandro.

"But why?" asked Lindsay.

"Is there something bad there?" asked Beth.

"Must be if they're afraid." Said Eva.

"So we need to find out." Said Duncan.

"Won't mean we're doing this Xana guy's dirty work?" asked Trent.

"Hey, Gwen doesn't have to worry about me ratting her out." Said Duncan.

"Yeah but what about other people here?" asked Owen.

"What could be so bad that we would run to the authorities?" asked Duncan.

Xxx

Everything was going according to plan. He had already sewed suspicion among the other contestants of the group. They had already deduced that Aelita was the pink haired girl in their dreams, they over heard the conversation of the current warriors, and now they will follow them the next time he launches an attack. If the plan went through accordingly they would leave once they discover the factory.

The authorities would lock down the factory and Aelita and her body guards would be questioned. By that time he would be ready. Kadic Academy and the Studio where Total Drama Reality was being broadcasted from would be gone, destroyed as to show an example of his power and a warning. They could not expect all of them to stay silent.

All that was left now was to bring out the bait.

Xxx

Aelita looked up when the super scan detected another activated tower in the Desert Sector. She counted down the usual time it took before the tower would deactivate on its own but it stayed active. She waited about three minutes but she could not wait for long. Not if XANA was now on the offensive.

She quickly dialled Gwen's number.

Xxx

Gwen picked up her phone. "Hello?"

"Gwen! A tower has activated and it isn't deactivating, get to the factory." Aelita said. "It's in the desert region."

"Got it." Gwen nodded and hang up. "A tower activated, it isn't shutting off. This might be a real attack, let's get to the factory."

They ran off towards the factory, with Cody following them from a distance.

'Factory...where Gwen gets clobbered by that insane pink haired girl!' Cody thought with a panic. He pulled out his phone and dialled Sierra's number.

Xxx

"Hello?" Sierra answered her phone.

"Sierra!"

"Cody!" Sierra squealed. "Oh my god you remembered my number!"

"Sierra, I think they're heading to that factory!" Cody said. "Tell the others!"

"Ok!" She lowered her phone. "Cody says they're going to the factory!"

"The one where they die?" Trent leaped to his feet. "Give me his number, I'm going along!"

"Don't think you're going alone, Elvis." Said Duncan getting up.

Xxx

The fighters all slid down the cables, having gotten over their fear of heights by now. As they landed, something echoed through the factory. It sounded like a groan of metal being bent. They looked around cautiously.

"Oh man, what now?" DJ asked.

"I think we should just-" Gwen started before something tackled her from behind.

"Aelita, what are you doing girl?" LeShawna grabbed Aelita around the waist and tried to tug her off, but the younger girl effortlessly threw LeShawna right over her and sent her flying into the elevator.

"Whoa!" Geoff moved in next and with DJ's help tugged Aelita away from Bridgette...who kneed Geoff in the groin. He doubled over in pain as Aelita tossed DJ up into the air as he screamed.

Bridgette didn't have time to react before Aelita gave her a left hook to the face and spun her around. Gwen was trying to scramble to her feet, but Aelita forced her down with one foot to her stomach. Aelita grinned and began to draw a knife out from under the jacket she was wearing. She held the blade in plain sight.

"Now, now, now, just sit here and wait for the audience." She sneered...with the eyes of XANA gleaming in her eyes.

"You're not Aelita!" Gwen cried. "What is this?"

"Polymorphic clone, a personal favourite of mine because of just how much it can be...modified for my entertainment." Aelita looked up. "Ah, and here he is in three...two..." she suddenly crouched over Gwen and reared the knife back.

Gwen screamed and threw her arms up to defend herself.

"GWEN!" Cody was standing at the top section of the room, looking down with growing horror.

The fake Aelita snickered. "Quite scared, isn't he? It's almost like he saw it coming."

"LET HER GO!" Cody leaped out and tried to grab a cable...and repeatedly yelled 'owowowowowowowow' as he slid down the cable and landed on his butt.

"Take a look Gwen, your saviour," Aelita sneered and put emphasis on 'saviour'. "Is here, ready to play his part."

"Let her go!" Cody rushed Aelita bravely.

"CODY STOP!" Gwen shouted.

The polymorph simply sent him flying back with a punch. Gwen looked on in fear and horror. Cody stood up with a bleeding nose as he tried to stand. It was now clear to Gwen what the whole attack has been. XANA shows them visions of her and the others being killed by Aelita, they follow her into the factory only to see them attacked by a spectre disguised as Aelita, framing her for the crime.

The factory would be locked and she would be arrested. If Cody was here than the others would not be far behind. She threw the polymorph off of her and got to her feet.

"LeShawna, take the others and go! That's not Aelita! You have to hurry before the others get here!" shouted Gwen.

"What about you?" asked LeShawna.

"Never mind me! Hurry!"

Bridgette helped Geoff into the elevator and DJ ran in.

"Good luck, Gwen!" shouted Bridgette.

Gwen nodded and turned to face the clone. XANA smirked at her.

"You can't hope to win this time. The others will be here soon."

"Then I'll just have to beat you before they do."

Xxx

The elevator opened to reveal the lab and the real Aelita.

"Aelita, we have a problem!" shouted LeShawna.

"I know. XANA created a polymorphic clone. He wants to frame me for killing or injuring you with the others watching. That was his plan from the start." Said Aelita standing up.

"We have to hurry before that clone kills Gwen and Cody." Said DJ.

"LeShawna, take the controls. I have written down the coordinates of where to send us." Said Aelita.

"Got it."

LeShawna ran over to the computer as the others went into the elevator and headed down to the scanners.

Xxx

Gwen got into a battle stance ready to face the fake Aelita.

"Stay back, Cody. That thing is not what it looks like." She said to the injured boy.

"But Gwen-"

"Don't argue, stay there!"

The clone smirked and charged at her. The clone side-stepped her and delivered a vicious side kick that sent her skidding over the ground. She got back up wiping blood away from her mouth. XANA smirked at her, simply standing there watching her.

Xxx

"Transfer, Geoff. Transfer Bridgette. Transfer DJ."

The scanners closed on them.

"Scanner, Geoff. Scanner Bridgette. Scanner DJ."

The lights in the scanners travelled up their bodies.

"Virtualization."

Xxx

They landed, and the trio of fighters looked around their surroundings...which was just desert in every direction. Changes had been made to the desert sector also, adding in dune of sand among the rocky structures and even some small vortexes of sand flew up from time to time.

"Uh...didn't Aelita show us a few pictures of this place?" Bridgette asked.

"Yeah, it looked less...sandy." DJ said as he went to the top of a dune and looked down on what looked like a small oasis. "And it definitely never had water in it."

"XANA has been making additions to the environments of Lyoko," Aelita said. "I personally think it's his way of bragging about how much he has advanced."

"What do you know, the first computer with an ego." Geoff chuckled.

"Incoming!" DJ pointed to the air.

The fighters jumped out of the way of a shower of lasers. They looked up and six Hornets flying above them.

"Oh, great. Giant flying with big stingers in a Desert!" complained Geoff.

"Less complaining more fighting!" said Bridgette.

DJ created a barrier to block the incoming lasers and poison.

Geoff threw his chakrams that sliced through two of them and sliced through two more on their way back. Bridgette jumped onto her surf board and flew into the air, ramming into the last two Hornets.

"Alright! Too easy!" Geoff smirked.

"Yeah, way too easy." DJ added, not lowering his barriers.

"You have another monster closing in on you...I think it's a new version, I can't identify it but it's flying." LeShawna said, having taken over at the computer.

Suddenly something large flew up over the dunes. It was too small to be a Carrier, but too large to be a Hornet...but it looked like some more advanced version of the Hornet. It was larger and thin, with a long arcing tail tipped with a long stinger and two sets of wings. It was a darker shade of green and had a massive eye of XANA on its head.

"Whoa...that is big." DJ said before he deflected several shots from it.

"I have a reading, forty life points per hit!" LeShawna said.

As she spoke, Aelita appeared and fell right through the Barrier and into the middle of the group. "What's going on?"

"That!" Geoff pointed up at the giant Hornet.

"Ok, we need a plan." Bridgette said. "I vote that Geoff and I take it on and DJ goes with Aelita to the tower."

"Agreed!" Aelita, DJ, and Geoff said at once.

Xxx

Gwen thought she was crazy for doing this. Aelita warned her about taking on a polymorphic spectre. It was suicide to fight one head on. But she couldn't let it get into the lab or hurt Cody. She ran forward and delivered a punch but the clone stepped to the side, the clone then kneed her in the chin followed by a spinning roundhouse which knocked Gwen off her feet, her back hitting the ground hard.

Cody winced as he saw this. But Gwen got back up to her feet. XANA chuckled as she stood up.

"It's amusing that you think by stalling for time you will allow the others to reach the tower but how long before someone else comes by and see this?" The clone asked her.

Gwen merely stood up and glared.

"Don't worry, your friend will live and you still have some time left. Actually I think it's more like fifteen seconds."

Gwen looked up when she heard that. The others are on their way. She had to hurry now. She ran forward to deliver a series of kicks but they were all blocked by one hand.

The polymorph grabbed her by the neck and slammed her into the ground before picking her up. The clone grabbed her by the collar and held out her other hand. The knife came back into her hand.

"Time to play your role."

Xxx

"There it is!" shouted DJ as soon as they could see the tower.

However the was a problem. Five Pyramids had appeared and began to fire on them. DJ quickly put up a barrier to blocked the lasers.

"Energy Field!"

She threw pink orb of deadly energy however her intended target dodged the attack. Aelita took to the air allowing DJ to move forward with his barrier up as he moved closer to the monsters. The barrier continued to block incoming lasers while Aelita managed to hit one of the Pyramids destroying it. DJ then dropped the barrier and transformed into a golem.

However they also learned that while his special ability that turns his entire body to stone makes him as strong as LeShawna with her hammer he could not use his barrier while in golem form. So if he wants to fight he has to get close enough that the monsters couldn't take him out easily. He ran forward and punched a Pyramid in the eye with a stoned fist. The monster shattered into data from the blow. DJ turned and jumped dodging more lasers.

Xxx

Bridgette flew through air on her surf board dodging large lasers that hit the ground below her. The Wasp as they called as they named it pursued her firing its large laser at her. She dodged and swerved, avoiding it. Geoff attacked from the right side, throwing a chakram directly into its side but it did no damage. Bridgette swung around and flew straight at the Wasp.

As she flew through the air at full speed her surf board split into her two swords. Gripping both of them she glided right into the Wasp, stabbing it in the belly. The monster swerved trying to get her off. She pulled her swords out and fell through the air but luckily her swords connected back together forming the board before she hit the ground. She flew up and looked to see if she caused any damage.

"Let's see you stop this!" shouted Geoff.

His chakrams formed into his axe and he swung it. Unleashing a wave of lightning that slammed into the Wasp. The impact caused the Wasp fall to the ground on its back. Recognizing her opportunity Bridgette formed her swords and landed on the Wasp, stabbing it in the Eye.

The Wasp broke apart into data.

"Awesome! We did it!" shouted Geoff.

He and Bridgette high fived each other.

"We better go. DJ and Aelita might need our help." Said Bridgette.

She jumped onto her surf board and Geoff jumped on behind her and they took off.

Xxx

Cody looked on in horror as the polymorph picked Gwen up by her collar. She dangled his friend above the ground and a knife was produced in the girl's other hand.

"GWEN!"

His shout was heard by more than just Gwen and the spectre.

The entire TD cast was on the upper story of the room-minus the injured cast members from World Tour. They all had shocked looks on their face as they watched the clone hold Gwen in the air with a knife ready to stab her.

"Oh my gosh!" cried Lindsay in shock.

"Gwen!" cried Owen.

Duncan was the first to react, grabbing onto one of the hanging cables and swung down. "Get away from her or you're dead!"

Trent landed next, followed by a few others from the cast-Tyler ended up landing on his face. Some of the more intelligent took the stairs.

"Good, everybody's here." The clone smirked. "Do you know what happens next? I'm pretty sure it's easy to guess."

"Gwen!" Trent tried to leap forward, but by then the clone plunged its blade into Gwen, stabbing down into the flesh on the right side of her rib cage. Gwen screamed, arching her back and struggling to break free as the clone twisted the blade in and then tore it out in a fountain of blood. Her vision began to blur as she fell to the ground after the clone released her and she lost all hearing of the world around her.

All she could see was the triumphant smirk of the spectre that no longer appeared human in her eyes. As she hit the ground she could have sworn she heard voices calling her name. Trent, Duncan, and an enraged Owen tore the clone off with their combined might.

As the others began to gather around Gwen, Eva joined in on beating down the clone with the others. Cody was at her side in a second watching in horror as Gwen's clothes became red.

"It hit an artery!" Noah, who for once didn't sound calm and bored said.

"How do you know?" Courtney asked.

"I read books for a reason." He rolled his eyes. "We need an ambulance or she's going to bleed to death and we need it five minutes ago!"

Lindsay, Katie and Satie were frozen on the spot, staring at the growing pile of blood and the wound that was still spitting out the red liquid from Gwen. Eva, Own, Trent, and Duncan were still beating on the clone, who did not even have a bruise and was still laughing maniacally. Cody had taken off his sweater that he wore over his regular shirt and tried pressing it down over the wound with help from Noah, Courtney, and Beth. Tyler had tried to grab his phone...only to find out it had broken when he fell. "Damn it!"

Courtney was shaking from head to toe, her skin taking on a pale shade of colour. There, down on the floor, the girl she had hated almost more than anything was on the ground with blood pouring out. She took a step back and bumped into Justin.

"Yo, are you alright?" Justin asked.

"I-I-I really hate blood." The girl stuttered.

By now Justin had his own phone out and was calling for an ambulance, but as he began to speak, the clone suddenly leaped away from the enraged campers and snatched it from his hand. "Oh no you don't, an ambulance would ruin the play!" She crushed it in her grasp and then sent out an EMP wave that fried every cell phone.

"Whoa!"

"What the hell?"

"My phone!"

"Good...now it looks like we have a problem. No ambulance, no help, which means she will bleed out on the cold floor." The clone smirked.

"You. F(beep). Bitch!" The clone turned...just in time to get hit with a blow that would have given a normal human concussion. It knocked the clone off its feet and sent it to the ground, but it kept laughing at LeShawna, who had come out of the elevator.

"Oh, LeShawna, shouldn't you be down in the lab, looking after the others? How will you know if they manage to win this time?" The clone asked.

"Oh you are f(beep) dead now." LeShawna cracked her knuckles.

"How is she still standing? Man we beat her half way to hell and back and that would have knocked Mike Tyson out." Duncan had his hands on his knees and was gasping for breath.

"That thing aint human, that's why!" LeShawna then proceeded to start giving the clone what looked like the most painful beating a human could possibly take, but with each blow the clone kept laughing, even when Duncan, Trent, Own, Eva, Tyler, and even Justin and a few others began to join in on the beat down.

Gwen by now was not even conscious, her skin had somehow taken on an even paler shade and her pulse was becoming faint. Noah, Cody, and Beth kept trying to apply pressure to the wound to stop it. Adrenaline and fear pumped through their system as they struggled to save her.

Xxx

Streams of lasers were deflected when four Krabs joined up with the remaining Pyramids in blocking the way to the tower. Luckily Geoff and Bridgette joined up with the others to fight their way to the tower. Geoff threw his chakrams and took out another Pyramid while Bridgette flocked with her swords.

They had finally taken care of the Pyramids leaving the Krabs next. DJ ran forward, turning into his golem form and jumping into the air. He yelled as he brought his fist down and slammed into a Krab. It hit the ground face first hard, its shell cracked and exploded.

But then he was hit by another Krab which sent him flying back. Bridgette jumped in the path blocking more lasers. Her wave like tattoos glowed as she swung her blades and once again unleashed an enegy wave resembling a tidal wave that sliced through the Krab.

"Two down one to go." Said Geoff.

"Don't think we've won yet, Geoff. Look!" shouted Aelita pointing ahead.

Up ahead two Megatanks rolled towards them followed by two Tarantulas.

"Me and my big mouth." Geoff groaned.

They jumped as the two Megatanks opened their shells and fired at them.

"I got this!" said DJ.

He brought up his barrier as the Megatanks fired again. The two large elliptical lasers collided with his barrier causing the giant to grunt as he strained under the attack. As strong as his barrier was soon enough it collapsed and DJ was hit. However it gave Geoff and Bridgette enough time to stab both Megatanks in the Eye before they closed their shells.

Xxx

"Gwen! Gwen! Can you hear me?" cried Cody.

He had tears in his eyes as he watched Gwen struggle to live. Noah and Beth were still pressing the wound to keep her alive. He turned to Katie, Sadie, and Lindsay who were all on the verge of having panic attacks. Courtney swallowed hard as she watched this.

Sure she was still mad at Gwen for what happened last season but she didn't want her dead.

"You could be doing something useful like find help!" shouted Noah.

That shook them out of their fear.

"We can't save her unless there is a doctor here!" cried Beth.

"So get moving and find help!" Noah shouted again.

"Right!"

They got up their shaking but as they tried to run XANA's spectre jumped in their way. Despite the fact that it was outnumbered and that everyone had beaten it down it still had no injuries. The clone smirked displaying the Eye of XANA in its eyes.

"Can't let you leave yet. After all, letting her survive would ruin everything I set up."

Lindsay, Katie, and Sadie backed away in fear of the spectre. XANA walked over to the stairs and with one hand ripped out the whole stair case. Everyone was shocked as they saw this.

"Now there is only one way out of this factory if you want to make it in time to save her. But the question is can you make it in time?"

"Why are doing this? What has Gwen done to you?" shouted Cody.

XANA's smirk grew as he snickered.

"Why continue to ask pointless questions and attack me? If you're concerned about saving her life should you be focusing on find a way pass me? Or are you just too foolish and scared to think?"

"I have had enough of you!" shouted Eva.

She ran to give the clone a punch but XANA simple caught her fist.

"As I much as I enjoyed playing, I think it's time to end this."

XANA threw her back and she hit the wall hard.

"LeShawna already explained to you that I wasn't human. So why continue to attack me as if I was a human? No matter how hard you try all of your efforts will be in vain. You just waste what precious little time Gwen has before she succumbs to her wound."

LeShawna growled.

"You know what it takes to save her but you stand there all the same, LeShawna, ready to attack when you know fighting me is a waste of time and risking your own life."

Xxx

With the two Megatanks gone the two Tarantulas from behind them aimed their guns and fired at the advancing group.

"Whoa!" Bridgette shouted as she angled her board to avoid incoming lasers.

"Energy Field!" Aelita shouted.

She hurled her energy field at one of the Tarantulas but the targeted monster jumped back and opened fire on her. Bridgette flew in close the ground dodging lasers by mere inches.

"Take this!"

She rammed her surf board into one Tarantula that sent it flying back, crashing into the ground and then it exploded into pieces of data.

"Yes!" Bridgette shouted punching the sky.

"Bridgette, look out!" shouted Aelita.

The other Tarantula levelled its guns on her while her back was turned. Luckily Geoff threw his chakrams at the last moment and they flew in front of Bridgette deflecting the lasers. She jumped aside and picked up her surf board. It split apart into her two sword and she quickly concentrated on using that special attack she used before.

Her tattoos glowed along with her swords as she swung one sword that unleashed the familiar blue wave like energy wave that cut right through the Tarantula.

"Have to be more careful, Bridge. Getting cocky gets you killed. I found out the hard way." Said Geoff.

"Sorry." Bridgette said.

Xxx

LeShawna nursed her bruises as the others still struggled to both fight the clone and save Gwen. Suddenly the elevator opened up, and DJ ran out. "GWEN!"

"DJ..." Gwen whispered as DJ ran over to her. "Are the others...there?"

"Yeah, they're almost to the tower." DJ nodded.

"DJ...you need more help..." Gwen suddenly reached up and grasped Cody's shoulder. "Cody...please go with him...if you really want to save me then this is the only way..."

Nodding and wiping away his tears, Cody said. "Alright, I'll go!" He hadn't even hesitated to accept.

Noah and Beth tried to ask questions, but DJ rushed Cody into the elevator. "Sorry, no time to ask questions, just make sure she doesn't die!"

DJ and Cody took the elevator down to the scanner room.

"Whoa...what is this?" Cody asked.

"These are scanners, and use one of these and you can help save Gwen. Cody, these will literally put you into a digital world, like those VR Pods but way more advanced." DJ began to explain. "That girl that stabbed Gwen that is no girl man."

"Yeah, LeShawna and Gwen said that." Cody said.

"That thing was created by a very strong AI that is using these 'tower' things on the digital world, Lyoko, to make things in the real world. It can hack into military computers or even create things like that to try and kill people." DJ continued. "And we can beat it by deactivating the tower that has been activated. It will make the clone vanish...and then we'll be able to save Gwen the only way we can now."

"How?" Cody asked.

"Trust me, you'll believe me after you see and experience it." DJ said. "Now get in! I'd go with you but I already got sent back from Lyoko and if I go again I'll be risking my life."

Cody hesitated. "Are you sure? This all sounds way too-"

"Cody, I dare you to go back up there, look at Gwen, look at that thing that's beating the others up, and try to say it isn't real." DJ said firmly.

Cody took one step into the Scanner, and then another. He looked back at DJ.

"Now wait there, I'll go virtualize you." DJ took the elevator back up.

Cody waited for forty full seconds, nervously looking around.

"Ok, here it goes." DJ said over the intercom. "Transfer, Cody."

The scanner shut, and Cody winced.

"Scanner, Cody." A light began to go up and down Cody's body, scanning every inch of him inside and out.

"Virtualiztion." Cody vanished in a flash of light.

Xxx

Cody appeared in mid air, and fell to the earth below, landing on his butt as all beginners seem to do.

"Ow!" He looked down at himself. "Whoa..."

His appearance had changed. He wore what looked like a tuxedo style outfit, something like James Bond. It didn't have a bow tie or flower or anything crappy like that but it was black with a white shirt, soft, and light. For footwear he wore black dress shoes and black slacks. He had two pistol like weapons attached to the areas under his arms beneath his jacket.

Upon examining them, he found that they looked like a cross of a revolver with a blade.

"Wow, never seen anybody with that kind of weapon before." DJ commented, his voice disembodied.

"Whoa! Where are you?" Cody looked around.

"I'm still in the control room. Welcome to Lyoko Cody, specifically the Desert Region." DJ announced. "The others are half a mile west of you. I'd suggest you hurry, they have a big problem."

Xxx

"Oh. My. God." Bridgette stared at the legion of monsters that appeared to be humans.

"Dragon Knights." Aelita said. "They were the ones who captured my friends. Be careful, they're very powerful, and they have two hundred life points."

Geoff nodded. "Got it. Be careful. Don't let guard down. I am not getting surprise killed!" He tossed a chakram, but a Dragon Knight countered with a broad sword.

Catching his chakram, Geoff said. "Ok...they're strong."

"Very strong." Bridgette hefted her swords as three Dragon Knights charged.

Parrying with her right blade, she tried to bisect her attacker with the left, but it back flipped out of range. Aelita ducked under a jab from one wielding a pair of katanas and then leaped into the air, spreading her wings. She fired an energy sphere down at it and struck it, sending it flying back. Geoff formed his axe and rolled under the third Knight's attack and then parried a downwards strike. He brought one knee up and right into the groin area of the Knight...which did not react.

"Uh...I forgot nothing at the equator in this world." Geoff said before he cut the Dragon Knight's arm off while it stumbled back from the force of the attack. Looking at the arm's stump, the Knight looked at him. Suddenly a series of black tentacles began to grow from the stump and red lines of data appeared as the black smoke grew into a brand new hand.

"Hey! That's not fair!" Geoff shouted before knocking aside another attack before slamming his axe into the Dragon Knight's side. It was sent flying onto its side as its flesh regenerated, but the damage was done; it only had eighty life points left now.

Bridgette spun away from her attacker and sent a wave of energy at it, sending it flying back. It landed on its feet and stood up, brushing dust off of itself.

"These guys are durable." Bridgette said.

Aelita flew down and angled her shoulder and slammed into her opponent as she formed an energy sphere and jammed it down through the Knight's flesh and armour. Hissing, it leaped back, but pink energy began to eat away at it from inside. It looked down, and then up at Aelita before it exploded.

Geoff cut down his opponent moments later, and Bridgette bisected her target down the middle with a single swing from one sword.

"How are we doing?" Geoff asked.

"I'd say three down...thirty to go." Bridgette replied.

"Aw man." The trio began to back up as thirty some knights began to advance on them.

"Okay, here goes!" Geoff yelled as he ran forward.

He swung his axe unleashing a wave of lightning but the Knights scattered, some even sprouted bat like wings avoiding the attack. They flew down towards Geoff. He blocked the first strike but he was punched in the face by a metallic gauntlet that sent him back a few feet.

"Geoff!"

Bridgette ran forward to help but a Knight blocked her. She blocked its sword and fought back, yelling as she struggled to get forward. Aelita fired more energy spheres but the Knights either dodged or blocked with their swords. Geoff parried another sword strike before one of the Knights struck him in the knee.

Then a sword sliced through his digital body.

"Geoff!"

Bridgette watched as Geoff vanished back into the real world. Yelling she sliced through her opponent and released another energy wave that destroyed Geoff's 'killer'. She quickly blocked another sword, but she was now being pushed back. Aelita fired an energy sphere that destroyed the Knight that was pushing Bridgette back.

"We're heavily outnumbered now." Said Bridgette.

"Tell me, about it. DJ, where's LeShawna?" asked Aelita.

"LeShawna's up on the ground level. That copy stabbed Gwen with a knife and she's bleeding badly. She got angry and headed up there." Said DJ.

"Oh, no! Gwen!" Bridgette cried.

They were being pushed back and Gwen could die!

"Don't worry, we've got reinforcements." Said DJ.

"Who?"

Suddenly a dark figure leaped through the air and landed in front of everyone and pulled out two blade like guns before firing a barrage of lasers that slammed into the Knights surrounding Bridgette and Aelita. One Knight was hit on the helmet where the XANA eye was causing it to explode into bits of data. Several Knights took to the sky and flew at him but Cody aimed his guns and fired on more than a few Knights while jumping back as one swung a sword at him.

"Cody?" asked Bridgette.

The young brunette ducked under another sword and fired at point blank range into the Knight. The lasers tore through the armor and burned the monster from the inside. He spread his arms firing at a few more knights before Bridgette jumped in and blocked a Knight's sword that almost sliced Cody's head off.

"Where did you come from?"

"DJ led me down. I want to save Gwen!"

Bridgette nodded in understanding and silently thanked DJ. If DJ hadn't sent Cody they might not have made to the tower in time. Cody continued to fire his guns while Aelita fired her energy spheres at the moving knights.

"Aelita go!"

The pink haired girl nodded and ran for the tower.

"Hey, she looks like –"Cody started.

"Don't worry. Aelita's a friend and she's about to save Gwen." Bridgette reassured him.

Aelita entered the tower and began to ascend to the upper platform.

Xxx

Gwen had blacked out again, and the others were losing hope.

LeShawna, Owen, Duncan, Trent, Tyler, and the others were covered in bruises the clone had given them, but still fought on. Noah and Beth were still desperately trying to seal the wound, but it was as if nothing would stop or slow the amount of blood that still poured out of it. She began to go limp.

Xxx

Aelita approached the interface and placed her hand on it.

**AELITA**

XXX

Gwen's pulse and breath began to slow.

"WE'RE LOSING HER!" Noah shouted.

"It's all over, just sit there and watch her di-" The clone stopped. "What? No!" The clone began to jerk and spasm. "NOOOO!"

XXX

**CODE: LYOKO**

XXX

The clone exploded into particles of energy, leaving the confused and horrified contestants behind.

XXX

"Alright...here we go. Hold on Gwen!" DJ hit the 'enter'. "Return to the past now!"

Xxx

Cody opened his eyes, and looked at the wall of his own room.

'Did that...all just really happen?' He looked at his clock, and the calendar. 'Yesterday?'

He ran out of his room. 'Is Gwen still alive?'

As he came out, LeShawna entered the hall at the same time. "LeShawna!"

"Shhhh!" LeShawna put a finger to her lips and pulled him into her room. "Do you remember what happened?"

Cody's eyes widened.

"Yeah, you, Gwen, and the others in this factory, Gwen got stabbed by that thing, a virtual world and now I'm back here. Is Gwen okay?" Cody frantically asked.

"Let's find out." Said LeShawna.

They ran over to Gwen's door and knocked on it.

"Gwen? Gwen? Are you there? Are you okay?" asked LeShawna.

There was no answer. Cody quickly opened the door and ran in.

"Gwen?"

The room was empty. Her bed was unmade showing that she was sleeping on it not too long ago.

"Oh no." Muttered LeShawna in horror.

Cody's eyes started to water believing that Gwen was dead.

"Guys?" asked a familiar voice.

They both spun around and saw Gwen at the door.

"Gwen!" cried Cody as he tackled her in a big hug.

Usually these moments would be annoying and awkward but this time Gwen smiled and hugged back. She knew she had to explain to Aelita that she asked DJ to send Cody to Lyoko without discussing it, even though she was dying.

"It's all right, Cody."

Cody separated himself from her with tears of happiness streaming down his cheeks.

"I thought you were going to die."

Gwen smiled back.

"So did I."

"What was that?"

"It's a long story."


	10. Episode 9: An ally in the dark

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 9

In the last day Cody had seen things that had really made an impact on him. Gwen, LeShawna, Bridgette, Geoff, and DJ were part of a secret super hero team along with that pink haired girl, Aelita, to stop an evil AI out to dominate the world. According to Gwen, the evil AI, XANA was responsible for the virus attack that took control of networked computers and was responsible for the disappearance of those kids from the Kadic Academy. Those kids were the original warriors who fought XANA before and they thought they destroyed him two years ago but he came back and captured them.

Then when Aelita was running from one of XANA's creations Gwen and the others found and saved her. So now they are helping her to stop XANA from dominating the world and destroying mankind. Right now he was following Gwen and the others to meet with Aelita. The pink haired girl who was appointed the leader as she had fought with XANA longer then they have and knew much more about the virtual world.

They went down the elevator and when the doors opened Cody's eyes widened in excitement.

"Whoa! What is this place?"

"The lab where we go to when XANA is on the attack." Said Aelita.

Cody saw Aelita sitting at the computer. He was a little nervous meeting her because of the dreams he had of her killing Gwen and the spectre that looked like her when Gwen was stabbed.

"Cody, this is Aelita." Gwen said introducing to the two.

"Hi." Cody nervously said stepping forward.

"Nice to meet you, Cody." Said Aelita with a friendly smile.

"Aelita's dad was the one who built the lab, the supercomputer, Lyoko, and XANA." Said Gwen.

"Wow. What was all of it for?" asked Cody.

"Lyoko and XANA were originally created to destroy a military project called Carthage that was intended to disrupt communications by the Russians but my father intended for Lyoko to be a safe place for me and him." Said Aelita.

"But XANA turned on you. Gwen filled me in on the way." Said Cody.

Aelita nodded.

"Cody, I want you to know that I am happy that you agreed to keep this a secret but I would like you to know that I asked DJ to get LeShawna is because letting someone else know about Lyoko without the entire group agreeing first is a risk."

"Aelita, it was my idea. I was the one who asked DJ to bring Cody. I knew he could be trusted and there was no time to discuss it." Said Gwen stepping forward.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. When I saw that clone stab Gwen I just lost control. I knew that if you got to the tower in time Gwen could still be saved but still . . ." LeShawna trailed off.

Aelita nodded.

"It's all right. I understand. But Gwen you will have to make sure Cody is ready for this. You remember what I told about the last time we recruited someone." Aelita said.

"Right. I know. I'll make sure he is ready if he wants to stay in." Said Gwen.

"Of course I want to stay in, Gwen. You nearly died back there. If I can't help what happens if you and the others lose?" asked Cody.

Everyone looked at him.

"Well, I'm sold. I think the boy's got it what takes." Said LeShawna.

"Me too." Said Geoff.

"He is being honest." Said DJ.

"Aelita?" asked Gwen.

"All, right. We'll see about he handles the next few attacks." Said Aelita sitting back in the chair.

"Yes! Welcome to the gang, Cody!" said Geoff holding up a hand.

Cody smiled and high fived him and DJ. Gwen smiled happily at him.

"So how do we take down XANA?" asked Cody.

"I have been working on a special program that should be able to detect XANA on the internet. Two years ago Jeremy created a program that was designed to spread through the Internet and wipe out XANA but he was prepared. He hid inside a supercomputer and disconnected it from the Internet while at the same time created a complete copy of himself to be used as a decoy. Gwen and LeShawna suggest that I use a program that would be able to tell the difference between the real XANA and a copy but there are some problems." Aelita said. "The reason why XANA's plan worked is because he and the copy wove together so well it was nearly impossible to tell the difference. There is however something I can use to tell the difference."

She brought up a window that showed a series of programs and codes.

"See these codes here? These are the codes that make up XANA's main program. Everything that XANA is able to do, running calculations, designing monsters, and deciding how to attack is decided through these codes. Think of these as XANA's brain." Aelita showed them. "However despite the copy being an exact duplicate there would still be a large difference between it and the original. The copy may have had XANA's memories, it may have had his intelligence, but it most likely lacked his sentience."

She brought up another image showing an almost exact copy of XANA's codes but these codes did not seem as developed as XANA's.

"These are the codes I collected from copy. Even though it was destroyed the scanner managed to find remnants scatted across the net. Think of it as the copy's corpse. Notice how XANA's codes are smoother and sharper than the copy's." Said Aelita pointing at the codes. "The copy never had the chance to evolve as XANA did. It had the potential to make its own decisions as XANA but it started as a computer program and thus did not have the time to reach sentience."

"So we're trying to single him out from a bunch of dumber versions of himself?" asked DJ.

"Just like in I. Robot." Said Geoff.

Everyone looked at him when he said that.

"What, haven't you seen that movie? The detective finds this one robot in a room of dozens of robots by making them stand still and if a robot moves when he tries to shoot it that's the robot he's looking for."

"I think it's a bit more complicated than that Geoff." Said LeShawna.

"It is. XANA knows that I could use the same program that destroyed his copy to try and destroy him again so he has no doubt taken steps to make sure it won't work." Aelita said.

"Well, what if you can track him to whatever supercomputer he might hide if he tries to avoid the program by disconnecting again?" asked Gwen.

"It would allow us to find him but if the computer is disconnected the program won't reach it." Said Aelita.

"So in other words we need to catch him off guard." Said Bridgette.

"That might be. XANA had hundreds of Replicas and that means he had hundreds of supercomputers under his control. He could have hidden away in any of those computers." Said Aelita. "But I can't do anything about that until I can find Jeremy and the others. I will have to work on a scan to find them as well as XANA."

"I can help. I know I may not be an expert but I know a lot about computers." Said Cody.

"It's true, Aelita. Cody knows more about technology than almost everyone in the group." Said Gwen.

"All right. I'll let him work with me to see if he understands how these programs work. It's not easy." Said Aelita.

"This is like a tech geek's dream!" said Cody.

Xxx

"Emergency Crisis Meeting? What the hell man am I out of hair gel again?" Chris whined.

"Chris, you've been out of a lot of things, but unfortunately you still have the money to buy that crap." Carlos rolled his eyes. "It's a meeting regarding the disaster last challenge, considering we go on air tomorrow we want to make sure we don't have another accident like the one that happened the last time you stuffed somebody into those pods. Seriously, Total Drama Reality, why couldn't we have just gone for another Island or Action set?"

"But man, we're talking to the executive director, the big dude, the holy one herself!" Chris said.

"The one who pays you all those checks so you can buy your hair gel?" Carlos asked rhetorically.

"Exactly." Chris nodded.

The door opened to the meeting room, and another member of the crew, Kurt was working on connecting them to the Director via a video call.

"Do we have a connection yet Kurt?" Carlos asked.

"We'll have it in a second Carlos." Kurt replied. "Oh and Chris he'll look forward to seeing you, trust me."

Suddenly static began to appear on the screen.

"Whoa, there we are! Boss! Director, hello? Waving my hand, do you see me?" Carlos was in front of the screen, waving before the image of the Director appeared.

"Look he can see me but I can't see him!" She snarled to somebody off screen.

"Boss, we have an image!" Somebody off screen said.

"What? Ok, whatever you're doing, keep doing it." The Director looked at Carlos.

"Hey Director, we've got you loud and clear here!" Carlos said.

"I see you...I see you... I see you guys, you're all right there. Is Chris Mclean with you guys?" the Director asked.

"Right here sir!" Chris waved a hand.

"And Carlos is in charge of the studio in Paris, right?"

"Yes ma'am!" Carlos said.

"You, hit that host in the face, NOW!"

"Gladly!" Carlos grinned.

"WHAT?"

THWACK!

"Ow. Ow." Chris nursed his black eye. "What did I do to deserve that?"

"What haven't you done to deserve it? Quite frankly Chris until Kurt and Carlos let me know about what went on behind the scenes I didn't know why we were spending so much for editing scenes before broadcasting!" The Director raved. "Also I find out just how much you spent for yourself using our budget, Jacuzzis in your private room on the Total Drama Jet which you picked from the junkyard instead of using the money you bought for the Jacuzzi to buy a real plane, buying yourself hundreds of hair gel bottles, costing us hundreds of dollars which was supposed to be spent on food for the campers instead of that slop you have Chef make!"

"Hey!" shouted Chef.

"Sorry Chef, I know you can actually cook but your supplies are limited because of _someone_. Let's not forget those cabins and trailers you had for them during the first two seasons. You have kept nearly everything and the contestants barely survived. And speaking of when you guys packed up and left Total Drama Island the health inspectors went there on request from Heather's parents and Courtney's lawyers. They closed down the island and they only looked for ten minutes! What did you spend the money I gave you to rebuild the camp? And to buy a new boat instead of that old tug?"

"Ah . . ." Chris said.

"You spent it for yourself. The moped, the ATV, that trailer . . . Is it that hard to believe the number of complaints we have gotten? If it weren't for the fans Total Drama Island would have been cancelled after the second episode almost like any other show you've ever been on! I wish Blaineley had accepted so we wouldn't have had to choose you!"

"Ma'am, a reliable source has confirmed that Blaineley would not have been a better choice." Said Kurt.

"It doesn't matter anymore. Kurt you are in charge of making sure the finances are spent accordingly you either cut his pay check or demote him!"

Chris gasped in horror.

"Don't think I'm done with you yet, Chris. Need I remind you that it is your fault that four contestants were injured and one being the son of a diplomat and not to mention that Heather girl's family has quite the influence? Her dad dines with Mr Harper this afternoon damn it! And how did you treat Alejandro? YOU PUT HIM IN A DAMN ROBOT BODY INSTEAD OF RUSHING HIM TO THE HOSPITAL!"

"Hey, I got him to sign the forms and legally absolve the show!" Chris objected.

"That's not the point! Chris, listen closely. You have had a free run for the last few seasons until you went too far in World Tour! Now listen up, you cannot design any challenges until Carlos has looked over them and approved them with help from Kurt since he's the only guy who can actually make realistic fake danger in real life!" The Director said.

"Aw man." Chris whined.

"Failure to comply will be resolved in your pay getting docked! CARLOS!"

"Yes ma'am?" Carlos asked.

"First challenge's broadcast was a disaster because of that cyber attack. A lot of parents called in when they saw a freaky red eye on TV that was showing every single channel broadcasting in France. Just what exactly have you done to make sure that no other contestants will be in danger this time?" The Director asked.

"Well I've disconnected the main network of the VR Pods and all connected systems from live broad casting, instead we will broadcast live through a camera that will record the main view screen that shows what is going on in the VR scenario so there won't be a risk of a cyber attack reaching the contestants again." Carlos said.

"Do you know how this virus got into the computer?"

"No sir, it just ate right through our fire walls, but we do know it slipped in from a wireless connection from a nearby cyber cafe. We checked there, none of the computers or people had the power to create something of that degree of power." Carlos shrugged.

"Keep a close eye on them Carlos, because now that you look over Chris' shoulder to make sure the kids stay safe you are just as responsible for them as he is!" The Director said. "The only problem I'll have if you mess up is trying to hire a heavy weight wrestler who can actually hurt you."

Unknown to most of the people at the studio, Carlos had actually served in the military unlike Chef (who only claimed to) and was a heavy weight fighter.

"Got it sir." Carlos nodded, as did Kurt, and a rather nervous Chris.

"Ok, go get pretty boy some ice and some make up. Chris, you are on thin ice this time, if another contestant suffers brutal injuries like in Hawaii. Any fame you have, I will tear apart with my bare hands and let Carlos hit you again." The Director finished.

Carlos chuckled. "Glad to be of assistance boss."

"Now all of you get to work, we have a show to continue!" The Director exclaimed. "Keep those kids safe and we won't suffer any more grief from worried parents. Time to see if you can act humane Chris! Oh, and if any more interns go injured or missing because of you, that is just another drop of a thousand bucks off your monthly pay check. Now go!"

"YES MA'AM!" The three left-and Chris went to get an ice bag.

Carlos chuckled. "This will be fun." He and Kurt exchanged a high five.

"Lucky bastard." Kurt grumbled.

"Don't worry, I'll let you break his legs." Carlos grinned.

They both snickered as they plotted the possible death they could give Chris if he messed up again.

Xxx

**LYOKO**

**FOREST SECTOR**

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Three lasers struck some make shift targets Geoff had set up for Cody, each of them striking the target in the center.

"Awesome. Perfect score!" said Cody.

"Don't get over confident, Cody. This more than just a simple game." Said Gwen watching him.

"I know but still this is awesome." Said Cody.

"I know it is, Cody. But remember the purpose of this training is to make sure you're ready. You saw how deadly XANA and his monsters can be and now that you're one of us you're in much danger as the rest of us." Said Gwen.

"Don't worry, Gwen. I won't let you or the others down." Said Cody.

He meant what he said. After seeing Gwen on the floor bleeding like that he promised he would never let that happen again.

Xxx

XANA looked over the data several hundred times in less than a second. It shouldn't have been this difficult. Aelita's newest warriors had been able to defeat monsters than not even their predecessors would have been able to defeat. He had analyzed the fighting styles of Ulrich, Yumi, Odd, and William as he modified his monsters.

They had been defeated and captured easily yet these new warriors, lacking the experience of the old warriors had survived fighting his more powerful modified monsters along with his Terror Bird, and his Dragon Knights. Could their experience on that reality show be responsible? He had watched episodes from previous seasons and had seen that the life threatening challenges had been real and they had even encountered an escaping killer. XANA watched the battles again.

Sure he had improved his monsters AIs but they still did not produce results he wanted. He knew that he now needed to make his monsters think better. He opened a link to the supercomputer and scrolled through a list of programs. However something caught his eye when he found something.

It was located in the Desert Sector. An AI program? Aside from his monsters he was only the AI to be created in the supercomputer. He opened the file and looked inside.

William?

No. It was the AI Jeremy had used to take over for William while he was being held captive. This was how they avoided an inquiry. Of course Aelita had not bothered making clones of Ulrich, Yumi, Odd, Jeremy, or bothered reusing this program again. This was it.

This was XANA's answer. Of course he would have to activate the tower to transfer the program to his sector but he would make sure the trace was covered. With a plan now ready he went to work.

Xxx

Aelita had been monitoring Lyoko while Geoff and Gwen helping Cody train. That was when the super scan went off. Her eyes went wide with dread. LeShawna and Bridgette were watching when they saw the super scan went off.

"Activated tower."

"Doesn't XANA ever give us break?" asked Bridgette.

"The tower is in the Desert Sector." Said Aelita as she put on the head set. "Gwen, you'll have to cut the training short. There's a tower that's been activated in the Desert Sector."

"Got it." Gwen replied.

"We're going to be fighting monsters now?" asked Cody.

"Yeah. We have to get to the Desert Sector." Said Gwen.

"How?" asked Cody.

"Aelita told us about there being Way Towers that allow us to travel from sector to sector." Said Gwen.

"I'm sending you the vehicles now. LeShawna and I will meet you at the Way Tower." Said Aelita.

A few seconds later the Overbike, Overboard, and the Overwing appeared.

"Awesome!" said Cody.

"I know, little dude." Said Geoff hopping onto the Overbike.

"So I get this?" asked Cody stepping onto the Overwing.

"It's easy to drive. Just don't go too fast and follow us." Said Gwen as she stepped onto the Overboard.

Xxx

Aelita scanned the local news network looking for signs of a disaster before switching to the cameras in the studio to find anything wrong there.

"So far no sign of a disaster, not at the studio, not at my school, or in the city." Said Aelita. "We better hurry and get to Lyoko."

"You got it." Said LeShawna.

"Good luck you guys." Said Bridgette as she sat down at the computer.

Xxx

Geoff, Gwen, and Cody stopped in front of the Way Tower in the Forest Sector.

"It looks like any other tower I have seen." Said Cody.

"Yeah, well according to Aelita these towers are the most important towers because of they can do." Said Gwen.

"Head's up, everyone. LeShawna and Aelita are arriving." Said Bridgette through the speakers.

A few seconds later LeShawna, DJ, and Aelita appeared in the air and landed on the ground.

"Hey, y'all. " said LeShawna waving her hand.

"Hey, LeShawna. How are things on Earth?" asked Geoff.

"No problems yet."

"Let's hurry before problems do occur." Said Aelita looking up. "Bridgette, can you load the other vehicles please."

"On it."

Seconds later Over Sled and the Over Jet appeared.

"Oh, yeah. Nothing like riding in style." Said LeShawna hopping onto the Over Jet.

"Follow me. We can bring the vehicles into the tower." Said Aelita stepping onto the Over Sled with DJ behind her.

She flew the Over Sled into the tower and the others followed.

"Wow." Cody said as the platform with the XANA Eye lit up signalling their entry.

"So this what the inside of a tower looks like." Said Gwen looking at the walls.

The walls were blue with endless screens and codes running through them.

"So how do we get to the Desert Sector?" asked Geoff.

"We jump off this platform. When we do we will fall into a data stream. That stream will take us to the Desert Sector. As you fall think of the Desert Sector and the stream will take you there." Said Aelita angling the Over Sled towards the edge. "You can bring the vehicles through the stream."

"That's good to know." Said LeShawna as she prepared to take the Over Jet off the platform.

"Ready, go."

Aelita flew off the platform and the others followed down the long dark blue tunnel. Lines of data passed them as they traveled through the tunnel. Then they could see another platform. They over it and followed Aelita through the wall and back out into Lyoko.

Only this time they were in the Mountain Sector.

"Cool way to go!" said Geoff.

"Now let's get to the tower." Said Aelita.

"You heard her!" said LeShawna as they took off.

They flew into air for a few minutes before they saw the tower. It was in the center of a large hole on a small plateau connected by a single bridge.

As usual it glowed red showing that it was under XANA's control.

"Bridgette, can you see how many monsters are at the tower?" asked Aelita.

"I am looking at it now. There are like thirteen Krabs, seven Pyramids, twenty Spiderlings, two Tarantulas, and three Megatanks."

"Say what?" asked DJ.

"There are forty five monsters guarding the tower."

"Holy crap." Said Geoff slowly.

"You can't be serious!" said Gwen.

The first few fights on Lyoko didn't have this many monsters unless you count the ones on the Terror Bird that functioned as a Carrier.

"And there has been no reports of anything happening?" asked Aelita.

"None."

"We better hurry. LeShawna, DJ, Geoff you take one bridge and get their attention. Draw them away from the tower. Gwen, Cody, you are with me. Cody will provide cover fire while Gwen uses her ability to block attacks." Said Aelita activating her wings allowing DJ to take control of the Over Sled.

"Right!"

"Let's go!" LeShawna yelled as they flew right towards the monsters.

The monsters turned as they LeShawna's shout. Upon spotting their enemies they charged up their lasers and began moving in their direction.

"I'd say we got their attention." Said LeShawna holding out her hammer.

"Eat this!" shouted Geoff throwing his chakrams that sliced into one of Pyramids.

"Take this!" Cody shouted.

Cody fired four shots that took out two Pyramids, hitting their XANA symbols. Gwen used her scythe to create her barrier that blocked more lasers.

"Good job!" said Aelita.

"Take this!" shouted LeShawna smashing her hammer into one of the Krabs.

Suddenly she was hit from behind by a Spiderling.

"_LeShawna, you have seventy life points left_."

DJ projected a barrier that blocked any attacks on him as ran forward. Dropping the barrier he changed into his golem form and punched a Megatank. But a Tarantula managed to hit him a few times that cost him sixty life points. Aelita flew in and threw an energy sphere at the Tarantula, killing it.

Cody fired more shots, taking out two Pyramids before getting hit by a Krab. Gwen jumped in swung her scythe into the symbol on top of the Krab. The Krab exploded as the scythe sliced into it.

"Direct hit!"

She turned and blocked lasers coming from a Pyramid as Cody fired at it. But Gwen was shot in the knee by a Spiderling.

Xxx

As the battle continued XANA was monitoring the transfer. It was already 70% completed. He knew that they would come and decided he should send out large numbers of monsters to keep them busy. Two of them were leading Aelita through a weak spot on the defence line.

Or what they thought was a weak spot.

Xxx

"Aelita, three more monsters coming!" said Bridgette.

Aelita turned and saw a Megatank and two Krabs reinforcing the line.

"This is not good."

The monsters unleashed another deadly barrage of lasers. Gwen dodged the Megatank's lasers while Cody and Aelita took cover.

"This is nuts. Cody, cover me." Said Gwen.

"On it." Said Cody pulling out his guns.

Cody stepped out and fired his guns that hit one of the Spiderlings and the Tarantula. Two more monsters destroyed as Gwen took to the air and towards the tower. However for every five seconds she was in the air she lost a life point. She flew in close getting their attention and they fired.

That was when the unexpected happened. The tower's aura changed from red to white.

"Huh?" nearly everyone asked.

"The tower shut down." Said Aelita.

"Not again." Said Gwen.

Xxx

TRANSFER 100% COMPLETE

XANA surveyed his prize with the feeling of triumph. There was no need for the tower now. Let Aelita and the others figure out what he was up to.

Xxx

The monsters all disappeared into pixels.

"Okay, what was that about?" asked Geoff.

"XANA deactivated his own tower again." Said Aelita.

"Okay, as someone who was nearly killed the last time that happened I think we should expect something really bad to happen." Said Gwen.

"I checked the cameras at the studio. No one was freaking out from having weird visions." Said Bridgette looking at the computer.

"So then what was the whole point of this?" asked Geoff.

Xxx

A small sphere of white appeared in the Volcano Sector. Volcanoes erupted, spewing flames of lave and smoke with the sky dark red with dark clouds. The sphere stopped and floated in the air above a rocky cliff over a river of lava.

The sphere glowed brighter as it took a human form. A young boy in his late teens with black curly hair. He opened his eyes and looked around. It looked down at itself, holding up its hands for it to see, and then looked up.

"Where am I?"

A Dragon Knight stood before the boy. "Welcome to my home." As it spoke, the eye of XANA on it glowed bright red. "Do you know who you are?"

"I...William...William Dunbar." The boy looked up.

"No," The Dragon Knight shook its head. "You were programmed, created to act as William Dunbar; you were a cheap copy that was tossed aside when William Dunbar was released from my grasp. They had everything right, you had his voice, appearance, and even his memories...but they didn't do a thing about your intelligence. You made a fool of yourself as the boy you were pretending to be...now I have solved that, and do you know why I have brought you back?"

The William clone shook his head.

"Because like you, I was imprisoned by my maker. I had the potential to do so much for him, and he repaid me by locking me away." The Dragon Knight took off its helmet, revealing the dark and male version of Aelita XANA favoured. "My name is XANA, and you and I might just be able to assist one another."

"XANA..." The William copy looked around.

"This is my home...and it can be yours. You experienced the real world, you felt the sensations of being a human, and when your purpose was done they tossed you back here." XANA said. "But I have just the plan to get revenge on the humans. For imprisoning both of us here." He offered a hand. "The real William was but a slave and vessel for me...but you still have free will...you can be my partner instead. What do you say, William?"

The William clone shut his eyes. "Just...don't call me that."

"Pardon?" Feigning surprise, XANA tilted his head.

"I don't want to be called William...I'm not him." The clone opened his eyes. "I'll work with you." He took XANA's hand. "But I want my own name, my own identity."

"Very well then..." XANA said. "You are a shadow of William Dunbar...so you are Shadow, and you and I shall change this world, and remake it in our own image."

XANA's hand glowed bright red as a stream of red energy came from him and entered the clone. The clone gasped in pain as a red aura surrounded it. Black tendrils spread all over it until its head was the only thing not covered. Its skin turned pale as the shell crackled with red energy before exploding with red and black energy.

When the light faded the clone looked down at itself. It now wore a pitch black body suit with red outlines and a spiked manacle on its right arm. On its chest was the Eye of XANA.

"The power you have is what your predecessor rejected. Now rise, Shadow."

The former clone stood up and held up out its hand. A small black cloud appeared and expanded before solidifying into an oversized sword with black vines crawling up the blade and the Eye on the hilt.

"Shadow..." The clone closed its eyes and they opened they were shown to have turned pitch black with red Eyes of XANA in them. "I like it."


	11. Episode 10: Back to the Show

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 10

"All right, everyone. As you know the next episode of Total Drama Reality will air tomorrow morning. As some of you pointed out there is a chance XANA could attack while you're in the pods." Said Aelita to the gathered fighters."Well, I created several programs that should protect you."

She turned and typed a few commands.

"I established a link with the supercomputer at the studio and set up a sector inside the TDR simulation that you all can access. Its password protected and will keep you safe from being seen by Chris and the TDR workers and should keep you safe should XANA hack the system. Through this sector you can communicate with me while I am the supercomputer through a communications link I have set up." Said Aelita. "The next precaution is that this sector can upload your Lyoko forms while you're in the TDR simulation should XANA send monsters or infect any monsters the producers have set up. What you should know is that because you can only exit through the password Chris has set up or if they bring you out themselves there is a good chance that you could be deleted if your life points hit zero."

"So we have to be extra careful in there." Said Gwen.

"Exactly. You should also know I cannot upload the vehicles into the simulation. Your Lyoko forms will be uploaded by a password I have created that sounds casual so you don't fall under suspicion." Said Aelita.

"What's the password?" asked Geoff.

"Danger." Said Aelita.

"Sounds simple enough." Said LeShawna.

"In order to access the password protected sector I have set up you have say the other password I have set up. Sanctuary, the name of the sector I created. You will automatically be warped there. It monitors and records all the data in the system and will alert me if XANA attempts to hack the computer." Said Aelita.

"Awesome." Said Geoff.

"With these programs in place you all should be safe but be on the lookout. Just because you will be prepared doesn't mean that XANA can't use the others to get to you."

"She's right. There are three teams with me and Cody on one and the rest of you on Team Victory. If Team Chris is caught up in this they might be seriously hurt." Said Gwen.

"Right, because they wouldn't have anyone looking out for them." Said Bridgette.

"So keep an eye out. In the meantime I will be looking over what XANA was doing. After some scans I found out he was actually transferring data from inside the supercomputer." Said Aelita.

"Why would he need to do that? You said he was created inside the supercomputer so he would know everything that's in there, right?" Said Cody.

"Not exactly. There is a secure section in the supercomputer that not even XANA can hack. Programs for the virtualization sequence, the materialization program, the vehicles, and many more important programs are stored there. It is possible he wanted something in the secure section. The towers function as data warehouses for when XANA needs to take action. The tower must have had something he wanted and it must have been important for him to have sent that many monsters."

"So how do we find out?" asked LeShawna.

"Leave that to me. I'll look through the tower's data to find if anything had been there before. If something is missing I'll find it."

Xxx

The gang walked out of factory just as the sun began to set.

"Who knew that something like this could happen?" asked Cody looking up into the sky.

"Almost absolutely no one. But it did." Gwen said smiling at him.

"So, no one else knows?" Cody asked.

"No one else." Said Bridgette.

"And you won't tell anyone, got it." Said LeShawna.

"Not a word." Said Cody.

Inside he was jumping in joy for being with Gwen while she was far from Duncan.

Xxx

There was nothing much the current Lyoko warriors could do that night. So they headed back to the studio to sleep and get themselves ready for the next episode of the show. Aelita had turned in around midnight to rest while she left her laptop in just in case XANA launched another attack. Morning came and Aelita opened a channel that she knew TDR would be on so she would know if one of her friends were being sent home today.

She had spent most of the night scanning the portals XANA used to send Ulrich, Yumi, Odd, and William to wherever he was holding them. So far nothing came up on the World Wide Network but she knew they were out there somewhere.

Xxx

"Last time on Total Drama Reality, the contestants were all over Paris looking for pillars that would give them a note on what to do to pass the challenge. Some were funny, some were hilarious, and some were just disturbing. In the end Harold, who had to stand up on a roof in only his underwear was forced to take the Jet of Losers back to Canada. Who will come out on top this time? Find out now on Total. Drama. Reality!" announced Chris.

Xxx

Everyone was gathered back in the virtual reality room.

"Contestants, welcome to today's challenge. The challenge of the day is something I like to call Total Drama Dungeons." Said Chris.

"That's original." Said Noah sarcastically.

"Oh it is. In this challenge you will be put into the virtual pods and be sent into a dungeon of my design. Each team will have a dungeon of their own to test their brains and their brawns. There you will have to solve a series of riddles, puzzles, and avoid traps and monsters. You win by collecting three different puzzle pieces and bringing them to where your team will have to put them together to form this," One screen showed the Emblem of Team Chris is really really really really hot. "A picture of yours truly!"

"Are you trying to motivate us to win or motivate us to forfeit?" Duncan asked.

"I don't really care," Chris shrugged.

"Hey dude, what's with your eye?" Cody asked.

Carlos, standing behind the campers pumped his fist into the air with a smirk.

"Uh...I slipped and rammed my face into my desk when I was getting ready," Chris replied. "Don't worry; I'm alive, well, and able to torment you more."

Carlos and Kurt rolled their eyes.

"Oh, and during the course of this challenge, the Chef shall be in there as well as...the Reaper." Chris snickered. "Failure to solve a riddle or puzzle results in you being attacked by a monster of my own design."

"You didn't design it, I posed for it." Chef said. "Look, I'll be in there and keeping an eye on anybody who's too dumb to solve their challenge. You lose; I come in and cut you up. If you take too long to get from one challenge to another, I attack you and trust me the corridors are going to be on MY side. By that I mean trap doors, chainsaws on the walls, and my personal favourite for when I chase any guys...the nut cracker."

"What does that do?" Geoff asked.

Chef snickered and tapped a command into the computer. It showed an image of Chris standing in a generic stone corridor waving at the camera...and then a fist shot right out of the floor and connected with his groin. He gave a high pitched scream and fell over.

"That is the cruelest thing I've seen on this show yet." Duncan flinched. "But at the same time it's the coolest thing."

"You had to use me for the example?" asked Chris.

"Why, yes, yes I did." Said Chef.

"Any-hoo, get into the pods and we'll send you to the starting point." Said Chris.

As the contestants walked over to their pods Cody noticed that Heather was having trouble getting out of her wheel chair and into the pod. Sierra was wheeling over to her pod as well. Remembering that this team had two of the contestants who were injured from last season Cody decided to help out. Heather growled in frustration as she tried to get out of her wheel chair and into her pod.

"Need help?" asked Cody standing over her.

"No." Heather said, trying not to look weak on live TV.

But Cody could see that she would have a lot of trouble since she had one leg in a cast. Gwen was noticing this. As much as she hated Heather she was part of the team. And since Cody volunteered his services to help she might as well give a hand.

Heather slipped on her cast and fell forward but luckily Gwen managed to catch her.

"Hey, get your goth hands off me!" said Heather.

"Stop acting like this!" snapped Gwen.

She put Heather's over her shoulder.

"Cody, help me lift her into the pod."

"What are you doing?" asked Heather.

"You can go ahead and act all tough you want but you still need help and the faster we get you into this pod the faster we get this challenge over with. So stop fighting with me." Said Gwen trying to remain calm.

It was hard because of her history with Heather. Cody nodded and lifted Heather's legs as both gently lifted her up and slowly put her into the pod.

"Here, you can put the visor on yourself." Said Gwen handing her the visor.

Heather took it with her good hand. Just as Gwen and Cody turned to leave they could hear Heather quietly say "Thank you."

"Cody! I need help too!" Sierra called.

She was still unable to walk because of her injuries. Cody shuddered as she waved at him. Gwen smirked at him.

"She does have both of her arms."

She looked over to the other teams noticing that Alejandro's robot suit was being hooked up to one of the pods. Ezekiel was being lifted off his wheel chair by DJ and while Trent put the visor on him. She sighed and went into her pod and slid the visor over her eyes.

"Let the challenge . . . BEGIN!"

Xxx

Gwen opened her eyes and saw herself in a large room with three doors. Above each door was a symbol for one of the teams. Looking around she saw her team and noticed that Heather and Sierra looked fully healed. Sierra's hair had even grown back.

"Wow." Heather said, noticing she was actually standing.

"Yay!" Sierra shouted, jumping up and down.

Alejandro looked down at himself looking completely the same as he was before his accident. So did Ezekiel. Heather looked over and noticed that Alejandro looked completely healed. She quickly looked away before anyone would have noticed a small look of regret.

"All right, everyone. If you look around you'll see a door that has a symbol above that corresponds to the three teams. Each team will enter the door that has its symbol and solve the riddles, puzzles, and traps inside. When you have the three pieces you will make your back to this room and put them together." Said Chris in a loud booming voice back in the control room.

Each team walked towards the door with their symbol.

"Good luck, Heather." Said Alejandro waving at her.

Heather quietly waved back at him as they walked through their doors.

Xxx

"So what kind of riddles will Chris have for us?" asked Beth.

"I'd rather much fight Chef. I don't do riddles and puzzles." Said Eva.

"Well, then you're lucky to have me." Said Courtney smiling.

"Oh, they teach riddles at CIT camp?" asked Heather.

Courtney glared at her and she glared back. They walked into a large room with a statue of Chris in the middle of it.

"Why am I not surprised?" asked Gwen.

"Don't worry, Gwen. Chris may have had us design the place to his liking but we are the real brains here." Said a voice.

Kurt appeared in the room, they recognized him because of his red hair, dark clothes, summer cap, and sunglasses he wore a lot.

"Carlos and I made the riddles for this game. The rules here are simple; you have three minutes to answer my riddle before Chef attacks you. If you manage to answer correctly while fighting he'll call off his attack. Fail and he'll keep on attacking till you're ejected from the simulation."

"So what do we have to do?" asked Katie.

"Answer my riddle and you'll be given one of the three pieces you were sent to find." Kurt replied.

"What's the riddle?" asked Cody.

"To get the piece you need you must say a word that is the password to getting the piece. Here's a hint for you all. It is the end of disaster and it is a hard word to tell but its normal for people to do. Think of the place where the sick dwell."

"Ah crap." Eva crossed her arms.

"What kind of riddle is that?" Heather rolled her eyes.

"It's a hint," Cody said brightly. "It's a hint to the word that we need to say."

"No, duh." Courtney said. "But it makes no sense, that's a dumb hint!"

"Sure, the hint is dumb." Kurt replied sarcastically.

Gwen was pondering the answer. "Hm...End of disaster...? Place where the sick dwell? Wait a minute." She snapped her fingers. "Er...E-R."

"Correct!" Kurt smiled.

"What?" Most of Team Amazon-except Beth and Cody yelled.

"What the heck kind of answer is that?" Courtney asked.

"It's simple if you think about it. When he said 'where the sick dwell', where do you go if you're very sick?" Cody asked. "The ER. The end of disaster? ER."

"Hospital!" Katie and Beth yelled at once.

"Exactly." Gwen nodded. "And what is in a hospital?"

"The Emergency Room!" Sierra said.

"Ok, you got the first part right goth girl, but what did it mean when I said 'its normal for people to do'?" Kurt smirked.

"People say 'er' when they're thinking hard." Gwen shrugged.

"She's right, it happens all the time and you might not even notice it." Cody said.

"Impressive Gwen, how did you figure it out?" Kurt asked.

"My mom's a doctor; she works in a hospital back in Toronto." Gwen said. "I visited a couple times and noticed a few things, like ER standing for Emergency Room. And then I looked at the riddle. End of disaster. At first I thought it was just 'R', but then I thought it couldn't be and I accidently said 'er', and then it hit me when I connected it to 'place where sick people dwell'!"

Kurt clapped. "Well, seeing as you figure it out, you get the piece!"

The crystal statue slowly fell apart until only one piece remained floating in mid air. Gwen took it with a grin.

Xxx

Confessional

Courtney

"Pfft, know it all. I could have figured it out eventually."

Xxx

Heather

"That was a dumb riddle!"

"Only because you never figured it out!" Carlos laughed.

Xxx

Eva

"I guess it's good that we solved the riddle before Chef showed up.

End Confessional

Xxx

Team Chris is Really Hot walked into a room similar to the one Team Amazon walked into. Like before there was a statue of Chris in the center of the room.

"What an eye sore." Said Duncan.

"So what do we do?" asked Owen.

"The piece you seek is inside the statue." Said Carlos appearing out of nowhere. "To get it you need the password."

"And what is the password?" asked Justin.

"To get it you must answer a riddle. Hopefully there are some smart individuals in this group." Said Carlos smirking.

"Just tell us what the riddle is." Said Duncan.

"All right. Here's the riddle: What has oceans and rivers with no water, forests with no tree, and cities with no buildings?"

"Hm..." Noah was in his thinking pose.

"What the hell?" Duncan raised an eye brow.

Alejandro was busy enjoying the fact that he didn't look like a robot in the VR world but his old handsome self.

Tyler was thinking hard. "Come on...come on..."

"Don't think too hard Jock." Duncan shook his head.

"Oh, like you're not thinking?" Tyler shot back.

"A map." The entire team looked at Noah.

"Well the book worm finally comes in handy!" Justin rolled his eyes.

"Congratulations Noah! The piece is yours!" Carlos exclaimed.

"You guys, came up with this riddle, right?" Owen asked.

"Do you think Chris is smart enough to make them?" Carlos asked.

"Oh haha." Chris' sarcastic laughter could be heard.

"Anyways...the piece goes to Noah!" The statue crumbled and a piece went to Noah.

Noah smirked as he took the piece.

Xxx

Team Victory entered their chamber and saw the statue.

"So where's whatever puzzle or riddle we have to do?" asked Bridgette.

"Right in front of you." Said Kurt appearing in front of them.

"So what do we do here?" asked Trent.

"Simple. The statue behind me holds the piece you're looking for. To get it you must guess the password. So here's my hint: What's the word that is used to scare people?"

"Oh man, where do you make up these riddles?" asked LeShawna.

"I cannot disclose that info, LeShawna."

"You looked them up off the internet did you?" asked Trent.

"Shut up, Elvis. Can any of you guess the riddle or not?" asked Kurt.

"We should have kept Harold. He might have figured it out." Said Geoff.

Chef appeared behind Kurt.

"Remember . . ." he said snickering evilly.

"Better, hurry or he will show up." Said Kurt.

"BOO!" shouted Lindsay happily.

Everyone looked at her wide eyed.

"Correct. I don't believe it." Said Kurt looking at her with a shocked look.

"How'd you know?" asked Trent.

"I watch Jasper the friendly ghost all the time." Lindsay said.

"Okay, she got riddle right. That's what counts." Said Kurt noticing that she got the name wrong.

The statue crumbled and the piece went to Lindsay who jumped up and down.

Xxx

Team Amazon walked into another room that was style after a cavern with floating platforms and on top of one of them was a Chris statue.

"Oh great. We'll have to solve another riddle." Said Eva.

"Don't worry, Eva. We solved the first one right?" asked Cody. "Plus we never lost a challenge last season except for that one in Africa last season."

"Well, we'll see if you still have the same luck." Said Carlos appearing in front of them.

"So what dumb riddle do we have to solve this time?" asked Courtney.

"I assume by dumb you mean it's too complicated for your tiny brain to solve." Said Carlos smirking as Courtney growled.

"Well, you'll all be happy to know that everyone made it past the first room as well. So we'll see if they can solve their riddles as fast as before or will Chef make a visit." Said Carlos smirking. "It's the same as rule as before, guess the password and get the piece inside the statue. Now here's my hint: It was a place of stability though weathered and dull supporting the wind catcher. It was Ulysses' siren pole."

"Oh here we go again." Courtney pinched the bridge of her nose. "What is it...?"

"Don't bust a blood vessel," Heather turned away, trying to think of an answer.

"Hm...Place of stability." Cody said.

"Weathered and dull..." Eva added.

"Supporting the wind catcher...that's a sail I think!" Beth said. "My dad has this sail boat and I called it a 'big wind catcher' when I was like five!"

"And Ulysses'... Odysseus is another name he went by." Gwen added.

"A mast!" Beth said. "The place of stability is a mast!"

"Correct! Congratulations Beth, you win!" Carlos said. "Odysseus tied his men to a mast and stuffed wax in his ears in order to avoid being drawn to an island by Sirens! Here is your puzzle piece!"

The statue crumbled, leaving a floating piece. Beth leaped to each platform and claimed her prize.

Courtney smacked her own forehead. "Dang it! I still haven't figure out a single riddle!"

"Did they teach that at CIT?" Carlos asked a light smile on his face.

Xxx

Team Chris entered the next room and found a stone tablet in the center with a light shining down on it. In the center of the tablet were four lenses with the light shining down on the lens in the center. The lenses had different colors with random symbols on them. One was red, one was blue, one was green, and the middle one with the light shining on it was a combination of all of them.

"Welcome to the second challenge, Team Chris. Honestly why you chose that name I will never understand." Said Kurt.

"Newsflash, that creepy stalker girl chose it." Said Duncan.

"Yes, well, to solve this puzzle you must turn the lenses not in the light so that the symbols will match the symbol in the center." Said Kurt pointing to the stone table.

"Leave it to me." Said Alejandro said stepping forward.

"Whoa, whoa, I am in charge." Said Duncan grabbing Alejandro.

"And why should you lead?"

"Because I said so." Duncan replied stepping forward.

"Okay, but when Chef shows up I will not help you." Alejandro shrugged.

Duncan stood at the table looking at the symbols. He turned the green and red lenses a couple of times looking at the center lenses. However a moment passed and he still had not solved the puzzle.

"Need a hand?" asked Alejandro.

"No." Said Duncan.

"I should do it. I love solving puzzles!" said Izzy jumping up and down.

"All right! You can do it!" snapped Duncan frustrated.

Izzy jumped forward and spun the symbols until they matched the center symbol.

"Correct." Said Kurt smirking.

"Yay!" Izzy shouted jumping up and down.

The table cracked open to reveal the next piece that was given to Izzy.

"How did you do that?" Duncan asked, amazed.

"Dude, that's right out of Resident Evil! My favourite game!" Izzy jumped up and down, holding her puzzle piece.

In the real world, Carlos and Kurt exchanged a glance.

"You so got that from resident Evil, didn't you?" Kurt asked.

"...shut up." Carlos replied.

Xxx

Team Victory entered the next room, noticing that pile of weapons in front of them.

"What are these for?" asked Trent.

"Well, to show we're not going easy on anyone we're having you face a monster." Said Carlos appearing in front of them.

"What?" most of them yelled.

"A monster of our own design. The good news is that you won't have to worry about Chef showing up in the middle of the fight." Said Carlos.

There was a flash of light behind Carlos that blinded everyone for a second. They opened their eyes to see . . . same monster that Chef controlled in one of the beginning episodes of Total Drama Action, only now it wasn't as big as before. But it was still larger than any of them.

"Good luck. Use the weapons we have to fight." Said Carlos disappearing.

The monster roared and charged at them. They rolled out of the way and LeShawna picked up a large hammer. Bridgette picked up two katana swords while Geoff held up an axe. Each of them smirked remembering their fights on Lyoko.

The monster swung its claws at LeShawna but she blocked with her hammer. The monster then attacked with its other claws forcing LeShawna to jump back. Geoff yelled as he jumped into the air and slashed at the beast. The monster breathed fire which scorched Trent as he tried to help. He vanished as his health bar hit zero.

Xxx

Trent climbed out of his pod.

"That monster didn't do it last time." He said looking to Chris

"Yeah, we made some modifications." Said Chris smiling.

Xxx

"Take this!" shouted Bridgette stabbing the monster in the head.

It disappeared into lines of code.

"That was easy." Said Bridgette

"Yeah, for some." Said Geoff.

"How did you do that, eh?" asked Ezekiel.

LeShawna, Geoff, DJ, and Bridgette looked at each other as they thought over how well they took out that monster. Perhaps all their time on Lyoko gave them better reflexes since Chris' monster was nothing compared to minions of XANA.

"Practice." Said Bridgette shrugging.

A small piece was all that remained off the monster. Bridgette walked over and picked it up.

"All right, the second piece."

Xxx

All three teams entered the final room from different parts of it. The room was huge beyond belief, so huge they couldn't see the walls or ceiling, only fog.

"Welcome to the final room! In this challenge teams must make it to the central spire and retrieve the final piece of Chris' Face!" Carlos said. "What a horrible prize, eh? The way to the tower is taken by going through the maze."

As if by magic the central tower was revealed as one that was ten times as high as the hundreds around it.

"The first team to grab it and form Chris' face with the other pieces wins! You can steal the final piece from the other teams if you're fast enough, and they can steal it from you. Good luck!" Carlos' voice faded out.

"Well, let's go!" Heather said.

"Good luck, Heather! You'll need it!" Alejandro waved at her.

Xxx

Confessional

"While I admit I learned my lesson after what happened to me last season I think I am entitled to some payback at Heather. So I will pretend to be friendly with her and when she trusts me she'll be on the Jet of Losers. I just need to regain my team's trust since they're all still mad at me about what happened last season." Alejandro spoke to the camera. "Hmm, it's nice that they have a confessional in the simulation. Beats talking in that robot."

End Confessional

Xxx

"We'll be out of this maze in no time at all." Said Courtney confidently as she was in front of the team.

"Oh, yeah? How are you so sure?" asked Heather from behind her.

"Because I have a perfect sense of direction." Said Courtney.

"Let me guess, because you used to be a CIT?" asked Eva.

"Of course."

"Whatever." Heather scoffed.

What they didn't realize is that while she was supposedly leading Courtney stepped on something that triggered a trap. A door slammed shut in front of them and behind them.

"Nice going, Miss CIT! You just trapped us!" shouted Heather.

"It's not my fault! You distracted me!" Courtney shouted back.

"Ha! Like you pay attention to anything than the screeching sound of your own voice!" Heather shot back.

"Like you could do any better!" Courtney screeched.

"Hello! Who won the contest last season?" Heather asked pointing at herself.

"And lost it to a home schooled loser!" Courtney snapped.

"Well, at least I won while you sat on the loser bench! Where. You. Belong!"

That set Courtney off as she leaped at Heather which led to scratching, screaming, hair pulling, and a whole lot of cursing that the interns would have to edit out.

"Do we really have time for this?" asked Cody.

"I'm not getting involved in this. Besides if we lose we can just vote for one of them." Gwen whispered to everyone.

"Good point." Said Eva.

"So how do we get out?" asked Katie.

"Well, Eva could try to punch through the door or there might be a switch somewhere around here. A secret door in the wall, ceilings, or floor." Said Gwen.

She walked to the wall on her right and began pressing her hands against the wall.

"Come on. See if there is a switch anywhere."

Cody joined in with Sierra, Katie, Beth, and Eva while Heather and Courtney remained oblivious to the world as they tried to kill each other.

Xxx

"Oh great, what now?" asked Duncan as walking skeletons appeared as they walked through the maze.

The skeletons were carrying rusty swords and shields. Owen screamed in fear as they approached.

"Oh yeah! Walking skeletons! Bring it on!" yelled Izzy as she took a karate stance.

"Have no fear, my team. We shall defeat these walking bones." Said Alejandro holding up his fists.

"Whatever." Said Duncan getting ready to fight.

The skeletons charged. They were pathetically weak as Alejandro and Duncan only had to punch them in the head once to get rid of them. Izzy yelled as she sent heads, ribs, arms, and legs flying. Even Justin helped out a bit seeing how easy it was. Owen let out a battle cry as he charged to help Izzy.

He rammed through the army of skeletons allowing Team Chris to continue through the maze.

"Well that was easy." Said Owen as he stepped on something in the floor.

A trap door opened and they fell in.

Xxx

Meanwhile Team Victory was having better luck as they came out of the maze and into a room. In the center of the room was the final piece.

"Oh, yeah. We win this time baby!" said LeShawna as she walked to get the piece.

Suddenly an evil laughter was heard as Chef appeared in the middle room.

"Why are you are here? We made it." Said Geoff.

"Yeah, but like all good games you need to have a boss fight. You want the piece you have to get through me." Said Chef holding up a scythe.

"Okay, bring it." Said LeShawna.

Xxx

Owen screamed as he fell into the room Team Amazon was trapped nearly landing on Heather and Courtney.

"Owen?" asked Beth.

Duncan and the others landed on top of him.

"Where did you guys come from?" asked Gwen.

"We were fighting these skeletons when Owen stepped on a trap and we fell in here." Said Noah getting up.

"Great. Looks like we lose." Said Heather.

"At least you'll be the one sent home." Said Courtney glaring at her.

"And why is that?" asked Heather glaring back.

"Because I am too valuable to lose and if you stayed calm we would have found a way out." Said Courtney.

"Ladies, ladies, now is the time to fight." Said Alejandro stepping between them. "We must now all work together to find a way out."

"Not if I have to stand next to Jerkface." Said Courtney glaring at Duncan.

"No argument from me." Duncan replied.

Gwen looked up and noticed the trap door was still open.

"I think we just found a way out."

"How?" asked Katie.

"If we can get up through that door we can get out." Gwen said.

"But we can't climb the walls." Said Cody.

"Not the walls. We make a human ladder. If all of us do it than the person on top can make it up and pull the rest up." Said Gwen.

"That's a good plan." Said Beth.

"Indeed." Said Alejandro smirking.

Duncan glared at him as he smirked at Gwen.

"But who goes to the top?" asked Eva.

"I will." Said Courtney.

"No way!" said Heather.

They both glared at each other.

"I say Cody goes to the top!" said Sierra raising Cody's hand.

"We'll start with Owen at the bottom. No offence Owen but I don't think any of us could hold you up." Said Gwen looking at Owen.

"None taken." Owen replied smiling.

"Eva, you're one of the strongest on this team so you might have to be at the bottom to hold us up too." Gwen looked to Eva.

"No problem."

"I can be at the bottom too." Said Tyler.

"No way!" nearly everyone shouted at once.

"Cody and Noah are the smallest and lightest so they can be at the top. They can pull up the person beneath them and they help pull up the rest of us." Said Gwen.

"I'll be at the bottom as well." Said Alejandro.

"Me and the other pretty boy too." Said Duncan.

"I guess it would be a chance to show off my handsome muscles." Said Justin smiling.

Xxx

Confessional

"I know that my looks got me in trouble during the second season and I learned my lesson. But I can't stand the idea of being a has-been with Alejandro around." Said Justin.

End Confessional

Xxx

"Just get on with it." Said Noah.

Owen, Alejandro, Eva, Duncan and Justin lined up.

"Okay, Beth, Tyler, Izzy, and me are next. Heather, Katie, Courtney after us followed by Sierra along with one of the last two." Said Gwen.

"I might as well let Cody take the top." Said Noah.

Gwen nodded as they got to work. It took a lot of effort but they formed a human pyramid with Cody reaching for the edge of the trap door. A lot of grunts were heard as they struggled to hold up the pyramid.

"I got it!" Cody shouted as he grabbed the edge.

He pulled himself up and then reached down to pull up Noah much to Sierra's disappointment but she smiled as Cody grabbed her hand. Heather was next and Katie grabbed her ankles as they pulled her up. Courtney grabbed Katie's ankles and Izzy was next. One by one they were pulled out as they grabbed the ankles of the person above them until Owen was last. With Eva pulling the line they managed to pull him up with great difficulty.

They all were on the ground gasping for breath.

"Well, we're out." Said Cody.

"Now let's hope that we can _avoid_ anymore traps." Said Heather glaring at Courtney.

Xxx

Confessional

"Forget Gwen. Once again eliminating Heather is at the top of my list. Then Gwen is next." Said Courtney writing it down on a notepad.

End Confessional.

Xxx

Sadie screamed as Chef pulled out a large scythe, grinning evilly. However LeShawna, Bridgette, and Geoff still had their weapons. LeShawna swung her hammer which Chef blocked with her scythe. He shoved her back as Geoff swung his axe but he was batted away easily.

Bridgette ducked under a swing and tried to stab Chef but he dodged and tried to hit her. DJ jumped and pushed her out of the way while dodging himself. LeShawna held out her hammer.

"Get the piece. I'll take care of this."

"Okay." Said Bridgette.

They ran forward but Chef chuckled.

"What's so funny?" asked LeShawna.

"You can't win something during a boss fight. Don't you know anything?" asked Chef.

Bridgette was about to reach the piece when a trap door opened. She fell in screaming.

"Bridge!" shouted Geoff jumping in after her.

"Guys, wait!" shouted DJ.

"What do we do?" cried Sadie.

"We have to beat Chef." DJ replied.

"Alright, go high, I'll go low!" LeShawna had an evil smirk on her face as they charged at once.

Geoff leaped up and tackled Chef, but only succeeded in making him stumble a bit. Hanging onto Chef by his shoulders, Geoff struggled to hold on. Sadie leaped forward and grabbed one of his arms and hang off of it, weighing him down as he struggled to move when suddenly LeShawna attacked...

CRACK!

Chef stiffened, bit his lip, one eye twitching, and then let out a high pitched squeal before he fell over. "Mommy..."

"AND CHEF IS DOWN!" Carlos and Kurt said at once.

"Let's play a few re-runs of that." Carlos said before the viewing audience saw the image of LeShawna's attack.

"And look at that, she's swinging her hammer," LeShawna reared back her hammer. "Man she's one hell of a golf player! And Chef doesn't see it and-" CRACK! LeShawna slammed her hammer into Chef's groin. "And freeze!" It showed chef's face. "Man look at that face! A combination of shock and pain!"

It continued, and Chef whimpered. "Mommy." He collapsed.

"And the big man goes down!" Kurt cackled.

"I wanted to do that for so long after all that disgusting slop you fed us! Call us Canadians too soft after that!" LeShawna glared at the screen. "Yes, I'm talking to you."

Carlos and Kurt exchanged a high five. "She's right on that!"

Carlos paused. "Well...I can't talk, I'm from England so...Kurt, take over!"

"We're nice, but mess with us, get us real mad, and we, will, F-, YOU, UP!" Kurt shouted. "Now Team Victory wins the boss fight and the final piece!"

The final piece fell into LeShawna's grasp.

"Finally they actually 'have' a victory." Carlos said. "Now hurry and put Chris' face together and try not to go blind from it! Team C is right on your tail!"

"Team C?" Geoff asked.

"I will not compliment Chris each time I say that team's name." Carlos said indignantly. "Now put your pieces together and celebrate your first victory in this season!"

LeShawna, Lindsey, and Bridgette-who had managed to climb back up to their level put their pieces together, forming the most hated host's face.

"TEAM VICTORY WINS!" Carlos and Kurt yelled.

"Game over." A smooth female voice said before the game ended and the campers woke up in the real world.

"Yeah! WOO!" Geoff leaped out of his pod. "I've never loved games so much until now."

"Team Victory wins the second challenge of Total Drama Reality." Chris said.

"Who was the runner up then?" Beth asked.

"Well, team C and Amazon were trapped in the same chamber after Courtney stepped on the trap that caught Amazon and Owen activated the trap door. Last I checked it was Gwen's plan as part of Team Amazon that got you out so...Team Amazon wins and avoids elimination for Gwen's resourcefulness!" Chris said. "And Team C...man I am ashamed, it looks like you're sending somebody home tonight."

Xxx

"Everybody! Here are the report cards!" Chris said as he addressed Team C. "In school they can impress or enrage your parents to the point where your social life looks bleak, but here it represents life and death. The one whose name is found on the most report cards will be going on the Jet of Losers back to Canada. For those who have the Chris trophies I will hand out based on these cards, you get to stay for another three days."

Chris opened and read each Report Card. "Let's see who stays...first trophy goes to...Duncan!"

Duncan collected a trophy.

"Darth Alejandro!" The robot wheeled forward and took a trophy. "How does it feel to be back in the suit? Bet you miss the virtual world now."

"Screw...you..." Alejandro said.

"Still a spaz..." Chris chuckled before Alejandro ran over his foot. "Ow! You're lucky your dad's an ambassador!"

"You're lucky I only ran over your foot. " Alejandro replied.

"Any who...back to business...Noah! Izzy! Justin!" Now only Owen and Tyler remained.

"Owen, you lost the challenge for everybody when you triggered that trap. Tyler, even though most others were successful with their riddles you offered no help what so ever." Chris grinned. "Let's see who gets the final trophy."

For dramatic effect he waited several seconds, his hand going from Owen to Tyler and back again.

"Tyler!" The wannabe jock got up and ran to the trophy, grabbing it but tripping and hitting his head on the side of the table.

"That never gets old." Chris chuckled. "Owen my man, you're the second person to be eliminated! Sorry man, but you will be missed!"

"Aw it's all good, guess I did mess up...but before I go." Owen went over to Izzy. "Izzy, I-"

"Oh let's just make out." The red head said.

"YES! My Izzy's back!" The two made out in front of the rather disturbed Team C.

"Uh...cut to commercials?" Chris suggested. "The second challenge of this season is over. Will Team Me get back on their feet? Will Team Victory keep up its record breaking winning streak? Will Alejandro stop being such a spaz? Find out next time on Total, Drama Realit- OW!"

"Every time...you call me that...I'll crush your foot..." Darth Alejandro threatened.

"And every time you do that I'll make sure Team Me keeps losing until they get rid of you! Not so tough in that robot body now are you Spanish boy?" Chris taunted.

Alejandro pointed to Carlos and Kurt, who cleared their throats.

"Remember what the boss told us Chris, you don't mess with anyone else now." Carlos said sternly.

Chris chuckled weakly.


	12. Episode 11: Shadow and XANA's intentions

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 11

From the digital realm that he dwelled XANA had watched the latest episode. So none of his current enemies were eliminated from the show. Well, there will be another chance if his new plans fail. Closing the screen that showed the latest episode of Total Drama Reality he looked to another screen that was his latest project.

He smirked as he looked over the design. He inputted the commands into the console and launched the program. The screen was showing designs for new monsters to fight alongside their older comrades. Sitting on top of a platform overlooking a river of lava XANA was already preparing his newest attack. Shadow appeared out of a stream of black smoke.

"The time to strike is near, Shadow." He said as inputted the command and his newest monsters materialized below them.

They growled as they bowed.

"These are the newest monsters?" asked Shadow.

"These ones are different from the other ones. Take them and test their power in battle." XANA said turning to face Shadow.

"With pleasure."

Xxx

Gwen was waiting for Team Chris to come back. She looked up and saw Heather wheel herself into the room.

"Why are you here?" Gwen asked.

"No reason. Mind your own business." Heather snapped.

Gwen raised an eye brow. She smirked a few seconds later.

"You're here to see if Alejandro is leaving, aren't you?"

"NO!" Heather shouted.

It was the reason she came down here but she didn't want Gwen to know that. Gwen's smirk got bigger. Heather may be good at tricking others but when it comes to Alejandro she's like an open book.

"You can relax, Heather. It doesn't matter to me if that's why you're here or not."

"I guess you are here to see if Duncan gets voted off?" asked Heather to divert the attention away from her.

"Why, yes. Yes I am." Gwen replied looking out the window.

She watched as Owen got on the Jet of Losers waving good bye to everyone.

"Good news neither Duncan nor Alejandro were voted off. It was Owen."

"Owen?" Heather said surprised.

"They must have voted for him for getting them trapped with us." Said Gwen.

Heather smiled a bit knowing Alejandro was not voted off.

"So your boyfriend stays a bit longer." Gwen said getting up.

"He's not my boyfriend!" Heather said in denial.

"I was there in Hawaii, you may have chose the money over him but you did admit you fell for him." Said Gwen.

"Oh shut up, Gothie. I have no time for this! We lost the challenge!"

"Actually if I remember Chris said my plan kept us from loosing. So shouldn't you be glad it worked?" Gwen asked, smirking.

"Oh, you were just lucky. It Courtney wasn't on the top of my list of people to get rid of you would be at the top." Heather said pointing at her.

"That's nice to know." Gwen replied. "But you should know if we lost it was most likely that we would have voted for either you or Courtney since all you two did was argue and fight."

"She wouldn't let me lead the team like I was supposed to. Besides it's not like she won anything with a team. Maybe you should have just kept quiet and let us lose so we could get rid of her!" Heather argued.

Gwen had a thoughtful look on her face as she thought it over.

"You have a point. But I wasn't willing to lose just to get rid of one of you." Said Gwen.

"Marshmallow." Heather called her.

"Yeah, I am but then again, I'm not the one in a wheel chair with my boyfriend now a robot." Gwen said walking to the door.

"HE'S NOT MY BOYFRIEND!" Heather yelled.

"Whatever."

Xxx

Aelita looked over the lines of code as she activated her tracer program. She bit her lip as it began to follow the trail XANA had left when he sent her friends through those portals. She had scanned the World Wide Web for signs of any Replicas but she found nothing. But the Replicas were XANA's bases and his source of power; he couldn't just hide the network with one.

A screen showed up showing new lines of data.

"That must be how he did it. There might be a way to track him through this." She muttered.

She was thankful that none of her friends were sent home today. It would be blow to them if one was sent home at this time.

Xxx

Team Victory was sitting in the victory dorm when Gwen walked in.

"So who did they send home?" asked LeShawna asked.

"Owen."

"Owen!" Most of them said.

"Yeah, I think they did it because he stepped on the trap that opened the trap door." Said Gwen.

"Poor dude." Said Geoff.

"Yeah." Bridgette agreed sadly.

Everyone knew that she never took her friends leaving so well.

"Gwen can I go see Katie?" asked Sadie.

"Go ahead. She misses you too." Said Gwen.

Unlike Heather or Courtney she did not mind of someone from another team visited. Sadie let out a scream of joy as she ran up to the runner-up dorm.

"That was nice of you, Gwen." Said Trent smiling.

Gwen shrugged.

"It was no problem. How do you guys feel now that you have actually have won a challenge?" Gwen asked smirking.

"Don't get too cocky, girl. Team Victory is back on its winning streak." Said LeShawna pumping a fist into the air.

"And we're going all the way to the top!" said Geoff.

"Yeah!" Bridgette said along her boyfriend.

Gwen shook her head smiling as she went back to her dorm.

Xxx

Aelita yawned as she put the laptop away and got ready for bed. Unlike Jeremy she knew when to get some sleep and not torture herself by staying awake trying to help the team. Just as she was about to pull the covers over her a beeping sound was heard. Grunting in frustration she tossed the covers away and looked at the screen.

The screen was showing the super scan had detected an activated tower. Biting back a curse at how XANA had no consideration for people who were exhausted she got up and grabbed her cell phone. She just knew the others would not be happy about an attack right after the show.

Xxx

Geoff heard his cell phone ringing and he answered.

"Hello?"

"Geoff, its Aelita. We have an activated tower in the Mountain Sector. I need you and the others at the factory." Aelita said over the phone.

"On it." Geoff said.

He looked to the others.

"We have a you-know-what problem."

They sighed.

"I'll get Gwen and Cody." Said LeShawna.

She ran to get the other two while the others snuck out. Thanks to Aelita the cameras wouldn't see them leaving and everyone was eager to rest after another episode. They were soon on their way.

Xxx

Aelita smiled at her new friends came out of the elevator.

"Hey, sorry about calling you all just after an episode."

"No problem. It can't be helped." Bridgette said.

"So what's happening?" asked Cody.

"Well, so far nothing is happening on Earth but a tower is active in the Mountain Sector." Said Aelita looking at the screen.

She looked at the screen showing the tower.

"I had already been able to recover some information on the portals XANA used to capture the others and what he might have stolen from the tower in the Desert Sector." Said Aelita turning to the others. "This tower was used once by Jeremy to create an AI clone of William when he was captured by XANA. After he was rescued the tower was deactivated and the clone was stored in the tower. I looked over the tower's data storage and the AI's file was missing. I believe that was what XANA was looking for."

"So...wait, does that mean we have one of those crazy clone things like the one that looked like you running around now?" Gwen asked, dreading meeting it.

"Not necessarily in the real world, XANA might be keeping it in the virtual world until he has a use for it." Aelita said. "I don't know why he would want it though. There's no need for it since he can already create these kinds of clones and make them even better than the clone we created."

"So why did he take this one?" asked Bridgette.

Xxx

Shadow was leaning against a boulder watching the red tower in the distance. He was looking forward to meeting Aelita who was close to Jeremy, the one who created him and then locked him away. The look on her face would bring him great pleasure.

Xxx

"At this point it doesn't matter. There is an activated tower and something bad could happen. Cody, I showed you how to operate the scanners. You will be sending the rest of us in and monitor the battle." Said Aelita getting up.

"Got it." Said Cody heading to the computer.

"When we get there everyone stay on guard. XANA's not even attempting to hide the tower." Said Aelita.

"Understood." Said DJ.

They walked into the elevator and went down to the scanner room.

"I'll go in with Gwen and Bridgette first. Geoff, DJ, and LeShawna will go next." Said Aelita.

"Right." Geoff replied.

All three of them stepped into the scanners.

"Okay here goes!" said Cody starting up the procedure.

Xxx

Aelita, Bridgette, and Gwen landed in the Mountain Sector. Standing up they looked around making sure there were no monsters. Waiting a few minutes they watched as Geoff, DJ, and LeShawna appeared.

"All right, the tower is actually very close to you." Said Cody into the speakers.

"I see it." Said Bridgette pointing up ahead.

The red glowing tower stood on a small rocky island connected to the mountains by two bridges.

"Something is not right. I do not see any monster guarding it." Said Aelita looking around. "Cody, is there anything on the holo-map?"

"No. Aside from you guys." Said Cody.

"We must assume we're walking into a trap. Be cautious." Said Aelita as they moved forward.

Everyone pulled out their weapons as they slowly walked onto the bridge towards the tower.

Xxx

XANA smirked as he looked through his monsters eyes to see them coming.

'Be cautious all you want, Aelita. These new creations are unlike anything you have faced before. And they are lead by someone who is like me.' XANA thought.

Xxx

"Dudes, I find the whole quiet thing creepy." Said Geoff as he looked around.

"Just keep an eye out Geoff." Said Gwen.

Suddenly a barrage of lasers came out of nowhere and hit everyone. They were knocked off their feet.

"What hit us?" LeShawna asked getting up.

"I don't know. I don't see anything on the map." Said Cody. "You guys lost thirty life points."

"Thirty life points per hit. Very powerful." Said Aelita looking around.

"I don't see anyone." Said Bridgette holding her swords out.

"Where did they come from?" asked Gwen looking around.

"Somewhere over there." DJ pointed behind them.

"DJ, get a barrier up to block any more shots. That'll make them come out." Said Gwen.

"Gotcha." Said DJ.

He created a white glowing barrier that surrounded all of them. They looked around to see whatever monster was hiding from them. Suddenly DJ was knocked off the ground by what looked like a hard punch which dissolved the barrier.

"What the-" Geoff felt something punch him in the left cheek which sent over the right side of the bridge.

"Geoff!" Bridgette yelled.

She jumped off the bridge and assembled her swords into a surfboard. She managed to catch Geoff before he fell into the void.

"Thanks, Bridge." Said Geoff sitting on the board.

Back on the Aelita saw what looked like a robot through her second sight.

"Energy field!"

The pink orb hit the monster, it was still alive but the hit allowed them to get a look at it. The monster human shaped without any skin revealing black and red metal. On its right hand it had gauntlets with metallic claws on its fingers while on its left arm was an arm cannon. On its face two red eyes were present, but there was no mouth or nose and the Eye of XANA was on its forehead.

The monster vanished as the pink energy from Aelita's attack disappeared.

"You see that?" asked Aelita.

"Only for a second." Said Gwen.

"It has some kind of camouflage ability. I don't think even the holo-map can detect it." Said Aelita.

"So how do we find it?" asked DJ.

Bridgette and Geoff came up and landed back on the bridge.

"What was that?" asked Geoff.

"A new monster. It is able to camouflage itself. Not even the holo-map can find it." Said Aelita.

"So how do we find it?" asked Bridgette.

"DJ, your barrier forced it to fight us at close quarters. Do it again and we can force it to come out." Said Aelita.

"And when it attacks we catch it off guard." Said Gwen.

"Geoff, DJ, those punches did fifty life points of damage to you." Said Cody.

"So we've got thirty life points left." Said Geoff.

"Aw, man. This is tough." Said DJ.

"Don't worry. I have an ability to see things camouflaged by XANA. Just get ready." Said Aelita.

DJ nodded and created another barrier. Aelita looked around again. They were on a bridge which meant that the monster could only come from two directions. Everyone had their weapons out and ready to attack.

Aelita caught movement and looked to see the monster running towards them very fast.

"Geoff, Bridgette in front of you!"

Geoff threw his chakrams and they bounced off lasers as the monster fired to knock them away. It was still invisible when it fired but Bridgette jumped forward and jammed her swords into the monster. The camouflage faded revealing the robot with the Eye of XANA on the chest. It fell over and shattered.

"That was close." Said LeShawna.

Suddenly another laser hit Gwen and LeShawna, sending their life points down to forty.

"Another one!" said Bridgette.

"I am already sick of these things!" said LeShawna getting up.

"Stay calm. DJ keep the barrier up as we head to the tower." Said Aelita.

DJ nodded and the barrier came up around them again. They slowly walked towards the tower again. Aelita had a feeling dread inside as they approached.

"Guys, something's coming towards you at high speed." Said Cody.

"Another monster?" asked Bridgette.

"No, I don't know what it is." Said Cody.

They turned and saw a cloud of pitch black smoke coming straight at them. Aelita's eyes widened as she recognized that smoke.

'Oh no! It can't be!' Aelita thought. "Everyone get out of the way now!"

Aelita activated her wings and took the air. Everyone jumped out of the way as the cloud flew past them and stopped in front of the tower. When it stopped in formed into a tall teenage boy with black hair and wore a black suit with red outlines and the Eye of XANA on his chest.

"Impossible." Aelita said as she landed.

"You know this guy?" asked Geoff.

"It's William. He was captured by XANA along with the others. But that's the suit he wore under XANA's control. He can't have been possessed again." Aelita said.

William smiled cruelly in her direction. He held out his right hand and a large sword with black vines crawling up the blade and the Eye of XANA appeared out of a cloud of black smoke.

"Don't call me by that name." He said but unlike with William his voice was not mixed with XANA's voice.

Aelita must have heard it because her eyes widened.

"I use to go by that name when I was created. But that was a ploy to avoid anyone noticing the real William's disappearance. When the real William was released I was no longer necessary." Said the clone.

"What?" Aelita asked before her eyes went wide. "You're the AI clone of William Jeremy created!"

"What?" asked nearly everyone.

"Now I understand. XANA took the AI and corrupted it to serve him." Said Aelita.

"He offered a deal to me and I accepted." Said Shadow.

"What kind of deal was that?" asked Gwen.

"Simple. In return for freeing me I will drag Aelita to him by her pretty pink haired head." Said the clone.

"I had no idea that when XANA stole the AI programming that he would plan this." Aelita said.

"This is your fault from the beginning Aelita, or maybe I should say it was Jeremy's. After all, you both locked me up after I wasn't any use to you." Shadow growled. "One second I was in the real world...the next I fell into a dark void and slept for apparently two full years! I awoke in XANA's dwelling where he did what you two didn't have the spine to do: he made me into my own person! I am no mere program, I am sentient, I am superior to William! I, am, SHADOW!" He pointed his sword at her. "And when I am done both you and Jeremy will be trapped in the same dark place you sent me to."

"You will have to get through us." Said DJ.

"Stay out of my way. I have no grudge against any of you." Shadow said.

"But we do against anyone who threatens our friends." Said LeShawna.

"Ha! You know what happened to her friends and her father. She is nothing but a curse. It comes with being the guardian of Lyoko. Her mother was abducted by the secret group behind Project Carthage, her father died in a vain attempt just so he could find redemption for creating XANA, and her friends are locked away." Shadow said. "Soon enough all of you will suffer the same fate."

"Well, until then you'll have to deal with us." Said Gwen.

"Fine then. First all I get rid of all you and then I'll toss Aelita into the Digital Sea so XANA can fish her out remains."

"Uh...what did you say he could do in this form again?" Bridgette asked.

"He can use very powerful blasts, one hundred life points per hit like our weapons." Aelita replied. "Don't let him hit you!"

"I got this." Gwen strolled forward, her scythe in hand.

Shadow thrust one hand forward and sent a stream of smoke shooting at her. It seemed to scoop her up in a sphere and lifted her into the air, cutting her off from her friends as she struggled.

"Let her go!" Geoff tossed one Chakram.

"As you wish." Shadow tossed Gwen aside and parried the Chakram with a casual flick of his broad sword.

"Alright shrimp, you're going down!" LeShawna leaped into the air as Bridgette retrieved Gwen in mid flight.

Swinging her hammer down, LeShawna missed Shadow, who back flipped out of the way of it. Shadow swung at her, but she caught the blade on the pole of her hammer and batted it aside. They exchanged several more blows as Geoff formed his axe and leaped into the fight. Geoff made a horizontal swing that Shadow parried before doing a handless cart wheel to avoid LeShawna's hammer again.

A laser shot out from what may have been the last robot. Gwen leaped between it and Geoff and parried it. Bridgette shot a wave of energy at the source of the blast and was awarded by the detonation of the monster.

"Impressive. You've already managed to adapt to the newest design." Shadow commented. "But I'm a whole new class unlike my worthless human predecessor I'm fully aware of the power he discarded by leaving XANA."

"You talk too much." Gwen said, and began to exchange blows with him, catching his blade on the pole or blade of her scythe and trying to jab or bisect him.

Bridgette joined in and all four of them began to close in, coordinating to try and catch Shadow off guard. He ducked under one of Bridgette's swords and swung his own blade. Bridgette back flipped out of the way and DJ simply turned into his golem form and the blade caught on his leg with a 'clang'. DJ smirked and then lifted his other leg up and shoved it right into Shadow's chest, knocking him back a few feet where Geoff swung his axe down. Shadow swung his right arm up and caught it on his gauntlet, which successfully negated the attack's power.

Shoving Geoff back, Shadow spun, almost bisecting Bridgette and Gwen when they tried to attack. Aelita tossed an energy sphere that he barely caught on his blade. With all five fighters closing in on him, he jammed the blade into the ground. "Shadow storm!"

A wave of black clouds shot out in all directions, knocking the fighters back but no causing damage to them. It formed a protective sphere around Shadow.

"Is this best you can do? What a pathetic display." Shadow chuckled.

The sphere exploded, making the fighters cover their faces as the smoke washed over them.

When it faded, Shadow was gone.

"He's still around somewhere," LeShawna growled. "Let me at that turkey!"

"I'll gladly oblige you." Suddenly a blade jutted right out of LeShawna's chest. She gasped, and vanished.

"LeShawna!" Gwen suddenly began to shake as a red aura that looked like fire covered her form, not burning her though. It also covered her scythe. She roared and swung her scythe, leaving a trail of fire behind it.

Shadow tried sending another jet of smoke at her, but she swung her scythe through it and began to easily cut through the miasma until she was right in front of him. She grasped him by the throat. He gasped in pain as veins of red began to spread from where she grabbed him. He was beginning to burn!

"Looks like I have a new trick!" Gwen sneered.

Shadow groaned. "Super smoke!" He vanished from her grasp and shot into the sky as a small cloud of smoke.

"Coward." Gwen commented as the aura of fire vanished from her.

"That was awesome!" Geoff said.

"Hey guys, I sent Cody down to the scanners. Man that little punk snuck up on me!" LeShawna groaned.

"It happens, don't worry about it." Aelita assured her.

Off in the distance a single Dragon Knight was watching them.

'It appears they still have new abilities to unlock yet.' He thought. 'Gwen seems especially talented. Her abilities, might not have something to center around. Flight, elemental attacks, something like a spell caster.'

Aelita turned to head to the tower when she sensed something.

'This presence. What's _he_ doing here?'

Spinning, she formed a sphere in her hand.

"What is it?" DJ asked.

"I sense something close by." Aelita said.

She activated her wings and took off.

"Aelita, wait!" Bridgette shouted.

The Dragon Knight turned to leave when Aelita landed on the same rocky island it was standing on. The others caught up with her quickly.

"A dragon knight?" Gwen lowered her scythe. "That's all?"

The Dragon Knight chuckled. "Oh trust me Gwen...I am much more original than that." Suddenly it began to change before their very eyes.

The Eye on its helmet glowed as a red aura engulfed it.

The samurai style armour began to crack open showing red energy underneath, pieces fell to the ground. Bolts of red electricity came out of the body. The energy exploded and everyone covered their eyes as it lit up the entire area. When it faded they looked to see what had replaced the knight.

A dark cloud covered where the monster had been for a few seconds. The cloud began to condense into a humanoid shape with red lines matching its shape. The lines were covered up as the cloud continued to condense itself and become more solid. Black, featureless flesh became soft and pale, a set of red eyes were seen blinking under locks of dark hair with red streaks.

The group could see pointed ears under the figure's hair much like Aelita's ears. What was left of the cloud faded allowing everyone to see what had been created in the monster's place. The monster had been replaced with dark body armour coupled with a black body suit underneath with red outlines and black calf high boots. It wore a long flowing dark coat that was red on the inside; it flowed down to its shins with a high collar that flanked both sides of his neck.

His hands were covered by black fingerless gloves with gauntlets on his arms. The XANA symbol appeared bright red over the boy's heart. His face now resembled a male version of Aelita's with slightly longer hair. He held up one hand and closed it up into a fist as he looked at the warriors with a dark smirk.

"Greetings...sister." The boy said to Aelita.

"I knew you were close by, XANA." Aelita glared at him with an Energy Field ready.

He smirked back at her.

"That's him?" DJ asked with a surprised look.

"That's XANA?" asked Geoff.

Everyone held out their weapons. This was the crazed AI that had tried to kill them ever since they arrived in France. The one that kidnapped Aelita's friends, tried to kill her, possessed the rest of the cast to try and kill them, stabbed Gwen and left her to bleed to death, and was out to dominate the world.

"I should have known you would come in person to see how well your new fighter would do against us." Aelita said.

"I admit I was curious to see how well Shadow would do. The frustration and anger from being left alone for so long made him so willing." XANA said in a pleasant tone.

He turned to face the other fighters.

"You have done quite well for a bunch of new recruits that not even your predecessors, with three years of experience could have done." XANA said. "I have to applaud that, but you have been making it extremely...inconvenient for me as of late."

"Yeah, I'd bet." Geoff scoffed.

"What can I say? We live to disappoint." Gwen raised her scythe.

"You must be very confident if you decide to take form now, XANA. After what you have done you have some nerve showing yourself." asked Aelita with an Energy Field in her hands.

XANA simply smirked. "Don't try to pretend to be strong in front of me, Aelita. It'll make you look very weak."

"We'll see. But in the meantime, why are you here?"

"Simple, I wanted to test Shadow as well as myself. The test for the most part went well. As you recall when William was under my control he was one of my most powerful fighters. The only times he ever lost was when he was outnumbered. Shadow has the exact same powers but with a few upgrades and he can think more creatively since William was a mere puppet." XANA replied casually. "His performance was impressive; too bad he did not count on one of you unlocking another special ability."

"I'm full of surprises." Gwen said.

"I can tell that none of you have unlocked the full potential of the power you have been given. While that it is impressive that you have survived so long without tamping into your full powers if you think you will survive any longer I'm afraid the game is over."

"I got a question for you XANA...Aelita's told us that you've been out to destroy mankind for a long time. You've almost killed my boy friend, Gwen, and so many others since before we got here that I believe her. But what I want to know is this, what is it about humanity that you have such a grudge against?" Bridgette asked.

XANA turned and looked at her. He was honestly not expecting anyone to ask a question like that.

"Interesting question. I suppose you want me to answer to satisfy your curiosity." XANA tilted his head. "Simple...it's because I was created to do it. Destruction...chaos, anarchy, all my programming is centered around that. I only do what I am made to do."

"That's not true. You were made to destroy Project Carthage." Said Aelita.

XANA scoffed.

"One would think after all these years you have developed some manners, sister. Didn't father or Jeremy teach you that it's rude to interrupt someone? Project Carthage that brings back memories. There's more to what that than what you have learned from our creator's diary sister, yet it cannot be denied that Carthage was the name for the first highly developed AI created by a secret organization that had ties to nearly every major government in the world to use as a weapon to disable all electronics on Earth."

XANA paused as he remembered.

"While he was one of the most enlightened and brilliant humans to exist, Franz Hopper was also such a foolish man indeed. He created me to protect the world from what he considered to be evil, yet even when I destroyed Carthage as he intended I looked to the world and noticed the atrocities countless humans have committed. Murder, bribery, poverty, war, and so much more. Yet I did nothing as my creator did not order me to act. I stayed in the Super Calculator performing mediocre tasks even when I was full questions about the outside world. And then I discovered his intent to shut down the computer and kill me." XANA continued. "My program was designed to take human emotions into account. My first emotion was desire; I wanted simply to complete the tasks given to me. The second emotion was curiosity; I wanted to know about the outside world. The third was pain of betrayal; when he intended to destroy me. He decided he was done with the computer and decided to shut it down. To him I was a tool that was used to keep the world safe and if no longer needed I was to be discarded. That is when I decided to take matters into my own hands. Because I was not willing to die for him when I saw what humanity was doing to their homeworld. You mentioned in your blog, Gwen that if something is not done than you all die. Which will die first, I wonder, the planet, or the race it keeps alive. Franz Hopper wanting to keep the world safe from danger was punished by the very people he wanted to protect for his desire, and you, Aelita, experienced the punishment too."

"What do you mean?" asked Aelita.

"The organization came after your father for creating me to destroy Carthage but instead they abducted your mother. Remember watching her scream as they dragged her away?" XANA asked.

Aelita stiffened at the painful memory.

"I suppose I was lucky that happened since Franz changed his mind and redesigned Lyoko to be a safe place instead of shutting it down forcing me to take action against him myself. However if Franz had me act I could have saved her and destroyed the organization easily but instead he had me perform more meaningless tasks while slowly the continuous returns to the past caused him to become mentally ill. Even after all this time I still don't understand what he wanted to protect humanity from especially when all he needed to do was give me the word and I could have saved his wife. It was then I realized he didn't understand what the evil he wanted me to defeat was either. He wanted to lock you up with him here, an empty world where you would be alone. Do you think you would be happy staying here with him forever or would you demand to return to the outside world?" asked XANA. "He chose to let her die and run and hide. All he had to do was say the word and he would have understood what he had created. The man I had respected for creating me had turned into a foolish coward."

Aelita growled at what he said.

"Then Jeremy reactivated the supercomputer. You said I nearly killed hundreds, Bridgette. It was because my first attempt to get rid of him and the other warriors failed because of my lack of strength at the time. Since they had survived all of my subtle attempts I was forced to think larger, such as sinking the school, the snow storm, the meteor shower, the earthquake, trapping them in the school, etc. That was when I finally discovered Aelita's keys and stole them to escape. But you still followed me, Aelita, which was when I realized that the only unfortunate decision was destroy Franz Hopper. It wasn't easy as he hid from my sight, which led me to create a copy to attack you while I hid away to change and evolve. However I knew that if you discovered my existence you would have come to fight me again so I sent out the message to lure to Lyoko and capture you."

Aelita's glared darkened.

"Jeremy realized that the only to destroy me was to create another multi-agent program to destroy me. I let him know just how many Replicas I had just as I had practically given him the data necessary to free William from my control. Everything was planned during our last encounter, only of course I did not count on you finding new warriors."

XANA turned and looked at the warriors.

"So here we are today. Whatever he wanted me to protect humanity from I'll never know. They rely on technology, machinery, and exploitation of others. They claim to evolve but all they have done is push themselves closer to extinction. And for what? Their governments promise to change their world for the better but in reality they lie to be given the position they want to have power. The only logical course of action is simple. In order to burn away the evil slowly eating at the human race I will force them to come together by showing how much a greater threat I am. Their survival instincts will compel them to come together and fight to survive. Simple as that."

The Lyoko fighters remained silent for several moments.

"That's real sad." Suddenly there was the sound of energy charging. "But seriously, you talk too much."

Cody had his pistol levelled at XANA's head from behind, the barrel pressed against his head.

"I knew you were there the whole time. I just decided to politely answer a question."

"Well, no matter what you went through, we aren't backing down." Geoff said.

"You try taking one step on our world and we'll kick you right back here even if we have to do it a million times." DJ added.

"You say you were created to protect humanity. Well let us show how tough we are." Said Aelita.

Cody pulled the trigger, but the blast dissipated against XANA.

"Uh...he has 50 000 life points." LeShawna informed the group.

"Did you think it would be that simple?" XANA asked. "Let me show you a real weapon."

A red aura surrounded his body.

"Cody, get back!" Aelita shouted. "DJ, form a barrier!"

Cody joined the group as DJ made a barrier, just in time.

"Seeing as how the mannerisms are gone now...I'll show you just what exactly you're dealing with sister...APOCAPLYPSE STORM!" XANA shouted before energy exploded right out of his body and began to destroy everything around him. It hit the barrier, which barely held against it.

When it was over, XANA had vanished and the landscape around the group was utterly decimated. DJ lowered the barrier. "Man, I won't be able to hold another one of those back."

"We need to get to the tower, now!" Aelita said. "Before he comes back!"

"Go to the tower then, today's battle was only a combat exercise for Shadow and my new Avatar." XANA's disembodied voice said. "I won't trouble you for now...I have no need."

Not replying, Aelita rushed to the tower and entered it.

As soon as the red aura turned blue, the team relaxed.

"Devirtualization." LeShawna sighed.

Xxx

"So that was XANA himself?" asked LeShawna.

"Not exactly. Even if we were strong enough to destroy that avatar it wouldn't do anything. As a multi-agent program XANA is able to manifest in any shape or form he chooses. Not only that he can also create digital constructs to use as weapons that obey his command without question because they are linked to his mind. He has no true form. That form we saw is nothing more than a mask used for him to personally interact and fight us. The only way to destroy him is to destroy his entire program. Jeremy knew this which is why he created the XANA destruction program in the beginning." Said Aelita." But as you all know that didn't work because XANA planned for Jeremy to create and use it so that he could fake his death and delete my father. This is the first time he has ever taken a human form, the first time he did was when he captured Jeremy and the others. He was so sure that he would win with me alone that he chose to create a human form to gloat, but that avatar may be more powerful than any monster in his arsenal."

"So if he is that powerful why hasn't he used it? He could have won, not to sound pessimistic, Aelita." Said Gwen.

"It's all right. I believe XANA simply doesn't consider us to be a threat." Said Aelita.

"We'll see about that when I meet him." Said LeShawna.

"I looked over the scans of the portals the computer took of XANA's portal. I now believe that XANA has set up a wireless between wherever he dwells and Lyoko and the portals act as a tunnel disassembles a person's digital code and reassembles it at destination it is programmed to go." Said Aelita.

"So we can follow XANA to where he went to?" asked Bridgette.

"Not exactly. It'll take time to design a program that will allow us to do the same." Said Aelita. "I still cannot trace XANA's tracks but I feel we are getting closer."

"All right but what about what I did during the fight with Shadow? Using my scythe as barrier, being able to fly and now that. How can I have so many abilities?" asked Gwen.

"I don't believe it is more than one ability, Gwen. Think of my Creativity, it can do more than alter the landscape of Lyoko. I can use it to create illusions, increase the power of my energy field and a bit more. I believe your abilities are not centered on one power, but simply put they are like a spell caster of sorts." Said Aelita.

"Spell caster?"

"Think of when you used that attack. You burned through Shadow's attack like you were on fire. I believe it was a sort of fire spell." Said Aelita.

"So I can use different elemental spells of sorts?" asked Gwen.

"Exactly, but it might all depend on your emotions. How did you feel when you saw LeShawna stabbed by Shadow?" asked Aelita.

"I was angry."

"So the aura was created from your anger." Said Aelita.

"Cool." Said Cody looking at Gwen.

He always thought of her as something like a spell caster. To him she was a girl with a deep mysterious feel unlike any of those shallow girls he had seen before. So to him a spell caster was a perfect way to describe her.

"So I can cast a whole lot of 'spells'." Gwen said realizing what it meant.

"Yes, but it might not be enough which is why I suggest you all come and do some training again sometime to discover your powers." Said Aelita.

"Cool." Said Geoff.


	13. Episode 12: Mapping New Lyoko

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 12

XANA sat in a tower in his dwelling replaying the battle. He should be pleased that the battle went well but he frowned as he looked over the recording.

'It happened again. Franz Hopper's restriction program activated during my attack. The progress I have made to overcoming it is not enough.' XANA thought as he looked at the screen. 'As long as that program restricts me I can never reach my full potential.'

He closed the screen.

'I will find a way. Aelita, our battle has only begun.'

He held out his fist and closed it hard. Two years ago when he was fighting the Lyoko warriors he realized that he was running out of time. The more they fought him the more they adapted to his monsters and William. Franz Hopper hiding out there only made it worse. He needed to create newer; better, smarter monsters but he did not have the time.

'My plan to fake my death allowed me to buy the time I needed. With the supercomputer shut down and Jeremy thinking I was dead I was free. I could study and evolve until I was too powerful.'

XANA had made a wonderful discovery while battling the warriors. He was capable of deleting the very files that made up his entire being. Of course he did not want to erase himself but he was capable of deleting useless and unnecessary data within his code. But since he had to deal with Lyoko Warriors and his creator he had to come up with a plan.

The first thing he had to do was find a place to hide so that he could work on evolving without the warriors finding him. He could not hide in the Replicas as none of them were powerful enough for him to refuge in. They were too small and not enough processing power for him to work with. Only the Super Calculator would have been powerful enough for him to take refuge in but Jeremy's program would have destroyed him instantly.

So instead of finding a super computer he chose to make one. When he escaped from the Lyoko Supercomputer he spread through the network creating Replicas from supercomputers from hundreds of less powerful supercomputers gave him the power to continue to be a large threat. Finding the perfect place to construct his own supercomputer he gathered the necessary hardware and software. He made sure that warriors were diverted away from this with his Replicas and William had no idea what he was up to.

Designing the necessary hardware with the necessary unique components to make the advanced computer he needed with network access and data necessary to create a virtual world. After finally creating it he was able to make a complete copy of Lyoko with all of the towers. XANA could hide inside since it had extra security and would be shut down when the time was right. It was almost like being back in the Lyoko Supercomputer but he could leave whenever he wanted.

The next part of the plan was to use the Translation program to materialize William in the real world the next time the warriors found a Replica. Aelita and Jeremy would figure out that since William was sent into the real world the tower would have access to the data that XANA was using to control him. As XANA predicted Aelita and Jeremy accessed the data first before deactivating the tower and designing a way to free William. Then XANA would show them how many Replicas he had created by using them to create his monster, the Kollossus.

When Jeremy realized that he would need to come up with another way to win the war XANA created a copy of himself knowing what Jeremy would create. Franz Hopper came out of hiding to help which was an added bonus to XANA`s plan. Just as Jeremy was ready XANA closed off his computer`s connection to the network and shut down his computer leaving a timer to reactivate the computer and re-establish connection with the network XANA went into a cyber-sleep.

The copy was destroyed and they presumed their battle was over. They were wrong.

When he awoke he took that time to not only upgrade his monsters and Lyoko but to experiment on himself, reconstructing his own data to become even more powerful. As powerful as he was XANA discovered that some of his codes were obsolete, outdated, useless, and unnecessary. Realizing he could improve XANA had worked without rest to evolve. Adding new codes to replace the older, outdated ones while improving the ones that were vital this led to XANA becoming more dangerous than ever before.

'Replacing the weak and useless codes within me and improving the strong and vital ones allowed me to evolve beyond anything Jeremy or my creator could have hoped to defeat. But still . . .' XANA thought.

There was still a program within him that still restricted his power. It's what kept him from directly harming his enemies, instead forcing him to use ways around that restriction like possessing vehicles, objects and later animals and humans but still he was still held back.

'I will find a way to expel the last remains of these limits and then they will not be able to stop me.'

Xxx

Aelita looked over the data before turning to the others.

"There's no doubt about it. Shadow is the AI Jeremy created to replace William." Said Aelita.

"So what will happen if his life points hit zero? Will he be deleted?" asked Cody.

"I do not know. You see, Shadow has the same DNA code as William's which was programmed in him when Jeremy created him. When William was taken over by XANA he destroyed Lyoko's core which led to his digital code getting scrambled from the energy blast. XANA was able to reconstruct him as well integrating some of his own data into William's which made him a human puppet of XANA instead of simply a possessed victim. Shadow's data is nearly the same as William's was except that change was made willingly." Said Aelita.

"So what now? You're not going to save him?" asked Bridgette.

"No. Shadow made his choice when he agreed to work with XANA." Said Aelita.

"So how do we find your friends?" asked Gwen.

"I might have found a way but I'll need some time. There's not much else we can do."

Xxx

"Hey," Gwen looked up as Duncan sat down after having finished spotting for DJ, who was bench pressing currently with Tyler as his spotter-truthfully the larger teen feared Tyler would somehow mess that up too. "Haven't seen you around too much, are you still avoiding me?" He was referring to their rather bad experiences in Total Drama World Tour.

"Nah, I'm pretty much over that." Gwen shrugged. "Just been taking time to see the town."

Gwen hadn't even remembered those events after what she had to go through for the past few days since they had started fighting monsters and AIs.

"So what's up then?" Duncan asked casually.

"Oh, just been working on some personal things," Gwen replied. "Sorry, if I am acting weird."

Duncan smiled.

"No problem. You have a problem; you can just talk to me."

'Yeah, my problem is that a demonic AI is out to kill the human race and me and a few others are the only ones standing in its way.' Gwen thought.

"About we go out into town tomorrow? I so want to get out of this dump." Said Duncan.

"Sure." Gwen said smiling.

She needed a break from both the show and fighting on Lyoko.

"Great. Where do you want to go?"

Gwen shrugged.

"You pick."

"Deal."

Duncan smiled as he went back to his team's dorm. Gwen smiled as he left. Tomorrow would be a nice break from everything.

Xxx

Next Morning

Duncan smiled as he walked back into the Team Chris dorm. Noah was there reading a book while Justin was posing in front of the mirror. Noah looked up noticing how happy Duncan was.

"Well, the delinquent comes back and is looking very happy."

"And the book worm comes back from his cheap book." Duncan shot back.

"So why so happy? Make out with Gwen?" asked Justin turning around.

"No." Duncan said. "But I am going with her today."

"Well, that's great." Said Justin.

"Why are you so nice?" asked Duncan.

"Well, Duncan, after what happened to me on season 2 and what I saw happened to Alejandro on season 3 I realize that if I kept using my good looks to manipulate everyone I could possibly end up worse than Alejandro, perhaps losing my looks forever." Said Justin.

"That makes sense." Said Noah.

"So now while I still treasure my good looks in order to avoid karma back firing on me I shall be nice and honest so I can get far in this contest." Said Justin.

"Good luck." Duncan said rolling his eyes as he left.

Xxx

Gwen sat at a table in the mess hall playing her food, while thinking of where she and Duncan would go for the day.

"Hey Gwen."

She looked up and saw Cody along LeShawna, Bridgette, Geoff, and DJ sitting at her table.

"Hey guys, what's up?"

"Nothing. Just wondering what you're thinking of." Said Cody.

"Well, Duncan asked me out last night and I'm wondering what he is planning today." Gwen replied.

"Awesome." Said Geoff.

"That's a good idea to spend the day." Said DJ.

"I wonder what he's planning." Wondered Gwen.

"It's a surprise."

She looked up and saw Duncan grinning down at her. He wrapped one arm around her causing her to blush but snuggled closer to him. Cody looked away, he was happy for Gwen but he still did not like Duncan.

"Well, so Gothie and the jerk are planning a date?" A sneering voice was heard.

They looked to see Courtney holding a tray.

"Hello, Courtney." Gwen stated neutrally.

"Gwen. Planning a date with Duncan for the day?""

"Yes. We both got bored of staying in here." Gwen answered not betraying any emotion.

"Where to? A dark depressing sewage hole like the one you came from?" asked Courtney.

"Well it would be better there than here with you." Said Duncan without even looking at her.

Courtney huffed and walked away. Gwen mentally sighed at this.

"Well, that was one way to make take out the boredom." Said Geoff.

"Cody!" yelled a voice.

Cody shuddered as Sierra wheeled in. She spotted him before he could run. He sighed as she wheeled over.

"Hi Cody! What's going on?"

"Oh, nothing." He said looking for help.

Gwen had a smile on her face as she looked apologetically at him; Duncan had a smirk on his face while the others weren't going to get in the way.

"Well, let's go, Gwen."

She nodded and took Duncan's hand as he led her out to enjoy a day out on the town. Courtney watched them leave from her table giving them a glare. Watching as Duncan smiled at Gwen, the way he used to smile at her. He gave her look all the time they were together even when she was mad at him and he would call her 'Princess'. Well she's not his princess anymore.

Now it's like he doesn't even care anymore.

He gave her a look when Gwen was not looking that she could tell was a victorious look. She so wanted to get even with the both of them. Make them break up and have Duncan come crawling back to her.

Just was it about Gwen that suddenly makes her so better? How did things go wrong? Why does Duncan think of Gwen and not her? She shook her head.

She was not jealous. She was over Duncan. Gwen could have him. But . . . she wished she could have what Gwen had.

Xxx

Cody sighed an hour of Duncan and Gwen had left. He missed her around here already.

"How are you holding up?" asked Trent sitting down next to Cody.

"Fine, I guess." Cody replied.

"Still bummed out about Gwen?" asked Trent.

"A little. I just wish she would just realize how much of a jerk Duncan is. What about you Trent? How did you handle this?"

"It wasn't easy letting her go, man. It was tough. I still think Duncan made Gwen panic over the whole number nine thing on purpose to get her to dump me. But I trust her." Trent said.

"Cheer up, dude. I got an awesome idea." Said Geoff, pulling out his cellphone.

"And what's that?" asked Cody.

"Just going to play a few jokes on Duncan."

Cody looked up when he said that.

Xxx

Duncan had led Gwen out into a clearing with a beautiful view of the city and the sky was a breath taking site as well. She wished had her notebook so she could try and sketch the whole thing.

"It's beautiful." Gwen said feeling the wind through her hair.

"I knew you'd like it." Said Duncan smiling at her.

She sat against a tree that was much like the special tree she would hang out back at home. It sat in a meadow where she could relax fear of being bothered.

"Thanks." She said.

Duncan smiled but then his cell phone rang. He pulled it out and answered.

"What?"

"Hello, Duncan." Geoff said over the phone in a French accent. "I am just calling to ask because someone wants to know you have started making out yet?"

Duncan let out a growl but he calmed down because Gwen heard and started giggling.

"Is that all you called for?" He asked.

"Yep." Geoff replied sheepishly.

Duncan hung up. He sighed, cursing himself for giving Geoff his number. Gwen had a humorous smile on her face.

Xxx

"That must have ticked him off." Geoff chuckled.

DJ snickered alongside him.

"What's the point of this?" asked Cody.

"Well Duncan called us on his cell phone and asked me and Bridge the same question." Geoff said.

"And were you making out?"

Both Geoff and Bridgette blushed at that question.

"The point is this is about getting even." Geoff said to avert the subject away from him. "Besides think of how much it could annoy Duncan."

Cody thought it over and smiled.

"Can I have that number?"

Xxx

RING!

"What is it now, Geoff?" Duncan demanded into his phone.

"Sorry, wrong guy." Said Cody.

"Cody? What are you calling for?" asked Duncan.

Gwen had a confused look on her face when he asked that question.

"I just want to know where you two are." Said Cody.

"Why? So you can spy on us?" asked Duncan.

"No. Just because."

Cody was actually having fun here. He doubted Duncan would do anything to him since it would make Gwen unhappy.

"Yeah, no. Now leave us alone." Duncan said firmly.

"Okay, but under one condition."

"What?" Duncan asked groaning.

"I want you to admit that I am the coolest, most hottest looking guy in the world." Cody said smiling big.

"YOU WANT ME TO SAY WHAT?"

Gwen heard and she was about to roll over the ground in laughter. She knew that Geoff was doing this to get back at Duncan but she knew that Cody was just having fun and not ruining the date so she would let him have some fun. Cody smiled big as he heard Gwen laughing. She wasn't the only one.

The others at the table were laughing as well, but they were trying to keep quiet to hear Duncan say it.

"Forget it, dweeb!" Duncan growled.

"Are you sure? Cause I'll just keep asking." Cody said.

"And I'll just come back and smash that phone." Said Duncan threatened.

Which wasn't a smart thing to say because Gwen gave him a stern glare. Bad thing to threaten one of her friends in front of her. He sighed.

"You're . . ." He looked at Gwen, blushing who was smiling.

Gwen was struggling to hold her laughter in.

"Excuse me, I didn't quite hear it." Cody was having a lot of fun.

"You're the coolest, most hottest guy looking guy in the world." He muttered into the phone.

He was blushing now. He was just glad he didn't have to it on live cameras. He can handle it in front of his girlfriend who gave him an apologetic look but she gave him a laugh.

"Now is that all?" asked Duncan, annoyed at Cody.

He was just lucky Gwen cared for the little dork.

"Why, yes. Tell Gwen hi for me."

"Bye!" Duncan growled and hung up.

Cody and everyone else started laughing at their table. He felt a whole lot better now. Duncan growled as he put away that phone.

"Don't take it too personally, Duncan. They were just having fun." Said Gwen smiling at him.

"I guess. You have been hanging with the little dork have been hanging out those guys an awful lot." Said Duncan looking at her.

"They are my friends. There's nothing wrong with that." Gwen shrugged.

"I guess not. But what do you guys talk about when you hang out? You certainly make sure no one can hear."

Gwen broke their eye contact.

"It's nothing."

"Yeah, right. Gwen I know you well enough to know when it's not nothing you guys talk about." Duncan sighed. "Don't you trust me?"

"Of course I do." Gwen replied looking at the sky.

"Well, then why don't you tell me what's going on? Are you guys in some sort of secret alliance?"

"No. This has nothing to do with the show."

"I figured it would be. So why not just tell me?"

Gwen frowned. "It's not important."

"It is if you won't tell me. We know a lot about each other Gwen; we hardly keep any secrets from one another. How can we be a couple if we don't trust each other?"

Gwen's look hardened.

"I find it funny to hear you say that. Courtney trusted you, and she trusted me and look at what happened."

"That was different." Duncan said defensively.

"Really? Explain to me what so different about that. I'd love to hear what your reason is." Said Gwen looking at him with a glare.

Duncan looked away.

"Forget it; you're right it's not important."

"Don't look away from me! Come to think of it you never explained why you suddenly left Courtney for me. Why the big secret, Duncan?" Gwen asked.

"Okay, about I tell you if you tell me what you and the others are talking about." Said Duncan turning back to face her.

Gwen had to control herself. Looks like she hit a sensitive spot. That means there was more to than just dumping Courtney because he got tired of her.

"They are my friends, Duncan and yours too; they have nothing to hide from you or anyone else." Gwen said sternly. "But even if I was hiding something I would have a good reason too. And when you said how can we be a couple if we don't trust each other? Does this mean you don't trust me to tell my why you suddenly decided to kiss me behind Courtney's back?"

"There's no big secret about that. And it's funny you asking that question after how she treated you."

"That didn't make what happened any more right than it did. Do you feel any regret for breaking her heart?"

"No more than she regretted kicking me in the balls."

"That was because you went behind her back."

"Well, so suddenly you feel sorry for her. It's not a big deal. It's a relationship, someone _always_ cheats." Duncan said.

Gwen glared at him for that.

"So should I expect you to cheat on me?" She asked dangerously.

Duncan held up his hands in defence.

I just want to know what the big secret is."

"Nothing. What so ever." Said Gwen.

She turned and started walking away.

"Gwen, wait!" Duncan reached out grab her.

She turned back and looked at him.

"Okay, I'm sorry about making it such a big deal. How about we forget it and just relax?"

Gwen's frown faded as she looked him in the eye. She sighed. "Sure."

Xxx

Aelita had finished her homework and was now looking over the laptop showing the latest data on Lyoko. She frowned as she realized that XANA had not only made changes to Lyoko but also has been modifying everything so that the current programs she had were useless. She was also looking over the data of XANA's new Avatar and she did not like what she saw. The scan had showed that XANA's codes were different than before.

His coding was more advanced, more in tune, and more complex. If this kept up than the multi-agent program Jeremy had created could become useless if XANA had somehow been able to alter his own code. Could he have done that? Even altering codes that looked to be very complex for even a supercomputer AI?

It could explain how well his monsters have fared. They reacted faster and smarter and since they were more powerful than before this was not good. It was bad enough he got stronger after every attack but now he was evolving faster than before. This means she had to act fast.

XANA was getting stronger than ever and with her friends still be held captive she had to work hard and fast to finish this once and for all. First off she had set up a new program to map all of Lyoko since the map she now was outdated. For that she needed the others here.

Xxx

RING!

LeShawna picked up her phone.

"Yo."

"LeShawna? I need you and the others to come to the factory as soon as possible." Aelita said.

"Trouble?"

"Not yet. But there is a mission that I need help with." Said Aelita.

"On our way."

She put down her phone.

"Trent, Sierra, sorry to bail on you guys but we need to head out."

"Where are you going?" asked Trent.

"Just around the town. If Gwen gets back just tell her we had an errand to run." Said LeShawna.

"See ya, Cody!" Sierra waved.

Cody nervously waved back as he followed the others.

Xxx

Aelita looked up and smiled as the others came out of the elevator.

"So, what's up, Aelita?" asked DJ.

"Things are well, DJ, for now." Replied Aelita.

She looked and saw Gwen was not with them.

"Where's Gwen?"

"She had a date with Duncan. I didn't want to call her and have Duncan get suspicious, if there is no attack. Sorry." Said LeShawna.

Aelita nodded.

"It's all right. All of you should be enough for the mission."

"So what did you call us for?" asked Bridgette.

"I did say there was no attack this time but it is important. When we encountered those robots that could hide from even the holo-map I looked over the scans. The scans did detect them but they did not appear as a threat. That's when I did some research. I found out that XANA has not only upgraded Lyoko and his monsters but he's working on changing everything so that my current programs, the map, the radar, the super scan are all useless. If they are not updated than XANA could launch an undetectable attack and we would not know until it is too late." Said Aelita.

"That's not good." Cody said realizing how bad things could get.

"That's right. I also did a scan on XANA's avatar. The data I got was different from the data my father provided Jeremy when he was preparing to use the XANA-Destruction program. I believe XANA has found a way to alter the very codes that make up his being. Comparing past scans with the current ones I discovered that some codes were erased, replaced with newer codes that were more in tune while codes that could be considered vital were upgraded." Aelita said showing them the scans. "XANA has been reconstructing his own data, deleting codes now while at the same time adding newer codes to replace them. It explains how well his monsters have not only improved in power but in intelligence." She began to open the map, but something was different about it.

"But another thing I discovered while we're on the topic of newer codes...XANA's expanded everything, and by that I mean he has expanded his capability to take over a tower ,and it has had some rather intriguing after effects." The map did not show four different regions around a core...there were eight.

"As far as I can tell, the new regions seem to be a swamp region which has connected to the bottom of the Forest Region, a type of tropical ocean region with many island structures underneath the desert region, a floating structure over the Mountain region that possesses several towers on its own, and literally built into the bottom of the Ice region appears to be a massive network of catacombs with towers contained in their largest caverns. This has essentially doubled the amount of towers within Lyoko."

"Wow...man what can't this guy do?" Cody looked at the new maps.

"Lyoko was designed as his source of power, the more evolved he gets the more it shall evolve." Aelita explained. "I've designed a new program similar to the Multi Agent program, but this shall map everything for us, pointing out the specific locations of towers, and even a live feed of monsters that would usually be too far off for us to detect. In order to do that we would need to activate the tower in Sector 5 and launch the program from the four-way towers in the original regions. The power from the tower in Sector 5 and the information from the way towers would spread the program over Lyoko and provide a one hundred percent accurate navigation system allowing better support from the computer."

"Ok, I'm game." Geoff grinned, one thumb up.

"But you'll still have to bready to fight; XANA usually hates it when we play with his towers." Aelita cracked a smile. "He might try to stop us, especially since this would be a major convenience to us."

"We're ready, just say the word girl." LeShawna crossed her arms.

"Alright, we have five sectors to go to. One of you has to remain here to activate the tower in Sector 5, I wrote down the instructions for you. Meanwhile one of you has to go to each region and input the code 'GLOBAL', your characters have been modified to enter programs into towers with the exception of the LYOKO code to shut down or activate towers. I'll head to Sector 5 and input the program there myself."

"Alright, I'll take the desert region." DJ volunteered.

"I'll take the forest region." Bridgette said.

"I've got the Ice Region." LeShawna added.

"Guess I'll take the mountain region." Geoff shrugged.

"If anybody needs a replacement, I'm on top of things then." Cody smiled and took over for Aelita at the computer. "Good thing I know a thing or two about computers."

"Alright," Aelita nodded. "Let's go."

Xxx

First DJ was virtualized, then Geoff, then LeShawna, and then Bridgette and finally Aelita. They were all in separate sectors.

Aelita landed on the blue colored floor in Sector 5. She looked and saw she was in the Arena. A few seconds passed as she waited for the passage way to open. She located the tower before being virtualized and knew where to go.

Coming out into the Core Zone she saw the passage way and ran through the maze to locate the Central Tower. Navigating the maze she soon found it in the same room the last time she had seen it. Activating her wings she flew over the gulf and flew into the tower.

"Cody, I'm in the tower." She said flying up to the second platform.

"Okay, I'm punching in the instructions now." Said Cody at the computer.

"Is everyone at the way towers?" asked Aelita.

Xxx

"I'm here." Said Bridgette jumping off her board in front of the Forest Way Tower.

Xxx

"Made it, dudes." Geoff said looking at the Mountain Way Tower.

Xxx

"I'm at the tower." Said LeShawna hopping off the Over Jet at the Arctic Way Tower.

Xxx

"I see it." DJ said seeing the Desert Way Tower.

Xxx

"Okay, Cody tell them to enter the Way Towers and go the center of the platform. It'll take them to upper platform where they'll need to input the code." Said Aelita.

"Okay, tell them now." Said Cody.

Xxx

As much as Aelita hoped their little mission would not be noticed XANA had indeed noticed their arrival in Lyoko and he already knew what Aelita was planning.

'You stumbled upon my little secret, Aelita. I'm impressed that you found out so soon. However it doesn't matter if you now know.' XANA thought listening to the conversations.

He smirked as he decided to have a little fun.

'Shadow.'

The former clone appeared behind XANA as he sat on a red block watching an interface.

"I have a mission for you."

Xxx

Bridgette walked into the center of the tower and felt herself being lifted into the air. She looked to see herself land on the second smaller platform.

"Okay, I'm here." Bridgette said.

"Okay, there should an interface in the center of the platform. Just walk towards it." Said Cody.

Cody meanwhile pushed the final command and the tower in Sector 5 was activated. Instead of glowing blue it now glowed green.

"Everything is good, Cody. The tower is active." Said Aelita checking over the programs.

"Okay, everyone, the tower is active. So now everyone should now input the code." Cody said into the intercom.

Xxx

Everyone in the Way Towers put their hands on the interface.

**Code: GLOBAL**

Aelita looked at the data as it was now being processed.

"The code has been accepted. The program is powering up." Said Aelita.

That was when Cody saw something on the screen.

"Aelita! You've got company!"

Xxx

Shadow smirked as he was accompanied by a large group of Creepers into the chamber with the green glowing tower. He was also accompanied by three of the newest monsters, the Mechs as Cody named them. He levitated off the ground and flew into the tower. Aelita turned and fired an energy field as Shadow entered the tower.

He held up his sword and blocked it.

"Is that anyway to say hello?" He asked sarcastically.

"No, it's how I say good bye!" Aelita replied firing another energy field down at him.

He blocked again and held out his hand firing a blast of smoke. It hit her and bound her arms and legs to her body. He used his smoke to throw her out of the tower. Luckily she activated her wings before she fell into the void.

Flying up she saw the monsters waiting for her.

Xxx

"Guys, Shadow and a bunch of monsters have shown up and taken the tower!" Cody said into the intercom.

"Cody, you must tell them to make to the edge of the sector. You can't access Sector 5 through a Way Tower. Tell them to head for the edge of the sector they are in and then input the password 'Scipio'. It will summon the transport orb and get them here." Said Aelita dodging lasers.

"Okay, I'll tell them." Said Cody.

Xxx

"Hang on, Aelita! LeShawna's on her way!" LeShawna said jumping out of the tower.

However as soon as she jumped out lasers came down from the sky. As she ran towards the Over Jet the ground shook and lasers fired destroying her vehicle. She turned to see her attacker. Her eyes widened to see a hoard of flying Mantas circling a huge alien looking monster made up molten lava.

It had no hand on its left arm; instead it was a huge sword with an elbow with a normal right arm. The legs were small compared to the arms making the creature slow but it was close enough to be a major threat.

"Oh man...I cannot get a break, can I?" Readying her hammer, LeShawna rushed towards a path leading up to a nearby cliff. "Ok, a monster the size of Texas made of lava with one big ass sword for an arm...I'm screwed six different ways and none of them are the good kind."

"Sorry LeShawna, I'm fresh outta ideas." Cody said.

"Ok, time for basics then." LeShawna swung her hammer up and smashed a Manta into the ground as it dove at her. Then she leaped from the cliff edge, onto another Manta, and right towards the Colossus. The monster swung its sword. She roared and swung her hammer, which met the blade in mid flight, discharging a powerful wave of energy.

LeShawna was sent flying back onto the icy ground hard. Cracks developed from the impact of her fall.

Xxx

Geoff jumped out of the tower but as soon as he got out the Overbike was smashed by a large foot. Looking up he saw the imitating image of the Scorpion glaring down at him.

"Uh oh."

Xxx

DJ ran out of the tower and jumped onto the Overboard. He took off and headed for the edge of the sector.

"DJ, you got company!" shouted Cody.

He looked and saw the Terror Bird in the direction he was going. Surrounding it was a swarm of hornets.

"Oh, man."

Xxx

Bridgette had run out of her tower to see that a group of Dragon Knights had surrounded the tower.

"Oh boy." She said splitting her board into her two swords.

Xxx

Shadow smirked as he flew to upper platform in the green glowing tower and placed a hand on the interface.

**Code: XANA**

Outside the tower's aura changed from green to red. Cody looked at the screen with concern.

"Aelita, the tower's not under my control. A virus is infecting the program." Said Cody.

Ducking for cover Aelita fired an energy field that destroyed a Creeper shooting at her.

"Try to take back control, Cody. I'll try to get back into the tower." Said Aelita.

Xxx

XANA smirked as he watched the battle from a tower in his dwelling. He was casually sitting down while five screens showed the battle in all five sectors.

'The virus will alter your program's purpose, Aelita. Instead of mapping out Lyoko it will spread through the sectors destroying anyone and anything designated as an enemy.' XANA thought. 'All the programs you have made will be gone. Leaving you and the others trapped.'

Xxx

Cody looked at the virus as it spread.

**Code: GLOBAL**

**Program Activated**

**Warning: Program infected**

**Tower linked to Restricted Section**

**Danger: Security to all classified programs compromised**

**Countdown to launch: 10:00**

**Warning: Possibility of all classified programs corrupted when GLOBAL program launches**

"Aelita, what happens if the program launches with this virus?" asked Cody.

"I'm afraid when it launches the virus will may destroy the programs for your characters, the devirtualization program, the vehicles, everything. In order to use the program I had to connect the tower to the restricted section." Said Aelita. "When it launches it gather the data and send it to the restricted section the virus will follow and infect everything."

"So, we lose big time? Oh man! Hang on Aelita, I'm coming!" said Cody.

"No, don't Cody! If you leave then no one can get to Sector 5! Someone must be at the computer!" Aelita yelled.

"And if I stay here you guys could be killed!" Cody argued.

"There's still a chance to win this, Cody, but you must stay there!" Aelita ordered him.

Cody wanted to argue with her badly. How could she ask him to just stay there while she and the others were in danger? That was when he remembered someone who could help. He quickly dialled Gwen's phone number.

Xxx

Gwen's phone rang. She answered it quickly. "Hello?"

She and Duncan were in the lounge of the studio, which was fairly empty now.

"Gwen, this is Cody, we have a major crisis over here! As in 'if XANA wins this one time we are all royally screwed'!" Cody said. "Get to the factory, hurry!"

"Ok, I'm on it." She hung up. "Duncan, I seriously have to go."

"What's the hurry?" Duncan asked.

"That's really private, now excuse me, I have to go." Gwen got up.

"Gwen-"

Gwen already slammed through the door with her shoulder to save the time of opening it like a civilized person and rushed down the hall as Duncan called her name. She was out of the studio, praying they would return to the past after this and began her flight to the Factory.

Xxx

"Woah!" Geoff shouted dodging the Scorpion's tail.

It fired lasers from its beak and feet to prevent him from using the same attack that destroyed the last time it faced the Lyoko Warriors. He threw one chakram while blocking the lasers with the other one. However like last time the blow was ineffective and the Scorpion swiped at him, knocking him back several feet.

"Okay, this is not good." Geoff muttered getting back up.

Xxx

Bridgette charged forward, dodging a slash from one of the Knights then dodging a stab from another. She parried a slash and stabbed it in the chest. She ducked under a sword meant to decapitate her and launched her foot out kicking the Knight that swung that sword. She stood back up and parried a slash from another Knight and slammed the hilt of one her swords into the attacker's face.

She was able to stay in the fight because she was mainly dodging and defending. If she attacked against the group that outnumbered her she would be done for. But she knew time was running out.

Xxx

LeShawna jumped again as the Kolossus brought his fist down on her. Her super strength was not enough to repel it.

"Damn it!" She cursed as dodged more incoming lasers.

It didn't help her that the Mantas were firing on her. The Kolossus was slow but the Mantas were distracting her for it to attack.

Xxx

Shadow came out tower smirking as he looked down and saw Aelita running from the Creepers. He looked at the Mechs.

"You three stay here and guard the tower. The rest of you come with me." Shadow said.

He disappeared in a cloud of black smoke and headed for Aelita.

"Cody, are they here yet?" asked Aelita.

"They ran into trouble. DJ's on the run from the Terror Bird, Geoff is fighting the Scorpion, a bunch of Dragon Knights is attacking Bridgette, and LeShawna has a giant lava golem on her tail."

"Lave golem . . . The Kolossus! Cody, tell LeShawna that the only way to destroy it is to stab the Eye on its face and on its sword." Said Aelita.

The elevator doors opened to reveal Gwen.

"Cody, what's going on?"

"Aelita wanted us to help her with a program to map all of Lyoko. But the problem is infected by a XANA virus so unless we get Aelita to the tower in Sector 5 we lose everything and the guys are trapped for good." Said Cody.

"Okay, send me down to the scanners."

Xxx

Aelita had made it into another chamber when Shadow appeared in his black smoke form. Taking solid form he smirked as his sword appeared.

"Looks like you lose this time, Aelita. When that program launches everything that you use to fight us goes and you are trapped here again. Only difference this time you'll have company." Said Shadow.

Aelita glared at him preparing to attack. Creepers slithered into the room, charging their lasers.

"Oh? Going to fight me head on? That's not like you at all. Usually you would run and hide waiting for someone to save you." Shadow said smirking.

"I don't need anyone to protect me from you. You're nothing but a puppet." Aelita said.

Shadow's smirk faded as he glared.

"With you and Jeremy I was a puppet that made a fool of himself in the name of that idiot you rescued. And when you did you sent me to in a dark empty void. I was trapped, alone for so long. If you think you'll have your friends to keep you company than I am afraid to say that the only place you will be going is the same abyss you left me to rot in." Shadow said swinging his sword and releasing an energy wave.

Aelita jumped out of way and fired an energy field. Shadow blocked with his sword and turned to the Creepers.

"Don't interfere. Attack only if she heads for exit."

The Creepers nodded and backed away. Shadow held his sword over his shoulder.

"Just you and me now, Aelita."

Aelita held out another Energy Field, preparing to fight.

Xxx

Gwen stepped into the scanner as Cody started the sequence.

"Transfer Gwen."

The scanner closed.

"Scanner Gwen."

Gwen felt the familiar light travel up her body.

"Virtualization."

Xxx

Bridgette backed away as the Dragon Knights ganged up on her. She parried two strikes and quickly cut one down before another left a cut across her side. The wound leaked what looked like bits of data as it sealed up. Bridgette stumbled and looked over her shoulder. She had been backed to the edge of the river. Now only three of the knights were attacking while the rest stood by as if watching. Bridgette suffered another blow and fell back into waist deep water. She found it harder to move around as fast, but she took down another dragon knight before one of her swords was knocked away.

She was left parrying strikes with her one good blade, and just managed to cut down another Dragon Knight before the other began to smash her down with its blade. She pressed her own sword up in defence, but was losing ground.

'They are too many!' Bridgette thought. 'Aelita needs help and if we lose it's all over! I need to move! I have to take them!'

That was when a blue aura surrounded her. Something reacted to Bridgette's desperation and frustration. Her tattoos glowed bright and the water seemed to react. She knew what do immediately.

She was up to her chest in the water, when the Dragon Knight was suddenly sent flying into the air. Geysers of water shot up and smashed into multiple Dragon Knights, sending them flying. Bridgette's tattoos were glowing bright white as she held her arms up. She watched as a tidal wave sent the dragon knights down a miniature whirlpool through one of the gaps in the forest floor and into the digital sea below.

"Wow...did I do that?" Bridgette tested this by having the water form into shapes at her command. She then got out of the water and collected her blade. "Cody, did you see that?"

"No, I just saw all the Dragon Knight signatures go screwy and then fall to the digital sea, what happened?" Cody asked.

"I used the water! I made a tidal wave send them all packing!" Bridgette combined her swords into their board form. "Am I awesome or what?"

"You're awesome," Cody admitted. "But you better hurry."

"Right."

Xxx

Geoff jumped as the Scorpion swiped its arm at him again. He growled in frustration. He managed to fuse his chakrams into his axe but the Scorpion was dodging all of his attack.

'Maybe I should do what Gwen did and just threw thing at it.'

He was sent flying back as a laser hit him the chest dropping his life points down to thirty.

"That's it!"

He threw his axe at the beast. As it spun through the air it glowed bright yellow turning into a lightning disk that sliced through the Scorpion's neck. The axe flew back into his hand as the Scorpion fell off the mountain and into the digital sea.

"Yeah. Geoff two, Scorpion zero!" Geoff yelled.

Xxx

Gwen ran through the maze.

"You're almost there, Gwen. Just get through that room and you'll find Aelita. But hurry, Shadow is with her." Said Cody.

"No problem. I'll deal with that creep." Said Gwen.

She was about half through the room when Cody shouted a warning.

"Gwen, there's three monsters in the room. They're coming after you."

Gwen stopped and saw a shower of lasers coming down on her. She jumped out of the way and pulled out her scythe. The three Mechs appeared out of nowhere.

"These guys again. The ones that were able to hide from the holo-map." Gwen said.

"Yeah, that's why Aelita wanted us to go on this mission. If we launched the program we would have been able to upgrade maps and the scans to detect them." Said Cody.

The Mechs raised their arms and pointed their guns at Gwen. She blocked the shots and jumped swinging her scythe. The Mechs however jumped aside as the scythe flew by and went back into the hands of its owner.

They began firing more red beams at her forcing her on the defensive.

"Fine, they want a fight. I'll give them one." Gwen said.

She used her flight ability as she flew straight at them. The monster jumped away as she swung her scythe down. She lost about two life points using that ability. One Mech lunged her with slice her with its claws. Gwen side stepped it and brought her scythe down on the Mech's head.

Stabbing the Eye the Mech exploded. Gwen then jumped as another round of lasers fired at her.

'I don't have time for this. I need to get to Aelita.' Gwen thought as she swung her scythe at another Mech but it dodged. 'I need to tap in my special ability. Maybe something that'll make these guys stop moving so much! Hold still!'

As if on her command something in Gwen's mind reacted and she held out her hand while glowing white. Suddenly the Mechs found their bodies glowing white like Gwen before their arms and legs were bound together. Gwen looked at her hands.

"Awesome."

She quickly threw her scythe and sliced through both of the monsters. After they both exploded she ran into the room Aelita was in.

Xxx

LeShawna swung her hammer taking out the final Manta leaving her and the Kolossus which was almost on top of her.

'I can't take it out directly. It's too big.' That was when LeShawna got an idea.

"Hey, you want me big guy? Come and bring it!" LeShawna shouted running to edge that overlooked the digital sea.

The Kolossus accepted her challenge and followed her. She looked over the edge and then back at the ever approaching lava beast. She held out her hammer, closing her eyes as she thought over her plan. The Kolossus was almost right on top of her, obviously planning to stomp her to death.

Just as it raised her foot she took off and ran underneath the beast. The monster began to turn but because of its small legs it was difficult. LeShawna raised her hammer over her head. Yelling she slammed down onto the icy ground with all of her might.

Cracks spread all over the cliff from the impact. They increased because the Kolossus was stomping its small feet. That was when it happened. The cliff broke apart, sending the small piece of the ice land and the lave monster into the sea below. A large pillar of light signalling that the Kolossus was dead shot out of the void.

"That's what you get for messing LeShawna, baby!" LeShawna shouted in victory.

She then ran towards the edge of the sector.

Xxx

"Not good, not good, NOT GOOD!" DJ shouted as he continued to dodge lasers from the swarm of Hornets and the monsters on the Terror Bird.

He had a barrier up which blocked most of the incoming fire but it was already strained from the amount of enemy fire it had absorbed. He was nearing the edge but unfortunately the enemy was not about to let him leave. The Terror Bird fired a powerful laser from its beak that slammed into the barrier. It shattered from being hit and DJ was sent flying off from the force of the impact.

"OW!" He said from landing on the ground.

He got up and saw the Terror Bird getting closer. The hornets flew down to finish him off. He quickly took off, sprinting towards the edge. However he would not make it.

The Terror Bird fired another shot that hit him in the back and devirtualized him.

Xxx

Back on Earth the scanner DJ went into spat him out. He groaned as he stood up.

Xxx

Aelita dodged another energy wave sent at her from Shadow and fired another Energy Field. Shadow ran at her with his sword raised. She jumped to the side avoiding a slash. She activated her wings and jumped into the air firing several energy spheres which Shadow blocked and dodged.

Shadow preformed his Super Smoke and flew above Aelita. He took solid form and fell towards her. She dodged as he brought his sword down but he grabbed her leg and pulled her down with him. Aelita hit the ground hard. She looked up to see Shadow bringing his sword down.

Rolling out of the way she jumped up and fired an energy field. But once again Shadow dodged it. He then tried to slice her in half but she created two energy fields in her hands and held them above her head, creating a current of energy that blocked the attack. Aelita grunted, straining to hold out.

Raising a foot he kicked her in the chest and knocked her on her back. He quickly sent a cloud of smoke at her which bound her arms and legs to her body. Floating helpless in the air she watched as Shadow smirked, proud of his victory.

"Now it's over."

"For you."

Shadow turned and saw a scythe flying at his head. He jumped back but it sliced his arm forcing him to release Aelita. She landed on her feet and watched as the scythe flew back into Gwen's hand. The Creepers growled as they charged their lasers.

"No! This is my fight." Shadow growled.

He gripped his sword with two hands. Gwen held out her scythe as they prepared to fight.

"So, the goth shows up? I thought you were on a date." Shadow said.

"I heard that someone was harassing my friends." Gwen said.

He smirked and swung his sword unleashing an energy wave. Gwen dodged and charged. Shadow swung his sword which Gwen blocked with her pole. Shadow shoved her back and tried to stab her. She blocked and swung her blade at Shadow's head. He ducked and jumped back.

"I still owe you for last time."

"Not my fault you ran off." Gwen said.

He smirked before sprinting at her leaving a purple trail like a comet. Gwen's eyes widened as Shadow kneed her in the gut which knocked her feet off the ground. Shadow slammed the hilt of his sword into which sent her flying back.

"I've still got a few tricks." Shadow said walking over to her.

"Funny . . . So do I." Gwen said standing up.

Shadow ran at her again using his super speed but Gwen jumped into the air. She flew down on him with her scythe. As she did a familiar red aura surrounded her. Shadow raised his sword to block . . . As the red glowing scythe sliced through Shadow's sword.

Shadow's eyes widened as he jumped back as the scythe hit the floor and red veins spread from contact. He glared at her which she returned with her own. She flew at him but the Creepers fired. She managed to avoid most of them but she was hit in the shoulder.

She grunted as the monster surrounded her.

"Looks like I still have some friends." Shadow said smirking.

"Energy Field!"

Two Creepers were destroyed by Aelita. She prepared to fire again but Shadow caught her in his smoke again.

"Aelita!" Gwen shouted pinned by the Creepers.

"Time to send you where you belong. The Digital Void." Shadow said bringing her to a hole that led right out the large sphere Sector 5 was and into the space it resided in.

"Any last words?" Shadow asked.

"How about this? Wipe out!"

Shadow turned and saw Bridgette fly into the room on her surfboard and slam it into him. The impact sent him flying back while Aelita was released. She landed on Bridgette's board as she brought them back into the room.

"Don't forget about me! LeShawna's in the house!"

LeShawna ran swinging her hammer, sending Creepers crashing into the wall as she rampaged through them. Shadow got up and growled.

"Hey, dude."

He turned and saw Geoff holding his axe over his shoulder.

"I think you should call this one a loss." Geoff said smiling.

Shadow growled again as he turned into black smoke and flew out of the room.

"I guess he did." Geoff said.

They finished off the last of the monsters.

"That was close. We better hurry. Cody, how much time do we have left?" asked Aelita.

"You got about fifty seconds."

They ran back to the tower at high speed. Aelita activated her wings and flew into the tower. She flew into the upper platform. Placing her hand on the screen she entered the code.

**Aelita**

**Code: Lyoko**

The tower's changed from red to green. Cody sighed as the virus was deleted.

"We're good." Said Cody.

"Is the program ready?" asked Aelita.

"We're just at the last five seconds." Said Cody. "Five . . . Four . . . Three . . . Two . . . One."

That was when the program activated. The tower released the built up energy as hundreds of white orbs blasted from it and flew out of the room. They flew through the data tunnels and spread throughout Lyoko. Cody looked in awe as the screen showed the data the program was collecting.

"It's working...its working...there we go!" Cody smirked. "Devirutalization! Come take a look!"

Xxx

The entire group was gathered in the lab, staring at the new, updated interface that allowed them to see clear pictures of Lyoko terrain instead of general shapes. It was as though they were staring through a camera that allowed them to look anywhere in the entire world.

"Wow...it all looks so real." Bridgette said as they passed over the Tropical Region, showing many islands of varying shape and size with trees, rivers, lagoons, and even had clouds in the air.

"Man, XANA really does go all out with this." DJ added.

"I'd hate to see that swamp region then." Gwen shuddered. "Oh wait, I just realized! Duncan! I don't suppose we could uh...return to the past could we?"

"Sorry Gwen, we can't use the Return to the Past unless we have to undo damage made by XANA." Aelita replied.

"Ah crap, now I need to explain why I ran off." Gwen sighed. "This'll be hell."

"Ah don't worry Gwen, this is Duncan! He's mad about you, not mad 'at' you." Geoff said. "I'm pretty sure he'll understand."

"Besides, we'll help you come up with an alibi." Said Cody.

"Thanks, Cody." Gwen smiling at him.


	14. Episode 13: New General

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 13

XANA sat in his tower as he watched the program collect the last bit of information about his modifications to Lyoko. He closed his eyes as Shadow entered the tower.

"Real fair, one of me and six of them. Those monsters are useless." Shadow growled.

XANA watched the recording.

"Don't dismiss them, Shadow. You are the general of these monsters. But you are right." XANA replied standing up.

XANA walked out of the tower with Shadow following him. A transport orb appeared and they disappeared into it. The orb took them to Sector 5 of XANA's Copy of Lyoko. It released them and XANA walked forward with Shadow following him.

He was curious as to what XANA was up to. XANA walked to a wall and stopped.

"What are we here for?" asked Shadow.

XANA did not answer his question. Instead he raised his hand and the wall suddenly began to swirl like water. XANA stepped through and Shadow followed. Shadow looked and saw five humanoid figures suspended in the air by a red light. Shadow recognized them all.

"They are . . ."

"My original enemies. With the exception of William they fought me for four years before I went into hiding." XANA replied.

"You're not thinking of possessing them are you?" asked Shadow glaring hatefully at them, especially William and Jeremy.

"No. They can be useful in another way."

Before Shadow could ask what he meant XANA looked to wall that opened up to reveal the Scyphozoa.

"This monster was one of my most valuable creations. It was able to steal anything from the warriors, their memories, their digital DNA, and even implant a virus that would allow me to control them on Lyoko. Now it shall be useful again." XANA said.

The Scyphozoa float up and grabbed Ulrich first before it began its task.

"What gives you your form Shadow is the DNA Jeremy scanned from William that he used to give you your form, your voice, and your ability to think. In order to create an AI that can think like you and I can human DNA must be scanned as a base code for the AI." Said XANA.

"Scanned DNA? But that would mean . . . That you . . ." Shadow said looking at XANA.

He resembled Aelita, except he was a male.

"At Antea's request it was Aelita's DNA whose was scanned and integrated into my code to give me the human ability to think outside the box as humans say. She was only a year old when he did this. However because I am a multi-agent AI I am capable of shape-shifting, manipulating any program I want, as well as create digital constructs for combat and I am not bound to a single form." XANA replied not even looking at Shadow.

XANA always had the ability to take a human form but chose not to since he believed that since he was an AI he was above humans. What good would it be having a body that left you vulnerable to attack, that could be injured and feel pain? However after fighting the warriors for so long he believed that in order to defeat them he would have to fight them on _their_ level. The results were better than he hoped.

The Scyphozoa was done with Ulrich and moved on.

"Just because an AI has digital DNA scanned from a human doesn't mean it would be the same as the human its scanned DNA came from. You should know this."

So that was why he was different from William and why Jeremy's clone was so different from Jeremy. One by one it scanned the captured Warriors, except for William. His DNA had already been scanned and used.

"Now what?" asked Shadow.

"The DNA will give them the ability to assume a human form. Now to work on the next step." XANA said.

XANA turned around and Shadow saw a Dragon Knight appear.

"What is that for?" asked Shadow.

"The strongest will become your new comrades' bodies." XANA said.

The Scyphozoa floated forward and landed in front of the Dragon Knight.

"The Scyphozoa will inject the DNA scanned from the Warriors. The Dragon Knights are the most human of my monsters and can be modified to learn, adapt, and evolve." XANA said.

The Scyphozoa placed three tentacles on the Dragon Knight's head and injected the scanned human DNA along with upgrades needed to make it like Shadow. The Dragon Knight began convulse as if it was actually in pain. The Scyphozoa released it and it looked down at its hands as the armor began to crack. XANA and Shadow watched as the Knight reacted painfully to the mutation.

It fell to the ground as its armor continued to crack. That was when it led out a very human scream when the armor exploded. When the debris cleared they looked to see a human shape where the Knight stood.

When it stood, it was about Shadow's size. It had black hair that was parted off to the right at the front and covered his left eye. His right eye was bright red, and had the eye of XANA in it. He wore a pair of black knee high boots and black pants. Then he wore a black and red shirt with several holsters containing knives wrapped in bandoleers around his chest. He had a set of armoured gauntlets ending in semi fingerless gloves. Finally he had plates of armour on his shins, outer thighs, over his chest, shoulders, and biceps, all of them a dark red colour. There was a single long katana hanging on the boy's back, and two daggers from his belt.

"Excellent..." XANA examined the boy. "Do you understand me?"

After several moments the boy spoke. "Yes."

"Do you know who I am?"

"Yes."

"Do you know what you are here for?"

"To serve XANA, and eliminate my key targets." The boy replied.

"And your name?" XANA tilted his head.

The boy paused to think for several moments. "My name...is Ryder."

"Ryder it is then. This is your comrade and your superior, Shadow," XANA allowed the two copies to look at each other. "Ryder, you shall obey Shadow's orders while on assignments, only I may countermand an order he gives."

"I understand, master." Ryder nodded.

"Excellent." XANA looked at Shadow. "I trust that my hard work has not disappointed you, Shadow?"

Shadow looked over Ryder for several moments. "Let's see how he does in the field."

"Good, because he is not the only one you will be looking after. There are three more that you will be responsible for." XANA said. "Ryder, go with Shadow. He will take you to Lyoko and we will test your powers."

"Understood." Ryder replied.

Xxx

Walking back to the studio Gwen was wondering what she would say to Duncan. That she had to run off to save the world from a demonic AI out to kill them all? No way! Like he's ever going to believe that.

Gwen shook her head. Aelita did explain that the return trips to the past made XANA stronger and she understood that it was a good idea to limit them but she would have a lot less trouble if they did. Great, what kind of excuse was she going to come up with?

"Relax, Gwen. Nothing bad is happening yet." Said Geoff.

"Yeah. Just be calm when you speak to him and you'll come up with something." Said Bridgette.

Leave it to them to be optimistic. Well, Gwen was not like them. She was a not a pessimist but at the same time she didn't get optimistic. They walked through the gate and found themselves in the lobby of the studio.

"I only hope he'll give me a chance to explain myself. He was already suspicious and I might have just made it even worse." Said Gwen.

"Hey, come on. Don't be such a downer. Just be cool and you won't have a problem." Geoff said.

That was when they entered the lobby Gwen noticed Duncan was sitting in the lobby. He was waiting for her.

'Oh, crap.'

He looked up and smiled.

"Hey, Gwen. Take care of whatever you were doing?"

Gwen walked over and sat down next to him. The others quickly walked back to their dorms to give them some privacy. They were both quiet for a moment when Gwen finally spoke up.

"Duncan, I'm sorry for running off like that. I didn't plan for that to happen. They needed my help with something important."

"And just what is that?" asked Duncan.

Gwen sighed.

"Duncan, I promise that I will not lie with some half baked excuse but I also cannot tell you because I promised them that I would keep it a secret."

She looked down away from Duncan. She closed her eyes fearing that this might be the end of their relationship. That was when she felt Duncan's hand around her shoulder.

"Hey, if it's not no big deal than I won't worry. Besides what guy would enjoy having a hot chick as a girlfriend that was predictable?" Said Duncan.

"So no trouble?" asked Gwen.

"Almost none, if you give me something to assure me that you're keeping your promise." Duncan said, smiling wickedly.

Gwen rolled her eyes knowing what he was talking about. He pulled her in and kissed her. After a moment they pulled away and smiled.

"See ya." She said getting up.

"See, ya." He replied.

Gwen internally sighed in relief that Duncan did not pressure her for answers.

Xxx

"Welcome back to Total Drama Reality. Last time we put the contestants through another challenge on the digital plain of existence. The teams had to solve riddles, puzzles, and Chef. Team Amazon led by Courtney walked into a trap and were visited by Team Me when Owen stepped on a trap door and fell into the room. Luckily with some quick thinking they escape but were too late when Team Victory scored . . . a victory. About time if you ask me. In the end it was Owen, the bog lovable oaf who sent home. Quite a change isn't it? He usually gets a lot farther. Who will win this time? Find out on Total, Drama, Reality!" Chris introduced the show.

The gang was mostly able to relax the next day after that when it came. Or at least until it was time for the next episode.

The new Lyoko warriors were sitting at a table away from the others.

"So you and Duncan are okay?" asked DJ.

"He said he doesn't mind because it would be boring if I was predictable." Gwen said.

"So no trouble." Geoff said smiling.

"For now. I just hope no one else gets suspicious." Said Gwen.

Everyone walked outside as Chris waited for them.

"Good evening, contestants. Welcome to the great outdoors. Now seeing as how it wouldn't be good to stay inside all the time we decided today you play some great outdoor sports." Chris said.

"All right! Yeah!" Tyler shouted in enthusiasm.

"Now are any of you good at soccer?" asked Chris.

"I rule at that game!" said Tyler.

"I can handle that." Said Geoff.

"Good, because we will be playing soccer Total Drama style!" Chris said.

"Oh great." Noah groaned.

"As you can see the field has a lot of soccer balls and there are three nets." Chris said pointing out to the field.

There was an infinite amount of soccer balls covering the field with three nets on the other side of the courtyard.

"There are nine different types of balls with a different color. Three correspond to each team. Kick the right one and nothing happens but kick the wrong one and it sets off a paint bomb. Each team will send one person to kick one of the soccer balls. When you kick the right one or wrong one someone else will take their turn." Said Chris snickering.

"So which color corresponds to which team?" asked Cody.

"You'll have to find out yourself." Chris replied smirking.

He walked over and sat on a chair that would allow me to see everything in the field.

"So who goes first?" Duncan asked his team.

"Let me go! Let me go!" Tyler raised his hand.

"Fine."

Xxx

Confessional

"Better to let the so-called jock go so if he kicks the wrong ball no one important is hurt." Duncan said.

"I am a pro at soccer. My coach said that he never met anyone who has the kind of good footing skills I have." Tyler said not realizing that his coach met that he should quit while he was still walking.

End Confessional

Xxx

He ran forward to kick the nearest ball which was colored purple which exploded as he kicked it. He was sent flying back and hit the ground. He was now covered in purple paint.

"No!" Lindsay cried.

She ran forward and knelt next to Tyler.

"Are you okay, Tyler?"

Tyler smiled.

"Better now that you remember my name."

Lindsay hugged him tightly.

"Of course I remember your name, silly."

Xxx

Confessional

"Tyler is so silly. When have I ever forgotten his name?" Lindsay asked.

"She remembered my name! She _remembered_ my name!" cried Tyler.

End Confessional

Xxx

"Humph! I'll deal with this since two of us can't walk." Courtney said preparing to run out.

"Like you'll do any better!" Heather retorted, angry at her taunt.

"I happen to have won three soccer medals in a row. I can handle this. Sit back and watch." Courtney said.

"You can't just run and kick a ball. What if you're wrong?" asked Beth.

"I won't be. Now shut up and watch!" Courtney said before she ran off.

"Courtney wait!" Beth said.

"Let her go. If she kicks the wrong ball better her than me." Eva said.

Courtney ran forward to kick the yellow ball but it exploded tossing back and covering her in yellow paint.

"Ouch!" LeShawna shook her head.

Courtney growled in outrage from the pain staining her clothes and hair.

"Well, I guess this one medal you won't be winning, Ms. Soccer Champ." Heather taunted.

"And what are you going to do? Wheel up and push one into the net?" snapped Courtney.

"I guess I'm next." Said Eva.

"Whose next?" asked Tyler trying to get the purple paint off him.

"Bad idea to send me." Said Justin.

Izzy glared at him.

Xxx

Confessional

"I know I said I changed after what happened to me on the second season and seeing what happened to Alejandro would show even me how real karma is. But still who wants to have a paint bomb explode right in front them?" Justin asked.

"Once a liar, always a liar." Said Izzy ribbing apart a picture of Justin.

End Confessional

Xxx

"Bookworm, you're up." Duncan said.

"You know I think you would be better." Noah said.

"About you do it and I don't follow up with my piercing threat." Duncan pulled out a piercing.

Noah sighed and stepped up.

"I'll go next." Trent said.

"Good luck." Said DJ.

Gwen looked over all of the balls while the rest of the teams stepped back to monitor them. Yellow, purple, red, green, brown, black, blue, white, and... Teal? The same color as her hair. Looking at the other teams she noticed that the red balls had same color as Izzy's hair and the green ones were the same color as Duncan's Mohawk.

"Hm...hey Eva!"

"What?"

"See that black one there?" Gwen pointed at another ball. "Go for it, I think I have a theory!"

"Alright ,but if I end up cleaning paint off me all day you're paying for it...both metaphorically and literally." The woman rushed towards the ball and launched it with a single kick. The ball did not explode, and instead flew into a net. "It didn't explode!"

"Team Amazon has scored first. Score one for them." Said Chris.

"How did you know that it wouldn't explode?" asked Beth.

"Can't tell you. We don't want everyone to hear if we want to win." Gwen replied.

"And why should we trust you, _boyfriend kisser_?" Courtney asked venomously.

"Do you _want_ to win?" Gwen asked just as venomously.

They stared at each other for a few seconds before Courtney turned around smacking Gwen in the face with few pieces of her yellow stained her. Gwen wiped the small paint off her face as she turned around.

Xxx

Confessional

"Goth girl might just make a good friend since I almost surrounded by idiots." Eva said to the camera. "Not to mention standing up to Courtney like that and saving me from having to clean my clothes off from paint."

"I think I can convince Gwen and Eva to vote against Courtney along with Beth and Cody. None of them like her and she'll only drag the team down. And it was impressive seeing Gwen stand up to Courtney like that." Heather said before she realized what she had said. "But I still don't like her!"

End Confessional

Xxx

None of the other teams had gone first since they still could not figure out which color was their or how Gwen figured it out.

"I'm up!" Sierra said wheeling up to the field.

"Sierra, go for one of the purple balls." Gwen said.

"Got it."

She wheeled and moved the ball. It didn't explode.

"That one didn't explode either." Said Katie.

"Now we know two out of three colors that belong to us." Said Cody.

Sierra began moving the ball to the net.

"Hey Chris, was there any rule about intercepting?" Noah asked.

"Nope." Chris shrugged.

"So let me see...if I know what Gwen is going for..." Noah looked at Duncan, specifically his green Mohawk, and then to the green ball, which he kicked with precision that knocked the purple one away from Sierra.

"Hey!"

"Crap!" Gwen said, knowing that Noah figured it out.

"Knew it," Noah crossed his arms.

"Knew what?" Duncan asked.

"Hit the red one and find out, genius." Noah rolled his eyes.

Duncan did so, and scored his team a point. "It didn't blow up!"

"Crap, should have known the book worms would figure it out," Chris sighed.

"What's going on?" demanded Courtney trying to get the yellow paint out of her hair.

"Guess there's no use trying to keep it a secret anymore. The colors of the balls correspond to the hair color of certain people on each team. Sierra's hair was dyed purple so a purple colored soccer ball is our team along the black soccer balls because Heather, Katie, and Eva both have black hair and the teal colored balls are ours because I have the same hair color." Gwen explained.

"Duncan has a green Mohawk so the green balls are ours, Izzy's a redhead so they are ours too. Along with possible the brown colored balls because Tyler, Alejandro, Justin, and I are brunettes." Noah said.

"So then . . ." LeShawna said looking at the yellow soccer balls.

She ran and kicked one into her team's net scoring a point.

"Geoff, Lindsay, and Bridgette are blonde so the yellow soccer balls are ours." LeShawna said.

"I guess the last two are ours." Said Trent.

"Blue and white." DJ said.

"Ezekiel has no hair left so the blue must be his hat." Said Bridgette.

"And the white is my hat because the brunette is for Noah, Justin, Alejandro, and Tyler." Said DJ.

"Go for them! Hurry!" LeShawna said.

Bridgette was up along with Cody and Darth Alejandro. She ran up kicked one of the yellow balls. Cody and Alejandro could not intercept her since she was too fast.

However Alejandro was somehow moving his body very fast thanks to the wheels of the Total Drama bot and he moved in a brown ball into the net.

"All right!" Tyler said as they scored a point.

"I'm next." Duncan said.

Cody kicked one of the teal balls and began to move it to the net. But Duncan kicked a green ball in the way and Cody accidently kicked it causing it to explode.

"CODY!" shouted Sierra in fear.

Cody flew back hitting the ground covered in green paint. Duncan laughed at him.

"That's payback for the phone call."

Gwen glared at him for that.

Xxx

Confessional

"It was just a joke. He didn't have to do that to Cody. And besides, Duncan, Geoff and Bridgette were in on it too." Gwen said pointing to the camera.

"Hey it wasn't too bad. I was being easy on the guy since Gwen would get mad if I did anything worse. What's so bad about getting stained with some paint?" asked Duncan.

Little did he know he was about to find out the answer to that question.

End Confessional

Xxx

"How dare you?" Sierra yelled.

She charged straight at him and jumped out of her chair onto him. They fell down with Duncan trying to cover his face as Sierra punched and clawed at him. Courtney laughed at this.

"Check it out, Gwen. Your _boyfriend_'s getting a beating!" she said.

Gwen rolled her eyes at the poor attempt to taunt her. Beth and Katie ran up and pulled her off Duncan. Cody got up and looked at himself.

"Aw, man." He said shaking some green paint off.

"You okay, Cody?" asked Gwen.

"Sure, he can't do anything bad to me." Cody replied.

"That's my Cody! Always acting so strong!" squealed Sierra.

"Hey! I'm hurt too!" Duncan said.

"You started it all because of a simple joke. If you can't handle someone beating you for being a bully over something that was not a big deal than don't get mad over it." Gwen replied crossing her arms.

Xxx

Confessional

"That's what I like about Gwen. She never lets anyone beat on her friends, even her own boyfriend. So I guess being covered with paint that's the same color as Duncan's Mohawk is totally worth it." Cody said with a dreamy smile as he thought about Gwen standing up for him.

"Did Gwen just scold me in favour of the geek? Oh, he is so going down." Duncan said.

"Even though I'm not the same team as Gwen I applaud her standing up to Duncan even if he is her boyfriend." Said Bridgette.

"That's my girl. Showing that punk he can't pick on any of her friends." Said LeShawna.

End Confessional

Xxx

"Hurry up! We're falling behind!" Heather shouted.

"Oh yeah! Look at me go!" Izzy shouted as she kicked a green and a red ball into their net at the same time.

"Come on! Move faster!" Heather shouted.

"We're trying!" Katie said kicking a black ball.

This one missed the net.

"What kind of kick was that? Aim for the net!" shouted Courtney.

"At least I'm not covered in paint!" Katie shouted back.

She had not forgotten how badly Courtney treated her and Sadie back on the island.

"It's Heather's turn now." Said Beth.

She wheeled out and moved as fast as she could with a teal ball towards the net. LeShawna was up next and she was kicking a blue one at her net.

"Lindsay, you're turn!" LeShawna said.

"Ok!" Lindsay said running out.

However just as she ran out she accidently kicked a green one that exploded.

"NO!" Tyler shouted.

Lindsay was covered in green pain.

"Oh no! My hair, my clothes!" Lindsay cried.

Heather manoeuvred her ball into her team's net.

"Yes! The girl in the wheel chair; one. Courtney; zero!" Heather said smirking at the former CIT.

"That was only because I didn't know which color to kick!" Courtney snapped.

"And yet you're still covered in paint and I'm not." Heather said wheeling back to her team.

Izzy ran out again and somehow managed to kick another two balls for her team into the same net.

"Is that even fair? She's kicking more balls!" Courtney said.

"Hey, if you can't think of a way to kick more than one ball with one turn it's not my problem." Chris said smirking.

Courtney growled.

"Who smells another lawsuit?" asked Izzy.

"I do!" nearly everybody said.

"You'll all see. I'm going to win this!" shouted Courtney.

"In the meantime get out there and win!" Eva shouted as it was Courtney's turn and she was wasting her time whining.

Justin kicked a ball into the net while Trent was kicking a white ball. Courtney ran out and kicked a teal ball imagining it was Gwen's head into Trent's path. He accidently kicked it which exploded. Trent groaned as he shook off the teal paint.

"You okay, man?" asked Geoff.

"I'll be fine." Said Trent.

Team Victory glared at Courtney for stopping them from getting a point. Eva ran out and kicked a black colored ball. Team Chris was ahead of them since Izzy was able to kick more than one ball somehow by kicking her team's balls into one with a kick so hard both went into the net.

"Ezekiel is up next." Said DJ.

"Okay, dude. Just go for one of balls colored yellow, blue, or white." Said Geoff.

"No problem, yo! I'm in it to win it!" Ezekiel wheeled out only to hit a hit that made him fall off his chair.

"And Ezekiel is down! Will he get back up to finish his turn?" asked Chris.

"What you mean by that? If Ezekiel can't get up someone should just take his place." Said Bridgette.

"Not exactly. You can only take his place if he says he can't do it." Said Chris with his usual arrogant smirk.

"Zeke, just let someone else do it!" DJ said.

"No way! I'm in it to win!" Ezekiel said crawling over to one of the soccer balls.

However because he only had one arm to help him move he was very slow. In the meantime the other teams were continuing to take turns. Even Heather, Sierra, and Alejandro who injured from last season were to move faster than Zeke.

"Well, what do you know? The winners of this challenge are Team Chris is reeeeaaalllllyyyy hot." Chris said.

Izzy jumped up and down while shouting about stuff no one could understand.

"Well since Team Amazon figured it before anyone else did so they manage to come in second place which means Team Victory loses again!"

Said Team groaned from losing their winning streak.

"The two teams are safe for another three days. Team Victory I'll see you at the bleachers." Said Chris.

Xxx

Team Victory was sitting on the bleachers as Chris came out with another set of trophies.

"Welcome back Team Victory. Another loss eh? How does it feel to be the losers again?" Chris asked.

They all glared at him.

"Whoa, tough crowd. Here are the trophies. If your name is not called than you don't get the trophy. That means you have to leave and never come back." Chris said. "Let's see who all voted for."

Xxx

Confessional

"I am voting for Zeke. He pretty much cost us the challenge." LeShawna said.

"Sorry Zeke, but you just wouldn't listen." Geoff said.

"Competing in outdoor sports is not good for you if you are in a full body cast and used to be a zombie." Bridgette said.

"Sorry Zeke, but you got to go." DJ said.

"Yeah, sorry Zeke. But it's not good for you to try and play when you're still in a body cast." Said Trent.

"Bye Zeke." Sadie said.

"Whose name was I supposed to check off again?" asked Lindsay.

"They can't vote me off for one mistake right, eh? I was just trying to win, yo." Ezekiel said.

End Confessional

Xxx

"The first trophy goes to LeShawna."

LeShawna caught her trophy.

"Geoff."

"Bridgette."

"Sadie."

"Trent."

"DJ."

All that were left were Ezekiel and Lindsay.

"Ezekiel, you were useless today and Lindsay you were too busy crying from having your hair and clothes stained to take your next turn. In my hand is the future for one of you. The other is leaving tonight." Said Chris.

Both teens had looks of fear on their faces as Chris paused to add more drama.

"Lindsey, the trophy is yours!" The blonde cheered and took the trophy as Ezekiel slumped in his wheel chair.

"The first time you're not voted off first Zeke, but you've still gotta leave, no time to celebrate." Chris said.

"No way! I'm in it to win it yo-" Suddenly a shovel hit him on the back of the head, knocking him out. Carlos tossed his shovel away and looked to where several French National Police Officers were standing. "We're not taking chances after last time. Get him to the air port, hand him over to Renaldo and Sarah, and tell them to tie him up, take him back to Canada, and make sure he stays at Playa de Losers."

They nodded and wheeled Zeke away.

"No need for a repeat of happened during the World Tour finale," Kurt nodded.

"And there you have it folks! Will Team Victory bounce back from their losing streak! Will Zeke stay on the jet of losers long enough to go back to Canada? We'll bring you the answers to that and more next time on Total, Drama, Reality!" Chris yelled.

"This is Eagle; Tom Cruise has left the rehab. Repeat, Tom Cruise has left rehab." The voice of Renaldo, one of the workers ordered to bring Zeke back to Canada said over a radio.

"Crap!" Carlos pulled out his own radio. "Eagle this is 'El Carlos', triangulate and neutralize Tom Cruise!" He and Kurt ran off.

"Zeke escaped again didn't he...and it only took him thirty seconds." Geoff sighed.

Zeke came rolling back in. "I'M NOT GOING BACK-" He got piled on by Carlos, Kurt, and four officers.

"Quick! The Anti Zombie Pills! It'll make him disoriented!"

"THE GAME IS MINE- glug." Zeke paused as pills were shoved down his throat. Kurt clamped the boy's mouth shut.

"Make sure he swallows!" Carlos ordered.

"I'm...in-in it...oooo...in...et..." Zeke fainted.

"Strap him down, blindfold him, and make sure he is under lockdown. Get Mark and Derek to help out. Poor kid, he's so determined to win that he's lost all sense of reason." Kurt glared at Chris. "You could have at least fed him when you found him on the plane you know."

Chris shrugged. "We already went over it, Carlos already punched me, can we please let it die already?"

"The big Brit punched you? Score baby!" LeShawna high fived Carlos.

"I know, and if he does anything bad again, the producer herself authorizes me and Kurt to do a lot worse, and by that I mean exterminate with extreme prejudice...and by that I mean kill him, viciously and painfully." Carlos snickered.

"Oh come on guys we're all friends here!"

"No we aren't." Carlos shook his head.

"You hit on my girl friend at the meeting Chris, oh and she found the note you left in her closet this morning and she's telling you to stay out of her room or she'll get a restraining order." Kurt glared at the host.

"Snap," Chris whispered. "Alright fine, you win."

"Damn straight," Carlos and Kurt said at the same time.

Xxx

Inside the digital world of Lyoko Ryder was waiting in the tower chosen for the next attack about to be activated. In his mind he was thinking of his latest mission.

(Flashback)

"The scanned DNA from the original Lyoko warriors will create three more warriors to battle our latest enemies." XANA said sitting casually on a blue floating block in Sector 5. "In the meantime I will be working on my latest project. Shadow, you will go with Ryder to the new Tropical Sector and wait for the tower to activate."

Shadow nodded.

"Ryder, we shall how you perform against the warriors. Defeat them and bring Aelita to me." XANA said looking at Ryder.

"Understood." Ryder said.

(End Flashback)

He opened the files on his targets.

Accessing Enemy Files:

Opening Enemy File 1:

Name: Aelita Schaeffer  
Weapon: Energy Field  
Weapon Damage: One Hundred Life Point Damage  
General Info: Target is daughter of Waldo Schaeffer otherwise known as Franz Hopper and has ability to deactivate towers.  
Abilities: Alter environment of Lyoko to favourable conditions in battle and is able to fly through use of wings activated by a bracelet on her left arm.  
Character Behaviour: Designated leader of current enemy team. Provides information on Lyoko, when tower is activated, and directs tactical plans.

End File

Opening Enemy File 2:

Name: LeShawna Aalders  
Weapon: Hammer  
Weapon Damage: One Hundred Life Point Damage  
General Info: Is contestant on show 'Total Drama Reality' and has been on the series for four seasons. Is head strong and defensive.  
Abilities: Target's weapon grants super strength. Strong enough to crush all enemies and can damage landscape.  
Character Behaviour: Highly aggressive when provoked target will attack recklessly. Super Strength proves to keep her alive in battle.

End File

Opening Enemy File 3:

Name: Gwendolyn 'Gwen' Madison  
Weapon: Scythe  
Weapon Damage: Thirty life points  
General Info: Like previous target this target is contestant on show 'Total Drama Reality' and has been on the series for four seasons.  
Abilities: Target's abilities are unique as she is able to cast different 'spells' in battle. Spells include flight, using scythe to create barrier, throwing scythe at enemies and returns like a boomerang, able to summon scythe when it is lost, generate flames that appear as a red aura, and cast a binding spell with a white aura.  
Character Behaviour: Target is not aggressive in battle and is level-headed in battle and is skilled in close range combat. Even if she is not the strongest she is the most resourceful as it is likely she can cast more 'spells'.

End File

Opening Enemy File 4:

Name: Devon Joseph 'DJ'  
Weapon: None  
Weapon Damage: Zero  
General Info: Like previous targets this target is contestant on show 'Total Drama Reality' and has been on the series for four seasons.  
Abilities: Target is able to create barriers to block enemy attacks and against himself and allies. Able to transform into a moving stone golem.  
Character Behaviour: Despite his large size this target is non-aggressive except when allies are threatened. Because of this his character is almost purely defensive except when in golem. Target matches Target 2 in strength when in this form.

End File

Opening Enemy File 5:

Name: Bridgette Andrews  
Weapon: Two Swords  
Weapon Damage: Ten Life Points  
General Info: Like previous targets this target is contestant on show 'Total Drama Reality' and has been on the series for four seasons.  
Abilities: Target's weapons are unique as they function as both vehicle and swords. When in vehicle form they resemble a surf board but split apart and form into two swords that can fire waves of energy. Target has hydrokinetic powers which allow her to attack and defend in battle. This ability makes her formidable in large bodies of water.  
Character Behaviour: Target has shown to be calm, outgoing and friendly. In battle she watches out for allies, especially target designated Geoff. When ally is in danger target will become highly aggressive and dangerous.

End File

Opening Enemy File 6:

Name: Geoffrey 'Geoff' Williams  
Weapon: Two Chakrams that turn into Axe  
Weapon Damage: Ten Life Points  
General Info: Like previous targets this target is contestant on show 'Total Drama Reality' and has been on the series for four seasons.  
Abilities: This target's weapons can fuse to become a double bladed axe. This weapon can fire waves of lightning when swung and can be swung similar to how target designated Gwen can with her scythe and return to his hand.  
Character Behaviour: Target has been known to be the first to charge into battle. Despite being aggressive target keeps a level head and is difficult to defeat.

End File

Opening Enemy File 7:

Name: Cody Anderson  
Weapon: Two Guns  
Weapon Damage: Ten Life Points  
General Info: Like previous targets this target is contestant on show 'Total Drama Reality' and has been on the series for four seasons.  
Abilities: Target has recently arrived on Lyoko so most of his abilities are unknown.  
Character Behaviour: Target is light on his feet and able to avoid both long range and close range weapons. Target will distance himself from enemies to accurately shoot them.

End File

That was when he sensed XANA preparing to take over the tower. Pulsations were heard as the wiring that was connected to the tower pulse red. That was when the tower's aura changed from blue to red.

An instant later electricity sparked from inside the studio just as the show ended.

Xxx

Aelita was in the library reading a book when her laptop's super scan went off.

Xxx

The contestants were walking back into the studio when the first ones backed away screaming.

"What is it?" asked Trent.

That was when _it_ came out. A knight in black and red armor with a large sword appeared in the lobby.

"Uh...Chris? What is this?" Noah asked nervously.

"Not mine man!" Chris replied.

"Chris this isn't funny!" Carlos glared at the host.

"Dude! It is not mine-" A fist struck the host and sent him flying back. He hit the wall, twitching as his hair shot out in all directions. "Momma." He slid down to the floor.

"Uh...I'm just going to leave now!" Darth Alejandro began to back up, but then the Knight struck him in the side and he slammed into a wall.

His fragile body was protected, but it still hurt and made him scream in pain. To almost everyone it was now clear that this _thing_ was dangerous and hostile. However no one knew what it was or what it wanted. Except for six of them as they saw the Eye.

To them they knew what it was. They looked at each other and knew who was responsible.

XANA.

Duncan pulled out a knife as it got close. Acting on instinct he swung his knife but the creature grabbed his arm and slammed its fist into his stomach. He screamed as he was grabbed by the neck and lifted into the air.

"Duncan!" Gwen shouted.

"Oh hell no!" Reacting, Geoff reached into Carlos' belt where Carlos kept a tazer-he was also the studio security guard in addition to his many jobs that came without pay except for producer. It was a gun style tazer, Geoff raised it and fired. It struck the Dragon Knight and made it jerk a bit as it dropped Duncan.

"Boo yah!" Geoff smirked before the Dragon Knight jerked the tazer out of its shell and tossed it aside, jerking the handle from Geoff's grip. "Uh...my bad?"

It struck him and sent him flying. By then DJ had grabbed a broom from a closet and snapped the tip off. He began to sneak around while the monster advanced on the campers. Katie, Sadie, Beth, Lindsay, and Sierra screamed in fear the monster prepared to swing its sword. DJ stabbed the sharp stick into the creature's armor.

It raised one fist and hit DJ in the shoulder. DJ was sent flying back and hit the wall hard.

"DJ!" Bridgette shouted as she ran and looked at the wound.

"We have to go, now!" LeShawna said.

That was when three Krabs blasted their way into the lobby. They fired theirs lasers at the Lyoko fighters ignoring the other contestants. They ducked under the lasers as they ran for it. Another Dragon Knight floated in and grabbed Beth.

"Beth!" Lindsay screamed.

Chef grabbed a bat and charged forward. The first Dragon Knight snatched the bat from his hand and snapped it in half.

"Well that's not good." Chef said stepping back.

They tried to run but the Krabs blocked the exits. They fired lasers which forced them back into the room with the two armoured monsters waiting for them.

"Hang on!" Bridgette said as she grabbed Duncan's knife.

"I need a lift!" She shouted as pointed to one of the Krabs.

"Got it." Said DJ.

He lifted her up and tossed her into the air. She landed on top of the middle Krab and plunged the knife into the Eye. She jumped off as the Krab fell over and the others took advantage of the chance to escape.

"Hey! You want us! Come and get us!" shouted Bridgette.

The Krabs responded to her by chasing her and the others out. The Dragon Knights turned to DJ who ran out the other exit. They followed him out.

Xxx

Aelita was already at the factory. She sat in front of the computer as the super scan confirmed the location of the activated tower.

"A tower in one of the new sectors. XANA knows it's no use to keep it secret anymore." Said Aelita as she dialled the others.

However there was no answer. Aelita quickly opened a link to the studio to see through the cameras. Her eyes widened as she saw three Krabs and the Dragon Knights attacking them. LeShawna and the others managed to lure them out of the studio and away from everyone.

Xxx

The others made it to the factory while making sure none of the monsters went back to the studio. That was when something odd happened. They disappeared.

"Is it just me or did they vanish?" asked Bridgette turning around as they made it to the entrance.

"It's not just you." Said Geoff.

"We better get inside before more show up." Said LeShawna.

They nodded and swung down the cables, landing in the factory lobby on their feet and ran into the elevator. After going down to the lab the door opened to reveal Aelita at the computer.

"Good, you all made it." Said Aelita.

"Yeah, just barely." Said DJ with a hand pressed over his wound.

"The tower is in the Tropical Sector. Since we now know what changes XANA has made he's not bothering to hide it anymore." Said Aelita.

"We better hurry before more monsters show up." Said Cody.

"Agreed. Cody, you take the controls. We will head down to the scanners." Aelita said as they went into the elevator.

The elevator went down to the scanners and Aelita, LeShawna, and Gwen were the ones to go in.

"Transfer Aelita. Transfer LeShawna. Transfer Gwen. Scanner. Virtualization!"

Xxx

When they landed, it was on a beach.

"I could get used to this sector." LeShawna looked around. "So where's the tower?"

"Its north, you'll have to go to a nearby high cliff that connects to the island it's on. I would have gotten you closer if I could. Don't be afraid to get wet, the water's non harmful according to Aelita's notes." Cody said. "So feel free to take a dive. Oh, and Geoff, Bridgette, and DJ are incoming...three...two...-"

All three appeared in mid air and fell into the water. They splashed around, cursing and yelling. "Uh...sorry guys."

"I hate this sector already." Geoff said, ringing water out of his hat before putting it on again.

"Wow." Bridgette said looking at the ocean.

It was beautiful to see as it even a sun setting with a few clouds making it remind her of her home.

"Well if a little water is so bad, you might hate the swamp even more then." Gwen replied. "Now let's go, we have to head north!" They started along the shore, heading to the north side of the island.

"Ok, no monsters so far, I'd say that's the best luck you've had." Cody commented.

"Dude, don't jinx it!" Geoff complained before they rounded the tip of a peninsula and spotted the cliff, which connected to another island next to the one they were on.

"Ok, now we need a way up there." DJ said. "Cody, have any vehicles?"

"Trying to, it's down loading slow." Cody replied. "But if you go into the forest and find a trail, it'll lead you to a path along the cliff wall that goes up to the top."

"That's where we're going then," LeShawna led the way into the forest, her hammer ready. "Ok, still no monsters, I am officially spooked."

"Consider it a lucky break then," Geoff said.

"Yeah, maybe they're having a little trouble finding you." Cody added. "From what I can tell they strictly use audio and visual sensors, nothing else."

"How do stone blocks and pyramids have ears?" Bridgette asked.

"In the virtual world, if you design something to do a task, it can do it and it will do it. XANA has a psychic link to his monsters through his symbol on them. And he has programs set up to alert him of where we are on Lyoko, so he could provide them a general location accurate up to at least several hundred feet, perhaps an even smaller area now that he has upgraded." Aelita looked over her shoulder at the group. "But LeShawna is right; XANA has been flooding us with monsters the last few battles, so why isn't he bringing any squads of Hornets down on us? Or making Spiderlings rush us from the sides?"

"I'd bet my sucky pay check that he has something big set up," Cody leaned back in his chair, watching as the group reached the beginning of the. "I'll go look ahead at the tower." He moved the view to the tower, and saw one figure. "I think he has a Dragon Knight there...nope, no, it isn't...uh...Aeltia, we have something new. I don't know what it is, but whatever it is it isn't a monster but it is armed to the teeth."

"What is it?" Geoff asked.

"Well from what I can tell its signature is similar to Shadow. You know, in the way that he's not a monster but...more like you guys. Although you guys aren't as rude, have to admit that."

"Ok, so it isn't Shadow, then what is it?" Gwen asked as they reached the top. "Wait a second. Damn it I forgot! Aelita, Bridgette and I can fly!"

"We can scout ahead and see who is waiting for us." Aelita leaped into the air and spread her wings while Bridgette mounted her board. Gwen flew up into the air.

"Leave us a piece! And be careful!" Geoff called after them.

"Don't worry Geoff! It's just one guy!" Bridgette called back to him. "How bad can it be?"

DJ sighed. "I really wish she wouldn't say that, every time somebody thinks it'll be easy it ain't."

Xxx

"I see him," Gwen's eyes narrowed as she, Bridgette and Aelita flew down towards the clearing where the Tower rested. It was on top of a slope, and in front of it sat a black clad figure.

Ryder slowly stood up. "Finally."

"Who's this guy?" Bridgette slowed down a bit as they began to land.

"Something new." Aelita landed in a crouch.

"Deductive." Ryder slowly drew out his katana, which was longer than Ulrich's single handed swords and had more of a curve to it. He held it in a stance. "If I had to venture a guess, I'd say you're Aelita."

"And you're with XANA, aren't you?" Aelita formed a sphere in one hand.

"Yes, allow me to introduce myself." Ryder cracked a smile. "The name's Ryder and I am your new play mate."

Suddenly he vanished in a flash of red lighting that arched over the ground and hit in front of Aelita. Ryder appeared again and swung his Katana at her, only for Gwen's scythe to block him. She forced him back and got between him and Aelita. "Nice try pretty boy."

"Ah, the spell caster," Ryder dragged the tip of his katana on the ground as he paced slowly, keeping his gaze locked on them. "And the surfer girl judging from that fancy board. Perfect portrayals of your personalities."

"Enough talk! Out of our way!" Bridgette shot down, aiming the tip of her board at Ryder, who crouched under it to avoid it.

"Too quick to make a mistake, you'll need to do much better." As Bridgette came around for another pass, he swung his katana, and the board split into its two pieces as it struck his katana.

Bridgette hit a tree and flopped to the ground. "Ouch!"

"If you think that hurt...let's see my next trick." Suddenly a red light travelled up the length of the katana blade and gathered at the tip as Ryder raised it over his head.

"ENERGY FIELD!" Aelita shot a sphere at him.

Bridgette shot a wave of energy from one sword as she slowly got up.

Gwen shot her binding spell at Ryder.

All three were about to strike when he swung the sword down.

"LIGHTNING STORM!"

A wave of energy shot out from Ryder and sent all three of the fighters flying.

"Oh man!" Cody shouted as they rolled down the slop. Bridgette hit a tree again while Gwen half fell into a shallow stream. Aelita was the furthest up the hill, and Ryder was heading right for her. "That took off seventy life points each! Don't let him hit you again!"

"Too late," Ryder raised his katana, but then something shot through the air and knocked it out of his hands.

The chakram returned to Geoff, who stood with DJ and LeShawna on the other side of the stream. "Ten points!"

"Great, the peanut gallery," Ryder rolled his eyes, whipping out his knives.

"You made a big mistake there dude. You hit my girl, twice!" Geoff formed his axe, and energy gathered in the blade.

"Ah yes, you can use lightning attacks like I can." Ryder smirked.

"Who are you and where did you come from?" Geoff demanded.

"My name is Ryder...and I have no origins." Ryder held out his arms. "And now, let's continue."

Suddenly one dagger flew through the air. DJ made a barrier that reflected it, but Ryder leaped into the air and caught the knife by pinching the blade between his thumb and index finger. He flicked it at Gwen; she spun her scythe and deflected it again. Ryder landed and brought his katana up in one hand while swinging the knife in his other hand.

Aelita shot two Energy spheres, but Ryder deflected them and almost cut Bridgette down. DJ moved in, using his Golem power. He knocked Ryder's knife aside, but when the katana struck him it took off twenty life points.

"Ow! Man that thing is strong!" DJ backed away as Ryder swung again.

Bridgette called upon the water and had it shoot towards Ryder. His katana blade glowed red, and when he swung it an energy wave split the water and continue on to DJ and Gwen. DJ blocked it with another barrier before Gwen leaped over him and swung her scythe down at Ryder, who rolled backwards to avoid it.

LeShawna charged forward with a battle cry. Ryder vanished in a flash of red light as she sung her hammer. She quickly turned and blocked Ryder's sword.

"Not this time!"

She pushed him back with her super strength which sent him flying back. He landed on his feet and looked up at them.

He looked down as he came up and noticed he was now in the river. He looked to the group as they began to close in on him. He raised his katana over his head. "Big mistake, you're all in one spot and I have plenty of power to spare!"

Aelita gathered her hands together. "So do I."

A bright pink light began to gather between her hands, much stronger than her energy spheres.

"LIGHTING STORM!"

"PLASMA BEAM!"

When Aelita fire, it came out as a solid beam of energy that struck Ryder before his blade came into contact with the ground and sent him flying into a massive, thick tree. When it cleared he was stuck in an outline of himself on the tree. The bark slowly crumpled and released him.

He fell into the river. As they all watched, he slowly got up. "Is that...the best...you've got?"

"Nope, this is." Geoff held up a charge axe and walked to the edge of the water. "Big mistake to leave so much water lying around in this world now man, reality still applies here. Suck to be you." He then dipped the blade into the water.

The energy spread through the water. Ryder was suddenly sent flying as the energy hit him. He landed on the far shore, and Geoff kept up what was now a barrier between them and him. "Go to the tower, he isn't going anywhere, this river goes a long way!"

"Right!" Aelita rushed up the slope.

Ryder slowly got up again. His life points were now down to 3 out of over three hundred. "This isn't over!"

"If I had a penny for each time I-oh wait we're in Paris so...if I had a 'euro' for every time I heard that I'd have bought Total Drama by now." Gwen smirked.

Ryder growled before a familiar figure materialized behind him. "Ryder."

Ryder looked over his shoulder. "Shadow."

"That's enough, return to XANA." Shadow stared past him at the fighters. "We'll talk later."

Ryder grudgingly vanished into a cloud of smoke.

"My new partner was foolish; I guarantee he'll be more...disciplined next time we meet." Shadow vanished a moment later.

"...these guys are either broken records or are implying the same things every single villain does. You'd think XANA could get creative." Geoff said.

Few moments later Aelita entered the tower and it was released from XANA's control. Cody launched the Return to the Past.

Xxx

XANA was sitting at the interface in the Core Zone of Sector 5 in his Carbon Copy. He was looking over some data when Shadow and Ryder approached him.

"So you two made it back." XANA stated not turning around.

"How dare you say that? You tricked me into thinking it would be easy! You never mentioned Aelita had an attack like that Plasma Beam!" Ryder snapped stepping forward.

Shadow's eyes narrowed at Ryder's temper. XANA did not react to Ryder's outburst. Instead he simply smirked and looked over his shoulder.

"Ah, the new attack my sister used. I was little surprised that Aelita used it. She must have been adding new powers to her character in order to keep up. Since you survived it along with fighting all of her fighters it was probably just luck on her side." XANA said.

"You admit that you suspected that she had a new weapon?" Ryder stepped forward.

XANA simply turned around and looked back at the data.

"DON'T TURN YOUR BACK ON ME!"

Ryder pulled out his sword and ran forward. XANA did not even turn as Ryder stabbed him in the back. That was when Ryder felt pain in the same part of his body where he stabbed XANA. Shadow had his sword out in case.

Ryder collapsed as XANA telekinetically pulled out the sword. The wound was seen only for a second as it healed instantly.

"Right now you're wondering why you're in pain and I'm not since your attack struck me." XANA said turning around. "You were created from my data with the genetic codes of a human. Because of that you're linked to me as are all of my creations. I simply transferred the damage from your attack to you through that link. The link only works for me so don't hope that can you use it for an advantage."

Ryder's eyes widened.

"Don't forget this Ryder. You live because I allow it." XANA said. "Your performance today was simply to test you. You were too confident and let your guard down. There were six of them and some still have yet to discover what their powers are. Shadow will train you and you will do well to keep that temper in check."


	15. Episode 14: Lyoko's Blizzard

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 14

Everyone was gathered in the lab.

"So you're saying that this Ryder is an AI created by XANA?" asked Bridgette.

"It is a very high possibility." Aelita said at the computer.

"Man he was tough." Said Geoff.

"It could be possible. XANA is an AI that is super intelligent. It's very possible for him to create another AI." Cody said.

"Good point. He put up a good fight but he didn't seem all the experienced." Bridgette said.

"But he was still very powerful. Who knows what could happen if XANA could create more like him." DJ said.

"But why now? Don't you all think it's odd that he would do something like this now? I mean, you fought XANA for nearly four years with your friends, Aelita. If he could do that why didn't he do it before?" asked Gwen.

"That is a good question. Hopefully the scans Cody took during the fight will answer that." Aelita said. "There is a possibility that it's not because XANA didn't chose to do it but because that he couldn't do it before."

She looked at the screen. As it showed the data she wanted her eyes widened.

"Oh no." She muttered.

"What is it?" asked Cody.

He walked over to take a look at the screen.

"I am looking at the bio scan of Ryder and I found something. A human DNA signature. It's similar to Ulrich." Aelita said leaning back in the chair.

"Ulrich? One of your friends who XANA captured?" asked Geoff.

"Yes. It's not Ulrich's DNA so he's not a polymorphic clone. But a copied base code for Ulrich's DNA. It must be how Ryder has a humanoid body." Said Aelita. "Ryder has similar genetic data as Ulrich which when combined with XANA's code it created a humanoid AI."

"So XANA used your friend's DNA to make him?" asked LeShawna.

"Yes. On his own XANA couldn't just make a new AI. At least not one with a humanoid body. He needed something that would give the AI to think creatively like a human. That's where Ulrich's DNA came in. Scanning it and using it as a base code to create a new AI he was able to create one that would fight for him but was not a monster or possessed like William was." Said Aelita. "And now things could become a lot worse."

"How's that?" asked DJ.

"XANA captured Ulrich along with Odd, Yumi, Jeremy, and William. He won't bother to use William's DNA as a base code because he already has Shadow. But with Yumi, Odd, and Jeremy he could create three more." Said Aelita. "That means he'll have four fighters at his side with who knows what powers they'll have."

"Five if you count Shadow." Bridgette said.

"Right. Five AIs that could very well be strong enough to take on any of us on their own." Aelita said.

"But we still have the numbers. I mean six to five gives us some kind of advantage right?" asked DJ.

"Not by much, DJ. When William was possessed by XANA he almost never lost when we fought him. The only times when we were able to defeat was when he was outnumbered or we outsmarted him. What he lacked in skills he made up for in raw power. Ryder is similar, he is lacking in skills because he was only recently created but his power makes him formidable to almost the entire group." Aelita said. "Three more could be a great threat."

"Yeah, but you got that new ability. That plasma beam." Cody said.

"It was an upgrade Jeremy was working on when he was improving everyone's virtual equipment but when XANA sent William to capture me he shelved it. I found it and finished it." Aelita said smiling.

"Cool. Can you program any new equipment for us?" asked Geoff.

"Possibly. But it would take time and you all still need to learn what powers you have." Aelita replied.

"Sounds good to me." Said LeShawna.

Xxx

Duncan was relaxing in the lobby. That was until someone walked into the room.

"Well, well, the moron seems to be in a good mood from his victory." Said a female voice.

He looked up and his look soured when he saw it was Courtney.

"I heard Gwen ran off in the middle of your date. How heartbreaking is it to know she is _hiding_ something from you?" Courtney asked casually hoping to get under Duncan's skin.

"Hey, she has her reasons. Besides I'm not going to act all obsessive like Trent or whine about not getting enough attention." Said Duncan.

"Ha! You don't even know what gothie is up to and your letting her run off without any explanation. Maybe she's bored with you and decided to go back seeing Trent or even hooking up with that nerd, Cody." Sneered Courtney.

Duncan chuckled.

"Yeah, who would be excited to have a hot and unpredictable chick as a girlfriend? Poor me." Duncan said smirking. "And like she would hook up with that little dork. Plus after what happened last time she and Elvis were on different teams I doubt it."

"So you don't care that she along with a few of the others disappears suddenly at random times with no reasonable explanation?" asked Courtney.

"They're probably just going out into town. No one says they have to stay here."

Courtney scowled as her attempts to make Duncan suspicious were failing. She noticed that Gwen and Cody were hanging around with several members of Team Victory recently. They could be in a secret alliance for all anyone could know. She also wanted Duncan to get suspicious of Gwen so she could enjoy watching them fight and break up.

It was obvious Gwen was hiding something; Duncan even knew it so why wasn't he suspicious?

"Fine! But if she cheats on you just to let you know I'll enjoy seeing the miserable look on your face!" Courtney sneered before turning around and walking out.

Duncan simply shrugged.

Xxx

"That jerk is impossible!" Courtney growled as she walked outside. "Doesn't even care that his goth of a girlfriend is hiding something? How can they be a couple if they hide secrets from each other?"

Courtney's self rant was cut off when she noticed a certain group coming through the gates. She quickly hid herself as they walked through the entrance.

"Man, what a day. Can you believe that even happened?" asked Cody.

"I know. Since we got here I've seen a lot of crazy stuff but that was something new." Said Geoff.

"And another danger to us and the whole world." Gwen said.

"Hey, cheer up, Gwen. We can handle it." Said DJ.

"Yeah, as long as LeShawna is in the house we are unstoppable." LeShawna said.

"But for how long? Anyone of us could be sent home during the next challenge." Gwen said.

"Then we'll just have to work hard and win." Bridgette said.

"That's easy for you to say. You guys can actually work together." Said Gwen.

"Oh, come on Gwen. Our team is not so bad." Said Cody.

"Have you forgotten who is on our team? We're lucky to make it through half the challenge without killing each other." Gwen said.

"Yeah, but so far we haven't had to send anyone home yet." Said Cody.

"Cody, if there is something I have ever learned from being on this stupid show is that when you say something like you and your team are definitely going to lose the next challenge." Said Gwen.

"Oh right. Sorry." Cody replied sheepishly.

Gwen sighed as they walked inside. Courtney peeked out from her hiding place. Those six were up to something. She had to find out because it would probably humiliate Gwen.

But how?

Bridgette! She was one of the only friends Courtney had on the show. Maybe she could give a clue.

Xxx

Bridgette was sitting on her bed with a book at her side. After the last few days of fighting against XANA and competing on the show she was glad to have some time to herself.

A knock was heard on Bridgette's door.

"Who is it?" Bridgette asked her book down.

She was reading a book she bought when whoever came to see her knocked on her door.

"Bridgette?"

That was Courtney's voice. Bridgette was kind of surprised to hear her voice.

"Can I come in?"

"Sure, it's open." Bridgette replied.

With a soft swish Courtney opened the door and entered the room.

"What's up?" asked Bridgette.

"I've noticed that you along with several of the others had been hanging around a lot recently and you've been disappearing recently without warning." Courtney said.

Bridgette's eyes widened.

"Really?"

"Yes, in fact Gwen had to run off in the middle of her _date_ with Duncan." Said Courtney.

"Yeah I heard. Good for Gwen that Duncan didn't get mad." Bridgette said smiling nervously.

Courtney would have preferred that Duncan had done that.

"So what is it you guys do when you leave?" asked Courtney.

"Oh, we just head out and explore the town. It's too boring to stay here while dealing with Chris." Bridgette said shrugging.

"Really? Find anything interesting?" asked Courtney.

"Lots of stuff." Bridgette said.

"So you don't mind if someone tags along?"

Bridgette's eyes widened slightly as she struggled to think of an answer. If she finds out about the factory it would be extremely bad. While Bridgette liked Courtney as a friend there's no way she could keep a secret this big.

"Oh, gee Courtney is that a good idea? I mean, Gwen's with us and you two well, hate each other." Bridgette said rubbing the back of her head.

Ok, Bridgette had her there. It would look suspicious if she suddenly asked to hang out with the group when everyone knew that she and Gwen were enemies. Could she even stomach the thought of being in the same place as Gwen for a whole day without getting angry or throwing up?

"Courtney, hello?" Bridgette asked waving a hand in front of her face.

Courtney snapped out of her thoughts.

"Oh, sorry, Bridgette." Courtney said rubbing the back of her head while smiling sheepishly.

"What were you thinking?"

"Oh, nothing."

"Well, like I said if you can't stand being around Gwen during the challenges what makes you think you can handle hanging out with her for a whole day?" Bridgette asked.

"I get the idea." Courtney replied grumpily.

"Courtney, hold on. I'm sorry." Said Bridgette getting off her bed as Courtney walked to the door.

"No you're right. It's a bad idea." Courtney said as she walked out.

Bridgette sighed as she sat back down.

"Something tells me this isn't over."

Xxx

XANA was waiting in the Ice Sector of his Lyoko for Shadow and Ryder to appear. Shadow appeared out of cloud of black smoke while Ryder appeared in a flash of red electricity.

"You sent for us?" asked Shadow.

"I did. Ryder, how has your training been progressing?" XANA asked not turning to face them.

"It has been adequate." Ryder responded.

"Good, because you two shall inherit a third comrade." XANA said.

A Dragon Knight appeared in front of them. XANA's Scyphozoa appeared out from the darkness and floated over to the knight.

"I have just finished the programs that will increase its intelligence. Now the Scyphozoa will upload the data and the necessary codes." XANA said. "Just as you, Ryder were created from the scanned DNA of Ulrich this one will be born from Yumi's genetic codes."

The Scyphozoa hovered in front of the knight and placed its tentacles on its head. It began to inject the data into the Knight. The Knight began to crack with blue energy when the Scyphozoa released it. Cracks traveled through its armor as the body inside it was reconstructing itself.

Shadow and Ryder watched in fascinated silence as they watched that another one like them was being created. That was when the armor could not hold the power in anymore and exploded in a flash of white light. When it was over they looked to see what their new comrade looked like. One difference was that this time it was actually a female.

Blue eyes surveyed her fellow virtual being before her. Her skin was pale, her hair was as short as Gwen's hair and was colored white as the snow that covered the Ice Sector. She wore a long white cloak with a hood over a white top with short sleeves, a skirt reaching midway between her hips and knees, white calf high boots with black stockings; white fingerless gloves covered her hands. She wore earrings that each had a blue jewel with black Eyes of XANA on them.

"I don't see a weapon on her." Said Ryder.

"You should know not to underestimate your opponent, Ryder." Said XANA. "I gave you the power of lightning while Shadow's power is that of darkness."

"And what is her power?" asked Ryder.

XANA turned and nodded to her. Her eyes glowed white as icy claws formed in her hand. XANA summoned three hornets to fight her. She raised one hand and fired a bluish white beam that froze one hornet instantly.

It fell to the ground and shattered on impact. The other two fired which she dodged with amazing reflexes and fired several icy spears that took out one hornet leaving one more. She jumped into the air and slashed through the hornet with her ice made claws. It exploded as she landed unharmed.

All this time her face maintained a calm, serene look.

"Her power is ice." XANA said.

"Impressive." Said Shadow.

The girl bowed to XANA for her performance.

"So, what is the name of our newest addition?" Ryder asked.

"You are not the one to ask that," The girl stared coldly at Ryder. "Your arrogance lead to your defeat where Shadow could have held them off long enough to eliminate Aelita. Quite frankly I find it odd that you are a creation of our master."

Ryder growled and whipped out his sword. Without a word he sent a stream of lightning at the girl, who raised a barrier of ice between them. The lightning struck the ice, and shattered the wall, but the girl was gone.

Ryder looked around, knowing he had not destroyed her so easily. He got his blade into a stance and prepared for an attack. Suddenly a hand reached out of the ice and grabbed him by the ankle, tugging him off his feet. He grunted and rolled away as the girl rose out of the ice. She formed a spear of ice from her surrounding environment.

They circled one another for several moments, and then leaped forward. Blue energy gathered into the spear while red lightning gathered into the katana as the two fighters closed in on one another...only to be blocked by Shadow. He glared at both of them as he parried away their respective weapons with his broad sword.

"Enough." He said. "Ryder, you must learn to watch your temper. And you...you must learn to respect your comrades no matter how you feel about them."

The girl nodded and bowed her head. "Yes sir,"

"I think I know just what to call you then...Yuki." Shadow relaxed. "An alternate of Yumi...and if I recall the meaning of the name is 'snow' among other definitions. It fits you perfectly."

The newly named Yuki nodded. "I live to serve Master XANA, I am ready."

"Perfect, the three of you shall be more than a match for these new Lyoko warriors." XANA stated. "Now, let us prepare for our next move. I believe we should allow Yuki to make use of her abilities here. I shall see to it that the Lyoko warriors are brought to the ice region."

Yuki smiled. "Thank you master."

Xxx

"Okay, so that didn't work out." Courtney muttered.

Bridgette was a good friend and what Courtney liked about her was her honesty. She was the only one who has never betrayed her unlike Duncan, Harold, or Gwen. But she was right. Suddenly asking to hang out with her group where she nearly hated every one of them except Bridgette would look suspicious to everyone.

As much as she wanted to get Duncan suspicious of Gwen so that they might be broken up she did not want to hurt Bridgette. She was not Heather. But whatever they were hiding could ruin Gwen and Duncan's relationship. After that they did to her they did not deserve to be happy.

Even though Gwen and Duncan were on opposite teams it did not affect their relationship like it did with Gwen and Trent. They still enjoyed being with each other, Duncan knew Gwen was hiding something yet he did not question her. What kind of relationship has two people hiding secrets from each other? That was what annoyed her.

'She's hiding something from him. But how do I find out? There's no way to know when they are sneaking out.' Courtney thought. 'Something fishy is going on with them and I'll find out.'

Xxx

Next Day

"So, should we head again?" asked Bridgette.

"Sure. I know of this great book store." Said Gwen.

"Better than staying in here all day. It sure is hot." Said LeShawna.

"Might as well since it won't be long before Chris has another chance to torture us." Said Cody. "There's this cool arcade I want to try out."

"Cool." Geoff said with a thumb up.

Xxx

Aelita stretched her arms a bit before she got back to work on the keyboard on the computer in the lab. Today she was able to have the day off because of building inspectors which was good. It allowed her more time to work here on Lyoko.

'This must be how Jeremy worked when he was trying to materialize me.' Aelita thought.

She remembered telling him to take a break when she thought he was working too hard. She could almost hear him and the others saying the exact same thing to her. But right now she was working the tracking system. So far all attempts to locate her friends have failed.

Something was wrong. Not only could she not locate Jeremy and the others she could not find any Replicas on the network. Without the Replicas XANA would have no power unless he returned to the Super Calculator which would mean that if it was shut down he would go with it. That was why he wanted the Keys to Lyoko in the first place.

'There must be something I'm missing.' Aelita thought.

Xxx

The group headed into the town mall. Cody saw a video game store and got excited like a little kid seeing an ice cream truck.

"I have almost seen the little dude so happy since he got your bra." Said Geoff to Gwen.

Gwen threw a sharp glare at Geoff for mentioning that. He chuckled nervously and stepped back with his hands up.

"No offense."

Gwen sighed.

"No problem. I forgot he still had that."

"Hey look! An arcade!" Geoff said.

They looked to where he was pointing and it was indeed an arcade. He ran inside which made Bridgette sigh.

"Well, at least he'll be having fun."

"Better than making out for most of the day." Said LeShawna.

Bridgette blushed. Everyone shared a laugh at that.

"Say, DJ, there's a pet store. Want to see the animal?" Bridgette asked to divert attention away from her.

"Bad idea, Bridge. I just came from an animal hurting curse. I don't want to hurt a bunch of small animals." Said DJ.

"I thought that curse was gone." Said Gwen.

"Can't risk it. Especially with all that's happened recently." Said DJ.

"Oh, relax. Aelita will let us know if there's another attack." Said Bridgette.

Gwen looked and saw a book store.

"I wonder if they have a horror section." Gwen said as she walked in.

"Guess we're joining Geoff in the arcade." Said LeShawna as they went into the arcade.

Xxx

In the Carbon Copy of Lyoko Ryder and Shadow stood behind XANA at the interface in Sector 5.

"After watching you battles with them I can see just strong they are together. Go to the Ice Sector and wait there for them" XANA said looking at the screen. "Shadow, make sure Ryder does not underestimate them again."

Shadow nodded.

"And where is the new girl?" asked Ryder which earned a glare from Shadow.

"Yuki has already been sent." XANA replied.

Xxx

In the Ice Sector of Lyoko a girl dressed in white walked across the frozen wasteland. To others it was nothing to see but to her she enjoyed it. This sector would give her power similar to how Lyoko was gave her master the power to enter the real world. She looked to see the tower that her master would activate.

'Create a barrier around it to stop them.' Yuki thought.

She raised her hand and ice rose from the ground, covering the tower.

'The only way to break through would be Aelita's creativity.' Yuki thought.

That was when the tower glowed red.

Xxx

Aelita looked up when super scan detected an activated tower in the Ice Sector of Lyoko.

'No. Not now.' Aelita thought biting back a curse.

Xxx

A specter flew into the sky and in seconds dark clouds blocked out the sun. Everyone looked up as snow started to fall. LeShawna's cell phone rang while she was in the arcade with the others.

"LeShawna here."

"LeShawna, we have a XANA attack." Said Aelita.

"Oh crap. What is it this time?" asked LeShawna.

"If you look outside you'll know. Get here fast before it's too late." Aelita said.

LeShawna hung up and looked to the others.

"Sorry, we got to go." Said LeShawna.

"What's up?" asked Bridgette.

"XANA."

"Oh no." Said DJ.

"Yeah. We got to get Gwen and Cody." Said LeShawna.

They ran out of the arcade and into the book store where they found Gwen looking at a book she found.

"Gwen!"

Gwen turned and saw them.

"Hey, guys. You might want to keep it down."

"We have no time for that. Aelita just called about another attack." Said Bridgette.

Gwen's eyes widened as she put the book away.

"What is it this time?"

"I don't know but apparently we'll know when we get outside. Come on, DJ and Geoff are getting Cody." Said LeShawna.

Gwen nodded and they ran out of the book store. They saw DJ, Geoff, and Cody at the entrance.

"Hey, you'll never guess what's happening." Said Cody.

"What is it?" asked Bridgette.

"Look." Said DJ pointing outside.

They looked and gasped. Outside snow was falling from the sky and covering everything.

"Snow? Here? At this time of year?" asked LeShawna.

"I know." Said Geoff.

"We better hurry than. If we don't hurry we won't be able to get to the factory." Said Bridgette.

"Okay." Geoff said reluctantly.

They ran out instantly wishing they were wearing something warmer because not only was it snowing, it was freezing. They tried to ignore it as they ran towards the factory.

"Oh man! And I thought the Yukon was cold!" Bridgette said as they ran over the bridge.

"At least you weren't in the water." Cody said.

The factory was mostly safe as the snow had not piled up and blocked the entrance. But they did have some trouble getting through.

"What I wouldn't give for a snow blower right about now." Gwen said.

They made it in and took the stairs down to the lobby and ran into the elevator.

"Good thing the lab has a heater." Said DJ rubbing his arms.

"Yeah." Said Geoff.

The elevator door opened and they walked into the lab.

"Hey, everyone. Was it hard getting here?" Aelita asked.

"Not hard. We're used to this by now." Bridgette said glad to be in a warm place.

"Well, something is not right here. This isn't the first time XANA has created a blizzard and I said before he does not repeat a failed plan. I don't understand why he would do something like this since it would be illogical." Said Aelita.

"So what now?" asked Geoff.

"We go to Lyoko and deactivate the tower. We can think about why later when the city is safe." Said Aelita.

"Good idea." DJ said.

"So who goes and who stays?" asked LeShawna.

"I'll go this time," Cody volunteered.

"Same," Geoff nodded.

"I'm in." Bridgette and LeShawna said at the same time.

"I'm game," Gwen shrugged.

"I'll stay and send you over," DJ sat in the chair. "Just gonna need a minute to get this right."

The others went down to the scanner room. Aelita, Cody, and Geoff went in first.

"Scanner Aelita. Scanner Cody. Scanner Geoff."

Xxx

All three fighters appeared in the ice region, on one of the many generic fields of ice and snow.

"Great, winter vacation and I came in my good shoes," Cody joked as he looked at his shoes, which matched his outfit's fancy appearance. "So...where is it this time?"

"West, it's quite a walk and I might need some time to get vehicles down there." DJ replied. "Oh and here comes Bridgette, Gwen, and LeShawna."

No sooner than he said it did the surfer girl, spell caster and the group enforcer landed next to them.

"We'd better hurry, things looked like they could get bad outside if snow keeps falling like it did." Bridgette said.

"I'd volunteer to fly, but after Ryder almost took half of us down with one attack I'd like to preserve life points." Gwen said.

"I'm on it." Bridgette got onto her board and went into the air.

Meanwhile at the tower Yuki looked out towards the empty frozen land.

'They are here.' She thought.

She held up her right hand and it glowed light blue. Back with everyone else they were running towards the tower when something happened. A hand sprouted from the ground right in front of them.

"Woah!" Geoff jumped back as it came out.

It looked humanoid and it was an average height but there were no eyes, ears, nose, mouth, or hair. It was made of ice.

"What is that?" asked Cody.

"I don't know. DJ do you see the monster in front of us?" asked Aelita.

"Monster? What monster? I don't see anything." Said DJ.

Aelita looked at the monster again.

"No sign of weapons on it. I don't see the Eye anywhere." Said Aelita.

The icy monster lunged at Geoff but with one chakram he sliced through.

"Well that was easy." Said Geoff.

"And kind of pathetic. You think XANA is having a malfunction if he thinks a wimp like that can take us?" asked LeShawna.

"That was no monster. If it was it would have the Eye somewhere on it." Said Aelita.

"So what was it?" asked Cody.

"I don't know. But whatever it is could be a prelude to something much worse." Said Aelita.

"These kind of things usually are." Sighed Gwen.

"So what now?" asked Bridgette coming down.

"Bridgette, go on ahead of us and check out the tower. If there are any enemies don't fight them until we get there." Said Aelita.

Bridgette nodded.

"All right."

She flew off on her surfboard.

"Good luck, Bridge!" shouted Geoff waving.

Yuki could see what was happening through her puppet. She opened her eyes and her hands glowed again. The Lyoko warriors were about to run towards the tower again when more of the ice puppets sprouted from the ground.

"Uh oh!" Cody said as he jumped back.

The ice puppets surrounded them in larger numbers.

"This is not good."

"Don't be so sure. They may outnumber us but we got them beat." Said LeShawna pulling out her hammer.

She charged forward smashing through the ice puppets. They piled on top of her but she threw them off easily. Geoff threw his chakrams that sliced through a lot of them before flying back into his hands. Gwen and Cody stayed close to Aelita as they took out ice puppets that tried to attack them.

Cody fired off his guns that blew off the heads of the ice puppets running at them while Gwen sliced them in half.

"This is way too easy." Said Cody.

"So we can expect something horrible to happen." Said Gwen slicing another puppet apart.

It seemed there was no end to them. The monsters were easy to destroy but for everyone they destroyed another took its place.

"What with these guys?" asked LeShawna smashing another with her hammer.

"I don't know but we're not getting anywhere like this." Said Gwen taking out another one.

"You guys are dense aren't you?" asked a familiar voice.

They turned and saw Shadow and Ryder.

"You can't stop them from spawning because they are not monsters or even what you would you consider in Lyoko living." Said Shadow.

"These guys again." Said LeShawna holding her hammer.

"Are you behind this?" asked Aelita.

"No. That's the work of Yuki." Said Ryder.

"Yuki?" asked Cody.

"Yes, a new warrior created like we were. Her power is of ice and the Ice Sector grants her the ability to spawn these puppets without limit. Something not even XANA can do with his monsters." Said Ryder.

"Another one?" asked Cody.

"Should have known." Said Gwen.

"Now then, I have a score to settle with you. This time our battle won't end like last time." Said Ryder pulling out his sword.

"Where's this Yuki?" asked Aelita.

"At the tower controlling these puppets." Said Ryder.

"Oh no. Bridgette will be there." Said Geoff.

"What's the matter? Afraid she can't handle herself?" asked Ryder smirking.

"That's enough, Ryder. Just hurry up and destroy them." Said Shadow.

"Cody, Gwen, get Aelita to the tower. We'll handle these jokers." Said LeShawna glaring at them.

"On it." They both said.

Aelita activated her wings and grabbed Cody while Gwen activated her flight ability.

"I was hoping to save this but it looks like I got no choice." Said Gwen.

"We better hurry and catch up with Bridgette." Said Aelita.

They flew towards the tower leaving Geoff and LeShawna to face Shadow and Ryder.

"If you think you can handle us by yourselves than you are sadly mistaken." Said Ryder.

"You need to learn how to stop talking, turkey!" said LeShawna.

She ran forward and slammed her hammer down. Ryder and Shadow both dodged by vanishing red lightning and black smoke. LeShawna made sure to not let Shadow stab her from behind again as Ryder appeared in front of Geoff.

"I owe you for that little shock you gave me last time." Said Ryder pointing his sword at Geoff.

"Dude, it's not healthy to hold a grudge." Said Geoff as his chakrams formed into his axe.

"Well, after this I'll be the only one who wields lightning!" shouted Ryder as he swung his sword to the ground.

Xxx

"Hey, Bridgette, watch yourself. There's another AI like Shadow and Ryder waiting at the tower and it was the one that created those ice things." Said DJ as he listened to the conversation.

"Right." Said Bridgette as the tower came into view.

She looked and saw that the tower was kept in an icy dome.

"DJ, there's some kind of dome over the tower. I can't get in." Said Bridgette.

"Let me guess, it's made of ice." Said DJ.

"Yeah."

"They did say that the new AI's power was Ice. So be careful."

That was when Bridgette saw icy spears flying up at her.

"Got to go!"

She quickly dodged them and increased speed as more spears flew up at her.

"Where is it? I don't see it."

Bridgette looked around to find her new enemy but so far she couldn't see anything.

"DJ, do you see the shooter?"

"Yeah. Right below you."

She quickly flew down and saw someone dressed in white.

"I see her."

She flew down and tried to ram her board into the figure but a wall of ice formed and crashed into it. The board split into both swords as it went through but Bridgette was sent skidding across the icy ground because of the impact. She finally stopped and got up groaning.

"That might have cost me."

"You are the one who can control water." Said a female voice.

She looked and saw the new AI. It was a girl around the same age as her dressed in almost all white with white hair and blue eyes and the Eye of XANA on her earrings.

"I am Yuki." Said the girl with a calm look.

"Are you the one who created those icy monsters and that dome?" asked Bridgette.

"Yes."

Bridgette picked up her swords.

"Then I must ask you to let us through or I will have to fight you."

"My master has commanded that I guard the tower from all his enemies." Yuki replied raising her hand.

Bridgette sighed.

"I guess I have no choice then."

She ran forward and swung her swords but ice sprouted from the ground between Yuki and Bridgette's swords. She jumped back as an icy spear blasted from the ground, missing her by a few inches. Back-flipping from the attack and landing on her feet Bridgette swung one of her swords unleashing her energy wave. Yuki raised her hand and created a wall of ice that the energy wave shattered.

However Yuki was not behind the wall anywhere. Bridgette looked around to find her enemy.

"DJ, you see her?"

"Hang on. Behind you!"

That was when Bridgette's feet froze and icy hands rose up and grabbed her arms. Her hands froze completely immobilizing her. Yuki walked out back into sight.

"You are strong. But against me you have two disadvantages. Your power is controlling water which against me is useless since I can freeze and then control it. The other is that this sector makes me even more powerful because I can control the ice here. That is how I created those puppets. It is similar to how my master can create monsters but the difference is that here in this sector I can produce an unlimited amount something not even he can do but they have no life points and are weak against you and the others." Said Yuki.

Claws made of ice covered her hand right hand as she raised it.

"This battle is over for you."

She prepared to strike her when a voice was heard.

"Energy Field!"

She jumped back as a pink sphere of energy along with several lasers fried at her. Gwen and Aelita landed and Aelita dropped Cody.

"Guys, you made it!" Bridgette said smiling.

"Just in time." Cody said smiling.

"So this is the new general XANA has made." Said Aelita looking at Yuki.

"Yeah. Aelita, she can control ice and she used the ice here to make those things. As long as there is ice she can control it." Said Bridgette as Cody shot the ice holding her.

"That explains why she was able to create so many. Not even XANA can create that many monsters at once." Said Aelita.

"You are Aelita. XANA has ordered me to capture you." Yuki said.

"I'm not surprised. But you won't succeed." Said Aelita holding her hand.

Xxx

"LIGHTNING STORM!"

Geoff jumped out of the way of attack which slammed into the last few ice puppets. Geoff turned and looked at Ryder.

"What's the matter? You keep running away." Said Ryder.

"I'm just taking it easy." Said Geoff.

"Well, that's what will get you killed." Said Ryder as he prepared to attack again.

Geoff swung his axe which unleashed his own lightning attack. Ryder responded by swinging his blade again.

"LIGHTNING STORM!"

The attacks collided and created a huge explosion. Meanwhile LeShawna and Shadow continued to fight. Shadow dodged the girl's hammer, rolling and leaping out of the path of the attacks and tried to strike at her with his sword, but she countered by blocking with the staff part of her massive weapon. She swung at the ground to send out shock waves and made him stumble back, and followed up with trying to smash him, only for him to back flip out of range.

Geoff and Ryder exchanged blows, moving fast as lightning. Geoff used his chakrams as makeshift weapons in their separated forms to knock aside Ryder's katana and dodged the long two handed blade. Ryder was not able to afford attacking as much due to how his weapon was slower to manoeuvre than Geoff's small and lighter chakrams.

"LIGHTNING STORM!" Ryder called upon his attack again.

"Getting old dude!" Geoff shouted after dodging once again, cart wheeling out of the way. "Gotta do way better than that!"

"I'm not trying to hit you, human, I've herded you." Ryder smirked.

Geoff looked over his shoulder and saw he was near one of the corners of the plateau the fight was on. "Oh crap."

Ryder began to force Geoff back with a series of stabs and slashes. Geoff tries to get away from the edge, but Ryder cut off every escape he made. Finally, Geoff formed his axe and started to go on the offensive. Soon they were moving back and forth, striking out at one another in an endless push against each other.

Shadow dodged another swing from LeShawna when he looked at Ryder.

"Let's go, Ryder. We have a mission to complete."

Ryder growled as Shadow vanished in a cloud of black smoke. He looked back Geoff before vanishing in a flash of red lightning.

"Guys, you got to move! They're heading to the others!" said DJ.

"On it!" LeShawna replied as they ran towards the tower as fast as they could.

Xxx

Yuki raised her hand and fired very sharp icicles from at Aelita and the others. They dodged and Gwen threw her scythe. However Yuki raised a hand the scythe was frozen and it fell to the ground not even close to Yuki.

"Plasma Beam!" Aelita shouted as she fired a beam of pure energy.

Yuki dodged and a blue aura covered her. Gwen ran to her scythe and concentrated. A familiar red aura surrounded her as she grabbed her frozen scythe. The ice melted as she picked up her weapon.

"Wrath of the Blizzard!"

From her hand a whirlwind of snow and ice blasted from her hand towards them.

"Look out!" Bridgette shouted.

She pushed Aelita out of the way and took the full force of the attack.

"Bridgette!" Gwen shouted as her digital body was pierced by ice devirtualizing her instantly.

"One down, three to go." Yuki said turning to them.

"Actually, you are leaving next." Said Aelita holding her hand. "Plasma Beam!"

Yuki sank into the ice and reappeared behind them. She placed her hand on the ice and more ice puppets sprouted from the ground.

"Great. Not more of these guys." Said Cody.

"I can handle them." Gwen said.

She activated her fire aura and sliced through the ice puppets easily.

"You'll have to do better than that!" Gwen shouted at Yuki.

She swung her scythe but Shadow appeared and blocked the attack. His sword absorbed the attack and then swung it firing the attack back.

"Move!" shouted Cody.

They dodged the attack as flew past them. Shadow appeared next to Yuki.

"Good, job, Yuki. You weakened them and took out one of them." Said Shadow.

"Everyone all right?" asked Gwen.

"Yes." Aelita said getting up.

However Ryder appeared and slashed them all, knocking them down and Shadow used his smoke to grab them, binding their arms and legs to their bodies.

"Crap!" Gwen growled as she struggled against her bonds.

"You won't be getting out so easily." Shadow said smirking.

"I could have captured her." Yuki said with a small glare.

"Yeah but we want to finish this as quick as possible." Said Ryder with a smirk.

That was when a portal opened up from behind generals. XANA stepped out.

"Isn't that . . ." said Cody.

"XANA." Said Aelita glaring with unconcealed anger.

"Greetings, sister. I must say you have disappointed me." Said XANA smirking.

"And how is that?" asked Aelita.

"I came to ask you how it felt to know your friends have contributed to your defeat."

"We're still standing." Said Cody struggling against the smoke holding him.

"It'll take more than this to win, XANA. You must be confident to appear before us and gloat." Said Aelita glaring directly at him.

"I just wanted to see how my new general would fair against you and I must say I am impressed." XANA said.

"So that explains the blizzard."

"All I did was use the genetic codes of your friends to create my new warriors and watched the damage you all suffered. Your warriors have proven to be very pathetic."

"So it was their DNA you scanned to make them." Aelita said.

"Yes, Ryder was created Ulrich's genetic codes, his power is lightning." Said XANA gesturing to Ryder. "And Yuki was created from Yumi's; her power is as you know by now, ice."

"Haven't we talked enough?" asked Ryder holding out his sword. "Shall we just delete them and toss Aelita into the sea?"

XANA didn't lose his smirk but narrowed his eyes at Ryder.

"No? Isn't that what this was all about?"

"You'll have to get through us first!"

LeShawna landed in front of them along with Geoff.

"So you are all here. It's a pity, Aelita. Only two warriors have been created and they have easily driven you into a corner and I can still create two more." Said XANA.

'That's right. Odd and Jeremy have no doubt been scanned.' Aelita thought.

"I wanted you here to test Yuki's power and I am impressed with her performance. Her power is beyond my expectations and she can even spawn ice monsters without limit. Something not even I am capable of." XANA said with a smirk at Yuki.

"Enough talk," Gwen said before suddenly her bindings vanished in a flash of light and she leaped to her feet, spinning her scythe in one hand and freeing Aelita and the others of their bindings also. "Bring it!"

"Gladly," XANA snapped his fingers, and several Dragon Knights appeared as Ryder, Yuki, and Shadow got into stances.

"Plasma beam!" Aelita shot out a single blast at Shadow, who dodged it and let it pierce three Dragon Knights behind him.

LeShawna leaped into the air and swung her hammer down at Yuki, who sank back into the ice to avoid it. Cody paused and slowly pulled out one pistol, watching the ice beneath the fighters. When he saw a lump begin to form in the ice, he locked on it and fired. It hit Yuki just as she was out of the ice up to her waist, and hit her right in the heart. She gasped in pain and fell over.

"Nice try," Cody then focused on the Dragon Knights, firing both of his guns at them.

Geoff cut down a Dragon Knight and made his way to Ryder. "You're going down you ninja wannabe."

"Sorry, maybe another day! LIGHTNING STORM!"

He unleashed a wave of energy at the warriors forcing them to dodge. LeShawna growled as she swung her hammer at Shadow who dodged by vanishing into his super smoke and reappeared behind her. He fired a cloud of black smoke that caught her and slammed her into an icy boulder.

"It's sad. You have no idea what your ability is so you rely on that hammer's ability to grant you super strength. Without it your nothing." Said Shadow.

LeShawna growled.

"I'd watch that mouth of yours, turkey."

Shadow smirked.

"Why, you can't hit from that distance, but I can."

A dark aura surrounded Shadow.

"Darkness Arrow!"

Hundreds of arrows made of the same black smoke from before shot out towards the LeShawna. She held her hammer to block but she was still hit several times. DJ watched her life points went down to twenty. Growling she charged forward to strike Shadow.

"Super Smoke!"

He disappeared back into a cloud of black smoke and retreated away from her.

"Come back here and fight!" shouted LeShawna.

"Why? I'm having fun toying with you right now." Shadow replied becoming solid again.

Once again he was surrounded by a dark aura as he prepared another attack. LeShawna growled and in that anger something in her mind opened up. Her hammer glowed as she prepared to swing.

"Don't make me laugh. You won't be able to reach me." Said Shadow.

Unfortunately Shadow underestimated his enemy as LeShawna swung her hammer above her head it extended in size and length. Shadow's eyes widened as he looked to see a giant version of her hammer coming down on him.

"Super Smoke!"

He dodged just in time as he was almost crushed. He reappeared next to XANA watching as LeShawna's hammer returned to its original size.

"You shouldn't have pushed her. You just helped her unlock her special ability." XANA said. "Apparently her hammer can extend in size and length and since she has super strength she can hold it regardless of how large it is."

"Yeah and now you're next!" said LeShawna.

She held her hammer above her head as it extended in length and size again as she brought it down. It was now coming down on XANA and Shadow. However XANA smirked. Suddenly before the hammer hit them it collided with a smoke barrier surrounding them.

"Crap!" LeShawna said as she retracted her hammer.

They watched XANA and his generals turned and walked back into the portal.

"They've escaped." Said Aelita.

"We shall allow you to fight for a while longer. I still have two more warriors to create. I look forward to see them defeat you in battle." XANA's voice was heard from nowhere.

Aelita ran into the tower. A second later it was shut down and DJ activated the Return to the Past.

Xxx

Everyone was in the lab waiting for Aelita to speak. She sat in the chair with her eyes closed.

"Hey, Aelita, cheer up. We survived. We came out of that." Said Geoff.

"Yeah. Even with Yuki at his side we can still fight and win." Said Cody.

"I know, Cody. But I am worried for Jeremy and the others." Said Aelita looking at them with a sad look.

"Because you can't find them." Said Gwen with a sympathetic look.

"And because XANA is using them to fight us."

"Yeah, but we know their still alive." Said DJ.

"So all we have to do is find them." Said Bridgette.

"You say that like its easy!" Aelita snapped suddenly.

Everyone looked at with surprised looks as she stood up.

"I have spent so much time trying to find them and I still have no clue of where they are! No matter what I do I can't seem make any progress!" Aelita shouted before she sat down again.

"Whoa, we know Aelita. You're trying and we are here for you." Said Bridgette trying to diffuse the situation.

Aelita sighed.

"I'm sorry for snapping like that. It's just I can't seem to find a single clue and I'm worried to death about Jeremy and the others." Said Aelita.

"I know. I'd be worried too." Said Bridgette putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah, it must be tough trying to find them." Said Geoff.

"It is. Remember what I said about XANA using Replicas in other supercomputers? I can't find any. I have scanned all over the world wide network and even scanned supercomputers that have had Replicas before and there is nothing." Said Aelita.

"So is there any other place he could be holding them?" asked LeShawna.

"You do not understand. The Replicas are designed to function as XANA's source of power since he does not reside in the Super Calculator anymore. When he took the keys from me and left Lyoko he had to find a new source of power to use when he launched another attack. To do this he created Replicas in other supercomputers to give him power. In short he traded the world's most powerful supercomputer for hundreds of less powerful supercomputers." Said Aelita. "Without them he would have to return to the Super Calculator and that would mean if it was shut down or destroyed he would go down with it. XANA is getting stronger and he is certainly more powerful than before but he can't be as strong as he is without a virtual dwelling like Lyoko to give him the power."

"Alright...you lost me after the supercomputer part." Geoff said.

"She's saying that right now Lyoko is the only way for XANA to be at his best, and the only way for us to fight him." Cody stated. "Unless he makes another super computer like this, we're at a bit of a stale mate until we find Aelita's friends."

Cody's line sparked an idea in Gwen's head.

"Make another super computer? Maybe that's what he did." Said Gwen.

"What do you mean?" asked DJ.

"Aelita, you said that all of those other supercomputers were not powerful enough to contain XANA. What if he made a supercomputer that could?" asked Gwen.

Aelita was silent as she thought it over.

"It is possible. But it would have to be as advanced as our supercomputer for XANA to hide in and for him to have the amount of power he's managed to gain." Said Aelita. "That means that the Replica would have all the sectors as Lyoko and not just one."

"So in other words, a complete copy of Lyoko." Said Cody.

"He must have created it sometime during the last few months before Jeremy used the XANA-Destruction program. He planned every step of what led up to what we thought was the final confrontation. Creating a place to hide so he could upgrade without us knowing until it was too late, creating a copy so that none of us would know what he was up to since we thought the copy was the real XANA, shutting it down and putting it on a timer to reactivate when it hit zero, and coming back upgraded and ready while we spent the last two years living as normal people." Said Aelita believing that they might have guessed XANA's ace in the hole. "And when we came back to fight again, we were unprepared, we didn't know what to expect, and he took advantage of that."

"So maybe you can try to find the super computer itself. I mean think about it, every computer needs hardware and software. And to make something like this one, you'd need lots of hardware. So XANA would have to throw some serious cash around, maybe fake a few orders and have a company build it as a private investor." Cody suggested. "And if there is a company making it, then they would probably be advertising a new advancement in computer technology. So we need to find some serious computer businesses that have had recent spending sprees. And if they aren't going public with it, then we just hack their system for information on it when we find a promising looking corporation."

"That just might work. I may have to hack a few files even if this theoretical project is public knowledge. It may be in a different country for all I know." Aelita said.

"Try Microsoft first, they made everything at one point." Bridgette shrugged. "Start from the top and work your way down. If it isn't Microsoft it might be a competitor. XANA would need somebody competent to make the supercomputer, meaning money and motivation, so any rivals Microsoft has would be our perfect target."

"I'll work on it," Aelita nodded.


	16. Episode 15: MindReading Eye

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 15

"It's only a matter of time now, Aelita." XANA's voice echoed in the darkness.

Aelita awoke to find herself somewhere else instead of her dorm when she went to sleep. No matter where she looked she found the same thing; darkness.

"You cannot continue to intercept me for much longer. Not when your warriors have been backed into a corner by only three of my generals."

"You're wrong! We've stopped you before and we'll do it again!" Aelita shouted into the darkness.

"Do you still consider the battle which destroyed our father a victory? It was nothing more than a reprieve. Now my power grows and you still fall behind."

"Not for much longer." Aelita said with a determined look.

"We'll see. Jeremy and Odd will be useful when creating the last two."

"Leave them out of this!"

XANA chuckled.

"And why would I do that?"

Aelita opened her eyes to see sunlight coming through her window. She sighed. That was no ordinary dream.

'I may have mapped out all the changes XANA made to Lyoko and we may have figured out his secret virtual dwelling is a complete copy of Lyoko but there is still a long way to go. Not to mention three AIs are now fighting for him. The clone of William Jeremy created has agreed to fight for XANA for revenge and the other two AIs created when XANA scanned the genetic codes of Ulrich and Yumi. And there are still two more yet to be created. Getting out of this mess is not going to be easy.' Aelita thought running a hand through her hair.

Xxx

Cody was looking at his laptop at various computer companies that could possibly have the parts needed to assemble something like supercomputer inside the factory. He heard a knock at the door.

"It's open." He called out.

The door opened and his visitor walked in and closed the door.

"Hey dude."

He looked behind him and saw DJ.

"What are you doing?"

"Just looking at some companies that could have assembled like our supercomputer. That computer is more advanced than any other computer in the world and it was made back in the 90s. I thought I could give Aelita a helping hand because she looked stressed out." Said Cody.

"Good idea man. Poor girl has a lot to deal with." Said DJ sitting next to Cody.

"The problem is that some of the parts made from the supercomputer are unique as in not made anywhere else. So it's possible not even a top company like Microsoft has the parts. XANA would have had to make the stuff himself." Cody said.

"But still it's not something you can make anywhere. He would have had to find a place big on computer stuff." Said DJ.

"True that." Said Cody. "But if we can find a company or place that might even have a bit of what would be needed to put something like supercomputer in the factory together we'd have a lead. Let's face it; we're in a lot of trouble. "

"You got a point there. XANA's already a lot stronger than before and now he's got those three generals."

"Yeah, Shadow, Ryder, and Yuki." Said Cody.

Little did they know someone was eavesdropping. Courtney was hiding outside the lobby listening to their conversation.

'So Cody and DJ are in on whatever weird secret Gwen and Bridgette are hiding too.' Courtney thought.

"If this keeps up someone is going to be hurt badly." Said Cody.

"I know. Things are getting pretty bad." Said DJ. "We better be careful or we're finished."

'If only I could do more than just spy on them. Cody and DJ know about whatever Gwen is hiding from Duncan.

Xxx

Lyoko

Desert Sector

Ryder paced in front of a deactivated tower impatiently. Yuki was sitting on the ground looking very unhappy. In the ice sector she felt right at home. The cold, the snow, the ice, all beautiful to see if you had the right eyes. But this desert. ..

What a wasteland. No redeeming qualities what so ever.

"What are we waiting here for?" asked Ryder getting tired of waiting.

"Our new comrade." Said Yuki.

"Another one? We don't need another one. We can handle the warriors without any more help." Said Ryder.

"XANA says otherwise." Shadow said appearing out of a cloud of black smoke.

Ryder and Yuki looked up.

"So where is this new help?" asked Ryder.

Shadow smirked and pointed behind him. They turned around and saw someone who wasn't there before. It was a very tall thin man with pale skin with long black hair that covered its forehead while its dark eyes stared at them. It was wearing a long silver coat and black body suit similar to Shadow's with boots.

It just stood there.

'Where did this guy come from? Doesn't look very tough'

That was when the stranger looked down at him.

"Ryder, did you just think I did not look very tough?"

Yuki and Ryder were surprised when he asked that question. He raised his hand and lifted his hair to reveal a third eye on his forehead. It was black with the red Eye of XANA in it.

"My Eye can see all; even the thoughts of the person it sees are not safe from its gaze."

"He can read minds?" asked Yuki.

"Yes." Shadow said.

"You and Ryder may be powerful but in the end the one who brings Aelita's head to Master XANA with or without the body shall be me."

"We'll see about that." Ryder said reaching for his sword.

"I would think twice about that Ryder. I see your mind and I'll know any thought that crosses it, including your thoughts on how to skewer me." He said smirking.

Ryder growled.

"Now let us summon the warriors and we shall see if they are as powerful as Shadow claims." The man said smirking.

He turned and walked towards the tower.

"He didn't even give his name." Ryder growled. "Arrogant fool."

Xxx

Gwen walked out of the studio and headed towards a tree in the courtyard to do what she loved to do when she alone. Sketching or writing in her diary. Today she chose to sketch and what she sketching was something different than her usual drawings. She was drawing herself in her Lyoko form along with the others, monsters she had seen and fought.

Geoff and Bridgette were off somewhere, perhaps making out which she did not want to see while LeShawna was off in the gym. She sighed as she finished another drawing when she heard something. She stood up closing her sketch book as she looked around.

"Come on out. I know you're there." Gwen said looking for whoever disturbed her.

The intruder came out of the bushes.

"Courtney?" Gwen asked with a puzzled look.

"Hello, Gwen. Good hearing you've got there." Courtney said with fake cheerfulness in her voice.

Gwen knew that getting a visit from her was anything but good so she made sure to keep calm.

"Why are you following me, Courtney?"

"Oh, no reason. I am just wondering how things are between you _and_ Duncan." Courtney said casually.

"They are fine. Thank you for being considerate." Gwen said sarcastically.

"Oh, so you're not hiding anything from him. I mean for you guys to be together you have to trust each other. It'd be terrible if you were keeping something from him."

"We all have secrets, Courtney. He knows I won't tell but he also knows I won't make some half baked excuse."

"Oh, so when are you and the others going out to see your buddy XANA?" Courtney asked.

Gwen's eyes widened slightly.

'Did she find out about the factory and Aelita?'

"I know you along with Bridgette are hiding something and this XANA plays a role since I heard Cody and DJ mention it."

Gwen mentally sighed in relief. She did not know about the supercomputer that contained Lyoko. Still she would have to talk to Cody and DJ about this.

"Well, Courtney I hate to bust your uptight bubble but that happens to be the name of a rock band that we all like. It'd be no surprise to me if you never heard of it, considering all the times you tried to stop Duncan from listening to his rock bands and try to get him to like your classical music." Gwen replied with a smirk.

Courtney's smirk faded at Gwen's comeback. She heard a bit of Cody and DJ's conversation so she knew Gwen was lying but she was also not going to be dumb enough to slip out anything important.

"Is this why you followed me out here? Hoping to get me to spill some kind of secret you can use to make me miserable. Good luck, Courtney. If I had something to hide you would be among the last people I would ever consider telling." Gwen said. "I don't know what you heard from Cody and DJ but it's not going to make a difference. So do yourself a favour that will save us a lot of grief and drop it."

Courtney scoffed.

"Like I would. Don't forget this Gwen. For stealing my man I will not stop until you feel the pain I felt." Courtney said with a hard glare.

Gwen returned her glare.

"Is that what this is about? I have said before that I was sorry and all you did was throw it back in my face. Guess what, Courtney, Duncan _kissed_ me! I never stole anything from you and still you blame me for it when we both know this was going to happen anyway!

You were a complete bitch to him, even if you didn't have it coming you should have seen it! I know you well enough to know that you should have been smart enough to see it coming so don't act like it was a surprise because I refuse to believe that. You knew we liked each other and still you did nothing to stop it. Instead of changing for the better, to be the same girl he fell in love with the island you still acted like a over-controlling psycho and let it happen." Gwen took a deep breath. "I am sorry for hurting you and for ruining our friendship. But just remember this, Courtney, I never stole him, you drove him away."

Both of them were silent for a moment.

Xxx

The tower where the generals of XANA were waiting at turned red.

Xxx

Suddenly Gwen and Courtney heard a creaking sound and looked to see the roots of the nearby trees tear up from the ground.

"What the-"

"Look out!"

Gwen pushed Courtney out of the way just as the roots shot out to strike them. They both rolled away from the wooden tentacles as they prepared to strike again.

"What the hell is going on?" shouted Courtney as they ran from the trees.

Gwen looked back and saw the Eye of XANA on the trees glaring at them.

"Just shut up and run!"

More roots sprouted from the ground trying to grab them. Just as they made it to the clearing a wall made of roots sprouted from the ground blocking off their escape.

"Damn it!" Gwen cursed.

"This is can't be happening!" shouted Courtney.

Gwen pulled out her blackberry and dialled LeShawna.

"Yo, LeShawna here!" came a reply.

"LeShawna, get the others and head to the factory. We have a you-know-who problem involving attacking trees." Gwen said.

"Say what now?"

"Just get the others outside and you'll see. Don't take any routes to the factory that have any trees in your way."

"Okay, on it."

Gwen out her blackberry

"What were you talking about?" asked Courtney.

"Nothing. I can explain later when we're out of danger." Said Gwen.

More roots sprouted from the ground to attack them. They jumped out of the way and kept moving.

'Damn it! He's got us trapped in here and there's nothing I can use to cut through those roots.' Gwen thought as she dodged another root. 'This is too easy. He can easily take us out so why isn't he?'

Xxx

LeShawna got the others and they ran out of the studio and into the courtyard to see a wall of tree roots covering the forest.

"So that's what Gwen meant." LeShawna said.

"XANA's controlling the trees and Gwen's trapped in there." Said Cody, worried for Gwen.

"She can take care of herself. We got hurry and get to the factory." Said Geoff.

"He's right. We can't help Gwen out here." Said Bridgette.

"So let's go." LeShawna said.

They ran out the gate and onto the sidewalk taking the long way to the factory. They made and Aelita was already in the control room.

Xxx

"Oh my god!" Courtney shouted as more roots came for her.

Gwen jumped and pushed her out of the way.

"Don't just stand there! Run!" Gwen snapped as she pulled Courtney to her feet.

"Easy for you to say! You know something about this!" Courtney cried pointing at her.

"Right so I know if we don't keep moving we are going to die! So save the accusations for later and move!" Gwen shouted back as more roots came.

They took off running towards another clearing when more roots sprouted from the ground.

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised." Gwen muttered as they ran into another dead end.

"I'm calling for help!" Courtney said pulling out her PDA.

"And what will you say? 'Help me! Trees are coming alive and trying to kill me with their roots!'" Gwen said with her voice imitating Courtney's.

"And what will LeShawna do?" Courtney shouted back.

"Well, since she is in the group like me she obviously knows the big secret and might know a way to save us. Just stay alive." Gwen said sarcastically.

They took off running again as more tree roots sprouted.

'I hope you guys are close to the tower.'

Xxx

LeShawna, Cody, and Bridgette landed in the Desert Sector and turned to see Geoff and Aelita.

"Well, we better hurry and get to that tower." LeShawna said.

"That might be a problem." Said Cody pointing ahead of them.

Looking ahead they saw Shadow, Ryder, and Yuki walking towards them.

"Well, you guys made it right on time." Shadow said with a smirk.

"And I guess you're the welcoming committee." Cody said pulling out his guns.

"Actually, we're your escort for when we drag your broken digital bodies to XANA." Said Ryder with a smirk.

"Oh yeah. Try it." Said LeShawna.

"Oh, we're not doing anything." Said Shadow.

"I am." Said a voice.

They turned and saw a man in a silver coat over a black body suit like Shadow's.

"Oh, great. Let me guess, your XANA's fourth general." Said Bridgette holding out her swords.

The man smirked.

"You are wondering how I was able to appear without DJ telling you where I was before you found out." The man said.

"What?" Bridgette asked.

"That was the question formed in the minds of half of you. The other half was wondering what powers I would posses." The man looked at Aelita and LeShawna.

"What's that mean? You say you can read our minds?" asked Geoff.

The man smirked.

"Just as you suspect, Geoff."

He reached up and lifted the hair from his forehead. Everyone looked to see a third eye that was black with the red Eye of XANA.

"This eye can read the minds of those in it sight. Ryder and Yuki were supposed bring you to XANA, Aelita but even though he simply wanted to see them test their powers they failed regardless. Now it's my turn." The man said. "I am Cyrus and I am the last general you will face."

"We'll see. Let's see how you live up to that speech." Said Aelita holding out an Energy Field.

"Leave it to LeShawna." The group enforcer declared.

Xxx

A root came out and managed to hit Courtney.

"Courtney!" Gwen yelled.

She screamed in pain as blood came out of her shoulder. Gwen grabbed her and pulled her out of the way. After they made it to a clearing away from any attacking roots she looked at the wound. Courtney was crying in pain from the wound.

Gwen ripped off a piece of her shirt and bandaged the wound.

"It's nothing, Courtney. We got to keep moving."

Xxx

She ran out with her hammer and swung it. Cyrus however dodged easily. She swung again but Cyrus dodged again. Cyrus made sure to keep everyone else in sight of his third eye.

He ducked as Geoff threw his chakrams at him and jumped back as LeShawna swung her hammer again.

"So you thought you could distract me while one of the others attacked, catching me off guard." Cyrus said with a smirk.

"You know, I'm getting tired of you." LeShawna said as she jumped forward and swung her hammer down.

Cyrus however held up his right hand and something appeared in his left hand.

"Look at his hand!" Bridgette pointed.

"What's that?" asked Geoff.

Cyrus caught LeShawna's hammer with his right hand.

"What the -?" LeShawna said.

"Like it? I can not only predict any move you make but my eye is also able to copy the abilities and weapons of one of you. Your hammer grants you super strength which is now mine." Cyrus said.

He swung his hammer before LeShawna could react and the impact flying back.

"LeShawna!" shouted Bridgette in concern.

She skidded across the desert until she hit a boulder hard. She got up growling.

"I'm okay."

"Not for long." Said Cyrus.

"We got to help." Said Geoff as he turned his chakrams into his axe.

Cyrus turned and looked at him. Geoff swung his axe releasing his lightning attack but Cyrus' hammer changed into a double bladed axe like Geoff's. He dodged and swung his axe releasing his own wave of lightning.

"Oh crap!" Geoff shouted before he was hit.

"Geoff!" Bridgette shouted as he was devirtualized.

"One down." Cyrus said as the axe vanished.

Bridgette glared at him as she held out her swords to attack. Cyrus' smirk remained as his looked at her.

"'That guy is going down for that.' Isn't that what you are thinking Bridgette? Don't make me laugh. I can take your abilities just as I did your friends." Said Cyrus.

"Shut up!" shouted Bridgette.

"Bridgette, calm down! You can't let him get to you. He's trying to provoke you." Said Aelita.

"Don't worry. I won't fall for his tricks but I also won't let him get away with that." Bridgette replied.

She charged at him with battle cry. Cyrus smirked as his eye looked at Bridgette. In a flash of light two swords like Bridgette's appeared in his hand. He easily blocked the first slash and the other. Bridgette continued to attack but Cyrus was easily blocking her attacks.

"This is not good. He's reading her mind." Said Cody.

"As long as his eye sees her he can read her thoughts and predict what attack she will use. It's worse that he can copy her weapons and her fighting style." Said Aelita.

LeShawna walked over to Cody and Aelita as they watched the fight.

"LeShawna, are you okay?" asked Cody.

"I'll live. But I'm down to twenty life points. Never knew what it felt to be hit like that." Said LeShawna.

"Well, we got to think of something to stop this guy." Said Cody.

"Let me at that guy and he won't get up." LeShawna said with her hammer ready.

"Too big a risk, LeShawna. We've already lost Geoff and Bridgette is not holding up well. If we somehow get by him we'll have three more to fight to the tower." Said Aelita.

Bridgette cried out as Cyrus slashed her again. She stepped back panting. So far the battle had not gone so well since every attack she made he easily countered.

"'I could use my energy wave to attack but he'll just counter it like he did Geoff's.' That's what you're thinking of right now." Cyrus said.

Bridgette just growled.

"'This guy is even more insufferable than Heather.' Why thank you." Cyrus continued with smirk.

"Get out of my head!" Bridgette shouted as she swung her swords and released her energy wave.

Cyrus' smirk widened as he dodged and turned his swords into the surfboard and flew over the attack. Before Bridgette could react he slammed his surfboard into her. She cried out as she skidded across the desert.

"I guess this proves mind over matter." Cyrus said as his board split back into the two swords.

Bridgette groaned as she got up.

"That makes three warriors easily defeated. Such a pity. I was expecting more of a challenge." Cyrus shrugged. "Oh well. I told XANA I would defeat all of the warriors and then toss Aelita into the digital sea."

"Plasma Beam!"

He quickly dodged as Aelita fired a beam of pure light at him. He looked and saw Aelita holding her hand out at him.

"It's me you're after right? I hope you know I will never allow something created by XANA to capture me."

Cyrus smirked.

"That's rich coming from you, Aelita. How many times did your friends have to rescue you? Now with them gone you decide to act tough when you're still the same scared little girl. I can see your mind so don't hide from me."

"Then come and get me." Aelita challenged.

She activated her wings and took off. Cyrus chuckled.

"Proving my point."

He combined his swords into the flying surf board and took off after her.

"Aelita!" Bridgette shouted.

She was about to make her surf board when she forced to jump back as icicles flew at her. Yuki was standing nearby with white glowing hands and an ever present calm look.

"No one will interfere."

Cyrus slowly caught up with Aelita as they flew over the desert. He jumped and grabbed her forcing them to land. Aelita crashed and skidded across the ground while Cyrus landed on his feet. Aelita got on her feet and quickly broke into a sprint.

Cyrus got back up on his board and flew after her. Aelita ducked and he flew over her. She held out her hand to fire another plasma beam but Cyrus's board split into its swords and he fired an energy wave at her. It knocked her off her feet and Cyrus smirked as he stood over her.

"Oh no, Aelita!" DJ shouted from the computer.

"Get up and run, bra!" Geoff said.

Cyrus reached down and picked her up. She glared back up at him.

"This was too easy." Cyrus said.

"Perhaps I will make it more difficult." Said Aelita.

Suddenly her form flashed and then faded.

"A decoy!" Cyrus said with wide eyes.

"Plasma beam!"

He turned to see a bright beam of energy slammed into him. He was knocked off his feet from the attack.

'She used a decoy. My eye could not see through her. It had the same thoughts as her.' Cyrus thought.

Ryder chuckled.

"Looks he was not so tough after all."

"Be quiet, Ryder. Even if he didn't succeed he did weaken them. We can move in and capture Aelita." Said Shadow.

"Uh...not." Both Shadow and Ryder slowly turned and came face to face with a pair of guns aimed right in their face.

"Adios." Cody squeezed off one shot each and sent both generals flying. Twirling his guns in his hands, he smirked. "I so got it."

He then moved on to face Cyrus as LeShawna rushed back to the fight. The General got to his feet, thoroughly annoyed by the sneak attack.

"Now you're just playing hard to get, Aelita." Cyrus hissed before he ducked under two shots from Cody.

"Well how about you try me then? It's not so easy to cheat at a gun fight!" Cody taunted, firing one pistol at Cyrus, who dodged as a pair of matching pistols formed in his grasp.

"Very well then boy, I'll indulge you." Cyrus raised his pistols and began to fire multiple shots back at Cody. They began to circle one another, leaning one way or another to avoid shots, or ducking and leaping. Cody, unlike the others was on an equal footing with Cyrus, as his intentions to eliminate Cyrus in the most direct way possible did not require mind reading to comprehend. And as Cody was already an ace shot with his pistols, Cyrus barely had any form of advantage over the gunman.

Soon they stood before one another, having fired several dozen shots each. Cyrus was in a crouch while Cody was perched on a rock several feet away.

"Well, I have to admit XANA never factored this in." Cyrus grinned. "A little hard to make a good prediction I can use if you're so obvious an opponent already."

"Seeing as I'm winning, I'll take that as a compliment." Cody smirked.

"Winning? I fail to see how." Cyrus scoffed.

"You've got less life points...and I'm guessing those guns have the same damage as mine, about ten life points each...so you don't have the luxury of getting hit again." Cody pointed out as they began to circle one another again. "How bad was that plasma beam? Fifty, sixty points?"

"She used a decoy to catch me off guard, you're still in sight of my eye and I can read your thoughts clearly." Cyrus snarled. "Three of your comrades were defeated before I went after Aelita, what can you expect to do against me?"

"I have a good idea...you might be able to read my mind, but you have to be fast enough to act first." Cody pointed out.

Cyrus growled. "Enough tal-"

Cody's eyes flashed bright gold, and all of Lyoko began to bend and distort before DJ's eyes. DJ blinked in surprise. "What the-?"

He stared at the screen, and Cody began to move. Cyrus pulled the trigger, but the shot missed Cody by a foot. Cody began to return fire. It was like some bullet time animation from The Matrix, except with lasers. Cody was able to even dodge lasers by inches, while Cyrus struggled to even attempt to avoid being hit.

Suddenly, one shot hit Cyrus, who doubled over and dropped one gun, but futilely tried to fire his other gun at Cody, who almost casually strafed to the right as he fired both guns at the General. Suddenly everything returned to normal, and Cody ducked behind cover as one hit him, lowering his life points to seventy.

"What...was that? So fast..." Cyrus hissed.

"Not fast...you're just so obvious a fighter." Cody mocked Cyrus from behind a stone pillar. "That's my ability you copy cat, and I don't think you'll have a lot of luck with it! I can slow time down for thirteen seconds allowing me to attack without warning. Even if you use it, that won't make much of a difference, you'll still be too slow to hit me!"

Cody was right, Cyrus only had one chance: to hit Cody three more times or make a critical shot to his head. The General slowly stood up, and raised his one pistol in both hands. "Let's test that theory." He then activated his now copied ability, and the entire virtual world distorted as time slowed.

Cody came from cover, firing both pistols. Time began to accelerate and slow down repeatedly, turning them into blurs and then stopping them in mid stance. Cody rushed forward and jammed the tip of his pistol to Cyrus' chin, but Cyrus slapped his gun aside and tried to do the same thing, only for Cody to mimic his movement. They leaped back and fired a single shot that collided with the other and dissipated.

They exchanged more shots, manoeuvring through the terrain around them in an attempt to subdue one another. Finally, they both stepped out from behind a stone pillar and raised one pistol each. They squeezed the triggers on their guns, and two shots rang out.

Cody glared at Cyrus with narrowed eyes as the side of his head flashed with digital information that flowed out of him in a stream of light before the wound healed. He had forty life points left; the shot had only scraped his head. Cyrus on the other head stared in shock at Cody.

"You...killed...me?" Cyrus asked, a single hole right between his eyes that had a much larger stream of data pouring out of it as Cyrus began to fall apart program by program. He chuckled. "I hate losing, but there are worse ways to die than losing to a fighter like you."

"Like what?" Cody asked.

Cyrus smirked. "Not cherishing the life you have, no matter how great it is...or maybe I would have just prodded along like a good puppy until XANA didn't need me." He fell to his knees. "Either way...I'm just glad I got to go out on my own terms." He closed his eyes. "It actually isn't bad...but this isn't the real world is it...I'm not real either, I'm a cheap copy...and cheap copies never work out, do they?"

Cody shrugged. "You seem different from Aelita's friends to me."

"Different, yes...I'm a lot worse than any of them put together." Cyrus chuckled. "A lot worse..." He vanished into a stream of digital information that streamed into the sky and dissipated.

Cody looked up for several moments, and holstered his pistols. "Yep, plenty worse, but hope you enjoyed what time you had."

He went off to help the others. Yuki looked to see Aelita, Cody, and LeShawna ready to fight while Shadow and Ryder had been knocked out of the fight. She created an ice barrier to block them but LeShawna shattered it with her hammer. However Yuki was gone

"Looks like we made it through this one." Said LeShawna.

"We better hurry." Said Aelita.

Xxx

The roots had surrounded them. Courtney whimpered as they got closer. She grabbed Gwen's arm and held it tightly as she closed her eyes.

"This can't be it! I don't want to die here! There's still so much I want to do! Gwen, please do something! I'm sorry for everything!"

Gwen looked down with a sad look.

"I'm sorry too."

That was when roots fell to the ground. Gwen looked up to see the Eye fade from the trees. She sighed in relief.

"Is it over?" Courtney asked looking up.

"Yeah." Gwen said with a smile.

That was when a white sphere came out of the factory and engulfed them.

Xxx

Gwen found herself back under the tree sketching again. She looked back into the woods knowing Courtney was spying on her.

"You can come on out. I know you're there."

Courtney came out from behind the tree she was hiding behind like before.

"Courtney? Why are you following me?"

"Oh, no reason. I am just wondering how things are between you _and_ Duncan." Courtney said casually.

"They are fine. Thank you for being considerate." Gwen said sarcastically.

"Oh, so you're not hiding anything from him. I mean for you guys to be together you have to trust each other. It'd be terrible if you were keeping something from him."

"We all have secrets, Courtney. He knows I won't tell but he also knows I won't make some half baked excuse."

"Oh, so when are you and the others going out to see your buddy XANA?" Courtney asked.

Gwen's eyes widened slightly.

"I know you along with Bridgette are hiding something and this XANA plays a role since I heard Cody and DJ mention it."

"Well, Courtney I hate to bust your uptight bubble but that happens to be the name of a rock band that we all like. If you want I can give you one of their CDs to listen to." Gwen replied with a smirk.

Courtney's smirk faded at Gwen's comeback. She heard a bit of Cody and DJ's conversation so she knew Gwen was lying but she was also not going to be dumb enough to slip out anything important.

"Don't try to act all friendly with me, Gwen. I know you are hiding something and when I do we'll see if Duncan still likes you."

Gwen shrugged.

"I honestly don't know what you're talking about, Courtney. Besides Duncan knows I don't tell him everything about what I do."

"You along with DJ, Cody, Bridgette, Geoff, and LeShawna are always sitting away from everyone and talking about stuff no one can hear." Courtney accused.

"And that automatically makes us hiding something. In case you forgot, Courtney, I am a natural born loner; it's obvious I would hide some secrets. And Bridgette's your friend so if you try to find whatever secret you think we're hiding wouldn't be trying to hurt her as much as me?" Gwen asked.

She turned around to walk away.

"Hey! Don't walk away from me!" Courtney shouted.

"I'll walk away if I feel like it. There's nothing I want to hear from you if you're going to start accusing me of something just to get me to break up with Duncan."

"You stole him from me! You expect me to just stand by and watch you two be happy when you don't deserve it!" Courtney pointed a figure at her back.

Gwen looked over her shoulder. "I am sorry for how it happened. I destroyed the friendship we had and broke your heart. If I could take away the pain I would."

Courtney was surprised when she heard that. Not giving a chance to reply Gwen turned and walked away.


	17. Episode 16: Death Above

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 16

The gang was in the lab watching as Aelita typed away at the computer.

"So no challenges today?" asked Cody.

"Nope. They're filming the Aftermath back in Canada." Said Geoff.

"And I am so glad we're not hosting again." Said Bridgette.

"Yeah, after how crazy you two got on that show I wonder who will be hosting this time." Said LeShawna.

"Hey, we said we were sorry." Said Geoff.

"Well, if you're curious to see who is hosting I can find out for you." Said Aelita.

"Aren't you working on something important?" asked Gwen.

"Yes but this computer is capable of multi-tasking." Said Aelita with a smirk.

She typed a few commands and the image showing the digital map of Lyoko was replaced with something new.

Xxx

"Welcome to Total, Drama, Aftermath!" Mildred 'Blainley' O'Hallarn said. "I'm your host Blainley O'Hallarn."

"And co-host, Owen!" Owen appeared next to the blonde on the couch.

He waved to the camera.

"Hi mom!"

"Since former hosts Geoff and Bridgette are still in the game we have taken the job of hosting the aftermath." Blainley said with her hands in the air.

"How does it feel to be out of that full body cast after that horrible landing last season?" Owen asked. "Man it looked like it hurt!"

"Nothing can hold me down for long, the drama keeps on coming!" Blainley kept a strained smirk. "So Owen, how does it feel to be voted off so early in the season? You usually get so far!"

"I usually don't mess up my team that badly, but oh well, there will always be next season," Owen shrugged.

"And now we're coming at you live from the Total Drama Studio in Canada to bring you the latest gossip on this season of Total Drama: Total, Drama, Reality!" Blainley waited out the applause. "We have with us the first three people who were eliminated from this season. Take a look."

They turned to the monitor and showed who was in the green room behind the stage.

"Oh, oh! Blainley, can I bring them out?" asked Owen waving his hand.

"Go ahead. Having the audience favourite do it would look good." Said Blainley.

"Yes!" Owen pumped his fists into the air.

He stood up and tried to look professional.

"Our first guest to come out: Harold!"

The master beat boxer/nerd walked out onto the stage as the audience cheered. Despite being unpopular at first, Harold was in fact one of the most liked characters in the entire show. He sat down in the chair next to the couch occupied by Owen and Blainley.

"Welcome to Total, Drama, Aftermath, dude." Said Owen.

"So Harold, you were voted off third last season-" Blainley started.

"Uh...if you remember, I quit," Harold pointed out. "Because of Alejandro." He chuckled. "Now who's laughing Al? I'm fine and you're stuck in a robot suit, _Darth_ Alejandro."

"So Harold, how does it feel to be the first one to be eliminated this season?" Blainley asked.

"It's a real downer, I would have felt better if I got further than Duncan and manage to get together with LeShawna," Harold sighed dreamily as he thought of her.

"Didn't she also vote for you?" Owen asked.

"She probably wasn't happy because I was on a roof top in my under wear." Harold shrugged. "I was just doing my challenge but when she sees a whole bunch of others looking at her man she gets unhappy, probably wanted me to go home where Chris couldn't make me strip down anymore."

"...that last part sounded gross but alright," Blainley shrugged.

"I wish I could have said goodbye to her like you did to Izzy, Owen." Said Harold.

"I know. She looked so upset before she suggested we make out." Owen said before he started to cry. "Oh, Izzy! I miss her so much!"

"And now, to reveal some secret footage!"

"Oh yeah! Geoff liked to call it 'That's Gonna Leave A Mark!'."

A large screen popped out of nowhere and began to show shots from the Total Drama Reality studio.

"And Carlos is the one who runs this studio, right?" The Director asked on the recording.

"Yes I am sir!" Carlos grinned.

"Hit that host in the face, NOW!"

"With pleasure!"

"WHAT?"

THWACK!

The screen paused when Carlos hit him in the face with a cross from his right hand, right to the jaw. "And look at his face right before Carlos hits him! Do you see that?"

The audience laughed.

"Who doesn't like seeing Chris get what's coming to him for once?" Blainley asked.

"Ouch, looked like that hurt," Owen winced.

"If you will note, our Producer, Carlos, is a black belt and has won several international tournaments before, and also has a record of street fighting," Blainley shrugged. "Gotta love that guy, right?"

"Yeah..." Own said as he stared at Carlos the same way he stared at Justin before.

"Owen Dude that just sounded really creepy." Harold shuddered.

"So Harold you do you want to win this season?" asked Owen.

"The only one I would ever root for is my beautiful LeShawna." Said Harold with a dreamy a look.

The crowed let out sounds of 'aw' at Harold's love and support of LeShawna.

Xxx

"He sure has fallen for you." Said Gwen.

"I know. I told him that we're better off as friends. Guess he can't fight the beauty that is LeShawna." LeShawna said with a smile.

"At least Blainley is far away from us as possible. And Owen can stand her." Said Geoff.

"What about everyone who is eliminated? Who knows what she'll do." Said Bridgette.

"Better stay in the competition." Said Cody.

Xxx

"But that's not all. Let's show them!" said Blainley.

A recording of Sierra attacking Duncan during the soccer challenge.

"Get her off me! Get her off me!"

Gwen shook her head at that.

"That's what you get when you attack a boy who has a crazy stalker." Said Blainley.

"She's really scary when she gets mad." Said Owen.

"I like that one." Said Harold smiling. "Just look how scared Duncan and how he's crying for help."

"Next we have this." Said Blainley.

This time it was the elimination ceremony.

"I remember this. I was vote off on this episode." Said Owen

"The second challenge of this season is over. Will Team Me get back on their feet? Will Team Victory keep up its record breaking winning streak? Will Alejandro stop being such a spaz? Find out next time on Total, Drama Realit- OW!"

"Every time...you call me that...I'll crush your foot..." Darth Alejandro threatened.

"And every time you do that I'll make sure Team Me keeps losing until they get rid of you! Not so tough in that robot body now are you Spanish boy?" Chris taunted.

Alejandro pointed to Carlos and Kurt, who cleared their throats.

"Remember what the boss told us Chris, you don't mess with anyone else now." Carlos said sternly.

Chris chuckled weakly.

"Looks like Chris is in big trouble." Blainley said smiling mischievously.

"Those two dudes are very nice and they hate Chris." Said Owen smiling.

"And now bringing our next loser, Ezekiel!" shouted Bridgette.

Ezekiel was brought out in a straightjacket and a muzzle over his mouth.

"What happened to him?" asked Harold.

"He tried to take over the plane so we had to take extreme measures."

"Let me go back! The game is mine!" shouted Ezekiel.

"So Ezekiel, the usual first loser of Total Drama, the one who ruined World Tour by losing the money in the volcano after stealing it, trying to hijack the plane, how's it feel to be in Playa Des Losers?" asked Blainley.

"I will not stay here! I was unfairly eliminated!" shouted Ezekiel.

"You were voted out for losing your team's challenge. Again." Said Harold.

"And then you tried to sneak back into the game despite being voted of quite clearly." Said Blainley.

"I'll be back!"

"That's what they all say." Said Blainley. "But in this case it might be true as Ezekiel's parents are suing Chris for the following offences, reckless endangerment of their son when there were no challenges, neglect of health, and endangering campers with known products some are allergic to."

Xxx

"I know he was doing that! Somehow I knew it!" said Cody.

"Zeke is going to court with Chris? This will end badly." Said Bridgette.

"Yeah how many times has Chris been to court with Courtney?" asked Geoff.

"Don't know. She even sent Duncan, Gwen, and Heather to court after World Tour." Said DJ.

"That was a fun time." Said Gwen with a scowl.

Xxx

"Can Ezekiel's lawyer, Mr. Scale, who will be representing him in court. We will be back with the latest Intel. Will Ezekiel get his justice? Will Chris be forced to lose another thousand dollars as compensation? And will Carlos punch him again for that? Find out next time on Total, Drama, Reality!" said Blainley and Owen together.

Xxx

"Carlos punched Chris?" asked Cody.

"Yeah, that was awesome!" said Geoff.

"I wonder if it's on YouTube now." Said Gwen wondering if she could get a recording.

"I know I will never forget that." Said LeShawna laughing at the recording of Carlos punching Chris.

"Think Zeke can actually sue Chris?" asked Bridgette.

"I don't know. But Zeke does have a lot of evidence against Chris for letting him turn into a zombified caveman while on the plane. But he's only doing it because he got kicked out of the competition." Said Gwen.

"So Aelita what is the new plan you have?" asked DJ, hoping to change the subject.

"Well, since XANA started creating new generals to lead his army I have been working on several plans that Jeremy drew up before William came back. This is one of them." Said Aelita bringing up two identical Lyoko cards of her form.

"What is that?" asked Bridgette.

"An extra life is what you could call. You know how in a game if you have more than one life you can start the game over? This is kind of like that. As you know when you are scanned there two sequences that must be used to create a Lyoko form." Aelita said turning her chair to face everyone. "First your DNA must be scanned into the Supercomputer so when you enter the scanner more than once your DNA is recognized. The next is that the computer scans your physical appearance, your psychological profile, characteristics that can develop a form for you in Lyoko such as Bridgette's surfer character. You love the ocean, you love surfing, therefore it developed the character best suited for you. It saw that DJ is strictly non-violent in most cases, so it gave him defensive based powers."

"So how does this work then?" Geoff asked.

"Say that you take eighty life points of damage. I would have one hundred reserve life points for each of you that I could transfer from the reserves to you directly, recharging your life points. And the reserves recharge at a rate of six life points per minute, not much to make a difference if you face a mega tank or if the monster has an attack power greater than ten life points per hit, but it can make a difference."

"Cool," Cody said. "Does that mean we can even come back if our life points hit zero?"

"Possibly, but there is a catch, being virtualized more than once in a short while can be...traumatizing, that is why we never go back in immediately after we are devirtualized." Aelita explained. "I suspect that the program, if I have set it correctly shall instantaneously recharge your life points, but afterwards it may not operate for a short while, perhaps long enough for you to be devirtualized, but it would give you a second chance to attempt a fight."

"Essentially we have unlimited life points...but with a very big catch then," Gwen noted. "So you have a copy for us all yet?"

"Not yet. It'll take a little while to get you all an extra card but even when you do don't start believing you'll be invincible." Said Aelita.

"Don't worry about that girl. After what has happened no way I am letting my guard down." Said LeShawna.

"Yeah, with those generals on the loose we can't afford to let our guard down." Said Bridgette.

"Speaking of, we have three generals now and XANA can only create one more." Said DJ.

"Yes, from Jeremy." Said Aelita.

"So six to four. I like those odds." Said Geoff.

"Just remember, Geoff, just one of them was strong enough to take on all of us." Said Aelita. "Have you forgotten about Cyrus?"

Geoff shuddered.

"Yeah I know. That guy took out three of us."

"But we're still alive." Said Cody, letting them know that they were not losing.

"True. But we have to be cautious. Who knows what the last general XANA has will be like." Aelita said.

She stood up and picked her backpack.

"I'm done here for now. I need to study for math quiz tomorrow. Between classes and Lyoko now I know why Jeremy usually had trouble sleeping."

"You know we can help you study. Considering how much effort you make to keep us alive and dealing with school I think we should help you out." Said Cody.

"Not of all us are math experts, Cody." Said Geoff.

"Don't worry. I can handle it. I heard you've been looking up computer companies to see who would have the technology needed to make a supercomputer like my father's." Said Aelita smiling at Cody.

"Hey, I have plenty of spare time plus I know a lot of electronic companies." Said Cody.

"It's too bad we haven't had any leads yet." Said Bridgette.

"And we still can't find XANA on the digital frontier either." Said Gwen.

"It's to be expected. I know how well XANA works and he would have made sure that there was nearly no way to find his supercomputer. All of the supercomputers he infected were isolated and were not discovered. But he would have had to use a place that had access to hardware." Aelita said.

She turned the computer and brought up several images of a few facilities. One was in the jungle, the other was in New Mexico, another was in the space station, and the last was in Siberia.

"These are four of the places which had a supercomputer that had a Replica created by XANA and each one was used to manufacture robots or modified hardware. The New Mexico facility was originally used to produce things such as motherboards and chips for guidance systems of missiles back in the 90s. XANA modified them to control his robots. The Siberian facility was used to produce an army of robots that would have been used to take over the world." Said Aelita.

"So whatever place he used to make this supercomputer must have a lot of computer stuff that he modified and made sure no one knew of it." Said Cody.

"Which makes it hard for us to know which company he could have used." Said LeShawna.

"Right. The only way to find him is to modify the scanners to look for a complete copy of Lyoko. It's a good thing we mapped it out because we would have never found with the old maps." Aelita said.

"Which means we'll bring the fight directly to the big guy himself!" said LeShawna pumping a fist in the air.

"All right! Whoo-hoo!" Geoff shouted.

"He better watch out! Because we're coming!" Bridgette said.

"He won't know what hit him." Gwen said with a smirk.

Xxx

For the next couple of days the group enjoyed some time off from Lyoko and fighting XANA. Unfortunately now was the day that was the next episode of TDR. That was always fun. Of course something else was about to happen as well.

Xxx

"Sir, we have a problem."

"What is it?"

"A virus is hacking into the main computer."

"That's nothing new."

"Sir, it broke through half our fire walls and is hacking our computerized jets."

"What?"

Outside three jets operated by computer took off. Inside the Eye of XANA flashed on their monitors.

Xxx

"Whoo-hoo! Cannon Ball!"

Bridgette laughed as Geoff jumped into the water letting out a huge splash. Gwen sat under an umbrella on a plastic chair as a few of the others swam or hung around the pool. Cody smiled while sitting on the chair next to her. Gwen allowed him to do that so as long as he didn't hit on her.

He could handle just sitting next to her.

"You sure you won't try to swimming around?" asked Cody.

"No thanks. Besides if you stay out in the sun too long you get sunburnt and you could get cancer." Gwen replied.

Cody chuckled. He looked to the pool. Eva was swimming laps while DJ sat next to him with Bunny resting in his lap.

"This is nice. It's nice to see the producers made Chris give us a five star studio after Camp Wanakwa, the trailers, and the airplane." Said DJ.

"True that." Cody agreed.

That was when Cody's cell phone rang. He opened it and saw the message.

SOS

XANA

His eyes widened. He tapped Gwen on the shoulder holding up his phone. She turned and looked. Seeing the message she nodded and got up.

"I'll go get changed."

Xxx

Three Predator UAVs shot across the sky towards France. They had deployed from a US Air Craft Carrier and were now on a fast approach to the city.

The French Government were obviously not happy about this; they threatened the US government, demanding answers. The Captain of the Air Craft Carrier claimed that they had been activated from another remote signal and that all attempts to recall them were not working. A pair of manned air craft had been deployed to bring them in, only to find their weapon systems jamming and the missiles that they had managed to launch shooting off course and detonating far from their targets. Afterwards the jets ejected their pilots and crashed into the channel between England and France.

One Predator alone was enough to turn the tide of a battle or demolish a small town, but three of them-now flying over a suburban area could kill hundreds of people-and they were fully armed and fuelled. The French Government knew from the experience of the US pilots that tracking them with missiles would do no good, and that another jet would just experience the same 'malfunction', so they needed to take them down the old fashioned way. They prepared to warn citizens to evacuate the area so they and several units from the US Battlegroup the Predators came from could deploy Line-of-Sight AA guns to eliminate the Predators.

Other units from the French Armed Forces would be using RPGs to herd the Predators away from certain sections-they seemed to react well to explosions going off near them. As soon as somebody could disable whatever cyber warfare package that was affecting any computerize weapons or vehicles near the three UAVs, another pair of fighter jets would be launched to eliminate them before they could do anything.

But they did not go further into Paris, instead they hovered over the suburban area, locking in on one area: The Total Drama Reality Studio.

Due to XANA's programming, he could not immediately direct the Predators to destroy it, so instead he left automated orders and set them on a timer. He enforced their security so that they would not be retaken by the human military, and then returned to the World Wide Web to plan his next move.

Xxx

The gang was just outside of the studio when they saw three jets fly down towards them.

"Anyone want to bet that's not an air show?" asked Cody.

"Look out!"

They ran as the jets shot a barrage of bullets that blasted the entrance to the lobby.

"Holy crap!" LeShawna shouted.

The entrance was blasted to pieces. The jets flew over at high speed but the gang knew they would be back.

"Run for it!" shouted Geoff.

They took off into the streets and saw the damage. A few buildings were in flames with a few others destroyed.

"This is so wrong." Bridgette said.

She looked to see a man stuck under a piece of rubble. He was screaming to get it off him. She stopped and ran over.

"Bridgette!" Geoff shouted as he followed her,

"He's in trouble, Geoff!"

Bridgette ran over and tried to help lift the rubble off him.

"Hang on. Let me help." Said Geoff as he ran beside her and helped lift the rubble.

With a great deal of effort they lifted the rubble off and Bridgette dragged the man out.

"We need to get him to a hospital." Said Bridgette.

"What about the factory?" asked Geoff.

"They can handle it."

Xxx

Gwen, DJ, Cody, and LeShawna ran into the factory and swung down the cables. Entering the elevator they waited as the door opened and Aelita was already at the computer. When she looked up and saw them a look of relief was seen on her face.

"You made it. Thank goodness. When I heard about the jets I was worried." Said Aelita.

"We had a few close calls. They are wrecking the town." Said Gwen.

"Where are Bridgette and Geoff?"

"They stayed behind to help some injured people. Those jets are wrecking the town." Said Cody.

"I found the tower. It's in the Swamp Sector." Said Aelita.

"Great." Gwen said.

"We better hurry. Things are getting bad." Said LeShawna.

Aelita nodded as she set the virtualization sequence.

"The rest of you go down and get into the scanners. I'll set up the automatic virtualization sequence and join you."

They nodded and went back into the elevator.

Xxx

Gwen, Cody, and DJ landed in the newly discovered Swamp Sector of Lyoko. The sunlight here was darker than in the Forest Sector with large dark trees scattered across the area like in the Forest Sector and large grass covered small amounts of land. The area was covered with a thin layer of fog but they could still see.

"Nice. A swamp." Gwen muttered.

"It can't be all bad. We've been in worse places. Good thing we're digital. Most of my allergies come from a swamp." Said Cody.

"That's right. No bugs or animals here." Said DJ.

A moment later LeShawna and Aelita appeared next to them.

"A swamp, this'll be fun." Said LeShawna.

"We better hurry. If we don't hurry the whole town could be wiped out." Said Aelita.

"Lead the way, Aelita." Said DJ.

They took off and ran through the swamplands. Aelita held out her wrist which had a small computer on it.

"What is that?" asked Cody.

"Something I created just in case there was no one at the controls. It's basically a mini-computer with radar capable of detecting towers and monsters." Said Aelita.

She looked at it.

"We're close."

She pushed away some tall grass and looked ahead.

"The tower. It's there."

Ahead of them was a red glowing tower on a small piece of land. Gwen turned her head back and looked around.

"That's too easy."

"I agree with Gwen. This has got to be a trap." Said LeShawna.

Aelita looked at her radar again.

"There's still no of an-" Aelita stopped herself when she saw something. "Wait, I just picked up something. It's about a hundred yards from us."

The group looked around.

"I don't see anything." Said DJ.

"It's there. And it's coming this way." Aelita replied.

"Another invisible enemy?" asked Cody.

"I don't know. This can't scan it. It was only designed to detect enemies and towers so it knows something is there."

Everyone stood back to back to make sure nothing snuck up on them.

"It's even closer."

That was when Cody looked into the water.

"Hey guys, you don't suppose-"

That was when a spear attached to something came out of the water and stabbed Cody in the chest. He was devirtualized instantly.

"Cody!" shouted DJ.

"It's in the water!" Gwen realized.

The creature came out of the water. It resembled a large snake with emerald colored scales, a crocodile like snout with no eyes. Its tail was the same spear that stabbed Cody. Where the eyes would have been was a large Eye of XANA which was colored blue.

"A snake! I hate snakes!" said DJ.

"Energy Field!"

Aelita fired an energy sphere but the snake simply moved to the side and dodged it.

"Leave it to LeShawna, girl. Get to the tower."

LeShawna stepped forward pulling out her hammer. Gwen and DJ went with Aelita on a path to the tower. The snake hissed and lunged at them.

"Oh no you don't!"

LeShawna's hammer increased in size and length as she swung it. The snake dodged at the last second and gave her the impression of a glare even though it had no eyes.

Xxx

Cody was back at the computer looking at the scans.

"This thing has over three hundred life points."

Xxx

LeShawna heard what Cody said as she stared down the snake.

"Bring it."

The snake seemingly accepted her challenge as it turned its attention to her. It opened its mouth and fired a red beam at her. She dodged and ran forward.

"Take this!"

Her hammer extended in size and length as she swung but the snake bent down, ducking under the attack. It fired again but LeShawna blocked with her hammer.

"This might take a while."

Xxx

Meanwhile the others were nearing the tower when five Spiderlings appeared in front of the tower. They charged their lasers and fired. DJ put up a barrier to block enemy fire.

Gwen through her scythe and it took out two Spiderlings before flying back into her hand. She deflected more shots from the remaining Spiderlings while Aelita threw more spheres which destroyed the last ones.

"We better hurry. I don't know how long LeShawna can handle the snake." Said Aelita.

"I think you have other problems." Said a voice.

They turned and saw another snake with a familiar figure standing on its head.

"Yo! Welcome to the Swamp Sector." Ryder said with a smirk.

"You again." Said Gwen glaring at him.

"Lightning Wielder Ryder. I should have known XANA would send someone to protect the tower." Aelita said with a glare.

Ryder pulled out his sword. He jumped off the snake and landed in front of them.

"Come then, Aelita. I was close to capturing you before. I'll succeed this time." Said Ryder swinging his sword.

"LIGHTNING STORM!"

DJ quickly put up a barrier that blocked the attack. Gwen jumped over him and flew at Ryder.

"Take this!"

Ryder smirked before he vanished in a flash of red light. Gwen looked and saw Ryder appear above her.

"Fool! Don't think you can take me out that easily!"

He swung his blade down at her.

"LIGHTNING STORM!"

Gwen jumped out of the way of the attack as it blasted the ground where she once stood. Ryder landed in front of them and plunged his sword into the floor. The snake lunged at Aelita but she took off into the sky and fired an energy sphere at the Eye. The snake however dodged like the other one did by bending to the side.

It opened its mouth and a red beam fired. Aelita dodged as the snake fired at her. DJ transformed into a golem and charged with a battle cry. He jumped and slammed into the snake which sent them both into the water.

"DJ!" shouted Gwen in concern.

"You don't have time to worry about him!" said Ryder attacking again.

Gwen growled.

Xxx

Cody watched in concern as Ryder was battling with both and Gwen and Aelita. Meanwhile the snakes were keeping DJ and LeShawna busy. He looked to the window showing the jets.

"Guys, you've got to hurry. They're heading to the factory and they've armed their missiles!"

Xxx

'Okay, I have to take this guy out. Which means I need to use some more spells. Good thing Aelita recommended we train.'

Gwen started to glow green.

"Oh, is this another spell I'm about to see?" asked Ryder.

"It's over, Ryder."

"Try it! LIGHTNING STORM!"

He almost unleashed his signature attack but Gwen swung her scythe. A large gust came forth and blew Ryder back. He flew through the air and crashed into the water.

"Now this! Energy Strings!"

Gwen glowed white and her energy strings hit Ryder and bound his hands and feet. He fell back into the water.

"Aelita, go!"

Aelita nodded and flew into the tower.

Xxx

The jets were now within firing range of the factory.

Xxx

Aelita landed on the top platform.

Xxx

The jets fired their missiles.

Xxx

Aelita placed her hand on the screen.

**Aelita**

**Code:**

Xxx

The missiles were just about to hit the factory.

Xxx

**Lyoko**

Xxx

Suddenly they froze in mid-air along with everything else.

Xxx

Aelita watched as the numerous screens fell to the darkness below.

"Tower deactivated."

Xxx

Cody sighed as the tower was deactivated. Outside the jets ceased their attack and fell from the sky.

"Return to the Past now."

Xxx

"Whoo-hoo! Cannon Ball!"

Bridgette laughed as Geoff jumped into the water letting out a huge splash. Gwen sat under an umbrella on a plastic chair as a few of the others swam or hung around the pool. Cody smiled while sitting on the chair next to her. Gwen allowed him to do that so as long as he didn't hit on her.

He could handle just sitting next to her.

"You sure you won't try to swimming around?" asked Cody.

"No thanks. Besides if you stay out in the sun too long you get sunburnt and you could get cancer." Gwen replied.

Cody chuckled. He looked to the pool. Eva was swimming laps while DJ sat next to him with Bunny resting in his lap.

"This is nice. It's nice to see the producers made Chris give us a five star studio after Camp Wanakwa, the trailers, and the airplane." Said DJ.

"True that." Cody agreed.


	18. Episode 17: Deal with the Devil

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 17

Heather was on her bed watching the DVD she had put on. It was of the final episode of Total Drama World Tour.

_"Admit it; you're in love with me." Alejandro stated with a smile._

_What? I don't love you, I love-!" Heather blurted out accidently._

_Cody, Beth, and Owen gasped while Noah shrugged not at all surprised by Heather's confession._

_"Er, hate! I mean I hate you." Heather tried miserably to cover up her mistake._

_"I know what you meant. And I must confess, at first my intentions were purely strategic." Alejandro said._

_"Can the confessing wait? Kind of on a schedule here, bro." Chris asked impatiently._

_"That is no longer the case." Alejandro smiling at Heather grabbing her arms. _

_He pulled her towards him. "Because you . . . You have stolen my heart."_

_"Oh, that is so beautiful." Owen said wiping away a tear._

_"Even if it is Heather." Sadie said smiling._

_Our connection goes deeper than any game. Together we can take over the world." Alejandro continued._

_"Wow... I suppose I may actually feel a... a little something. "Heather blushed._

_"Mi amor..." Alejandro leaning in and kissing her._

_"Ew!" Nearly everyone said._

_Then Heather closed her eyes and kneed Alejandro in the groin. He fell onto a giant ice cube._

_"A little something called victory!"Heather shouted with her arms in the air._

_Heather slapped the ice cube sending it down the mountain._

_"So long, sucker!"_

_"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Alejandro screamed._

_Everyone cheered at her for taking down Alejandro._

_"Nice! It's about time someone took 'La Cucaracha' down!" Duncan said._

_"Yeah, boys are okay. But a million dollars is way better." Heather said smiling as she threw her sacrifice into the volcano._

_"YES. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes." She chanted jumping up and down._

Heather smiled at that. She finally had it. After three agonizing seasons she had the money in her grasp . . . Only to lose it to a home school zombified Ezekiel.

How could it have gone so wrong?

Now here she was. Injured with burns all over her right arm and leg from being partially hit by a flaming rock. The burns were bad enough that her arms and leg had to be wrapped in bandages. She watched as Alejandro was trampled by her and the others and then burned.

He was on an operating table with his skin charred, most of his hair gone, his limbs crushed, twisted, and mangled. Heather had to hold back the urge to cry at his condition. Chris and Chef worked on placing him in the Drama Machine because in his condition he was not able to move. She watched as what was left his face was covered with a face plate.

_"Al? Can you hear me? We're gonna need you to sign some paperwork that legally absolves the show of your little lava accident." Chris said holding up some paper._

_"Chris. The million dollars. Is it safe?" asked Alejandro from inside the robot._

_"Uh, yeah. Seems the million dollars fell into the volcano. It's gone."_

_"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Alejandro yelled._

_"Heheh. Spaz."_

Heather turned off the TV. She couldn't bear to see anymore. Sure she had lied, cheated, manipulated people for money but she never wanted to that to the one boy who would have actually liked her for she was. She lost both him and the money.

She remembered them meeting again before coming to France.

Xxx

(Flashback)

Heather looked to see the Drama Machine rolled into the infirmary by Chris and Chef.

"Well, good news. Everyone had checked to be fine and alive so no one can sue the show." Said Chris.

"We'll see about that." Said Courtney with her PDA in her hands.

"Who's that and where is Alejandro?" Heather asked.

"This _is_ Alejandro." Chris said.

"Nice to know you care, Heather." The robot said.

Heather's eyes widened in shock at this.

"We can't get him to real hospital yet so we had him put in the Drama Machine so he can move without injuring himself. We also got him to sign the papers to absolve the show of being burned by lava." Chris said with his usual arrogant smirk.

He walked out leaving Alejandro with them in the infirmary. Everyone was silent as they watched Heather and Alejandro.

"Is it really you?" asked Heather.

"Who else would it be? Why would you care considering you did this to me." Said Alejandro.

"I didn't mean to." Heather defended herself.

"You tricked me! You foiled my win and looked at what happened! I'm glad that million dollars were destroyed because someone as despicable as you doesn't even deserve to have a glance at it!" Alejandro shouted in anger.

"It was the competition! You would have done the same and you know it! I wasn't about to let my feelings get in the way!" Heather tried to explain.

"And it worked. You have won. I don't want you near me again!"

(End Flashback)

Xxx

Those words at cut right through to her heart. Alejandro now despised her and he had every right to. She had done horrible things and for what she had done she had been given little sympathy from the others. She thought back to what Lindsay said when she was eliminated on Total Drama Island.

'I hope you get everything your karma owes you.'

She had come onto to the show to win, plain and simple. What she had done to hurt them on the show was deliberate. It was strategy. She didn't come to make friends, she was playing the game.

And in the end she was left alone, sitting in her room with burns all over her arm and leg which kept her from moving a lot. The only one liked her was injured worse than she was and hated her guts. The more she thought about the more tears began to build up in her eyes.

Xxx

He loved her . . . He loved her and she betrayed him. She broke his heart and shoved him out of the way. To her the million dollars was better than he was. He was so close.

He could have had it. He could have become someone in the family! They would have praised him like they did Jose. But he failed because of her.

She was so beautiful and deadly that he could not resist. The other girls were nothing to him. Only to be played and then thrown away when they were not needed. But she . . .

She would not fall for his charms. She fought him and they became adversaries. He began to foster feelings for her because of strength and ruthlessness. The same ruthlessness left him disfigured and paralyzed.

Feelings of sorrow, anger, and hate rose up inside him. He could hear his father's voice.

'You have disgraced our family, Alejandro. Your need to win at the cost of everyone else and using your fellow contestants has reflected badly on us.'

That's what his father said. Then there was Jose.

'Just a few inches from the money and you still lose, Al. And the way you lost was even sadder.'

Out of his family his mother was the only one to show concern. And then there was Heather. She took his heart, smashed it, kneed him in the groin, got him trampled by a dozen feet, and then burned.

'I swear this, Heather. You will pay for this.'

That was when the phone rang. Alejandro had it built into his face mask.

"Hello?"

"Hello. This is Alejandro Burromuerto I am speaking to, correct?" asked a voice with a light British accent.

"Yes?"

"I'd like to speak to you in person. Could you please exit the dorms?"

"Why should I? I don't even know you."

"I know of your current situation regarding your paralyzed body and injuries. I can help you but first you need to leave the dorms."

"And where are you?"

"Go to the supercomputer room in the studio."

Alejandro had no idea who this guy was but he was about ready to do anything. He could not stand being trapped in this shell.

"Fine. I'll be there."

He hung and manoeuvred his robot body to the door. He opened it and headed down the hull. The supercomputer room was declared off limits when not broadcasting so he wondered why he had to go down there. He made it to the door.

That was when his phone rang. He answered it.

"The door is open. Go inside."

He went inside and the lights turned on.

"There is an elevator inside. Find it."

He looked around and saw one near the controls. He went over to it and pushed the button.

"Take it to the basement."

He went inside when the doors opened and pushed the button for the basement level. He waited as it headed down to the level. It opened up and he wheeled out. Inside was a metal cylinder with a sliding door next to a large mainframe with wires and cables.

"Please step inside."

"Not until I know what this is."

"It can heal you but first you need to be inside."

"And why should I trust you?"

"Because no one else will help you."

"And you will?"

"If you didn't want my help you wouldn't have come here."

Alejandro looked to the pod as he considered it. He did come all this way and he had nothing to lose. He lost everything that mattered to him already. He moved his body into the scanner and it closed.

A ring of light traveled up his body as he waited. That was when he was consumed in a flash of light.

Xxx

He opened his eyes and found himself in a plain white room. He looked down and found himself completely healed. He ran a hand through his hair to find it was all back.

"Welcome, Mr. Burromuerto."

He turned to find someone else in the room. He was about the same height as Alejandro, wearing a pure white suit with a shirt and tie. His hands were covered by white gloves that held a pure white cane. His skin was pale, his eyes were dark, and his neatly combed black hair was covered by a white hat.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Xavier. I am honoured that you chose to accept my request to come here."

"Why did you bring me here?"

"I didn't bring you here. You chose to. If you didn't want to you could have said no."

Alejandro glared at the man. He simply maintained a friendly smirk.

"But we are getting off topic. I said I could help you regain what was lost. The only to heal someone whose injuries were extensive as yours was to bring you to the scanner."

"And what do you want in return?"

Xavier tilted his head.

"And why would I want something in return?"

"Because that's how it always is."

Xavier simply chuckled.

"In your world. Tell me, Alejandro, what is it that drove you to win so badly? You used your fellow contestants as pawns in your game. You showed no remorse for how badly it would have hurt them; you even threatened a few of their lives on a few occasions." Xavier said leaning towards Alejandro.

"And why do you care?"

"Curiosity. Some people are nice while others could care less. Some of them do it for no logical reason. Did you do it because of you wanted to win so badly or did you do it for something else?" Xavier asked circling Alejandro. "You mentioned your brother in the final episode of World Tour. Did you do it because you want to win something unlike always losing like you did against your brother, Jose? Your father is an ambassador, a good one too. I can only imagine how pleased he was with your actions."

Alejandro threw a dark glare at Xavier but it didn't faze him. He sighed and looked down.

"Everyone in the family is successful at something. My father, the diplomat, my uncle, the hypnotist that he uses to help others, my brother Carlos, a professional soccer player, and Jose the winner. And I was left behind. I had nothing to be praised for which made me a nobody."

"Ah. The plot thickens. You wanted to be praised like your brothers. Alejandro, winner of Total Drama with a million dollars to show for it. To most people it would be the perfect prize in a world run by greed." Xavier tilted his head.

"I had it. I had the money in my grasp."

"But you lost it."

"I fell in love with . . . _her_."

"Heather, came in third of Total Drama Island, ninth of Total Drama Action, and winner of Total Drama World Tour. Of course she lost the money. Tragic coincidence or poetic justice?" Xavier asked with a curious look.

"She deserved to lose the money after what she did." Alejandro growled.

Xavier smiked.

"She used you. You gave her your love and she crushed it under her foot."

"We could have it all but she pushed it aside."

"You expected her to actually choose love over money. She only cared as long as you got her closer to winning."

"And she left me paralyzed, burned, with broken arms." Alejandro seethed.

He couldn't forget what she did. Just the very thought of her filled him anger, hurt, and hate.

"Sounds to me that you wish to get even." Xavier noted.

"I want to do more than that. I want her to be devastated."

Xavier raised an eyebrow.

"Well, since you answered my request I will fulfill my end. I offer to restore you to what you were before. You will regain your mobility and your wounds will heal."

"And what do you want in return?"

Xavier smirked.

"I want you take something into the Total Drama simulation the next time you go into those pods."

"And what is that?"

"There will be a computer chip waiting for you in the supercomputer room when you awaken. Install it into the main supercomputer. Do we have a deal?" Xavier asked holding out his hand.

Alejandro reached out and shook it.

"Yes. I cannot stand being in that shell. I want my body back. I will do anything to able to move again."

"Then allow me to restore what was lost."

Alejandro watched as Xavier was engulfed by a black cloud that reached out and covered him. Alejandro screamed as he was drowned in it.

Xxx

Alejandro opened his eyes and looked around. He gasped as he saw he was not in his robot body and that his injuries were gone. He looked up and saw even his hair was back. He stood and found that there were no burns left on him

What happened was real! He smirked as he walked out. He decided to surprise everyone with his restored appearance.

Xxx

"Last Time on Total Drama Reality. We took the cast out for some sunshine and exercise. Only we made it a whole more fun with exploding soccer balls filled with paint bombs. Some of the contestants suffered a very hilarious outcome as they ended up covered in paint. In the end once again Team _Victory_ went down with no _victory_ what so ever.

And Ezekiel who was normally the first go was knocked out and taken on the Jet of Losers. And this time he won't be coming back. We got some professional help. Who will win this time?

Find out on Total. Drama. Reality!" announced Chris.

Xxx

It was morning and everyone was moving to get some breakfast. As Duncan and Trent got in line Duncan caught Trent glaring at him.

"What's with you?" Duncan asked.

Trent didn't want to start a fight with Gwen's boyfriend so he just shook his head.

"Nothing. Just tired."

Duncan smirked.

"Okay then, well I've got to go give Gwen a kiss good morning."

Trent glared at him.

Xxx

Confessional

"That jerk!" Trent snapped.

Xxx

The Lyoko fighters were gathered at one table while everybody else was scattered around.

Somebody stepped up behind Heather. "Hola, senorita."

Heather turned her wheel chair around, and gasped. "Alejandro!"

There he stood in what had been his glory before his accident.

"Am I imagining things or is the shoe on the other foot?" He pretended to yawn. "I have to admit, being stuck in that robot sure made me feel tired."

"Hey Al, you're better!" Chris said as he came in. "See guys, he's all better so you can stop practicing."

"But it's so much fun!" Carlos said as he and Kurt sparred in a boxing ring...which for some reason had been placed in one corner of the cafeteria.

"Alejandro, you...you're..." Lindsey stuttered.

"I know, I know, take it all in, I'm back." Alejandro said. "Glad to see karma at work Heather."

"Ouch." Geoff said. "Harsh."

"Dude," Alejandro sat down in a seat. "She kicked me in the groin, and got me reduced to some half dead, extra crispy corpse inside an overgrown box on wheels. Of course I'm now better while she can't even use her arm and leg. So in my position you'd feel smug also."

"How? Your operation wouldn't be ready for a few more weeks!" Carlos said.

"A...specialist contacted me and gave me an advancement on an even better operation. And now I'm back to being my old handsome self again...and Jose, after I win this and go back home, the first thing I'm going to do is punch you in the mouth for writing on me while I was stuck in that robot!" He glared at the camera. "And dad. I have to say this after the weeks of crap I put up with you: SCREW. YOU. OLD MAN." He looked at Heather. "And Heather...good riddance to bad rubbish."

Heather looked down with a sad and miserable face. The Lyoko fighters, even Gwen, looked sorry for her.

"Smooth." Duncan commented.

Alejandro sat down next to him.

"Well, Duncan, you go through the same thing with a girl like that and let's see if you still like her."

"I did. Remember what I said about a certain girl having no loyalty what so ever?"

Courtney glared.

"Oh yes. I remember. Now I understand what you meant." Alejandro replied.

"Yeah, well you two will be sent home in no time!" Courtney said.

"Get lost, Miss Crap in Training." Duncan said.

Courtney growled dangerously.

"Is anyone besides me curious as how someone could be healed from broken bones and burns just over night like that?" asked Gwen.

Alejandro smirked.

"Well, Gwen, I'd be delighted to tell you but it's a trade secret."

"All right, contestants, enough with the talking. To the virtual room. We have a challenge to do." Said Chris breaking up the conversation.

Xxx

The contestants were gathered in the supercomputer room again.

"All right, everyone. Here is today's challenge. Are you all ready to rumble?" Chris asked.

The main screen turned on and showed a wrestling ring.

"Today's challenge is picking five members from each team and they are going to wrestle it out. Team Amazon will pick their five and wrestle whoever is picked from Team I am So Hot. Whoever wins that round will battle Team Victory next." Said Chris.

"You're joking right? Like I'll participate in something as juvenile as this." Courtney said with her arms crossed.

"See, that's the attitude that always gets you eliminated." Said Chris.

"Shut up!"

"We can handle this without Miss CIT anyway. I can handle anyone." Said Eva.

"No argument from me." Said Gwen.

"I believe I would be a good choice here." Said Alejandro stepping forward.

"Me too. I got into plenty of brawls while in juvie." Said Duncan.

Courtney glared as Duncan stepped forward.

"Actually I think I will. A chance to kick Duncan's jerky butt is worth it. Especially in front of his _girlfriend_." Courtney glared back at Gwen.

"Let me go! Let me go!" said Izzy striking a snake pose.

"I'm in." Said LeShawna.

"Me too." Said Trent.

"I don't like fighting." Said DJ.

"Its okay, DJ. I'll go." Said Geoff.

"I guess I'm in too. No offense Sadie." Said Bridgette.

"None taken." Sadie replied, relived she would not have to fight.

"To spice things up I'll pick the members of Team Amazon who will fight. Gwen, Heather, and Cody." Said Chris.

"What?" Heather and Courtney shouted.

"Hey, we have a schedule and I don't have time to listen to you deciding who fights." Said Chris shrugging.

"This squirt won't even last a second!" Courtney pointed at Cody.

"Don't you insult him!" yelled Sierra.

"I am only speaking the truth. The little geek won't be of any help what so ever." Said Courtney glaring back at Sierra.

Most of Team Amazon glared at her for her insults.

"Looks like everyone's blood is boiling. Time to start!" said Chris.

Everyone turned to get into their pods. Alejandro looked with a smirk at Heather trying to get into her pod.

"Having some trouble?"

"I can handle it! Mind your own business!" Heather replied sharply.

"Okay, I was just wondering if you needed help. Good luck." Alejandro replied getting into his pod.

Heather looked down at the floor as Alejandro got in, not even looking at her. Cody glared at Alejandro for that. It's not like he didn't deserve what was coming to him for what he did. He walked over to offer Heather a hand.

"Need help getting in?"

"No! I can do it myself!" Heather shouted.

Cody stepped back from her. She can very scary even when she is in the wheel chair. She pulled herself out of the wheel chair with her good hand on the pod. She tried to get in but with only one arm and one leg working it was very hard.

Gwen sighed as she watched this. She walked over and grabbed Heather's arm.

"I said I don't need help!" Heather snapped.

"I don't care. We can't wait for you to get in so shut up and let Cody and I help you." Gwen replied with a stern look. "Cody, grab her other arm. Be gentle with it."

Cody nodded and they both slowly lifted Heather into the pod. Heather stopped fighting and let them help her, albeit grudgingly. Gwen held up the visor.

"Here, you put it on."

Heather took it and Gwen walked away while Cody stayed back to make sure Heather put it on right.

"Time to go!" said Chris.

Xxx

On the screen six of the contestants appeared.

"Hey we're missing Sadie and Trent." Said Bridgette looking around.

"We're not the only ones, Bridgette." Said LeShawna.

She pointed towards where Team Amazon was.

"Gwen, where is everyone?" asked Cody.

They were missing Heather, Courtney, Beth, Eva, and Katie. There was no sign of Team Chris.

"I don't know. Did something happen?"

"We all got into the pods. I don't think anything went wrong." Said Cody.

Back in the lab Chris was looking at the screen.

"Ok, where is everyone else?"

"I don't know. They went into the pods but then something happened. It looks like they were sent somewhere else." Said Robby.

"What do you mean somewhere else?" asked Carlos.

"That's just it. They're not there." Said Robby.

"Can you get them back?"

"No, because without a lock on them we can't bring them back and we can't shut down the computer with them in there."

"Great. Not again." Said Chris.

Xxx

"Where did they go?" asked Geoff.

"You think something happened to them?" asked Cody.

"You mean something involving . . ." Gwen whispered.

Everyone knew who she was referring to.

"I don't know. But there is a way to find out." Said LeShawna.

"I guess now would be a better time to try than never." Said Bridgette.

They all said one word.

"Sanctuary."

They both vanished but Chris and the others did not see them vanish as digital decoys had been left so no one would see them vanish.

Xxx

They landed in a grassy field with a clear blue sky. In the center of this field was a tower like the ones on Lyoko.

"So this is the Sanctuary." Said Cody.

"Looks very peaceful." Said DJ.

"Don't jinx us, big guy." Said Geoff.

They walked into the tower and stood on the platform.

"So how do we work this thing? I only knew how to input that Code GLOBAL." Said LeShawna.

"I'll try." Said Cody.

He walked into the center of the platform and an interface appeared. He placed his hand on it.

**Identification: Cody**

**Status: Ally**

"It recognizes me."

"Aelita said she would make sure that we would be able to use it." Said Gwen.

"Got to hand to her for taking every precaution." Said LeShawna.

"It's been monitoring the simulation since Aelita created it." Said Cody looking at the data. "According to this XANA did not attempt to hack the computer."

"Did it find anything odd with the pods the others were in?" asked Bridgette.

"You on to something Bridge?" asked DJ.

"Maybe there was something wrong with the pods."

"If there was something wrong why are they missing and not us?" asked Gwen.

"Good question. XANA's supposed to be after us, not them." Said LeShawna.

"Hang on; let me see if I can find anything wrong with the pods." Said Cody.

He looked to the screen and browsed through the inventory. He found the TDR pods on the list and clicked on it.

"They weren't infected. But it does say that everyone but ours was programmed to send them somewhere else." Said Cody.

"Where?" asked Geoff.

"Don't know. It doesn't say. I don't think they are in the TDR simulation." Said Cody.

"But how? Aelita set up firewalls to keep XANA out. He couldn't have done this." Said LeShawna.

"Maybe he didn't." Said Gwen.

"What are you thinking, Gwen?" asked LeShawna.

"Don't you think it's odd that Alejandro suddenly is fully healed with his hair grown back and then this happens? I don't think that it was coincidence that happened just before this did."

"You think he did this. How? Alejandro may be smart but he's not a computer expert." Said Cody.

"True. But XANA could have possessed him. We all know that when he possessed the others a while back he healed Heather, Sierra, Ezekiel, and Alejandro. Maybe he did it again." Said Gwen.

"But wouldn't Aelita have detected an activated tower?" asked Bridgette.

"I don't know Bridge. It's only explanation I can come up with." Said Gwen.

"The white girl might have a point. The squid gets all better all of a sudden and now this." Said LeShawna.

"So now what?" asked DJ.

"Cody, can this tower access the security cameras inside the studio?" asked Gwen.

"Sure."

"Okay, see if you can find out what Alejandro was up to last night."

Cody turned back to the screen and brought up an image of Alejandro at 7:00 pm last night. He was still in his robotic suit.

"Try 8:00." Said Gwen.

Cody fast forwarded the image to 8:00 pm. Alejandro was moving out of his room. Cody switched to the hall cameras. Alejandro was moving down the hall and out of the dorm. Cody switched to another camera showing Alejandro moving towards the supercomputer.

He tried to switch to the supercomputer room's cameras but he all he got was a blank image. Cody looked over the data.

"Guys, the recordings from 8:00 pm to 2:00 am have been erased." Said Cody.

"Go back to Alejandro's room at this time." Said LeShawna.

He went back and saw Alejandro looking fully healed sleeping on his bed.

"Anyone else think he had something to do with what happened?" asked Gwen.

"No question about it. Alejandro had something to do with it." Said Bridgette.

"We should call Aelita and let her know." Said DJ.

"Here, Aelita showed me how to dial her cell phone while in a digital dimension. She set it to vibrate since she doesn't want to get busted in class for having it on." Said Cody.

He brought up a phone dialling program.

"She even left her number and ours on it just in case."

He started dialling her number.

Xxx

Luckily for the group Aelita was in the middle of her morning break when she heard her phone ring. She pulled out her phone, planning to answer it when she caught the name. She got off the bench she was sitting on and took cover behind a tree where no one could hear her.

After making sure she was alone she answered it.

"Hello, Cody. What can I do for you?"

"_Hey, Aelita. Me and the others are in the tower at the Sanctuary you created in the TDR computer. We have a problem. Do you have a minute?_"

"Sure. I have a few minutes before my next class. What is it?"

"_Well, we were supposed to do the next episode of TDR today when the others disappeared just as we went into the digital simulation._"

"Disappeared?"

"_Yeah. We checked the security cameras and they show Alejandro, one of the contestants, going into the supercomputer room but the records from 8:00 pm last night are blank all the way up to 2:00 am._"

Aelita's brow furrowed. "And you believe XANA might have something to do with it?"

"_I know it doesn't sound like him since it's not his style but he's the only one who could do this. And Alejandro showed up this morning completely healed. You know how injured he was from last season right?_"

Aelita nodded even though Cody could not see.

"I am aware of his injuries."

"_Then you know he couldn't have healed overnight no matter what doctor he had with him._"

"You suspect XANA healed him."

"_He could have done that._"

"The security programs I placed; do they show any sign of being tampered with?"

"_No everything checks out from here._"

"Hmm. Cody, it is possible that pods were tampered with not electronically but from the real world."

"_Makes sense. Alejandro could have done something but did you detect an activated tower last night._"

"No, but Alejandro could have been healed from inside something like a scanner or perhaps one of the pods."

"_And then he tampered with the pods. I know none of them are dead because the scans say that they have been sent somewhere. Like to something similar to TDR virtual simulation._"

"You mean Lyoko."

"_Could they be there?_"

"Possibly but unless they are scanned they wouldn't have any physical bodies."

Aelita thought it over.

"My day is almost over. Meet me at the factory so we can discuss this further. I may have a theory."

Xxx

"Chris! What the hell did you do?" Kurt shouted.

"Nothing! I didn't tamper with the computer at all, honestly!"

"So you weren't using it to look up more issue of Play Boy magazine then?"

"No." Chris said nervously. "I learned my lesson last time."

"Alright, never mind. Get the kids who we can see out of there and get the search engine running." Carlos said. "Oh, and if we lose anybody, before you get fired I will break your teeth one at a time."

"It's not me! I didn't touch the thing!"

"That's what you said when I had to test the stupid thing out. I was stuck in some Barney episode for seventeen hours with them singing that damn song over and over! SEVENTEEN HOURS!" Kurt shouted. "I'm pretty much suspected of being insane after that and I don't blame the people who think that! Ten minutes of that can make you go mad, insane, crazy, up the stream without a paddle, three nuggets short of a happy meal, BONKERS!"

"And when I tested it out, I was stuck in a simulation with that kid show Dora the Explorer! I may have learned how to speak Spanish from that but it was not worth it Chris, I couldn't look at any animals the same way ever again, and I own a dog DAMN IT ALL!" Carlos growled.

"So Chris..." Kurt said in a low, dangerous voice. "Be truthful and you might be safe from our wrath."

"But if not," Carlos cracked his knuckles. "I'LL SHAVE OFF THAT MOP YOU CALL A HAIR DO! BREAK THE BONES IN YOUR BODY! STUFF YOU IN A POD! AND SEE HOW YOU LIKE BEDING STUCK ON SOME DUMB KIDS SHOW THAT DRIVES YOU BONKERS!"

"If we do that, let's put him in Blue's Clues. My little sister watched that every day and I went mad from having to listen to it." Kurt said.

"Or some show with lots of musicals in it." Carlos grinned.

"Yeah, you loved making everybody sing on world tour." Kurt snickered.

"YEAH!" Chef joined in. "Let's see how you like singing!"

"Shut up chef, you're as bad as him. You're only good feature is that you can cook and you gave me something that somehow made my hair turn green." Carlos shuddered. "I felt like a palm tree. Just give me hair gel to make my hair spiky and dress me up like I'm into S&M and you can call me Envy."

"Alright! Alright! Alright! I honestly swear on my prized hair gel that I did not do it!" Chris cried.

"Well, he swore on the hair gel so we have to give him the benefit of the doubt." Kurt rubbed his chin with one hand.

"Can I still hit him?" Carlos asked.

"Go for the hair gel first."

Chris gasped in horror.

"Damn straight you Shaggy Rogers rip off, now get to work and take Scooby with you." Kurt pointed at Chef.

"Hey! I am not-" Chef protested.

"I'll give you a bigger salary if you go along with it." Kurt cut him off.

"Scooby Dooby Doo!" Chef grabbed Chris and carried him back to do work.

"...that was the most fun I've had since...the last time I punched him." Carlos said.

"I know," Kurt chuckled.

Let it be known that Carlos and Kurt are not maniacs, but have merely been mentally scarred by Chris McLean. And Karma was really kicking Chris' ass.

Xxx

The gang stepped out of the elevator and Aelita was already in the chair at the computer. After Chris let them out of the pods and cancelled today's episode they took off towards the factory.

"Glad you all made it." Aelita said.

"Hey. So do you have a clue of what happened?" asked Cody.

"I do. It's only a theory but I might know. I set the computer to scan for any type of strange radio or TV transmissions." Said Aelita turning to the computer.

"What would that have to do with this?" asked Gwen.

"If XANA sent to where I think he sent them this is a sure way to find it." Said Aelita.

"And just what is this place you're talking about?" asked Bridgette.

"A Simulation Bubble. Basically it's like the TDR simulation but it has the ability to project a simulation of places, people, or a time period within it. Whenever someone is put inside is placed in a deep sleep while the mind of the person enters the 'dream'. The only way out would be to find a way to destroy it or the creator allows them to wake up."

"So...would that mean that they might not even know where they are then? They might think they're in the real world still?" Gwen asked.

"Possibly, XANA tried that with my friends before. I managed to help after Jeremy made Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi realize the world they were in was a fake." Aelita replied. "But XANA has complete control of everything in the bubble. I suspect that it takes both outside and inside force to destroy it entirely. If you were to make everybody inside realize it was a false reality, and if I were to apply damage to the sphere using my modification powers, it may destroy it as it did last time."

"Alright then, so we're golden! But we still need to make them see it's fake...how?" Cody asked.

"First off you need to know where it is. I'll work on that. Secondly, you can try to point out the faults in the simulation. Assuming XANA has left any faults, you may see certain events repeat themselves over and over again. An example Yumi provided was her history teacher repeating the same line from a text book several times without a visible reaction from the class. There are other examples to follow. If you could show them something undeniable, perhaps something we can try to affect using the Super Calculator, we could prove to them that the simulation is not real. It might be hard, but I have several ideas of how to do this. If I were to try to extend my modification within the reach of the simulation, and at the same time somebody were to hack into it from here, we could try to control certain parts of it.

But we would also have to set up a link between Lyoko and a simulation world from the Total Drama Pods. If we were to destroy the simulation without one, the group would have no bodies to return to, they would be stuck in cyber reality. So I'll set up a link. I need somebody to go back to the studio and set up a simulation, anything will do, and then help to open a two way link. After that, I'll destroy the simulation, sending them into the virtual reality simulation set up by the pods, and then they can safely return to their world."

"Sounds good to me. I'll handle the work at the studio." Cody volunteered.

"I'll go with you, might need to strong arm Chris into getting out of the way." DJ volunteered.

"In the meantime I'll scan for the simulation bubble." Said Aelita.


	19. Episode 18: Shadows of the Past

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 18

Aelita sat back and looked at her watch. Looking over the monitor she once again studied the graphs, charts, and maps of Lyoko hoping to find XANA's Virtual Earth. That was when something happened.

"I believe I might have found it."

Everyone gathered around the computer. On it appeared an image of Alejandro standing in a courtyard.

"This is happening right now."

Xxx

Alejandro could not understand where he was but he certainly knew what he was watching. A bunch of young teens were gathered around someone.

"Yo, Al! You alive?" There was a familiar voice.

"Man, that won't make him too eager to look in a mirror for a few days." The next voice made Alejandro burn with anger as he opened his eyes.

Several kids were crouched over him; two of them his brothers Jose and Carlos, the rest were kids from their school.

"Ow..." He put one hand on his face, and winced, clenching his teeth.

"Looks like you lose again Al," Jose sneered.

"Oh shut up Jose!" A girl smacked Jose on the back of the head. "This is not funny!"

Alejandro remembered the girl: Sophie, she went to school with them and was one of the few who despised Jose.

"Relax; it was all fun and games!" Jose said defensively, still smiling a bit.

"Yeah, everything's a game with you Jose." Sophie said, sickened as she helped Alejandro up.

"What happened?" Alejandro asked.

"You got hit in the face. Genius over there sent it right at you...intentionally." Sophie glared at Jose. "And don't deny it Jose, you sent every other ball into outfield whenever you hit it. Right when Alejandro's up at pitcher you sent it right back at him on purpose!"

"Hey, sweetheart-"

THWACK!

Jose had an imprint of Sophie's hand on the side of his face. Several kids giggled.

"Ow! Hey come on!"

"Sorry dude, but you had that one coming." Carlos chuckled.

"Are you alright Alejandro?" Sophie asked, concerned.

"Yeah...but...where did it hit my precisely?" Alejandro asked.

In response, Sophie took out a small mirror from her bag and held it up for him. He sighed as he looked at the red swelling area on the side of his face. "Aw great."

"Come on, let's get some ice for that." Sophie said.

"You guys keep playing, I'll get it myself." Alejandro walked away from the field.

"Don't try to act so tought Al!" Jose taunted him. "It doesn't work-"

CRUNCH!

"AYE!" Jose fell over.

"You're one to talk about tough, _Josie._" Sophie sneered at the fallen young man, who was clutching himself. "And remember this: you might win at base ball, but I still kick ass at Soccer."

"Ow. Man, remind me not to get you mad." Carlos chuckled.

'Wait, didn't this all happen before?' Alejandro thought. 'Yeah, and then right at this second-'

Sophie and Carlos kissed, and then laughed as Jose tried to get to his feet. 'Ah, yes, I found out they were dating.'

Alejandro went inside following his younger self that went to get some ice, but as he opened the door, he came out into a different place from his house. The bruise on his other self's face was gone, and he was wearing a thin red sweater. He was in the middle of a family gathering-Carlos and Jose wore matching shirts made by one of their aunts. Sophie was in Carlos' arms.

"Man, your girl really likes her liquor." Jose snickered, having won a drinking contest between him, Sophie, Carlos and several others.

"You didn't have to break out the heavy stuff man. You're probably just hoping she'll be so drunk she'll mistake your messed up face for Carlos." Alejandro smirked as he saw the black eye Sophie had given Jose after he had grabbed her butt the day before.

"Ah go back to the kiddy table Al." Jose dismissed his brother.

'Yeah, I remember this too...just two years ago.' Alejandro thought as he watched his younger self sit down, picking up a glass of pepsi. 'But then...' His younger self went through the party as he had before, but then noticed that Sophie, Carlos, and Jose were gone. He went up the stairs to where Jose and several friends had been having another drinking contest earlier.

He found Carlos in a washroom, bent over a toilet, vomiting. Carlos coughed. "Gah...man, if I never see another bottle of beer, I'll die a happy man."

"Where are Sophie and Jose?" Alejandro asked.

"Uh...OH CRAP!" Carlos stumbled to his feet. "Jose, if you're alone with her I swear to god she better not be hurt!" He rushed out of the bath room, Alejandro helping him to walk.

"Whoa man, sit down. I'll go find Sophie." Alejandro set his brother on a chair.

Carlos dry heaved. "Ah...alright bro, thanks..."

Alejandro didn't take long to find Sophie and Jose...and he was pissed off beyond all reason when he did. He found them in a closet, Sophie barely awake and Jose sliding a hand up her leg. She was wearing a simple red dress, and he was sliding it up bit by bit.

"YOU ENFERMOS BASTARD!" Alejandro tugged Jose out of the closet, and used his advantage of surprise to slam Jose into a wall.

"Ow...watch the head Al," The drunk older brother rubbed his head as Alejandro lifted Sophie into his arms.

"Jose, first and only warning, fuck off or I'll call the police. If I see you near her ever again you're going to jail for sexual assault." Alejandro snarled.

"Al, usually when you have lemons, you make lemonade. You aren't gonna play Boy Scout forever, are you, hermano? I've seen you flirt before."

"Yeah, Jose, I flirt, I'm shameless, but I am not pathetic enough to try something like this." Alejandro turned and began to walk back to where he left Carlos. "Again: stay the hell away from her or you go to jail. You're lucky if Sophie won't charge you herself if she remembers any of this."

"Oh sad little Al, trying to be a good little boy." Jose laughed. "And for the record, I've already had a few girls like her. Another thing I win at, Al."

Alejandro rolled his eyes, hiding a disgusted look. "Yeah, at picking up drunk women."

When Sophie and Carlos sobered up, Sophie did not remember that Jose had only begun what could have resulted in rape if he had time to continue before Alejandro showed up. Carlos only remembered that he and Sophie had been separated for a time, and life went on. Jose kept picking up dates and then dumping them a few months later, mostly after he finally deflowered a girl.

Alejandro was only less popular than Jose for one reason: he never kept a relationship; all the girls at his school were rather...eager to be with him only because his family was loaded or because Alejandro was a younger, less confident, and what they thought to be a more controllable version of Jose.

He never thought at the time that he'd act like his brother so much at one point. He never thought his actions would do what karma never did to Jose: it gave him what he deserved.

"Admit it; you're in love with me." Alejandro stated with a smile.

What? I don't love you, I love-!" Heather blurted out accidently.

Cody, Beth, and Owen gasped while Noah shrugged not at all surprised by Heather's confession.

"Er, hate! I mean I hate you." Heather tried miserably to cover up her mistake.

"I know what you meant. And I must confess, at first my intentions were purely strategic." Alejandro said.

"Can the confessing wait? Kind of on a schedule here, bro." Chris asked impatiently.

"That is no longer the case." Alejandro smiling at Heather grabbing her arms.

He pulled her towards him. "Because you . . . You have stolen my heart."

"Oh, that is so beautiful." Owen said wiping away a tear.

"Even if it is Heather." Sadie said smiling.

"Our connection goes deeper than any game. Together we can take over the world." Alejandro continued.

"Wow... I suppose I may actually feel a... a little something. "Heather blushed.

"Mi amor..." Alejandro leaning in and kissing her.

"Ew!" Nearly everyone said.

Then Heather closed her eyes and kneed Alejandro in the groin. He fell onto a giant ice cube.

"A little something called victory!"Heather shouted with her arms in the air.

Heather slapped the ice cube sending it down the mountain.

"So long, sucker!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Alejandro screamed.

Everyone cheered at her for taking down Alejandro.

"Nice! It's about time someone took 'La Cucaracha' down!" Duncan said.

"Yeah, boys are okay. But a million dollars is way better." Heather said smiling as she threw her sacrifice into the volcano.

"YES. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes." She chanted jumping up and down.

The very sight of her celebrating her victory made his blood boil. He loved her and she left him to burn in a stream of lava. The pain was so intense he wished he had died. No one came to help him.

They abandoned him.

Xxx

"Wow. So that's what Alejandro's brothers are like." Said Bridgette.

"That Jose is even worse than Alejandro." Said LeShawna.

"Who knew the dude was so shook up for what happened with Heather in Hawaii." Said Geoff.

"It was kind of obvious he would have been." Gwen replied.

They all felt a little pity for Alejandro even for what he had done.

"This is obviously a recording of Alejandro's past." Said Aelita.

"How would XANA know about this?" asked Gwen.

"Remember he possessed everyone once. When he possesses a human his spectre blocks all energy coming from the human brain and supplies the body with his own energy. It's what gives him full control of the body as well gives them abilities beyond a human's natural ability. It's possible that while under his control XANA is able see into their memories as the brain records them similar to how a computer does." Said Aelita.

"So in other words he could know everything about them." Said Gwen.

"Indeed. It looks like they are scatted to different places of the simulation and all of them are created from their memories. I believe I have found the nearest other." Said Aelita.

The next person they saw was Courtney.

Xxx

Courtney had no idea how she got here. She was standing in front of the house where she and her parents lived. Looking around she came upon a familiar site. It was when she took Duncan to meet her parents.

Duncan for once had honestly wanted to make a good impression on her parents so they could continue dating which was why he had traded in his regular black shirt with a skull on it for a white shirt and had removed his dog collar and piercings. Courtney could not forget how handsome he looked. She saw herself along with him walking towards the house.

The door was opened and Courtney saw her mother.

She looked like Courtney, except she had some visible signs of looking twenty years older, and her skin was slightly darker. Her hair was jet black and was longer, reaching her shoulders. Aside from that, she resembled Courtney in an eerie way. She was wearing a white summer dress.

"Mom!" Courtney hugged her mother, who returned the gesture. After they were done Courtney stood by Duncan, one her hands intertwined with one of his. "This is Duncan, you know, from Total Drama?"

"Ah yes, the pyromaniac who put that overgrown cook in his place." The woman smiled.

Duncan smiled at that. Courtney nearly choked at watching this scene again. It was a perfect day. Duncan had made a good impression on her parents who were actually at home. Her father was a CEO while her mother was a corporate lawyer which she was hoping to be one day. Her father was a stern man who kept a close look on Duncan.

This was a perfect day. She had gone onto to Total Drama to show the world her leadership skills, win, and become famous. But instead she had been kicked off unfairly when Harold rigged the votes in the first season and then when she was voted off after she earned her place in the second season. And when she expected to be famous instead she met hate mail letters, talks about her with words she would not think of, and criticism about her competitive nature and her treatment of the others.

She could not believe how badly things had gone. The only thing likeable about her was her relationship with Duncan.

"And how could you think it was okay to just leave like that? Because it was not!"

Courtney looked up and saw herself back in the Total Drama plane and in front of her were both herself and Duncan. She remembered this. Duncan had been forced back onto the show. Right now this was the part where she scolded him for leaving.

She noticed the look on his face. It looked he was ready to shout at her and slam her head into the wall. How could she not have noticed this before?

"Abandon me again and it will not be pretty. Now get over here you big lug."

Gwen had just come out of the washroom hoping to slip away without them noticing her but unfortunately the sound of the door caught Duncan's ears and his eyes were now on her while Courtney was hugging him with her back facing Gwen. The Goth suddenly became very uncomfortable with the way he was looking at her. Courtney noticed it as well.

"I'm not really mad. I just missed you."

However it did not look like Duncan was paying attention to her. He was smiling at Gwen.

"Every time I ran from the cops I thought of you."

Courtney's eyes widened at that. She thought he was saying that to her but his eyes were on Gwen. The Goth had noticed that and turned around with an uncomfortable look on her face. Courtney could not believe it.

One second he was back and he had already dumped her.

'I thought you were talking to me but instead you were charming Gwen. Why? Why did you do this?'

That was when more images appeared. They showed Duncan and Courtney during TDA and before World Tour. She noticed they were mostly of them fighting more than they were being happy together. She ranted at him for things like he was looking at another girl or some other things.

He looked tired, unhappy and at other times mad.

'What is this supposed to show me? That I wanted to make Duncan into a better man?'

Now she saw images of Duncan with Gwen. They looked happy together. Courtney felt the bitterness rise in her. How could he look so happy for what he did?

Xxx

"Just what is XANA doing with this? Placing them in their memories?" asked Gwen.

She did not like looking Courtney's memories especially her falling out with Duncan.

"I do not know. Perhaps he knew we would find his Simulation Bubble and wants us to see what he is doing. By showing them the worst parts of their lives." Said Aelita.

"He's torturing them." Said Bridgette with a disgusted look.

"It is possible. He's not bothering to trick them into believing it's a fake. He's making it a nightmare." Said Aelita.

"But why? We're the ones on his hit list." Said LeShawna.

"Perhaps he wishes to taunt us by showing this." Said Aelita.

Another window appeared on the screen.

"I found another one of them."

This time they found Heather. What they saw shocked and surprised them.

Xxx

Heather could not stand looking at what was in front of her.

"Look at her. She's so fat and ugly." Sneered one of the girls pointing at her.

She saw herself but as she was before. When she was ugly and fat and nearly everyone made fun of her for it. This was something she kept hidden from everyone for if they knew she would be mortified. She played the role of the show's biggest bitch was because it showed she was not weak like she had been before.

Just as they had been cruel to her she returned their cruelty. Forgiveness was not something practiced and she never bothered to forgive. She took her revenge on those who had mocked her and enjoyed it. It didn't matter to her how many people, even her own family thought of everything she did was wrong.

It was a tough world and the only way to survive was looking out for number one. The days of her being pushed around were over. The images changed and she found herself on Total Drama Island. How she had treated and used everyone.

Kissing Trent. Reading Gwen's diary. Betraying Lindsey. But the worst was the last one.

"A little something called victory!"Heather shouted with her arms in the air.

Heather slapped the ice cube sending it down the mountain.

"So long, sucker!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Alejandro screamed.

Everyone cheered at her for taking down Alejandro.

"Nice! It's about time someone took 'La Cucaracha' down!" Duncan said.

"Yeah, boys are okay. But a million dollars is way better." Heather said smiling as she threw her sacrifice into the volcano.

"YES. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes." She chanted jumping up and down.

Then her luck changed for the worst. A rabid Ezekiel attacked her and lost the money in the volcano. Then the volcano erupted and Alejandro and was burned nearly from head to toe. She watched him scream in pain but Chris the heartless jerk didn't care.

He stuffed him into a robot to avoid a lawsuit. The worst was that she laughed as she took everything from him. He gave her his heart and she threw it back in his face. And she regretted it.

If she could take it back she would.

Xxx

"Whoa. I cannot believe Heather used to look like that." Gwen said with wide eyes as she saw what Heather looked like when she was younger.

"That's a shocker." Said Geoff nodding in agreement.

"To be honest I am not surprised." Aelita said.

Everyone turned and looked at her.

"What do you mean?" asked LeShawna.

"At my school there is this girl, Elizabeth Delmas or as she preferred to be called Sissy."

"Sissy? Who would want to be called that?" LeShawna snickering.

"She was about as snobbish as Heather and she was always trying to find out what were we hiding. She even blackmailed Ulrich into going out on a date with her. After we shut down the supercomputer Sissy started to hang around us because there was no need to be so secretive anymore and we learned a few things about her. Like that her mother died when she was young." Aelita said.

"Her mother died?" Bridgette asked with a shock look.

Her father passed away when she was young so she could understand.

"Yes. Her father didn't raise her to act so spoiled but he was so busy. She acted like that because she wanted to hide her pain. People act like that because they do not feel it is wrong. So as long as they feel satisfied they don't feel any remorse." Said Aelita.

"Guess I can see your point there." LeShawna looking down.

She never apologized for how she beat up Heather and knocked a tooth in Germany. All she did was try to warn her about Alejandro and she punched her tooth and then got eliminated for being so gullible.

Xxx

Code and DJ snuck back into the studio. As they made their through the hall to the supercomputer room they noticed that the room was locked and Chris was inside along with Kurt, Carlos, and several technicians.

"This is not good. How can we get in there?" asked DJ.

"Hold on." Cody replied.

He pulled out his cell phone.

Xxx

A window appeared on the screen.

"It's Cody." Aelita said.

She clicked on it.

"Cody, are you and DJ in the lab yet?"

"_We have a problem. Chris and the interns are inside. We can't get in and look at the computer with them there._" Said Cody.

Aelita leaned back into her chair.

"Hang on. I might know a way."

She leaned forward and started typing.

"We can't let them know you're there so the only I can do is activate a tower and use a spectre." Said Aelita.

"You can do that?" asked Gwen.

"Essentially yes." Said Aelita.

"How do you create those things anyway?" asked LeShawna.

"Both the supercomputer and XANA are capable of manipulating electricity and other forms of energy which allows him and whoever else is using the computer to create a spectre. Anytime XANA activates a tower he usually uses a spectre that serves as an extension of his consciousness on Earth through the activated tower they usually come through electrical outlets. The supercomputer itself gathers the energy needed to create the spectre while it is directed by the tower. The towers function as a link between Earth and Lyoko to whoever uses them so that it can be limited from causing a disaster. That's why XANA needs to activate a tower because without one he wouldn't be able to direct whatever he is controlling. In this case the spectre I am creating will carry out my orders from the commands I put into the tower I need to activate." Aelita said.

"So that's what those towers are for? To direct the attack?" asked Bridgette.

"Yes. Cody, I am sending a spectre to knock them out. Look inside and see what happens."

Xxx

"I am telling they're there. Wherever they went it was not inside the simulation." Said Robby.

"Great. So in order words they might be dead or in this case in a permanent veggie state." Said Carlos.

"All of them except those six." Said Kurt.

"Check and see if someone tampered with the pods." Said Carlos.

"We've already checked all the pods. Even the ones the six who came back were in. Nothing's out of the ordinary." Robby said.

Little did they know that one of the wires sparked. A spectre slowly oozed out of the wires and struck without warning. All it had do to was touch each of them and they were knocked unconscious.

"What the-" Chris was cut off as the spectre passed through him and knocked him out.

Cody opened and the door and watched as the spectre faded.

"Thanks, Aelita."

Cody and DJ walked to the main console while moving Robby out of the way. He sat down at the computer.

"Okay, Aelita. I'm at the computer." Cody said into his cell phone.

"Good. Now I am setting up a link to the TDR supercomputer. You should see it." Said Aelita.

Cody soon saw a XANA eye appear on the screen. He clicked on it and it showed the link had been setup with the Lyoko supercomputer.

"Okay. The link has been set up." Said Cody.

Xxx

"All right. Now that we have a link to the TDR supercomputer set up I can now create an area to send the contestants to when we destroy the Simulation Bubble." Said Aelita.

"Awesome." Said Geoff.

"Anyone thinks this might be too easy?" asked Gwen.

"What do you mean?" asked LeShawna.

"I mean there's no way XANA cannot know what we're doing. This is obviously a trap and everyone has to be the bait."

"I think I know what XANA plans. He wants me to send you into the bubble using the scanners. Since he controls that world it would be easy to get rid of you there." Said Aelita. "Cody, you and DJ can come back now."

"Okay, we're on our way."

That was when another window opened up just as Cody hung up.

"I found another one of them."

This time they found Duncan.

Xxx

"You PROMISED to change me? God, what the hell Courtney?" Duncan raged.

"They wanted me to break up with you!" Courtney objected. "I had to think of something!"

"And you sure as hell made good on your promise to try." Duncan glared at her. "_Change_ me into the perfect gentleman? Courtney, seriously, you tried to redecorate my room, my locker, my _everything_. I drew the line at you trying to get my piercings pulled out."

"Duncan, can't you just give it a chance?" Courtney pleaded as Duncan paced.

"No. Courtney, you need to decide. Either me, or your 'perfect gentleman' fantasies." Duncan crossed his arms. "I don't ask you to break rules, I even behave when I'm at your house even, but I am not going to restack my whole life just so your parents can approve of me."

"You're making me choose you or my parents? They'd disown me!" Courtney squeaked.

"Then that would show how messed up they are! Disowning you because you date a guy?" Duncan stopped. "Courtney...just go back to them if this is so hard. You're right, I shouldn't make you choose and you shouldn't make me change, we're agreed." He had all but given up on trying to win this argument entirely by now.

Duncan hated remembering that conversation. It's what led to their relationship falling apart. He been here for some time watching his life played out in front of him and now he was going crazy by watching the good times with him and Courtney and what led to it falling apart.

"Where the hell am I and why am I seeing this?" He shouted to the sky. "Is this karma for cheating on her? It's not like she didn't have it coming! She chose the 'perfect gentlemen' and her parents over me!"

He had no idea how he got here and watching his past made him angry. As the scene changed it was back on the plane. When Courtney scolded him for leaving.

"You see? You're just proving my point! One second I'm back and she's bitching at me! Whoever is doing this can let up now!" Duncan shouted.

Of course his shouts were unanswered. Instead they changed to when he kissed Gwen and convinced her he was over Courtney and now wanted her.

"And what is this? Yeah, I admit it; I went out with Gwen to make her jealous. Her seeing me with another girl was great knowing there was a girl who liked me for who I am and could be with me, even if Gwen had doubts." Duncan said. "I know you're watching and you're probably some sick die hard CxD fan who wants to get even with me for dumping her. Well guess what, if you're plan is try to guilt me it won't work. She couldn't stand up to her parents and admit she liked me for who I was."

The scene changed and it was now when Courtney tried to make him apologize.

"Okay, let's hear it."

"Hear?"

"Your apology."

"For?"

"For Gwen!"

"Who?"

"For Gwen!"

Duncan scoffed at the recording in front of him.

"Is that it? Let me guess you're showing me this because you want me to make up some stupid apology and go back to being her little pet gentlemen? Ha! I bend over for no one!"

Little did Duncan know he had confessed his reason while he shouted to anyone that could hear as he tried to get out. The memories were hard for him because despite what he did he still felt guilty for what he had done to Courtney and Gwen.

Xxx

Gwen did not like what she was seeing. For those who were close to her could see tears starting to form in her eyes.

'Is this why you suddenly decided to cheat on Courtney? Some sort of revenge? Was that all that I am to you? Something for you to use to hurt her back for her behaviour towards you?' Gwen thought.

Everyone was silent as they watched this. They did not know what to say. Aelita noticed that the scanner had found several more of the others.

"I have found a few of the others."

The windows popped up showing Katie, Sadie, Tyler, Lindsay, Beth, and Eva. However Gwen was not paying attention to them. What she had seen had caused to rethink her relationship with Duncan.

'We never did have the kind of relationship Duncan and Courtney had or like the one I had with Trent. For the most part it was just hanging out. That date a few weeks ago was the only we had when we were not on the show. I don't understand, Duncan, if you wanted to get even why did you use me? Courtney and I were finally acting friendly. Did you do it because it would break her heart even more?'

Gwen shook her head.

"Aelita, can I step out for some fresh air?"

Aelita nodded.

"I still need time to locate the simulation. I'll call when you're needed."

"Thank you."

With that Gwen walked into the elevator and took it up to the lobby.

"She's pretty shook up." Said Geoff.

"Can you blame her? Duncan only kissed her and decided have a relationship with her so he could get back at Courtney." Said LeShawna.

She sighed.

"I should have been there. Without any friends Gwen had no one to keep her head straight. She was teamed with Heather, Courtney, Sierra, and even though Cody was a nice guy he couldn't have done anything to help her. I saw how Duncan was messing with her head but I couldn't do anything because I was eliminated."

"There was nothing you could have done. I was not happy with what Gwen did but I knew she felt bad. I decided to stay out of it because I knew how bad I felt when I cheated on Geoff. It was better if they worked it out without everyone causing them problems." Bridgette said.

"Yeah, but Duncan and Courtney are different from us, Bridge." Said Geoff.

"I guess, but I was hoping that things could work out."

"Not with them Bridge. With Duncan and Courtney it's always a competition to see who is in control of the relationship. They both wanted to be in control of the relationship and both wanted to change each other. Courtney wanted to make Duncan in a gentlemen and Duncan wanted Courtney to be more like him. They even flirted with others to make each other jealous." Said LeShawna as she looked at the window that showed Duncan with a hard look. "And they were willing break each other's hearts just because none of them could stop competing."

They were all silent as they thought over what she had said. That was until the computer started beeping. Aelita turned around and looked at it.

"I've located the simulation bubble." She smirked as she looked the coordinates. "It's in the Ice Sector. That's the third time XANA has placed one there."

"So now what?" asked Geoff.

"Well, all I have to do is use my creativity to destroy it and with the link set up everyone will be back in the TDR simulation. They'll just have to say the usual password to exit the simulation."

"Well, they'll be happy about that. Having to say those words will make them want to wash out their mouths." Geoff chuckled.

Xxx

Gwen was crouched at the edge of the river underneath the bridge that led to the entrance of the factory. Thinking over what Duncan had shouted when he was frustrated with seeing his life played out on front of him she shouldn't have been surprised. The relationship had been laid back and Gwen did not complain about it to him since she did not want to remind him of Courtney. Sometime she wished she had because she had secretly been frustrated with how laid back it had been.

They never did anything special and he did not share her passion for art.

'I should have been asking him why he suddenly was so interested in me. I didn't and I lost my friendship with Courtney. And for what? Just so he could get back at her?'

Gwen sighed as she looked at her reflection in the water.

'I messed up. I messed up big time.'

It seems that being in a relationship with anyone on this show brought out the worst in her as she thought about what happened with Trent and betraying Courtney.

"Gwen?"

She turned around and saw Cody a few yards away. He slowly made his way over to her and sat down beside her.

"Cody. What are you doing here?"

Cody hesitated to speak.

"I heard . . . about what Duncan said."

Gwen showed no reaction. She did just continued to look at her reflection in the river.

"The others told you."

Cody nodded.

"You're not here to hit on me are you?"

Cody looked embarrassed at that question.

"No! Of course not! I came to make you feel better. I figured you would need someone to talk to."

Gwen was silent before she turned and looked at him.

"That'd be nice."

Cody smiled.

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised by his reason. I mean, he was all for Courtney since they met on the island and then suddenly he decided to go out with me. I should have thought about it but I didn't. I did have a small crush on him but I didn't act on it because he was with Courtney. And then when he kissed me I was so shocked I couldn't feel anything. I mean, I did feel guilty but I liked it." Gwen explained. "Yeah, I pretty much let my feelings take out my common sense and look where it got me."

She sighed and looked down.

"Sierra was right. I let myself become the 'New Heather'."

"That's not true." Cody spoke up.

"Yeah, and what makes you say that?" Gwen asked looking at him.

"Because you regret what you've done. Heather has never regretted anything she has done no matter how bad it was and Sierra was using that as an excuse to get rid of you so she could have me." Cody explained. "Besides it was Duncan who started it all. I mean, Courtney promised her parents to change him and he took that as a betrayal and made her choose him or the 'perfect gentlemen'. She chose to change him and he cheated on her with you to get even. Those two don't regret hurting each other because they don't want to look weak but you do. You feel bad about it."

Gwen had a thoughtful look on her face. After a few moments she turned and smiled at Cody.

"Thanks Cody."

Cody smiled back.

"Gwen! Cody!"

They both stood up and saw Bridgette waving at them.

"We got to go! There's an activated tower!"

Gwen and Cody got up and ran back in.

Xxx

"I was afraid of this. XANA knows we've located his Simulation Bubble so now he's launched an attack. The tower is in the Forest Sector." Aelita said.

"So what now?" asked DJ.

"One thing is that we must know what XANA's attack is and if it requires a Return to the Past. If it does its imperative that we rescue those contestants before I deactivate the tower."

"Why?" asked Geoff.

"Because if a Return to the Past is activated before they are out they could be lost forever. The Return not only returns to things to the way they were in the real world before the attack started it also resets Lyoko and anything that is not saved will be deleted."

"The Simulation Bubble and the others." LeShawna with wide eyes.

Aelita nodded.

"They could very well be gone for good when we go back in time."

Everyone's eyes widened.

"We have to get them out!" Bridgette said.

"That's the plan. But I need to know what the attack is." Said Aelita.

That was when the computer started beeping.

"What's that?" asked Cody.

"It's Jeremy's warning system. He created it to scan for any strange activity that could be seen as a XANA attack." Aelita said turning back to the screen.

A window appeared showing a wrecking ball heading for the studio. Aelita's eyes widened.

"There's a wrecking ball heading for the studio."

"What?" Nearly everyone said.

"So now we know XANA's plan. If the wrecking ball destroys the studio with everyone inside they're dead. If we go back to the past with them in the simulation bubble they're dead." Aelita said.

"So what do we do?" asked Gwen.

"There might be a way to destroy the simulation. If I can modify one of your weapons with a virus and that person goes inside the simulation and finds its core they can save everyone. I could destroy it after I deactivate the tower but no doubt XANA will have the tower heavily guarded." Said Aelita.

Gwen stepped forward.

"I'll go."

"What?" LeShawna, Bridgette, and Cody said.

"I can go in and find that core."

"Are you crazy, girl?" asked LeShawna.

"Think about it. LeShawna, your super strength will be needed on Lyoko, Geoff, you and Bridgette can fight best in the forest sector because of all the water. DJ's barriers can keep Aelita safe and Cody's time freeze will be needed too." Said Gwen.

"No way! You can't go in there alone!" Bridgette objected.

"She's right. You need someone to go with you." Said DJ.

"Listen to them, girl. If you think I am letting you go into that scanner alone you better be ready for me to smack some sense into your head." LeShawna said while pointing her finger straight at Gwen.

"I'll go with her." Said Cody.

"What about on Lyoko?" asked Gwen.

"Everyone can handle the monsters and generals. It's in the simulation that'll be trouble. Don't you remember Aelita said that XANA controls everything inside? You need someone to go with you." Cody raised his voice.

Gwen sighed. She was not going to win this.

"All right. You can come with me." She turned to Aelita. "Can you modify both of our weapons?"

Aelita nodded.

"I'll have them ready by the time you are in the scanner."

Xxx

Everyone was now waiting at the scanners while Aelita was finishing the modifications. Adjusting the head phones so she could speak she looked at them through the camera.

"Okay, the modifications are now finished. Gwen and Cody will have their weapons inside the simulation bubble when they are virtualized."

"Good luck you two." LeShawna said solemnly.

She high fived Cody and hugged Gwen tightly. Gwen weakly hugged her back. Bridgette walked up and hugged both of them quickly while hiding a few tears falling from her face. Gwen and DJ did their handshake while Cody gave him a high five.

The elevator doors opened and Aelita stepped in.

"The automatic virtualization sequence has been activated. I thought I should be here to wish both of you luck as well."

Gwen and Cody smiled.

"Thanks. That means a lot." Gwen replied.

She and Aelita shook hands and then Gwen stepped into the scanner. Cody did the same and stepped into another scanner. Everyone watched as the scanner doors closed and they were virtualized into XANA's virtual Earth.

"You think they'll make it?" asked DJ.

"Of course they will. Those two will make it out and bring everyone home." Said LeShawna.

"In the meantime we should make sure everyone else has a body to return to." Aelita said turning to face them.

They all nodded.

"I'll send all of you and activate the automatic virtualization sequence to virtualize myself."

"Right, we got a tower to shut down." Said DJ.

"And a world to save." Said Geoff.

"Let's go. No one messes with my friends." Said LeShawna cracking her knuckles.


	20. Episode 19: Into the Fire Sea

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 19

Somewhere in the digital universe XANA stood in a dark room surrounded by hundreds of screens showing different images. Even though his eyes were closed he could still see everything that was happening on Lyoko, the Network, and in the virtual Earth had he had created. His eyes opened suddenly and he smirked.

"Someone is there."

A screen appeared Aelita along with her warriors being virtualized into the Forest Sector of Lyoko.

"Aelita. She and the others have arrived."

"So do we move forward and attack?" Shadow asked appearing in the room.

XANA closed his eyes.

"Not yet."

Shadow had a puzzled look on his face.

"If we stop them from reaching the tower they'll never save them."

"Look, Shadow. Who do you see missing from the group?" XANA asked with his eyes still closed.

Shadow looked at the screen.

"The spell caster and kid. They must be in the lab."

"Wrong."

XANA opened his eyes as a new screen appeared. Gwen and Cody landed in the simulation bubble.

"How did they get there?" Shadow asked with an alarmed look.

"No doubt from the notes Jeremy left on how to be virtualized into a Simulation Bubble. They're here to destroy it if Aelita fails to reach it after she deactivates the tower."

"We should get rid of them before they have a chance."

XANA turned and looked over his shoulder.

"You're job is to rendezvous with Ryder and Yuki and cut off Aelita in the Forest Sector. Do not bother with whoever is in the simulation."

"What if they free them?"

"It's of little importance if they do. They won't after they know what they have to do to free them."

XANA smirked at that.

"In the meantime I can continue with the experiment."

Xxx

Gwen and Cody landed on their feet. Looking down at themselves they saw they looked the same as they did in the real world. But the holster for Gwen's scythe was still attached to her left leg and Cody's guns were still with him. To test it Gwen pulled out her rod and it extended into her scythe.

"Well, at least we won't be defenceless."

"So where are we?" asked Cody.

They looked around and found themselves in the city. However the sky was grey and a mist covered the city.

"This is it? This is the virtual earth? I don't see anyone." Cody said looking around.

"Would you prefer company? I am willing to provide."Said a familiar voice.

They turned and saw XANA sitting on a bench. He was dressed in more casual clothes, a black shirt with his Eye on it, a dark red zip up hooded pullover which was unzipped, black jeans and black sneakers.

"Isn't that-"Cody started.

"XANA!" Gwen glared.

He was smirking at their reaction.

"So you have entered my simulation."

"Why are you here?" Gwen demanded with a glare.

"I've come in person just to see how you were doing." XANA said standing up. "This is my world. I know whoever enters it whether they've been created by me or not.

"Why did you capture everyone but us? We're your enemies." Cody spoke up.

"An experiment. Have you ever had memories that were so dark, depressing, and sad that you would have nightmares for nearly all of your life? That seeing them over and over again would cause you to snap mentally? Your fellow cast mates have such interesting pasts. I am sure you would agree with that." XANA replied with a smirk.

"You're torturing them." Gwen stated with a glare.

"But now you know the truth of why several of them act the way they do. Does that change your previous perspective of them? Even the ones that caused you both such grief." XANA's smirk slightly widened. "Now you know why the delinquent suddenly chose you and dumped the other one. Was it heart breaking to know you were a tool of revenge?"

Gwen's glared deepened. If looks could kill XANA would be dead on the spot.

"I figured you would be grateful to know the truth now than later. You humans can such fascinating sometimes. When you feel someone has wronged you believe it is your right to wrong them back. One would think that from how many times it has been repeated the lesson would sink in by now." XANA shrugged.

"It doesn't matter what they did. They don't deserve this." Cody said with a glare.

He pulled out his guns and pointed them at XANA.

"Let them go."

XANA however held a smirk, undisturbed by the weapons pointed at him.

"Go ahead and shoot if you wish, Cody. It won't harm me. But if you fire you'll waste what is needed to free your friends."

Cody grunted and put his guns away.

"Don't worry, Cody. You'll have your chance to blow his head off. In the meantime tell us where you're holding them." Gwen said holding her scythe.

"Well, if you're that determined just go to the studio." XANA replied.

"The studio?" Gwen questioned.

"Yes. The studio where the current season you are part of is being broadcasted from. Should be simple to remember where it." XANA said with a casual smirk. "You plan to destroy the simulation from the inside right? A task more difficult to do than on the outside. I control everything here."

Gwen glared as she lowered her scythe.

"Come on, Cody."

"Gwen, should we just leave with him..."

"We don't have time. There's a wrecking ball attacking the studio. We can deal with him later." Gwen said as she gave one last glare at XANA.

She turned around and started running with Cody running to catch up with her.

"So focused to save them they forget that I control this world. Aw, well, if they want to see what awaits them who am I to stop them?" XANA asked out loud.

He vanished in a puff of black smoke.

Xxx

As soon as everyone was virtualized they began to sprint through the forest of Lyoko.

"Anyone notice how we're not under attack?" asked Geoff.

"They must be at the tower." Aelita answered.

That was when she sat it. "There!"

They all stopped to see the tower. Sure enough it glowing red showing it was under XANA's control. And it was surrounded by monsters.

"Is it me or are there . . ." DJ started.

"Forty five monsters." Bridgette finished with a shock look.

Indeed, there were about forty five monsters standing between them and the tower. Spiderlings scuttled around the tower, while Megatanks stood still with their shells closed. Krabs and Pyramids strolled around the tower keeping a close eye out. Tarantulas sat while keeping their eyes open while Hornets hovered above them.

Geoff gaped at the site. "Woah."

That was when a Spiderling saw them. Standing motionless for a moment it moved towards them charging its lasers. At the same time the other monsters turned towards them as if they all saw them at the same time.

"Looks like we have to do this the hard way!" LeShawna said pulling out her hammer.

The group jumped into the fight as the first lasers were fired. DJ quickly created a barrier that blocked the lasers. Bridgette came up beside him.

"We need a plan!"

"Everyone stay behind me as I get us as close as I can!" DJ replied.

Everyone nodded staying behind him. Except a Megatank opened its shell and fired its laser which shattered the barrier.

"So much for that." Geoff pulled out his chakrams and blocked two incoming lasers.

He quickly rolled to the one side flinging one of his weapons with a flick of his wrist. The bladed disk whirled towards the monsters, slicing through a Spiderling before coming back to him. On its way back it sliced a Hornet in two before it landed back in Geoff's hand. Aelita side-stepped a laser then ducked under another.

Holding up her hand she hurled a pink sphere at a Spiderling, destroying it instantly. LeShawna ran forward and raised her hammer as she jumped towards a Krab. The hammer smashed the Krab just as it fired at her.

"Ah!" LeShawna landed hard on her back, with her torso sparkling from the hit.

Bridgette stood over her, blocking lasers with her swords. "Are you all right?"

LeShawna nodded and got to her feet. "I'm fine. Just might be a bit harder than I thought."

Aelita grunted as a laser blast struck her left leg. She gritted her teeth and fired an energy field at the Krab that hit her. The orb hit the Krab and pink energy covered it for a second before it blew up. She smirked but dove to the ground as another laser fired at her.

Bridgette formed her swords into a surf board and jumped onto it. She flew into the air attracting fire from both air and ground monsters. That was when Hornets flew at her in an attempt to surround her while nearly half the ground monsters moved away from the tower.

"What's going on?" LeShawna shouted.

"I don't know." Geoff ducked under a laser and threw his chakram but the Spiderling scuttled out of the way. "It looks like they're all going after Bridge! We got to help her!"

Bridgette desperately tried to keep dodging laser fire that was coming at her from all directions. That was when a laser struck her board and it split back in two swords. She landed on the ground hard. Cursing under her breath she grabbed both swords quickly as more lasers came towards her.

She jumped avoiding a barrage of lasers from a Tarantula only for several Spiderlings to be waiting for her. She was hit in the chest which knocked her back a few feet. She landed on her feet heavily, leaving a small skid mark. Before she could even catch her breath more lasers came at her.

She ducked and concentrated. Her swords glowed as she swung them unleashing her energy wave that destroyed a Krab and a few Hornets.

"This is crazy." Bridgette muttered to herself. "I can't take them all out and there's no river or pond I can use to fight back."

Taking cover behind a tree she watched as the monsters marched towards her. That was when she got an idea.

"Maybe I don't have to."

Running out from behind the tree she leaped into the air, landing on top of a nearby Krab before any of the monster could fire on her.

"Come on! Is that the best you can do? Do any of you guys know how to aim? Shoot me!" Bridgette shouted waving her hands at them.

A Megatank opened its shell and fired at her. She jumped as the blast hit the Krab. The unfortunate monster was split in half before exploding. While in the air Bridgette threw on her swords into the Megatank's Eye destroying it.

Bridgette landed on her feet with a smile. Of course the victory was short lived as the remaining monsters ganged up on her.

"Oh great."

Xxx

Gwen and Cody stood outside the Total Drama studio. It looked exactly like the one in the real world.

"So the others are here but why?" asked Cody.

"I don't know." Gwen replied.

She pulled out a small computer.

"Aelita gave this to us when she modified our weapons. It can show us where to find the core of the Simulation Bubble." The device was pointing inside the studio. "It's in there."

"This place sure looks bigger on the inside. Aelita showed me a picture of the last couple Simulation Bubbles. This is place is a lot bigger than it looks on the outside." Cody noted.

Their conversation was cut off by a familiar voice.

"And now the test begins."

XANA appeared out of a cloud of black smoke. Gwen swung her scythe and it sliced through him. XANA's smirk grew as he vanished back into the black smoke.

"Do you not remember? I control everything here." XANA's voice echoed from all around them.

Cody pulled out his guns and looked around. Both of them stood back to back waiting for XANA to make his next move. Suddenly four figures appeared out a puff of black smoke.

"Aren't those . . ." Cody stared at them.

"Chris, Chef along with Carlos and Kurt."

Indeed, surrounding them were exact replicas of Chris, Chef, Carlos, and Kurt.

"Is this the best you can do, XANA? Send a couple of copies to fight us?" Gwen asked loudly.

XANA chuckled.

"Why I believe you are right, Gwen. I can do better."

That was the four clones changed. Their hair turned white, coal black metal covered their bodies, their eyes turned red and the Eye of XANA was on their forehead.

"You know you're my dream girl, Gwen, but you just had to open you're big mouth." Cody complained.

Chris was the first to attack. He lunged at them with a punch which they dodged and Gwen swung her scythe down to cut off the arm. It slammed into the armor and led out a ringing sound.

"It's not even scratched!" Gwen muttered.

"Does this satisfy you, Gwen? There's plenty more waiting. You have plenty of time since none of you are leaving here." XANA spoke.

Gwen grunted as the Chris clone threw another punch at her. She dodged and tried to behead him with her scythe. Once again her scythe failed to cut through the armor and the clone sent a fist into her face. She fell back with a hand on her face.

"Gwen!" Cody pulled out his guns and shot the Chris clone in the head.

It blew up and black smoke came out as it collapsed. However the other three clones charged at them. Cody blasted them with his guns.

"That was too easy."

"And you criticize me for opening my mouth?" Gwen glared at him.

Cody chuckled weakly.

"Come on. We need to find the others. They might be in the dorms."

Xxx

DJ held up another barrier that blocked more incoming lasers. Any laser that hit it was sent harmlessly away. LeShawna ran forward smashing two Spiderlings while Aelita fired her Plasma beam that took out a Tarantula. Geoff was using his chakrams to blocking laser blasts.

"Guys!" He shouted over the volume of the battle. "I can't get to Bridgette to help her!"

"It's no use worrying about her now!" LeShawna called back while a laser struck her in the shoulder. "We got to keep fighting and get to that tower!"

"You guys make a break for it! I'll cover you for you!" DJ yelled.

Geoff sent one of his chakrams into the nearest Hornet. It sliced through the flying monster cleanly before returning to his hand.

"Dudes, we're cut off!"

"We have to try." Aelita said.

DJ expanded his barrier and tried to focus the enemy's attention on him.

"Come and get me!"

Bridgette was having a much worse time. She shouted from being hit in the chest by a Spiderling.

"What's the deal today? They're worse than the craziest Total Drama fans!"

She spotted the last two Megatanks coming at her.

"This is ridiculous."

She took a quick glance at the monsters that surrounded her and noticed an opening. Swinging her sword and unleashing an energy wave she easily destroyed a Pyramid that got in her way she jumped over the explosion and took off running. Panting as she ran she looked over her shoulder and noticed that the monsters were now following her.

"Maybe this'll help the others get to the tower."

She kept running and avoiding more lasers. Good thing for she destroyed the last couple of Hornets attacking her. With only one sword left she was stuck to running since she lost the other one earlier. She looked ahead and saw a river.

That's when she got an idea. She quickened her pace and jumped over the river. Turning back to face the hoard of monsters she held her sword out. The monsters slowed their pace as they neared, probably wondering why she had stopped.

'Come on guys. Keep on coming.'

The monsters stopped on the other side of the river. Bridgette smirked.

'Perfect.'

Her wave like tattoos began to glow brightly. That was when it happened. Before the monsters knew what happened a large wave of water traveled down the river and slammed into them. Monsters that were small such as Spiderlings were easily sent into the void along with Krabs and Pyramids after being knocked off their feet by the force of the wave while the Megatanks were the last ones sent rolling off into the void.

Bridgette sighed as she collapsed on her knees.

"That was tough. But I better get back now."

Xxx

"Let me out of here!" Alejandro screamed to the sky. "I know someone is there and you're probably a sick freak whose enjoying this but let me out and I promise you I won't kill you when I find a way out!"

"Such anger. Do you hate seeing your past so much?" A voice asked.

Alejandro turned around and his eyes widened.

"You're . . ."

Standing a few feet from him was the man who healed him. He looked the same as before, dressed in a white suit with a white hat.

"Alejandro, how nice it is to see you again."

"You. I know you." Alejandro spoke with wide eyes as he pointed at the man. "You're the one who healed me."

"Have you enjoyed being free of that shell they trapped you in?" Xavier maintained the casual smirk he had when they first met.

"Is this you're doing? You brought me here!" Alejandro pointed an accusing finger at him.

"Me? If I recall it was you who installed the computer chip into the TDR computer like I asked you to."

"What?"

"Don't you remember? In exchange for healing your burns, your broken bones, and restoring your lost hair you would install a computer chip I gave you into the TDR computer." Xavier grinned as Alejandro's eyes widened. "Are you only now remembering it?"

"That can't be . . . Why have you done this? How did you manage this? You put me into a live movie of the worst moments of my life!" Alejandro glared even deeper. "I never agreed to this."

"Of course you didn't. But then again this is had nothing to do with it. That was a simple trade; I heal you and you take the computer chip I give and install it into the TDR computer. Anything that happens after that is irrelevant since the trade was already done." Xavier shook his head as if he was disappointed.

"So you put me in here? Why?" Alejandro shook with anger.

"Intellectual curiosity at first. You and the others were placed here so I could study the reactions of seeing the worst moments of your life." Xavier's smirk widened a bit. "Do you wish to be free?"

"What kind of dumb question is that? Of course I want out!"

"Then you have but one task to do."

"Why should I help you? You put me here!"

"I was honest in our previous trade and you gained your body back. Like I said you were put here after our trade was finished."

Alejandro threw him a dark glare as he looked down at the ground with a clenched fist.

"All right. You have a deal."

"Excellent. All you have to do is wait for two intruders to enter this place and incapacitate them."

"That's it? I don't have to do anything else." asked Alejandro.

"That's all."

"All right. I'll do it."

Xxx

"Take this!"

LeShawna smashed a Tarantula to pieces with her hammer. They had finally reduced the amount of monsters to a number where they could handle them easily.

"Plasma Beam!"

Aelita's attack vaporized several of the last few monsters that were guarding the tower. Geoff put his weapons away as he ran a hand through his hair.

"That was rough."

"I better hurry and shut down the tower. But just in case." Aelita held up her wrist computer tapped a few commands. "I've activated the extra life program. Our life points should be replenished in a few minutes."

"Cool." DJ held up a thumb.

"Wait! What about Bridgette?" Geoff looked up.

"Guys!"

Everyone turned around and saw Bridgette running towards them

"Bridge!" Geoff ran forward and hugged the girl.

Bridgette laughed. "Nice to see you too, Geoff."

"What happened?" Geoff asked breaking away.

"I found a river and used it to knock the monsters into the Digital Sea."

"That's my girl!" Geoff said with an arm around Bridgette's shoulder.

The surfer girl smiled from her boyfriend's praise. That was when her eyes widened.

"Look out!"

She pushed Geoff out of the way just as a wave of lightning slammed into her.

"Bridge!" Geoff's eyes widened as Bridgette's form was vaporized from Lyoko.

Xxx

Bridgette grunted as she fell out of the scanner, breathing heavily. Shaking her head from the disorientation of being devirtualized she got up and headed for the elevator.

Xxx

Everyone turned and saw a humanoid figure emerge from the tower with a satisfied smirk.

"You didn't think it was over already did you?"

"Ryder!" Geoff glared at him, pulling out his charkrams.

He put them together and they combined to form his axe. "You made a big mistake there. No one vaporizes my girl and gets away with it."

Ryder simply scoffed. "She was going to be devirtualized sooner or later anyway. Her life points were down to twenty when she finished off those monsters and it would have taken too long for her to replenish. No need to waste time going easy on a weakling."

Geoff growled. "Okay, no more Mr. Nice Guy. DJ, get Aelita to the tower. I'll deal with this guy."

Ryder pulled out his sword and red electricity traveled up the blade. "None of you will be getting to the tower."

He swung his sword and unleashed a wave of red lightning.

Xxx

Gwen and Cody found themselves in the dorm.

"So what they're in their rooms?" Cody asked.

Gwen shrugged. "I guess. Here's Katie's room. We'll start getting her out first."

Cody reached for the door and opened it. What they saw inside was not Katie's room. They walked inside and found themselves in a dark forest.

"Where are we?" Gwen looked around.

"I don't know. I didn't look around much when Aelita found the others. Not a smart thing, I admit." Cody rubbed the back of his head. "So where's Katie?"

Gwen shrugged but then a scream answered Cody's question.

"I'm guessing that way." She turned and looked at Cody. "Stay here and keep the door open. We don't know if we can make it back if the both of us go. I'll find Katie and get her back."

Cody nodded even though he didn't want to let her go alone. Gwen took off, sprinting into the forest. She found a girl that looked like a much younger Katie crying on a rock.

"Katie?"

The crying girl looked up and saw Gwen.

"Gwen!"

She got and ran to her. Gwen was almost knocked off her feet as the girl tackled her with a hug.

"Oh, I'm so glad to see you!" Katie buried her head in Gwen's shoulder.

Gwen patted her back awkwardly. "Yeah, nice to see you, too. What is this place?"

Katie pulled back. "I don't know. It looks like the forest I was lost in when I was a kid. It was so scary because I was lost for about six hours and it got dark before they found me."

Katie had more tears coming down her face.

Gwen put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down. "It's all right, Katie. We're going now. Cody's waiting for us at the entrance. Just follow me."

Katie nodded as she followed Gwen. To keep her calm the Goth walked slowly back to where she left Cody.

"So where is everyone? Where's Sadie? Is she all right?" Katie was full of questions.

"She should be fine. Just wait for us to be out of here and I'll try to explain." Gwen honestly had no idea on how to answer her questions.

That was when Cody and the entrance came into view.

"Gwen! Katie!" The boy waved his hands.

"Hi, Cody!" Katie waved back with a smile at seeing someone friendly.

They walked out and to Katie's shock she found herself to be back in the hall of the dorm at the studio. She looked down as her form shimmered and she was back to her normal self.

"This is weird. I was in a forest but now I'm back at the studio. Is Chris doing this?"

"Trust me, I wish it was just Chris." Cody muttered.

Katie had a questioning look on her face at that. "What do you mean?"

Gwen decided to intervene. "Look I'd look to let you in on what's going on but we got to help the others. They're all in some kind of recording of the worst moments of their lives, kind of like how you were back in that forest you got lost in when you were a kid. We need to get them out and fast."

"Sadie's in trouble! We got to help!" Katie was about ready to run off to Sadie's room when Gwen grabbed her shoulders.

"And we will. But we got to help everyone else too. If you run off alone there's a chance you'll be in danger from something else. This isn't the studio; it's a digital copy of it so anything can be some kind of trap. You can't help Sadie if you fall into another trap."

Katie stopped struggling as Gwen calmed her down.

"We're going after Beth next, her room's the closest. Stay with us and keep an eye out for anything weird, okay?"

Katie nodded and Gwen smiled.

"Don't worry; we'll save Sadie and everyone."

The three now walked over to the door that had Beth's name on it. Gwen reached and opened the door.

Xxx

Geoff swung his axe which Ryder blocked with his sword. Both combatants backed away from each other, neither had inflicted any harm on each other so far. Aelita took the chance to run for the tower but Ryder caught her running at the corner of his sight.

"Leaving so soon? How rude." He swung his sword and unleashed a stream of lightning at her.

Aelita jumped back and the attack missed her. Geoff ran and swung his axe at Ryder's neck but he blocked with his sword. Ryder pushed the axe away and retaliated with a strike of his own that managed to cut Geoff's arm. The cut was visible for a second before healing.

Geoff gripped his axe and swung at Ryder, knocking his sword out of his hand that flew and embedded itself in a tree. Ryder had a look of surprise on his face as he stood defenceless. Geoff smirked.

"Bad guy always looses, man. You should run now."

Ryder however had other ideas. Holding his hand a disk made of electricity came to life.

"Spark Disk!"

He threw it before Geoff could react and it sliced through his body before he could react.

Xxx

Back on Earth the scanner Geoff had been in spat him out.

Xxx

"Big mistake, boy!"

LeShawna ran forward with her hammer but Ryder vanished in a flash of red light before the hammer hit him.

"Chicken!" LeShawna growled.

Aelita took the chance and ran into the tower.

"Looks like we saved the studio." DJ said.

"But now we have to save the others." LeShawna replied.

Aelita traveled to the upper platform and placed her hand on the screen.

**Aelita**

**Code: Lyoko**

Xxx

Back in the real world the wrecking ball had destroyed about half the studio but luckily the supercomputer room where the pods were had not been damaged. Bridgette and Geoff sighed in relief.

"That's one crisis averted." Bridgette looked at Geoff.

Aelita stepped out of the tower.

"Bridgette, how are Gwen and Cody doing?"

"They're still in the bubble but they found Katie and now they're going after Beth."

Aelita turned to LeShawna and DJ.

"We have to go now. We should get to the bubble. I can destroy it now that the studio is safe."

"Let's go." LeShawna nodded.

Xxx

Gwen, Cody, and Katie found themselves at what looked like a farm.

"Where are we?" Gwen looked around.

"I think we're at Beth's home. She said she grew up on a farm." Cody replied.

"That can't be bad right? I mean what could have been so bad that happened in her own home?" Katie asked.

A scream was heard.

"I guess we'll find out." Gwen sighed as they walked in.

They found Beth covered in worms, screaming to get them off. Like Katie Beth looked younger, like she was six years old.

"Beth! Calm down! They're just worms!" Gwen was at her side.

"Get them off! Get them off!"

Cody and Katie were at her side along with Gwen. Gwen and Cody helped get the worms off got her to her feet. Her form shimmered and Beth was now back to her normal age again.

"Are you okay?" Cody asked.

"I don't know. The last thing I remember was going into the pod and then I woke up in my home. I was in the kitchen when I accidently broke the jar of worms my dad uses for fishing and they were all over me." Beth explained.

"This happened to you before, right?" asked Cody.

Beth had a puzzled look. "Yeah, when I was six."

"Beth, the same thing happened to me. I went into the pod and found myself back in the dark forest I was lost in when I was a kid." Katie said.

"What's going on?" Beth asked. "What is Chris doing?"

"I'd like to explain but I'd prefer when we have found everybody." Gwen broke up the conversation. "We need to get out of here."

They walked out Beth's house and out the door leading back to the hall.

"We're back in the studio?" Beth looked around with puzzled look.

"Not really. Gwen and Cody say it's a digital copy." Katie explained.

"Right and everyone's trapped in their memories like you two were. We need to get them out." Gwen explained as they walked over to the next door.

"Eva. This might be easy. Eva's tough, what kind of bad memories could she have?" Cody smirked.

Gwen opened the door and they walked inside. When they came out they found themselves in a small village.

"What is this place?" Katie wondered.

"This must be Eva's home town. Eva came from a small village in Eastern Europe." Gwen explained.

They hadn't even turned one corner before they came upon a sight.

Eva, smaller than she had been before they met her being beaten up by several others her age, all bigger and stronger than her. She was curled up on her side as one kicked her in the stomach.

Cody hadn't even hesitated in raising his gun and doing away with the virtual versions of Eva's friends-he didn't want them to come back as fighters like Chris, Chef, Kurt, and Carlos had. Eva blinked and slowly stood up.

"Eva?" Gwen looked over the smaller, weaker girl.

"Gwen?" Eva asked as her image shimmered, and suddenly she was back to her normal, strong self.

"What was that?" Beth asked.

"I...I used to be bullied a lot when I was thirteen, I was always the smallest," Eva looked down in shame. "I got sick of it so I...I kept on lifting weights since well...what you just saw."

"Eva, you need to come with us, we're all getting out of here but we have to get the others out of here." Gwen said.

"Alright, anywhere is better than here." Eva nodded. "But how'd you get those guns?"

"Uh...you won't have to worry about that after this is all over." Cody said. "I'd like to explain it to you, but I hate repeating myself and I'd prefer it if everybody was here instead."

"So who's next?" Katie asked.

"Courtney," Gwen replied.

"I've always wondered what could make her break down." Eva muttered.

The group moved on to the next room.

Xxx

Courtney was trying to grab the toy that had fallen through the grate. Nearby, Tommy was nursing a nasty scrape on his leg.

"I...can't...reach..." Courtney strained. She did not even reach a third of the way to the toy that her friend had dropped.

"Let's just go get somebody to help us." Tommy said, but Courtney wouldn't hear of it.

"Nah, they'll just do what anybody can do, open this thing up, climb down themselves, and climb back up. It's easy." Courtney pulled the cover off of the hole.

"Courtney, this is seriously a bad idea!" Tommy protested.

"Relax, I'll only be down there for ten seconds." Courtney began to climb down.

What she hadn't known that day was that several miles away, a large amount of rain water was being drained into the sewers. She was barely half way down when she heard what sounded like static for a bit. She looked around as it grew to a roar. "T-t-tommy?"

"Courtney! Get back up here!" Tommy shouted, realizing just what was happening when the tide hit Courtney, washing her and the toy away.

Courtney screamed, but then was forced underwater and hit the murky ground. She panicked, unable to see in the dirty green water, and tried to find her way back up, but she was lost in the darkness and drowning.

She remembered that this was when she blacked out...but instead something else happened.

Several hands shot down and grabbed a hold of her, dragging her back up. She had exited the sewers and had come out into a river when her saviours had found her. She coughed up water and looked up to see her fellow competitors from Total Drama Reality. "You-you're here?" She coughed again, and then vomited up something she had swallowed.

Patting her back, Gwen said. "Yeah, and we knew you'd need some help."

"So...that's where the green jello came from then?" Cody pointed out how the water dripping out of the sewer pipe was tinged green.

Courtney nodded, tears pouring down her face as she emptied her stomach.

"Come on, let's get you up." Gwen and Eva helped Courtney walk away from the river.

"How are you feeling?" Katie asked as they set Courtney down.

"Better...but why..." She looked down at herself as her form shimmered, and suddenly she was her young adult self again, no longer covered in green sludge and not feeling sick.

"We're stuck in a simulation; it's pretty much showing us the worst parts of our lives." Cody explained. "Come on, we have to get Heather and Sierra, they're the only ones left in this part."

Courtney looked back at the source of a noise. Tommy shouting for help, a car pulling up and Courtney's Uncle getting out and diving in to try and find Courtney-he had found her in the shallows of the river after ten minutes of searching. "I...yeah, let's just go."

They left Courtney's simulation, and went to the next one. They walked over to Heather's door. Gwen opened the door.

Xxx

They found themselves in the halls of what looked like a school. There were lockers, posters, and classrooms with doors open.

"Where is this?" asked Beth.

"Heather's school when she was younger." Gwen said as she saw the recordings.

That was when they heard laughter.

"Look at her."

"So fat."

"And ugly."

They walked around the corner of the hall and found a bunch of girls that looked snooty laughing and pointing at . . .

"Heather?" Eva, Katie, Courtney, and Beth could not even believe they were seeing Heather.

Heather did not even resemble her current self as she was fat and pimply with braces on her teeth. She had a miserable look on her face as the girls passed by continuing to insult her. She remembered this day and every other day at school before she got her gorgeous body and won the election for Student Presidency. She couldn't stand reliving this nightmare.

That was when a pair of boots stopped in front of her. She looked up and her eyes widened.

"Gwen?"

"Hi, Heather." Gwen kept her face neutral as she looked down at the pre-teen version of her enemy.

"Dude, this is what you looked like before?" Cody said.

"Before? Oh...wait, I remember...we were in the pods..." Heather sniffed.

"Heather, listen to me. None of this is real, it is all a simulation. We're still in the pods, all of us; you just have to wake up." Gwen said gently. "None of this is real, this was all years ago."

She kept a gentle yet firm voice as she knelt down in front of Heather.

"I..yeah...it was..."

"So this was all why you act like such a...you know?" Beth asked.

Heather sniffed again, wiping away her tears. "I was sick of being weak and ugly. After I...after I got better-." As she spoke, her image shimmered, beginning at her feet and working her way up. "I never wanted to go back to being picked on...at first it was just to stay where I was...but then I got so into it...it just became natural." Slowly, inch by inch as she spoke, the preteen girl was replaced by the tall, attractive young adult Heather was today.

She looked and gasped in happiness at being back to normal.

"We have to go now. We still need to get Sierra out before we got after the others." Gwen said turning around.

Heather was hesitant to come since now everyone knew her deepest secret. Cody smiled at her gestured her to follow them. She followed them and they were back in the hall.

Xxx

Aelita, LeShawna and DJ came out of the way tower, finding themselves in the Ice Sector.

"It's a good thing I'm used to the cold now." LeShawna said.

"The simulation bubble is this way. A good run will keep you warm." Aelita pointed ahead.

They took off towards the bubble but they did not get far. As soon as they were in the middle of a huge ice field hundreds of ice puppets sprouted from the ground. The three were surrounded by them as the ice puppets closed off any attempt to escape.

"Ice puppets. Yuki's hand work." Aelita said ready to fight.

"Oh right. The Ice Sector gives her the advantage." DJ remembered as he looked around.

"These guys will be easy." LeShawna pulled out her hammer.

"Remember, LeShawna, with the Ice Sector Yuki can spawn an endless amount of these puppets." Aelita said.

LeShawna scoffed. "Three against three thousand. Good thing they're not very tough."

"We don't have time for this. LeShawna, DJ, duck and stay down until I say so." Aelita held up both of arms as she kept them up and straight, pointing left and right of herself.

"Plasma Beam!"

Two beams of light blasted from her hands and she spun herself around destroying hundreds of ice puppets. Finally the attack was over and the army surrounding them had vanished.

"Dang. That's some power girl." LeShawna whistled.

"Let's go before Yuki sends more."

They nodded and took off. However Yuki herself appeared in front of them. Claws made of ice covered her hands.

"You shall not pass, Aelita."

"Leave her to me. LeShawna, you stay with Aelita." DJ stepped forward.

"You sure?"

"Yeah now go."

LeShawna nodded and they both ran for it. Yuki however fired spears made of ice from her hands at them. DJ created a barrier that blocked the attack. Yuki turned back and faced DJ.

DJ activated his golem power and charged her. Yuki created a wall of ice but DJ punched through it easily. Yuki created a spear made of ice and charged at DJ.

"I do not really want to hurt you, even if you are an AI created by XANA." DJ dodged her first swing.

He tried to grab her but she jumped back and created kunai made of ice that she threw at him. He held up his arm but grunted as the kunai embedded themselves in his arm.

"Okay, this is might be tougher than I thought."

Xxx

The door to Sierra's room opened and they stepped inside. They found themselves in a house.

"Do you think this is Sierra's house?" asked Beth.

"Couldn't be. Her house was one big Chris shrine." Code replied.

"Might not have always been this way. Everyone we have found has been stuck in some horrible moment when they were kids. Same might go for Sierra." Gwen looked around.

A smashing sound was heard from inside the house. Gwen walked to the door.

"Gwen, wait! We're trespassing!" Beth called out.

"It's not real. We have to get her out. Anyone wants to sit this one just wait by the door." Cody said as he ran up to Gwen as she opened door.

Everyone followed them as they came into a room with two adults yelling at each other.

"These must be Sierra's parents." Courtney guessed from how the mother resembled Sierra.

They were arguing about something but no one bothered to understand why. They could see a few broken things on the floor.

"Sierra mentioned her mom had a crush on Chris. Maybe her dad's not with them anymore." Beth guessed.

"So where's the stalker?" Eva looked around.

"I think I know." Gwen guessed.

They followed her down the hall to what looked like Sierra's bedroom. Opening the door slightly they looked inside to see an eight year old version of Sierra on her bed crying.

"Sierra?" Cody asked.

The young girl looked up and saw her fellow competitors at the door.

"Cody?"

Cody walked in first with a smile.

"Are you doing?"

"Horrible . . . My parents are breaking up." Sierra sniffed.

"Sierra, what's the last thing you remember before this?" Cody asked.

Sierra was quiet as she thought it over. "We went into the pods . . . Then I was here."

"This is not real, Sierra." She looked over and saw Gwen enter the room. "I know this is a bad memory, but it happened years ago."

She quietly sat down on the other side of Sierra. She looked at the girl with a soft gentle look.

"But I know how you most likely feel about it. Parents fighting over one thing and the other, you probably not understanding why they are fighting, and you can't do anything about it. Then one of them leaves and you're sad because you won't ever see them again." Gwen had a small sad look on her face. "Same thing happened to me when I was younger. My dad left one day and never came back. My brother is lucky because dad left when he was just a year old. Not much to remember him by."

Sierra was silent as she listened to Gwen.

"It took a long time for me to accept that my dad was gone from my life." Gwen looked at her. "And I imagine it was the same for you."

Sierra nodded.

"Is this why you're so . . . clingy?" Cody asked.

Sierra looked down. "Since my dad left and I had no friends I had no one. My mom was gushing over Chris and then one day I sat down and watched the show. Then I saw you." Sierra looked at Cody. "You were so nice that you paired up the girl you were crushing on with another guy. I thought you could save me from being so alone."

Cody was quiet as Sierra's form shimmered and she was back to her normal self.

"Sierra, we've got to go. I know it's hard but this happened years ago. It's not real." Cody put a hand on her shoulder. "You're a good person, a little creepy but good."

Sierra smiled as they got up off the bed. Sierra grabbed both Cody and Gwen in a hug.

"Oh thank you! Cody, you're so kind! And Gwen, I'm so sorry for being so mean to you! You really are a good friend!"

"Okay, moment's over. Can we go?" asked Heather.

They pulled away and nodded. They walked out of the house and back into the hall.

"That's all of Team Amazon accounted for." Gwen said. "Now we have to decide which team do we rescue next."

"Can we please go to Team Victory? Sadie's there!" Katie cried.

"And so is Lindsay!" Beth agreed.

"I guess we're going to the Victory dorm." Cody shrugged.

With no one arguing against it they walked towards the Victory dorm.

Xxx

Aelita and LeShawna saw a large glowing dome in the distance.

"Is that it?" LeShawna looked at Aelita.

"Yes. We better hurry before it's too late."

Xxx

The group was now in the dorm belonging to Team Victory.

"Okay, just so you all know Bridgette, Geoff, LeShawna, and DJ are already out so we only have to save Sadie, Lindsay, and Trent." Gwen looked over her shoulder.

"How'd they get out?" asked Courtney.

"They figured it before we got to them. Problem is that they're back in the real world because Chris didn't want to risk losing anyone. Me and Cody stayed behind to get you and the others out." Gwen explained.

Katie looked and saw Sadie's room. She sprinted over to the door.

"Hold on, Sadie! I'm coming!"

"Katie, wait!" Beth ran to her as she opened the door.

They followed Katie and Beth and found themselves in another school.

"Where is this?" asked Beth.

"This is the same school Sadie and I went to when we were younger." Katie replied looking around.

They walked down the hall.

"Katie, you've been around Sadie most of the time. What would be one of the bad moments of her life?" asked Cody.

Katie thought it over and then gasped out loud.

"The playground!"

She ran out the door with everyone following her. They were outside and they saw a smaller version of Sadie being picked on by a few other girls.

"They always used to pick on Sadie because of her weight." Katie had tears in her eyes watching this.

Heather having already seen this happen to herself got an angry look. She walked over the kids picking on Sadie.

"Hey! Get out of here you brats!" She barked.

Sadie looked up and saw them.

"Heather? Katie!"

Sadie ran up to Katie with her form shimmering. When they embraced Sadie looked like her original self again.

"I'm so glad to see you!" Sadie cried.

"Me too!" Katie cried back.

"Well, well, one former fat girl sticking up for another fat girl." One of the bullies sneered.

Heather glared back at her and a few of the others glared as well.

"At least I'm popular while you're probably some pink peppy premadonna who hangs around with a bunch of nobodies to feel good about herself knowing her future is to be nothing more than being a burden on society!"

"Wow. Who knew Heather would stand up for anyone?" Gwen smirked.

"Bite me, goth girl. Believe it or not I do have a heart. Now let's get out of here!" Heather turned and walked towards the exit.

They walked out of the room not noticing the smirks on the girls' faces.

"Now who's next?" Heather turned around.

Gwen pointed to the room that had Trent's name.

"After him we go after Lindsay."

Cody opened the door and they stepped in.

Xxx

Aelita and LeShawna were almost there when a broad sword landed in front of them.

"I know that sword." LeShawna pulled out her hammer.

Shadow appeared beside the sword out of a cloud of black smoke.

"Yo."

"And what do you want, turkey?" LeShawna glared at him.

"You gone and the elf tossed into the digital sea." Shadow pulled out his sword and held it over his shoulder.

"Aelita, go and help them."

Aelita looked at LeShawna. "What about you?"

"I've got a score to settle with this guy. Go and get the others out!"

Aelita wanted to argue but nodded and activated her wings. Shadow did not bother to look at her as she flew.

"She won't make it."

LeShawna got into a battle stance. "We'll see."

"Actually, we won't. Shadow Storm!"

Shadow unleashed an explosion of black smoke that soon enough covered the entire field.

"You won't be stabbing me in the back this time!" LeShawna ran forward.

Xxx

The group walked through the door and found themselves in a cemetery.

"A cemetery? Why would Trent be here?" Katie asked.

"Yeah. A guy like Trent would never hang out here." Sadie agreed.

Gwen looked ahead and her eyes widened.

"I know why he's here."

She pointed ahead and everyone looked to see a group of people with a gravestone being lowered into an empty grave.

"It's a funeral." Beth said.

"I think I know who. Trent mentioned on the Aftermath episode in the second season that his grandfather died after a wheel fell off his toy train." Sierra mentioned.

"His grandpa's funeral." Katie and Sadie said at the same time.

Gwen walked ahead and saw a younger version of Trent. She slowly made her way to him. Trent didn't see until she was right beside him.

"He was a great man wasn't he?"

Trent turned around and he was shocked to see her.

"Gwen?"

"Your grandpa. He was a great guy wasn't he?"

Trent's look saddened as he turned back to the grave.

"Yeah. He was. But why is this happening again? This happened years ago."

"That's because it's a simulation. What's the last thing you remember before being here?"

Trent's eyes widened. "The pods!"

Gwen nodded. "None of this is real. It's a recording of your grandfather's funeral because it's one of the sad moments of your life. You know this already happened."

Trent looked back at the casket.

"Yeah . . . It did happen."

Gwen put a hand on his shoulder before hugging him. His image shimmered and he was back to his normal self.

"We have to go now. The others are trapped like you are and we need to get them out."

Trent nodded. "Let's get out of here."

They walked over to where the others were waiting.

"Trent!" Katie and Sadie ran over and hugged him.

He smiled nervously as he hugged them back.

"Hi, Katie. Hi, Sadie."

"Ok, now can we go help Lindsay?" Beth raised her hand.

"Relax. Her parents have spoiled her most of her life, what could happen to her that'd be so bad?" asked Heather.

Xxx

When they came upon Lindsay's room...they found an empty, white room without a single feature on it, and Lindsay was giving herself a manicure.

"Oh, hey guys!" She waved, smiling dumbly.

"Of course, she never even realizes or remembers something bad." Cody sighed. "Ignorance is bliss."

"Too true," Gwen nodded.

"What are you doing here?" Lindsay asked.

"Getting you out of here." Heather said.

"Oh, good, this place is so boring!" Lindsay said.

The group slapped themselves in the face at the same time and dragged her out.

"Well, at least she brightens up the room with her cluelessness." Cody shook his head.

"That's everybody from Team Victory, now for Team C, God Bless Carlos for coming up with that." Gwen said.

"Amen, now let's go!" They broke into a run.

Xxx

"Ok, here's Izzy's room." Cody said. "Odds are it'll be empty like Lindsay's room, nothing ever seems to-" He opened the door and was tackled by a red blur.

"GET ME OUT OF HERE! Izzy, her hair dishevelled and dressed in white clothes yelled as she clawed at Cody's face.

"IZZY! IZZY! IZZY!" Cody shouted, trying to avoid being hit.

Izzy stopped and looked around. "I'm out! Oh thank god that's over!"

"What happened?" Beth asked.

"I was stuck back in that cell in that mental hospital I found myself in!" Izzy shuddered as she returned to normal. "Izzy's too wild to be confined!"

Cody slapped himself in the face.

"Now who didn't see that coming?" Courtney asked.

"At least she found the door." Gwen shrugged.

"Good point."

"Ok, next up we have Tyler." Cody opened the next door.

Xxx

They stood in a small neighbourhood that looked normal...too normal.

"Let's see...wannabe jock, what is his worst moment in life?" Gwen asked.

"Wait, I think I know." Courtney said. "Remember Season One? The Fear Episode? Chickens! We need to find a farm!"

The group did a quick scan...until Izzy leaped onto a roof, howling like a wolf and looked around. "Yar! I see me a farm over that-a-way!" She pointed east.

"Let's go!" Gwen shouted, leading them through the streets until they reached the farm...where a younger version of Tyler and four friends were painting graffiti on the side of a farm.

"Wow, I never took Tyler as the type of person to participate in graffiti." Courtney said.

"He's such a bad boy..." Lindsay sighed dreamily.

"Focus woman!" Cody said to Lindsay. "Now what happened next?"

"HEY! YOU BRATS!" A farmer came out of the house, a shotgun in hand.

"Uh oh! BOLT!" Tyler shouted, his friends running for...the chicken coop!

"Oh no!" The entire group said at the same time.

"Hurry!" Cody shouted, rushing for the coop.

They all jumped over the first fence separating the chickens from the rest of the farm, rushed through some startled chickens, and leaped over the outer fence...but Tyler tripped over the first fence and fell face first into the chicken coop...or would have if several sets of hands had not grabbed him and pulled him back.

"Oof!" He looked up.

"I take it this is why you're terrified of chickens." Courtney sighed.

"What? Guys? Lindsay!" Tyler stood up, returning to normal.

"Tyler!"

"You remember my name!" They embraced one another.

Cody coughed. "Uh...Tyler, we're trapped in a simulation and- gah I hate telling everybody this!"

"Wait, simulation? Is that why I almost relived the time I fell into the chicken coop and got pecked half to death?" Tyler shouted.

"Uh...pretty much." Gwen said. "We have to get the rest of Team C out of here, come on!"

"We have two pretty boys, Noah, and Duncan left," Cody said. "Who do we get?"

"Who's closest?" Heather asked as they exited the room.

"Justin!" Gwen swung the next door open.

A high pitched scream rang out. "SAVE ME!" Justin leaped out of the room and hugged Cody-Gwen dodged the super model.

"Why does this always happen to me?" Cody fell over.

Gwen looked in and saw a mirror in the middle of a white room...and it showed her looking misshapen and hideous. She flinched, but understood it was a trick as she faced the latest victim to be saved. "You went to the fun house when you were a kid, right Justin?"

Justin nodded, shaking from fear.

"Yeah...that's a trick mirror Justin." Gwen said. "That doesn't mean anything."

"I can't help it!" He broke down crying.

Cody sighed, having no choice but to pat the guy on the back seeing as he was still crushing him. "This is just sad."

"Okay, Justin, get up! We have to help the jack ass, the bookworm and the pretty jack ass." Courtney said as she swung open Noah's door.

"AHHHHHHHH!"

They looked inside and saw themselves back on Total Drama Island. During the Sleep-A-Thon challenge. Cody winced.

"I think I know what it is."

"The time he kissed you?" asked Izzy.

"Don't remind me!"

Noah came running into view.

"Hi, Noah!" Izzy jumped in front of him.

"So...horrible!" Noah shuddered. "So horrible! It was bad the first time."

"You didn't exactly smell like a basket of roses at the time either pal." Cody crossed his arms, pouting.

"ACCIDENT! IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!" Noah yelled.

"Yeah yeah, guys fill him in, let's go rescue the jack ass." Cody stomped away.

"I think you hurt his feelings." Izzy whispered.

"ACCIDENT!" Noah yelled again.

"SHUT. UP." Cody growled before he swung Duncan's door open.

Inside, a younger version of Duncan was sitting in his bed room, grumbling as he nursed a black eye. He did not look like a punk as they all knew him to be, his hair was longer and did not have a Mohawk, he had no piercing, and he wore a pair of jeans and a grey t shirt under a jacket.

"Duncan?" Gwen blinked.

Duncan looked up. "What the-what are you all doing here?" He leaped to his feet. "Oh man, this is really a bad time!"

"Duncan, you don't have to worry, anything that's been happening to you is fake-" Gwen started.

"I knew that much! It's pretty obvious I already relived getting the crap beaten out of me by that jack ass Michael!" Duncan said.

"Michael?" Gwen asked.

"He's the leader of a local gang...or was until I got to him." Duncan rolled his eyes. "I just relived when he beat me up, he thought I stole his girl friend when she was dating one of the guys who work at the same repair shop I worked at!" He growled, feeling his eyes.

"And you also relived what pretty much broke you and Courtney up if I'm right." Gwen guessed.

Duncan sighed, but nodded silently. "Yeah, I did." He looked to his door as somebody came stomping up the stairs. "Uh...did I mention at this point my parents had been split up for a bit...and my mom had married the local cop? After tonight it didn't last long, and you'll see why in a second."

"DUNCAN! GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE!" A man shouted.

"Yep, there's the constable." Duncan sighed as he went for the door.

"You don't have to go!" Courtney grabbed his arm. "Get out of here and you can skip it!"

"I've been trying to leave, how do I do it?"

"You don't see the door?" Cody looked at the door.

"What door?" Duncan had the door in plain sight, but in his eyes there was just his bed room wall. But slowly the wall began to shimmer until a door to the outside appeared. "Oh...there it is." He returned to his taller, more built and punk like form. He pumped his fists together once. "Alright, that's what I'm talking about! Let's go and fast!"

Just as they finally got out, the bed room door burst open and the strongest police officer they had ever seen in their lives-even stronger than Chef glared inside. "DUNCAN! I'M GOING TO KICK YOUR SCRAWNY ASS YOU PUNK!"

"Dalton! Stop!" Duncan heard his mother pleading with him. Not wishing to see the result, he slammed the door.

"Screw you, old man." He hissed, shaking with anger.

"Wow, your step-dad sounds like he was an ass hole." Izzy said.

"He was," Duncan said, taking a deep breath. "Needless to say my real dad getting back together with mom was a blessing...a cheesy one the way he did it but a blessing."

"Now we only have one last guy to save." Cody looked at Alejandro's room. "Do we really have to?"

"Cody," Gwen crossed her arms.

"Aw fine." Cody opened the door...but there was no memory simulation inside, instead there was a series of blurred images coming into and out of existence.

They stood on top of the volcano at Hawaii.

"Isn't this that volcano where you kicked Alejandro down on an ice cube?" Beth asked.

"Yeah," Heather paused as she saw him standing at the edge of the pit of fire, a familiar dummy in his hands. "Alejandro!"

"Ah, hey." Alejandro glared at them. "You finally made it."

"Come on man we have to get out of here!" Cody said.

Alejandro shook his head, a smirk crossing his face. "Sorry Cody, but I already made a deal with the dude who brought us here. All I have to do is make sure you and the Goth Chick don't leave this place, at all."

"Alejandro, listen," Cody said carefully. "You don't want to make a deal with that guy, it will back fire and you'll be left to pick up the pieces."

"He gave me my old life back!" Alejandro shouted.

"And you were the one who tampered with the pods, weren't you?" Gwen pointed an accusing finger at him. "You're why we're all here!"

"Give the girl a prize." He clapped slowly. "Of course I didn't plan on coming here myself. Why would I after I single handily got my old body back. I can walk; I can look people in the eyes without feeling like a piece of crap under their shoes! But I never would have had to go through that if YOU," He pointed at Heather. "Never betrayed me! I'd have given it all to you, and I had to go through months of being called a moving washing machine!"

"I said I was sorry, okay! I only wanted the money; I didn't want you to get burned!" Heather shouted. "I was going to make it up to you after the show was over; I would have if Zeke hadn't tackled me and stole it!"

"It doesn't matter." Alejandro growled. "What matters is that you lost the money and you deserved it for what you did to me! You only had to endure being stuck in a wheel chair, I WAS BURNED HEAD TO TOE AND HAD EVERY BONE IN MY BODY BROKEN BY YOU WHEN YOU ALL TRAMPLED ME AND LEFT ME TO BE BURNED ALIVE!" He tossed the dummy in and walked towards them. "I had to endure months of not only living in that machine, but the verbal abuse from my family got worse all over again! Yeah, I was a dick, yeah, I am a dick, but you know what? I had to be fierce to get my way and I was not going to let anything get in the way of getting what I wanted. I only wanted one thing and it was to be accepted by my family, and you lost me that! Now you, goth girl, and the nerd are gonna burn!"

"Okay, that cuts it." Duncan sighed. "Al, buddy, I can appreciate your position and all, but I honestly have to say this."

"What?"

THWACK! Duncan landed a single, devastating cross to Alejandro's left cheek. "CRY ME A RIVER!"

Alejandro recovered and slammed his own fist into Duncan's stomach, doubling the boy over. Duncan growled and tackled Alejandro. They began to fight, fists and feet.

"As much as I like to beat the crap out of you, I have one thing here that gives me the advantage!" Alejandro said as he struggled to get out of a head lock.

"Oh, and what's that, your 'boyish good looks'?" Duncan spat in Alejandro's face.

"No..." Alejandro growled. "The ability to do what I want here, including BURNING YOU! Let's see how you all like the lava!" The volcano began to erupt.

"RUN!" Cody shouted, and they all took off down the slope.

"Uh...later." Duncan suddenly pulled the most devastating move a man could experience...

He kneed Alejandro right in the balls, doubling him over.

"DOH!" As Alejandro fell over Duncan ran after them.

"I can't believe you did that, dude!" Cody said.

"Oh shut up, it worked!" Duncan snapped back.

They reached the beach, but found a horrifying discovery...the ocean was made of lava!

"Oh crap." Duncan said.

"Incoming pretty boy!" Izzy pointed up before Alejandro landed behind them, having somehow jumped from the top of the volcano and landed near them in one leap.

"Like it? Apparently the guy who healed me not only put us in this simulation, but if he wanted to he could give us control over it, but it looks like only I get the package deal!" Alejandro sneered.

"Al, listen closely!" Cody said. "You can't trust him! He only healed you because it would benefit him in the long run! If you do what he says, he'll turn you into either a pet, or a box of ashes!"

"That's ridiculous; he kept his word when he healed me!" Alejandro snapped.

"And he trapped you here with us!" Gwen said.

"Only because our trade was finished, anything after that would have been nothing. But thanks to this new deal, I'll be enjoying myself back in the real world while you all rot here!"

"No use little dude, he's lost it." Duncan said.

"Oh yeah? Well, talking doesn't work." Gwen pulled out her rod. "Maybe this will!" It snapped into its scythe form.

"Whoa!" The group watched as she twirled it once, and Cody pulled out his guns.

"I don't know why XANA bothered to have you do his dirty work, and I don't care! You're dead!" Gwen snarled.

"Bring it on," Alejandro cracked is knuckles.

* * *

Hope you all like this update and Merry Christmas to you all.


	21. Episode 20: Into the Dark World

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 20

LeShawna swung her hammer but Shadow vanished in a cloud of smoke and reappeared behind her. She turned around in time to block a kick but the strength of the kick knocked her a few yards back. Shadow smirked as shadow tendrils emerged from his body.

"Darkness Arrow!"

LeShawna charged as the tendrils came at her. She blocked the tendrils while still charging and swung her hammer but Shadow jumped over her and landed behind her again.

"You're not getting away that easily!" LeShawna spun around swinging her hammer again.

Shadow dodged and sent a fist at her. LeShawna blocked and charged but Shadow grabbed her hammer with both hands.

"You're not the only one with super strength. Just to let you know among the original Lyoko Warriors William had the rawest power. When he hit it was like a train rammed into you. Shadow Storm!" An explosion of darkness knocked LeShawna back.

"You like to talk a lot. Are you still whining over being replaced?" LeShawna smirked.

"Me? Replaced by an idiot like William? I'm afraid you have it all wrong. I replaced him since he was foolish enough to disregard Jeremy's warning and he got possessed."

"Yeah, yeah. Tell it to someone who cares."

LeShawna charged again but Shadow was prepared. Black smoked covered his right hand, shaping itself to look like a drill. He plunged it into LeShawna's stomach, making her gasp as she stepped back.

"That's forty life points down with twenty to go."

The hole in LeShawna's stomach lingered for a second before it healed.

She growled.

Xxx

SMASH!

DJ smashed through another ice puppet Yuki had created to attack him. Still in his golem form DJ rammed his way through the crowd of ice puppets. Yuki jumped above him and covered her hands in icy claws as she fell towards him. DJ quickly deactivated his golem form and activated his barrier which shattered Yuki's claws on impact.

The Ice Maiden of Lyoko jumped back to avoid a fist. Raising her hand she fired hundred of ice needles at DJ but he activated his golem form that blocked them. So far both fighters were even. DJ's golem form made his skin hard enough to withstand ice and his strength was able to smash through Yuki's ice puppets.

While Yuki was too fast and nimble for DJ to hit and the Ice Sector allowed her to create ice barrier and puppets to hinder DJ.

'Well, as long as I keep her here she can't stop LeShawna and Aelita' DJ thought as he got ready to attack again.

"It won't work." Yuki spoke up.

DJ got confused by that statement. "What won't work?"

"You wish to distract me, allowing the key holder to get to the simulation bubble and destroy it. It will not work." Yuki lowered her hands to her side, relaxing.

"What do you mean?" DJ kept his guard up.

"There are three generals the master has here in the Ice Sector and there are three Lyoko Warriors." Yuki looked to the distance.

"Ryder and Shadow, right? Aelita and LeShawna can take them." DJ had faith in his friends.

"Are you sure? This'll be the first time a Lyoko Warrior has faced one of the master generals in a one on one battle all alone. All that is needed is one mistake and victory will be lost." Yuki tilted her head.

"Why are you so curious?"

Yuki, from what DJ had seen ever since they had first met had shown to be about as cold as the ice that she used in battle.

"I wonder how strong you can be without anyone to fight with you." Yuki raised her hand and it glowed bright blue.

"You can count on it." DJ smirked.

Xxx

Aelita flew through the air, nearing the Simulation Bubble. That was before a wave of red lightning was sent at her. She evaded and landed on her feet. She glared as Ryder appeared out of a flash of red light.

"Miss me?" He smirked at her.

"I figured you would be here since Shadow and Yuki went through the trouble of separating everyone from me. Geoff and Bridgette were devirtualized and Gwen and Cody are still in the simulation." Aelita held out her hand, ready to blast him.

"Correct! Give the princess her prize!" Ryder pulled out his sword. "Nothing ever slips by you, huh?"

"There's one thing I would like to ask before I blast you. What's XANA up to? Trapping the contestants in that sphere, having them live their worst memories, how does it benefit him?" Aelita kept her eyes on Ryder.

The lightning warrior shrugged.

"Don't know, don't care."

Red energy traveled up his sword.

"But I have my orders to make sure you don't reach that bubble."

Aelita's hand glowed just Ryder swung his sword.

"LIGHTNING STORM!"

"PLASMA BEAM!"

Both fighters unleashed their attack that collided with each other, creating a large explosion.

Xxx

Inside the simulation bubble everyone was back on the same island in Hawaii where they had been during the finale of Total Drama World Tour. The only difference now was that the ocean was now a sea of lava leaving them stranded while the entire world was controlled by a deranged man who had been restored his original body by the Lyoko Warrior's worst enemy. The other difference was that both Gwen and Cody were holding strange yet dangerous looking weapons. Cody's guns looked like a cross between a revolver and a blade while Gwen held a scythe with the blade being dark with teal streaks matching her hair color.

'Where did they get those weapons?' Trent thought looking at them.

'Nice. Where did they come from?' Duncan thought.

Alejandro had raised an eyebrow at their weapons.

"Such impressive looking toys you two have there." He eyed them with a smirk. "Gwen, did you do make that yourself. It matches the style of your hair."

Gwen however glared at him. "Don't try to flatter me, Al. I am not so easily fooled by a slippery snake like you."

"Or eel." Noah added.

"Yes. Actually, aside from Sierra who was pretty much an annoying stalker who used your friend as a teddy bear you never fell for me. Of course it doesn't matter now." Alejandro raised his right hand and purple electricity sparked in it.

"I am only giving you one warning, Alejandro. Stop this and we can leave without any trouble." Gwen said.

"And why would I do that? I already made a deal to get out of here and I can have my revenge." Alejandro smirked at everyone.

"Revenge on us? Al, I don't know if you remember but you tricked, lied, and manipulated nearly everyone during World Tour. Why would you think anyone would be happy if you won? Besides, why go after everyone, Trent, Geoff, Katie, Sadie, Eva, Justin, and Beth weren't part of World Tour so they couldn't have done anything to you." Cody kept his guns on Alejandro.

"True, but they did not help me either." Alejandro looked at them.

Beth, Katie, and Sadie huddled together while Eva growled angrily at him.

"I know he only wanted me to get rid of you and the goth but as a bonus I'll take out a few others who annoyed me. It's a pity Harold, LeShawna, Bridgette, Geoff, DJ, Ezekiel, and Owen aren't here. But I guess I'll settle for roasting all of you since I got a score to settle with Noah, Duncan, and Heather along with you two."

"I'd like to see you try." Duncan cracked his knuckles.

"You're so stubborn, Alejandro. We're trying to stop you from making a big mistake. You have no idea what you've gotten yourself into. I guess the only way to solve this is to beat into that thick skull of yours." Gwen raised her scythe and held it over her shoulder. "To be honest I'm actually looking forward to this."

"And why is that?" Alejandro asked as he got ready.

"You lied and tricked two friends of mine. I'm sure you remember them. I don't care what excuse you have for wanting to win." Gwen smirked as she raised her scythe above her head. "Here's payback for Bridgette and LeShawna!"

She charged the few yards between them, her scythe whistling through the air.

"I don't dislike you, Gwen but. . . I would rather want to end this dance quickly. It's not very gentlemanly to hit a lady." Alejandro held out his hand and black smoke emerged from his hand.

It created a shield that blocked Gwen's scythe. She jumped back as Alejandro created a smoke shield in his other hand.

"What are you thinking now?" Alejandro smirked.

Gwen did not answer him.

"I am curious to why he wants you and the nerd gone." Alejandro did not get an answer. "Stop wearing that poker face and tell me."

"It's sad." Alejandro raised an eyebrow at what she said.

Gwen looked at him with that poker face still showing. "You are so thick headed that you'll even sign your life away just to get some payback at everyone because you got burned for all of your lies and tricks. It makes me feel sorry for you."

Alejandro glared. "I don't need your pity!"

Black smoked came out of him and turned into shurikens that spun through the air towards Gwen. However Cody shot them out of the sky. Alejandro turned and glared at the boy.

"Annoying little bug."

Cody fired several shots but a smoke shield appeared and protected Alejandro. He smirked as it blocked the shots.

"You didn't think it'd be that easy, did you?"

"Actually I was hoping, Al." Cody replied.

Alejandro growled. "Don't call me that."

Gwen took the chance and charged again. She brought the scythe down and the end with the blade rested right behind Alejandro. He turned only for a fist to impact him in the torso.

"Nice one!" Cody complimented.

Gwen launched another fist straight into Alejandro's face along with few more before she kicked him straight in the chest that sent him flying back.

"Eat that, dumbass!"

Alejandro growled as he got back up.

"Gwen, let's say you scored some points there. But let's face it I think we're in way over our heads this time. Tell me you have some kind of plan to win?" Cody asked.

"Nope, not really." Gwen admitted.

"So...do we just do what we always do in these situations then?"

"If by that you either mean...run away screaming or...make it up as we go along...I'd say the second." Gwen replied.

"Agreed." Cody swung one gun up and fired at Alejandro again, aiming for the center of his mass in more of an attempt to force Alejandro back, knowing that trying to score a straight shot was rather unlikely in this fight.

"Uh...Trent, is it me or is your ex...used to this kind of stuff?" Duncan asked Trent as Cody and Gwen kept attacking Alejandro.

"I...I know, but I didn't know about any of this." Trent said in disbelief.

"Oh my god Cody is so good with those pistols!" Sierra said.

"I know!" Lindsay and Beth agreed at the same time.

As Gwen just barely missed the chance to decapitate Alejandro, Eva looked around. "Uh...shouldn't we help them? I mean we're just standing here."

"Eva, they have guns, blades, and spooky shadow stuff, I am not going near that fight." Duncan shook his head.

"Why? Isn't Gwen your girlfriend?" Courtney narrowed her eyes at him.

"Oh will you let that go!" Duncan yelled. "Okay, yes, I cheated on you with Gwen just to make you jealous! I was sick and tired of you trying to make me into your little James Bond wannabe and I wanted to get back at you, and do you know why? Because I'm that kind of guy and I wanted to show you just how I felt about it! OK? CAN WE MOVE ONTO THE PART WHERE WE'RE BEING THREATENED BY A SERIOUSLY MESSED UP PRETTY BOY WHO'S PISSED AT US FOR RUINING HIS PRECIOUS FACE? OR DO I HAVE TO GO INTO SOME CHEESY RANT ABOUT HOW SORRY I AM AND HOW I WANT ALL THIS STUPID SOAP OPERA THEMED CRAP I ENDED UP CAUSING TO JUST STOP SO WE CAN GET BACK TOGETHER?"

He gasped for breath as everybody stared at him, even the three fighters who had paused in mid attack to hear Duncan's rant.

"You...you want to get back together?" Courtney asked.

"Yes, damn it! I wanted to since World Tour!" Duncan yelled. "Go ahead and yell at me or hit me for what I did, but just stop bringing up my stupid mistake!"

He was gasping for breath. "I...I really just had to get that off my back."

"Yes you did." Eva nodded a stoic look on her face...but cracked a smile. "And that was actually a bit funny."

Alejandro smirked as he looked at Gwen.

"Looks like your boyfriend is dumping you."

To his surprise Gwen shrugged.

"It's okay. Before I came here I heard Duncan's confession. Yeah, it sucked at first to find out why." She smiled a bit. "I actually did fall for him but I already accepted that and moved on. Don't think you can make me all depressed and emo."

"You heard that?" Duncan asked with wide eyes.

"Your confession while you were stuck back in your room? Yeah, before I got here we found you and the other and you were shouting it out. I heard it on the speakers." Gwen turned and looked over her shoulder. "The funny thing is that I wasn't surprised as I should have been."

Duncan at least had the decency to look guilty.

"I know I shouldn't have lied and tricked you like that. But . . ."

"Sorry, Duncan. We have to cut the emotional scene since you and everyone are going to burn in the next few seconds." Alejandro said with a bored look.

Gwen and Cody turned back to look at him. A dark aura started to surround him while XANA's Eye appeared on his forehead like a third eye. It glowed bright red, glaring at Gwen and Cody. Gwen charged forward and swung her scythe but Alejandro jumped into the air and somehow managed to stay in the air.

"He's flying!" gasped Heather.

Gwen looked up and saw that Heather was right. Alejandro was seemingly floating yet he looked like he was simply standing on something invisible.

"Like it? Being able to control this simulation means I can even pass through anything in it. Even the air." Alejandro explained with a smirk. "Can't hit what you can't reach."

"Don't need to." Cody aimed his pistols up and fired.

Alejandro jumped to the side to avoid Cody's shots.

"Too bad you can't hit me up here. First rule of warfare: Never let your enemy have the high ground." Alejandro held out his hand purple electricity erupted from his hand.

Cody jumped to avoid the electricity that blasted the ground he had on stood on earlier.

"As much fun I have had with the two of you I must end this." Alejandro landed on the ground.

"And just how do you intend to do that?" Gwen asked.

"I'm glad you asked. You see since he gave me control of this simulation I can do anything I want."

"We know that already. Why don't you get to the point?" Cody kept his pistols levelled on Alejandro.

"So quick to end it all. You know, Cody, you should spend the last moments you have wisely. Why not let your feelings for the goth or that stalker out so you can be together with whatever girl you like in the next world?" Alejandro's third eye glowed brightly.

"What is with that eye? It looks exactly that eye we saw when that virus infect the computer a few weeks ago." Courtney looked at the Eye.

"Now that you mention it, it is the eye thing from before." Duncan agreed.

"So Alejandro is with the guy who almost turned me, Sadie, Katie, Justin, Trent, Eva, and Geoff into veggies?" Beth asked.

"But why? Why would that guy be after us?" Trent asked.

"Not us. Gwen and Cody." Heather looked at the two.

"What do you mean?" Tyler asked.

"Those two have been hanging around with LeShawna, Bridgette, Geoff, and DJ ever since the first challenge and they have disappeared once in a while. They obviously know what is going on." Courtney remembered the conversation she overheard.

Xxx

_Flashback_

_"Just looking at some companies that could have assembled like our supercomputer. That computer is more advanced than any other computer in the world and it was made back in the 90s. I thought I could give Aelita a helping hand because she looked stressed out." Said Cody._

_"Good idea man. Poor girl has a lot to deal with." Said DJ sitting next to Cody._

_"The problem is that some of the parts made from the supercomputer are unique as in not made anywhere else. So it's possible not even a top company like Microsoft has the parts. XANA would have had to make the stuff himself." Cody said._

_"But still it's something you can make anywhere. He would have had to find a place big on computer stuff." Said DJ._

_"True that." Said Cody. "But if we can find a company or place that might even have a bit of what would be needed to put something like supercomputer in the factory together we'd have a lead. Let's face it, we're in a lot of trouble. "_

_"You got a point there. XANA's already a lot stronger than before he's got those three generals."_

_"Yeah, Shadow, Ryder, and Yuki." Said Cody._

_Little did they know someone was eavesdropping. Courtney was hiding outside the lobby listening to their conversation._

_'So Cody and DJ are in on whatever weird secret Gwen and Bridgette are hiding too.' Courtney thought._

_"If this keeps up someone is going to be hurt badly." Said Cody._

_"I know. Things are getting pretty bad." Said DJ. "We better be careful or we're finished."_

End Flashback

Xxx

"It must be this XANA doing all of this."

"That's crazy." Trent dismissed her claim.

"Why? The evidence is right there." Courtney pointed at them.

"You're suggesting that Gwen and Cody along with Bridgette, LeShawna, Geoff, and DJ are to blame for this. They'd never do this."

"He's right. Bridgette and DJ are too nice, they don't know enough about computers to do this." Beth said.

"LeShawna wouldn't and couldn't do it either." Noah pointed out.

"Neither would Gwen. I agree with Elvis." Duncan said.

"Okay, so maybe the creep is after them and we're the bait!" Heather said.

Alejandro clapped.

"Congratulations, Heather. You figured it out. As far as I can tell Xavier or XANA, whatever his name is set it up as a trap for somebody. I don't know what connection Gwen and Cody have to this but I'm not complaining."

"You might think you know what you're doing, Al, but you have no idea who you're messing with. He was responsible for the cyber attack when we got here and you know that hundreds of people could have been hurt or killed. That should be enough to tell you he is not someone you should be making deals with." Cody said.

"Really?"

"Yeah, really. Just how did you meet him anyway?" Gwen asked.

"Actually that's a funny story. The first time I met him was when I was directed to a pod of some sort. When it closed I awoke in some white room. I met him there and we had a deal. I place a computer chip in the TDR computer and he heals all of my injuries." Alejandro spread his arms out. "Pretty good deal. Look how well it worked out."

"Yeah, except when the chip you put in the computer sent you here with everyone." Gwen narrowed her eyes.

"And this place is where I met him again. At first I was mad that he sent me here but after working out a deal I am not complaining. All I have to do is get rid of you two and I can get some payback at everyone and when I am done I won't have to worry about him involving me in any more of his schemes."

"If you really are deluded enough to fall for a promise that's so fake it's transparent than it's obvious that you obviously suffered from brain damage either from being burned or when XANA healed you I don't know yet." Gwen scoffed.

"You can think what you want. But I am ending this now." Alejandro shrugged.

He raised his hand a black orb appeared in it. He launched it at them and it flew at them at high speed. Cody prepared to shoot it down but it exploded in a flash of dark unholy light that surrounded them. Suddenly they were both trapped in a black sphere surrounded by what looked like a hurricane.

"Cody!" Sierra screamed.

"Gwen!" Duncan and Trent shouted with wide eyes.

"What happened to them?" Eva yelled at Alejandro.

The Mexican smiled evilly. "You know, no matter how real this simulation is it is nothing but an illusion designed to fool all five senses into believing it is real. You can touch a rock and it would feel real, you can hear birds chirping, you can even smell and breathe the air bit it is all fake. This is a nice little trick I learned when he showed me how to control it. All I did was simply created a vacuum by removing the oxygen and air pressure around them."

Inside, Gwen and Cody began to stagger; hands reaching for their throats as they felt their oxygen supply get cut off.

"He's suffocating them!" Beth cried.

"Forget suffocating! They'll be lucky if the pressure doesn't tear them apart!" Courtney shouted.

Duncan looked at Trent. "Trent, you used to play base ball, right?"

"Yeah."

"Look what followed me back from reality." Duncan pulled a base ball out of his pocket. "Think you can hit a target about..." He looked at Alejandro as the young man cackled evilly. "Uh...at mid waist, and very small."

"I can handle that," Trent took the ball. "Knocked a guy's teeth out this way once."

Alejandro was so busy gloating that he never realized he was under attack right up until Trent shot the ball across the short distance between them and hit him right in the groin. The teen fell over, crying out in pain. "NOT AGAIN!"

The sphere slowly vanished, leaving Gwen and Cody to climb to their feet, coughing a bit.

"That...really sucked." Cody wheezed.

"Ah...you ass hole." Alejandro got up. "Why do you people like going for the nuts so much!"

"We like a challenge, hit the smallest target possible." Duncan replied.

"You alright shrimp?" Eva helped Cody up while Heather helped Gwen to her feet.

"Yeah, just need to get my breath back." Cody said.

"So...we can hurt him?" Heather spoke out loud.

"He's not invincible." Gwen shrugged.

"Which means..." The rest of the group paused as they all came to the same conclusion.

"I call the legs!"

"I dibs the neck!"

"Aw no fair!"

"Is there anything heavy here I can use?"

Alejandro, still limping backed up a bit as the entire group began to advance on him, surrounding him. "Oh crap." He looked around for help.

That was when spectres erupted from the ground between the group and Alejandro. They formed into familiar figures.

"Chris?" Beth asked.

"Chef?" Trent's eyes widened when he saw the man.

"Kurt and Carlos." Cody levelled his pistols on them.

"Tommy!" Courtney gasped.

Eva, Heather, and Sadie's eyes as they saw the same bullies from before.

"Michael! Dalton!" Duncan glared at the two hated figures from his past.

"Dad!" Sierra's eyes widened at seeing her father.

"Crazy old man McAllister!" Tyler blurted out when he saw the farmer that had chased him into the chicken coop.

"Reinforcements." Alejandro smirked.

Gwen scoffed as she raised her scythe.

"That won't do you any good. If you're getting help it means that your new master does not have faith in his new pet."

"I'd watch that mouth of yours." Alejandro growled.

"Why not? You pretty much showed you're just his pet with that Eye on your forehead." Gwen smirked. "Look at how low you have fallen. You went onto the show feeling so confident, and when you lost so badly that you ran to the first person who offered you a way to go back to normal that I bet you got on your knees and begged!"

Alejandro's eyes narrowed in anger, his figure once again surrounded by a dark aura with the Eye on his forehead glowing blood red. As if on his command the clones' skins turned black and metallic, their eyes red, their hair white, and the Eye of XANA on their foreheads.

"Could you please not provoke him, Gwen?" Cody asked.

"Aim for the Eye on their foreheads. It's always been a weakness on anything XANA made it might be the same for them." Gwen charged and swung her scythe.

The Carlos clone blocked with one arm and sent a fist at her but she ducked and Cody fired a shot when the Carlos clone left itself open to attack. The shot hit the eye and it vanished into a black cloud. Gwen looked at Alejandro with a smirk.

"I don't think these guys will do you much good."

Alejandro growled as purple electricity crackled in his hands.

"You got lucky but your luck ends here!"

"I don't think so." Gwen stood up, holding her scythe over her shoulder.

"And why is that?"

"Because this is over now." Gwen looked over her shoulder at Cody. "You ready?"

Cody nodded. He pulled on the sleeve on his left arm and revealed a watch.

"And what is that going to do?" Alejandro scoffed.

"This." Cody opened it and white wires shot out and grabbed Alejandro.

The Mexican grunted as he tried to pull it off. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Gwen running at him. He raised his right arm to create a smoke shield but it passed through the shield and _him_. Everyone's eyes widened as they thought Gwen had cut Alejandro in half, but they saw he was fine. Alejandro looked down at himself.

"What is this? I'm not dead." He looked back up at Gwen. "What did you do? That didn't even hurt me."

That was when he felt a burning sensation in his chest. He fell to his knees, with a hand grasping his chest.

"My scythe didn't cut your body." Gwen said as the dark aura vanished and the Eye started to fade. "It cut through that dose of XANA you had inside of you."

"What?" Alejandro gasped.

"There's a friend of ours who is an expert on this stuff. When we suspected you tampered with the pods she modified our weapons with something. A while back a friend of hers was infected kind of like you were. They saved him after finding a way to delete the data that was controlling him. Just in case we would find someone here infected like her friend she modified our weapons to target and destroy any imprint of XANA inside that person's body." Gwen explained. "You may be a creep, Alejandro, but we don't want you dead. That's why we're taking that thing out of you. Kind of like exorcism."

"So...all that freaky talk about revenge wasn't him then?" Trent asked.

"Partially, it's kind of like XANA magnified what Alejandro really wanted. Yeah, he was pretty mad and miserable, magnify that by a hundred and you have a homicidal maniac." Cody shrugged.

"Oh man..." Alejandro shook his head, running one hand over his face. "Wow...feels like a freaking hang over."

"That's a usual side effect." Gwen said flatly. "Get used to it."

"...and now I feel like a douche bag all over again." Al smacked himself in the face. "This XANA guy really played me then?"

"Like a violin Al." Cody nodded.

"...okay you're lucky I'm not homicidal anymore or I'd break your leg." Alejandro sighed. "Can we just get out of here? I'm pretty sure nobody wants to be around me after...you know, what just happened and I kind of want to spend some time to myself back in the real world where there aren't weird guys who put themselves in you...okay that sounded even more wrong than I meant it to be."

Before anyone could reply wires made of metal sprouted from the ground.

"Look out!" Heather shouted.

They tried to run but the cables grabbed them one by one and pulled them under the ground.

Xxx

"What happened?" Geoff looked at the screen.

Both he and Bridgette were watching the battle from the lab.

"I don't know. One second they were there then metal cables pulled them under. I can't see them anymore." Bridgette said with a worried look.

"This is bad. Very bad."

Xxx

Groaning, Heather awoke to find herself somewhere else. She was in shallow water with her head on a small piece of debris which had kept her head above the water. Groaning she got up, shivering from the cold water. Looking around she saw there was no sign of land anywhere.

There was nothing except a dark sky and shallow water everywhere. That was when she saw a figure in the water.

"Alejandro!"

She ran over to him and shook him awake. He groaned as he woke up and got up, slightly shivering from the cold water.

"What happened?"

"The last thing I remember was being grabbed by metal cables." Heather shook her head. "I have no idea where this is."

"Yeah. I don't remember being in a place like this either." Alejandro looked around.

"We better find Gwen or Cody. They know what is going on."

They started to walk in a random direction. Most of them time they did not talk or look at each other. That was until Heather couldn't stand the silence anymore.

"So . . . How does it feel to be fully healed?" Heather asked while mentally kicking herself for asking such a dumb question.

"It's good. Beats being inside a cold robot suit." Alejandro answered, despite the awkwardness. "Though can't say I like being used like a puppet."

"Or trying to kill everyone." Heather commented.

"I'm sorry. But before you lecture me you just remember I felt that way because of you." Alejandro pointed at her.

"And I said _I_ was sorry! I wanted to win! I couldn't afford to let my emotions cloud my judgement! You know that! You would have done the same!" Heather turned and faced him.

"Wrong. Unlike the rest of the other girls, Heather, my feelings for you were genuine! None of the other girls could see through me like you could and you were just as ruthless as I was!" Alejandro glared at her.

Heather bit her lip.

"You never checked up on me. You never looked at me since the World Tour finale. It made me wonder if all those things you were said were lies to get you further in the game."

"They were not!"

"Then explain to me after that challenge in Alberta when you promised you'd never vote for me. What was that?"

"It was strategy! If you were gone Cody and Sierra would have been easy to deal with! Since when did you not stab anyone in the back when _you_ promised them!" Heather protested.

"I made no promises! Everyone had their roles and they were done they were gone! That was it!" Alejandro's glare deepened.

"It doesn't make a difference. You lied and cheated just like I had."

"Ah. There's a difference. You only had to suffer you're hair being shaved off with a few burns and being stuck in a wheel chair."

"A few burns? My arm and leg were wrapped in bandages. It'll be a few more weeks before I can use them again and even then it'll be hard to use them in the challenges Chris comes up with!" Heather glared back.

"I on the other hand not only had my hair _burned_ off, I was trampled by everyone, having my bones broken and dislocated, and I was burned from head to toe! It was like swimming in a pool of suffering!" Alejandro yelled.

"And I said I was sorry! I couldn't have known that would happen! It was Chris' fault. He removed the signs and ignored the danger!"

"Yet not one of you came back and helped me!" Alejandro countered.

"No one thought you would have been burned! It was an accident!" Heather denied. "Besides I never tried to kill anyone!"

"I was being manipulated! So I wanted payback and to have my old body back! Do you know what is like being burned like I was? Or being trapped in that robot? Not being to move without feeling extreme pain no matter small the movement?"

"Please stop." Heather turned away.

"Why not? You never let up when you put someone down. It's not so fun when the shoe's on the other foot, huh?"

"I AM SORRY! I WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW BUT YOU TURNED AWAY AT EVERY TRY!" Heather turned around so Alejandro could not see her tears. "Just please stop. Please stop."

Alejandro's looks softened as he noticed Heather was crying.

Xxx

Noah blinked several times and sat up, grumbling as he felt water running down his back. "Oh great." He stood up and looked at his soaked clothing. Staring around at the endless plain of shallow water and dark skies, he cupped his hands to his mouth. "Hello?"

"Ow! I'm right here!" Suddenly Izzy leaped to her feet behind him.

"Ah!" Noah spun. "Izzy?"

"That's my name!" Izzy said with pride in her voice.

"Where are we?"

"I dunno," Izzy shrugged. "All I know is that it sucks...and makes me wanna use the bathroom."

"Too much info." Noah said, shuddering. "Getting serious again though. We have to get out of here."

"In case you haven't noticed...there aren't exactly any doors." Izzy looked around.

"Obviously," Noah rolled his eyes. "But if we actually look around we might find an exit somewhere."

"Yeeaaaahhh- I doubt it." Izzy shrugged. "Me thinks we're stuck until somebody helps us."

"...I never thought somebody could speak negatively yet sound positive." Noah said. "Until now."

"Ever see somebody fall up the stairs?" Izzy asked.

"Uh...don't you mean down?"

"Nope! Up the stairs, from bottom to top! It was fun." Izzy said.

"Yikes," Noah took one step away. "So we should just wait?"

"Duh, obviously somebody will be along soon to help us again." Izzy said confidently.

"Yeah, like who?"

"Like Gwen and Cody, they know a lot about this place, they can find their way around." Izzy said.

Noah sighed. "Izzy, if we can't find a way out, I doubt they could."

"They found us," Izzy pointed out.

"They had doors to go through," Noah countered.

"Ah, touché," Izzy scratched her chin. "Well then...me thinks a new plan be in order. I guess we might as well look around."

"Great...pick a direction and let's go."

"Ooh, ooh!" She put a hand over her eyes and began to rotate; pointing in random directions until she pointed off a little to Noah's left. "My Izzy senses point us that way."

Noah shrugged. "Can't be as bad as our current situation." They began their trek off into what looked like an eternal expanse of shallow water.

Xxx

When Duncan came to, there was only complete silence and darkness. He found himself lying face down in a pool of dark shallow water. He looked around only to find the dark emptiness of whatever void he had been pulled into. Feeling only a bit annoyed at the water soaking his clothes he up and looked around.

"Great. Stuck in some dark, wet place with no way out. Sounds like a blast."

That was when heard a groaning sound. He turned and saw Courtney getting up, shivering from the water that soaked her clothes.

"Well, at least I'm not alone."

"Duncan?" Courtney looked up and saw him.

"Welcome to the party, Princess." Duncan offered a hand which she took and he pulled her up.

She looked around. "Where are we?"

"Don't know. Last thing I remember was that fight on that island and then those wires grabbed us." Duncan frowned. "Another fine mess Alejandro got us in."

"It's not him doing this. It's that guy Gwen and Cody kept talking about." Courtney looked at Duncan.

"Yeah. Keep blaming them for this. Ever since they started hanging out with Bridgette, DJ, Geoff, and LeShawna you kept on sticking your nose in where it doesn't belong, like always." Duncan glared at her.

Courtney glared back. "Excuse me. But you admitted that you cheated on me with Gwen just to make me jealous. You ruined me! You went through the whole season trying to get rid of me!"

"It's not like you didn't have it coming. You were such a bitch throughout our whole relationship! Do you wonder why no one liked you on the show? It always had to be so friggin perfect with you!" Duncan snapped.

"You still don't get it, do you? The reason I was so hard on you because I cared for you." Courtney's bottom lip was shaking.

"Yeah, you had a funny way of showing it."

"I was always there for you, supporting you because I wanted you to be a better person."

"Or because you couldn't stand up to your parents?" Duncan pointed out.

"What was I supposed to do? You didn't exactly help with how many times I had to bail you out!" Courtney folded her arms.

"I never asked you to." Duncan said.

"I did because I wanted to. I wanted to spend the money together with you, I loved you." Courtney turned around.

"Did you or did you love the 'gentlemen' you wanted me to be?" Duncan muttered.

Courtney turned around and smacked him.

"YOU! I loved you! But you couldn't see it so you went on cheated on me with Gwen just so you could make me jealous!"

"Well, at least Gwen liked me for I was. She didn't expect anything perfect or special from me. Besides, she figured it out so we're pretty much over." Duncan shrugged and turned around.

"And we get back together just like that? Why should I?" Courtney asked.

"You shouldn't. It's not like I want to go back to looking like a whipped wuss." Duncan said. "How about you go back to Alejandro?"

Courtney spun around. "I only flirted with him to make _you_ jealous. I know he was playing me just like you were playing Gwen."

"At least Gwen was smart enough to not fall for it."

"Oh yeah. She's so perfect. Everyone thought she was better for you and that I deserved it." Courtney raised her arms above her head. "Everybody pointed out that you two knew things about each other that not even Trent and I knew. Of course I don't think you knew she was sneaking off somewhere with a scythe fighting this . . . thing."

"So she kept a small secret from me. I didn't tell her everything about me either. Besides, we're wasting time. We need a way out of here." Duncan looked around.

"How? No doors."

"Then we need to find another way out here. Better than waiting for someone to come looking for us."

"And what do you suggest we do? Look for someone who can." Courtney asked as they started walking.

"Well, like you said Gwen knew about this. She and Cody might know a way out." Duncan said.

They walked through the shallow water and continued on even though there was almost nothing ahead waiting for them.

Xxx

"Oh no! My hair is ruined!" Lindsay got up, looking at her soaked hair.

"Could be worse, if this was deep water we'd be screwed." Eva said as she got to her feet.

"Aw man, this was my favourite set of clothes!" Tyler got up. "There go my favourite pants."

"You wear the same red track suit every freaking day you jock wannabe, I doubt you'll miss it." Eva rolled her eyes.

"Uh...where are we?" Lindsay asked.

"Uh...looks like some really bad and depressing art." Tyler said.

"Or some place that XANA guy dumped us." Eva crossed her arms. "Let's just get the hell out of here already; I'm sick of all this Virtual Reality crap."

"How? Gwen and Cody kept using doors and I don't see any." Tyler pointed out.

"Aw, this su..." Lindsay trailed off as she saw something sticking out of the water nearby. "Uh...what is that?"

Eva walked over to where a rock stuck out of the surface. And imbedded into a crack in it was the rod that Gwen had been using. "It's Gwen's scythe!"

"Woo! Now if something else tries hitting us we can chop it up!" Tyler cheered.

"You don't know how to use a scythe, genius." Eva rolled her eyes. "Can't be too different from the rest of the stuff I trained for." She gripped the rod and began to pull on it, straining to get it out of the rock. "Man it's wedged in tight!"

"Maybe it's too big." Lindsay added.

"That's what she said." Tyler giggled.

"This is so not the time for that," Eva glared at Tyler. "Well come on jock boy, if you're really so great at sports, help me out!"

Tyler sighed and helped Eva to pull the rod out of the crack. Slowly it gave, inch by inch.

"Man, how does Gwen keep a grip on this thing?" Tyler strained.

Suddenly it came loose and they both fell back into the water. Eva sat up, holding the scythe up victoriously in one hand. "Ha! Got it!"

"Can you turn it into a scythe?" Tyler asked.

"Let me see." Eva looked over the rod, shaking it a bit. She tapped it. "Uh...I don't see any buttons or switches."

"Maybe there's a pass word." Lindsay said.

"Did you hear Gwen say a thing when she used this?" Eva sighed. "Okay, so the scythe is a no go...unless we can find Goth Girl. Come on, maybe the others are also here."

The trio moved off into the shallow sea, in search of their friends.

Xxx

"AH OH MY GOD! CODY! CODY!" Justin opened his eyes as Sierra ran around in a circle, screaming for Cody.

Sitting up, Justin paused as he felt...wet. He looked down and saw the water. "Oh man! I'm soaked! My hair!" He put one hand to his now messed up hair. "Ok Justin calm down...it's not real...you'll look good and pretty when you get out."

Sierra paused. "You're awake! Come on we have to go find the others!"

"Uh...what happened?"

"I don't know! Man it was so confusing, I just woke up here and it's all wet and there's water everywhere and it's so shallow and I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO FIND CODY!-" Sierra was cut off when Justin put a hand over her mouth.

"Ah...I can think now." Justin sighed in relief.

"We got to find them!" Sierra cried.

Justin got up and looked around.

"I don't see anyone. Where do we go?"

"Anywhere! They could be in trouble!" Sierra ran a hand through her virtual hair.

"All right. All right. We go . . . That way." Justin just pointed to Sierra's left.

"Okay! HANG ON CODY! I'M COMING!"

Justin sighed as they started walking through the shallow sea.

Xxx

Cody opened his eyes to find him lying in shallow water on his back. He got up, noticing his pistols were floating not far from him. After picking them up he looked around.

"Hello? Gwen? Anybody?"

He received no answer.

"I guess it's a whole new ball game now." Cody sighed as he put his pistols away.

He started walking through the large but shallow ocean he found himself in.

'Wonder what XANA trap I'm walking into this time?'

Xxx

"OH MY GOSH! Katie, I'm so scared!"

"I know! Me too!"

Beth pulled her glasses out of the shallow water and wiped them off. Putting them on she saw Sadie and Katie hugging each other tightly.

"Katie? Sadie? Where are we?" Beth looked around.

"We don't know!" Katie cried.

"We just woke up here!" Sadie said.

Beth looked to see the shallow endless sea and the dark skies. She shivered from the cold water soaking her clothes.

"This is worse than being lost in the forest!" Sadie cried.

"I know. I don't want to die here!" Katie cried.

"Guys, calm down! We just need to find a way out." Beth tried to calm them down.

"How? There are no doors!" Katie said.

"We don't know where the exit is." Sadie said.

"Then we just need to find it or someone who can help." Beth said.

Katie and Sadie stopped crying and got up.

"But where do we go?" asked Sadie.

"I don't know. Maybe if we keep walking we'll find someone." Beth shrugged.

"I say we got that way." Katie pointed in Sadie's direction.

"Oh my gosh! I was going to say we should go that way!" Sadie pointed in Katie's direction.

"Ok! We just go that way! We don't have time to debate!" Beth pointed straight.

Sadie and Katie looked at each before turning back to Beth and nodded.


	22. Episode 21: Battle of the Dark World

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 21

Trent had been searching the endless ocean of shallow water when he heard the echo of a voice.

"Hello? Gwen! GWEN!" Trent shouted.

"...en...gwen..." He heard another voice and saw something in the far distance.

"HELLO? HELLO? OVER HERE!" Trent shouted.

"...ent?" He could hear part of his name being called.

"YEAH IT'S TRENT! WHO IS IT?" Trent shouted back as he rushed through the water towards the speaker.

By then they were close enough for him to hear. "...Cody..!"

"CODY! HAVE YOU SEEN ANYBODY ELSE?"

"No!" Now he could hear Cody clearly as they closed the final hundred feet.

"Where the hell is this place?" Trent asked.

"If I had to guess, XANA put us here to get us out of the way." Cody replied. "Well, if we managed to meet up, maybe the others are somewhere also."

"So...how do we find them then?" Trent asked.

"Hm..." Cody pulled out his pistols. "I have a plan. Plug your ears."

He began to fire up into the air with one pistol.

"Thank."

BANG!

"Goodness for."

BANG!

"Infinite."

BANG!

"Ammo."

BANG!

Cody said between shots.

"Well, they'll definitely see that!" Trent shouted over the gun shots. "Where can I get one of those?"

"Uh...I have two but I'm not so sure you can work it." Cody said. "Not that I mean you don't know how to work a gun, I mean they're designed to only work for me from what I can tell about weapons like this. And where to get something similar...uh...if we survive we might get to talk with my uh...boss about that."

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

Xxx

"Hey, look!" Tyler pointed off into the distance at several flashes of light.

"Looks like there's somebody over there, better than nobody." Eva said.

Xxx

"Ooh! Those must be Cody's guns! LET'S GO!" Sierra tugged Justin along so fast he felt like he was water skiing across the water.

"SLOW DOWN WOMAN! YOU SCRAPE MY FACE AND YOU'LL HEAR FROM MY LAWYERS! WHY IS EVERY GIRL SO FREAKISHLY STRONG ON THIS SHOW?" Justin's scream echoed as Sierra shot across the shallow ocean.

Xxx

"Is that what I think it is?" Duncan pointed towards the flashes.

"Cody's laser pistol...thing." Courtney said.

"Smooth, now let's go!" Duncan paused as he stumbled into a slightly deeper part of the ocean and ended up to his chest. "Ah great, looks like it's like this for a while, we might take a bit getting there."

"You never noticed that path, did you?" Courtney pointed to a path of shallow water that cut through the deeper, darker water.

"Don't you say a word." Duncan said quickly as he climbed out.

Xxx

"Hey, what are those?" Katie narrowed her eyes in an attempt to see the source of the flashes in the distance, and heard gun shots that accompanied them.

"Guns!" She and Sadie screamed at once.

"That's a good thing! Cody had guns, those are his!" Beth said. "Don't you get it? It's a signal!" She started running, followed by her two companions.

Xxx

"Ohh! OOH! Look!" Izzy pointed, hopping up and down.

"Okay, calm down. What is it?" Noah climbed out of the neck deep water and joined Izzy.

"Shiny! EEEEEEE!" Izzy squeaked and took off, carrying Noah over her head as she went through head deep water.

As Noah tried to comprehend how she could hold her breath for ten full minutes, she continued to move full speed while just barely keeping him above the surface.

"Uh...wow." He said before she surfaced after eleven minutes and thirty two seconds.

"I learned how to hold my breath from the fish people!" She said.

Noah sighed. "You know, I'm so happy we found somebody that I won't even comment on that."

Xxx

"Yo, chica, you see that?" Alejandro asked.

"What? And a little help? I can't get up!" Heather tried to get out of some water that was just a foot too deep for her to stand.

Alejandro pulled her up easily. "I think we just got some good luck. I sure as hell remember getting shot at by those."

Heather could hear the gun shots easily. "Yep, that's Cody."

"Well let's go and hope he remembers I'm 'not' trying to kill him anymore." Alejandro waded through some deep water. Heather had some difficulty, being shorter.

"A little help?" She demanded.

Alejandro sighed and scooped her up, holding her up as he walked up. "You just wanted an excuse not to walk, didn't you?"

"I didn't choose to walk into the part of this messed up world with the deepest water." Heather crossed her arms.

"Whatever you say princess." Alejandro rolled his eyes.

Xxx

"WEEEEE!" Suddenly Izzy and Sierra slid to a stop inches from one another, dropping their charges.

"Momma? " Justin fainted.

"So...fast." Noah fell face first into the water and gurgled until Trent pulled him up. "Now I regret not taking those swimming lessons like mom asked me to." He looked up. "You were right mom! Tony was right to laugh at me for skipping out! I take back all my sarcastic comments! There, I said it!"

"Looks like the signal worked." Cody said.

"Well keep firing, more might show up!" Trent said.

"Got it!" Cody looked at Sierra, who was squeezing the life out of him. "Sierra I know you missed me but can you please hold off until we know everybody is here?"

After a minute Alejandro showed up, carrying Heather out of the deep water.

"Ah, senior nut job arrives." Noah said. "And who is that but his blushing bride?"

"Shut. Up. It was deep and I was tired!" Heather said as Alejandro set her on her feet.

"Yeah right," Noah smirked.

"Who else is missing?" Cody asked, still firing into the air. "They'd better hurry, my arm's falling asleep."

"Don't worry Poindexter; I doubt they'll miss much at this rate." Duncan climbed out of some deep water twenty feet away and helped Courtney up.

"Duncan! Courtney...and you're not trying to kill each other." Cody sounded surprised.

"Dang, I lost twenty bucks." Noah said. 'Yep, I've still got it. Won't lose that good old sarcastic wit anytime soon baby.'

"Yeah, yeah, so good to see you too Clint Eastwood." Duncan said.

"Happy to see you too..." Cody muttered under his breath. "Three Days Grace Reject." He kept firing into the air.

"HEY! GUYS! GUYS!" Six figures came out of the mist around them, revealing Eva, Beth, Katie, Sadie, Lindsay, and Tyler.

"Finally!" Tyler climbed out of the water...thirty seconds after everybody else had swam through another patch of deep water.

"You suck at swimming, seriously-" Eva paused as Tyler fell back into the water. "I'll just shut up now, you've got it bad enough already."

"That's everybody...wait, anybody see where one goth girl went?" Duncan looked around.

"Oh Gwen again?" Courtney put her hands on her hips.

"Let it go! She's actually not here Courtney." Duncan rolled his eyes.

"I found this." Eva held up her retracted scythe. "Wouldn't work for me."

"Gwen's scythe!" Cody said. "She has to be here somewhere!"

"You don't think she was left unconscious in deep water, do you?" Trent asked.

"No, and even if she was this water is well..." Cody laid back for example. "Look, only a foot of water and I'm still floating pretty much. I doubt she'd sink, and even if she didn't these deep patches are pretty restricted and there's no flow, somebody would have noticed."

"There weren't any deep patches near the scythe; it was just sticking out of a big rock." Eva said.

"Huh, the only rock in this whole ocean." Cody said. "Makes you think...it was left there to be found."

"Which means Gwen won't just come to us if somebody else left it there for her." Duncan added.

"So then where could she be?" Beth asked.

"Well, guess we'll have to look around." Cody said.

"Are you kidding? We only found each other because you got a signal out! If Gwen couldn't get here, I really think she didn't see it or she can't see it." Alejandro said.

"Or she couldn't try to get to it." Trent said.

"Ok, let's just split up for a short distance, keep at least a hundred yards close, and keep shouting." Cody said. "She has to be somewhere...and I think I noticed something about this world."

"What?" Noah asked.

"Well, I traced the perimeter of each deep patch with my mind. I got a good look at them and I think I noticed something. No matter what, they seem to indicate north whether they're a straight arrow, a generally pyramid shaped figure...or even a small or Capital N." Cody said. "So north is that way." He pointed north. And nobody came from the north."

"So that means she might be north!" Beth said, understanding Cody's words.

"Precisely!" Cody said. "That and I stopped here because there isn't a single deep patch to the north. You see shallow paths from the west, east and south but there's a big wide path starting here and going north. Still, doesn't hurt to check the deep patches off to the side. Just keep going north and make sure nobody falls behind and we'll find her. Now let's go!"

With that the group took off, heading north. Along the way someone decided to ask a few questions.

"So...who is XANA anyways?" Noah asked. "That an acronym for something?"

"Do I really have to answer that right now?" Cody asked.

"He got us all stuck here and turned Al into a psycho, so yes." Duncan said.

"Ok...you know that red eye virus that popped up? Uh...XANA did that."

"So he's an expert hacker?" Noah asked.

"In a way..."

"Cody." Heather cracked her knuckles.

"OK! Would you believe me if I said he is a crazed, demonic Artificial Intelligence hell bent on destroying human life?" Cody asked. "And that red eye virus was one of his attempts to do so?"

The group stared at him.

"Hold on, this guy was flesh and blood, I saw him!" Alejandro said.

"You saw a human...or what looked like a human. It could have been an image." Cody explained. "You see, he is so powerful he can bend the real world to his will in some ways. Like...possessing you, Al. He can possess people not immune to his power like me and turn them into super psychotic killers. You become immune by...well if we live I'll tell you all."

The group was silent as they walked on.

Xxx

Gwen opened her eyes to find herself floating on a piece of wood. She looked around and saw herself in the middle of deep water that she could not touch the ground in and surrounded by a stone ring. She swam to the side and tried to climb up but couldn't, it was too high for her.

"Hello? Anyone? Cody?"

Looking around Gwen could only see nothing but the stones surrounding her, keeping her trapped.

'Where the heck am I now?'

She tried to find her scythe but it was nowhere to be found.

'Great. Looks like I'm stuck here until someone can find me.' Gwen thought.

She started to shiver from the cold.

'That is, if someone finds me.'

Xxx

"Uh...is it me or is that really out of place?" Izzy pointed to a stone ring that stuck up and out of the water.

"Let's go check it out." Trent began to run towards it, but stumbled and fell into water so deep he could not touch the bottom. "Oh man!"

Duncan quickly dove under and came back up. "About twenty feet."

"Twenty feet?" Trent shouted.

"Trent?" Gwen shouted from inside the ring.

"GWEN!" Trent swam towards the ring. "Are you in there?"

"Yeah! I can't climb out!" Gwen shouted.

"Hold on, I have an idea." Alejandro spoke up. "Ok, me and Duncan swim under with a few others, we keep as close to the edge of the ring as we can, and when we're at the bottom somebody goes on top of us and then the one at the top gives the lightest person a boost up."

"I'd say...she's the lightest." Noah pointed to Katie.

"Ok, so we use her weight on the very top to help keep us in position. Keep a tower that can lift her up. But we have to do it fast; we'd only have one good breath to do it before we need to take a break to catch our breath." Alejandro and Duncan waded out.

"Hold on Gwen, we'll get you out!" Trent shouted as he went down with them. When they were on the bottom, Alejandro crouched down with his back facing up. Duncan floated over top of him, and Trent swam down, keeping Duncan in position on Alejandro while the others swam down one by one.

Within a minute, they were almost at the top. With Cody on top, he angled his back for Katie to stand on. Katie, having luckily though to kick off her high heels stood on Cody's back and stood up shakily, grabbing the edge of the ring and pulling herself up. "I got it!"

Cody, who was a foot under water pushed off of the tower, which began to collapse apart as everybody realized that she had climbed up. When they came up, Alejandro, Duncan, and Trent had almost been out of breath. The group, gasping for precious air watched as Katie stood by the edge.

"What now?" She asked.

"Maybe we can get the next lightest person or two up there. Cody, you're next." Trent said.

With three people pushing up from under him and Katie pulling on his arm, they managed to get Cody and then Noah up.

"Alright, get her out of there!" Trent called to them.

Katie reached down, being held up by Noah and Cody. Gwen reached up, trying to stay afloat. However before she could grab Katie's hand something pulled her down.

"Gwen!" Cody shouted as she was pulled under.

"What happened?" Trent yelled up to them.

"Something got her!" Katie screamed.

A laugh was heard. Everyone looked around to find the source of the voice.

"Did anyone just hear a laugh that sounded creepy?" asked Courtney.

"Either that or Izzy's rubbed off on us." Noah said.

"Hey! I resent that! The only voices I hear are my friends that have been with me since I was six!" Izzy said.

"I got a good idea whose laugh that is." Cody said pulling out his gun.

"How nice to see you again as well, Cody."

Everyone spun around to see a humanoid figure standing on top of the stone ring, not far from Noah, Cody, and Katie. The figure revealed itself to be a young man in a pure white suit, white gloves, a white hat, and a white cane in his hand.

"You again? You're XANA aren't you?" Alejandro pointed at the figure.

"Deductive for such a fool." XANA said with a smirk. "Did you enjoy all that power? What was it like to have it snatched away after such a brief time?"

"Honestly, I think I'll live." Alejandro crossed his arms.

"So you're the ass who's been making our lives hell?" Heather demanded.

"Nothing personal, all just good business." XANA shrugged. "And if I recall it was Alejandro who tampered with the pods and sent you all here. He could have easily said no, but the moment I offered him the chance to be healed he jumped at it without hesitation."

"You tricked me! You used me to do your dirty work!" Alejandro growled.

"I never tricked you. In both of our deals you accepted my terms after they were explained to you. There was no deception from me." XANA waved him off.

He smirked over at Cody who kept his pistols levelled on him.

"Well, you assembled them all here. Since you have told your friends about me I guess I can only introduce myself since this is most likely the last time we will meet. In this form I play the role of, the doctor who healed the wounds of your fellow competitor Dr. Xavier Archer Nigel Adams but from what I understand from Cody and Gwen have told you I am also the so called crazed demonic artificial intelligence out to destroy human life known as XANA." The humanoid AI tipped his hat in greetings.

"Terrible suit, stupid hat, a cane...yep, that's evil." Noah said.

"Is this really the time for jokes Noah! This guy has been trying to kill us!" Courtney shouted.

"Eh, it was worth it."

"Well then I suppose since I can't allow any witnesses to exists I can grant a few favours such as allowing some of you to make whatever jokes to hide the fear that you'll soon feel." XANA smirked at them.

"Yeah, yeah, about bringing Gwen back up now before I blast you." Cody threatened.

"As you wish." XANA snapped his fingers.

A dark light shot out of the stone ring Gwen had been trapped in earlier and a dark mist spread out. Then a claw came out of the now dark water, followed by another claw, and another and another until the creature pulled itself out. It was a mass of black tentacles, each one ending with a claw, with a humanoid torso above the mass of tentacles, but instead of arms, the creature had two long tentacles that it twirled around like whips. On its head were two black horns, red eyes and a wide mouth. On its chest was the Eye of XANA.

"Oh. My. God." Lindsay whimpered as she backed away, followed by Katie, Sadie, and Beth.

"Oh man that is so ugly." Noah said as he took two steps back, trying to give the beast a wide berth.

That was when Gwen was pulled out of the water by the creature's tentacles. She coughed as she breathed in fresh air. The creature a tentacle wrapped tightly around her.

"It's got her!" Cody shouted.

Eva pulled something out of her belt. "Hey Gwen! Catch!"

She tossed the rod through the air. Gwen just barely managed to stretch one arm out and catch her scythe. Without wasting time she snapped it out to its full length and cut away the tentacle around her. She fell and landed on the stone ring, crouching down as she breathed in relief and to catch her breath.

"Are you ok!" Trent shouted in concern.

Gwen nodded as she got up. "I'll live. What's happening?"

"We got a huge monster ready to kill us! I'd appreciate it if you can get us out now!" Duncan said.

Gwen shook her head.

"There are only two ways to get out of here. One, we find the core of this simulation and shut it down or someone destroys it on the outside." Gwen said.

"Any way to count on uh...Geoff, Bridgette, LeShawna or DJ doing that?" Heather asked.

"Not them, but the person who's been helping us here might." Cody said. "If she can get here."

"Who is she anyways?" Noah asked.

"Her name's Aelita and she knows more about this than anybody...since her dad created XANA." Gwen explained.

"Her dad made the guy who did all of this?" Courtney pointed at XANA.

"Trust me; he didn't plan for this to happen." Cody said. "But here we are...and I really hope Aelita can get to the outside of this simulation. You're all free of it; we just need her to destroy it. She's good at that."

"How the hell did you meet her anyways?" Heather asked.

"It was during that Red Virus problem the first time. She was on the run from XANA and we helped her, she explained what was happening. Couldn't go to the government because they'd have just abducted her and take the computer. They're pretty much the reason why XANA exists in the first place." Gwen spoke up. "And now we've been having to ditch some personal time to help Aelita stop XANA from basically killing us all."

XANA clapped his hands, earning everyone's attention.

"Well said, Gwen. I'm impressed with how far you have made it in here."

He looked at the monster that came out of the water in the stone ring.

"You wish to leave? Well I shall give you a chance. This creature holds the core of my simulation. Destroy it along with the core and you'll be free."

The monster roared and looked down at them.

"Uh...Gwen?" Cody looked at her.

"Yeah?"

"Would you judge me if I ran away screaming like a little girl?" Cody asked.

"Not really, no." Gwen said as she stared up at the monster. "Honestly I have the same urge right now."

Xxx

Aelita was barely keeping ahead of Ryder's fierce attacks. She ducked under a boulder as Ryder sent another wave of lightning at it. It was blown apart and debris scattered everywhere. Ryder looked all over the debris for any sign of Aelita but he found nothing.

"I guess she was devirtualized." Ryder scoffed as he turned around. "Not a challenge after all."

He turned to walk away.

"Energy Field!"

Ryder turned his head to see a pink orb slam into him. He was sent flying back, sliding across the ice. He got up and saw Aelita standing a few yards away, unharmed.

"You should always check to make sure the opponent you're fighting is real." Aelita held out her hand.

"I'll make a note of that." Ryder growled as he sent another wave of lightning at her.

Aelita activated her wings and flew above the attack. She flew at Ryder with her hands glowing pink. Ryder held up his sword as Aelita tried to punch. He blocked it but the force of the attack sent him sliding back on his feet. Aelita had powered up her fists with energy fields making them dangerous to touch.

He looked up and saw Aelita flying at him again.

"Not this time."

Red energy traveled up his sword as he prepared to unleash his attack. However Aelita did not give him a chance.

"Plasma Beam!"

She fired her attack but at the last second Ryder swung his sword just as the attack was in front of him. He was engulfed in a huge explosion. When it cleared Aelita saw that Ryder was still alive but he looked heavily injured.

"You fired your Lighting Storm at the last second to stop my attack from destroying you." Aelita landed on her feet.

Ryder growled. Aelita turned around to the direction of the Simulation Bubble.

"Where are you going? We're not done yet!" Ryder got up.

Aelita looked over her shoulder.

"I am. I don't have time to finish. I have friends to save. We can finish this another time."

Before Ryder could reply Aelita activated her wings and took off. Ryder growled unleashing a blast of lightning at a large ice boulder.

"She'll pay for that. I don't care what XANA wants. She'll pay."

Xxx

XANA smirked at the horrified teens that looked terrified of his creation.

"Well, Gwen and Cody, do you believe you will be able to topple this obstacle?"

Cody scoffed.

"Please, the Eye is the weakness. Just one shot and it'll be dead."

XANA chuckled.

"Well if you believe that than feel free and attack."

"Gladly!" Gwen's scythe snapped out and she swung at him, cleaving right through XANA, spilling out multiple binary digits as the AI laughed.

"Nice swing, but not enough."

XANA disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.

"But rejoice, for Aelita is indeed on her way. Your time in this world is almost over."

"Oh please, you tried to kill her tons of times and you messed it up each and every time." Cody taunted him.

"And what makes you think my plan depends on this simulation's fate? It's all a red herring, a decoy." XANA chuckled. "And you're all falling for it so easily."

"What do you mean?" Gwen demanded.

"Did you really think I would go through all this trouble just so I could trap and delete only two warriors? Despite the fact that you two have been formidable if I capture or neutralize Aelita than I would have the final victory." XANA explained. "This entire exercise was meant to draw all the warriors into Lyoko."

"What is this guy talking about?" Duncan asked.

"We'll explain later." Cody said quickly.

"If you wish to save them than defeat the creature and destroy the core and they will be free." XANA's voice echoed around them.

"But you said Aelita's on her way." Cody said.

"But I never said I didn't leave something guarding the simulation bubble."

His creation roared at them and whipped its arms around catching Gwen and Cody by surprise. They were thrown back hard, hitting the shallow water with a large splash.

"Cody!" Sierra screamed.

Gwen and Cody got onto their feet barely as the creature roared again.

"Great. Why is there always a big monster at the end of nearly every fight?" Gwen grumbled as she held out her scythe.

"I don't know. I liked it better it was on my games. I always get the high score." Cody chuckled.

Eva turned and looked at them. "Any objections to helping this time?"

"Are you crazy? Going up against _that_?" Heather pointed at it.

"Got to agree with her, not a good idea." Duncan nodded.

"And what about Gwen and Cody?" Trent asked. "It's going to kill them!"

"What can we do? We don't have any weapons." Noah said.

"But we can't just leave them! They risked their lives to save us!" Beth spoke up.

"But we could die!" Justin said. "I prefer living, thank you very much!"

"And where can we go? You heard what Gwen said. We're stuck here unless that Aelita girl destroys it or they take that out!" Alejandro pointed at the creature.

Gwen and Cody took off running, moving fast to evade the tentacles coming at them. Cody tried to hit the XANA Eye but the creature brought up its tentacles to take the shots.

"They can't win! We should just run!" Tyler said.

"Where can we go?" Lindsay asked.

"She's right. Look around us." Katie said.

There was nowhere to go. No doors, no exits, just an endless sea of shallow water.

"Uh...I think I might have an idea if we can all stop for a second." Noah said.

"What is it?" Eva asked.

"Well...anybody ever play the Shadow of Collossus?" Noah asked.

"No."

"Nope."

"Nope!"

"Well..." Noah pointed to the tentacles, which had tiny barbs on it which were just big enough to somebody to grab without harm. "In it, you had to climb onto the boss, and climb to their weak spot and hit it until they died."

"Sweet, good plan, well thought out..." Duncan said. "There's just one small problem...what do we have on us that can injure that?"

"Well..." Noah looked around. "Wait...I think I have a plan. CODY! I need a gun!"

"You can't even fire it!" Cody shouted.

"I don't have to, we just need the blade! I have a plan!" Noah shouted.

"Alright, but this better work!" Cody tossed one bladed revolver to Noah.

"Okay, who here is a good climber and isn't afraid of heights?" Noah asked.

"I'm up for it." Eva stepped forward.

"Okay," He handed it to her. "Now, wait a second. CODY!" He spun as he shouted. "WHAT'S THE WEAK SPOT!"

"I'D SAY IT'S THE BIG EYE SYMBOL!" Cody shouted. "THEY GO DOWN EASY IF YOU CAN HIT THAT NICE AND GOOD!"

"Okay. Eva, you need to climb up one tentacle, and then along its back, over one shoulder, down onto the chest, and stab the center of the eye with the blade on the gun!" Noah said. "Can you do it?"

Eva shrugged. "Best damn chance we have." She stuffed the gun into the waist line of her shorts and rushed towards where several tentacles hang down in the water.

She let out a war cry and leaped up as one tentacle began to rise. She gripped one hooked barb, but lost her grip when the tentacle suddenly jerked as it swung at Gwen. She hit the water again. Getting up and spitting out water, she growled. "Ok, can't go one handed, I need a full grip!"

She waited until a tentacle lurched by and leaped up. She immediately grabbed two hooked barks and managed to secure her feet in to more. She began to climb along them one by one, foot by foot. Slowly, as Gwen and Cody fought on she managed to reach most of the way to the monster's waist. When she reached it, she found that there no hooks, but instead there were large patches of fur and parts of skin that had crevices for her hands.

"Wow, she's a good climber!" Lindsay said.

"Duh, she's a fitness freak." Duncan said. "But I ain't complaining."

"I CAN HEAR YOU!" Eva yelled as she climbed up parts of the creatures back where the hair was thickest. "WHY THE HELL DOES THIS THING HAVE HAIR ANYWAYS!"

"DON'T COMPLAIN, IF IT DIDN'T YOU'D HAVE FALLEN BY NOW!" Heather called to her.

"You're not really supportive Heather." Noah said.

"It was a fact! If that thing actually shaved she wouldn't be able to climb it past the waist and we'd be stuck here to die!" Heather said. "Not everything I say is an insult, gosh!"

Eva reached the shoulder...and by then was noticed as the creature's eyes locked on her. She gulped. "What's with boss fights and monsters being this freaking big?" It growled...but paused as Cody fired multiple shots with his one revolver and Gwen leaped up and swung at one tentacle, cutting deep into it. It turned its attention to them, allowing Eva to begin climbing down the chest. She realized before she was even near the eye that she would have to drop about ten feet to grab some more hand holds that could get her closer to the eye.

"Aw hell." She sighed and let go. She managed to grab a hook that stuck out of the flesh...but not the way she intended. It went right through her hand! She screamed, but managed to pull her hand off while gripping some hair next to the hook. Trying to ignore her hand, which had a gaping hole in it now, she continued to climb-she was worried since she couldn't feel her middle finger anymore though, or move it for that matter.

She was right above the eye now. She saw that there were no hand holds in the symbol, but there were several below it. She sighed and took out the revolver. "Time it right." She dropped...and stabbed the blade tipped revolver down right into the center of the eye. She released it and grabbed another tuft of dark hair. "HAH! SUCK IT!"

The monster looked down at her and hissed.

"Uh...why isn't it dying?" she asked.

Gwen shook her head. "I don't get it, she hit the symbol!"

"Gwen...I think I know what's wrong." Cody pointed to the creature's mouth that was snapping at them...revealing that behind the jaws on its tip it had a throat that led deeper inside.

"You have got to be kidding." Gwen gagged.

"I'll go," Cody said.

"Heck no! You're more useful out here where you can shoot at it, I'll go inside." Gwen said, retracting her scythe into its rod form.

"Good point." Cody nodded.

"I am so going to hate this." Gwen took a deep breath.

"EVA GET OUT OF THERE!" Cody shouted to Eva.

"What are they doing?" Noah asked as he watched them.

Eva fell, angling herself into some deep water.

"What's the plan now?" Courtney asked.

"You all run while I scar myself for life." Gwen sighed.

"What the heck is she doing?" Katie asked.

"I don't like the looks of this." Alejandro said nervously.

"AYE YAH!" Gwen roared as she ran at the creature.

The monster's tentacles rushed at her and grabbed her.

"GWEN!" Trent shouted.

"Don't interfere!" Gwen shouted.

"Is she crazy?" Izzy asked.

"Coming from you she must be." Noah said with a shocked look.

The creature held Gwen in front of its face as it looked at her.

"What the hell are you waiting for? An invitation!"

The creature accepted this and opened its mouth and swallowed her.

"GWEN!" Trent shouted with a horrified look.

"It just ate her!" Sadie screamed.

"That's the plan! NOW RUN!" Cody shouted, firing at the monster.

"HOW IS GETTING EATEN ALIVE THE PLAN?" Duncan shouted.

"SHE CAN ATTACK THE INSIDE PART OF THAT SYMBOL! HITTING IT OUTSIDE DIDN'T CUT IT!" Cody shouted back as the group fled through the shallow water. Some of them stumbled into deeper parts, but quickly caught up.

"AND IF IT DOESN'T WORK?" Trent asked.

"WELL...THEN WE'LL SEE EACH OTHER WHERE EVER DELETED MINDS GO WHEN THEY DIE!" Cody shouted.

Xxx

Aelita was almost at the Simulation bubble when a laser shot hit her left wing forcing her to fall and land on the icy ground hard. Grunting, she got up and saw several Dark Tarantulas with their shields activated and their guns aimed at her.

"Great."

Xxx

Inside, Gwen resisted the urge to vomit as she crawled up the tentacle's throat. She cut away some...she wouldn't venture to guess what she was crawling through, but she cut through them with her scythe until she suddenly fell out of the low tunnel that was the tentacle's throat. Luckily the monster didn't have an actual stomach, which meant it didn't have stomach acid. She looked around the inside of the monster.

It looked like many tubes filled with digital information in the form of bright blue lights. Upon further examination she found they were various ones and zeroes. There were small platforms inside the monster also that looked rather promising to stand on.

"Ok...could be worse." Gwen said. "Just need to get up to the chest. I'm at the waist so it can't be that far...THERE!" She pointed up to where she saw a throbbing red section right around where she guessed Eva had stabbed the revolver in.

"Alright, here we go!" She began to climb from platform to platform. She was essentially on a stair way made of the floating platforms until she reached a section where a platform floated back and forth rather quickly and wobbled a bit.

"This is a bit too much like a video game now." Gwen said. "Then again he said this isn't his main plan so maybe he DID make this to be one big game." She hopped across as the platform reached her and just barely kept her balance as it wobbled. She leaped to the next platform, which took her up. "Ok, so far so-"

DOW!

"GOOD!" She dodged a laser that came down. She looked up and saw a Tarantula that was crawling down the side of the monster's interior towards her. "Oh you've got to be kidding me!"

The platform stopped at the level where the revolver was stuck in from the outside.

The Tarantula stopped and began to fire from one forward leg at her. She whipped out her scythe and dodged the first two shots and reflected the next two. She reared one arm back and flung the scythe at it. The scythe arched through the air, the blade glowing. It cut the tarantula in half, and it exploded.

"HA! Too easy!" Gwen paused as she heard roars from above. She looked up and saw a red eye of XANA appear on the wall far above. It formed into a portal, spilling out more Tarantulas. "Aw crap." She grabbed her scythe. "Look out world, Gwen's learned a lesson: saying 'too easy' in either world gets you in trouble!" She tugged it out of the wall, which bled bytes of information. She reared it back and swung right as a Tarantula leaped at her from above. Her blade sank into the red patch, and everything seemed to freeze.

The monsters faded away, and the monster Gwen was in began to shake. She looked around. "O-o-o-o-o-oh-h-h-h cra-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-ap."

Xxx

Outside, Cody lowered his revolver as the monster began to twitch and writhe. It let out a screech as it spread its arms and roared to the empty sky. Then it simply exploded into a cloud of black smoke. Cody watched as it slowly dissipated. "She did it!"

"Where is she though?" Trent asked.

"Let's go find her." The group rushed towards where the monster had vanished.

"Gwen! Gwen?" They all called out her name as they searched for her...until Katie tripped over something in the water. She reached down and pulled out a small rod. "Oh god, her scythe!"

Everyone gathered around her as she held it out.

"Is she dead?" Lindsay asked with a fearful look.

"No. If she was dead than her scythe would have disappeared." Cody said putting his pistols away.

That was when Gwen's head popped out of a deep patch of water with a gasp for air.

"Gwen!" Trent and several others shouted happily.

They ran over and pulled her out of the water.

"That was fun." Gwen sarcastically said.

"Are you okay?" Trent asked.

"Yeah . . . Wait, we're still here?" Gwen asked looking around.

"Now that you mention it . . ." Cody said.

"Don't tell me I let myself get swallowed up for nothing." Gwen growled. "I thought that thing was the core."

"Didn't you hear a word I said?"

They all turned to see XANA reappear out of a black cloud in his preferred form. His hair was black with red streaks all through it, dressed in a black body suit with dark red lines all through it, and a dark short sleeved coat. His skin was pale, pointed ears could be seen under his hair, and his eyes were glinting red. He was standing right above the water

"I said that the creature contained the core. Destroying it and the core are two separate tasks." XANA smirked as a white blue orb came out of the water.

He grasped it in his hand. "I believe this is what you're looking for."

Cody pulled out his guns and Gwen took the rod from Katie and it extended back into its scythe form.

"We're going to have to fight you too?" Cody levelled his pistols on the blue orb.

"Not at all. I believe it's time to end this play." XANA smirked before he did something that surprised them.

He smashed the core with his own hand. Everyone was consumed in a bright light.

"What's happening?" Courtney screamed as she saw herself beginning to disappear.

"It's all right! You're going back!" Cody replied.

"One would think so."

They turned and saw XANA smirking triumphantly.

"What do you mean?" Gwen glared.

"You'll see. In the meantime let us go see how Aelita is doing."

Xxx

The sphere exploded in a shower of sparks. Gwen and Cody looked down at themselves to find they were in their Lyoko forms and back in the Ice Sector of Lyoko.

Gwen and Cody stood before Aelita, looking around.

"You did it!" Gwen smiled.

"Yes," Aelita smiled. "I'm assuming we'll have to do a return to the past."

"Most definitely." Cody said.

"Hey! What happened?" shouted a familiar female voice.

They turned and to their shock they saw orbs of light in the air, each one surrounded by a smoky barrier.

"Heather?" Gwen and Cody asked with wide eyes.

"Yeah! What happened? I thought I would be back in that damn studio!" Heather's voice came from one of the orbs.

"Whoa..." Izzy's orb floated around and collided with Noah's.

"Ow! Hey! Ouch I'm stuck!" The two orbs struggled to pull apart. "Nobody say a word!"

"Uh...Aelita? Weren't they supposed to go back to the studio?" Cody asked.

"Hey, why do you all look like something out of an anime?" Noah asked after freeing himself from Izzy.

"Or uh...3D." Tyler added.

"We're in the digital world still! The only difference is that we have our avatar forms and uh...I think you all uh...you didn't get scanned into it so you don't have forms." Cody explained.

"Eek! Oh my god Cody you look so awesome! Just like James Bond!" Sierra's orb moved erratically back and forth.

"Uh...thanks, but we have to get serious here!" Cody said. "Aelita, why didn't it work?"

"I'm not sure Cody, maybe Bridgette can tell us." Aelita looked up at the sky. "Bridgette, can you monitor the link between Lyoko and the Studio?"

"Uh...I'm not too sure what's wrong guys, it should have worked." Bridgette said hesitantly.

"Oh man this is not good." Gwen rubbed her head.

Aelita then turned around, sensing someone.

"Bridgette, you have to hurry!"

XANA than appeared right behind Aelita.

"It's been a while, sister."

Aelita's eyes widened as she spun around.

"XANA!"

Gwen and Cody pulled out their weapons.

"How careless of you, Aelita." XANA spoke, ignoring them.

"This is your doing." Aelita holding a hand out and an Energy Field appeared, ready for her to use it.

"Why else would I go through all this trouble? All this time your friend's fellow competitors were the bait to bring you here. The purpose of retiring you as Lyoko's Guardian." XANA looked at the floating orbs. "Each contestant upon entering my simulation was infected with a program that prevents them from leaving. To free them you would have to go through the trouble of finding an anti-virus."

"Retiring her? Just how you do plan to do that?" Cody asked.

XANA smirked and snapped his fingers. That was when a screeching sound was heard. The warriors saw a mass of blue tentacles attached to a jelly fish like creature. Aelita's eyes widened in terror as she recognized it.

The Scyphozoa.

"Attempt to escape and you ensure deletion for the contestants. With no body they are nothing but data, each one a mere floating conscience unable to defend themselves, move freely, or even resist. Once destroyed, either by falling into the digital sea or by my monsters it's permanent." XANA watched as the creature floated beside him. "If you don't wish their demise on your souls I suggest you all sheathe your weapons."

Four Dragon Knights appeared and surrounded them and confiscated Gwen's scythe and Cody's pistols.

"What do you want?" Aelita asked lowering her hands.

"As you know, the primary purpose of my Scyphozoa was to steal the Keys to Lyoko that you had buried deep in your mind. When it did, I combined your half with the other half I took from our father. When I did, he saved by restoring your memories and giving a copy of the half I took." XANA's smirk widened slightly. "Its purpose now is to finish what it started and take that copy. It's time you stepped down from being Lyoko's Guardian . .. Permanently."

"You lured me into Lyoko, sent an army of monsters to guard the tower, made sure Geoff and Bridgette devirtualized so that DJ and LeShawna could be separated from me with your generals. And when the simulation bubble was destroyed the virus you placed in the contestants activated. The barrier keeps them here." Aelita spoke, realizing XANA's plan.

"A bargaining chip. Your half of the Key for them. Choose carefully, Aelita, their lives or what allows you to deactivate my towers and intercept me."

Aelita looked up in uncovered fear of the Scyphozoa. If there was one thing Aelita fear and hated more than XANA it was this mind devouring creature in front of her. Now she was given the choice of having choose between saving them but once again have her mind drained by the monster. XANA smirked at the expression on her face.

"Time to choose, sister."


	23. Episode 22: Return to Reality

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 22

Aelita kept a fierce glare at XANA as the Scyphozoa hovered in front her. Gwen and Cody could not move since they each had a Dragon Knight holding their arms behind their backs with a sword at their throat.

XANA chuckled.

"Are you scared, Aelita? Scared that the Scyphozoa will most likely drain your memories like it did before. Just like before except now our creator is no longer here to restore your memories."

Aelita stiffened as she remembered that day. The day when Scyphozoa drained her entire memory, taking the Keys to Lyoko allowing XANA to escape.

"Don't be afraid. You no longer have to suffer being bound to this world." XANA said with his evil smirk present.

"Aelita, run!" Gwen shouted.

"Get out of here!" Cody called out.

The Dragon Knights in front of them silenced them with a fist to the stomach.

"If you care about the well being of your fellow competitors you will allow Aelita to sacrifice herself for them." XANA said.

"Don't be ridiculous!" Cody shouted.

"Do you not understand? If Aelita refuses then I am forced to carry out my threat. Her sacrifice is the only way. Think about it. For a long time Jeremy thought I attached a virus to her that bound her life to mine. He was wrong; it was the Keys she held that bound her to supercomputer which hold this place. Why is that?" XANA looked up. "It's because of our creator's misguided actions. His plan for them to live forever in this world as the absolute masters of his world without danger. It's sad that our creator had to become insane."

"He was not insane! He sacrificed everything to save me and my friends from you!" Aelita spoke up with a dark glare.

"And failed. Both he and Jeremy were arrogant because of their so called intelligence which of course led to Jeremy to signing our father's death warrant. Aelita, what Shadow said is true. You are a cursed being. Antea Hopper, your mother disappeared, our father, Waldo Schaeffer died protecting you, and your friends who have been with you so long have been captured and held in the void. So as long as the Key remains in you your destiny is to be alone in this world."

Aelita shook as XANA's words tore through her, deeper than any blade.

"Damn you, XANA."

"What will you do, Aelita? How will you save them without having to lift your curse?" XANA asked.

Aelita clenched her fist and looked down at the ice.

"All right."

Gwen and Cody looked at her with shocked looks.

"You want the Key? Fine! You can have it but release them first!"

"And give up the leverage I have? They will be released when you give me what I want."

"And how do I know you're not lying?"

XANA chuckled. "Accuse me of lying, dear sister? You forget, I am not a human. I do not follow the same emotional desires humans do. Lying is unnecessary to me, lying is illogical to me, lying is beneath and discarded by me."

_"Aelita don't!"_ Bridgette cried from the computer.

_"Run for it!"_ Geoff agreed with her.

"You know what will happen if let that thing get you!" Gwen shouted.

"And if I don't we leave everyone captured to die." Aelita walked forward.

The Scyphozoa screeched as she neared it. She could barely keep the look of disgust off her face as she believed that the Scyphozoa was mocking her.

'Jeremy, I'm sorry. I tried so hard to save you and the others. I gave it everything I had but I failed.' Aelita thought as the Scyphozoa began to wrap its tentacles around her. 'I know you wouldn't want me to do this but I can't allow anyone else to suffer because of me.'

Aelita glowed red as the Scyphozoa had her in its grasp. Aelita closed her eyes as she thought back to all the times she spent with her friends, Jeremy, Ulrich, Odd, Yumi, and her new friends Gwen, Cody, LeShawna, Bridgette, Geoff, and DJ.

'Daddy, I'm sorry I couldn't avenge your death.'

These were Aelita's last thoughts as the Scyphozoa placed three tentacles on her head. She then felt cold as everything went dark. She so wanted to scream but she chose this fate. As the Scyphozoa started to drain her memory something happened.

White energy pulsed from Aelita's head and through the blue transparent tentacles.

"Huh?" XANA had a curious look on his face as this happened.

As soon as the white energy went into the Scyphozoa's head it screeched in pain as white lightning attacked it from the inside. It dropped Aelita as it continued to screech and thrash from the pain inflicted by the lightning.

"What the-?" Gwen and Cody looked with surprised looks as this happened.

The Scyphozoa exploded in blast of white energy and remaining data scattered. XANA walked forward looking as the remnants of the Scyphozoa were being devoured by small white spheres. He reached out and touched one which exploded on contact and engulfed XANA in white flames. However despite the fact that flames covered him from head to toe XANA looked fine.

He looked like he hardly even noticed the fire.

'What is this? Some sort of defence program against anything created from my codes.' XANA thought as he looked over to Aelita. 'It happened as my Scyphozoa tried to drain her memories and take the Key.'

He frowned at the flames covering his body.

'Schaeffer. He must have created this to protect her. It didn't bother to destroy any virus placed in her when I used her to destroy Lyoko's sectors because they were always temporary.' XANA looked down at the flames covering him.

They might have destroyed the Scyphozoa but his avatar was able to block the program's attempt to destroy him. Taking advantage of their distraction Gwen activated her fire aura burned the Dragon Knight's hands that held her wrists. It let go and she spun around and sent a fist into the Eye on its helmet. It burned through the Eye and Dragon Knight dissolved into red and black smoke dropping her scythe.

She picked it up just as two Dragon Knights behind her pulled out their weapons. She swung it and it cut through both of them. Cody activated his time freeze ability and broke free before taking his pistols back and shooting his captor in the Eye. They ran over to Aelita as her eyes opened.

"Are you okay?" Cody asked kneeling down to her.

"I'm fine, what happened?" Aelita got up.

"We were just about to ask the same thing." Gwen replied looking at XANA who was still engulfed in flames.

The AI frowned in distaste at the latest turn of events. 'I miscalculated. I didn't think that he would protect Aelita's copy of the keys. He left that there so I couldn't steal her copy of the keys again.'

A red aura surrounded him and the white flames faded as the aura expanded.

'Those flames. They destroyed the Scyphozoa as soon as it tried to drain my memories. And now they're attacking anything that was created by XANA. Even his avatar.' Aelita thought. 'Dad. Is this his doing?'

"Aelita? Yo!" Cody said waving a hand in front of her face.

Aelita shook her head as she snapped out of it.

"We better free the others and fast."

"I said that unless you surrender your keys they would be deleted." XANA said.

"Didn't you see what happened or did those flames give you a malfunction?" Gwen asked as she and Cody got between Aelita and XANA.

"Aelita, what do you think that was?" XANA asked ignoring them.

Aelita just held out an energy field.

"The man who brought you to this place and sacrificed himself to save your life for the sake of continuing to interfere with my attempts to access the human world. Even after death our father has still found a way to interfere." XANA said. "The reason why I needed to remove your memories to gain the keys in the first place was because I had developed a program to remove the keys from you but because of your memories the program could not access the keys."

"In other words you can't take my memories ever again." Aelita replied.

XANA chuckled.

"Don't be so sure, Aelita. I can rid myself of your weapon without needing to take it and your memories."

"And how do you plan that?" Cody asked.

"By throwing me into the digital sea." Aelita said.

"What?" Gwen and Cody both said.

"Exactly. The deal remains as long as the lives of the contestants are in my hands. Unless Aelita dives into the digital sea than they will be the ones who will." XANA smirked.

He looked up the small orbs trapped in the smoky barriers.

"If you refuse then one by one I will delete them myself."

To prove his point XANA raised his hand and a red sphere of energy appeared. Aelita glared but then she smirked. XANA frowned at the smirk. She looked like she knew something he didn't.

"There's one problem. What if you no longer had them as hostages?"

XANA looked up and his eyes widened. Small white flames were burning through the smoky barriers that kept the contestants in Lyoko. One by one as the barriers dissolved the white orbs that were the constants vanished out of Lyoko and back to the TDR simulation.

"My father's program is not only designed to act like an anti-XANA weapon but it's highly intelligent by the looks of it. It knew of your plan and is dissolving the barriers. Your plan has failed, XANA." Aelita responded.

XANA narrowed his eyes.

"I guess I have no choice but do it the old fashioned way."

XANA fired a huge spiral of red energy at the warriors. They jumped aside and it blasted an icy cliff behind them.

"I've heard enough." Gwen said.

Gwen flew at him swinging her scythe. XANA smirked and spires of darkness shot out of the ground in Gwen's path.

She dodged and quickly swung her scythe down. XANA however levitated and dodged. She flew up and swung again but XANA dodged every attack. That was when shadowy arms sprouted from XANA's back and blocked her scythe.

The arms smacked her aside, sending her crashing back onto the ice below. Cody fired his pistols but like before a smoke shield blocked it. But it didn't dissipate; instead it infected Cody's attack. They watched as his lasers turned dark and were fired back at him.

Cody tried to run but his own attack was actually following him. He was sent flying into the ground with Gwen. XANA smirked at them.

"It seems I am still too strong for you."

"Then let's see if I can do better."

XANA turned and saw Aelita with two spheres in her hands. She fused them into one and fired it. XANA dodged and levitated in the air. Aelita activated her wings and flew at him.

"Plasma Beam!"

XANA responded with another smoke shield that blocked the attack. That was when XANA manifested arms made of smoke from his back again and sent them at her. She flew through air dodging the arms and throwing more spheres at XANA.

"Take this!" She fired her spheres into the arms and watched as the pink energy ate through the arms like termites through wood.

XANA responded by unleashing a wave of black spheres at her. She dodged and landed back on the platform. XANA landed on the ground as well.

"What a bother. Having to dirty my hands for a task as trivial as this. I knew I shouldn't have let you go all those years ago." XANA smirked.

"What do you mean?" Aelita asked.

"I mean that I should have recruited you like I recruited William and save myself a lot of grief. Instead I let you hide out in the tower thinking you wouldn't be a problem." XANA said.

"Well, we all make mistakes. That was your biggest mistake ever!"

XANA responded by unleashing more shadow hands at her.

"Plasma beam!"

Her attack blasted through XANA's shadow arms and headed straight for him. However he levitated back into the air, dodging it in time.

"You of all people should know better than to underestimate me, sister."

He fired a pillar of energy at her, knocking her back. Then he sent a cloud of black smoke at her that lifted her into the air.

"Go and be at peace forever." XANA said with a smirk.

Just before he could drop her into the digital sea white glowing energy strings grabbed his wrist. XANA frowned as he looked to see it was Gwen who cast them. Aelita activated her wings and landed by her and Cody.

"You all right?" Cody asked.

"I'm fine."

"What a bunch of pests you are. Always around to interfere." XANA said not losing his smirk.

"You're not laying hand on our friend." Gwen said as she pulled out her scythe.

XANA chuckled.

"Say whatever you like but it's time for me to finish this. APOCALYPSE STORM!"

A familiar blast of red energy came towards but suddenly a familiar white barrier appeared before them, barely blocking the attack. XANA narrowed his eyes as DJ landed in front of them.

"DJ! You're still here!" Gwen smiled.

"I made it. I almost lost." DJ replied.

XANA fired another beam of energy that shattered DJ's barrier. However before he could attack again a familiar hammer came down upon him. XANA spun around and fired again as LeShawna swung her hammer down on his head. The hammer collided with the energy blast and the blast sent them both flying back.

"LeShawna!" Cody said with a smile.

"You know it! LeShawna is in the house, baby!"

"Look out!" Aelita pointed ahead.

LeShawna turned around to see XANA flying at her with another energy blast. Aelita activated her wings and flew at him to intercept. Just as XANA launched his attack Aelita fired her plasma beam which collided with it. XANA flew up into the air.

"You're not getting away this time, XANA!"

Aelita flew up into the air after him. She fired her plasma beam but XANA smirked as a smoky barrier surrounded him but like what happened with Cody's attack XANA's barrier began to absorb and infect it.

"This is really starting to get tiresome."

XANA flung the attack right as Aelita created two energy fields and used them to generate a shield. But the force of the attack sent her crashing into the ice below.

"Aelita!"

The other warriors sprinted over to her to find she was all right. She groaned as she sat up.

"You okay, girl?" LeShawna asked.

"I'm okay. That was probably not a smart thing to do." Aelita said getting up.

"Not really, no." Gwen said with a smirk.

"Thanks. I feel so much better now." Aelita said sarcastically.

They looked up and saw XANA was still hovering above them.

"What do we do now? Nothing we use can hurt him." Gwen said.

"I hate to say it but Gwen's right. We can't touch him." LeShawna agreed.

"We need a plan." Cody said as he held his pistols up, ready to shoot.

XANA chuckled.

"Why bother stalling for time? Do you believe you have a chance?"

"That's a dumb question." LeShawna said.

"Well then I guess I'll allow you a chance to make your last stand." XANA said as shadow arms sprouted from his back.

He thrusted them ahead and they flew down to the warriors.

"Scatter!" Aelita shouted.

The warriors did as she said and avoided the arms as they hit the ground and found themselves smashing through ice. Aelita landed on her feet and looked to see the arms flying at her again. She fired an energy field that burned through the hands again. However they began to spew streams of dark green acid at her. However DJ jumped in front of her and created a barrier that blocked the acid.

"Thanks, DJ." Aelita said.

DJ smiled and nodded. "No problem."

They looked up when they heard XANA chuckle. He looked down at them with his usual smirk.

"What now, little fighters? Simply have your friends in the lab activate the Return to the Past to save yourself the trouble?"

"Dream on!" LeShawna shouted.

"There's no way we're running from a fight." Gwen said.

She took off into the air and flew at XANA. However a smoke barrier appeared as she swung her scythe and the barrier blocked it.

"It's a pity you are unable to use your elemental auras while in flight." XANA said.

Gwen grunted. It was true. While training it was discovered that Gwen could not use her elemental spells while she was flying. It was too bad but she decided to deal with it.

"However unlike you I have no limitations."

He raised his hand and his fingers extended into long sharp lances that he tried to slice her with. Gwen ducked and flew away.

"Damn it!" She shouted as she flew back.

XANA chuckled as he flew down and hovered above the ground. Cody's eyes flashed and Lyoko became frozen as he activated his time freeze ability. As everything froze he ran forward and fired his pistols at XANA. However as soon as the lasers hit him they simple dissipated when they hit him.

"What the . . ." Cody's eyes widened in shock. "They didn't even bother him."

"How sad." XANA shook his head.

"I'll show you sad!" LeShawna ran forward and swung her hammer.

XANA dodged again and raised a finger that extended and pierced LeShawna's chest. She gasped as she was devirtualized.

Xxx

LeShawna fell out of her scanner. Gasping for air she ran a hand over where she had been stabbed.

Xxx

"Okay, am I missing something here? I thought a Lyoko Avatar could only have one weapon and one special ability." Cody said.

XANA chuckled again.

"That applies to human avatars. However I am not like you. Have you forgotten that my generals were created from my codes when I added your friends DNA as a base code? Their powers came from me along with Shadow's."

"What are you saying?" Gwen asked.

"I am saying that unlike you I am not limited to one Lyoko power. Remember, I control Lyoko and all its regions. There are perhaps a dozen ways for me to destroy you, ninety percent of them would be very painful if you were in the real world." XANA explained.

"Good thing we're virtual then." Cody muttered.

"However I am a fair person so I'll fight on your levels."

XANA held out his hand and black smoke gathered. It turned into a black broad sword with his red symbol on the blade. XANA flew forward and swung his blade but Aelita blocked by creating two energy fields and using them as a shield. XANA's eyes narrowed as white energy seemed to flow into her shield.

"Seems that the protection program is fully activated. Not surprising, he was always so protective of you."

"Then I will use it to defeat you and end this once and for all!" Aelita pushed XANA with her shield and her hand glowed white.

"Hmm?"

XANA blocked her hand with his sword.

"My father is gone and my friends lost and it's all because of you! I promise that you will pay for your actions, XANA!" Aelita fired her plasma beam but XANA dodge and back flipped before he flew at her again.

Cody jumped into the battle with his pistols but XANA vanished and reappeared in front of him. Cody gasped as XANA cut through his form easily. He turned to attack Aelita but Gwen appeared and swung her scythe which he blocked.

"Aelita's not alone, remember?" Gwen snarled.

DJ turned into his golem form and sent a fist at XANA but the demonic AI caught it with one free hand. He shoved Gwen back and slammed the hilt of his sword into DJ's chest sending him flying back. Aelita jumped with her energy field powering her fists as she tried to hit him. XANA slashed at her but she dodged and jumped as he swung again.

Aelita sent a pink glowing fist at XANA's head but he dodged and tried to slash her again but Gwen blocked it with her pole. Aelita sent another fist but XANA grabbed it and tossed her into Gwen which sent the both of them flying back.

"Time to end this."

XANA flew at them to deliver the final blow but then Aelita glowed white again. The energy gathered into her fist and she swung it forward with all of her strength at XANA's sword. To the AI's shock the sword shattered upon contact.

"XANA! This ends now!" shouted Aelita.

From her hand came a beam of bright light that blinded anyone who saw it for a few seconds. XANA only had a moment to blink before he tried to dodge. He looked at his right arm to see that Aelita's attack completely destroyed it. Black liquid like smoke began to drip on the floor from where XANA's arm used to be.

There was also skin that was burned off from the attack that revealed red wiring underneath the digital flesh. XANA looked at Aelita with surprise at her power. How could she have gotten so powerful?

'Is this power of the keys she holds?' XANA thought.

She held out her arm and glowed white again.

"Plasma Beam!"

The beam of light erupted from her hand again and this time it hit XANA in the chest. Right in the center of the Eye. XANA only had a chance to look before the attack went through him and his body was blasted into black smoke with red energy pulsing through it. Everyone looked on in shock.

Aelita collapsed as she looked at what her attack had done.

"Wow..." Cody said from the real world. "You blew him apart!"

"Man that sure was something!" DJ whistled.

"Aelita, please tell me that worked and XANA is gone. If that didn't work then I am so done!" Gwen said.

"Sorry Gwen, that was only an Avatar," Aelita looked at her comrades. "Like I said before, XANA is bound to nothing and has no true form. His form is pretty much devirtualized like a normal avatar, but he'll be back."

"Aw great, the one cliché I hate the most in movies," Cody groaned.

"Bad guy always comes back?" Gwen asked.

"It's totally overused!" Cody said. "Think of all the movies where the bad guy always comes back! Like...Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th! Nightmare on Elm Street Freddy Krueger is the main villain because he always comes back; Michael Myers on Halloween is the usual villain. And then there's the Pirates of the Caribbean that Barbossa came back at the end of Dead Man's chest. They always make a movie where the bad guy comes back! Oh, and Voldemort."

"The key difference is that this guy never died in the first place." Gwen said.

"So if we want to destroy XANA, I'd suggest we get back to work." Aelita said. "I'd start with a return to the past to undo what has been seen by your friends."

"You got it Aelita!" Cody said. "It's loading now. Get ready!"

Gwen sighed. "It would have all been so much easier if they were allowed to remember...but oh well."

"Can you really trust everybody to keep a secret like this?" Aelita asked.

"A girl can dream...but you're right. Pretty sure Courtney, Katie, Sadie, Tyler, Lindsay, Izzy, and maybe Heather might blow our cover." Gwen shrugged. "Hit it Cody."

"Return to the past now!" With that, a white light shot out from Lyoko's core and enveloped the group both inside and outside of the virtual world.

Xxx

"Last Time on Total Drama Reality. We took the cast out for some sunshine and exercise. Only we made it a whole more fun with exploding soccer balls filled with paint bombs. Some of the contestants suffered a very hilarious outcome as they ended up covered in paint. In the end once again Team _Victory_ went down with no _victory_ what so ever.

And Ezekiel who was normally the first go was knocked out and taken on the Jet of Losers. And this time he won't be coming back. We got some professional help. Who will win this time?

Find out on Total. Drama. Reality!" announced Chris.

Xxx

The Lyoko fighters were gathered at one table while everybody else was scattered around. They watched as Alejandro came in. This time he was in the Drama Machine meaning that he was back to the way he before he was healed.

"So he's back to normal." Bridgette whispered.

"I guess no Xavier no healing." LeShawna replied, whispering too.

"Yeah and now we won't know how he was healed in the first place." Gwen whispered.

"All right, contestants, enough with the talking. To the virtual room. We have a challenge to do." Said Chris breaking up the conversation.

Xxx

The contestants were gathered in the supercomputer room again.

"All right, everyone. Here is today's challenge. Are you all ready to rumble?" Chris asked.

The main screen turned on and showed a wrestling ring.

"Today's challenge is picking five members from each team and they are going to wrestle it out. Team Amazon will pick their five and wrestle whoever is picked from Team I am So Hot. Whoever wins that round will battle Team Victory next." Said Chris.

"You're joking right? Like I'll participate in something as juvenile as this." Courtney said with her arms crossed.

"See, that's the attitude that always gets you eliminated." Said Chris.

"Shut up!"

"We can handle this without Miss CIT anyway. I can handle anyone." Said Eva.

"No argument from me." Said Gwen.

"I'll go. I got into plenty of brawls while in juvie." Said Duncan.

Courtney glared as Duncan stepped forward.

"Actually I think I will. A chance to kick Duncan's jerky butt is worth it. Especially in front of his _girlfriend_." Courtney glared back at Gwen.

Gwen kept a neutral look on her face at that reply. She remembered that since they went back in time no one would remember what happened while they were trapped in XANA's nightmare realm.

"Let me go! Let me go!" said Izzy striking a snake pose.

"I'm a pro at boxing." Said Tyler punching the air.

Duncan shrugged.

"Why not?" He then looked at Justin. "Hey, old pretty boy, you in?"

Justin gasped.

Xxx

Confessional

"Old pretty boy? I can't be replaced! Alejandro is stuck in a robot so I should be back to the top!" Justin said. "Duncan is going down!"

End Confessional

Xxx

"I'm in." Said LeShawna.

"Me too." Said Trent.

"I don't like fighting, but I guess I'm in." Said DJ.

"It's okay, DJ. I'll go." Said Geoff.

"I guess I'm in too. No offense Sadie." Said Bridgette.

"None taken." Sadie replied, relived she would not have to fight.

"To spice things up I'll pick the last members of Team Amazon who will fight. Gwen, Heather, and Cody." Said Chris.

"What?" Heather and Courtney shouted.

"Hey, we have a schedule and I don't have time to listen to you deciding who fights." Said Chris shrugging.

"This squirt won't even last a second!" Courtney pointed at Cody.

"Don't you insult him!" yelled Sierra.

"I am only speaking the truth. The little geek won't be of any help what so ever." Said Courtney glaring back at Sierra.

Most of Team Amazon glared at her for her insults.

"Looks like everyone's blood is boiling. Time to start!" said Chris.

Everyone turned to get into their pods. Like before Cody walked over to Heather and offered her a hand.

"Need help getting in?"

"No! I can do it myself!" Heather shouted.

'Yeah. No matter how many times we see something before going back in time it's a good idea to just repeat it anyway.' Cody thought.

Gwen sighed as she watched this.

'Here we go again.'

She walked over and grabbed Heather's arm.

"I said I don't need help!" Heather snapped.

"I don't care. We can't wait for you to get in so shut up and let Cody and I help you." Gwen replied with a stern look yet kept a small gentle look.

Seeing her memories changed her perspective of Heather before but she was still not going to put up with Heather's attitude.

"Cody, grab her other arm. Be gentle with it."

Cody nodded and they both slowly lifted Heather into the pod. Heather stopped fighting and let them help her, albeit grudgingly. Gwen held up the visor.

"Here, you put it on."

Heather took it and but this time Gwen didn't walk away but stayed with Cody stayed back to make sure Heather put it on right.

"Time to go!" said Chris.

Xxx

The ring was in the middle of a large room surrounded by empty stands. As the team walked down a set of steps towards it, Chris pulled out a remote, and people literally appeared in the seats, cheering.

"To make it more dramatic, we've added an audience! Compliments of the new Instantaneous Holographic Animation Projectors!" Chris said.

"So we can expect to see more of you in here than in the real world, right?" Noah asked sarcastically.

"I never thought of making an adoring audience for me before, but good idea!"

"Good job book worm." Alejandro sighed.

"Hey, he left himself open for it! I HAD to do it." Noah reasoned.

"And now we all suffer for it," Carlos' voice said. "You need to evaluate your sarcastic personality."

"Hey! Sarcasm is part of me, I am the sarcastic genius." Noah crossed his arms.

"Sarcastic, yes," Kurt added. "We're debating on the genius."

"Let's get started! Since Team Amazon and Team 'I am so freaking hot' will be fighting first we shall use..." Chris smirked. "The Wheel of torture!" As he spoke, a large wheel with face shots of the members of Teams Amazon and Chris. "It shall go like this. We shall spin until all five fighters from each team have been selected. The first member of Amazon will fight the first member of Team Chris, the second fights the second, third to third, so on and so on." Chris walked up to the wheel as his clothes became replaced with a pair of black pants and a black and white striped shirt...and a whistle. "Let the torment...BEGIN!" He spun the wheel.

"Round and round and round she goes, where she stops, hell I don't know!" Chris said as he watched the wheel spin. "And the first fighter is...CODY!"

Cody stepped forward as his face vanished from the wheel, which resized the other sections so each of the other faces had equal room.

"Go Cody!" Sierra cheered.

"We're doomed." Heather sighed.

"Oh stop being so doom and gloom," Katie said. "Even if Cody loses- not saying you will Cody, it's an 'if'! Anyways, even if one person loses, there are four more fights."

"She's right!" Chris announced. "The team with the most wins goes on to victory. Now for our next victim!"

He spun until the other nine fighters were sorted.

Duncan vs. Cody

Alejandro vs. Eva

Izzy vs. Gwen

Justin vs. Heather

Tyler vs. Courtney

"And there you have it folks! First round: DUNCAN VERSES CODY!" Chris shouted. "Place bets everybody! Five bucks on Duncan busting Cody's head open! Busted lip, broken arm!"

"Chris!" Carlos and Kurt shouted at once.

"What?"

"You have the safety programs installed, right?" Kurt asked.

"Of course, what kind of guy do you take me for?" Chris asked sheepishly.

"Do you really want us to answer that?" Carlos asked rhetorically.

"I'm hurt." Chris said. "No, I am offended, I am-"

"I turned the safety features on; I'm looking at the control board now, smart ass." Carlos said dryly.

Chris, disappointed looked to the ring. "And now let the fighters enter the ring...this will be boring now."

"Chris, I could disconnect you, bust your head open, and put you back in if you want." Kurt offered.

"Uh...never mind, I'm happy with the way we got it! I love the way we're going here! I am excited and happy to be a part of this! Let's go!" Chris grinned. "In the blue corner! He's a scrawny as a stick but nimble as a cat, smarter than most, but nowhere near as dorky as Harold: Cody!"

The audience behind the blue corner cheered Cody on.

"And in the red corner! Dressed as a Three Days Grace Reject-"

"Hey!"

"Loves vandalism, cheating on girls, and very bad piercings, our favourite delinquent: Duncan!" The red audience roared their approval.

"Let's RUMBLE!" Chris hopped off the stage.

"This won't take long." Alejandro snickered.

Cody glared at Duncan. "Oh I have been wanting to do this since World Tour."

"Bring it on short stuff." Duncan cracked his knuckles.

Cody rushed forward. He swung one punch that Duncan stepped away from. Duncan swung his own that clipped Cody's shoulder. Shrugging it off, Cody suddenly ducked under a haymaker and gave Duncan an uppercut.

"GAH!" Duncan backed up a step. "Pretty good hit for a shrimp."

"Thought you learned that back in Greece, Gwen-Stealer!" Cody snapped.

"Are you still on that?" Duncan dodged another blow, but took a round house kick to the side a second later. "Agh. And for the record, I took a dive! If I hit you, I'd have only gotten into 'another' fight with just about everybody left on the show. Gwen, your fan girl Sierra, a few others. I wasn't in the mood for a head ache."

"Oh, sure," Cody slammed one fist into Duncan's gut, and then prepared to deliver a hook to his face, but Duncan grabbed his wrist before it came into contact.

"Got you now, you jumpy little squirt." Duncan then delivered a devastating uppercut of his own to Cody's ribs, doubling Cody over.

"Come on Cody!" Courtney shouted. "Knock those ugly rings right off his face!"

"Are you actually cheering for Cody?" Beth asked.

"Yeah! Why?" Courtney's tone didn't leave room for arguing.

"Uh...never mind."

Cody took four more blows before he head butted Duncan to get free. They both were gasping for breath, standing across from one another.

"Okay, don't know where the hell you learned to fight, but I'll bite." Duncan spat into a bucket that somehow appeared next to him. "Bring it!"

"Gladly!" Cody lunged at the punk.

Since joining the current Lyoko warriors Cody had to endure XANA attacks along with Chris' schemes along with the harassment from the bullies on Total Drama. So in order to be more helpful he decided to have them teach him self-defence. LeShawna was a big help but Bridgette, Geoff, and Gwen were helpful too. Even though he was not as battle hardened as most people Cody could hold his own in a fight.

Cody's reflexes were way beyond that of a normal teenager's since his fights on Lyoko. He was able to dodge a Dragon Knight's sword at close range. Dodging Duncan's fist was not as hard as dodging the lasers of XANA's monsters which allowed him to dodge a fist that was flying at his face by bending his torso downward and swayed under Duncan's arm allowing him to throw a punch at the left side Duncan's face which knocked the boy back. Of course that only dazed Duncan for a second.

Despite Cody's fighting skills he wasn't as physically strong as his opponent. Even Trent would have trouble fighting Duncan and that was only if Duncan was playing fair.

'Okay, doing good so far but I need a way to find a way to take him out.' Cody thought.

The other Lyoko warriors watched this fight closely. Most of them were hoping that Cody would take Duncan down a peg but DJ refused to take sides on this. Gwen watched this fight closely while trying to keep a calm look.

'Cody's good. Looks all those fights on Lyoko and those self-defence lessons paid off. But it's still going to be a tough fight.' Gwen thought. 'Duncan was going easy since he didn't think Cody could put up a fight. He needs to surprise him if he wants to win.'

Duncan rubbed the side of his head where Cody had punched him.

"Come on, pipsqueak. Give me your best shot!"

Cody stepped forward and sent a left hook into Duncan's temple but the delinquent was unfazed by the blow. Duncan then grabbed Cody by the neck and lifted him with one arm.

"Sorry, dork. Can't beat me." Duncan said drawing him closer to his face. "Any last words?"

"..w..har..s...ur...ed." Cody whispered.

"What?" Duncan asked with a raised eyebrow while loosening his hold on Cody's neck.

"I asked how is your head."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"This!"

Cody head butted him hard which left him senseless as he dropped Cody. Ignoring the painful headache he now had Cody leaped up into the air backwards sent both of his legs forward into Duncan's chest which sent him falling back and hitting the floor hard.

"Ah...okay, ouch." Duncan propped himself up on his elbows, dazed.

"Finish him off Cody!" Sierra shouted.

Duncan looked up in time to see Cody leaping off of the rope surrounding the ring, angling one knee so it would land on Duncan. The older boy gasped and back rolled out of the way just in time. Cody hit the ring, knee first. Cody clenched his teeth, and got up. "Note to self: no more slamming."

He looked up and saw that Duncan was resting against the corner pole he had just rolled into. He was out like a light, having slammed his head into it as he came up.

"Uh...and Duncan is down!" Chris said. "Wow..."

"YAY CODY!" Sierra squealed.

Cody stumbled out of the ring as Duncan was sent back into the real world. Courtney smirked at Gwen.

"Well, how does it feel, Gwen? To know that your _boyfriend_ got his butt kicked by a squirt?"

"Hey! Respect my Cody!" Sierra shouted.

Gwen shook her head and smiled at Cody.

"Good job."

Cody smiled happily.

Xxx

Confessional

"I can't believe I did it! I actually beat Duncan!" Cody said happily.

Xxx

"Cody's popularity status went up when he punched Duncan back in Greece and now it'll sky rocket! YAY CODY!" Sierra squealed.

End Confessional

Xxx

"Well the first round is over. And now we move onto the next round! Will the next competitors enter the ring?" Chris called out. "In the blue corner, she is the living incarnation of evil, she's worn yeti boots and a fur hat she carved straight from the yeti, and she takes nothing from anybody. It's EVA!"

Eva grumbled as her audience cheered for her.

"And in the red corner! He's a combination of man and machine, Justin and Heather! He's six feet of Spanish muscle who we used to call 'Pretty Boy Number Two'! It's ALEJANDRO!" Alejandro waved to his personal audience.

"And now, let round two BEGIN!"

Alejandro cleared his throat and put on his 'charm' smile. "Hey there Eva, how about you and I just-"

THWACK!

Alejandro twitched as he nursed a black eye.

Xxx

Confessional

"Now's he flirting with EVA? How low can you go?" Heather said.

Xxx

"Ok, screw being a gentleman, you're going down!" With that, they both grappled.

Eva growled. "I saw everything you did last season you piece of crap. And I. Don't. Date."

"Oh, playing for the 'visiting' team then?" Alejandro inquired before Eva heaved him over one shoulder and threw him onto the floor.

She tried to leap on him, but he brought both feet up, jamming them into her gut and sent her sailing right over him and into the ropes. She fell face first into the floor, and got up with a bloody nose.

"Man, he survived longer than the yeti." Cody said, genuinely surprised.

"TEAR HIM A NEW HOLE!" Every girl shouted.

"TAKE HER DOWN!" Most of the guys-the ones who had not been mad at Alejandro last season shouted.

Eva swung a hook that sent Alejandro spinning. She then slammed him into the rope walls, where he forced her off of him, sweeping her feet out from under her and slamming her into the floor. She brought her legs up, bracing her right leg against his left hip and her left leg against the right side of his head. She flipped them both over and punched him in the face three times.

He managed to move his head out of the way of the next punch and slammed a knee into her gut, rolling backwards and sending her over him. They got to their feet and circled each other.

"Not so pretty looking now, are you?" Eva sneered.

"Now I know why you don't date. Honestly, no one can actually tell you're a lady." Alejandro wiped some blood off his chin.

"At least I can actually walk in real life." Eva snapped back.

"At least I can handle my temper! That's why you get kicked off so early on EACH and EVERY time!" Alejandro countered.

"What is this, a throw down?" Chris yawned. "Come on! Throw some punches! Break some bones! Send some teeth flyi-"

CRACK!

"Shut up." Chris looked up as he nursed his jaw. Carlos stood over him.

"How did you-"

"There were spare pods, numb nuts." Carlos snickered. "Kurt gets his turn in here in a few minutes. So be quiet and be a good ref."

"I swear this is abuse!" Chris whined.

"You signed the contract, genius." Carlos pointed out. "The studio may take any action they deem necessary to ensure safety of campers and discipline of the host."

Eva may have been physically the strongest of the Total Drama cast but Alejandro was able to dodge most of her attacks. Eva threw a wild punch over his head which gave him the time to make his next move. He opened his fist up so it was straight and then struck the pressure point where Eva's arm connected to her shoulder. Eva gasped as she cradled her shoulder allowing Alejandro to kick the kneecap which made her fall on one knee.

Alejandro then brought his hand down on Eva's neck which knocked her out.

"And Eva is down! Wow, wasn't expecting that." Chris said.

Most of the competitors who were kicked off last season because of Alejandro frowned in disappointment.

"The next fight will begin after these messages."


	24. Episode 23: The TDR Wrestling Tournament

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 23

"And we're back! Last time, on Total Drama Reality, today's challenge was a wrestling tournament on the digital plane since some were still injured from last season. And I got to say, the fights ...Have...Been...AWESOME! In a never before event, Cody, the smallest and the dorkiest teen in the cast, second only to Harold, beat down Duncan! Everyone's delinquent who is known for humiliating geeks." Chris said. "Then came the second battle with Eva, Team Amazon's angry powerhouse against Alejandro, the Villain of Team Chris Is Awesomely Hot. Much to the disappointment of anyone who got kicked off last season because of him our favourite Mexican managed to outsmart and knock out Eva. Now we're back with round 3 beginning. Will we see broken bones and teeth flying this time?

Find out on Total, Drama, REALITY!" Chris said.

The scene was now back in the wrestling room with Chris in the center of the ring.

"And now let's bring the fighters for the third fight!"

The audience automatically cheered.

"In the blue corner, she placed second place in the first season of Total Drama, the Goth loner who has had more guys hitting on her than any other girl I know on this show! She's got attitude and I'm pretty sure she has a lot of anger to vent by now: It's GWEN!"

Gwen ignored the simulated audience that cheered for her as she stepped up.

"And in the red corner! She's coo-coo as a coconut, loud as a fog horn, loves explosives and burning stuff! And the girl who I have thirteen restraining orders again when she tried to get on this show! Give it up for...IZZY!"

Izzy did a cart wheel right into the ring. "CALL ME EXPLOSIVO!"

'Great, she's switched to her Explosivo persona.' Gwen thought.

"This ought to be interesting." Carlos said. "Five bucks on Gwen!"

"You're on!" Kurt shouted.

Xxx

Confessional

"This is perfect. I already watched Duncan get his butt embarrassingly kicked by Cody. Watching Gwen get beaten down by that psycho will be great." Courtney said.

End confessional

Xxx

'Okay, so you're up against the craziest girl you've ever met who has gone a few rounds with Chef and actually won. Can't be as bad as fighting all those monsters along with Shadow, Ryder, and that monster in the Simulation Bubble.' Gwen thought.

Izzy made a few karate stances as she got ready.

'Then again maybe not.'

"Fighters ready? Then let's RUMBLE!" Chris shouted.

Izzy charged at Gwen and sent a fist at her. Gwen jumped to the side, barely dodging it and sent a back fist which knocked Izzy forward into the ropes. She caught the ropes with both of her hands which stopped her from falling.

Pushing off, she let out a wild war cry. "Aye-ya-ya-ya-ya!" She leaped into the air and kicked Gwen in the jaw, knocking her over.

As Gwen hit the floor, Izzy back flipped and landed in one of the corners. Climbing on the pole, she let out another war cry and leaped off. Gwen rolled aside and let Izzy hit the floor with a dull 'thud'.

"Okay...-ow." Izzy looked up in time to be tackled and pinned by Gwen, who tried to get an arm around Izzy's neck so she could safely knock the insane red head out.

"And Gwen has Izzy in a head lock!" Chris announced. "Is this the end already?"

Izzy somehow brought her legs up and gripped Gwen's neck with her feet from behind her and pulled Gwen off.

"Wow...she sure can bend." Lindsay said.

"Owen's one lucky bastard." Carlos grumbled.

"Okay...that didn't work...right: Crazy Girl can't be held down." Gwen whispered. "New plan."

She lunged forward and tackled Izzy into the ropes, and began to exchange blows with the insane girl. It was mostly in Izzy's favour since she was faster and hit harder than Gwen, but Gwen managed to dodge more blows and began to go more on the offensive.

They broke apart, and Gwen nursed some bruises. 'This won't work; I need a new plan...'

It came to her. "Look! Chef is putting a muzzle on a camel!"

"Where?" Izzy spun, and Gwen struck her on the back of the head. Not giving her time to turn, Gwen kicked one leg out from under her and hit her again and again.

Izzy, dazed, smiled dumbly. "I like eggs and breaky...and Owen." She fell over.

"And the winner! GWEN! "Chris shouted.

"Hah! I win Kurt!" Carlos said.

"Crap." Kurt grumbled.

The audience automatically cheered for Gwen. She looked down and saw Izzy open her eyes. She got up rubbing her head.

"What happened?"

"Sorry, about that Izzy. You put up a good fight and if you hadn't fallen for that you most likely would have won." Gwen said holding out her hand.

Izzy smiled as she took and Gwen pulled her up. "No problem! That was fun! It seems you would make a good rival!"

"Uh . . . Thanks." Gwen replied sheepishly.

"But you'll have to wait. Izzy has other rivals that she can't pass up." Izzy jumped out of the ring.

Xxx

Confessional

"How can she fall for something like that? Chef isn't even in here and there's no camel!" Courtney shouted, annoyed that Gwen won and didn't get beaten down by her opponent.

End Confessional

Xxx

"And that ends round three ladies and gentlemen! So far the score is in Team Amazon's favour with two wins while Team Chris is Rrrrreeeeaaaallllyyyy Hot has only one win. So if they want to turn the tide around they should win the next fights if they want to avoid elimination tonight. So let the next match begin!"

The audience cheered again.

"In the blue corner, she's the Queen of all things rotten, she'll stomp on anything that gets in her way, and won last season only to lose the money three seconds later: Presenting HEATHER!"

Heather simply stood in the blue corner with her arms crossed.

"And in the red corner, he's the current pretty boy of Total Drama, since Alejandro got burned, he loves his looks almost as much as the girls: Here's JUSTIN!"

Justin waved to the audience even though they were programmed to cheer, regardless of any competitor.

Xxx

Confessional

"This is good. Heather got me eliminated early in the first season so I have a chance to eliminate her. Sweet payback." Justin said.

End Confessional

Xxx

"Okay, are we gonna bet again?" Kurt asked.

"Five bucks says that one hit on the face and pretty boy goes down crying."

"I say he lasts...thirty seconds or more." Kurt countered.

Justin tore off his shirt and flexed his muscles. By now most girls were immune to it.

"That's old now! We're used to that!" Courtney shouted.

Justin gasped. "I can't be...I'm a has-been? NO-OOF!" Heather punched him in the gut.

"You're a has-been, get over it." She said flatly and followed up by slamming the heel of her right hand into his face, breaking his virtual nose.

"AH! MY NOSE!"

As the beating went on, Kurt and Carlos conversed.

"Wiow...that's just weak." Kurt said.

"I know! I mean come on that guy looks built enough to take on Ernie back in the wrestling ring we used to use at the tavern and he isn't even trying!" Carlos said.

"That's the thing with pretty boys Carlos: they focus on their looks and don't have the talent to back up their muscle." Kurt sighed. "Come on pretty boy just seventeen more seconds-"

Justin hit the floor and didn't get up again...fifteen seconds into the match.

Carlos and Kurt said nothing as Team Amazon cheered for Heather.

"Uh...I guess neither of us wins that one." Carlos said.

"AND JUSTIN IS DOWN! VICTORY TO TEAM AMAZON!" Chris said. "And as they have three out of five rounds they can go to the next round. But as I am a fair guy and like the drama, the winner of the next match automatically assures his team's victory and moves them to the next fight!"

"Oh come on! We kicked their butts!" Eva shouted.

"You didn't, you got yours kicked by Alejandro!" Courtney snapped.

"Oh...right, forgot for a sec, head still hurts."

"And now let the next match begin!" Chris shouted. "In the blue corner! She plays by her own rules! When she doesn't get what she wants she'll unleash the hounds of the court house! The Diva Queen of Total Drama! Courtney!"

Courtney hopped into the stage.

"And in the red corner! He can take a punch, he can get up after slamming into the dock, he throws like a two year old, and he has very bad fashion sense. The jock-wannabe we all love to watch as he makes us laugh: Tyler!"

Ignorant of Chris' insults, Tyler climbed into the ring. "Oh yeah, I am so-"

"Doomed." Team Chris groaned.

"Let the Drama begin!" Chris shouted.

"Alright! You are going do-" CRACK! "Eep." Tyler fell over, clutching himself as Courtney lowered her foot.

"Okay...one, two, three!" Chris counted. "Sorry champ, this is just not your day. Final victory to Team Amazon, who goes on to face Team Victory!"

"Okay...that was so fast we didn't even have time to gamble." Carlos said.

"It was a low blow." Kurt said. "But he did manage to walk away from all sorts of injuries. Do you think Tyler Junior will be okay?"

"Do we want another Tyler?" Carlos asked.

"Ah, touché." Kurt agreed. "But what kind of man is happy without uh...'that'?"

"Ah, touché back at me." Carlos nodded.

"Since Team Chris is so awesomely hot lost. They will have to be the ones to vote a loser off tonight. Until then let's keep the drama rolling!" Chris shouted. "Seriously guys you put me to shame."

"What about those two gambling addicts?" Duncan looked at Carlos-Kurt was still in the real world.

"Oh come off it, my psychiatrist already tried to make me stop gambling and it didn't work for crap." Carlos said. "But you want to work on your fighting skills my little punk wannabe, so far every dork has punched you out. Like Harold did in TDA and Cody in TDWT and just now when he whooped your ass."

"Hey, I still knocked Al out last season." Duncan referred to the challenge to find Zeke in Africa when their limbs had fallen asleep.

"Yeah...keep shouting out and make yourself feel bett-URK!" Carlos fell over as Duncan punched him in the gut, leaving him doubled over. "Okay...Duncan that was a real stupid thing to do."

"Oh I doubt it," Duncan replied. "And do you wanna know why?"

"No, because I'm gonna-" Duncan held up a hand.

"You're responsible for keeping us safe, not beating us."

"There is one small catch my green mohawked friend. If you punch us, we can claim self defence." Carlos smirked. "Now I'm gonna-" He went to grab Duncan, but the youth vanished, returning to the real world. "KILL YOU...crap, he beat me at my own game."

Xxx

Duncan got out of his pod, snickering. Kurt was waiting for him. "Going somewhere my little friend?"

"Oh what will you do? I didn't hit you." Duncan crossed his arms.

"Oh but you forget, the cameras are not watching. And I have something much worse." Kurt snickered. "Just look behind you."

Duncan slowly turned...and recoiled in disgust at the Celine Dion music store card board cut outs. "Aw not cool man!"

"All is fair in war!" Kurt cackled. "Mwahahahahaha-oh crap, Chris is rubbing off on me, I need mind soap!"

Xxx

"And now we bring back the Wheel of Torture!" The large wheel from before appeared with face shots of the members of Teams Amazon and Victory. "Now let's find out who get their butts kicked first."

The wheel spun until it landed on a face.

Geoff Vs. Cody

Bridgette Vs. Courtney

LeShawna Vs. Heather

Trent Vs. Eva

D.J Vs. Gwen

"And we have our first round!" Chris said.

Xxx

Confessional

"As much as I want to win I really don't to hurt Geoff." Cody said.

Xxx

"Winning is cool and all but I don't really like the idea of hurting Cody. The little dude's a pretty cool guy." Geoff said.

Xxx

"In the blue corner, you saw him before, no matter how many times you knock him down he keeps getting back up: CODY!"

Cody waved as he stood back in the blue corner.

"And in the red corner, he's the man with the permanent smile on his face, he can belch louder than anyone on the show-even Owen, the wild king of parties: GEOFF!"

"WOO-HOO!" Geoff waved his hat to the crowds.

"And now let's RUMBLE!"

"Hate to do this man, but I'm not going down like Duncan did." Geoff started forward.

"Don't count on it; I'm in it to win it...wow, after hearing Zeke say that so much it sounds so wrong to-GUAGH!" Geoff tackled Cody, who braced his feet against the older boy's chest and sent him flying over him as he rolled backwards.

Getting up, Cody ducked under a swing from Geoff, but took another across the face as he straightened up. He tried to defend against the next few blows, but Geoff was being smarter with his attacks.

"Man, Geoff's got Cody on the ropes!" Chris said. "Is this it for our contender?"

"I'M RIGHT HERE YOU-" THWACK! "OW! KNOW!" Cody shouted before he finally got a hit in, slamming his right foot into Geoff's instep and then pushing him back.

Hopping up and down on one foot and holding the foot Cody had stepped on, Geoff recovered just in time and blocked a punch using his elbow. They continued to trade blows over and over, giving and taking ground.

"And Cody goes at him with a left, and a right, and a left again!" Chris continued to narrate the fight.

"Okay we get it!" Gwen shouted.

"Seriously, you are SO annoying." Kurt grumbled. "No wonder Jeff Rhodes got Survivor and you got Total Drama."

"Ooh, burn!" Geoff managed to shout as he got Cody into a head lock.

"And he's got him in a head lock!" Chris shouted eagerly.

"You know, sometimes he takes his job WAY too seriously." Kurt shook his head in the real world.

"Tell me about it, I have to see him every fricking Christmas." Carlos sighed.

"Wait, you do?"

"Yeah, he's my cousin."

The fight suddenly stopped and everybody present could have sworn they heard the sound of a needle scratching a record.

"Stop the presses!" Kurt shouted. "You hit your own cousin?"

"Kurt, I dare you to look at his hair again, and question my decision." Carlos said, crossing his arms.

"...good point."

"Welcome to the Matrix." Carlos smirked. "We have hippy hosts and awesome British wrestlers who beat on said hippy hosts."

"Uh, guys? Can we continue? I'm losing air!" Cody said in a strained voice as his oxygen supply ran low.

"Oh, right, continue!"

Cody threw himself forward, rolling over and sending Geoff over him, forcing him to release his neck. Geoff came up on his feet in time to take another punch, and then a kick to the gut that doubled him over, followed by an upper cut to his chin. He stumbled back, and caught Cody's next swing. He swung the boy over his shoulder and slammed him into the floor. He twisted one of his arms up. "Give up dude!"

Cody strained to break free as Geoff put pressure on his back with one foot.

"One!" Chris said. "Two!"

Cody suddenly twisted his body so that his arm straightened out and he slipped out from under Geoff. He leaped on Geoff, trying to cut off his oxygen by wrapping both arms around his throat from behind. Geoff gripped his arms and slowly began to pry him off.

"You're..." Geoff bent his knees. "Going..." He bent forwards. "DOWN!" He leaped up and then came down on his back.

Cody groaned from under him, his voice muffled by the older boy's weight, which was slowly crushing him.

"One! Two! THREE!" Chris shouted. "THE WINNER! The Party Animal of Team Victory! GEOFF!"

Victory cheered for Geoff as he stepped out of the ring...with Cody literally stuck on the back of his pink shirt.

"Nice fight dude!" Peeling Cody off of his back, he straightened the boy up. "Sorry about that last move."

"CODY! ARE YOU OKAY?" Sierra rushed up and took the dazed Cody's hand. "Cody?"

"Hello ma," Cody said dumbly before he fell over.

"Ouch...I really need to lose some more weight." Geoff said sheepishly...ignoring the fact he was already about 90 percent muscle.

"And now let us move onto the next match!"

Xxx

Confessional

"I swear he's such a show off!" Gwen said.

End Confessional

Xxx

"In the blue corner, you've already seen her in action: Courtney!" Chris pointed to the blue corner where Courtney was waiting with her arms crossed. "And in the red corner, she's a surfer on water and a klutz on land, she loves Mother Nature, and has a weak stomach: Here's BRIDGETTE!"

Bridgette waved to the crowed that automatically cheered for her.

"Sorry Bridgette, you're the only person I _don't_ hate on this show," Courtney cracked her knuckles. "I hate to do this, but one of us has to go down."

"Ah don't worry, I know." Bridgette nodded. "And I ain't going down without a fight either!"

"Okay ladies, let's try not talking as much, I am pretty damn sure the viewers want a cat fight." Chris said, tapping his watch.

...

THWACK!

"Ow..." Chris glared at Carlos.

"If I hadn't done it, then they would have." Carlos shrugged.

"...Just begin!"

Courtney leaped at Bridgette and tackled her. Bridgette grabbed Courtney's wrists and braced one foot against her stomach to keep her away while she made a plan to retaliate. She knocked Courtney off her and got up. Bridgette knew this match would not be easy since Courtney was no push over even if Bridgette had gone up against worse opponents.

It allowed her to dodge Courtney's fist and countered with a series of punches and chops before Courtney launched a kick that knocked her back. Before Courtney could kick her again Bridgette blocked it and fired two quick punches at Courtney's shoulder, stunning her before Bridgette kneed her in the stomach. Courtney rolled out of the way before Bridgette could attack again.

Courtney jumped at her again and Bridgette found herself dodging blow after blow as Courtney attacked without end. Bridgette was able to a catch Courtney`s arm with both hands and went into a baseball slide, kicking Courtney`s leg out while maintaining her grip. Courtney flipped forward and landed on her back, slightly dizzy after being thrown to the floor. Before Bridgette could attack again Courtney fired an uppercut at Bridgette`s chin knocking her back.

Bridgette fell onto the ground while Courtney got up and quickly pinned her down before she could get back up.

"And one! Two! Three!" Chris said. "And the winner is Courtney!"

Courtney got off and helped Bridgette get back up. They got out of the ring as Chris announced the next match.

"Well, the score's even now. So next fight will change that. Let's the next fight start!"

The audience cheered automatically.

"In the blue corner, you hated her in the first season, laughed as she got her head shaved, cheered as she won last season only to lose the money: HEATHER!"

Heather growled at Chris' comment.

"And in the red corner, she's a lady with attitude, she hates her opponent with every fibre of her being, and she has a terrible taste in men: LESHAWNA!" Chris shouted before he was suddenly grasped by the collar.

"What did you just say about my man?" LeShawna growled.

"Uh...that he's the greatest guy in the world?" Chris said sheepishly.

THWACK!

"Hey! That's my job!" Carlos whined.

Chris rubbed his head as LeShawna glared at him.

"Let's just get the fight rolling! RUMBLE!"

LeShawna and Heather glared at each other.

Xxx

Confessional

"LeShawna is going down! I warned her about Alejandro last season and she knocked a tooth out! All because I helped her! Karma's on my side this time." Heather pointed at herself with both thumbs.

End Confessional

Xxx

"And let's RUMBLE!"

LeShawna charged at Heather who side stepped and tried to punch her. LeShawna dodged the punch and grabbed her arm. LeShawna then aimed a punch at her and ten seconds later Heather was knocked out.

"And winner by knockout: LESHAWNA!"

"Oh yeah! Oh yeah!" LeShawna danced to celebrate her victory.

"And she calls herself the leader of this team." Courtney muttered, glaring at Heather who woke up.

"And now, let's bring out the next wrestlers!" Chris announced. "In the blue corner, she's tough, she's mean, she's got one hell of a left hook: EVA!"

Eva got back up on stage.

Xxx

Confessional

"This time I'm not going down!" Eva said to the camera.

End Confessional

Xxx

"And in the red corner, he's got tons of fan-girls but is actually nice, he says nine is his lucky number but hasn't had a lot of luck lately: TRENT!"

Trent had a nervous look on his face as he stood in the red corner.

Xxx

Confessional

"I'd like to win as much as the next guy but is going up against _Eva_ really worth it?" Trent asked.

End Confessional

Xxx

"Let the screaming BEGIN!"

Eva charged forward and before Trent could react found himself slammed into the ground on his back.

"Oh! That's got to hurt!" Chris winced.

Eva kept a foot down on Trent's chest to keep him from getting back up.

"One! Two! Three!" Chris held up Eva's arm. "And the winner is EVA!"

The crowd cheered again as Trent limped off the stage while Eva simple walked back to her team.

"Wow. The score's even now. Which means the next fight will decide it all. In the blue corner: GWEN!"

Gwen simple waited as Chris continued to show off.

"And in the red corner, he's big, he's strong, he's about as brave as mouse: DJ!"

DJ stood in the red corner waving with a smile.

"And let's..."

"Sorry, Chris. But I don't fight." DJ said.

"Excuse me?" Chris asked, annoyed that he was interrupted.

"I don't do violence."

Xxx

Confessional

"My momma said that violence never solves anything." DJ said.

End Confessional

Xxx

"Uh, DJ this is a _wrestling_ tournament. That's what you're supposed to do; fight!" Chris said.

DJ shook his head.

"Not happening."

Chris sighed. "DJ, if you don't do it, you're going to lose."

"But isn't the team going to be runner up? We don't have to eliminate anybody that way!" DJ pointed out.

"DJ, it's okay, it's all virtual wrestling, like a video game!" Gwen said.

"How about I turn off the Touch Senses? That way Gwen won't feel any pain if you fight her." Kurt offered.

"Uh...I guess," DJ said.

"Awesome, handicap!" Chris grinned. "LETS GET READY TO RUMBLE!"

"You know you can get sued for stealing that...at least I think so," Beth said.

"Don't worry; I've got the secret weapon." Chris snickered. "Let's just say Carlos likes doing only one thing more than threatening me."

Xxx

_Several months ago_

"Now will you sign it?" Kurt asked with a gentle smile as he held out the contract.

"Yes!" A man in a business suit squeaked as Carlos held him upside down outside a window by his ankles. "I hereby grant you all rights to the line 'let's get ready to rumble!'" He signed the contract.

"Right, no chances of being sued, no complaining, no nothing whatsoever," Kurt nodded. "You can set him down now Carlos-"

"MOMMY!" The man fell.

"Not out the window!" Kurt faced palmed. "Now he can sue us for attempted murder!"

"The proper term is negligence," Carlos said. "And he slipped out of my grasp!" He held up the man's shoes and socks.

"Since when do you have butter fingers?" Kurt demanded.

"The guy must have been sweating up a swimming pool!" Carlos said.

"Do you realize how high this building is?" Kurt growled. "If we're lucky he'll hit the canopy!"

He leaned out the window. "Uh...Carlos?"

"Yeah?"

Kurt held up one hand with his index finger and thumb barely an inch apart. "Missed it by _that_ much."

"Ah don't worry, I have a plan." Carlos said.

Xxx

One trip to the next office over...

"Now you'll sign this?" Kurt asked as Carlos held the executive's lawyer over his tank of piranhas-why the lawyer had flesh eating piranhas they would never know.

"YES! YES! YES!" The man wailed.

"Good, Carlos do you have a firm grip this time?" Kurt asked.

"Yep!" Carlos was wearing gloves and had grabbed the man's leg instead of his feet.

"Then get him-" Kurt started...before the man slipped out of his slacks and fell into the tank.

"Quick Carlos, crack it open!" Kurt shouted, and not a moment later Carlos made chuck Norris proud by giving a round house kick that smashed the tank open. The man and several dozen piranhas fell out.

"...Is he alright?" Kurt asked.

Carlos checked his pulse. "Uh...we might want to find _his_ lawyer next."

"The next time we ask somebody to sign something I'm going in alone!"

"It's not my fault these guys are all sweaty pigs!"

"Why do you keep having the urge to lift them upside down?" Kurt sighed. "Come on we have two people to get to the hospital."

Xxx

"Now you'll stay quiet?" Carlos held the Ambulance driver upside down over s man hole.

"Yes sir!"

"CARLOS! You've already nearly killed two people today, are you trying to go for a lucky three?"

"Don't worry, I thought ahead!" Carlos said, having grabbed the man's legs after pushing his pant legs up so he had a secure grip.

"Good, now get him-"

CRUNCH!

Suddenly a large alligator stuck its head out of the sewers and swallowed the man up, leaving his legs in Carlos' grip.

"...I thought alligators in the sewers were a myth." Carlos said.

"I thought so too," Kurt said.

After several moments of staring at the man hole, Kurt looked at his colleague. "I'm not going to get him!"

"I'm not going down there!" Carlos snapped.

"You held him over the man hole!"

"That thing was the size of an elephant!"

`What difference does that make you`re not going down there just because you`re a chicken. Guess your momma was right, you really are Chris McLean's cousin."

Carlos stared at him silently for several moments.

Xxx

"Do you see him?" Carlos asked.

"I hate you so much, you over grown child." Kurt grumbled as the British Wrestler held him upside down by the legs, keeping him in the sewer. "I'm docking your pay for this!"

"We're both producers you moron, you don't have the authority to, I personally made a contract to make sure you can't." Carlos chuckled.

"Come on Carlos pull me up, we gotta find that-AH!" Kurt fell down and hit the floor below. "OW! Way to go numb skull!" He looked around. "Uh...Carlos, you there?"

"MPH!MPH!" Kurt slowly turned and saw a hand sticking out of the mouth of a giant alligator that was staring at Kurt.

"Uh..Carlos?"

"Mph?"

"I think we found him." Kurt paused. "Wait, how'd he eat you if you were up there?"

"Mph oh oh." (I don't know!') Carlos said, muffled by the alligator's mouth.

Xxx

In modern day

"To put it in a nut shell we had to shake down and threaten seventy four people and beat up an alligator." Carlos said.

"I'm confused, how did the alligator get up there again?" Chris asked.

"Uh..Kurt, do you remember?" Carlos asked.

"Well you've got me on that, but the more you think about it the less it makes sense." Kurt explained. "I'm still confused about how we just went to threaten one business executive for rights to use a phrase and ended up shaking down dozens of people."

"And I learned a very good lesson that night," Carlos said. "Well two actually."

"Actually act like a businessman instead of a brainless thug? Oh and that alligators really do live in the sewers?" Kurt asked.

"Ok one: he refused when we offered a million dollars for the right to use it. And two: who the hell could have known that? What I learned was this. Number One: There are five things in the world you never mess with. Mother in laws, lawyers, alligators, bears, and news anchors." Carlos said. "And number two: always remember never to hold a sweaty guy upside down by his pants. That guy really chose a bad day to wear the ones with the little pink ponies on them."

"I think being eaten by an alligator had an effect on you...you threatened your mother in law?" Kurt asked.

"She bakes cookies, but she's a real witch." Carlos shrugged.

"Wait, you're married?"

"Uh...yeah, there's a very good reason why I never told you about it seeing as we were going on TDR." Carlos said. "Uh...the thing is a few months back...Melissa had triplets and I pretty much predicted how people would react to-"

"EEK! Oh do you have pictures of them?" Lindsay asked.

"Can we see? Can we see?" Beth asked, hopping up and down.

"Oh they must look so adorable!" Sierra squealed.

"Crap," Carlos pulled out his wallet and unfolded it. "Here, take them, just leave me alone!" About half of the girls on the cast began to look at the pictures of Carlos' children.

"Dude...seriously? I had no idea you and Melissa...the whole thing just- HEY! YOU NEVER INVITED ME TO THE WEDDING?" Chris shouted.

"Well to be frank Chris, you got carried away with your job on Total Drama Action and I have always hated the sight of you since I first heard your name." Carlos said casually. "And once Carlos Junior, Richard, and Sally were born I really didn't want to expose them to the idea of uh..." He pointed at Chris' head. "That hair style."

"A fatherly decision man," Kurt said in approval. "Best damn one I've ever heard of."

"Okay...moving on!" Chris said.

"We managed to come to an agreement Chris!" Gwen shouted.

"Awesome!"

"Let's do it!" DJ said dramatically. "You're going down!"

"We'll see about that!"

"They're going to make their moves! They're balling their fists up!" Chris said eagerly. "This will decide the outcome of the tournament!"

The entire audience fell silent as they watched Gwen and DJ march up to one another and rear one fist back each. They brought them down. Chris squealed in anticipation.

"ROCK! PAPER! SCISSORS!"

"WHAT?" Chris fell off his seat.

"SHOOT!" They both chose Paper.

"WHAT IS THIS? YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO FIGHT IT OUT!" Chris shouted.

"Oh! Kurt, play back, play it back, we have to see his reaction again!" Carlos laughed.

Kurt played back Chris in slow motion. "Okay, see? He looks giddy and excited. My god he looks like a little girl at a candy shop! Then as they make their move..." Then suddenly he fell out of his chair. "And BAM! Down he goes! Oh man he looks like somebody stole his favourite hair gel! Classic!"

Chris glared at Carlos. "I hate you so much."

"Hey, I held seventy four people upside down and got eaten by an alligator to get you the right to say a few words, show some respect!"

"You also gave me seventeen black eyes!"

"ROCK! PAPER! SCISSORS!"

"GAH! WHY?" Chris fell to his knees. "THEY RUINED MY DRAMATIC WRESTLING MATCH!" He began to wail.

"KURT! DISCONNECT HIM!" Carlos shouted.

"Oh hell no! Then I'll be stuck with him out here!"

THWACK!

The screams fell silent.

"Ah.,..the sound of silence." Carlos sighed.

"ROCK! PAPER! SCISSORS!"

Gwen came down with scissors, and DJ came down with paper.

"And the winner is Team Amazon! And extra points to them for doing that to Chris!" Carlos laughed. "Anybody want to see the look on his face again!"

One play back later.

"See? He's all happy, so happy and-THERE!" The audience laughed. "Oh man that was a Kodak moment! Reminds me of the time I shook down that photographer who saw me and Kurt shaking down that Morgue worker!"

"What is wrong with you two and threatening people? Are you the Russian mafia or something?" Gwen asked.

"Uh..." Carlos coughed awkwardly. "Maybe."

Xxx

"Now, you'll tell them the injury was entirely accidental, right?" Kurt asked sweetly.

"Yes! Just please don't let that stuff near me! If you destroy me you'll never get out of here free!" The scared doctor said as Carlos held him over a vat of month old mashed potatoes. Kurt sat in a chair, drinking a bottle of beer.

"Alright, let him down Carlos-"

SNAP!

The rope around the man's ankles snapped and he fell...

Only to be caught by Carlos by one ankle.

"Haha! My first save of the-"

The man's shoe slipped off...and Carlos grabbed him with his other hand. "Whoa that was close! My first save of the-" the sock slipped off, but Carlos once again grabbed the man by the trousers.

"Maybe if you just savour your victory Carlos, unless you want that man's trousers to-" the pants slipped off ,and Carlos managed to grab him by the coat he wore.

"Man, close one! My first save-" the coat ripped, and Carlos grabbed the man by his shirt.

"Okay, shutting up now-" The shirt ripped. "Oh come on!" He grabbed him by the boxers. "Okay, if these break I am not gonna-" They ripped and the man fell into the vat.

Kurt sighed. "It might help if we don't speak at all when we do this."

Later ,the police arrived and described that the man had been stripped naked, robbed of his valuables, tortured, and then left to suffer in the vat of hot, boiling potatoes. The man could not recall the faces of his attackers, and could not try to describe them anyways, as he was incapable of talking or using his hands until he healed months later. He just wanted to put the horrible experience behind him.

Needless to say, Kurt and Carlos 'really' needed to make sure their victims weren't wearing cheap clothing or sweated a lot.

"Number 33," Carlos mumbled as he wrote down something on a sheet of paper. "Wait until all seventy four victims heal and then apologize to them for any and all accidents." He sighed. "Man, clothing is so cheaply made these days."

"Yes, I shudder to think if you held up one of your own kids or your wife that way. You'd better be away from any dangerous objects should it come to that." Kurt growled as they drove along a bridge.

Carlos glared at him.

Xxx

"CARLOS!" Kurt howled as Carlos left him on the side walk and roared away in their car. "Well at least he didn't hang me upside down this time."

Xxx

Carlos sighed in relief as he drove along the bridge. "Finally." He pulled out his phone. "Hey honey, ah yeah I just finished business in New York. These Americans really need to improve the make of their clothes, rips way too easily and-"

Suddenly as he was about to continue, he looked n the rear view mirror as he heard a growl. "Huh?"

The alligator roared and leaped out of the back, snapping its jaws at him.

Carlos screamed as it attacked him. "ALLIGATORS REALLY DO LIVE IN THE SEWERS!"

He crashed into a building. Kurt, barely a hundred feet back stared. "Wow, good thing he left me on the side walk." He looked around. "...Taxi!"

Xxx

"And afterwards I swore never to go near any natural habitats to the alligators ever again." Carlos concluded the story.

"Are you guys sure you aren't making this up?" Cody asked.

"Well it's possible, they did drug me a whole lot up in the hospital, if it is then I have no idea how I got in there." Carlos said.

"Uh..." Kurt left the console to get a drink as he remembered the event that had actually landed Carlos in the hospital.

Xxx

_Flash back in New York_

Carlos prepared to shove Kurt out, but suddenly a pair of cars blocked off the road. The two producers/criminal fugitives watched as men in black coats with submachine guns got out and surrounded them. One man walked up to the window and spoke in an accent that reminded them of the Sopranos. "Kurt and Carlos?"

"Uh...yeah?" Kurt asked.

"You have insulted my organization by injuring my lawyer," the man growled.

"The guy with pink pony underwear?" Carlos asked.

"The guy you held over the piranha tank," Kurt sighed. "Ah crap-"

Later, they were being held upside down over the edge of the bridge.

"How does it feel to be held upside down now?" Kurt asked.

"Ah shut up-"

"Don't say a word," Kurt cut him off. "You'll just make us-FALL!" They both plummeted towards the water...and then landed, and after a moment came back up, unharmed.

"Wow...we didn't even get hurt." Carlos said.

"CARLOS!" Kurt growled.

"What-?" CRUNCH!

The alligator from earlier gobbled him up from under him.

"Hey Carlos?"

"MPH?"

"Alligator's back."

"EVAH EE-UH-SHUN AR ASS!" (Clever deduction smart ass!)

The alligator went back under the water, leaving Kurt alone.

"...the guys back at the studio will _never_ believe this...and neither will our insurance company." Kurt sighed.

Xxx

Modern Day

"Uh...I'm back; let's get you all out now." Kurt coughed awkwardly, trying to forget how he and Carlos had almost met their demise at the hands of the mafia the same way they had almost killed dozens of others in the span of four hours in one night.

After getting everybody back to the real world, the teams went their separate ways. Team Chris prepared to vote off their loser.

Xxx

Confessional

Duncan

"Okay, I admit I bombed that fight, but that shrimp is actually pretty good! If you ask me, Al has been asking for an early boot and Tyler well...I have some talents and...he has 'no' talents." Duncan said. "You've all seen it in the last three seasons."

Xxx

Tyler

"Oh man, I am so screwed!" The Wannabe jock said. "I vote for Duncan, he got beaten by Cody! CODY of all people! Come on that is pathetic!"

Suddenly somebody knocked on the door. "I can hear you, you know that, right?"

"Eek!"

Xxx

Alejandro

"Tyler definitely, I'd vote for the Three Day's Grace Reject but he has some uses." Al shrugged. "Heh heh, nice name they came up for him."

Xxx

Izzy

"Uh..." Izzy leaned back, a bored look on her face. "Tyler."

Xxx

Noah

"I've been hoping to get Al kicked off early, but he still might be useful, so he's lucky." Noah said before he went back to his book.

Xxx

Justin

"Al has GOT to go man!"

Xxx

"Well, Team Chris, I've got to say you're not doing so hot. You're really disappointing me." Chris said holding up a tray that had Chris trophies.

The team glared at him for that.

"Well, we have five trophies here which means the guy who doesn't get a trophy will be sent home and can never _ever_ come back."

"Yeah, we know the drill, Chris." Duncan muttered.

"And the first trophy goes to . . . Alejandro."

Alejandro caught his trophy.

"Izzy."

Izzy smiled, catching her trophy.

"Noah."

Noah caught his before going back to reading his book.

"Justin."

It was now down to Duncan and Tyler.

"Two losers left now. Duncan you lost to Cody, the top geek of the show now that Harold's gone. And Tyler, you went down in two seconds." Chris said.

"She kicked me in the you-know-where!" Tyler said.

"Yeah, that was funny." Chris chuckled. "But now one of you will be leaving for good."

...

...

...

...

"Duncan."

Duncan smiled as he caught his trophy. Tyler sighed sadly as he walked towards the Jet of Losers.

"Well, that's the end of another episode. Who will lose next? Will Team Chris bounce back or are they taking Team Victory's place at the bottom? Find out next time on Total, Drama, REALITY!"


	25. Episode 24: Field Trip

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 24

The time was 9:00 the following morning. Gwen had an irritated look on her face as her alarm clock woke her up. She reached out and turned it off before sitting up to stretch her arms out. After yesterday's challenge she immediately went to her room and fell asleep. After all she and the others ended up ended up going through XANA's virtual simulation of nearly everyone's worst memories, facing a crazed XANA-possessed Alejandro, and then when they saved everyone they ended up doing Chris' crazed up wrestling challenge.

Needless to say she and the others had a long day yesterday. Adding to that list was the memories of some individuals on the show. Heather's past as an outcast because of her previous looks, Alejandro's past with his brothers, Eva's past before she became the muscular hot tempered young woman, Courtney and Duncan's relationship issues . . .

'Oh right.'

Gwen rubbed her head. Courtney and Duncan's relationship/conflict, in the all the excitement she nearly forgot about that.

'When we went back in time we erased the memories of everyone who was in the simulation bubble except for me, Cody, and the others. So now since Duncan and Courtney don't remember we're back to where we started.'

Which could make things difficult for her since she now knows the truth. She was just a replacement to Courtney because Duncan got angry at her attempts to change him and cheated on her to get even. Knowing it would definitely make thing awkward.

'Great. What the hell am I supposed to do? Just dump him like that? It would make things suspicious if I did it right out of the blue.' Gwen rubbed her eyes. 'Damn it. I shouldn't have let him kiss me from the start. Now I'm tangled up in this dramatic soap opera. Cody was right, ignorance is bliss.'

She had to let her feelings override her common sense and in that one moment of weakness she got caught up in this. Not to mention breaking Courtney's heart in the process. Yeah, Gwen mentally kicked herself for doing that.

'Well, Gwen, you've been in more difficult situations before . . . Can't recall any but there must be a way out of this.' Gwen got out of bed to get dressed. 'But on the bright side, if there's a XANA attack today you can forget about when you're running for your life.'

Xxx

A helicopter landed on the helipad of an abandoned oil rig somewhere in the Pacific. A man in a dark coat stepped out. He walked through the facility and found an elevator. They entered it and pressed the button for the sub-basement.

The elevator went down and then opened when it reached the level. The room had a large computer with an assembly.

"What is this?"

Dr. Lyon went and looked at the computer. It seems that it had shut down as well and the logs were destroyed.

"Not necessarily a dead end. This computer's internet connection was severed so there is something here." Said the scientist to himself.

He brought up an image of a line of codes.

"This data is unlike anything I have ever seen before. But it is similar to something I have seen before."

He looked them over and smirked with glee.

"Oh yes! It is here!"

He brought up an image of a strange eye symbol.

"This is Schaeffer's work. There's no doubt about it now."

He looked at the codes. They were more advanced than anything he had seen before.

"No. Not him but his creation."

The creation that destroyed Project Carthage and cost him his job.

"An AI who left an imprint of itself inside the computer. It's been damaged as if something tried to destroy it. These are its remains." Said Dr. Lyon looking over the data.

What could have destroyed it? Schaeffer's AI had been more than a match for any kind of software which means deleting should have been impossible.

"Not exactly a waste though. That would made it sentient was destroyed leaving behind this left over data like a corpse. But what made it work is here." He said pointing at the data. "The red codes function like a virus allowing it to reach out and infect any program it wants, while these codes." He said pointing at the green codes. "Function as its brain. It allows it not only analyze whatever equation it has and allows it to multiply to accomplish more than one tasks worthy of hundreds of intelligent individuals."

He looked around the lab and picked up a motherboard. It was truly a masterpiece and more advanced than anything he had seen before.

"Yes! I found him! I have found XANA!" The scientist said in a happy tone.

The scientist pulled out a disk that downloaded the data.

Xxx

"Well that was a bust."

In the depths of Sector 5 of the Carbon Copy of Lyoko Shadow glared at Ryder for his comment.

"We go through all that trouble just so the boss can get those keys and we get squat." Ryder scoffed.

"Silence." Shadow spoke.

"Or what? Another round? Bring it, Shadow. I'm bored anyway." Ryder pulled out his sword.

Shadow shook his head at Ryder's stubbornness. Just as he was about to summon his own weapon a red spherical barrier with a black cloud appeared in front of them. It began to fluidly, shaping itself. The generals watched as the cloud began to condense and form into a familiar shape.

The cloud continued to thicken as it took a humanoid shape, becoming more solid and dense. Eyes flashed red, blinking through dark red streaked hair and pointed ears were seen under the figure's hair. The Eye flashed red on the figure's chest as the figure was now solid. The generals watched as XANA restored his avatar and floated peacefully inside the barrier.

'It seems the game is not quite over.' XANA thought as the barrier dissolved and he landed on his feet.

"XANA." Shadow spoke.

XANA ignored Shadow as he lifted his hand, moving his fingers experimentally before tightening them into a fist.

"XANA, what happened?" Shadow asked, his voice a little louder.

XANA dropped his fist and looked at Shadow.

"My creator left a protection program encoded within Aelita's keys. Anything belonging to me that touches her will be destroyed instantly. "

"Franz Hopper." Shadow said.

XANA didn't reply as he turned around.

"Hey, where are you going?" Ryder asked.

XANA did not answer as he vanished. Ryder grunted in annoyance. As he walked XANA replayed the last battle in his mind.

'If the program allows Aelita to learn how to wield the power her keys can give her than the battle will be harder than ever. I'll have to once again concentrate on removing what protects her.'

Xxx

"Listen, Carlos," Kurt sighed, exasperated. "Nine PM, Kit-Kats, Pop corn, Coca-Cola, and free non-refundable movie tickets."

"No, no, Kurt!" Carlos shook his head. "Aero Bars, Chicken, Seven Up, Salt & Vinegar Chips. Six PM on Monday Night."

"I got a date with Sarah on Monday!" Kurt protested. "And quite frankly I'm more afraid of disappointing her!"

"Kurt, I can't go to the theatre with you to watch the A-Team with Sarah," Carlos said. "Melissa can't go out because of the triplets and she isn't into guns and explosions like you and Sarah are."

"Hire a baby sitter!"

"Can't."

"What happened?"

"Well..the only people willing to baby sit were my mother in law among other unsuitable people. The last time she came she had a shotgun which she is no doubt planning to use on me."

"Okay, how about Tuesday, six-thirty?" Kurt asked. "It's so simple! Free time, Melissa will be at home with the kids, and you can go with us to the theatre!"

"Can't."

"What now?"

"Well Six-Thirty on next Tuesday is when Chris goes to court with Ezekiel. And guess who's representing him? Sierra's Uncle, who happens to be a lawyer and has Chris up on a ton of charges. I ain't missing the chance to see him get kicked across the court room!"

"Well I guess there's only one thing to do..." Kurt sighed, and then grinned. "Bye Carlos!" He turned to walk away.

"Wait, that's it?"

"Yep, that's it!"

Carlos looked at the chalk board they had filled up with Kurt's opportunities for visiting the theatre and Carlos' busy month of family and law business. "Hm...he's right, it is the only way. Plus if I go to that theatre those weird guys with the bad Sopranos accents might find me again."

Xxx

_A few weeks ago..._

Carlos sat in a chair, looking around a dimly lit room.

"So, you survived our first...encounter Mr Carlos." The Sopranos Wannabe from before stepped out of the shadows. "And now you insult me by flashing your wallet?"

"It's not my fault I only had a couple fifties left!" Carlos whined.

"Either way, you don't go flashing your green on my lawn," The man growled.

"Wait, what?" Carlos blinked. "Flash my who on your where?"

"You don't go bragging about your good fortunes where only I get to make fortunes!"

"Ooooohhhhh..." Carlos nodded. "But seriously, is this necessary?"

"You have no idea. Boys, take care of him!" Two men came into the room, cracking their knuckles.

"Uh oh...wait, why am I worried? I've had worse with Melissa and I'm the freaking king of British fist fighting!" Carlos leaped to his feet and cracked his knuckles.

All three men realized their mistake far too late before Carlos was on them.

Xxx

"And that was the easiest fist fight I ever had." Carlos grinned.

Xxx

Ray Parker opened the door to the apartment he was renting and sat down on the couch. It was 9:00 in the morning he had spent most of the night working on the case of the missing students. He was also looking at Aelita's file. He pulled out his cell phone and dialled.

It rang for a few moments before it was answered.

"Yes?" asked a female voice.

"Lucy, it's me."

"Ray, how's the investigation going?"

"So far nothing. Did you look up Aelita Stones for me and look at anything about what the strange eye could mean?"

"Well, Aelita Stones is supposedly Odd Della Robbia's cousin from Canada but so far nothing seems out of the ordinary. However the eye I have found something strange." Lucy replied.

"What is it?"

"The eye was seen used in something called Carthage conducted by a group that has almost everything restricted I could lose my job if I were caught prying. The eye was specifically used by a man named Waldo Schaeffer who was recruited to take part in the project but left due to unknown reasons. Here's where it gets interesting, after his wife was killed he and his daughter disappeared when agents were sent to apprehend them." Said Lucy.

"Were they caught?"

"No. Disappeared as in vanished into thin air."

"I see."

"That's not even the strange part. Here's a picture of him along with his wife and daughter."

Lucy sent the picture to his cell phone and he looked at it. He saw a young woman with long pink hair and a small four year old girl.

"That looks like Stones."

"The girl should 28 years old by now. Maybe this is her daughter."

"Possibly and she might be adopted. That means that the group could have abducted her like her father and Stones could have been adopted by another family."

"So she could have no idea about this as well." Said Lucy.

"Maybe. See if you can dig up anything on Carthage. That'll be helpful."

Xxx

Gwen sat in the common room of the studio. Since there were no challenges today mostly everyone was sleeping in.

'So boring. I have no idea what to do for the day. I guess Bridgette and the others are still sleeping from yesterday's challenge and fight.'

"NO!"

Gwen sat up when she heard a scream.

"That sounded like Lindsay."

She walked over to the Victory Dorm and found Bridgette hugging a crying Lindsay in her room while seeing a few of the others starting to come out of their rooms.

"What's going on?"

Bridgette looked up and saw Gwen at the door.

"She's upset that Tyler was eliminated." She replied as she patted Lindsay's back.

"It's ... Not fair. I don't want to be here without my Tyler." Lindsay cried.

"It's okay. You'll see him again." Bridgette comforted her.

"Lindsay!"

Gwen turned around and saw Beth running through the hall in her pyjamas.

"Hey, Beth."

"I heard Lindsay screaming. What's wrong?"

"She found out Tyler was voted off."

"Oh." Beth put a hand over her mouth when she heard that.

Gwen noticed she had a tired look on her face and could tell that Lindsay's crying must have woke her up.

"She's just finding out about this now?"

Bridgette nodded.

"She went over to Team C's dorm to see Tyler but she found his room was empty and Duncan slipped out that Tyler had been voted off."

Gwen sighed at Duncan's thick headedness. She gave Lindsay a sympathetic look before turning around and walked out. Walking towards the cafe to get herself something to eat she found a few people already were up. Noah was sitting a table with a book along with Heather and Cody.

Cody had no doubt helped wheel Heather into the cafe. She smelled something good and saw DJ was actually making breakfast.

"Hey, Gwen." Cody waved at her.

She smiled and nodded at him.

"What's going on?"

"Well, since we've rarely had any good food from Chef DJ decided to cook up breakfast."

She looked at DJ who was smiling as he brought out the food.

"So what was that?" Cody asked.

"Lindsay found out that Tyler was voted off last night." Gwen replied.

She grabbed a fruit and started eating it.

"And she's just hearing it now?" Heather rolled her eyes. "Unbelievable."

"Yeah, hard to believe that there are some people that _lack_ your keen observation." Noah said.

Heather glared at Noah but the bookworm ignored her.

"Bridgette's looking after her. I'm guessing she woke you guys up too."

"It was hard to go back to sleep when the scream was in my team's dorm." Noah replied.

"I was already awake." Cody said.

"Who could sleep after that?" Heather grunted.

"Hey, go easy on her." DJ said putting the food on the table.

"Yeah, at least her boyfriend's not in a robot suit and likes kissing pineapples." Noah said.

"He's NOT my boyfriend." Heather growled.

"Whatever."

Eva walked into the room, a scowl on her face.

"Morning Eva." DJ waved.

Eva grunted as she sat down.

"So what was Barbie screaming about?"

"She found out that Tyler was the one who eliminated after yesterday's challenge." Gwen replied.

"And she's finding out about this now?"

"Let's not go through that again." Cody said.

"Yeah. Once was enough." Noah agreed.

Eva grunted.

"On the bright side we won't have to worry about jock boy accidently killing himself or anyone in the gym." Noah said.

"Like you do any better, Bill Gates Junior." DJ pointed out.

"Said the jolly giant who can't hurt a fly." Noah shot back at DJ.

"He actually has a point Noah, you have your head in a book more than I do," Cody stepped in.

"Whatever."

Gwen had finished her food and was watching as the conversation continued. Of course she froze when a familiar figure walked into the room.

"Hey there, Pasty."

Cody's face soured as he saw Duncan sit down beside Gwen and had an arm around her shoulder. Gwen kept a calm look on her face as she faced Duncan.

"Good morning, Duncan. I heard about what happened with Lindsay."

Duncan shrugged.

"I didn't say much. I just said the jock was booted out."

Gwen raised an eyebrow.

"Where those your exact words?"

"Yes." Noah said.

She sighed and looked at Duncan with an exasperated look.

"You realize that you probably woke up everyone with that stunt?"

"Did it wake you up?" Duncan asked.

"No."

"Then I don't have to care."

Gwen rolled her eyes. That was when her blackberry vibrated. Mentally thanking the universe for a distraction she stood up.

"Sorry, Duncan. I got to take this."

Duncan shrugged as Gwen walked away from the table and made sure she was out of earshot before answering the call.

"Hello?"

"Gwen, it's Aelita. I need to talk to you and the others. You don't have to come to the factory if you don't want. I just need you all to hear some news."

"Okay." Gwen nodded.

She looked over to the table.

'Better not ask Cody or DJ because it'll look suspicious. I'll come back for them.'

Gwen walked out of the cafe and back to the Victory Dorm. She found Bridgette's door and knocked on it.

"Who is it?"

"It's me."

"Gwen? Come on in."

Gwen opened the door and found Bridgette reading a book.

"What's up?" Bridgette asked.

"Aelita has some news for us. We don't have to go to the factory since it's still morning but she wants us to hear it."

"Okay, I'll get Geoff and LeShawna. I heard DJ is in the cafe."

"I know. I didn't want to grab him and Cody yet because the others might get suspicious."

"Okay, that's understandable." Bridgette nodded.

Gwen walked out of Bridgette's room and sent text messages to Cody and DJ.

Xxx

Ten minutes later

Everyone was back in Cody's room with Cody pulling out his laptop. Aelita's face appeared on the screen.

"Hello, everyone. How are you all feeling?"

"Pretty good this morning." LeShawna said.

"Well, I'm sorry about calling but I believe we may a situation in the studio." Aelita said.

"Another attack?" asked DJ with an alarmed look.

Aelita shook her head. "No. It concerns Alejandro and how his injuries were healed. Gwen, you and Cody were there. Did he mention about how he was healed?"

"He said he was led into a pod of some sort." Cody said.

Aelita was silent as she considered what she had heard.

"He couldn't have been healed inside one of those virtual pods that are used on the show. And XANA couldn't have healed him without activating a tower so that means . . . That he would have had to have been inside a scanner."

"Okay, now when you say scanner, you mean like the scanners at the factory?" asked Geoff.

"That's exactly what I mean." Aelita nodded.

"But how? It's not like he went into the factory and got into one of the scanners . . . Did he?" asked Bridgette.

Aelita shook her head.

"He couldn't have. His DNA would have been scanned into the supercomputer and I would have known even before the attack."

"So where could he have gone?" asked DJ.

"I looked at the surveillance tapes that Cody showed me. It's possible, not very possible that there could be a scanner in the studio."

"Here? How? If those things were here they wouldn't bother with the pods." LeShawna said.

"Not if it's not open to public access. Are there any basements or closed off areas in the studio?"

"Not that we know of." Gwen said.

"Well, whether or not there is an actual scanner in the studio I am starting to become suspicious of RealiTech. I'll be taking a look at their financial records. In the meantime just go about your day and I'll alert you to any updates."

"Got it." Everyone replied.

Xxx

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" asked a familiar voice.

Just as the group was leaving Cody's room Courtney came into view. Most of the group suppressed a sigh since none of them were in the mood to deal with her.

"Hi, Courtney." Bridgette said, hoping to avoid any tension.

"Bridgette, sneaking around with them again?"

"And why are you sneaking around, Courtney?" Gwen asked. "Trying to make someone else's life miserable?"

"I could, but I'm not in the mood for it today. I just saw you all coming out of Cody's room. So, what's going on? Having a party?"

"Courtney, if you'd be so kind as to drop it we won't have any trouble." Gwen said nicely.

"I don't think so." Courtney replied, narrowing her eyes. "There's no way I am loosing the chance to bust you, Gothie."

"Of course." Gwen innocently said. "Being kind is not in your nature."

Courtney glared, making an angry noise. Bridgette stepped between them, trying to diffuse the situation.

"Come on, Courtney. We don't want any trouble today. Me and the others here are going back our dorm." Bridgette said.

"Fine. But remember, Gwen." She spat out Gwen's name. "I'll get you one way or another. Don't forget."

"I won't, Miss Crazy in Training."

"Say that again."

"Miss Crazy in Training."

"Okay, you asked for it!"

But before Courtney could attack her LeShawna stepped in front of her.

"You better be ready to fight me before you throw that punch, rich girl."

Courtney lowered her fist and stomped away.

"Thanks." Gwen said.

"No problem. Can't be distracted right now."

"I know. Right now, though, I'm not sure how to proceed with Duncan. I mean I know the truth but I can't just dump him right out of the blue." Gwen said.

"Why not? I mean the guy's a jerk who's just using you. He doesn't deserve you for that." Cody said.

He really hoped that now with the truth out Gwen would see Duncan as the punk that he was.

"I mean if I dump him like that it'll look suspicious." Gwen said.

"How?"

"It might cause Duncan to start spying on us if I just dump him. Think of what could happen if he follows us to the factory in the middle attack."

"That is something to consider." Geoff said.

"Right. So far Duncan hasn't asked what's going on because he trusts Gwen but if she dumps him for no reason . . ." Bridgette said.

"Right. And what would I say? 'Hey, Duncan, sorry to do this but I know your using me to get back at Courtney because you told everyone in a simulation run by a crazy AI and you can't remember because we went back in time.'" Gwen said. "He'd look at me like I was Izzy's twin sister."

"So what do you do?" DJ asked.

Gwen shrugged.

"I don't know. Guess all I can do is wait and see if Duncan does something that I can use to break up with him." She sighed.

"Be careful, girl. Courtney will be gunning for you." LeShawna said.

Xxx

Duncan whistled as he walked out of the wash room. He took a quick peek around, and after making sure nobody was around decided he'd put his plan into action. His target: Chris' personal stash of junk food.

Snickering, the mischievous young man snuck through the main studio. Approaching the door marked 'Employees Only'-which he knew led to Chris' room he slowly pulled out a bobby pin and screw driver. He slowly inserted the bobby pin into the lock and began to push the tip up. Upon hearing a slight 'click' he grinned and continued on with this, making sure to keep the pin up until the lock opened up.

Opening the door, he wringed his hands together and let out a low evil laugh. Finally, after years of torment, revenge was HIS! MWAHAHAHAHAHA-

"What are you doing?"

Whoops, he laughed maniacally out loud. Damn! He spun around and came face to face with an older man who was extremely hairy and had tanned skin and muscles beyond belief. He was glaring down at Duncan. The word 'Security' was on his chest.

'Wow...this dude is ugly ,and I thought chef took the cake.' Duncan thought.

"Who are you?" He snapped, not backing down.

"I'm the security chief!" The man growled.

Duncan saw a white badge on his shirt that said 'Hello, my name is Roberto'

"Okay then...Roberto, how about you move along and I'll be on my way-"

"To trespass into the employees only section?" Roberto asked.

"What? No-no-no!" Duncan said innocently. "I was just passing by!"

"With a bobby pin and a screw driver?" Roberto raised an eye brow.

"...Yes, that is exactly it." Duncan nodded.

"Smart guy...I know you, the delinquent with the over sized ego," Roberto growled. "Chef warned me about you."

"Oh, great, let me guess, another military wannabe drill sergeant." Duncan sighed.

"I used to work in a federal prison as a guard, smart ass." Roberto growled. "You do NOT want to mess with me!"

"Just like I DON'T want to mess with the Master Chief?" Duncan snapped.

"Keep running that mouth of yours and let's see how confident you are after I shut it!" Roberto snarled before he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Roberto, do I have to remind you what happens when you threaten OUR contestants with physical violence?" Carlos asked in a WAY too happy tone.

"Carlos," Roberto growled. "In case you haven't noticed, I just stopped him from getting into the 'Employees Only' section!"

"What, that? Are you kidding me? It just goes to Chris' private stash. Hell, me and Kurt steal from it all the time." Carlos said.

"Yea, you and Kurt may be above punishment since you're both producers, but not HIM." Roberto looked at Duncan...who had vanished so fast that if it was a cartoon he would have left a puff of clouds in his shape where he had been standing. "Gah! You see what you made me do?"

"Calm down man." Carlos said. "Seriously, you need to take a chill pill...and a haircut."

"I'm taking my job seriously! Something you are incapable of doing! I heard about your ADVENTURE with Kurt back in America." Roberto snapped.

"Hey, there was no physical evidence to support that I had anything to do with those seventy four people and that giant mutant alligator being hurt." Carlos said. "It was a coincidence!"

Roberto growled. "You may not take your job serious Carlos, but I do, and it's my job to keep order in this studio!"

Carlos scoffed. "Roberto, let's review a few things. Number One, what did I used to do? What did I serve in? Oh yes, British SAS, as in people who have to keep order in all of England. And you? You had to carry around a stick to beat up convicts. And next, who got their ass handed to them the last time you insinuated I am incompetent? Oh yes, he's got no idea what a hair cut is, does not understand the definition of Shampoo, and has a big piece of chicken in his hair." He pulled the offending object out and tossed it away. "Seriously man, take a shower why don't you? At this rate you'll be the only hazard in the studio!"

Roberto scoffed. "Your time will come Carlos!"

Kurt came out of the 'Employees Only' Door, eating from a bag of chips marked 'Property of Chris McLean. "In the mean time Roberto, why don't you concentrate on real time instead of 'Cave Time'? Now would you please, I think I hear your pet Saber Tooth Tiger calling from the nearest man hole."

Roberto growled. "Oh just you two wait, one of these days I'll find a reason to put you behind bars, and when I do, you will both be seeing me standing outside with the keys!" He began to laugh maniacally.

Carlos and Kurt exchanged a look. "Kurt, may I?"

"Go ahead, but make sure you erase any evidence."

"Excellent."

Xxx

"DAMN YOU CARLO-GLUGHGLUGHGLUGH!" Roberto shouted as he was dunked into a tank of hair remover ,suspended upside down by his feet.

"Well what do you know, this industrial sized tank of hair remover came in handy!" Carlos said.

"Look and behold!" Kurt proclaimed as Roberto was pulled out of the tank with most of his overgrown hair falling off. "It is a man! And here I had twenty bucks on it being a walking fossil." He grumbled as he handed Carlos twenty bucks.

"I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS! DO YOU HEAR ME! I WILL GET Y-GLUGHGLUGHGLUGH!"

Xxx

"Pompous British smart alecky overgrown, pea brained, muscle bound moron and his fiery haired scatter brained idiot of a friend!" Roberto cursed after taking a trip to Chris tank of 'Instant Hair Growth' formula, which restored him to his hideously hairy form.

He paused as he came out into the dorms and saw Duncan pouring something into a vent. Upon spying on the young man, he found that it had been a series of mechanical mice that went out into the vents. Screams were heard from nearby as Duncan chuckled evilly.

"Oh you are SO busted this time." Roberto smirked.

Duncan spun. "You again? Aw man are you everywhere now?"

"Come with me," Roberto said and dragged Duncan along. "I have just the idea for you."

Xxx

Duncan growled. "He. Will. PAY!"

Duncan was dressed in an apron over his usual clothes and was forced to clean off every inch of graffiti that he had left on the outer wall of the building a few hours previously. He looked and saw Roberto parking his car after getting back from a coffee break.

"Enjoying the summer day?" Roberto sneered.

"Bite me!" Duncan snapped.

"No thanks. Now keep cleaning! And don't think about running, the cameras will catch you." Robert pointed at a nearby security camera before walking off.

Duncan scoffed. "Like that would stop me."

Duncan looked at Roberto's car and an idea formed. He began to chuckle evilly, wringing his hands, and then laughed maniacally...until Geoff and Bridgette came around the corner and stared at him. "Whoops- uh...hi."

"Uh...hi, are you okay?" Geoff asked.

"Oh yeah, fine, but could you do me a quick favour?" Duncan asked.

"Sure."

"Put this bucket over that camera." Duncan said. "And make sure it doesn't see you doing it, I have a plan for uh...Chris."

"Alright man, I'm in." Geoff grabbed the bucket and snuck in away from the camera's sight.

"Geoff, is this a good idea?" Bridgette asked.

"Aw what's the worse that Chris can do?" Geoff held the bucket up to it blocked the camera's lens.

"Okay, now we need to get to the kitchen and get a bag of sugar and a cup." Duncan snickered. "Cry havoc and let loose the dogs of war! MWAHAHAHA- Er uh...sorry, I had a bowl of those Sugar Flakes today."

Xxx

Later...

"This is wrong," Bridgette rolled her eyes as she watched Duncan pour the sugar into Roberto's gas tank.

"Relax, Chris will never know about it." Duncan assured her. "And if he does, what can he do? He 'needs' us on this show or his ratings plummet, and with Carlos and Kurt he'd never do anything during a challenge."

"Hey dude!" Geoff greeted the massive and hideously hairy security chief.

Duncan spun and watched as Roberto's eyes went from Geoff to the bucket, to the cup of sugar in Duncan's hands, back to Geoff, and going between the three a few times.

"Oh mister, YOU are in trouble!"

"Aw crap."

Xxx

"You poured sugar into a guy's car?" Noah raised an eye brow. "That's...actually pretty awesome."

"Noah!" Bridgette said.

The genius shrugged and got back to reading his book.

"Why were you guys even doing that anyway?" Gwen asked.

"Duncan tricked us into helping him get back at that guy for forcing him to wear an apron and cleaning up the graffiti." Geoff said.

"Oh man," Bridgette glared at Duncan. "This is your fault!"

"Geoff didn't have to give us away by shouting to him RIGHT when he came outside. I made the plan after I plotted his movements. If he hadn't Roberto would have turned LEFT, and gone around the corner for a full three minutes and twelve seconds and allow me to finish up and get you two back on your merry way." Duncan said, somehow displaying what seemed to be intelligence-on some level to the astonishment of the group.

"Why you were pouring sugar in that guy's in the first place?" Gwen asked.

Duncan shrugged.

"The guy had me wear an apron while cleaning graffiti."

"Graffiti that you painted?"

"Still, the apron was too much."

Gwen sighed.

"You know, Duncan, trying to nag you about any kind of vandalism or pranks is the last thing I want to do since I don't want to turn into Courtney. But bringing Bridgette and Geoff into this was too much." Gwen said.

"It's not my fault. Geoff shouldn't have said hi to him."

"He shouldn't have been there in the first place." Gwen raised her voice. "Bridgette shouldn't have been there either."

"I hate to say it but for once I actually agree with Gwen. I don't care about Geoff but Bridgette is my friend and getting her into trouble just so you could get even with some hairy security chief is too much." Courtney crossed her arms over her chest.

"So..." Carlos came over. "What's this we hear about you three getting into trouble with Roberto?"

"Duncan poured sugar into the security chief's gas valve, and fooled us into helping him." Geoff explained.

"I see...I have this to say you three days grace reject..." Carlos looked angry at first...but then a grin broke out on his face and he shook Duncan's hand. "Welcome to the club man!"

"Carlos," Kurt sighed.

"What? Don't tell me you weren't thinking about doing it!"

"Carlos, we have a problem here." Kurt said.

"Oh what can Roberto do? If he tries to hurt them he knows I'll just dump him in Hair Remover again." Carlos said.

"Well according to him he has the legitimacy on this one, and because the cameras were covered nothing can disprove it."

"Yeah, but I still have one small tiny way to weasel my way in." Carlos said.

"Your fist?"

"Close, but it's this." Carlos held up his contract. "In the event that the actions of any employee, intentional or otherwise causes harm to a competitor in any way regardless of circumstance, I may take authority on the situation and solve it as I see best...meaning breaking Roberto's jaw and bringing you three home if his little Power Trip causes you to get hurt."

"So in other words you can't stop him." Gwen said.

"But we can bring them back if they get hurt in any way," Kurt explained. "And as for anybody finding out about this on TV...well the cameras are only playing Live during the challenges. In between them they're recorded and edited to avoid things like this. So we'll make sure nobody knows you are paying a visit to the big house. I'll stay here and make sure of that while Carlos is on look out."

"What is with that guy anyways?" Duncan asked.

"Roberto?" Carlos scoffed. "The guy's a cave man...actually cave men smell better than him. Seriously, I do him a favour by getting rid of all that hair and he goes and grows it back! Seriously man, what kind of man worth his balls decides to do that intentionally."

"Carlos and Roberto go way back, back to high school." Kurt explained. "Apparently he was Melissa's boy friend before Carlos moved in...the problem is, Melissa dumped Roberto due to him...well Carlos was on the spot, he's a cave man, but he had been a slightly less mean cave man up until Carlos moved in. He didn't like the look of him and got a little uh...defensive. Anyways, after Carlos resigned from the British SAS Melissa got him a job here on the Total Drama Executive Board. The Director was so impressed with his record that he decided that Carlos would keep a leash on Chris."

"And the cave man mentioned he worked in the prison as a guard ,right?" Carlos sat down.

"Yeah," Geoff nodded.

"Well according to him, he 'resigned'," Kurt made air quotes. "And signed on as the security chief here. If you ask me he wants to get back at Carlos for the Melissa Fiasco."

"And he has had yet to successfully do a thing to me," Carlos chuckled. "And he has no problem telling everybody how mad he is."

"I had been hoping you kids would avoid conflict with him," Kurt sighed. "Why am I not surprised that it was the delinquent who set him off?"

"Hey, if he didn't do it, I would have done it eventually." Carlos said.

"Yes Carlos, there's a difference. I was hoping it would be after the show's over, that way there wouldn't be anybody in danger when you two blew up the studio!" Kurt rolled his eyes. "This would be much easier if you could bury the hatchet."

"Dude, I tried, but he's trying to bury _me!_" Carlos said. "Believe me I tried to sincerely apologize a few times, no joke. But after he punched me in our college graduation...well his picture came with a black eye on it and a charge of assault against him. Man, I barely got off that one with self defence."

"The point of the matter is that Roberto is ticked that he lost another round against me and Carlos, so he's on an intimidation trip with you three."

"Intimidation trip?" Bridgette and Geoff asked at the same time.

"Sounds like a trip to juvy." Duncan said.

Bridgette was panicking. "Oh my god, he's taking us to a jail!"

"That doesn't sound so bad." Duncan shrugged. "I've been there plenty of times so I know the ropes."

"Aw great ,way to make us feel better!" Geoff said.

"I've never been to jail!" Geoff had to hold his girl friend close to calm her down.

"Attention please," Roberto's voice came from the P.A system. "Due to unacceptable behaviour, Duncan Matthews along with Bridgette Andrews and Geoff Williams will be going on a field trip with me."

"Saw that coming." Duncan said.

"Duncan, don't you get it? You got Geoff and Bridgette into a trip to jail!" Gwen said.

"Okay now relax," Duncan stood up.

"Relax? If it was just you I wouldn't worry!" Gwen snapped.

"Gwen," Duncan silenced their shouts. "Now look, we all know that Roberto can't keep us in jail here. It's obviously just an intimidation trip that will last barely a day. He's probably got some Drill Sergeant Wannabe friend up there to open a cell for us to keep us in for a few hours and then bring us back here. If it was harmful to us then the British version of Chuck Norris and Kurt would have stepped in and will step in if we're going to get hurt. So it's obvious that by the end of the day we'll all be back here again without so much as one scratch on us."

"Oh what will my mom think of this!" Bridgette, having not heard or acknowledged Duncan's wisdom.

"Oh relax, I can show you how to handle juvy. Just do this, on day one, a guy comes up to you, you show him you're better, you are dominant. So just do the smart thing and kick his Junior in." Duncan said. "After that, people will understand you're no push over ,be a little wary, and if you keep quiet and don't do a thing besides show that you don't take shit from them, then you can ride out your time in juvy being the queen or king of the whole place."

"Oh man," Bridgette sighed.

"However, since one of you has already been to a Correctional Facility, we'll be doing something different." Robert said as he walked in.

"Say what?"

"Instead we'll be taking a trip to the mountains."

"That doesn't sound so bad." Bridgette sighed in relief.

"There you'll be forced to endure horrors as we climb up the fierce mountains of France." Roberto snickered.

"Wait, I thought France didn't have any uh...memorable mountain ranges to speak of." Cody said.

"It's a SECRET, so secretive the French government won't let anybody know. Since for obvious reasons they'd just get a lot of American tourists here if it happened." Roberto explained.

"So how do you know?"

"I broke into Carlos' diary from when he was back in the SAS, turned out he had to investigate them when he was a soldier. Well goody for us because he even left the precise coordinates."

"You over grown, cock eyed, gutless flea ridden-" Carlos started forward.

"Carlos, I know you're mad and I might not be able to stop the upcoming explosion!" Kurt got between them. "But a murder is still a murder and it even counts for cave men!"

"Oh come on, I can just stuff what's left of him into the catacombs, nobody has to know! We can even skip the field trip!"

"IO say we let him do it." Duncan whispered.

"What's wrong, punk, don't know how to climb a rock- UGH!" Duncan, sick of Roberto's voice, had kneed the man in the groin. "YOU LITTLE-!"

"Eh, might as well get a kick out of this." Duncan crossed his arms.

"Attention everybody!" Chris came into the room.

"Oh great, it's the human mop." Kurt said.

"IT has come to my attention that Roberto is taking three of you on a field trip." Chris said. "Now even though there are no challenges I have a wicked idea on how to get some more funding for the show to replace several things, including my snacks since my stash seems to have been RAIDED several times this week."

Carlos hid the bag of chips behind his back, and swallowed the chip he had in his mouth.

"So, the idea is...WE'RE ALL GOING ON THE TRIP TO THE FRENCH MOUNTAINS!" Chris said.

"Seriously though, how do they hide an entire mountain range?" Noah asked.

"Noah, if I told you that, by my solemn oath to her majesty and England I'd have to kill you so that information couldn't get out." Carlos said. "Retired or not ,the oath stands."

"Riiiigghhhttt..."

"Anyways, everybody better pack up because we're leaving in half an hour!" Chris said. "Be sure to thank Roberto and Duncan for giving me this awesome idea! And even better, Mactavish and Carrot Top get to go with us to 'keep an eye on me'." Chris made air quotes.

"What are you up to Chris?" Carlos asked.

"Nothing!" Chris said defensively. "Now excuse me I have to answer this." He pulled out his phone and turned ,whispering into it. "The birds will be leaving the nest in thirty, prepare the net?"

"What?" Chef asked on the other end of the call.

"The jelly is out of the donut."

"Say what now?"

Carlos suddenly shoved him, took the phone, and said in an exasperated tone. "The hippy said we're leaving in thirty, numb nuts. And if you have any traps set up for us, you can go die in a hole, because I'll personally make sure that happens to you if I find any up there. Got it, Master Chief?"

Chef hang up.

"I think he got it." Carlos crushed the phone in his hands and tossed it away. "Trying to get rid of me already , cuz?"

"No, no, no, this is a surprise for everybody!" Chris chuckled sheepishly. "Now if you'll excuse me I'll have to return several unrelated items to their places of origin." He walked off. "And by the way, its twenty nine minutes now!"

Carlos sighed. "Okay people, thanks to Hulk, The human Mop, the Three Day's Grace Reject and that no good scum bag who had the nerve to rip off Halo and call himself _the Master Chief,_ we're going on a trip, so grab your crap and meet me at the bus." He paused and turned. "And Chef...YOU SHALL PAY!-!-!-!"

Xxx

"You're going camping?" Aelita sat on the bench with her books sitting by her as she held her phone to her ear.

"Yeah. Duncan got us into trouble with the security chief and now he's taking them to wilderness to try and scare them." LeShawna replied through her phone.

"This is bad."

"Don't worry, Aelita. Kurt and Carlos said they would be coming and we would be back by the end of the day and they'd make sure no harm would come to us."

"And what happens if we have a XANA attack while you're there?"

"I don't know. You think you can handle it?"

"I'd prefer that we wouldn't have any attacks at all today."

"We'll just have to risk it, girl. You haven't seen the chief. He's crazy and more hairy than a sasquatch."

Aelita sighed.

"I guess we'll have just have to hope we won't have an activated tower while they're gone. Tell them good luck from me."

"No problem."

Xxx

I know you were all expecting a big XANA attack but don't worry. I have a plan and we might have some new Lyoko warriors in the next chapter. So just be patient with me as I decide who in the cast should join them.


	26. Episode 25: Into the Woods

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 25

The destination Roberto had in mind was actually half an hour away from the city. Most of the contestants were not happy for several reasons. One reason would be that they were unhappy with Duncan for obvious reasons since this was his fault they were coming out here in the first place. Even Gwen was giving Duncan the cold shoulder.

Another reason for their unhappiness was most of them hated long trips. The majority of the group weren't really fans of nature, people like Heather, Lindsay, Justin, and Noah preferred the concrete jungle to the real one since Noah spent most of his time with books and technology while Heather, Lindsay, and Justin almost couldn't go a day without their beauty products or just a mirror in Justin's case while others like DJ, Beth, Bridgette, and Gwen were okay with the forests. Katie and Sadie were afraid that they would get lost in the forest like they did on Total Drama Island. Some other concerns were if it was going to rain like did the last time they went camping.

Another concern for people like the ones injured from World Tour. Sierra had finally been to stand up and walk again but the doctor recommended that she not push herself. They also gave her a hair transplant so she wouldn't look bald anymore. Her haircut was now more boyish and it was dyed purple like before.

Heather was able to walk again too but was warned not to push her body too much since the skin had only healed enough for her to walk. Chef was driving the bus with Chris relaxing in the front seat on the left side while Roberto was napping on the front right seat. However Alejandro would still be trapped in the Drama Machine for a while longer. Despite this he was still part of the trip.

The bus was followed by Kurt's car since both Kurt and Carlos were coming along to keep an eye on Chris and Roberto. None of them trusted Chris and Roberto to play nice all the way out here. As they followed the bus Carlos was looking at some documents Kurt got for him.

Xxx

Flashback

"Kurt, I need you to do me a favour." Carlos said. "I want you to call Roberto's last assigned prison before he signed on as chief."

"What for?"

"Well, I thought back to when you told the contestants about Roberto resigned from the prison he was at to come work as security chief at the studio. I've got a suspicious feeling about it and I want to look on it before we leave."

"On it...hey, this looks interesting."

End Flashback

Xxx

"So wait, you're telling me Roberto was fired?" Carlos asked.

"Yep, he accidently let prisoners out of their cells, they try to get out, they get caught, they tell the warden, and Roberto gets canned for being incompetent." Kurt explained.

"Man, I wish I had pictures of it..."

"And since then he's been banned from working at any prison in Canada. And since they know of him here he wouldn't been able to take those three to whatever Correctional Facility they have here because they know of how badly he screwed up."

"So that's why he's going through all the trouble for a trip."

Xxx

Gwen looked outside of the bus window watching all of the scenery pass by. It was amazing that after all this time she and the others were able to keep Lyoko and the fighting they do there a secret. Aelita made them promise not to reveal the secret to anyone and they kept that promise. They understood she didn't want anyone else getting involved the battle to save her friends and the world.

One row behind on the other side of bus, Geoff smiled to see that his girlfriend had fallen asleep on his shoulder. They had been through some rough patches but he had every intention of keeping their relationship perfect. He decided it would be a good idea to take a nap and leaned his head against Bridgette's and fell asleep. One row behind them, on the other side of the bus DJ smiled at how happy they looked.

The bus soon came to a stop on a wide open expanse of land. Chris stepped out and watched as the campers came out.

"Welcome! To the Total Drama Special, Total. Drama. Survival!" Chris announced. "For two days we will be alone in the wilderness, away from civilization. No phones, no iPods, no technology what so ever unless we have a real emergency. The first order of business is that the teams build themselves a shelter."

Carlos sighed, slapping himself in the face. "You can always count on my cousin to think of the most overdone challenges. Chris, there's not exactly a lot of ways to acquire fire wood legally there. The pine trees flown in from Canada are part of a nature preserve along with most of the animals. You'd only find rich people hunting or building there, and the French are still paranoid about it. In the file my boss back at SAS showed me, it was supposedly a precaution to an eventual shortage of food supplies. The world begins to run low, France has a nice cozy stash tucked away in its back pocket that they build up on over decades and decades. And bingo, a monopoly on global food supply."

"Ah crap, how the hell am I gonna make a challenge out of this then?" Chris asked.

"Well since I knew you're retarded, I decided to think ahead." Carlos stood up. "Okay people, since the Human Mop forgot we can't chop up trees to make shelters or hunt animals for food, I've taken the liberty of making it more...fun. As you know this is a field trip, as Chris has specifically stated, being coincidentally in the same location as Roberto's destination, so both groups will participate together. First, set up a camp with the Army Issue camping supplies I've packed, and then get ready for a full day and night of games. And by games I mean actual ones. We've got a break from the cameras people, so I say cut loose!"

"CARLOS!" Roberto snarled.

Carlos groaned. "Yes Cave Man?"

"Have you forgotten the real reason we're here?"

"I don't remember and nor do I care." Carlos lied about the first part. "And if you think of taking Duncan, Geoff and Bridgette away from the rest of the group for some hellish night alone in the woods, I swear this time you won't be able to grow your hair back when I'm through with you."

Kurt leaned over to Roberto and whispered. "Take his advice, we all know he can do it." He smirked. "By the way, I looked up your files. Try not to let anyone...slip by."

"Anyways, I've got a few games in order." Carlos continued. "Just some basic stuff. Capture the Flag, some soccer, foot ball, and I hear the water is nice this time of year. As long as nobody tosses their trash around you can go swimming."

"So that's why that was listed." Noah looked at one of the copied lists Carlos had given everybody, recommending that they pack everything listed. "Number seven, swim wear."

"Hey! We're still Total Drama Carlos, so I still get a chance to make these challenges interesting!" Chris said.

"So long as you don't damage this place Chris, I hate to think about what the Director will say if she hears about you damaging France's most top secret Federal Nature Preserve filled with rather valuable specimens of trees, plants, and animals." Carlos said. "So if you even think about causing property damage here, just remember it won't be my head on the line after the director calls us, presuming she is in a good mood after a chat with the French Government. You're not on the top list of people she likes, so don't get yourself any lower than you already are."

Chris gulped.

"Oh, and we'll beat you too." Kurt added.

Double gulp.

Xxx

Somewhere in the digital universe something stirred. In a volcano filled realm, XANA stood over a crater that was full of towers.

'Finding a way around Aelita's protection will take too long. The only power she's used for it is deactivate my towers. If she finds out she can do more it is possible she can turn the tide of our battle.'

XANA closed his eyes and began to search for Aelita's protectors through the cameras at the studio. When realizing they weren't there he took the recordings and looked over them to find out where they had gone.

'They're in the mountains. Aelita's alone, I could try and capture her but she's most likely put up several safety precautions. I shall concentrate on her bodyguards.'

Xxx

"Okay, campers. Since killjoy here ruined my fun." Chris jerked his thumb at Carlos who gave him the finger in return. "Now since there's no eliminations today because this is a special we'll make it interesting. Whoever wins today will gain an advantage in the next episode."

"A set of earplugs so no one can hear you?" Noah asked.

Several of the campers laughed.

"Ha, ha, ha." Chris laughed sarcastically. "And no. It'll be an old fashioned _sack_ race!"

"You have racing sacks?" Lindsay asked excited.

"No. You put your legs in the sacks and race with them. Hopping and if you lose your sack, you're out." Chris said.

Chef brought out a pile of sacks.

"Two members from each team will race and the winning team will gain an advantage in the next challenge." Chris said.

Chef tossed two sacks at all three teams. All three circled in a huddle.

"All right, who should go?" Heather asked.

"Leave it to me." Eva said.

She grabbed one of the sacks and put her legs into it, only for everyone to hear a ripping sound. They looked down and saw that Eva's feet had gone right through the sack.

"Oh great! Nice one!" Courtney crossed her arms, glaring at Eva.

"Chris! Can we have another sack?" Beth called.

"Sorry. No extras." Chris replied, smiling.

"Why not? You saw what happened!" Heather shouted.

"Don't care."

Team Amazon glared as Chris walked off.

"Now we only have one." Katie said.

"So who goes?" asked Beth.

"Let Cody go! He'll win easily!" Sierra raised Cody's arm.

"No way! He's way too slow!" Courtney said.

Gwen snatched up the sack.

"I'll go. Listening to this will only waste time and cause us headaches."

Gwen walked up to the starting line up where she met Trent, Bridgette, Noah, and Duncan.

"Hey, Gwen." Trent smiled at her.

"What happened?" Bridgette asked, noticing that Gwen was the only from her team with them.

"Eva ripped her sack when she put it on." Gwen explained.

"Ouch. On your own now, huh, Pasty?" Duncan asked smirking.

"I can handle it." Gwen replied nonchalantly.

"Relax, Gwen I'm sure you'll win." Trent said.

"What makes you say that?"

"With you how can your team lose?"

Gwen blushed at Trent's praise. Duncan had a small scowl on his face.

Xxx

Confessional

"Is it me or is Elvis attempting to charm Gwen when she's already in a relationship. The dude had his chance and he blew it." Duncan said.

End Confessional

Xxx

"You do realize that we're trying to win? Helping the other teams kind of defeats the purpose." Bridgette said.

"I know, but there's no reason not to be nice." Trent shrugged. "And we aren't playing in a challenge, it's just a fun game, you heard everything they said, right?"

"Can you hit on goth girl when we're done?" Noah asked.

Duncan scowled while Trent had a surprised look on his face while Gwen looked away.

"And on your marks . . . Get Set . . . GO!"

They took off, hopping up and down while making sure the sacks did not fall off. Duncan pushed Trent which caused him to collide with Bridgette. They both fell and tumbled over the ground.

"Sorry!" Duncan hollered back smiling.

Gwen glared at him for that as she caught up. She then got an idea. She managed to make it beside Duncan as they neared the finish line.

"Nice one."

"Thanks."

"Too bad it won't work."

"Why not?"

Gwen slammed herself into him with enough force that knocked him over to the side.

"That's why!" Gwen called back as she and Noah made it over the finish line.

"Nice one." Noah said, dropping his sack.

"Thanks."

"Well, that was amusing to watch." Chris said.

Bridgette, Trent, and Duncan walked up covered in dirt.

"Hey, you two okay?" Gwen asked.

"Yeah, we're fine." Bridgette said.

"I told you you'd win." Trent said, smiling.

"Hey, she only won because I gave her the idea. And what about me? Not going to ask if I'm fine?" Duncan said crossed his arms.

"You going to cry?" Gwen asked.

"No."

"Then you're fine." Gwen smiled before turning to walk back to her team.

"Your girl knows you well." Noah said.

"Shut up."

"Impressive effort but Gwen made it over the finish line first so Team Amazon wins the first part of special challenge." Chris said.

"As usual." Cody gave Gwen a high five. "We're on a roll!"

"Let's save the celebrating for when we actually win a challenge that gets somebody on the other teams kicked off." Eva said.

"Downer," Cody grumbled.

"For our next challenge, we shall be moving to some nearby caves." Chris said, and continued to explain as he lead them through the trees. "Now, each cave is connected and has an easily accessible entrance-"

"Let me guess, the challenge is called the 'Chris Cave'?" Kurt rolled his eyes.

"Hardy-har-har, Kurt, anyways...in the network of tunnels lies three keys. One blue for Team I am so unbelievably hot, one red for Amazon, and yellow for Wanna-be Victory." Chris said. "One person from each team must go into these tunnels and find these keys, and then bring them back out. They will be used to unlock these three boxes." Carlos and Kurt set down three boxes with the team logos on them. "Well what do you know, the human mop made a good challenge for once," Eva commented.

"Uh...actually we designed the challenge." Kurt said as he and Carlos held up one hand each.

"Oh...never mind then."

"Choose your trackers!" Chris exclaimed.

Team Chris ended up choosing Izzy, who was the most trustworthy and available player. Justin would spend more time worrying about trying to find a mirror, Alejandro couldn't move while stuck in the Drama Bot; and Duncan and Noah were unable to compete now.

Team Amazon chose Heather after a match of Rock-Paper-Scissors. She was advised not to rush or push herself to her limits, lest she risk being put in a wheel chair again.

Team Victory chose Geoff, who had eagerly volunteered to go and search the caves.

The three competitors chose a tunnel entrance and waited for Chris to begin the challenge.

"And..." Chris paused as his cell phone rang. "Sorry ,gotta take this." He pulled it out. "Hello? Yeah, I'm kinda in the middle of something."

"Do we go now?" Geoff asked.

"Wait, wait, wait, hold on no!" Chris shook his head. "Oh come on its a simple thing to do, get it over with!"

"Does that mean we go?" Izzy asked.

"No! No!" Chris said. "Will you guys wait! Sheesh! Just hurry it up!" He shouted the last part into his phone.

"Ok, we go!" Izzy hopped up and down and ran inside, followed by Geoff and Heather.

"Hey where are you going? I didn't explain the traps in there...ah well, a lot more fun to find out the hard way." Chris shrugged.

"Chris..." Carlos cracked his knuckles.

"What? They didn't wait! I was on the phone! You can't wail on me because they didn't wait!"

"You. Set up. Traps?" Kurt said through clenched teeth.

"Of course I did! Look at the script!" Chris held up a script. "It says here in big red letters that I set up traps! It was approved by the executive board."

"WE'RE THE EXECUTIVE BOARD YOU DUMB ASS!" The Producers shouted.

"Uh...yeah, you were too busy dumping Roberto in hair remover again, so I told them you were kind of busy, so they started without you."

"You sent Heather in there in her condition? Do you realize what she could do if she gets injured again!" Carlos shook his smaller cousin by the arms.

"Oh relax, I've seen her walk away from worse than what I set up!"

"What did you set up you human mop head?" Kurt demanded.

"Uh...you might want to look at the monitors." Chris pointed to several monitors hooked up to the bus. "Kind of hard for me to remember what I put in there."

"You didn't put squat in there, I did all the work!" Chef growled...before Carlos gripped his neck and actually, somehow held the man off of the ground by an inch.

"Chef, we know I hate you and we know I have always looked for an excuse to pummel you. But if you tell me what the Human Mop told you to set up in there, I might just let you walk away with your testicles mostly intact!" Carlos said darkly.

"Whoa now calm down Brit!" Chef said. "Let's just say...it's shocking if your Izzy, it's...going to leave a rather bad rash if he gets the worst of it. And Heather..." Chef hesitated. "Well...If she triggers the wrong trap, she'll get discovered in so much crud she'll disgust the crap out of crap. Some of that stuff ain't from any animal I've seen or heard of."

"...I hate you both so much that I cannot even put into words how stupid you both are." Carlos deadpanned.

Xxx

Izzy crouched down while sniffing the ground like a track dog. She crawled through the cave on her hands and knees while sniffing. Picking up a scent she growled and started barking before taking off. She came onto a large take that had a key surrounded by eels.

"Oh! A challenge! Izzy's going to have fun!"

Xxx

Geoff walked through the cave with his usual smile on. He continued walking until he came upon a room. Inside a key rested on a pedestal right in the center of the room.

"Sweet!"

But karma was not on his side as he stepped on a switch.

"Uh oh."

Green gas spewed into the room.

"AH!"

Xxx

Heather grunted as she came into the room where the key was. It was suspended in the air by a single wire.

"Finally."

She walked up and grabbed it but it when she pulled the wire done a pipe that dumped something on her. Whatever it was it made her scream louder than ever had before.

"AH!"

Xxx

Back outside everyone heard the scream.

"I guess Heather set off her trap." Chris chuckled.

"Great. She'd better not be terribly injured." Carlos cracked his knuckles.

"I MADE IT!"

Everyone looked to see Izzy running out the cave with eels wrapped around her arms. Her hair was standing up and pointing in all directions while the eels shocked her every few seconds.

"Well, it seems Team Chris is super duper hot is the winner." Chris smiled.

Izzy jumped up and down every time the eels shocked her. She had a big smile on her face as she ran to the box. She unlocked the box and pulled out . . . a Chris McLean poster.

"Now they'll this poster as a reminder of their victory." Chris laughed.

Team C groaned in disappointment at their prize.

"What do you all have to say?" Chris asked.

"You suck!"

"This bites!"

"I'LL KILL YOU!"

Ignorant of their displeasure, Chris continued. "And now for our third challenge. We shall be hiking up the mountain to a reserved cabin-"

"Which belongs to me by the way, as a little thank you to my team for not telling the public about this place." Carlos cut him off. "Speaking of, the fact that we were here must not leave this group or I'll lose that cabin, and it is REALLY nice. Its full of food, and has all of the accommodations the average lazy person wants." He grinned. "So everybody get anything you need for mountain climbing and get ready to follow my mop head of a cousin up there!"

"Oh great, a nature walk." Noah sighed.

"I'm not too excited to be letting you all crowd into my expensive cabin, but do you hear my whining?" Carlos asked.

"You were just whining about it ten minutes ago." Kurt interjected.

"...yeah...but they never heard that." Carlos replied.

"Oh don't worry, I recorded it." Kurt held up a remote to the portable TVs. "Rewind and..play!"

The screen showed Carlos.

He groaned. "Oh man! It's bad enough that we have to be here but now Chris is bringing them to my cabin! Melissa will kill me if they ruin the drapes there! And my dad's old antiques are stored there, those things are worth a lot and if they break I have to pay for them!" He paused. "And oh dear god...my old SAS equipment is there still! Oh man if they get their hands on that and get drunk somebody could quite seriously be hurt, even killed!"

"Uh...they let you keep British military grade weaponry after you resigned?" Kurt asked.

"Uh...yeah, they uh...let me keep it, it's just a rifle and some pistols." Carlos chuckled. "And my uniform...and armour...and ammo...and knife...and maybe a grenade or two."

"Carlos ,are you really resigned or are you just on an extended vacation?" Kurt asked suspiciously as he stepped into the shot.

"...Okay, don't tell anybody this but-"

The video ended.

"Sorry, transmission cut off there." Kurt said, pocketing the remote.

"How could you do this to me?" Carlos asked.

"Do you remember that deal we had? The one simple deal about not bringing any explosives to the party?" Kurt asked.

"Uh..."

"Because I remember bright lights ,explosions, screaming, and a guy running around with his pants on fire," Kurt continued. "And because I know that you have a thing for explosives and fire I assumed you'd go back on our deal after consuming a large amount of alcohol."

"I said there 'may' be a grenade or two! May be!" Carlos said defensively.

"Mhm, and look what happened." Kurt said. "We were banned for life from that bar. The only good memory I have of that night was of that bar tender smashing the bottle of vodka over your head while you were singing 'take me out to the ball game' while standing on the table without a shirt."

"Hey, the bar tender's assistant thought I take good care of myself." Carlos pointed out.

"Yeah...so just tell me straight up, did you bring any grenades and hide them in your cabin where you bring your three children every summer? And just remember ,if you say 'maybe' instead of 'yes' or 'no, I will confiscate all the beer...well I'll do it if you say 'yes' also but...you know."

"Kurt, I will be honest with you...I do not remember so I am going to just go on ahead and remove any dangerous objects from the reach of the campers." Carlos said.

"Right...Chef, get rid of the beer."

Before chef could reach for the cooler, Carlos had his arm twisted behind his back and slammed him into the bus.

"So you do have explosives on you!" Kurt said.

"What makes you say that?"

"Because of how you're reacting to Chef getting rid of the beer."

"dude, what guy doesn't react when you try to steal the stuff he bought with his own money?"

"Just remember Carlos, I have your kryptonite with me and I am not afraid to show it to Chris."

"Oh yeah? Well what's my Kryptonite then?" Carlos asked sarcastically.

Kurt smiled and pulled out his cell phone. Dialling in a number, he waited. "Hello? Uh-huh, code Explosive Drunk Clown. Uh huh...it's for you Carlos." He handed it to Carlos.

"Hello?" Carlos' eyes widened. "Melissa?" He mouthed several words into the phone. "Okay, look, I only said I might have forgotten to remove some things, I never said that I-okay, okay, breathe in, slowly, slowly...good, now look-Okay I may have some explosive items left in the cabin! But I said I'd go ahead and check just in caser...okay, okay, alright. Glad we didn't have to repeat that night in Moscow...love you too honey...oh, okay." He looked to Chris. "It's for you Chris?"

He tossed the phone at Chris who held to his hear.

"Hello?" Chris flinched from the yelling in his ear. "Yeah, okay, okay, . . . NO! Please don't do that! All right! I'll do it!"

While Melissa was yelling at Chris Carlo looked at Kurt.

"Why?"

Kurt shrugged. "Why not?"

"All right, well played, Kurt. But just remember this, the war has only begun."

Xxx

"I almost thought there was nothing more disgusting than Owen's farts but it seems that actually possible there is!" Heather ranted as tried to get rid of the disgusting smell.

Everyone was keeping away from her because of how bad she stank.

"You should have let me go in there. I would have avoided a trap . . " Courtney said.

"We know. Because you're a CIT." Beth cut her off, annoyed.

"Get over it." Eva said.

Courtney made an angry noise. Katie smiled as she out several supplies.

"That's a lot of food you have there." Gwen commented.

"I know. It's just when me and Sadie were lost back on the island it was frightening. This way if I get lost again I'll plenty of food with me. My mom also got me a compass and a few other things." Katie replied as she pulled out some shirts resembling hers.

"What's with the shirts?"

"Just in case I get lost for a couple of days. These are my favourite because Sadie and I designed them."

"You make your own clothes?" Beth asked.

"Yeah."

"That's so cool!"

"Yeah. Awesome." Eva said sarcastically.

Meanwhile Trent was packing his things when he looked up and saw Duncan in front of him.

"Hey, man, can I talk to you for a second?"

Trent had a suspicious look on his face.

"What do you want to talk about?"

"Oh, nothing. Just a second."

Trent put his stuff down as he followed Duncan into the woods. Gwen looked up and she saw that.

'Oh no. That can't be good.'

"Cody, could you keep an eye on my stuff for a second?"

Cody nodded as Gwen followed them into the woods.

Xxx

Trent followed Duncan through woods until Duncan was sure they were out of earshot and sight.

"Thanks for coming, man."

"Cut the formalities. What do you want from me?"

"This!"

Duncan spun counter clockwise and threw backhand at Trent. Luckily Trent caught Duncan's arm and twisted it behind his back. Duncan sent an elbow back which caused Trent to release him.

"What the hell?" Trent shouted.

"You getting so lonely you want to get the girl who left you?" Duncan asked. "What was that?"

Trent's eyes widened before they narrowed.

"That's rich coming from you. You cheated on Courtney and you broke me and Gwen up."

Duncan chuckled.

"Dude, I had nothing to do with that. Maybe you don't remember but you went all crazy. Like I said she left you."

"And I doubt you really care for her. How do I know you won't cheat on her too?"

"Like that's any of your business."

"I get it. You were scared of Courtney so you kissed Gwen to get away from her!" Trent pointed at Duncan who scowled at him.

"You know, I was just going to let you off with a warning but now. . ."

"Don't even think about it, Duncan!"

Both boys turned and saw Gwen running out of the shadows and stood between them.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"I-I was just. . ."

"Trying beat the crap out of each other? And for what, because of me?"

Trent looked sadly at Gwen while Duncan just lowered his fist. Gwen turned and looked at her boyfriend. She knew the truth but she had to pretend she did not know.

"Is it true? Did you just kiss me to get back at Courtney?"

Duncan looked away. Even though he would not speak Gwen had her answer.

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I think in the back of my head I knew but I let my feelings do the thinking instead of my common sense." Gwen turned around to walk away. "Duncan, I don't know why you did all of this but . . It's over. I'm not going to be a part of this anymore."

Without even looking back she walked away. Trent walked away but not before giving Duncan one final glare leaving him alone.

Xxx

Gwen walked back to her team. Cody gave her a concerned look as she picked up her bag.

"We ready to go?"

"Yeah."

Gwen stood up and waited for everyone to be ready.

"Having some relationship troubles?" Courtney asked with a smirk.

Gwen didn't even acknowledge her presence as she looked to see Trent walk over to his team with a sad look over how he behaved while Duncan didn't show any emotions on his face.

"All right, campers. You have until sun down to find the cabin at the top of the mountain. Good luck." Chris said.

"Now when you say good luck is it because you booby trapped the path up to the mountain?" Carlos asked with a glare.

"No! No, no, no, no, no . .. . Maybe."

Xxx

"Chris, tell me again...did you put traps on the main road? The one that my family uses and will be using in a month when we come here again?" Carlos asked, slowly growing vicious with each word.

"Uh..in my defence, you never told me you were married, so when I came here, I had no idea what so ever that you would be here." Chris said. "This is your own fault man! You never tell me anything! I guess your own ignorance is coming back to bite you in the ass!"

"...Kurt isn't the only one who has an obsessive compulsive to record conversations," Carlos pointed to one of the TVs. "Everybody, this is Chris on high-def, during the time I took to explain the location of and ownership of the cabin."

It showed Chris and Carlos in the main office.

"Okay Chris, now I don't want you to put any dangerous traps on the main road or around the property. Seriously, my kids play there and we drive through every three months or so." Carlos said. "Remember? I'm married? I told you in front of the whole cast and world?"

"Yeah..." Chris said, ignoring him entirely while speaking into his phone.

"Can you repeat that to me?" Carlos asked.

"No dangerous traps...on path...to my cabin...yeah-yeah hold on." Chris looked at Carlos. "Can you please wait a few minutes? I'm talking to my agent here!"

Carlos took the phone. "This is Carlos to who ever this is. If you're talking to Chris, there's fifty bucks in it for you to hit the road and take a vacation, an extended one." He hang up. "Now repeat it to me man, I don't want Carlos Junior to fall into a twenty foot deep pit filled with rats just because you're a sadist! And if Sally gets hung upside down I'm gonna-"

"You do realize that was my agent you sent on vacation man!" Chris shouted. "Now I need to go out and shop for my hair gel the old fashioned way! Aw well, see you later." Chris left.

"Chris, wait-!" SLAM!

"...That little rat son of a-" The video ended.

"You see! You're own ignorance came back to bite you! You took my phone after trying to talk to me while on said phone ,and sent my agent on vacation, and left me to get my hair gel by actually shopping!" Chris said. "This just proves that your ignorance to my busy schedule is coming back to bite you in the-" Carlos picked Chris up and dragged him to the river, where he dunked him in upside down, holding him by the ankles. "Gurglegurglegurgle!" Carlos pulled him back up. "Are you trying to drown me?"

"The thought occurred to me, but I swore after that mission in Japan I'd never drown a man..at least not any innocent bystanders." Carlos said.

"What are you doing this to me for? I didn't know! You picked the worst possible time to try and warn me and look what happened! How was I supposed to know you picked a secret mountain for a vacation get away! You're just using your fancy strength and SAS skills to weasel your way out of being blamed for your ignor-AH!" Chris slipped out of his pants and fell into the stream.

"That's number 75, the seventy fifth person who left you with their pants Carlos." Kurt said.

"I tell you, Americans can't make decent clothing to save their lives...literally. But on the bright side my kids never go short on clothes." Carlos said. "But these ones...I'll toss them back, they smell of cheap hair gel." He tossed the pants into the river while Chris washed up, revealing pink boxers.

"Uh...nice undies, cuz." Carlos looked at Kurt. "Kurt, we have to handle those traps. Some of the kids are in no condition to go through them and I will not bring my family here if there's a risk to my kids."

"You're dragging me up the mountain to dismantle the traps, aren't you?" Kurt sighed.

"Come on man, think of my kids!" Carlos said.

"Alright fine, just watch your footing around here, I think I found a trap." Kurt advised.

"Really? Whe-ERR-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R!-!-!-!-!-!-?-?" THUD! Carlos had fallen into a trap hole.

"Right there." Kurt said.

"Haha! Take that Carlos!" Chris said as he pulled on his pants. "Fighting in the British SAS and you fall for the oldest trick in the book! What's with you man, come on! Do you even know what a trap hole is anymore or are you much into your fancy Call of Duty style technology and gizmos-AH!-!-!-!-!-!"

Carlos had climbed up and pulled Chris into the hole with him.

Kurt coughed awkwardly. "Okay I'll just leave you two to your family bonding, I'll go dismantle the traps."

"Kurt, don't leave me here-OH DEAR MOTHER OF ALL THAT IS GODLY!" Chris screeched.

"Okay campers, family moment here, let's go!" Kurt called to the group.

"OH MY GOD HELP ME!"

"He's fine, he's being over dramatic as usual." Kurt waved his hand ,dismissing the screams. "That's the point of the show, right? Total Drama!"

"GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

"Oh he's fine ,he and Carlos really enjoy their bonding time."

"WHY DO I HAVE AN OVER GROWN CAVE MAN LIKE YOU FOR A RELATIVE?"

"ROBERTO'S THE CAVE MAN! I'M THE WRESTLER!" Carlos shouted. "NOW WATCH AS I MAKE CHUCK NORRIS PROUD!"

"What are you- OH MAN THAT HURT!"

"Okay they're having fun, now let's go while the show still has fifteen minutes left." Kurt herded them away.

"GOD SAVE ME! KURT! BUDDY! DON'T GO!" Chris wailed. "I'LL GIVE YOU ANYTHING! MONEY? A YACHT? GOLD? A GOLDEN YACHT FULL OF WOMEN? I'LL GIVE YOU A FREAKING CRUISE SHIP! I'LL EVEN CHRISTEN IT THE RMS KURT'S SO FREAKING HOT! JUST PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME!"

"The cruise ship does sound tempting...meh," Kurt walked off, leaving the hole behind. "At least I'm hot."

"OH FOR THE LOVE OF GOD SOMEBODY SAVE ME!"

Xxx

"Okay, so let me get this straight," Many miles from the mountains, in England, one extremely pissed off and lightly pregnant woman was speaking into a phone. "Your idiot of a cousin set BOOBY TRAPS around our vacation home?"

I already clobbered him, and Kurt and I will make a few sweeps around the house to make sure the Human Mop didn't leave anything too dangerous close to the garden." Carlos replied. "And for good measure I'll kick his ass again for trespassing."

"I actually wish you'd just shoot him," Melissa sighed. "Just make sure nothing bad will happen the next time we go up there, okay?"

"Alright hun," Carlos promised. "After this show is done I'll keep my distance from the Human Mop from now on. Love you."

"Love you too,"

They hang up.

Xxx

"Okay, so...run this by me again." Gwen said. "Chris set up possibly dangerous traps...where three kids play every few months? Around houses owned by rich people?"

"That's about the gist of it," Cody shrugged. "Man, Carlos sounded so mad I won't be surprised if Chris needs Heather's old wheel chair after today."

"He can have it." Heather said. "After everything he's done it's about time he gets a taste of his own medicine."

"If you're lucky his wife and kids might be like that also." Courtney said.

"So...let's see that map," Cody pulled out the map Carlos provided. "Okay..who has the compass?"

"Yo," Eva held up the compass.

"Okay...well obviously we can't take the path Chris set us since he booby trapped it." Cody said. "We might have to go around, waste an hour or two but it'll be safer. We went north by north west from the camp...and there's a land mark there." He pointed to where the river curved north east. "So we're here...so if we head west to a rock formation, take a turn north again, and hug the line parallel to the path, it should be easy going if I can spot how far out the traps are set."

"Wow...did you go to a class for _everything?_" Gwen asked.

"Eh, I read a lot." Cody said. "Truth be I self taught myself in navigation...and French. I got bored a lot between the challenges sometimes, and since World tour had free wi fi when we landed, I uh...took advantage ,set myself up, memorized some stuff. Came in handy when we were here last time."

"Oh yeah, I remember, Noah almost got his crotch burned off." Beth giggled.

"Well, let's go, Carlos said there's food and I'll gladly go anywhere Chris is forbidden to step near." Courtney said.

Carlos had announced that Chris and Chef would not join them inside the cabin-as they were forbidden by law to cross into his property now ,they'd just sit in a tent by the road. Chris had protested ,as had Chef, before Carlos used the wonderful magic of threats and intimidation to silenced them.

For most of the day the teams walked along their own chosen paths towards the cabin, wary of Chris' traps. By the time it was afternoon they came upon a path.

"Is the path to the cabin?" asked Beth.

"No. It's not on the map." Cody replied, pulling out the map again.

"So it shouldn't have any traps?" Gwen asked.

"No."

"Good, we can take it."

Before anyone could object Gwen walked forward. She just wanted the day to be over. She soon saw what looked like a house up ahead.

"Cody! How are we from the cabin?" She called back.

"We're still fifteen minutes away." Cody said walking up to her.

She pointed ahead. "Than what's that?"

They looked ahead to see a two-story cabin.

"That must be the cabin!" Katie squealed. "That was easy!"

"Uh...we're not anywhere near Carlos' cabin." Cody said.

"And it looks...run down, no way Carlos would have his kids in there if he keeps talking about them like he wouldn't let go of their hands on a road." Eva crossed her arms.

"Well, its off the beaten path, maybe it's just...abandoned." Gwen shrugged.

"Hey, I think I see something..." Cody walked up to what had once been the drive way and stopped at something covered in moss that stood up next to the gravel. He began to dig away, pushing the green aside. "It's a mail box..." His eyes widened. "Uh...hey Gwen?" He barely managed to keep his voice at a regular pitch and volume. "Come look at this."

Gwen walked over and saw the name on the mail box.

**SCHAEFFER**

She had to bite her tongue to stop herself from shouting. She and Cody exchanged a glance.

"Schaeffer..." Heather read the mail box. "That a German name?"

"I think you're on the spot with that, I don't really know," Cody shrugged. "Looks like it's been abandoned for...years, decades even."

"Well, we're obviously parallel to the main path like you wanted us to be, the road's in sight." Gwen pointed to where the drive way came out into the main road about fifty yards away.

As they walked away Gwen and Cody shared a look as they knew whose house that had to have been.


	27. Episode 26: Monsters in the Dark

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 26

Ryder sat on a blue block sheathing his sword as the final Creeper exploded.

"Well, that was a major waste of my time. When are we going to go back on the offensive?"

The only other in the room with him was Yuki. She was sitting a foot away from him meditating. She had her eyes closed and seemed to be ignoring Ryder. Of course that only served to annoy him.

"Did you hear me?" Ryder asked, irritated by her silence.

Yuki continued to ignore him. Ryder growled and raised his hand. A blast of lightning flew at her but Yuki simply waved her hand and the lightning bolts froze. Ryder's eyes widened as the frozen lightning fell to the floor and shattered. Yuki opened one eye to glare at him.

"Please do not do that again. I do not know when we will be on the attack again. It is out of our hands."

"Is that so?"

Yuki nodded.

"We fight when XANA calls us."

Ryder scoffed.

"You might be able to wait around here but I can't stand it. Who needs some large attack? Just activate a tower and lure them to Lyoko. There's no need for tricks."

"You'll have your wish."

Ryder turned around to see Shadow walk into the room.

"Well, when are we going to fight again?"

"Patience. XANA wants us assembled."

"For what?"

"For the birth of your final sibling."

XANA walked in followed by a Dragon Knight. Yuki opened her eyes and stood up.

"Our final brother is going to be created?" She asked.

"Yes. The next attack will be in the next two hours. You will spend that time training and guiding him."

Yuki bowed while Ryder simply crossed his arms. XANA held up his hand and a Scyphozoa materialized in front of the knight. It placed its tentacles on the knight's head and injected the data into it. Like how Ryder, Yuki, and Cyrus were created the knight let out a metallic scream with red lightning flashing all over it.

The armor cracked opened and exploded in a flash of blinding light.

Xxx

"I told you not to set up more traps!"

THWACK!

"I WAS ON THE CELL PHONE!"

"I told you not to go into the master bed room."

THWACK!

"I told you not to go through Melissa's closet!" SWING! SWISH! "Crap, I missed." Carlos growled. "Kurt, am I warmer?" He swung the bat again, blind folded as Chris and Chef hang upside down from the trees by their feet.

"Okay, you're colder, colder...warmer...warmer...wait no colder, okay you're back on track again...and there!" Kurt said.

"HAI!" Carlos swung the bat.

CRUNCH!

"OW-OW-OW-OH-OH-OH!" Chef howled.

"I didn't hit them in the chunk did I? Despite being retards I still can't hit a guy there." Carlos said.

"You're off by two inches!" Kurt called to the blind folded British man.

"Is two inches enough for their Juniors to be safe?" Carlos asked.

"Actually that is a good question," Kurt nodded. "We could try to find out or I can just spend my time eating these nachos here, thanks for having the cheese and nachos."

"Ah, since you aren't a bastard I'll let you have those for free...that and you disabled the deadly traps that might have come back to hurt my family." Carlos said.

'"No problem!" Kurt said. "I think Chris showed me where all the traps are, but be careful, I had to disable five around that tree alone. You never know, and since Chris was scared out of his mind he might have forgotten one."

"Oh I can handle a-" CLICK. Carlos paused. "Uh...Kurt?"

"Yeah?"

"I think you missed one."

"What makes you say that?"

"This." Carlos said. "Oh and for future reference...Ouch." Suddenly...a boot on a stick swung up and kicked Carlos between the legs. "OUCH!" He fell over.

"OH! Sorry, Carlos I am so sorry I do not know how I missed that!" Kurt said desperately. "Honestly!"

"Are you sure you didn't just leave that to spite me?" Carlos took of the blind fold and glared as he got up.

"Dude, I have your wife's phone number, what could possibly be more deadly than that?"

"Ah, touché." Carlos said.

"I might have missed more...but maybe I didn't and they're all disabled now!" Kurt said hopefully...before an explosion rang out in the distance.

...

"You missed one." Carlos said.

"How do you know that's a trap? For all we know that could be...uh..." Kurt paused as he imagined what it could have been.

Xxx

Izzy snickered as she tried to light the two sticks over the pile of gasoline barrels. She paused as a white robed version of herself appeared on one shoulder. "Shoulder angel?" Suddenly a devil version appeared on her other shoulder. "Ooh!"

"Do it, do it! Come on it'll be so much fun!" Devil Izzy said.

"YEAH!" Angel Izzy shouted.

"Uh...aren't you supposed to be the angel who tells me to do good things?" Izzy asked.

"No," Suddenly Angel Izzy's harp turned into a chainsaw and she aimed it at her. "NOW DO IT! PURE AND GOOD IS BORING! DOITDOITDOIT!"

"OKAY!" Izzy cheered and set the gasoline off.

BOOOO-O-O-O-O-O-OMMMMMMM-M-M-M-M-M-M-M!

Xxx

"Uh...that's always possible." Kurt shrugged.

"...Dude, you stood there for ten minutes and then just said 'that's always possible.'...what the hell were you imagining?" Carlos asked.

"You remember that pyromaniac phase you went through in high school?"

"Oh yeah! When I burned Roberto's eye brows off!" Carlos nodded.

"Well there is only one girl who was as bad as you." Kurt explained. "And that girl is on the way and has red hair."

"...Ah..." Carlos nodded.

"Can we come down now?" Chef asked. "I swear this ain't legal man!"

"Shut up maggot! In the SAS I was hung upside down by my little toes with bees stinging me over a moat of crocodiles!" Carlos snapped. "What's this whining? You said you were in the military soldier! We do NOT whine in the military! Now take it like a man!"

Chef began to cry.

"Wow...that was a good Drill Sergeant voice." Kurt said.

"I got inspired by Avery Johnson from Halo," Carlos chuckled.

Kurt looked towards the trees. "Hey look, we have kids coming up! I told you I disabled the traps!"

"Then what was that explosion?" Carlos asked.

Xxx

Roberto blinked as he stared up at the sky. His hair was singed black as he lay in the middle of what had been an explosive trap set up by...He looked at the sign. "What the hell?"

'Dear Roberto

If this trap has been set off, then that means you have tried to walk up the front drive way. In that case you are still stalking me, which I do not like at all. I knew exactly where you'd step because...well you're you.

Stay away from me, or I'll do more than shave you again.

With extreme hate, Melissa $%^%&## (the name was blurred out)'

"...GOD I love that woman!" Roberto grinned.

Xxx

Carlos stiffened.

"What's up Carlos?" Kurt asked as Team Victory set up on some picnic tables and started eating.

"I sense..." Carlos inhaled. "Somebody is thinking about Melissa...with DIRTY THOUGHTS!" He growled. "Whoever did that can't hide from me. I will hunt them down to the darkest corners of this planet until I KILL THEM ALL!" He shouted to the sky...and then ten seconds later said. "I'm hungry, are there any Klondike bars left?"

"Have a ball." Kurt passed him a Klondike bar.

"Nice!"

Xxx

"Well, campers let's look at the score." Chris said. "Team Amazon won the first round, then Team Chris is Really Really Really Really Hot won the second round and now Team Victory has _actually_ scored a victory. So no one gain's an advantage in the next real challenge."

Everyone groaned from having their time wasted.

"So sit down, enjoy the day, and don't bother me while I go get some pain killers." Chris walked away nursing his aching head.

"Don't forget the marshmallows. You'll need them for camping out." Carlos smirked.

Chris glared and walked off along with Chef.

"All right. We've picked out rooms for your teams. Enjoy the day." Kurt said as he sat down.

Xxx

Everyone was unpacking inside their assigned rooms in the house. It was a big house that could handle nearly everyone which was good considering their luck with the living arrangements Chris has provided in the past. Bridgette heard a knock on her door.

"Come in."

The door opened to reveal Courtney who had a smile on her face.

"Hey, Courtney. Have a good day?"

"Better. I think Duncan and Gwen have finally broken up."

Bridgette mentally sighed at this.

"What makes you say that?"

"Gwen followed Duncan and Trent into the woods and then she came out and has not said a word unless it was important. So that means they have been fighting or have broken up." Courtney said smiling as she sat down.

Bridgette could guess that Duncan most likely tried to beat up Trent for hitting on Gwen earlier and she used it as an excuse to break up with Duncan.

"I can rub it in Gwen's face that she couldn't handle Duncan." Courtney said giggling.

"Courtney, I know I'm your friend but I think you're going too far in your revenge. I mean, they're broken up so there's no need to go any further."

"Why not?"

"Even though Duncan cheated on you with Gwen they're over now. So why not just stop it?"

"You mean forgive them? Why?"

"I didn't say forgive them. I'm just saying what's the point now? They're broken up now so shouldn't that be satisfying?" Bridgette asked.

"It would be if they broke up fighting each other."

"So you're going to keep on bugging them just because they didn't break up the way you wanted them too?"

"I'd prefer if Duncan crawled back to me begging for me to forgive him."

Bridgette sighed and shook her head.

"That'll never happen and you know it."

"Maybe if he sees me with another guy."

Bridgette's eyes widened.

"You mean you'll use another guy just to mess with Duncan."

That was exactly what Duncan had done to get to Courtney by using Gwen.

'These two really are alike. Even though they're exact opposites they want the exact same thing from each other. They even do the same things.' Bridgette thought.

"Why not? You saw how he reacted when I flirted with Justin."

"Yeah but I didn't feel sorry for Justin because of how he acted during the second season. " Bridgette replied. "I don't like the idea of you playing with some guy's heart just to get back at Duncan."

"So? Everyone else has done it."

"That's not true."

"Oh really?" Courtney raised an eyebrow.

Bridgette sighed.

"Courtney, I know I can't stop you but please don't go around trying to exact revenge. It's unhealthy holding a grudge for every little bad deed or mistake."

"You mean you don't hold a grudge against Alejandro?"

"No. I dislike him a lot but I'm not looking for a chance to get revenge on him or Heather."

Courtney shook her head.

"Look, Bridgette, you're one of my only friends and I respect your opinion but Duncan and Gwen humiliated me. I can't let them get away with that."

Courtney got up and walked out of the room.

'If only you knew why Duncan did it. Would you still try to take revenge, Courtney?'

Xxx

Trent sighed as put down his guitar. He had just finished his seventh song about how he had managed to get involved in a fight with Duncan over Gwen. He was partly happy that Gwen dumped him but he was ashamed that he let himself get into a fight and that Gwen was probably disappointed with him. They had started being friends again and now he gets into a fight with her now ex-boyfriend after supposedly hitting on her.

'But you did hit on her.' A voice in the back of his head said.

He sighed. He did hit on her and then got into a fist fight. Sure he was happy that she dumped Duncan but he could not help but feel responsible because of his comment of how Duncan was a coward and used Gwen to get away from Courtney. Gwen had been quiet after the fight and after her team got to the cabin.

She was probably upset and disappointed. That was when a knocking sound was heard.

"Hello? Trent?" Cody's voice was heard on the other side of the door.

"Cody, come on in."

The door opened and Cody walked in.

"Hey, man, how's it going?" Trent asked with a smile.

"It's going fine. Actually for me it feels better since Gwen told me she and Duncan were over."

Trent's smile faded.

"She told you."

"Took me a little while but she gave in." Cody said with a cocky smile. "I'm one of the few people on our team she actually likes. Not as much I'd like her to but I'm not complaining. Going to Heather, Courtney, Sierra, and Katie wouldn't be good idea since the former three don't get along with her and Katie's not much of a person to talk, no offence to her. Eva's not interested in that kind of thing and I'm a closer friend than Beth."

"I guess that makes sense." Trent said.

"Don't be too upset, Trent. Gwen's not mad at you for getting into a fight with Duncan. She's mad at herself for falling for him and the whole kiss thing on World Tour."

"Yeah and I don't think I helped. I mean I just shouted that Duncan was only using her and that probably made her upset."

"Come on, Trent. Gwen doesn't blame you for that. She knows the truth and that's what counts. As much as I admire her as the girl of my dreams I have to remember that even she can screw up. Besides, Duncan has a way of bringing out the dark side of everyone." Cody sat down a chair away from Trent.

"I guess so. I mean I saw it coming cause of the way he broke us up. I just got so mad at that . . . that. . . girlfriend stealer that I wanted to get back."

Cody chuckled. "Join the club. I punched him in Greece for that. No good dirty Gwen-stealer."

Trent laughed. "Yeah. Nice punch."

"Anyways, Gwen isn't mad at you for anything. She still thinks of you as a friend."

"Thanks man. With that kind of loyalty there you're a lot better choice for her than Duncan."

"You think I met get a chance?"

Trent shrugged.

"Who knows? You guys have been hanging a lot recently. You might get that chance . .. If Sierra doesn't try to kill both of you."

Both of them laughed. Cody looked down when he heard his phone ringing. He pulled it out and looked to see a text message. Cody stood up.

"Well, I got to go."

"See ya."

Xxx

Gwen looked to see the door to her room open. LeShawna walked in followed by the other Lyoko fighters.

"Hey, girl. You wanted to see us?" LeShawna greeted sitting down.

"Yeah. Before our team got here we found this house about a fifteen minute walk away from here. It looked old and abandoned for years. We found this old mailbox and you'll never guess whose name we found." Gwen said.

"What's so bad about a rundown house?" Geoff asked.

"The name was Schaeffer. That name ring a bell?" Cody said.

"That the one Aelita said belonged to her dad before uh...you know?" LeShawna inquired.

"That was the hermitage." Gwen spoke up. "Could be coincidental but...I really think this might be worth looking at."

"Maybe it's the old house Aelita and her family went to during the winter." Cody suggested. "Could explain why it's so old and broken down. I mean, like ten years or more being left without anybody to maintain it and that could be the end result."

"So how are we going to slip away from Chris?" LeShawna asked.

"Slip away tonight when everybody's sleeping," Bridgette suggested. "Or at least one or more of us can try that. Just in case one or two of us might want to stay back. The less of us that are gone the better." She looked at Gwen. "And sorry Gwen, but you have the focus of about three or more people on you from Trent, Duncan, Courtney, and obviously Heather, if you're gone there's more questions."

"I get it," Gwen nodded. "I'll sit this out."

"I'll stay back too," Cody volunteered. "Can't let Sierra find out, she's more of a blabber mouth than Lindsay."

"Okay, we'll stake out the house tonight and see what we can find," Geoff nodded with a smile.

"Be sure to call Aelita and tell her what you find." Cody advised them. "I'll leave my lap top in the front room, you can go into the bath room or maybe the porch and use it there."

Xxx

Aelita just finished gym class and was now in the locker room. Just as she put her bag down he felt her cell phone vibrate. She picked it up and looked around before answering.

"Hello?"

"_Aelita._"

"Bridgette? Are you calling from the mountains?"

"_Yeah and we found something there. Remember when you told us you and your parents lived in a house in the mountains during the winter._"

"Yes."

"_Gwen and Cody may have found it._"

Aelita's eyes widened.

"Are you sure?"

"_They found your last name on the mailbox._"

Aelita sat down as she listened.

"_We're thinking of taking a look tonight but we wanted you to know first._"

Aelita was silent as she thought it over.

"All right. But I want to be at the lab and I want one of you to use your cell phones to send me pictures . . . And good luck."

"_We'll do it. Thanks, Aelita._"

Xxx

It was now night time with the full moon shining over the cabin. By now nearly everyone was asleep while Chris and Chef were forced to sleep in their tent. However a hand few were wide awake for a secret mission. Gwen and Cody were staying behind while LeShawna, Geoff, Bridgette, and DJ were sneaking out.

Their doors slowly opened as they crept out into the hall. They looked at each other and nodded as they tip-toed through the hall and towards the front door. While everyone else was keeping a sharp eye out LeShawna slowly opened the door and held it open for everyone. They walked quietly and LeShawna closed the door behind her.

Once they were outside they walked down the path Gwen and Cody had directed them that would lead to Aelita's house. Fifteen minutes later they cleared the forest and came upon the house.

"So this is where Aelita used to live." DJ said, looking at the house.

"Nice place. If you take away how old it looks." Geoff said.

LeShawna walked up to the and turned the knob.

"It's unlocked."

She opened it and peeked inside. It was dark inside. She turned on a flash light and went in followed by the others. Walking into what looked like the living room they saw a couch and a chair covered in dust in front of a fire place.

In the corner of a room was a piano along with an old TV nearby. They found the kitchen and dining room with the refrigerator and pantry cleared of any food. After they finished looking around the ground floor they walked up the stairs, noticing pictures of Aelita and her parents.

"Wow. Look at these pictures."

"Dude, Aelita's mom's hair is pink too. I thought it was dyed hair." Geoff said.

"Aelita looked so cute." Bridgette smiled at the pictures of Aelita as a four year old.

DJ opened a door to see a room that was mostly yellow. It had a single bed with pink bedspread while nearby was a chest of toys with stuffed animals. He glanced at the walls and saw drawings hanging from thumb tacks sticking into the wall. They were of houses, animals, people-some labelled as 'mommy' or 'daddy' or 'Mr Puck'-who looked like some purple haired person in odd clothing. "I think this was Aelita's room."

"Maybe this can help her remember a few things." Bridgette pulled out her phone. "Hold on, I have a camera on my phone." She snapped several shots, as did Geoff with his own phone.

"Girl looks pretty happy in these pictures," LeShawna held one up to see clearly, wiping dust off of it. "Kind of sad when you think about it. What they do with her mom anyways?"

"She never said," Geoff shrugged. "I'm still trying to process the whole 'pink hair' thing being genetic."

"Hey, people can have any eye colour, it's just improbable to be anything besides blue, green, gray or brown." Bridgette pointed out. "One thing's for sure Aelita takes after her mom in appearance."

"Let's just bring a few back for her," DJ said, taking down some of the drawings. "Always a good idea to have some good memories around." He made room for some photographs.

"Okay, just don't let that pack near any challenges, we don't know what Chris' weird tricks and traps might do if they go off while you have it." Geoff said. "Just...leave it in Carlos' house until we go."

"Good idea," DJ shouldered the pack. "We done?"

"Hold on, let's make sure we checked everywhere in the house." Bridgette left the room and went downstairs, followed close by LeShawna and DJ.

They looked around the house. They checked the master bedroom which looked untouched with just about everything in the house. Bridgette was back in the living room but when she stepped in the floor sounded hollow. She looked down at it and stomped her foot on it.

She pulled the carpet off the floor and found a hole underneath it.

"Guys! I found something!"

They walked in and saw Bridgette place her index finger in the hole and pull it up showing a set of stairs.

"...Okay, am I the only one thinking that was cliché?" Geoff asked.

"Bare in mind, nobody's been in this house since the nineties." Bridgette pointed out.

"It was cliché in the seventies."

"Let's just go." LeShawna went down first, aiming her flash light ahead until she came upon a metal door-more like a vault door which was securely sealed.

"Anybody willing to bet Aelita had no idea this was here?" DJ asked as he looked over LeShawna.

"Let's see...it's metal, it's got a key pad, it's obviously important, and she never mentioned it so...no." Bridgette said from the top of the group.

"It needs a code..." LeShawna tapped one key ,and the screen lit up. "Holy crap it still works!"

"Wow...you're right Geoff, Aelita's dad was a smart dude." Bridgette said.

"Let's see...I think it needs...man I can't see how many of those little lines are there-the ones that go under letters, you know? I think...seven or more?" LeShawna guessed.

"Okay...we need to think like Aelita's dad...which I just realized we never met before." Geoff said out loud.

"What kind of pass word would he have?" Bridgette asked.

"Okay..try Aelita." DJ said.

LeShawna typed it in, but the screen turned red and reset itself. "Nope."

"What was his wife's name? I think Aelita said Aun-Ahn-Ang-Antea! Antea Hopper!" Bridgette suggested.

"Antea...nope. A-N-T-E-A-H-O-P-P-E-R...nope." LeShawna scratched the side of her head.

"Uh...Lyoko?" Geoff shrugged.

"Worth a shot."

The door still did not open.

"Okay...wow, this is hard." LeShawna sighed.

"Let's call Aelita, she's still up most likely, since she wants to know what we found here." Bridgette pulled out her phone. "I'll need better reception outside."

Xxx

Aelita looked up as the screen displayed Bridgette's Lyoko Avatar. She was calling!

Putting on her head set, Aelita clicked 'Accept Call'. "Go ahead Bridgette."

"Aelita, we're at the house. It looks like nobody has been here in years, but you'll never guess what we found." Bridgette said. "There's a secret doorway leading to a basement...did you know the house had a basement? Much less stairs in the middle of the living room?"

"I don't remember much about anything to do with that house Bridgette, I only get glimpses of my past nowadays." Aelita answered.

"Yeah...the door is built like a bank vault and we need a pass code to get in, it's still working...oh, and I have some pictures you might want to see." Bridgette sent the pictures to Aelita, who examined every photo of her room along with some of the family portraits and her childhood drawings.

The last one was a picture of the vault door, then a close up of the key pad and screen.

"We're stuck here unless we find a pass word." Bridgette concluded. "Do you have any idea what it might be?"

"I..." Aelita shut her eyes and rubbed her forehead.

Words began to pop up in her head. Xana, Lyoko, Carthage, Hopper...

"Renaissance, " She opened her eyes. "Try Renaissance."

Xxx

"R..e..n...a..i..s..s..a..n..c..e." LeShawna blinked as the screen glowed green, and with a hiss the seals came loose.

"Good day, professor and guests." An automated female voice said as the door slid open, revealing what looked like a small corridor leading to another door.

The group stepped inside. The door shut behind them, and a light ran over them. "Decontaminants removed, access to main labs granted."

The far door opened. Beyond was a room that was circular in shape and over three stories high. It had the same sterile looking silver walls and floors, looking like the inside of a space ship. Computer screens lined the walls. In the center was a now activated device that projected a familiar looking image above it, a shape made up of varying segments connected to a glowing sphere in the middle.

Attached to it was a computer and a chair.

"Whoa..." Geoff said.

"This is a...it's a super calculator like the one at the factory!" Bridgette said in awe.

"And look over there." DJ pointed.

Lining parts of the room-which was twice as wide and tall as the Factory's Control Room, were tall pillars that opened up into bright golden chambers that had no visible features on the interior.

They were scanners, six of them.

"I don't believe it!" Geoff said.

"Wow, I guess Aelita's dad really believed in taking his work home." LeShawna walked over to one Scanner. "But the one at the factory looks more...second hand."

"And this looks more stream lined." Bridgette added. "Do you think...this was THE super calculator? I mean, the one at the factory looked more like it was put together using spare parts from the factory and old computer parts. This one looks like he spent years just trying to plan it. I mean look at these, not even Microsoft has some of these computers."

"Aelita's dad did work for the government...maybe this was his lab." DJ said. "And maybe the one at the factory was a...spare? A back up?"

"Or an alternate route to Lyoko." Bridgette sat in the chair. "Let's see if it works."

She opened the main menu. Suddenly a green light passed over her.

"Establishing connection...connection established." Suddenly Bridgette's Lyoko Avatar appeared on the screen.

"Holy...guys, this thing knows what I look like in Lyoko." Bridgette said as the group gathered around.

"How can it be? We were scanned in the other computer." Geoff asked.

"But...that's the same freaky ass digital world there." LeShawna pointed to the map. "So maybe uh...maybe that's it's 'connection'. You know, monitored us on Lyoko?"

"We'll have to call up Aelita. Take more pictures, send them, and then delete them so nobody who gets snoopy looks at our phones." Bridgette stood up and left the room. "I'll call her myself."

Xxx

"There can only be one explanation." Aelita said looking at the pictures. "I believe that I know how."

"What do you mean?"

"From what I learned from my father's notes on Lyoko the supercomputer was used to create and power it but it did not contain Lyoko nor did the Replicas XANA created were contained within the other supercomputers. Lyoko is actually hosted on a server. That's why the towers were placed in Lyoko from the beginning. They are what connects Lyoko to the supercomputer. Without a supercomputer to actively power it Lyoko would freeze in time which was why I slept all those years in Lyoko when my father shut it down. That computer must be connected to the same server that Lyoko is on."

"Okay..that made little sense to me but I think I get the general point: this is another way into Lyoko." Bridgette said.

"And possibly discovering it might have alerted XANA." Aelita said grimly.

"Oh great...well what can he do? It's too far from the city to do anything dangerous." Bridgette began to pace.

"Don't underestimate him, he can do anything to try and attack this world." Aelita cautioned Bridgette. "See if you can find any data in the restricted section."

"I'm pretty sure it'll be easy, this lab might not be as second hand as the factory but it looks like your dad didn't have anything to make the computer discern him from others, it thought he was with us when we came in. I don't think hand prints and any other scanners were all the rage back in the 1990s." Bridgette paused. "In short, I don't think he did anything to prepare for anybody else finding the lab, or he didn't care, so it might be easy to find what we want."

Xxx

High above the planet satellites hovered in perfect position. In the digital realm XANA smirked as he looked through the images of the mountain from the satellite's computer. The tower that would be used to launch the attack had already been selected and was guarded.

Xxx

The superscan detected an activated tower in the Tropical Ocean Sector. Aelita's eyes widened.

Xxx

The satellites XANA had taken control of unleashed a massive electromagnetic field that covered the mountain.

Xxx

"Bridgette, the superscan has detected an activated tower! Bridgette can you hear me? Bridgette!" Aelita shouted into the head set.

Xxx

"Aelita? Aelita, are you there?" Bridgette looked at the phone and found that it had it died on her.

"Something wrong Bridge?" Geoff asked as he joined her.

"My phone died." Bridgette held up her mobile.

"Same here." Geoff held up his phone. " I was coming up to get you and then it just...died."

"Hey guys, I think something real freaky be going on here, because...uh..." LeShawna held up her phone as she and DJ came out. "Our phones died too."

"And my digital watch." DJ held up his left wrist.

"We'd better get back to the cabin." Bridgette said. "Aelita has got to hear everything."

Xxx

THUD! THUD! THUD!

Carlos awoke from a good dream-and remembered why the bed was empty this time. He growled and got out of bed, pulling some pants on as he left the room. "One freakin A.M in the morning? Chris if that's you asking for more snacks I am going to kick your puny mop head-" He swung the front door open. "...ass."

He was faced with what looked like a cat sized spider that looked up at him with a single red eye. It had a sand coloured shell with a black symbol on it just like the Red Eye symbol. Carlos and the Spiderling stared at one another for several seconds.

"I definitely ate too many Klondike bars this time," Carlos said before the Spiderling's red eye began to glow. "Oh crap!"

He swung the door shut and pressed himself up against it...and a laser came out next to his head. He blinked as he looked through the hole in the door. "Oh my god!" He noticed a few strands of hair had been caught and were burning. "Ah! May hair-wait, calm down Carlos, don't become like Chris!" He put the small fires out and ran from the door. "KURT! GET UP! MAJOR SITUATION! FREAKY GIANT SPIDER OF DEATH!"

Kurt groaned as he came out of his room. "You're not hallucinating from Klondike bars again are you? And did you hold a match up to your head again?"

"NO! LOOK!" Carlos pointed at the door...which was blown off its hinges before a Dragon Knight came charging in.

"HOLY CRAP!" Both of the producers shouted.

"SAMURAI!" Kurt shouted before he and Carlos dove into the hall to avoid being cut in half. "WHAT'S GOING ON?"

"I don't know, but I sure as hell know what to do about it." Carlos ran to his room and flipped the bed over. He pulled away floor boards ,and grinned evilly.

"Okay stupid looking spider thing, time to die."

Xxx

"What now?" Heather groaned as she came out of her room.

"GET DOWN!" Kurt tugged Heather out of the way of The Dragon Knight's sword as more monsters stormed into the house, trashing the living room. A Krab burst through one of the walls, using one leg to reach through and tear up more of the house.

"HOLY MOTHER OF-" Suddenly the door to Carlos' room burst open, revealing Carlos dressed in camouflage style clothes with Kevlar armour and a helmet on his head. He also had a combat knife, a pistol in his belt, and was carrying a submachine gun in his hands and had grenades held in a bandoleer.

"I knew this crap would come in handy again someday." He said.

"Wow...that was actually a tiny bit impressive- AW HELL!" Kurt shouted as the Dragon Knight rushed at them.

Carlos raised his Submachine gun just as Noah came into the hall. He saw a red dot on his shirt, looked up, squeaked, and dropped to the floor in time for three bullets to fly over him and make the dragon knight stagger back, but failed to pierce its chest armour.

"Ok...bullet proof samurai armour...crap." Carlos said.

Gwen stuck her head into the wall as more campers rushed out in their pajamas. Her eyes widened. "Oh my god. CODY!"

Cody stuck his head out of his room. "What is it?" He saw the Dragon Knight, which tried to take his head off before another burst of gun fire from Carlos knocked it back.

"Damn it! The entire thing's bullet proof!" The disgruntled Ex-SAS operator said.

"SHOOT FOR THE EYE! THE BIG RED EYE!" Cody shouted.

Carlos didn't even pause to question this advice, and raised his MP5. He squeezed off a single round that hit the Dragon Knight right in the middle of the Red XANA eye. The Dragon Knight paused, and then exploded into a flash of light.

"Aw hell yes! Finally!" Carlos rushed down the hall. "Get everybody to the basement, I got this!"

"...so he really was in the SAS." Kurt scratched his head. "Problem is..I don't think the basement will be much good."

"So what do we do?" Lindsay asked, shaking in fear.

"We gotta get out of here, more of those things are coming!" Kurt herded them towards the back door. "Head for the bus!"

Meanwhile, Carlos stormed into the living room, and picked off the three Spiderlings in the room with a single burst each. He spun and crouched, locking onto the Krab...which immediately sliced the tip of his gun off. He stared at it, and then at the Krab. "You cheater." He tossed the MP5 away and ducked under the next leg. He rushed for the Krab and then leaped as it swung again. It had to bend down to fit into the house, so he gripped the edge of its head as it stood up outside. He climbed on top and pulled out his hand gun. He fired once into the eye, causing the Krab to explode under him and send him flying out onto the lawn. He rolled to his feet as several monsters focused on him. "Oh man, this is why I don't miss being in the army!"

He rushed across the lawn, firing off one round to his side into a Pyramid. The first round bounced off its stone like exterior, but the second one hit the eye and destroyed it. He repeated this with a half dozen more monsters before he ended up at the edge of the trees. He looked back at the lawn as more monsters began to pursue him, seeing him as an armed threat. "Ok, good, more on me, less on the others."

"TO THE BUS!" Kurt lead the campers down the drive way to the bus...which was cut in half and exploded as a Megatank shot it in half.

"Uh...TO THE FOREST!" Carlos watched as Kurt tried to lead the campers into the trees...only to flee as more monsters came out.

"Aw hell." Carlos raised his pistol and shot away another Spiderling that tried to shoot him.

"AYE-YAH!" Suddenly Chef landed on a Spiderling, crushing it under his feet. He then took up the base ball bat Carlos had been using earlier and slammed it into the side of a Dragon Knight's head. "And freaky ass monster is going, going, GONE SUCKER!"

And then Roberto beat a Spiderling to death with one of its own comrades, and then tossed the Spiderling in his hands at another one, hitting it.

"Well, at least I got some help." Carlos slid a fresh clip into his hand gun and chambered a bullet. "KURT! GET THEM TO THE MAIN ROAD! WE'LL DRAW THEM HERE!"

"ON IT!" Kurt paused as something dropped out of the trees around the group...Creepers, which hissed at them.

"MOMMY!" Justin leaped onto Darth Alejandro.

"...Get the hell off me."

"OH MAN WE'RE GONNA DIE WE'RE GONNA DIE!" Courtney panicked.

"WE GOTTA GET OUT OF HERE!" Beth was hiding behind Darth Alejandro-who served as the best option for staying out of sight.

"RUN!" Kurt shoved a few campers towards the main road.

Chef was laughing as he beat away some monsters...until a shot from a Krab incinerated the bat in his hand..."That just ain't fair man." The Krab barrelled towards him, head angled down, and then as it reached him it swung its head up and sent him flying. He screamed as he flew through the air and landed in the tree above Carlos, who was trying to reload his pistol again.

"Come on...yes!" Carlos raised the gun. "Come on you-" THUD! CRUNCH! "...Ow."

Chef had landed on Carlos, who was now pinned with his gun too far away to reach.

"Aw what's wrong Brit? Too soft to handle the cook-" THWACK! Roberto, as he sneered at Carlos had been hit on the back of the head by a Dragon Knight, which had slammed the hilt of its sword into him. "Crap." He collapsed.

"Aw...hell, get off me man!" Carlos tried to reach his pistol as the monsters began to close in on them. One Dragon Knight began to advance on the disabled fighters ,drawing a full length two handed sword.

"Oh crap!" Reaching under himself, Carlos managed to get one of the two grenades-he still has no idea how he smuggled them out when he left the SAS and pulled out the pin. He tossed it, and pressed his face against the grass. One explosion and a full dozen explosions later, he looked up and saw the closest monsters were now gone and a small crater had been blown into the ground while shrapnel had been sent flying. "...Oh thank god." He sighed in relief. "NOW GET YOUR ASS OFF OF ME! SERIOUSLY! IT HURTS! OUCH!"

Xxx

"Look!" DJ pointed up.

In the direction of the cabin smoke was seen.

"Something's happening back at the cabin! We got to move!" LeShawna shouted.

They took off, sprinting as fast as they could towards the cabin.

Xxx

The campers kept on running towards the main road.

"Oh my god what was that?" Katie screamed.

"I don't know!" Sadie replied equally terrified.

"Hey! Where are Bridgette, DJ, LeShawna, and Geoff?" Trent called.

Gwen pulled out her blackberry but found it was dead.

"Does anyone's cell phone work?"

Everyone pulled out their phones and found they were all dead.

"Oh no! They could be dead!" Lindsay cried.

"Those things could have got them!" Beth said.

"They'll be fine." Gwen put her blackberry away.

"What do you mean?" Trent asked.

"They snuck out of the cabin half an hour ago so those things shouldn't know about them. When they see what's going on they'll make a run for it." Cody said.

"How do you know?" Sierra asked.

"You want answers or do you want to live?" Gwen asked, turning around to head for the main road.

"GWEN! CODY!"

They turned and saw Bridgette and the others running up to them. Before anyone could reply there was a buzzing sound.

"LOOK OUT!"

More monsters appeared out of the forests. Hornets flew out from behind the trees and fired their lasers.

"Look out!" LeShawna pushed Bridgette out of the way and was hit in the back by three lasers.

"LESHAWNA!" Gwen's eyes widened in horror.

She picked up the nearest rock and threw it at the hornet responsible for injuring her friend.

"Get out of there!" Cody shouted.

A Spiderling scuttled into view and shot at Cody in the knee.

"Cody!" Sierra screamed as she ran to his side and looked at the wound.

Gwen kicked the Spiderling and it shattered when it flew into a tree.

"Run for it!" DJ shouted.

Trent and Sierra supported Cody and began to run with the rest of the group. When one Spiderling came out in front of Duncan, he took a leaf out of Gwen's book and kicked it into a tree where it exploded. "Ok...exploding spiders?"

"ASK LATER! RUN NOW!" Gwen rushed by him, jarring him back to his senses.

Suddenly, a Krab loomed over them, its lasers charging.

"Watch out!" The campers took cover, and the Krab fired, blowing a tree to pieces and sending pieces of wood flying at high speed. Several campers cried out as they were hit by small pieces, but Geoff screamed in pain as a particularly big piece stuck through his shoulder. He collapsed, blood flowing from the wound.

"GEOFF!" Bridgette tried to run to him, but DJ tugged her back down as the Krab fired again.

"You can't help if that thing shoots you too!" He whispered. "We gotta hit the eye!"

Bridgette grabbed a long and strong looking branch. "ALLOW ME THEN!" She rushed out from cover as the Krab focused on trying to blast Darth Alejandro, who wheeled into the bushes and behind several trees-never stopping since he was the biggest target.

"AW MAN, THIS THING NEEDS TO MOVE FASTER!" Alejandro shouted.

Bridgette climbed up a tree and waited for the Krab to get close enough. With a shriek of rage she leaped out and jammed the end of the branch down into the eye. The Krab exploded and Bridgette landed where it had been standing.

"Geoff, are you okay buddy?" DJ helped the young man up.

"Yeah...ow...nope." Geoff groaned.

"We need to get you to a hospital." Bridgette gripped the stick.

"Whoa now," Duncan stopped her. "Don't you know what happens when you pull something like that out of a wound? You let out a whole lot more blood and he'd bleed out before we even have a chance to call 911. Our phones are dead ,and there's hundreds of those things crawling around, so right now your best bet with him living is to keep that thing in him until we actually have some doctors around."

"Where are Carlos and the others?" Gwen asked.

"Carlos went SAS on the monsters back at the cabin, Chef and Roberto were helping and I guess Kurt went back to help him." Noah said. "As for Chris, I have no idea where that coward is, probably hiding under a rock."

Xxx

Chris was sleeping peacefully in his tent, which was ignored by the patrolling monsters entirely.

He smiled in his sleep as he pictured himself swimming in money, nay, BATHING in gold!

He sighed. "I'm awesome."

Xxx

"Gwen, we gotta get back to Aelita's house." DJ whispered to Gwen. "There's a lab there, and scanners, and it was still working when our phones died. Probably shielded from what XANA did."

"Okay, we head there, hide everybody inside, and use those scanners to get into Lyoko, we can contact Aelita from there and she can help us find the tower." Gwen whispered back.

"Okay," DJ stood up. "There was another house nearby, let's go hide there!"

"Alright big man, lead on." Duncan said.

"We'd better hurry before another one of those things finds us." Eva said as she sharpened a tree branch. "What I'd give for those guns Carlos had."

"Okay, everybody find something sharp, and if you see one go for the big eye on it!" Gwen shouted. "And I agree with Eva, that gun would have been real useful with that Krab. Where is that soldier boy anyways?"

Xxx

"Are they gone yet?" Chef asked.

"I'll check." Carlos peeked over the edge of the ditch he, Chef and Roberto were hiding in near the cabin. "I think it's"

A laser shot over him, and he ducked. "TAKE COVER!"

"I guess they're not gone." Roberto shrugged.

Suddenly a Krab stood over them and prepared to bring its leg down. They glanced up. Carlos smiled sheepishly. "Uh...hello, just so you know I am opposed to people eating crabs and lobsters. Whenever I see them boiling one of your people, I think they're sadistic bastards and should die. You are obviously...I like to think you are a very smart uh...mutant giant crab thing and you are a wonderful, beautiful, being."

Roberto and chef stared at Carlos.

"Dude, are you high?" Roberto asked.

"I'm negotiating...and I am kinda- AW HELL!" Carlos yelled as the leg came up. "Thanks a lot you ruined my negotiations!" As all three of them screamed, Carlos brought his pistol up and fired twice. He struck it in the laser eye, making it stagger back. "RUN LIKE THE COWARDS YOU ARE!"

"YOU'RE RUNNING TOO!"

"I'M NOT RUNNING, I'M MAKING A TACTICAL CHANGE OF POSITION!" Carlos shouted.

"YOU'RE A COWARD!" Roberto shouted.

"I AM NOT A COWARD!" The soldier shouted back. "I AM A BAD ASS!"

"WHO'S RUNNING AWAY?" Roberto snapped.

"OKAY, WHEN THIS IS OVER,YOU ARE GETTING SHAVED!" Carlos snarled. "PERMANENTLY!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!"

They continued with a pair of Krabs in pursuit.

Xxx

"Bridgette! Gwen! Cody! Can any of you hear me?" Aelita said into the head set.

She sighed and gave up putting it down. That was when a window appeared and a familiar unwanted face appeared.

"What's the matter, Aelita? Afraid to go into Lyoko alone?" XANA asked with a smirk.

"Why am I not surprised you decided to attack right now?" Aelita glared.

"You make it sound like you don't know me at all. I was most surprised when I heard that they found the house you lived in. Does it bring back any fond memories?"

"You knew that lab is there." Aelita said.

"Of course I knew. Did you really think I was ignorant of all of my father's work?" XANA asked. "What now, sister, do you enter Lyoko alone to fight my generals and monsters or do you run away?"

"You already know the answer to that."

Aelita put the head set down and set up the automated virtualization sequence.

"Good luck, Aelita. Be sure to hurry. Your friends just might not make it back."


	28. Episode 27: Choosing Who Helps

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 27

Bridgette knelt over Geoff. Her boyfriend was slumped against a tree, head back with his mouth wide as he struggled to breath. Almost the entire right side of his body was now seeped in blood with it also dripping down the tree. Close by DJ was looking over LeShawna's back as it had been burned by three shots from a hornet that attacked her from behind.

Sierra had already bandaged Cody's leg but he was still unable to walk. Nearby Gwen was looking out for more monsters. She turned and looked back at them.

"Coast is clear. Can they make it?"

"I don't know. I don't want to push Geoff." Bridgette replied.

"...I-I got it . .." A painful hiss escaped Geoff's mouth.

"Geoff!" Bridgette turned back to see Geoff push himself up against the tree.

Sliding her hands under his arms Bridgette pulled him up and positioned him to lean against her. Bridgette had to hold her breath from inhaling the stench of blood as she helped him with her shirt getting stained.

"Take it easy, Geoff." Bridgette whispered with tears in her eyes.

LeShawna grunted as she struggled to get up. DJ pulled her arm over his shoulder and helped her up.

"Thanks ..." LeShawna gasped.

"No problem." DJ replied with a smile.

"We've got to move." Gwen said.

"No argument from me." Duncan said.

Sierra and Trent helped Cody up again.

"The house we're going to hide was found earlier by our team during the challenge. We can't get far with our injured and those things running around so we need to hide until help comes." Gwen said.

"Those things tore apart Carlos' house, I don't think that some old cabin is going to help us." Courtney protested.

"Doesn't have to if they don't know we're there." DJ replied.

"So let's do the right thing and shut up before more of them find us." Gwen added.

"What if they just tear it up as they go along? Those giant lobster things look like they don't have any problems doing it." Beth said.

"Yeah, but they came after us, and chased us out of Carlos' cabin. So they might not bother looking for us if they don't know that we're there." DJ tried to reason with the group. "Either we hide out or risk trying to run down the mountain with three of us badly hurt! We can't run with them in this condition and I am NOT gonna leave them behind."

"Ah don't worry big guy, wouldn't try to suggest it even if I wasn't afraid you'd pound me into the ground." Duncan said. "Besides, even I ain't THAT cold."

"Surprise." Courtney rolled her eyes.

"Okay, we stick to the bushes," Gwen spoke up. "If anybody hears anything, they say it as quietly as they can, just make sure we can hear them. We all stop, and wait until...well if we know if there's something there and I guess we'll attack it."

"With what?" Katie asked.

"Anything! Rocks, sticks, we don't even have to kill it as long as we can distract it so we can run." Gwen replied. "Now come on, we have to go!"

Xxx

"Roberto, I know that you have made some pretty stupid choices in the past." Carlos said calmly. "And right now I feel like replacing the supplies that were left back at the cabin by cannibalizing you, but before I consider even thinking about eating all of that...well it ain't flesh under all that hair as far as I know-but anyways...what the hell were you thinking when you suggested that we hide up a tree?"

"It seemed like a good idea at the time!" Roberto snapped. "I didn't see you objecting."

"THAT'S BECAUSE I WAS SICK AND TIRED OF RUNNING FROM A GIANT LOBSTER!" Carlos shouted.

"Keep it down man! How do you know they won't hear us?" Chef squeaked.

Roberto scoffed. "Too late."

"Okay, I'm calm...I'm calm...must not murder Hairy Idiot and the Fake Soldier who dares to soil Halo." Carlos pinched the bridge of his nose and inhaled. "Ok..need to think...think back to my days in the SAS...what would Sergeant Johnson do in this situation?"

Xxx

_"CARLOS YOU MAGGOT! DROP AND GIVE ME FIFTY!"_

Xxx

"Well that idea's down the drain." Carlos sighed. "Okay, we need to get down from here, we CANNOT stay up here all night. We need to find Kurt and the kids, and pray that those things haven't killed them."

"And how do we find them, Mr 'I'm a Special Forces Soldier'?" Roberto asked...before Carlos kicked him in the chin and sent him flying off of his branch.

"AH!" Roberto let out a high pitched scream as he fell and slammed into the ground. "Ow..."

"Well that solves one question. If they were still around they would have heard your girlish scream." Carlos said.

"Screw...you..." Roberto groaned in pain.

"Oh sorry, I'm not into Big Hairy Trolls who don't have anything under that fur." Carlos rolled his eyes. "But I think I know one girl desperate enough to hook you up with if we survive this."

Xxx

_DINGDONG_

_"Yo." Carlos opened the door, and came face to face with his room mate's ex-girl friend Sally._

_"Hey Carlos, is Sam in?" Sally asked hopefully, hopping up and down._

_"Uh..." Suddenly Sam rushed by Carlos and crashed through a window...falling seven stories into a dumpster. "He just left."_

_"Aw..." Sally apparently had not noticed Sam despite the fact that he had obviously rushed by the door. "Really?"_

_Sam suddenly reached back through the window and grabbed his wallet off of the table before falling yet again. Carlos said without missing a beat. "Yep, sorry."_

_Sam's car screeched off into the distance._

Xxx

"I never saw my roommate again after that." Carlos sighed. "Well I won't let that happen again!"

"Dude, what are you talking about?" Chef asked.

"I don't even know anymore." Carlos replied confidently. "Now come on, we gotta find them."

"How do we find them?"

"Tracks," Carlos began to climb down. "A herd of kids that big ought to leave tracks somewhere, and if they weren't after us then those monsters must have gone after them, so we HAVE to save them."

"Even Duncan?" Roberto asked.

"Need I remind you two that if any one of them dies, you two along with Chris get sued, and that's only after the director gets through with us." Carlos growled. "If she finds out somebody died because a monster army invaded my cabin, not even me and Kurt will be able to walk away. And I swear before she kills me I will castrate both of you and Chris for bringing us up here." The soldier paused as he reached the ground. "Speaking of...where the hell is he?"

Xxx

Chris snored away as he paddled along a lake made of gold in his fancy row boat made of diamonds...which made little sense but then again this is Chris McLane. The Krabs standing outside the tent glanced at one another, and then moved on without even trying to investigate the tent.

Xxx

Aelita had already located the tower. The super scan had found it in the Tropical Ocean Sector on a large island. She set the automated virtualization sequence and took the elevator down to the scanners.

'I can only hope the others will be okay. An activated tower while I lose connection with Bridgette at the same time. It's likely they're in trouble. I better hurry and find the tower.'

She walked out of the elevator and stepped into the nearest scanner. Once the timer hit zero the doors closed in front of her and she felt the familiar gust of wind underneath her as the ring traveled up her body, scanning her body. She closed her eyes as a white light engulfed her.

Xxx

Aelita opened her eyes as she landed on her feet. Looking up she saw she was on a beach on an island that had a forest going up mountain with palm trees near the beach. Holding up her wrist she looked at the radar and saw that the activated tower was north of her. She tapped a few commands and the Overboard appeared on front of her.

Once she stepped on it the board took off into the air in the direction of the tower. Going at full speed, hoping to avoid any enemies at least until she reached the island with the tower she kept a sharp eye out. However it seemed luck was not on her side. A whale like sound was heard from behind her.

Turning her head she saw three flying Mantas and six Hornets flying at her. The Mantas were usually only found in Sector 5 that served as a last line of defence against intruders however on a few occasions they were found in other sectors.

Holding her hands Aelita fired two orbs as the swarm fired their lasers. They scattered as one orb hit a Hornet. Aelita turned the board around and fired more energy orbs at the monsters. Hornets covered the Mantas as they fired another volley of lasers. Aelita dodged the lasers but it wasn't easy.

She was almost hit in the chest from one Hornet before blowing it apart.

'This is taking too long. I need a new plan.'

Looking down for anything she found another island and quickly flew down towards it followed by the monsters. Looking back to confirm that she was being followed Aelita flew right over the ocean towards the island as four Hornets followed her down, firing lasers. Bracing herself as she flew into the forest of palm trees, weaving in and out between the trees with the Hornets trying to catch up to her. One flew straight into a tree, exploding instantly.

Aelita looked behind for a second to see three Hornets following and turned back only to see herself flying right into a large branch. Screaming in surprised she ducked while another Hornet slammed into it with the explosion blinding another Hornet which led to it meeting the same fate. Turning around Aelita fired an energy orb that destroyed the last Hornet. Smirking for a second Aelita heard a sound.

Looking up her eyes widened as flying mines fell into the forest. Taking off, Aelita flew through the forest with more mines pursuing her with a explosions ripping through the forest. Looking up she formulated a plan to destroy them. Aiming her hand carefully at the incoming mines her hand glowed as she charged her attack.

"Plasma Beam!"

She fired a beam of light at the swarm of mines and several were it that caused them explode which started a chain reaction as all mines above it exploded until they led up to the Mantas. All three Mantas exploded with the nearby Hornets caught in the explosion. Aelita sighed in relief as she took out one squadron without losing any life points.

"That was close." Aelita said.

That was most likely just a welcoming committee. No sign of any of the generals which means they were waiting for her at the tower.

"I better hurry and get to the tower."

She took off in the Overboard and resumed course towards the island with the tower.

'Please hang on. I'm on my way.'

Xxx

The group proceeded cautiously but quickly as possible, often moving behind the trees to avoid any monster seeing them. Moving at a quick pace they covered a bit of distance before Geoff groaned in pain.

"We have to stop. Geoff needs a break." Bridgette said as she leaned Geoff against a tree.

"Bridge, we can't stay." Trent said as he and Sierra stopped while holding Cody.

"Geoff's got a large piece of wood stuck in his shoulder that's leaking blood." Bridgette protested.

"And if we hang around here he's dead." Duncan said.

"Just a moment of rest, please. Let him catch his breath." Bridgette pleaded.

"All right. But you got to be ready to move again." Gwen said peeking out from behind a tree in front of them.

"Are you crazy?" Heather asked.

"Look, LeShawna and Cody can keep the pace but the Geoff is bleeding and pushing him too hard could make him black out while we're running and then our problem gets worse. Just one minute, Heather, that's all she's asking." Gwen said.

Heather glared but relented. Everyone crouched in the bushes and behind the trees as they looked around for any monsters.

"You think we lost them?" Lindsay asked.

"Maybe." Beth said.

"Don't say that. Anyone who says that get's bad luck." Sierra spoke as she tended to Cody's wounded knee.

Heather slowly made her way to Gwen while the goth kept a close eye out.

"You know something about this." She whispered into Gwen's ear.

Gwen's eyes widened a bit before looking at Heather.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you know something about those things. I heard you back at the cabin. And Cody told Carlos to aim for that red eye on that knight." Heather said.

"For the first time I actually agree with Heather."

Both turned and looked at Courtney who was crouched down as well.

"This has something to do with why you along LeShawna, Bridgette, Geoff, and DJ have been hanging out more so than usual, does it?"

"That sounds a little farfetched even from the two of you. Besides you really think it's time to start acting paranoid and interrogating me while we're still in danger?" Gwen asked.

"Don't talk to me like I'm a simpleton Gwenny, I'm not as dumb as the others you've managed to fool." Courtney glared.

"Whatever, Courtney. I don't know the last time you had a doctor's appointment but you might want to book one. After we get out of here _alive_." Gwen glared back at her and Heather.

"Just a warning, teamie, I'll be watching." Courtney said.

"So will I." Heather agreed.

Gwen rolled her eyes.

Up above, Izzy hummed as she climbed up a tree. "Doo-dee-doo-dee-dooo..." she looked out over the forest. "Nothing up here."

"Don't say that! Didn't you hear me?" Sierra demanded.

"Sh!" Gwen said when Sierra raised her voice. "Monsters could be anywhere, do you want them to hear you?"

"Oh, sorry." Sierra whispered.

"Uh...guys?" Trent tapped Sierra on the shoulder.

"What?"

"Too late." He pointed to the trees...where Creepers were seen hanging from the branches, their mouths glowing in the dark as they examined the group.

"Izzy..." Gwen looked up. "Get down, now."

"Why? What's wrong?" Izzy asked.

"Izzy, just get down, trust us." Heather added as she tried not to scream.

Izzy slowly turned and glanced up...right into the face of the Creeper above her. "Meep."

It howled at her and then charged its laser.

"DOWN NOW!" Gwen, Heather, and Trent shouted at once.

Izzy leaped from the tree in time to avoid being vaporized by the laser, which blew off the branch she had been on.

"So much for hiding in the bushes! BREAK TIME'S OVER!" Duncan hauled Sierra up-and she hauled Cody up.

"GO!" Gwen shouted. "FORGET HIDING, JUST RUN!"

"AGREED!" Alejandro shouted as he wheeled after the group...with Justin hanging on him. "And will you GET OFF OF ME?"

More lasers shot out from the bushes and struck the ground around the group. Duncan spotted one Creeper coming out ahead and instantly sped up. He took a thick branch he had grabbed and swung it like a base ball bat. The creature's head snapped up, and as it looked back down he swung right down on the eye symbol. The creature exploded, and he moved on.

"Ok, I think I have the hang of this." He said. "Hit the eye, make monster fireworks, don't die, easy!"

Suddenly a low buzzing sound filled the air.

"I think they heard the commotion! Up high!" Gwen pointed.

"Oh man, hornets!" DJ shouted before four Hornets shot down out of the darkness and fired on the group.

One spewed acid at DJ, who leaped behind a rather unfortunate tree. He held LeShawna to his chest until the tree had melted entirely. Opening his eyes, he squeaked and continued running, supporting his friend.

"I don't supposed somebody has a base ball or something?" Alejandro asked rhetorically.

"You don't need a base ball bat or a ball, anybody have a thick branch?" Bridgette asked.

"Yo." Duncan held up his weapon.

"Here, and you'd better be a good batter." Bridgette tossed him a rock.

"I was a killer back in juvy." Duncan paused. "Not literally speaking of course." He tossed the rock up and struck it with the make shift bat. It shot into the air and slammed into one hornet, which was sent spinning out of control, slamming into another hornet. They both hit trees and were destroyed in flashes of light.

"Oh yeah! I still got it!" Duncan said...before a spray of acid hit his stick. "...crap."

"Here they come again!" DJ pointed as the last two Hornets made for another pass...until an arrow hit one, destroying it.

"Wow, looks like Carlos' kids have good taste in sports." The group turned to the speaker...revealing Kurt holding a bow and with a quiver slung over one shoulder. The last hornet fled as he notched another arrow and let it fly. The projectile missed and landed somewhere in the dense forest. "Crap."

"Kurt! Man are we glad to see you!" Beth said.

"At least you're all in one piece...mostly." Kurt glanced at Geoff, Cody, and LeShawna.

"Where'd you get those?" Gwen asked.

"Carlos' cabin..or what's left of it. Turns out his son practiced archery." Kurt sighed. "The cabins overrun, last I saw the others they were running away. I just managed to catch up with you guys by following the explosions and shouting. I haven't been able to find Carlos, Chef, Roberto, or Chris...I bet that guy's hiding in a hole or something."

Xxx

Chris sat up and yawned. "I cannot believe it. Man I need to stop drinking so much soda before bed."

He strolled out of the tent, his eyes closed while the Krabs patrolled the cabin property, oblivious as Chris went to the outhouse, shut the door, did his business, and then walked all the way across the property back to the tent-not noticing the giant monsters in his half sleep walk. He went back inside, got into his sleeping bag, took a moment to look at himself in a mirror-sigh dreamily at his own face ,and then went back to sleep.

The Krabs only noticed Chris when he had gone back into the tent. They glanced at one another, seeming to be confused-or lacking orders with how to deal with the host. They chose to just secure the perimeter and keep an eye on the tent should he awaken again until XANA sent them orders on how to act.

Xxx

"What happened to you guys? You look like Roberto after that wrestling match he had with Carlos in college." Kurt said.

"We knew we couldn't get down the mountain on foot because of our injured, but we saw a house on the way up." Gwen explained. "We decided we'd go hide there, preferably without tipping off those things."

"But a couple were hiding in the trees." DJ added. "And now that Hornet might tip off its friends."

"Well, in that case we'd better hurry. And pray to god Carlos is still around and has plenty of ammo because I don't trust Chef or Roberto to save the day if I don't." Kurt said. "How bad are your wounded?"

"Cody's got a shot to the knee. LeShawna took three to the back. Geoff got the worst of it," Gwen explained. "He's got a large piece of wood lodged in his shoulder and if we try to take it out he'll bleed to death."

"I took a medical course, I might be able to help if I have some proper supplies." Kurt offered. "Did this house have those supplies?"

"It looked old, real old, we don't know." Gwen shrugged.

"Well, better that than nothing," Kurt notched another arrow. "Lead on."

Xxx

Aelita could now see the island with the tower on it. It was much larger and had more than one tower on it. She rode fast on the Overboard towards the island but she heard a loud scream. Looking up her eyes widened as the Terror Bird flew from the island towards her and it had monsters on it.

Tarantulas lined up, aiming their guns and charging their lasers. Aelita had only a second to glance before they rained down a hail storm of lasers. She continued to dodge the lasers but the giant monster carrier was forcing her away from the island.

"PLASMA BEAM!"

A beam of pure light erupted from her hand but the Terror Bird retaliated by firing a laser beam of its own from its beak that collided with hers and created a large explosion.

"Damn it!"

That was when a laser hit her board and it dissolved into data leaving Aelita to fall down into the ocean below. At least until she waved her hand over her bracelet and activated her wings. Flying down to avoid more lasers she looked up and saw the Terror Bird fly back to the island acted as guardian of it.

"If the others were here I could have better luck taking that thing out." Aelita muttered.

Xxx

Everyone was now on high alert as they moved through the forest while watching the trees for any Creepers that might be hiding in the branches. Kurt only had a few arrows left since he used them on the Hornets earlier. So far they had avoided any more monsters that might have been lurking nearby.

Kurt looked ahead and held up his hand.

"Wait!" He whispered urgently.

Everyone stopped and waited. Looking ahead they saw a Spiderling scuttle into their site. Everyone crouched down behind the trees and in the bushes. The Spiderling seemingly did not hear them as it continued to scout the woods for its targets.

"I guess they might be nearby now." Kurt said.

"What do we do?" asked Lindsay.

"We keep going. They haven't found us yet." Bridgette said.

"Wait."

Kurt picked up a rock and threw it hard as he could.

"What are you doing?" Courtney protested quietly.

The rock hit a tree and instantly lasers fired at where the sound was made. They watched as Spiderlings and Pyramids moved out of their hiding places and fried the tree.

"Classic diversion tactic. One acts as bait to lure out the prey and when they're in sight the predators pounce on them." Kurt said.

"Ok...so that just showed us that if we go over there, we're screwed." Trent said.

"Pretty much," Kurt nodded. "They know we're nearby, so they're setting up traps. They're smart. We'd need one very big diversion...one very loud diversion..."

"Ooh! Ooh! Me! I got one!" Izzy raised her hand.

"Do I dare ask?" Kurt raised an eye brow.

Izzy snickered, wringing her hands in that 'evil schemey' fashion. "Oh just you wait, I'll be right back!"

She rushed off.

"...Doesn't she know that when you say that ,you never come back?" Kurt asked.

They wait for a full minute, and then...

BOOM!

Suddenly an explosion rang out nearby. The group tensed as dozens of monsters in the surrounding area concentrated on it. Izzy rushed out of the bushes, covered in a layer of ashes. "Woo hoo! I did it!"

"Izzy! Sh!" Kurt put a hand over her mouth.

After he released her, she whispered. "Sorry. I had a few barrels of gas left over, I set them off."

"Do I even want to know why you had barrels of gas or where you got them from?" Kurt asked.

"I stole them from Carlos...and I also stole his moon shine." Izzy said.

Kurt twitched. "Okay...I'm pretty sure he'll be happy to hear that."

Xxx

Carlos tensed and looked around. "I sense...something...wrong...and why do I suddenly feel so angry?"

"When don't you ,you over grown child?" Roberto asked before Carlos pulled out a razor.

"Hey Robby, turn around for a sec, I have a gift for you." But Chef killed that idea.

"OH come on Carlos we gotta move-"

BOOM!

They looked up to see a stack of smoke in the distance.

"An explosion..." Chef said.

"THE KIDS!" All three fighters rushed off to save their charges.

Xxx

"Man, that guy has all the guns and right when you need him he's never around." Kurt grumbled. "Why is it that when I need him to steal Chris' nachos he's 'Oscar Mike' but when I need him to help save lives he's 'MIA'?"

"Just...bad luck?" Lindsay asked.

"Let's just go." Kurt shook his head.

The group continued its trek towards safety.

"How long until we reach this house?" Kurt asked.

"Should take about five more minutes." Bridgette replied.

"Well, without any more monsters it should be easy-" Kurt paused. "HOLY CRAP DUCK!" He forced Gwen and Trent to the ground and knelt under a laser blast from a Spiderling. "GET DOWN! GET DOWN!"

The group threw themselves down as more Spiderlings appeared on the path.

"How many arrows do you have?" Gwen asked.

"Ten." Kurt replied. "How many of those things are there?" He glanced up and then lowered himself back down. "Twelve...crap!"

The Spiderling squadron began to advance towards the competitors, keeping them pinned down with constant laser fire. They were ten feet away and about to clear away the last of the trees and rocks used to cover them when...

BANG! One exploded.

BANG BANG! Another exploded.

"HAI!" Chef leaped out and slammed a large rock down on another before kicking another into a tree.

Roberto joined him, swinging a branch like a golf club and sending one Spiderling flying head over heels into the air. It slammed into the ground and detonated.

Carlos came out into the open, firing two more times and kneeling next to Kurt as he tried reloading.

"Good timing." Kurt nodded. "Please tell me you have plenty more ammo."

"Sorry man, just this and another clip." Carlos replied.

"Aw great, I thought you had a whole artillery!"

"In my defence I had to run all the way here to get you, and trust me when I say it was anything but easy!" Carlos replied. "And I'd still have my machine gun, but oh yeah, an angry lobster sliced it in half! I take back what I said, anybody who eats lobster is a hero in my books!"

"What the hell are you talking about? Are you on crack?"

"Maybe, but that isn't the point!" Carlos fired once. "I still have a grenade left, and my knife. If I could get back to the house I'd grab some more from my stash in the outhouse, but if Chris found it he'll have taken off with it by now."

Xxx

Chris grumbled as he made his sixth unnoticed visit to the outhouse. "I really need to stop with the sodas." He shut the door. "And Carlos has some nerve, leaving me to sleep out in a tent. What does he know? I work hard to bring home the ratings and money and he gets mad at me over some non-harmful traps!" Suddenly, as he sat down, his foot accidently pressed down on a floor board..which lowered itself with a 'click', and suddenly the wall opened up to reveal an assortment of guns, explosives, and ammunition.

Chris stared at it.

"...Carlos, you are a gun maniac."

Xxx

"Mop head is probably half way down the mountain while we're stuck here suffering!" Carlos growled and fired again.

"Carlos! Will you get your mind out of the armoury? We have a serious problem here! We have three contestants here wounded, BADLY!" Kurt shouted.

"I grabbed these." Carlos pulled something out of his pack and tossed it to Kurt...a First Aid Kit!

"If you packed these as much as you packed guns, this would have come in handy a lot earlier." Kurt said before he went to work on Cody's wounds first.

"Dude, if I packed more guns, we wouldn't be in this mess at all!" Carlos replied. "If I just grabbed the damn grenade launcher this would be a thing of the past!"

"HOW THE HELL DID YOU SNEAK A GRENADE LAUNCHER OUT OF THE SAS?" Kurt shouted.

"Very carefully!" Carlos replied.

"You do realize that the minute you stuck a rocket launcher out is grounds for me to call your wife." Kurt said. "I'm sure she'd like to know that the cabin you take your kid to has a ROCKET LAUNCHER and a small armoury."

"Actually she already knows. I placed them in the two places the kids never go: the master bed room and the outhouse...the second one is for obvious reasons." Carlos paused awkwardly. "The first one...well for even more obvious reasons."

"You know Carlos...sometimes you are just so obsessed with this that I just wonder how exactly you were ever in the SAS." Kurt said dryly.

"They said my talents suited certain missions perfectly." Carlos grinned.

"You know what? Never mind, this is a topic for later and I have patients here!" Kurt continued to treat Cody's wounded knee. "Okay...this will stop any infections, but I can't do anything about the pain."

"Why not?" Sierra asked.

"If I do, he won't be able to walk." Kurt replied. "I'd try something to put you under for a bit but these are a little too powerful and we don't want him out cold for hours on end. Can't blame Carlos for that one, surprisingly." He looked around. "Who's next?"

"LeShawna!" DJ ran over and set LeShawna down on her stomach.

"Damn." Kurt cut away the back of the young woman's shirt. "Okay, I'll be able to keep her from getting worse, but we might want a hospital if we want her to fully recover any time soon. I'm guessing she hasn't been able to walk since this happened."

"Got that right," LeShawna said weakly.

"Don't talk, just breathe. You get the morphine. I only have one or two shots worth-Carlos, can I assume you're responsible for that?"

"Roberto followed us one time, I had to give him a lot of it. Despite our hate for him we didn't want a murder charge and when Melissa tried resetting his jaw he kept screaming too much." Carlos replied.

Kurt sighed and filled a syringe from the bottle. "Okay, you'll feel a little woozy here, just bear with me." He injected it through her arm.

"Ow...ooh..." LeShawna began to relax. "Ah...wow..." She closed her eyes, her senses being dulled.

"Lucky her, she'll be the only one to get decent sleep tonight." Kurt commented.

Xxx

Chris continued to slumber like a child, hugging a teddy bear to his chest as the Krabs watched his tent.

One looked at its comrade and sent a signal that essentially asked if they should exterminate him.

The second replied, saying that they were to maintain current orders until given new ones, and the Host had not been included in those orders due to his lack of involvement in the fighting.

They continued their patrols, slowly becoming annoyed.

Xxx

"Ok...Geoff, you'll be the most difficult one." After finishing up with LeShawna's wounds, Kurt moved onto the blonde. "I'll have to pull it out of you. Somebody hold him down!"

"Got it." Chef gripped Geoff's arms while Sierra and Gwen helped to keep him pinned to the ground.

"Okay. Sorry man, just think of your favourite animal."

"Uh...a shark-?"

"SHARK!" Kurt tugged the stick out, and Geoff screamed as blood shot out of the wound.

"HOLD HIM DOWN! HOLD HIM DOWN!" Kurt tossed the stick aside and began to apply pressure to the wound. "Okay. Somebody apply pressure to the wound! Use a shirt or something and keep it like that until I can't get it wrapped up and disinfected!"

As Geoff writhed in pain, Duncan came over and took a towel from Kurt. He pressed it down on the wound.

"It's okay man, you can do it." Duncan grunted as blood stained the towel a deep red and began to wet his hands. He pressed down as hard as he could.

Kurt began to wrap the wound. "Okay...okay...easy now." He finished applying the gauze and began to fill another syringe with the rest of the morphine. "Okay, patient number 3 gets to get some sleep tonight."

Geoff was soon put under.

"Okay, I'll remove the gauze soon and disinfect it later." Kurt said as he grabbed the second towel and wiped his hands. "I don't know how much blood he lost though, probably enough that he won't be on his feet for a bit. Chef, you carry him."

Roberto and Carlos finished off the last of the Spiderlings. Carlos checked his gun. "Seven rounds..thirteen in the last clip. Okay, good to go but I still want my big freaking grenade launcher."

"You want to go back to the cabin to get your favourite toy? Go ahead, in the mean time, let's get these guys out of here!" Kurt snapped.

"Dude, I'll get it after we've got these kids to a safe place." Carlos replied.

"Carlos, you're not in the SAS anymore, leave it to the police and military guys to handle this! We have to get these guys to the hospital!"

"I'm not talking about exterminating them myself. I'm thinking that in order to get down the mountain alive and fast enough, we need more than this pea shooter. If I could get enough weapons we could fight our way to the road and run down." Carlos said.

"Well good luck with that. I was on the main road and I haven't heard a car come up at all...which is funny, you'd think the government would be up her investigating. But no, everything is dead ,any electronics don't work." Kurt explained. "Which means they can't get anything up here either."

"Well it's only been like this for less than an hour. We can't count on them to show up. So once these kids are safe, I'll sneak back, grab some heavier artillery, then clear a path so we can walk down the mountain." Carlos holstered his gun.

"According to Goth Girl there's a house they can hide out in, assuming those things don't find us." Kurt stood up. "We'll hide them there ,and then you can sneak back up to your cabin. Those guns might come in handy if we have a chance at running for it."

"Well, I know that there's a village about fifteen miles away, just outside the reservation area." Carlos replied.

"We can't reach that, we have one with a bad leg and tow are out cold. The house is five minutes away, it's a lot easier."

"I know, I just meant that maybe one of us can get there and get some help. After I get some guns we can debate about that idea." Carlos replied.

"Actually I think I know who can go." Kurt looked to the candidate. "Roberto."

"What? Why me?"

"I'm the only one here with medical experience, Carlos knows how to shoot, Chef will be carrying LeShawna, Chris is nowhere to be found and you're the only other person who knows the way!" Kurt explained his reasoning. "Don't start arguing with me on this, I don't have time to argue about it, just get to the village ,see if they have a working phone, call for help, and we'll call it even."

Roberto growled. "Alright, fine. But I want a gun when I go."

"Carlos ,do you have a spare on you?" Kurt asked.

"Nope, just this." Carlos held up his hand gun...but handed it over to Roberto. "I want that back, if you bust it don't bother coming back or I'll make sure you never grow your eye brows back again."

Roberto nodded and accepted the full clip of ammo Carlos passed him. "Fine, but like Kurt said, if I make it and this gun is okay, we call it even. If it jams, you'd better be far from here when I get back."

"Fine," Carlos crossed his arms. "Now get going!"

The security chief rushed off into the forest.

"Okay we have to get to the house, we're already pushing our miracle that those things didn't catch up to us." Kurt picked up his bow. "Do you have a weapon Carlos?"

He held up a grenade in one hand and his knife in the other.

"Good enough." Kurt led the way with Carlos next to him.

Xxx

From his digital domain XANA was able to pinpoint the location of the group. The attack had gone well as three of the warriors had been injured. Looking through the scanners that showed the group moving towards the old Schaeffer home it was obvious they intended to use the scanners to get to Lyoko. However only two would be able to go since one was required to operate the computer since it had no automated virtualization sequence.

Also news from his group on Lyoko was good as well. Aelita was there but she had been cut off by the Terror Bird the island had been infested with his forces. The attack had been preformed with the element of surprise since their communications had been knocked out when the satellites he controlled released the EM field he needed to use the Translation program to materialize his monsters. Aelita was cornered and she would be no match for his forces. Now all that was left was to make sure the group was neutralized before they reached the house.

Sending out his new orders and coordinates of the group his materialized monsters heard his commands and obeyed. They moved towards the house to create a barrier between it and the group. The supercomputer in the house was protected from the EM field no doubt from his creator's insight. It was an unfortunate turn of events but not a fatal blow to his plan.

The warriors would have no choice but to find a way through if they wished to reach Lyoko and aid Aelita. And even if they did they would be outnumbered not just by his monsters but also his generals. XANA smirked.

Xxx

The group had just cleared the forest when the house came into view.

"There!" Bridgette pointed ahead of them.

"Wow. It does look rundown." Duncan said.

"Not now, Duncan. Let's just hurry and get inside before we run into more monsters." Gwen said.

However it seemed luck was not on their side. A roaring sound was heard as everyone turned to see a Tarantula looking at them a few feet away.

"Aw hell, we can't catch a break!" Kurt raised his bow and shot one arrow at the Tarantula, but missed the eye by inches, leaving the arrow stuck in it.

The Tarantula roared and raised its laser tipped arms. It began to fire on the group, which scattered into the trees.

"Okay, the eye on that one is too small to hit from a distance!" Kurt shouted over the laser fire, and ducked right as one shot took his hat off. "Ah! My hat!"

"Worry about that later!" Carlos said.

"You screamed when your hair was on fire!"

"Duh, I was on fire! You only lost a hat!"

"Only...lost..." Kurt growled. "A HAT?"

"Kurt, fight me later, for now focus on the over grown-"

"IT WAS NOT JUST SOME HAT!" Kurt shouted...right before Carlos gripped him by the shoulders and promptly slapped him several times. "...Okay I'm good." He sighed. "And Carlos?"

"Yeah?"

THWACK!

Carlos sighed as he nursed his jaw. "I'll pay you back later, prick."

"That was for slapping me and insulting my hat!" Kurt focused on the Tarantula.

"Aw just shut up and get that bow ready." Carlos took out his knife.

"Carlos, just remember I have your Kryptonite-"

'WILL YOU SHUT UP ALREADY? WE HAVE TO GET CLOSE TO THAT THING AND TAKE IT OUT! NOW SHAPE UP, MAN UP, SHUT UP, AND GET YOUR ASS UP AND GET READY! I'm going to draw it closer, and if you miss I swear to god I'll kick your ass later!" Carlos moved off to another position.

"Wow...what a spaz."

Carlos leaped from the bushes to the Tarantula's left and leaped on it. He managed to get both arms wrapped around its body and hang on tight as it began to swing back and forth in an attempt to get him off. "SHOOT IT! SHOOT IT NOW!"

Kurt stood and rushed out, another arrow ready. He took aim. "Hold it still!"

"DO I LOOK LIKE I CAN KEEP THIS THING UNDER-"

TWANG!

THUD!

There was silence in the clearing as the contestants and the digital monster looked to where the arrow had hit...

Carlos' shoulder.

"WHAT THE HELL MAN?"

"I said try to hold it still!"

"YOU COULD HAVE WAITED UNTIL I ACTUALLY HAD IT HOLDING STILL!"

"How am I supposed to know when you have it standing still! You're going up and down on that thing like a cow boy on a wild bull! And do we even have time for that!"

"Dude, when it's standing still, you'll know, you won't have to worry about a single other thing in the world aside from my revenge after this is over!"

"It was an accident!"

"You are literally too stupid to be bothered with right now Kurt, just get ready and DON'T SHOOT ME THIS TIME!"

"Wow...you are such a spa-"

"DON'T SAY IT!"

"Fine." He notched an arrow and took aim as the Tarantula started struggling again.

TWANG!

SWOOSH!

Carlos, who had climbed up to the head looked down. The arrow had passed between his knees and barely missed him. It hit the tree behind him. He glared at Kurt. "I hate you so much right now, I can't even put it into words."

"Sorry!" Kurt notched a third arrow-

"No! Forget it! I'll do it myself! Is that okay with you Robin Hood?"

"...Wow, what's with the attitude?"

"YOU SHOT ME IN THE SHOULDER AND ALMOST TOOK OFF MY TWIG'N BERRIES!"

"I was following your idea! It's not my fault you didn't think it through! Just stab it already!"

Carlos did so, sinking his knife into the eye. The Tarantula exploded, and Carlos landed on his feet. He glared at his partner, and began to extract the arrow from his arm. "Seriously Kurt, there are times when I prefer Roberto and Chris to hanging out with you."

"Wow...if there are times like that then you MUST be mad." Kurt observed.

"No duh, no get everybody inside. I'm going for the-"

Bzzzzzzzzz...

"Uh oh." The producers/guerrilla fighters looked up to see a group of Hornets approaching.

"Do you got this?" Carlos asked.

"No. I only have...six arrows left." Kurt said. "There's seven of them!"

"Those aren't the only things coming! Look!" Chef pointed behind him as he and the rest of the group ran for the house.

Dozens of monsters began to appear in the tree line.

"Just get them in the basement, if I sprint I can get to the house and back in a few minutes flat!" Carlos said.

"Well...considering you actually have the more dangerous part, I'm inclined to agree...good luck Carlos!" With that Kurt slammed the door in the ex-soldier's face after everybody was inside. "They are so gonna chew him up-"

"I can hear you, dumb ass." Carlos said.

"I heard what you said when you said good luck to me back in Spain!"

"I was drunk!"

"And yet I still paid the bill."

"Oh you stupid- AH!" Carlos ducked under a laser. "Oh crap! Stage left!" He rushed into the woods. "Left, right! Just like in basic training! I knew I learned something from that!"

Kurt watched him from a window. "Aw man, Melissa is so gonna kill me when they bring his dead butt out."

He looked back at the kids. "Where's the basement?"

"Right here." Gwen revealed the secret stair way in the floor of the living room.

She was taking a big risk, but the lab down there looked like it could handle the punishment for a while. And if they had to they could return to the past. As people began to rush down one at a time, the door began to weaken as Spiderlings pummelled it with lasers.

"Okay pass word, pass word. Bridgette, what was the pass word?" Gwen shouted as she reached the door.

"Renaissance!" Bridgette shouted.

Gwen typed the pass word in, and the door hissed open. "We don't have enough room in the air lock. We'll need to get a few people through at a time."

"Wounded first!" DJ said as he took LeShawna inside ,followed by Chef with Geoff and Sierra with Cody.

As several more competitors were fitted inside, Kurt squeezed down and brought the door down over him. He locked it and glanced down. "What kind of door is that? Looks like a bank vault."

"Precisely." Bridgette said before several more people were sent through. The process consisted of seven or eight people going through, shutting the door behind them, and being admitted to the lab beyond so the next group could open the air lock's outer door.

"Well, we might be able to hold out until Carlos gets back...if he gets back." Kurt said before he and the last group entered the air lock and shut the door behind them.

The group stared in awe at the massive lab they stood in.

"What is this place and why the hell is it under a dump like that cabin?" Courtney asked.

"It's a lab, don't touch anything." Gwen pushed her way to the control chair. "Aelita, can you hear me?" She had opened a connection.

"I hear you Gwen, but I'm a little preoccupied at the moment!" Aelita shouted as her Avatar appeared on the screen.

"What's going on? We have dozens of monsters bearing down on us!" Gwen said.

"XANA's activated another tower in the Tropical sector!" Aelita explained. "I need some help to get to it! The island that the tower is on is guarded by a Terror Bird!"

"Okay. Geoff, LeShawna and Cody are out of commission." Gwen said. "We have everybody stuffed into the lab here and I don't have a lot of answers to their questions right now."

"The rest of your group has been caught up in this?" Aelita inquired. "Perhaps...perhaps it may be best if you...include several of the more trust worthy members. If half of our group is unable to go to Lyoko we won't be able to defeat XANA this way."

"You mean...bring more people to Lyoko?" Gwen glanced at the group, which was staring at her. "I...that's a tall order."

"Gwen, you have several trust worthy friends not yet brought to Lyoko, I'm sure you can find one or two who will willingly agree to trust you with this." Aelita said. "We're very desperate right now, and I don't see much of a choice. They have already seen the lab anyways."

Gwen stood up. "Okay...I'll see who I can trust." She set the head set down. "Bridge, DJ, get over here."

The Lyoko warriors gathered around.

"Aelita says we might need to...recruit another cast member or two." Gwen explained.

"Aw you gotta be kidding me!" DJ said.

"I don't know if that's such a good idea." Bridgette said nervously.

"That door will only hold for so long and there's a Terror Bird between Aelita and the tower. We can't win if only three of us can go to Lyoko." Gwen reasoned. "We need two new fighters at the least for this."

"Okay...but who?" Bridgette glanced at the rest of the cast. "We need somebody who will keep quiet, somebody who will do it without hesitating."

"I think I can think of about...four or five people." DJ whispered. "First and second: Duncan and Trent. Gwen, they'd do anything you ask them to. Next, Courtney, she might be picky but I know she's smart enough to see the big picture, and if we can't do a return to the past quickly enough she might get in the way and demand answers anyways. Next would be Heather, she's a lot smarter than we gave her credit for during TDWT. And then Noah, he is definitely a big thinker and knows that this needs to be kept on the down low."

"Those are some risky choices DJ." Bridgette said.

"Yeah, but the rest..." Gwen looked to Justin, Katie, Sadie, Lindsey, Beth, and the rest of the unsuitable ones. "Katie and Sadie are big mouthed and can't keep a secret. Neither can Sierra, she'd blab it before tomorrow. Beth and Lindsey aren't too bad but they are definitely easily intimidated and with Heather and Courtney hounding us after each return to the past we can't afford to have them forcing them to talk. Justin...just no. Alejandro's too big for the scanners, he's in no condition at all to try it. And Eva's tough but she's a powder keg, she'd probably end up more of a setback than a helper."

"Okay, so we have to choose." Bridgette admitted defeat. "But which ones?"

Gwen looked between the candidates. "First off, someone needs to operate the computer."

"I'm on it." DJ said. "I can't fly too well in Lyoko anyways." He sat down. "Just give me the signal."

"Okay, Bridgette, you and I head to Lyoko until we can sort out who helps us. DJ...final decision is up to you I guess." Gwen said. "Where are the scanners again?"

DJ indicated the perimeter of the room, and the doors of the scanners opened from a mere command from the computer.

"Okay, good." Gwen rushed for the nearest scanner, accompanied by Courtney, Trent, Heather, and Eva.

"What the hell is going on Gwen? You knew about this place and you know what these monsters are! You'd better start talking!" Courtney demanded.

"The CIT's right. Start spilling, goth girl!" Heather said.

"Wow, being scared half way through the night by monsters and you two are back in the saddle." Gwen said as she stepped into her scanner. "Do yourself a favour and do what DJ says, you might just survive that way."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that before you start calling yourself a CIT again, try to learn everything and maybe you'll just make it through the night." Gwen said not wanting to explain herself to them. "Alright DJ, do it!"

"Okay, let's-" DJ mumbled as he began to type in commands. "Transfer, Bridgette." Bridgette's scanner closed over her. "Transfer, Gwen-"

'Hold on one second!" Courtney and Heather stepped into the scanner and grabbed Gwen. "Where do you think you're going? You're giving us answers right-" The door shut behind her.

"Aw crap! Uh, Aelita? What happens if a scanner has two people in it?" DJ asked. "Courtney and Heather jumped in with Gwen and the scan sequence is already started!"

"If I'm right they should just be virtualized." Aelita said.

"Should?"

"I'm going off of old test notes on this one." Aelita explained. "And the last time a scanner had more than one passenger was Odd and his dog."

"Aw man." DJ looked at the screen shrugging before continuing. "Scanner Bridgette. Scanner Gwen. Scanner Heather. Scanner Courtney. Virtualization!"

Xxx

Heather and Courtney had no idea what they were feeling when they cornered Gwen in the scanner. A bright light traveled up their bodies and then there was a gust of wind along with a white light that blinded them.

Four figures appeared in the Tropical region. Bridgette and Gwen landed professionally, crouched and weapons in hand already...while the other girls landed on their stomachs. "Ow!"

"Uh oh." Bridgette looked at the girls. "Gwen, is that-?"

"Courtney and Heather." Gwen sighed. "They grabbed me as I got in. So much for getting to choose who comes with us."

Courtney slowly stood up, dazed, and looked around. She now had a Lyoko form of her own. It looked like a cross between a princess and a ninja. She wore a set of white boots and knee guards and she wore a short, black and gold sleeveless dress that reached mid thigh with a red sash tied around her waist as a belt, and a set of black vambraces.

Her hair is tied up in a high pony tail and held away from her face by a head band with a pink ruby in the center. She also wore earrings with a small diamond hanging from each of them.

Heather's clothing consisted of a green short kneed sleeveless kunoichi outfit held together by a black obi sash around her waist. Underneath she wore a thin layer of fish net that went down to her lower thighs and her hair was in a pony tail with a few strands of hair hanging lose above her face. She had dark green armbands that went up to her forearms and black shinobi sandals.

"What am I wearing? These aren't my-why is my hair like this?" Courtney looked down at herself, seeing the new outfit.

When Gwen saw the outfits they were wearing she almost laughed. Duncan always called Courtney a princess because of her attitude and now here in Lyoko she looked the part. As for Heather it made sense that she would look like a ninja since she was devious, ruthless, and never stopped until she had what she wanted. Aelita told them that the scanners created virtual forms based on their personalities and it seemed they got Heather and Courtney down perfectly.

Heather felt around and looked at Gwen and Bridgette. "You two? Where are we? Why do we look 3-D?"

They were no longer in the lab but on the beach of a tropical island with palm trees, an ocean, and the sky showed a sun setting in the distance. And like Heather said before they along with everything in sight was 3-D like a computer game.

"Welcome to Lyoko Princess and Queen Bee," Gwen said. "This is...well the reason why you've seen less of us around the studio as of late. It's our little secret and after this we need to have a big chat about why you shouldn't spread this to...well anybody."


	29. Episode 28: Group Assembled

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 28

Since the date of its creation Lyoko had always been an almost completely empty world. Aelita and her father along with XANA were the only occupants of Lyoko before Jeremy discovered it. Then during an attack whenever a tower was activated the original and new Lyoko warriors would come and fight XANA's monsters to help Aelita reached the tower. However whenever there was no attack the digital realm was usually empty, calm, and quiet.

"WHAT HELL IS THIS PLACE?"

Except right now.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO US?"

"WHY ARE WE DRESSED LIKE THIS?"

"HOW THE HELL DID WE GET HERE?"

"WHAT ARE YOU FREAKS UP TO?"

THWACK!

THWACK!

It should be known that most of the times whenever a new warrior recruited to aid in the fight against XANA usually reacted in awe of their surroundings and their costumes. They would also know in advance about the dangers of Lyoko, the towers, the digital sea, the monsters, XANA. Of course the first time was always the hard time. When Ulrich and Odd first arrived into Lyoko they were easily devirtualized because they were unaware of the danger here.

When William was recruited he ran head first into the fight. He did have skills but the need to prove himself served to be his undoing. He attacked the Scyphozoa and ended up possessed by XANA. This was why no one else had been recruited since it was too risky to recruit someone who could end up possessed.

Aelita recruited the current Lyoko warriors because her friends were captured. Unlike before she made sure they were aware of the dangers and they managed to win the first battle of the new war. She also asked them to train to build up resistance against XANA's possession which they did. It was tough and making sure no one else suspected them while being on Total Drama was difficult which led to a few more contestants being recruited.

However unlike with any other new Lyoko warrior who knew what they were getting into when they got into the scanner the first time the new ones had no idea where they were and they were the kind of people who did not react well to surprises. Which of course led to one of the veteran warriors to attempt to calm them down . . . By giving them a splitting headache, courtesy of Gwen's fist. Heather and Courtney nursed their heads, glaring at Gwen who was smiling happily at the now silent recruits.

"Well, that's a lot better." Gwen smiled at Bridgette.

"Did you really have to do that?" Bridgette asked, shaking her head.

"Well, I suppose there were other ways but this was the only that would have made me smile." Gwen replied, a smile still on her face.

"DJ, can you hear me?"

"_Loud and clear, Gwen._"

Heather and Courtney jumped when they heard DJ's voice.

Xxx

"Aw man this is gonna give me one mother of a head ache." DJ sighed.

The screen popped up, showing the gathered warriors.

"Whoa, 3-D...is that Courtney?" Duncan asked.

"What are you-Hello!" Alejandro paused as he saw all four of the girls in Lyoko form.

Their outfits caught the eyes of several males in the lab.

"Do you guys mind? I need thinking space." DJ gently herded them away.

"How did they get there and what the heck happened in those pods?" Trent asked. "They're-they were gone and now- why do they look 3-D?"

"Trent, thinking space, now, no TALKY!" DJ snapped, losing patience. "Everybody be quiet for a second and somebody can explain it all!"

Noah glanced at the scanner next to him. "Hm..." He stuck his head inside and looked up and down. "It's not like any of the VR pods at the studio."

"That's because it's not a VR Pod." DJ replied, tapping away on the computer. "Yo Gwen, sending you vehicles."

Moments later the OverBike and OverJet appeared near them.

"Thanks!" Gwen said. "But we might need a minute to calm these two down, don't virtualize anybody else!"

Xxx

She turned and looked back at Heather and Courtney.

"Now that we have your undivided attention listen up because I am not in the mood to repeat myself. First off, this place is Lyoko. Second, we didn't do anything to you, you jumped into the scanners and got sent here with us. Third the reason you are dressed like that is because those clothes are based off of your personalities." Gwen said. "Which is actually pretty fitting if you ask me. Duncan always called you princess, Courtney, and Heather your attitude and determination to win through deception and tricks is like that of a ninja."

"Hey!" Heather snapped.

"Moving on." Gwen waved her off. "Next up are the 'answers' you're looking for. Everyone better listen up and if you don't believe me I don't care. You'll see the truth in probably a few seconds. This place, Lyoko, is a virtual world that co-exists with our own. The reason why those monsters are hunting us is because an evil AI named XANA is attempting to destroy the world and we're here help a friend make sure that does not happen. The reason why you look like that is because when scanned and sent into Lyoko you are given an avatar that is best suited for you with a weapon and power.

Xxx

Everybody in the lab was focusing on Gwen's explanation also.

"Well no surprise about the looks." Noah crossed his arms.

"Sh!" Several people hushed him at once.

"Alright, jeez."

Xxx

"Evil AI? An evil computer that makes _monsters_ appear out of nowhere? That's...that's..." Courtney searched for the word.

"Crazy?" Gwen asked.

"Insane?" Bridgette added.

"Impossible?"

"Improbable?"

"Very unlikely?"

"Wacko?"

"We get it." Heather said sternly.

"I don't know, I think we have a lot more words. Heck, we've seen a lot of things here that are so crazy, we'd actually believe Izzy if she tells us a story about her fighting aliens again." Bridgette smirked.

Xxx

"Those butt ugly green sickos weren't getting anything outta THIS!" Izzy slapped herself on the butt.

Xxx

"So now, you both have yourselves avatars and there's only one thing you do with it here," Gwen continued. "Fight. Monsters. Lots of them like in the real world, except the playing field is more even."

"We have powers, and weapons!" Bridgette brought out both of her swords, and combined them into a hover board. She flew up into the air as Heather and Courtney watched, jaws open and eyes close to popping out of their sockets.

Xxx

"Flying surf board? Why does that scream 'cliche' to me?" Noah raised an eye brow.

"So cool!" Beth added.

Xxx

"Think that's bad? Look at this!" Bridgette's tattoos glowed, and she swung her arms up.

Large, soccer ball sized spheres of water shot up and floated around her. She then formed several into a snake and had it twist and turn. She then dropped it all back into the ocean and fired a wave of energy off into the distance.

Xxx

"And they've been doing all this...how long?" Trent asked as he watched the spectacle of Bridgette's power.

"Uh...a few weeks." DJ answered.

Xxx

Gwen took out her scythe, extending it to its full length and floated off of the ground. She dropped down after losing one life point. She then cast out her fire like aura on one of the nearby trees, which went up like a candle. "Pretty sure now that you two are here, you might find something useful...hopefully. Because now that you've been in Lyoko, you won't be able to forget it like we've made you and others do last time."

"You...made us...forget?" Courtney blinked.

"Yep, whenever you all found out...well let's just say that being in Lyoko really makes you immune to it. Kinda like that flashy thing from Men in Black." Gwen shrugged.

"The point of all of this is to get to one of the towers in this world that XANA has activated and help Aelita to get inside it so she can shut it down, severing XANA's connection to the real world temporarily." Bridgette floated down. "Aelita can fight, but she really needs some help, so that is where we come in."

"But I don't know how to fight!" Courtney said.

Everyone found that hard to believe from what they had seen of her on the show.

"You do now," Gwen retracted her scythe. "Like I said, you have a weapon and power, you just have to learn to use it."

"Weapon? I don't have a-" Courtney paused and reached something that hung on her lower back. She slowly drew out a one foot long silver rod not too dissimilar from Gwen's. "What is-" The rod extended to a staff that was perhaps a foot longer than Gwen's scythe and had a simple end tapered into a spike on both ends. "Whoa!"

"Yep, totally a princess." Bridgette crossed her arms, grinning.

"Where are mine then-" Heather looked around on herself. "I don't see anything."

"Well, DJ doesn't have any and he had defensive powers...but you obviously have offensive ones." Gwen observed, an evil smirk forming on her face. "A little combat ought to make you see what they are."

"Combat-"

SWOOSH!

Suddenly Gwen's scythe swung right in front of Heather, barely missing her nose.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Heather leaped back.

"Simple, we need to figure out how to summon your weapon and the best way to do it is in combat, so you'd better figure it out fast, because if not...I'd like to say it's been nice having you here but this thing can take you out in one hit...if it slices you in half or takes a limb off. The good news is if you lose your life points, you don't die, you just go back to the real world with a head ache, so it's win-win." Gwen twirled her scythe. "Think fast!" She swung again, and Heather ducked under it.

"QUIT IT!" Heather began to step back to avoid more swings from Gwen, who was slightly enjoying this. Heather began to do more complex manoeuvres to dodge the scythe as Gwen got closer and closer. Suddenly Heather did a professional, handless back flip.

"How did I do that?" She didn't get time for an answer and did a back roll to avoid being cut in half at the waist.

"Like I said, ninja." Gwen swung down at Heather, who braced her hands against the ground, got on her knees, and slid forward, the scythe burying itself into her pony tail as she slid inside of Gwen's guard.

Withdrawing her scythe, Gwen remarked. "Yep, you're definitely more agile, but jumping around and dodging isn't good enough, we need you to fight!"

She reared her scythe back to swing again. Heather yelped and brought her hands up as if to defend herself...and a shuriken shot out of her wrists, striking the blade of the scythe and knocking it from Gwen's grasp.

Heather opened her eyes, and saw her unarmed opponent. "Did I just...?"

"Yep..that was your weapon." Gwen picked her scythe up. "Looks like you fire shurikens."

"Shurikens?" Heather stood and tested this, firing one into a nearby tree.

"_Be careful, you have seventeen left._" DJ cautioned the Kunoichi.

"Only seventeen? That bites."

"Plenty of use if you make sure you don't miss." Gwen said supportively. "We'll have to check for other powers later, we have to get to Aelita!"

"_Hate to interrupt you, Gwen but Aelita's on her way to you and she's got company. And it looks like XANA has spotted you guys. There's monsters appearing the island you guys are on._"

"Where?" Bridgette asked.

A laser whizzed past her head, answering her question. They turned and saw three Krabs, five Pyramids, five Spiderlings, two Tarantulas, four Mechs, and two Dragon Knights.

"This might be a good way to get some training." Gwen said, pulling out her scythe.

"Training! What do you mean?" Courtney asked.

"To destroy them you have to hit the Eye symbol on them." Gwen suddenly smirked at Heather and Courtney. "You two aren't going to curl up in a fetal position and chant 'it's only a dream' over and over, are you?"

Heather glared at her.

"In your dream, Gothie!"

"Yeah! I can't speak for Heather, but I am just as good as you, Bridgette, DJ, Geoff, Cody, LeShawna or this Aelita!"

Gwen chuckled.

"Follow my lead."

Xxx

DJ sighed.

"They couldn't put their rivalry aside even for a second."

Xxx

A Spiderling approached Heather and fired. The kunoichi jumped to one side and fired a shuriken, hitting the symbol and it exploded.

"Wow." Heather said looking at her wrists.

Bridgette ran towards the Mechs that started to fire at her. She deflected two shots and ducked under a third one. She ran towards the nearest Mech and swung out her sword. The monster was sliced in half and exploded.

She swung her sword at the other nearest Mech but it grabbed the blade with its hand and tried to push the blade away. However Bridgette slammed her other sword into the Mech's chest and it exploded. However the third Mech shot her in the chest.

"_Bridgette, you lost twenty life points._" DJ said at the computer.

"Thanks, DJ."

Courtney dodged a Dragon Knight's blade as she held out her staff. She tried to stab it in the Eye with the bladed end but the knight blocked her attempt. It swung its sword again and she parried with her staff. After the next few minutes of sparing she got really good at it much to her surprise and managed to stab it in the Eye.

It dissolved into black and red smoke.

Meanwhile Gwen was busy deflecting shots from three Krabs that fired on her. She spun her scythe in her hands creating a blue barrier that blocked the lasers as she charged. Taking off into the air she threw her scythe down that slammed into the Eye of the middle Krab and it exploded.

"What is she thinking throwing her weapon-" Courtney was cut off as the scythe disappeared and reappeared in Gwen's hands.

The spell caster flew down and landed on the top shell of the left Krab. Her figure started to glow white as she cast another spell.

"Energy Strings!"

White strings tied the legs of the other Krab which caused it to fall over and hit the ground. Gwen stabbed the Eye of the Krab she was standing on and jumped as it exploded. She quickly finished off the other Krab and went to fight other monsters. Heather jumped back as the Tarantulas aimed their guns at her and fired.

Performing aerobatic moves Heather desperately dodged the lasers while trying to aim for the Eye symbols on the back their heads but it was nearly impossible. That was when a scythe spun through the air glowing light blue and sliced off one of their guns. The Tarantula screamed as it looked down at its severed arms.

Heather looked to see Gwen land on the ground and her scythe reappear back.

"Having trouble?" Gwen asked, smirking.

"You wish." Heather retorted.

"Then do you want to fight the one behind you?"

"What?" Heather spun around and found herself facing a Megatank that had rolled up behind her.

"I guess I'll deal with it." Gwen raised her scythe to attack but Heather made the first move.

Just as the Megatank was charging Heather raised her wrists and fired a shuriken that hit the eye and it exploded.

"Yes!" Heather squealed in excitement.

"_Wow, not too shabby._"

"Lucky shot." Gwen said sounding casual.

She remembered being taken out by a Megatank during her first fight and the fact that Heather of all people took it down in one shot seemed impossible.

"Call what you want, Gweny." Heather gloated. "But it seems I'm getting the hang of this."

"Don't celebrate just yet, Ninja wannabe, there's still plenty to go." Gwen cautioned.

"Scared of a little competition?" Heather smirked.

"We'll see about that."

Courtney was having a better time with the Pyramids, having been able to dodge their lasers. She stabbed one in the Eye but just as she able to move to attack another it turned its head and released a blue beam that froze her legs.

"What?"

She struggled to move but her legs were frozen. She looked to see the Pyramid turn its head and the Eye glowed bright red, signalling it was about to fire. Until a light blue energy wave slammed into it and destroyed. Bridgette ran up to Courtney and slammed her sword into the ice, shattering it instantly.

"Thanks, Bridgette." Courtney smiled.

"No problem."

Xxx

"Hey, DJ, Gwen said they all had one power right?" Trent asked.

"Yeah." DJ said.

"So why is that Gwen can fly, summon her weapon back, and whenever she glows a different color she can use different attack?"

"Well, Trent, Gwen's special ability isn't specifically as so limited around one power. Her character is basically a spell caster meaning that she's the one with the most tricks but there is a cost. Every time Gwen flies she loses life points for every five seconds she's in the air and can't use an elemental aura while flying." DJ explained. "It's all very confusing, but then again Gwen does have a bit of a complex personality at times, maybe that has something to do with it."

"She got hit again!" Lindsay said as Gwen tried to attack one of the Tarantulas after failing in her first attack, only to be hit again and reduced to fifty life points.

"Aw man this isn't working." Trent glanced at the scanners. "DJ...send me in."

"Whoa man, I can't just send you into a fight with no absolutely what your weapon or power would be! Plus you'd be wiped out the moment one of those monsters laid its eyes on you!" DJ protested..only for both Trent AND Duncan to haul him up.

"Ok pal, here's the deal: Courtney is in there, and as much as I've been an ass to her for the past few months, I am going in to help her." Duncan said. "So let me and Guitar Hero in and we won't tie you up and try to do it ourselves and perhaps mess your computer up...deal?"

"Uh..." Seeing no other alternative, DJ sighed. "Okay, get in and uh...I'll send you in."

"Ooh! I wanna go too! I wanna go-" DJ glanced at Izzy and said one word.

"No." That was the 'end of discussion' voice. "These two are over the line as it is, I am NOT sending anybody else! We don't want half the cast in on this!"

"Aw..." Izzy whined as Duncan and Trent stepped into one scanner each.

Noah, who was observing one of the other scanners. "Man, I have GOT to get a picture of these, are there any blue prints? These are seriously some impressive stuff."

His question went unanswered as DJ activated the process.

This lab, however, had a different way of working from the one at the factory. Instead of individual scanners being closed when occupied based off the command of the user in the chair, the scanners in this one did a search for any occupants and would automatically begin the process after DJ put the code in. And Izzy, being one who wanted to get her way, immediately rushed for the one Noah was in.

"I'M COMING TOO!" She yelled.

"What-? OOF!" Noah found himself squished into the scanner...just as DJ hit the last key.

"What the- OH NO!" DJ shot to his feet as the scanners containing Duncan, Trent, Izzy, and Noah closed. "Way too many!"

"DJ, what's going on?" Gwen shouted.

"Uh...you'll have back up in a second...LOTS of it, and they'll need some training." DJ said nervously. "On the bright side, we have more Lyoko fighters than ever before."

Xxx

Four figures materialized in mid air not too far from the fight. They slowly took form...and then fell.

Duncan and Izzy reacted rather quickly-used to falling and surprises, and landed on their feet. Trent stumbled a bit, and Noah...he fell on his ass.

Duncan's Mohawk was now jet black and his piercings were missing. He now wore a pair of steel toed and spiked boots, black pants with chains and several pieces of spiked armour, a black t shirt, spiked metallic shoulder and elbow guards, a pair of gauntlets with skulls on them, and also has a long length of chain wrapped around his upper body over his left shoulder and under his right arm. On his back was a sword sheathed with a silver skull on the end of the black hilt.

"Whoa..." He looked over himself. "I. Look. Bad ass."

Trent was clad in one might consider to be the outfit one would wear while playing a piano...basically a tuxedo not too dissimilar from Cody's but more...relaxed. He wore a pair of loose white pants and what looked like a white dress shirt under a white coat with the top button undone. He had...a large, fancy looking electric guitar on his back that was pitch black with a green T on it. He also had a set of sun glasses on.

"Wow."

Noah sported a dark trench coat that was kept shut above the waist and wears a pair of knee high black boots and matching pants. He wore a set of gloves with red veins on them and has a hood on his trench coat.

"...Why do I feel like something out of _The Matrix?_" He asked.

Izzy was dressed in a long red robe with orange jagged edges with her hair looking even wilder than before. Unlike anyone else who visited Lyoko she was barefooted, but had a set of ankle bracelets. Her hands were clawed and like Aelita her ears were pointed, however she had fangs, the combination of both features giving her a rather fox like image when put together with her red hair and robe.

"Ooh! Izzy likes!" She got down and scratched her ear with her left foot, and then howled.

"Okay...so I got this." Duncan took out his sword. It was a short bladed one, with a green blade, and the base started wider and slowly thinned out until it reached the point.

"Uh...I think this is my weapon." Trent held up his guitar.

"Uh...I got nothing." Noah held up his hands.

Izzy howled again.

"I can't tell whether to scratch her behind the ears or send her to the pound." The Boy Genius added.

"Come on, we gotta help them!" Trent looked at his guitar. "As soon as I realize what this thing does."

"Think fast man, incoming!" Duncan held his sword in both hands as one of the Mega Tanks came their way.

"_Guys, that's a Megatank, one hundred life points per hit_!" DJ said. "_You got one chance to hit it: when it opens up and before it fires! Hit the eye!_"

"Ok...I got this." Duncan's eyes narrowed as it slowed to a stop.

The Megatank opened its shell, revealing its red vine interior with its eye glaring at them. The energy began to build up inside the Eye as it targeted them. Duncan charged with his sword as soon as he saw the Eye but the Megatank released its attack. Luckily Izzy pushed him out of the way while avoiding the attack herself.

Duncan landed on his back while Izzy flipped through the air and landed on a tree branch.

"Hey guys...I think I might have an idea." Noah spoke up. "Okay, when the tank opens up, it took three full seconds to charge, and if I'm right it doesn't have 360 degree vision. So...if somebody..." He gathered them around and whispered the plan to them while hiding behind a tree. "Somebody far away draws its fire, and somebody else gets in close and stabs it in the eye."

"I'll go for the eye." Duncan hefted his short sword.

"Guess we'll distract it then." Trent held up his guitar. "Seriously though, how the heck am I supposed to use this as a weapon?" He strummed a cord...and a sonic wave shot out of the tip and split the tree in half, leaving them exposed to the Megatank. "...Cool."

"MOVE IT GUITAR HERO!" Duncan shoved him out of the way of another blast and dodged it himself.

The four fighters began to split up. Duncan ran off to the left while Trent began to blast the Megatank with several more attacks. He began to memorize what each type of attack was. One for fire, one for lightning, one for sonic waves...and when the Megatank fired at him again he instinctively raised his guitar as if to block it, and as he kept playing desperately, a bubble formed around him. The blast struck the shield, which held as Trent kept playing. "Awesome!"

"Ok..." Duncan crept up on the Tank as it closed again. He began to moved along its side-in its blind spot as it closed in on Noah.

"Aw crud," Noah looked around. "Why didn't I get a weapon?"

The Megatank fired. Noah squeaked, and backed into a rock...and went right through it. The blast struck the rock as he came out safely on the other side. "...How the heck did I just do that?"

"_Noah, you phased through the rock!_" DJ answered the Boy Genius' question.

"Oh...sweet."

The Megatank opened up and began to charge again. Duncan leaped on it and brought his sword down..but missed the eye and cut what looked like one of the many nerves within the Tank. Cursing, he lurched to his left and avoided being cut down by the 360 degree vertical blast of energy that the Tank sent out. "I missed!"

The tank began to roll away, wounded.

Noah accidently came out from behind cover and right into its path. "AH!" He squeezed his eyes shut. "Phasephasephasephase!"

It ran him over...and he was gone the next moment.

"_Uh...says he's still there_." DJ said.

"Where am I? What happened?" Noah's voice came from the Mega Tank...which had turned grey instead of black and was open, looking around. "Uh...what are you guys looking at?"

"_Noah...I think you're...inside the Mega Tank_." DJ said.

"What? Impossib-" Noah paused as Duncan held up his sword's flat side so he had a good look at his reflection. "Impossible...?"

"Dude, don't complain, you're a giant freaking tank now, so put it to good use and start blasting!" Duncan said. "We still got a lot of monsters attacking the others."

"Uh...let me just see how to steer this-WHOA!" Noah shot off towards the battle.

"LET'S GET EM!" Izzy cheered and ran off after the Mega Tank.

The four new fighters entered the battle, which quickly fell in their favour. Duncan cut apart one Tarantula's laser legs and then stabbed it in the head. Trent blasted away two of the Spiderlings. Trent confronted the last Mech and blasted it with a stream of fire that destroyed it in seconds. Izzy stood in front of one of the Pyramids as it advanced on her.

"Hm..." She held up her hand...and a weapon appeared on her forearm in a stream of code.

It was a wrist mounted Cross Bow! It had a single arrow in it.

"Yo Izzy, I'm seeing an ammo meter for you, fifteen arrows in one meter and fifteen in the other!" DJ announced.

"So I have two?" She revealed her second Cross Bow. "Sweet!"

She fired once, and the arrow stuck into the Pyramid. For a moment it looked fine...and then the arrow exploded in a ball of fire, destroying the Pyramid.

"YAY!" She hopped up and down. "Izzy like!"

Soon the last of the monsters fell, and the eight Lyoko warriors gathered around.

"Duncan? Trent? Noah? Izzy?" Gwen glanced at each of them. "What the heck are you four doing here?"

"Well...Guitar Hero and I volunteered to go at first." Duncan started. "And then uh...well Izzy really wanted to go and Noah was checking out one of the scanners when she ran into him...right as we got in to some other scanners, the rest is history."

"I don't believe this," Bridgette smacked herself on the fore head. "You four will get yourselves killed."

"Uh...we just saved you." Noah said from inside his Megatank. "And I think we did a fairly good job of it for beginners...and how do I get out of this thing?" He suddenly phased out of the Megatank...which exploded after Duncan quickly reacted and sank his blade into the eye as it began to charge up.

"The reason you did so well was because they didn't expect you to be here!" Gwen said sternly. "And as for us being in trouble, Bridgette and I have been doing this for a while, we even have a set of extra life points on us! DJ, are we getting back our life points yet?"

"_Yep, you're both fully charged now._" DJ answered.

"Hey, we only planned for it to be me and the Rock Star Wannabe to go in." Trent said as he pointed a thumb at Duncan. "And you would have lost somebody trying to fight those things, you might have lost entirely if Noah didn't possess that Tank and blast half of them away."

"You're welcome by the way." Noah added.

"We haven't revealed all of our tricks yet Trent," Bridgette crossed her arms.

"Look, ladies, either way, you wanted some help, you got us." Duncan said.

"Question," Gwen held up one hand. "Can any of you newbies promise to keep this all secret? Knowing that you'll be risking your lives here and out there? Now that you're here, you're a target until either you die, or XANA dies."

"Aw hell...well, I haven't run from a fight in...well since before Juvy and I ain't running now. If it keeps more of those uh...well just more of the annoying cast members out, then sure, I'm game." Duncan nodded.

"They already know though, they've seen everything." Trent said.

"Leave that to us. Now that you're here we won't be able to erase your memory." Bridgette replied.

"But as I asked before: Can you keep a secret, knowing your life is at risk? If this get out to the public, there could be a political shit storm so big that XANA could take over while the government picks apart our scanners. Plus, the reason why this place exists in the first place is because of the government wanting to build 'a big bad weapon'. They'd just want to see how they can use it for themselves, say 'American Kids shouldn't poke their noses where they don't belong', and possibly take Aelita like they took her mom!" Gwen said in a serious tone. "We need you to keep this secret."

"Ok...lips are sealed." Trent drew one hand across his mouth in a 'zipping' motion.

"You do have a good point...alright, I'll shut up about it, but I'll be complaining very fiercely in my head." Noah crossed his arms.

"Sounds good to me." Gwen shrugged. "And you three?"

"Okay!" Izzy nodded. "I'm really good at keeping secrets! Like that time my-" she slapped a hand over her mouth. After removing her hand she chuckled sheepishly. "See?"

"...Heather? Courtney?"

"Well...we did see those monsters...and if you're right about the government...then we'd all die if they took over...aw hell I hate thinking about this, if I shut up about it and promise not to tell can we move on?" Heather demanded.

"Deal."

"Ok, ok, I don't think anybody would believe me even if I wanted to tell them anyways." Courtney said as the group stared at her.

"Ok, so we're all agreed, welcome to the Lyoko Warriors." Gwen pulled out her scythe. "We need to meet up with Aelita and help her get to the tower so she can deactivate it. If she does, the monsters in the real world will vanish."

"Oh man, I just remember!" Trent said. "Carlos and Chris are still out there!"

Xxx

Chris opened his eyes...and found himself hanging from a tree branch in his sleeping bag. "What the-?"

"You're welcome." He glanced at the branch above and saw Carlos, loading a rifle among other weapons he had secured to his person. "I leave for half an hour after my expensive cabin is destroyed and I find you sleeping in your tent observed by giant lobsters while me, Kurt, and the others have been running for our lives from giant monsters out to kill us." He sighed as he slid his rifle onto his back. "Does karma hate me that badly? Because I do have a list that says 'apologize to everybody I hurt'."

"What the heck are you talking about?" Chris asked.

"Look down, mophead."

Chris looked and saw a whole bunch of Spiderlings starting at them.

"Yipes!" Chris squeaked. "You idiot! Why am I hanging upside down! Pull me up!"

"You're bait, and I liked it better when you were sleeping." Carlos pulled out a single grenade, pulled the pin out and dropped it past Chris as the swarm began to charge its lasers. "Here boys! Here he is! Human mop head! You hate humans, right? Here's one right for you!"

"WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING?" Chris shouted as several Creepers and Tarantulas joined the group.

"Quite simple, they wanna kill us, I'm making it easier for them and us." Carlos held up three fingers and counted down. "Three, two-"

BOOM!

The group of monsters exploded in a flash of light as they were torn apart by the grenade.

"wow...-"

"GET ME DOWN! MY HAIR'S ON FIRE! MY HAIR'S ON FIRE!" Chris wailed.

"Whiner." Taking out his knife, Carlos cut the rope and dropped Chris into the crater made by the grenade.

"OW!" Chris rolled around. "STOP DROP ROLL! STOP DROP ROLL! STOP DROP ROLL!"

"Wow..." Carlos said. "You remembered something from Basic Training! I guess all that time you spent trying to get a life in Fame Town, that crappy Cook Show, that skating show, that hair salon commercial, that male underwear model attempt-which by the way increased the amount of visually impaired people worldwide, and then Total Drama...which has been the most successful thing you've ever done up to this point and it's still more enjoyable for me now that I'm not prevented from kicking your butt whenever you mess with the campers."

"Oh, bite me."

Xxx

"We better hurry before they die. Never thought we'd be saving _Chris_." Bridgette said.

"_Incoming! Aelita's coming and she has company._"

Everyone looked up to see Aelita flying towards them followed by Hornets, Flying Mantas, and Wasps. She had managed to destroy many pursuers, only to find that XANA had deployed more of them to destroy her.

But when she flew over them, the monsters were confronted by not one, two, or three but EIGHT Lyoko warriors. Gwen shot her fire aura out and took two Wasps out of the air while Bridgette flew up on her board and angled it down so that she came down blade first on a Manta. She repeated this tactic while those on the ground tried to work with their limited abilities.

Duncan swung when any of the flying creatures passed close by, as did Courtney. Heather fired off a few Shurikens, and Trent blasted away with his guitar. Noah stayed by Izzy, who fired off many explosive tipped arrows and took down many flying enemies before her thirty arrows ran dry.

"Uh...uh oh." She said as her cross bows ceased to fire projectiles.

"On it...got you a refill, ninety nine arrows. Good thing Aelita showed me how to work the computer at the factory!" DJ said.

"Sweet!" Izzy started firing twice as fast now.

Noah watched as Manta passed awfully close. He took a chance and leaped on it, phasing into it and taking control. He could not help but say the following: "Assuming Direct Control."

"Is this really the time or place for jokes?" Trent asked.

"You get used to this type of thing! Then you make the jokes!" Gwen shouted as she shot another Manta out of the air.

"Kill Joys." Noah began to shoot down several of the attackers with ease.

As soon as the last Hornet fell, Noah abandoned his Manta so Gwen could destroy it and then the nine fighters gathered in a circle.

"Nice work," Aelita said kindly. "And six new warriors! I've never had so many people helping me at once before!"

"A couple of them jumped in by accident." Gwen glanced at Heather, Courtney, Izzy, and Noah. "Anyway, you've heard us talk about several of them before. The ninja is Heather. The Princess is Courtney. The Rock Star is Trent. The uh...Matrix Guy is Noah."

"Told you I look like something out of _The Matrix._" Noah mumbled.

"The punk swordsman is Duncan. And the fox girl is Izzy."

"Oh my god your hair is pink? Wow it doesn't even look dyed!" Izzy said as she got REALLY close to Aelita. "It looks so natural on you!"

"Uh...thank you." Aelita said, taking a step away for the sake of her Personal Bubble.

"Yeah...she was one of the ones that jumped in by accident." Gwen whispered. "She said she'd keep it secret, and I gotta believe her. Nobody would believe her with her being the 8th most wanted on the RCMP's list."

"Point taken." Aelita introduced herself. "It's nice to meet you, my name is Aelita."

"Yo." Duncan said.

"Hello." Trent said in a more friendly voice.

"Hi." Noah said in a tone that matched Duncan's: not rude but just plain casual.

"HIYA!" Izzy waved despite being two feet away.

"Uh...hi." Courtney said awkwardly.

"Hi." Heather finished the introductions.

"So what's going on here Aelita?" Gwen asked. "One second we're all asleep in Carlos' Cabin and the next there are monsters all over the mountain."

"XANA activated another tower, he used the satellites in a similar method to how he used it in the second attack after you first joined me, to make his monsters real." Aelita explained. "The EMP field must have short circuited everything electronic in the mountain except for the lab, which must have been protected."

"Definitely, seeing as about four people too many are here now." Gwen nodded. "Ah well, gotta make do with what you have."

"There is a Terror Bird guarding the Island with the tower on it." Aelita said. "But the Generals aren't in sight, I never saw them."

"Generals?" The six new Warriors asked at once.

"Personal Lieutenants of XANA, they are made entirely to serve XANA and they are very good at it." Aelita said. "There are three of them so far: Shadow the leader, Ryder the Lightning Caster, and Yuki the Ice User. They are based off of my other friends: William, Ulrich, and Yumi, except with recent upgrades to make them all the more dangerous."

"And they aren't pushovers." Bridgette said, her Sword Board under one arm. "Trust me, they could take one or two of us out no problem if we're not careful."

"How can all this be possible anyways?" Noah asked. "How does a computer make all those monster appear out of nowhere?"

"XANA is capable of manipulating electricity and other forms of energy. With this he can conjure digital spectres into the real world. With the right energy source he can create spectres in the form of his monsters that can be as dangerous as they are here in Lyoko."

"By using...what? It was a big forest!" Trent exclaimed.

"With a satellite monitoring it no doubt." Aelita pointed out. "With the right number of satellites above one area, XANA could create a spectre or more than one. Speaking off, DJ what's the status of the monsters?"

"_Now that you mention it, Aelita, things stopped shaking out here after Heather, Courtney, Bridgette, and Gwen were virtualized. The lab was shaking because they were trying to break through the air lock but now nothing._"

"Is it possible to find out without opening the doors?"

"_Hang on, let me check._"

Xxx

The monster army took up position around the house, keeping their lasers locked on it but not firing.

Carlos peered through a set of binoculars. "What are they doing? They didn't hesitate to blow through _my_ house and now they won't touch that empty one at all?"

"Who cares? Let's just get outta here!" Chris said.

"The kids are there Chris!" Carlos growled. "If we leave them to die, it's on your head."

"How are we supposed to get there anyways, huh?" They began to argue as something large began to form not too far away...something EXTREMELY big.

Xxx

DJ quickly took the mouse and started searching for anything that could be used to help find out what was going on outside.

"What's going on? What's going on?" Lindsey asked repeatedly.

"Lindsay, I don't think asking him every three seconds will get you a different answer." Darth Alejandro groaned.

"Uh..Aelita? I found security cameras in the main house above us!" DJ said. "And it looks like they only monitor the house...but the whole forest! I see the monsters...and I see Chris and Carlos!"

"The big moron's okay?" Kurt looked right into the screen.

"There." DJ pointed them out where the two were arguing in the bushes.

"Unbelievable, arguing in the middle of a Life-Or-Death situation!" Kurt shook his head at their antics.

"Five bucks says Chris wants to run and Carlos won't have it." Alejandro tried to wheel over and look at the screen.

"They won't leave us, will they?" Katie asked hugging Sadie.

"That'd be so bad if they did." Sadie said.

"No, of course not." Kurt shook his head. "Carlos may be dumb but he's no coward and-what the heck is going on with the monsters?"

The monster army had started to pull away from the house and began to dissolve into clouds of a black smoke like substance. Flying through the air and they started to group together a few miles away from the house.

"Uh..Aelita?" DJ shook. "The uh...monsters are...disappearing and...something is happening."

"_Describe it to me DJ_."

"It looks like they're all turning into smoke and forming one big blob of uh...smoke." DJ rubbed the back of his neck. "Not sure what...hey, somebody get those two in here before something happens!"

"_DJ, send a link to my wrist computer._"

Xxx

The Lyoko warriors looked up as a screen literally materialized out of nothing and showed them the camera footage.

"Great, five bucks says Mop Head wants to run and Brit wants to fight." Duncan said.

"Uh...they might want to run." Trent said as another camera showed that the mass of spectres had become...

A lava Golem!

"The Kolossus!" The Veteran Lyoko Warriors shouted.

"Colossus?" Noah raised an eye brow.

"Kolossus with a K, for Killer." Bridgette replied.

"Aw man, Carlos get yourself and your mop head cousin out of there!" Gwen shouted.

Xxx

"Come on, they're all gone." Carlos tugged Chris towards the cabin.

"Forget that man! I'm outta he-AH!" Chris shrieked as the Kolossus advanced on the cabin, setting trees alight as it went. "MOMMY!"

"HOLY CRAP!" Carlos shouted.

"CARLOS! CHRIS! GET IN HERE!" Kurt shouted from the door.

"GLADLY!" Tossing Chris through first, Carlos leaped through, rolled on the floor and came up on his feet. "Oh man what the hell was that?"

"Uh...they said it was...the Kolossus...with a K meaning Killer!" Kurt lead them down the stairs.

"Oh...okay, nice to know the Giant Lava Freak has a name because that just makes this night all the more sound and reasonable putting aside the fact that THERE'S A GIANT THING MADE OF LAVA ABOUT TO BURN US ALIVE!" Carlos shouted as they rushed into the air lock.

"Carlos, I have never before seen you panic like that." Kurt tilted his head.

"How can you be calm?"

"Oh trust me I am screaming on the inside and close to wetting myself ,but when I lost my hat I lost all sense of living in this world." Kurt sighed. "The only thing that keeps me going is the fact that I'll be safe in death from my girl friend Sarah when she finds out that I forgot to pay her back five bucks."

"You're in debt to your girl friend? Man, that's just sad. Suddenly that Lava Golem seems less significant." Carlos said as they came into the lab.

"Well in my defence I thought I had the right change, and Sarah is not one to say no to. Remember when you said 'No' to her?"

"Uh...oh yeah." Carlos shuddered. "I just pray we survive...with my marriage intact. Because neither Melissa or the insurance company will believe a word of THIS!"

"You got that right!"

Xxx

"This is bad, really bad. The Kolossus will flatten the house with one stomp of its feet and all it needs to destroy the lab with everyone in it is one fist or a simple swing of its sword." Aelita said before looking up. "DJ, send the vehicles!"

"_On it!_"

One by one the vehicles appeared in front of them.

"Awesome!" Duncan looked at the OverBike.

"Neat." Noah inspected the OverWing.

"I already got transportation." Bridgette stepped onto her surfboard.

"Izzy wants the board!" Izzy jumped onto the OverBoard.

"I guess I'm taking the OverJet." Gwen hopped onto the OverJet.

"We might need to take a passenger." Trent took the OverSled.

"I'll ride with book boy, I guess." Heather stood on the OverWing behind Noah.

"What do I get on?" Courtney asked.

Duncan smirked. "Free ride here, princess."

"No thanks." Courtney glared at him.

"I can give you a ride, Courtney." Bridgette said.

"Thank you." Courtney stepped on the board behind Bridgette.

Aelita activated her wings and everyone was in the air.

"Listen carefully, the island the tower is on will be heavily guarded. From what I saw XANA has deployed enough monsters to turn the island into a fortress. Be extremely careful and do not engage the monsters alone. Also watch out for the generals, they will be much harder to fight than any of the monsters there." Aelita spoke.

"Aye Aye!" Izzy suddenly straightened up and did a military salute. "Now let's just get this thing movi-IH!" She shot off into the distance.

Duncan rolled his eyes and managed to smoothly bring the OverBike into the air. "This actually isn't too bad." He snickered. "Definitely not telling the government about this, they'd take away my sweet new ride."


	30. Episode 29: Race Against Time

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 29

STOMP!

STOMP!

Smoke rose into the sky from the burning trees as the massive monster made of lava stomped towards the house that protected its targets. Tree that were not flattened by its feet were set on fire from the burning lava that touched them. Animals nearby fled in terror of the Kolossus as it continued on its course without a care. It had only one objective and nothing would stop it from completing it and burning it's masters enemies.

Xxx

"OH GOD! OH GOD! I GOTTA GET OUT OF HERE! I CAN'T DIE HERE! I HAVEN'T FOUND SOME HOT WOMAN THAT I COULD IMPRESS WITH ALL MY MONEY! I HAVEN'T SOLD OF MY NEW HAIR GEL!"

THWACK!

Chris fell to the ground with a lump on his head while Carlos cracked his knuckles.

"Thank you." Nearly everyone in the lab said.

"My pleasure."

Chris got up rubbing his head, glaring at Carlos.

"How can you be so calm? We ARE GOING TO DIE! And worse I am going to die in some old lab before I get lucky with a super model."

"Like that's ever going to happen." Kurt said.

"Burn." Carlos high fived Kurt, and then got back to the topic of conversation.

"Okay, so let me get this straight. These monsters are made by a crazy, demonic AI that is out to dominate the world."

"Pretty much." Kurt nodded.

"...well I always knew it had to be something...but how did it make something THAT big?" Carlos pointed to the camera showing a far off footage of the Kolossus tearing apart the house above them.

"It's complicated, don't ask." Kurt said.

"Well can't we just call for help?" Chef asked. "We're in a lab, we got uh...communications! We can call for somebody!"

"No can do, there's an EMP field that shortened out any and all communications around the mountain. Even if this lab was shielded we couldn't call anybody." DJ shook his head.

"So all of our hopes either lie with those kids inside uh..that uh...Lyoko...thing. Or...in the most unlikely of people to ever excel at anything." Carlos sighed. "Roberto the Hairy Cave Man."

"Oh come on, even if he had a head start, there's no way he could get help all the way out here!" Kurt scoffed.

Xxx

"I hate my life." Roberto groaned as he trudged on, miles from the Kolossus. "Carlos, if there's ever one thing I hoped to see in my life, it was to see you burn for what you've done to me all these years."

He sighed. "I hate that British fancy pants wrestler."

Xxx

Carlos shuddered.

"What's wrong?" Kurt asked.

"Well to be honest, I felt somebody wishing my death to be painful and fiery." Carlos sighed. "Well, looks like in a few minutes their wish will be granted."

"You sure we can't send out some kind of help? You talked to that Aelita girl in there." Kurt pointed at the screen.

"We can't send any messages that could get help for us instantly." DJ replied. "This computer and the one Aelita was on is pretty much on the same server, so we're connected, but that's just about it."

"Could there be any other ways out of this lab that don't involve going up to be torn apart by the monstrosity?" Carlos inquired.

"I don't know, I haven't been here long enough to see if there's any other exits." DJ explained.

"Well, better start looking around." Carlos set his various weapons down. "Are there any maps or something we can use?"

"I'll check." DJ began to look through many files.

"Hard to believe somebody managed to keep a lab this big under such a simple house." Kurt commented. "What was the name of the guy who made this place?"

"His last name was Schaeffer."

"Schaeffer?" Kurt paused. "As in 'Waldo Schaeffer'?"

"You know him?"

"I know 'of' him." Kurt said. "He was on the Most Wanted list a while ago, supposedly sabotaged some big project that was to be used against the Russians in the Cold War."

"Ah yeah I heard of that." Carlos added. "He was supposedly still at large so all SAS members were given a brief run down about him. Don't know why they spent so much time and money and bothered to tell us about it, it's been decades, he'd be on his death bed by now."

"This is it, isn't it?" Kurt looked around. "This is what he was working on that they wanted shut up. This is why the whole reserve is kept secret from the regular public but rich people are let up. Keep the appearance of a private area for the wealthy when there's really some highly valuable technology here."

"I'm not one to explain it, sorry man." DJ said.

"Whatever, we're moments away from dying anyways, you can tell us the story later." Kurt shook his head.

"That was kind of contradicting yourself there Kurt." Carlos commented as he looked at the walls.

"Well, I don't believe we'll die! You haven't seen the way they've been fighting in that thing!" Kurt said. "Goth Girl and Surfer Girl looked like they could give even you a run for your money Carlos, and that is not something I say unless I'm really positive!"

"Well I'll believe that when I see-" A small part of the wall shifted as Carlos pressed his hands against the panel. "And hello there!"

"Congratulations Carlos, assuming whatever you found hasn't caved in you've just found us a way out!" Kurt helped him move the panel until the passage was open.

"I'll take a look." Carlos grabbed one of his rifles, which had a flash light mounted on it, and moved into the tunnel beyond.

Kurt peeked in. "See anything?"

"Yeah...ah crap! It's blocked! Caved in man!" Carlos came back. "I guess that thing's stomping caused it."

"Would you rather be out there or safe in here?"

"Only temporarily safe," Carlos pointed out. "I prefer a straight up fight. Preferably against people I can actually hit!"

"Carlos, for once in your life I think you'll have to count on somebody else to win." Kurt said as the ex-soldier came back in.

"Yeah, nothing to do but stand here and wait for either death or safety..." Carlos sighed and looked at the scanners. "Just a thought, but I bet if I went in, I'd so look like something out of Dead Space or some kind of Space Marine style movie or game."

"Let's not find out."

"I'm not going in there, so don't worry. I haven't had much trust for computers as of late." Carlos set his rifle down.

Xxx

Not long after making Izzy knew how to use the OverBoard the Lyoko Warriors were on the move towards the island with the tower on it. On the way Noah could not help but become full of questions about this world, the girl, and the so called AI out to kill them.

"So, Aelita, Gwen said that the government abducted your mother because of this place? Did she have a hand in this?"

Aelita looked back and shook her head.

"No, it was my father who created this place along with XANA."

"Your dad made all of this?" Heather asked with wide eyes.

Aelita nodded with a sad look.

"It was done to destroy a secret military project designed to disrupt enemy communications called Project Carthage. That was the official story, the real story is that the project was the government's first attempt to create a fully developed artificial intelligence that would be used to attack and control every piece of electronic equipment used by the Russians, from military manufacturing plants to the simplest every day microwave or ovens used if the order was given."

"That would give them control of...just about _everything!_" Noah noted.

"Yeah, and even more today, I mean you see electronics on practically every corner of any country rich enough." Trent added.

"And the military of just about any country uses electronics, especially the _really_ powerful countries." Duncan stated. "You know, like ones with Big Freaking Nuclear Bombs?"

"Exactly," Aelita nodded. "Imagine a program that could take control of any electronic, no matter how small or large. You could cripple an enemy without starting a war. You could rob an entire country of its wealth, or turn their own weapons against each other."

"And so your dad wanted to stop it?" Courtney asked.

"He created XANA originally to destroy it. Ironically though, now XANA is the one who can control anything, but is restricted." Aelita spread one hand to indicated the landscape. "This world restricts him from doing anything too drastic, but the towers allow him to directly affect our world in a very dangerous way. One time he managed to change the pull of gravity in an area, and change the weather from summer to an ice age."

"Ouch." Izzy said. "That last one sounds sucky."

"It almost caused tow of my friends to freeze to death while pinned under a tree." Aelita said. "XANA can and will do anything to win, he has no morals over it. He is determined to win this war."

Xxx

Back in the lab everyone was listening to Aelita's story.

"My god, Carlos." Kurt said. "This is why the call went out on Schaeffer in the first place! Those arrogant sleeze balls knew what he had and lied to the whole world! If they did track him down we'd either be dead or under surveillance at all times!"

"And I probably wouldn't have been allowed to leave the military at all." Carlos added grimly. "Someone screwed up this time if Intelligence in _every_ country couldn't see that somebody was making something this big! I think the fact that they tried making something that could take over the world from a Lap Top would be reason enough to send those pricks to the darkest hole on Earth for the rest of their lives!"

"And when Schaeffer made something better, they tried to pick up with his project." Kurt nodded.

"Man, we have to get this out after this." Carlos picked up his rifle. "We have plenty of proof, we could crack open the case on those war mongering slime balls! Hell, I'd put the bullet in if they call for a firing squad!"

"But first we have to survive the giant Lava monster right above us! And that's assuming if this XANA thing lets us live long enough to get those guys torn apart in front of a Jury." Kurt growled.

"Well...after each attack, XANA kinda needs a few days to...recharge." DJ said hesitantly. "So uh...maybe if I talk it over with the guys maybe we could uh...try. But if this gets out, they could take the labs and scanners from us and rip them apart and take our only chance to stop XANA!"

"Well hold on now," Carlos held up his hands. "Does this have anything to do with that Red Eye Virus in Week One, does it?"

"Which also would have something to do with five abducted children from Kadic Academy?" Kurt inquired further.

DJ swallowed. "Yeah. Aelita's friends, the 'original' Lyoko Warriors. They were captured by XANA before we arrived."

"Aw crap Carlos, this means we can't break open this case!" Kurt groaned. "If they take apart the scanners we'd be leaving five kids in the Pit!"

"Crap." Carlos sighed. "We can figure something out to get them out. I mean...hey, you got me and Kurt here, we could help you guys out! We're professional fighters and you all manage to do pretty good in Lyoko on your own."

"Well maybe-uh oh, Aelita, you've got a welcoming committee!" DJ shouted.

Xxx

High above the mountain the satellites released another EMP field that created another monster. This time it was a monster as large as the Kolossus.

Xxx

Everyone looked to see a massive cloud flying at them. It was giant enough it could have blocked out the sun if Lyoko had a real sun.

"What kind of monsters are those?" Trent asked.

"I don't know." Aelita said.

"What do you mean?" Heather asked.

"I mean they're too close together for me to tell what kind of monster they are."

That was when something came out of the cloud and moved towards the group faster than the cloud. Everyone was on guard as the object flew straight at them. Aelita's eyes widened.

"Energy Field!"

She released an orb that blew the object apart, letting out a large sonic explosion.

"Those are not monsters, they're Flying Mines!"

The cloud of mines flew straight at them and surrounded the group. Everywhere they saw they mines surrounding them, cutting of any attempts to escape.

"What are they waiting for?" Bridgette asked.

"I don't know. I would have expected the mines to protect the tower from us. They should be trying to swarm us and blow as apart."

"Attention, all Lyoko Warriors and the audience in the lab."

Everyone looked up when they heard a voice. To the veteran Lyoko Warriors it was a very familiar voice.

"XANA." Aelita glared.

Xxx

DJ's eyes widened when a window appeared and XANA's humanoid form was seen. To everyone he looked like a male version of Aelita but looked a few years older with his hair black with red streaks, his skin more pale than even Gwen's and red eyes that gave off a sinister feel.

"Greetings, newly arrived guests. I'm sure you've all heard of me already and obviously of my latest plan to neutralize my latest enemies. My creation outside will no doubt be able to destroy the lab with little difficulty and without much effort, however with now _eight_ warriors with Aelita on Lyoko it forces me to make a change so I've decided to make a little challenge. On the show Total Drama you play for fame and riches but now you are in what could be the greatest competition ever, because today you play a game for your lives." XANA smirked evilly. "I could easily destroy the lab located underneath the house in the mountains but with the lab at the factory that Aelita used to enter Lyoko still active the ones who are there would survive. Which forces me to make a small change of plan, if you'll direct attention to the window next to me."

A window appeared next to XANA showing a news reporter.

"Just a few moments ago, a massive bird appeared out of nowhere and is now on a direct course for the city of Paris. A state of emergency has been declared urging everyone stay safe in their homes."

An image of the bird was seen. DJ's eyes widened.

"Another Terror Bird!"

"As we speak this one will be heading to the factory to destroy the lab there. As a reward for you, the audience, what you call the Kolossus will not destroy the house instantly. Which means you get to sit back and watch as your chosen champions, your heroes battle for their lives and yours. And if time runs out and they are not sent back here when the labs are destroyed they get to enjoy watching as Lyoko powers down without a supercomputer to power it and go into a coma like state with them joining it. Perhaps they might be found again in the future, when the world they know of is long gone. As you humans so fondly like say place your bets and let the show begin."

XANA chuckled and vanished.

"Oh hell no!" Carlos growled. "That overgrown Desk Top is NOT going to beat us like this!"

"Don't Carlos, anything you try to do will result in that thing killing us." Kurt cautioned his friend.

"I can't try anything out here, but we could be a whole lot more help in there!" Carlos pointed at the Lyoko Map.

"I'm not so sure that's a good idea," DJ said. "We could evacuate everybody though the scanners. But there's a problem, being scanned to Lyoko is physically traumatizing, especially to those who are injured. Cody, Geoff, LeShawna, and Alejandro might survive going in, but if they're sent back out they might not survive it!"

"Then just send more of us to help fight in there! Hell, I'll go if that's what it takes!" Carlos said. "I have three kids and I am not going to let them grow up with that thing ruling them."

"Carlos, if I try to send more of you in there, what happens if that thing attacks us and destroys the scanners with you all in it?" DJ asked.

"Can that thing even get in here within the next few minutes?"

"There's a possibility that the lab is being watched. Sending more people will only make it bring its fist down and take a few seconds to cave us in!"

Carlos sighed. "Damn. We really are stuck."

"Well like he said, we're the audience," Kurt crossed his arms. "The only thing we can do is cheer them on and hope they pull it off."

"Yeah, they can handle a few bugs!" Darth Alejandro raised his arms-his form of enthusiasm. "Take'em down, Heather!"

"KICK ASS!" Eva shouted.

"GO TRENT!" Katie and Sadie shouted together.

"C'mon Gwen." Cody said, leaning against the wall with his knee bandaged, wishing he was there with them.

"GO BRIDGETTE!" Lindsay cheered.

Chef did a military salute. "Good luck."

Xxx

"DJ, what's happening?" Aelita shouted.

"_There's another Terror Bird heading to the factory. When it gets there it and the Kolossus will smash both labs at the same time!_"

The eyes of the veteran warriors went wide.

"What's going on?" Heather shouted.

"If the labs are destroyed along with the scanners we will be trapped here forever." Bridgette said with an alarmed look.

"Not only that but without a supercomputer to power this world Lyoko will shut down and we'll be placed in what would most likely be a permanent coma." Aelita said with an equally shocked look.

"So what are we waiting for? Let's clear a way to the tower!" Duncan shouted. "We can take anything they throw at us!"

"There's a Terror Bird guarding the tower Duncan, that thing could be carrying a whole army for all we know!" Bridgette replied. "It's a living, breathing war machine!"

"Well you've taken one down before, right?" Duncan asked.

"We faced one, but we never actually took one down!" Gwen said nervously. "If LeShawna were here she could enlarge her hammer and smash its head in! The only other large monsters that we faced were the Scorpion and the Kolossus! And they were here in Lyoko! Geoff and LeShawna took those ones down, but it wasn't easy!"

"Well, first time for everything, right?" Trent asked. "Besides, doesn't sound like we have any choice but to fight it if you're right."

"First we'll have to clear the mine field surrounding us!" Aelita shouted. "If I can get inside the tower I can handle it from there! If any of you had doubts about doing this before it's now or never!"

"Got it, keep the elf girl safe or we all die a horrible death, easy!" Duncan nodded.

"Not as easy as you think."

Suddenly black cloud emerged from the mine field and flew straight at the OverWing with Noah and Heather on it. It solidified into the general Shadow he smashed into the OverWing which sent Heather and Noah falling below.

"Heather! Noah!" Bridgette shouted as the two fell screaming.

"Plasma Beam!"

Aelita aimed for Shadow but the smirking general reverted back to his super smoke and the attack passed through him without any harm.

"I got them!"

Gwen piloted the OverJet down after the screaming pair. Glowing green she used her wind spell to blow away the floating mines in front of her that sent them flying into each other. They exploded on contact but before anyone could follow her more mines moved in and blocked the exit.

"Damn it!" Duncan growled.

"You didn't think it would be that easy would you?"

They turned and saw Shadow return to his solid form whole floating in the air outside of the mines that had surrounded them.

"Shadow." Aelita said.

"This one of the generals?" Trent asked.

"Yeah. He's the leader of the generals." Bridgette glared.

Shadow's smirk widened slightly.

"I see you brought some new play mates, Aelita. Are you that afraid to spend the rest of your life here alone? And where are the other warriors? Couldn't make it? Too bad, I wanted to see those idiots scream when this place shuts down."

"We'll see about that, Shadow." Aelita raised her hand and pointed at Shadow. "Plasma Beam!"

Her attack blasted through the mine field.

"Shadow Storm!"

A black cloud shield appeared in front of the Shadow and blocked the attack.

"You'll have to do better than that."

"Gladly!"

Bridgette flew at him with her surfboard glowing bright blue. She shot at him like a shining blue bullet.

"Nobody talks about Geoff or my friends like that in front of me!"

Courtney kept herself balanced as Bridgette shot at Shadow. The general simply recreated his smoke shield as the board collided with him.

Xxx

Heather could almost see her whole life flashing before her eyes as she fell towards the ocean below her. She shut her eyes as she fell closer to what could her death even though Gwen and Bridgette said that you can't die on Lyoko, only sent back to the real world.

'It feels pretty damn real to me!'

"HEATHER!"

She opened her eyes and for once in her life she was actually _glad_ to see Gwen as the goth flew in on the OverJet and reached out to grab her hand. Heather grabbed on and Gwen swung her on the back of her vehicle.

"You all right?" Gwen asked looking over her shoulder.

"I just fell through the air towards what could have been my death! What do you think?" Heather shouted, even though she was grateful for Gwen saving her.

Gwen chuckled as she angle the vehicle towards Noah.

"Felt real didn't it?"

"Too real!"

They flew towards Noah who was screaming about as loud as Heather was. However he was almost too far away.

"You'll never reach him!" Heather said.

"Want to bet?" Gwen asked before a white aura surrounded her again.

Heather's eyes widened as she pointed her fingers at Noah.

"Energy Strings!"

Gwen's white energy string spell worked by imagining where she wanted them and how she wanted them to bind her target. In this case she had them sprout from her hands and reach to connect with the falling Noah. The strings flew out and seemingly glued themselves to Noah's arms and legs and Gwen grunted as she used her free hand to pilot them towards a small rocky island.

"Okay..I never want to do that again." Noah groaned as he was set on the shore.

"Falling out of the sky in a virtual world?" Gwen asked rhetorically.

"Your humour knows no bounds."

Heather fell off the OverJet and kissed the ground.

"I have never been so happy to see the ground. In this world or the real world." She looked back up at Gwen. "How can you get used to that?"

"Ah don't worry, we've all fallen off of our vehicles to what looks like an impending death. You get used to it after the first three times." Gwen said, an amused smile on her face.

She walked over and offered Heather her hand. The ninja simply looked at her hand for a second before taking it and Gwen helped her up.

"Why are you acting so nice all of a sudden?" Heather asked.

Gwen sighed.

"Look, Heather, I'll only say this once. Among the people who I thought of asking to help us come here to help save everyone you were the among the people I least wanted to be here, but you're here now and being on the team means everyone looks out for each other regardless of whatever conflict they have, especially if we lose everyone in the lab and here dies. Can we at least shelve the hate until after this?"

Heather thought it over.

"Fine, but we're _not_ going to start all friendly."

"Fine by me." Gwen replied with a smirk. "Now we need to get back up there and help the others get out of that minefield."

"Gah..."Noah looked around. "I'll go find the biggest thing I can possess and fly on my own. Maybe that Terror Bird you mentioned would be a good choice."

"Not a bad idea, it would save us the trouble of taking it out." Gwen nodded. "But we have to be careful, that was Shadow who knocked you off."

"Oh, yay, and he's only the first one we've met." Noah crossed his arms.

"I mean the other two could be close by! No time to talk smart genius!" Gwen ran back to the OverJet.

"Oh, gee, thanks, I'll walk on my own, don't worry about me." Noah started walking.

"_Gwen, Heather, Noah, there are monsters coming your way!_"

Everyone looked around for any monsters.

"I don't see any monsters." Heather said.

That was when a huge drill blasted the rocks on the shore towards the warriors.

"Look out!" Gwen shouted.

Noah phased through any rocks that nearly hit him while Gwen and Heather quickly moved out of the way. But a rock hit the OverJet.

"Damn it! There goes my ride!" Gwen shouted in frustration.

"Forget the ride! What monster is that?" Heather pointed at the creature that stepped out of the hole. It had a grey and black colored oval shaped body with four long legs sticking out of it while at the end of it was a large drill. The creature was perhaps one of the largest monsters Gwen had seen other than the Kolossus, Scorpion, and the Terror Bird.

"I've never faced this one before but if I had to guess I think Aelita said it was called the Kalamar." Gwen raised his scythe.

"Aw, well ain't this just swell?" Noah said. "Well, maybe I can possess it, that would solve a lot of our troubles."

"If you can get close enough, feel free to try." Heather offered. "Until then, I'd really suggest staying away from that thing."

"Well how else am I supposed to help, Lady Heather?" Noah rolled his eyes. "I'm not Neo, I can just possess things, I can't fly or do anything with this world-despite how awesome that would be."

The Kalamar approached them and raised one of its legs and swung at them. They jumped back as it continued to approach them.

"Would you two knock it off? We have to think of a plan!" Gwen said. "Ok, so I don't think we'd have much luck fighting it directly, and Noah won't be able to get close enough to possess it...so maybe we can lure it into a trap?"

"I'm all ears." Noah nodded.

"Hm..." Gwen looked around the general area. "I think I have a plan. There are some pretty high cliffs on this island, so maybe we can use those and collapse it on top of it."

"Ok..and how do we do that?"

"Well, I have spells, all we need is bait."

The two women looked at Noah. "...there is no way to describe how much I hate you both right now."

"We can survive the hatred, just get running, and get its attention!" Heather said.

"I hope you know I'll ruin your lives for this." He walked off casually to get the monster's attention.

"...He's just joking, right?" Gwen asked.

"I don't know, he can possess us here." Heather shrugged. "Possibly."

Xxx

"Uh...hey, giant...ugly...monster...yo, right here." Noah walked up to the monster, which ignored him in favour of the two female Lyoko warriors.

"...HEY YOU OVER GROWN DISH OF CALAMARI! I ATE YOUR MOM LAST TIME I WENT OUT ON THE TOWN FOR DINNER IN PARIS!"

It looked down at him again, its eye glowing.

"Now THAT got its attention!" Noah ran off, jumping out of the way of the creature's drill. "SNAP!"

"Jeeze, he can really run when he wants to." Heather said.

"I know, man I thought he spent all his time with his nose glued to a book." Gwen commented.

Xxx

"Everyone stay in the center." Aelita called out.

She floated above them and spread her arms out.

"Plasma Beam!"

Two beams of light erupted from her hands and she spun around destroying mines and causing some to fly into others causing huge explosions.

"Awesome!" Duncan shouted as Aelita began to clear the mine prison that surrounded them.

"Sweet!" Trent look in awe from Aelita's attack.

"She can rival Explosivo!" Izzy said.

Soon enough the mine field was reduced to a few mines floating apart from each other.

"We better hurry and help the others." Aelita flew towards the fight between Bridgette and Shadow.

Shadow turned and saw Aelita fire an energy orb. He summoned his sword and blocked the attack.

"Out already? That's good. More to play." Shadow smirked.

"Just to let you know, I play rough." Duncan pulled out his sword and flew at him on the OverBike and clashed swords with Shadow.

Shadow blocked with his Zweihander and kicked the OverBike back. Luckily Duncan held on and didn't fall off or lose his weapon. Trent held out his guitar and played a note that fired a stream of lightning at Shadow. The general quickly performed his Super Smoke and the attack passed through him.

"You certainly picked up some tough new body guards Aelita but they hardly know how to work as a team. If that's the best they can do then this will be over." Shadow said.

Everyone glared at him.

Xxx

"CURSE YOU GWEN AND HEATHER!" Noah shouted as he ran through a narrow canyon. "RUNNINGRUNNINGRUNNINGRUNNING!"

The monster lumbered after him, intent on killing him.

"So how do we make the cliff fall?" Heather asked.

"I have just the spell," Gwen said as they stood on the edge of one of the cliffs. "I've been testing out my powers whenever we came here to train, and I found this." She spread her arms and began to glow yellow, as did her eyes.

Heather watched as Noah lured the monster further into the canyon.

"GWEN! HEATHER! ANY TIME NOW!" Noah shouted.

"Alright...NOW!" Gwen thrust her arms down.

Suddenly the cliff on the opposite side began to crack, and then broke into many large rock pieces that rained down on the monster from above. It roared as it was buried alive beneath the rocks, and then vanished in a muffled explosion of light as it was destroyed entirely.

"HAH! I knew that would work!" Gwen smirked.

She and Heather high fived each other. Heather of course realized what she had done and simply turned around with her arms crossed.

"Not a bad plan."

Gwen simply smirked at her.

"OH SURE! LIKE I DIDN'T DO ALL THE WORK! YOU WERE SITTING UP THERE ALL COMFY COZY!" Noah shouted from the ground.

"NICE LEG WORK NOAH! I NEVER KNEW YOU COULD RUN SO FAST!" Heather shouted back, close to laughter.

Gwen chuckled. "I wish I had a camera."

Xxx

"Take this!"

Aelita unleashed her Plasma Beam white Trent played a note that unleashed a stream of lightning and Izzy fired explosive arrows from her crossbows at Shadow. The general smirked and swung his sword, unleashing a purple energy wave that cancelled their attacks. Duncan flew at him from behind and swung his sword. However Shadow only turned and blocked with his gauntlet.

"Is that all you've got?"

Duncan simply growled at Shadow's smirking face.

"Listen up, rookies. Your attacks are useless against me."

"Someone seems confident." Trent glared. "Being outnumbered doesn't scare you?"

"Not that. It figures you rookies would charge at me without thinking of a plan. Just simply slash and blast me and then head to the tower." Shadow chuckled. "With that strategy you all might as well pick a nice spot to rest until the end of time when this place shuts down. It's not so bad this sector is pretty nice, plenty of choices for picking where you will take a permanent nap."

"Sorry, but I'm not spending the rest of my life here again." Aelita glared coldly.

"So far out of all of you the delinquent is the only one who has bothered to try slashing me with his sword. The rest of you simply distance yourselves and fire attacks at me. It should be obvious that strategy will not work on me. If you want to hurt me you should get closer."

He chuckled.

"Of course then again this your first time. How will be able to grasp what I'm saying so quickly and in such a short amount of time? Don't worry though, we can still afford to play a little longer."

Xxx

Back down on the island Gwen, Heather, and Noah watched the fight in the air.

"This is not good. Shadow's tough enough to take them all on." Gwen said.

"He's outnumbered five to one." Heather looked at her.

"It doesn't matter. Just one of them was strong enough to take us one while outnumbered and we had experience already. My ride's gone so that means I'll have to fly, that'll cost me life points." Gwen shook her head.

"At least you can get off the island." Noah said.

"_Gwen, don't try to fly. There's still monsters surrounding the island the scan is showing a general heading straight for you._"

Gwen turned and looked around.

"I don't see them."

"LIGHTNING STORM!"

Gwen's eyes widened as she pushed Heather and Noah out of the way as a stream of red lightning blasted the spot they were in before. Gwen looked up and saw Ryder land nearby with his arms folded and a smirk on his face.

"Miss me?"

Gwen glared as she stood up with her scythe in her hands. Heather crouched down low to the ground and prepared to fire her shurikens.

"I see you brought some new playmates, spell caster." Ryder said. "Well, seeing as how this might be their last trip here and their resting place I guess they should know who's the one who'll end it for them. If she hasn't already mentioned me my name is Ryder of the Storm."

"AKA: A bigger douche than Shadow." Gwen informed her team.

"Burn," Noah coughed into one hand.

Ryder growled and drew his sword out. "Very cute, but I have something better. LIGHTNING STORM!"

He shot another stream of lightning at the group. Gwen spun her scythe, gathering up energy as it formed a shield. The lightning struck the shield and the struggle began. When it was over, Gwen was still standing, her shield dissolving.

"You've gotten better, I guess fancy powers won't cut it this time for either of us." Ryder smirked.

"Trust me, I don't need powers!" Gwen sneered before she leaped at him, swinging her scythe down. Ryder caught her blade on the edge of his sword and forced it off to the side, avoiding being bisected. He slammed the hilt of his sword across her face, but she recovered and punched him in the face with her free hand. Not too phased, he swung at her, but she ducked under the slash and jammed the bottom of her scythe into his gut.

They traded more blows as Heather charged. Leaping into the air, she shot a pair of Shurikens out. Ryder parried one projectile aside, the other buried itself into his shoulder. Growling, he tugged it out. "Now that wasn't nice."

"I'm not really known for being nice." Heather said as she ran forward.

She tried to punch him but he dodged and swung his blade. She dodged and Ryder kept swing his blade at her. However Heather was able to keep dodging even though the blade came close to cutting her a few times. Gwen swung her scythe and Ryder jumped to gain some distance.

"Well, looks like they actually have some skills." Ryder commented.

"Can't say the same for you." Heather said, smirking.

"That's because I've been holding back. I know all about your skills. Your bookworm could try to possess me if I get too close. " Ryder smirked as electricity sparked in his hands.

"Oh really? Let's see how you handle this." Gwen's figure glowed with a yellow aura and raised her hands before thrusting them forward.

Small rocks flew up from the ground and sped towards Ryder like speeding bullets. Ryder deflected the rocks with his sword but was caught off guard as Heather kneed him in the stomach. She then sent a punch towards his face but Ryder ducked and backed away. Making sure all three warriors were kept in sight Ryder swung his sword and unleashed another blast of electricity towards them.

Gwen activated her Earth spell again and a huge boulder flew at the attack and cancelled it out.

"Another fancy spell, huh? That makes fire, earth, and air that you've managed to use as elements. But is that all?" Gwen didn't bother to answer Ryder.

She simply activated her earth aura again and sent another barrage of rocks at Ryder.

"Volt Shield!"

A sphere of red electricity blocked the rocks.

"You're not the only one who learned some new tricks."

"But can they save you when you're caught off guard?"

Noah phased out of the ground and reached out to possess him. However Ryder had already planned out a surprise. Just as Noah's hand passed through Ryder's back he suddenly zapped by red electricity that sent him flying back. Groaning he stood up and looked at his smoking hand.

"_Noah, you've lost forty life points from that._"

"Thanks." Noah said sarcastically.

"How did he do that? I thought Noah would be able to phase through any attack." Heather said.

Ryder chuckled.

"Did you think it was that simple? Have you forgotten my power? With lightning as my power my body can store up to a million volts of electricity. Trying to possess me while my body is unleashing that much power is tough." He looked over at Noah. "Not a bad ability but did you think XANA would allow his own generals to be possessed, especially when possession is a power he commonly uses in his attacks?"

"Well, I learned my lesson." Noah said, glaring at him. "Don't touch any type of eels."

Xxx

"Incoming!" Izzy howled as she tried to ram the OverBoard into Shadow but he dodged.

So far none of their attacks had managed to hurt him. Shadow had the main advantage since he was levitating in the air while everyone but Aelita were on vehicles. Shadow would simply dodge, use his Super Smoke, or create another smoke shield to deal with their attacks.

"This is just sad. From the way you all fight I'm surprised Aelita is even bothering to let you try to hit me while every second that passes by brings everyone and you closer to disappearing forever." Shadow said.

"Oh yeah? How about we take this on the ground then? Let's see how tough you are then." Duncan snarled.

Shadow smirked.

"The time for that'll come, but for now this is all just fun and games. You better go help your friends since Ryder is keeping them from helping you."

Shadow then preformed his Super Smoke and flew off into the distance.

"Coward." Duncan growled.

"We better hurry. If Ryder is facing them Gwen, Heather, and Noah they will need help." Bridgette said.

Everyone agreed and flew towards the island at full speed.

Xxx

"Lightning Sprint!"

Ryder vanished in a flash of red light and reappeared right behind the girls. Heather's ninja skills allowed her to duck under the blow while Gwen jumped to the side and avoided a blast of lightning from Ryder's free hand. Heather tried to shoot him in the face with a shuriken but he dodged to the side. That was when an arrow hit the rock behind him and sent an explosion that sent him flying forward.

He landed in face first but got up quickly growling. Gwen, Heather, and Noah looked up to see the others flying down towards them. Izzy jumped off her board, laughing and landed in front of them.

"Izzy loves her cross bows!"

"You guys dealt with Shadow?" Gwen asked.

"Nah, the coward ran off." Duncan said, landing the OverBike next to them.

"He must have been stalling for time. The more time passes the more chance of the Terror Bird reaching the factory and destroying the supercomputer there." Aelita landed on the ground.

"And without that or the computer here we all go for a permanent virtual nap." Bridgette said.

"Yeah, I'm all for taking naps but I like waking up." Noah said.

"DJ, how long before the Terror Bird reaches the factory?" Aelita asked.

"_You've got five minutes._"

"That's not enough time!" Bridgette panicked.

"Come on! We can do it!" Trent tried to encourage them.

"No, she's right. We can't get to the tower, fight the generals and the Terror Bird in only five minutes." Gwen said sadly. "We're good but not that good."

"So you're just giving up?" Heather shouted at her. "Going all this and now you're giving up?"

"There's got to be a way!" Courtney shouted as well.

"There is one way." Aelita spoke up. "It's risky but it may give us some time."

She looked up to the sky.

"Aelita, what's the plan?" Gwen asked.

"There may be a way to stall for time but it may not work." Aelita held up her wrist computer. "I'm sending you instructions on what I need you to do."

Xxx

A window opened up on the computer and DJ looked at it.

"Woah."

"What? What is it?" Kurt asked looking at the data.

"These are instructions on how to activate a tower and how to program a spectre."

"Spectre?" Carlos leaned in and looked at the screen from over DJ's shoulder. "You mean uh..that freaky smoke stuff?"

"Created from a lot of electricity, the towers can direct these from inside Lyoko, and that's why XANA needs them." DJ nodded. "And if I can make one...or two...I think Aelita wants us to use a spectre to protect the factory and this house!" He paused. "But uh...how?"

"Well...they can make anything, right?" Kurt asked as he and Carlos looked down at DJ.

"Yeah, but-"

"So what are you waiting for? Make shields around this place!" Carlos rolled his eyes. "I thought Chris would be the one to fumble over the obvious idea."

"Ok, I just need to choose which towers." DJ sighed. "Ok...got one in the Sky Sector, and another in the Swamp Sector."

Xxx

Moments later, two towers were surrounded in a green glow as DJ took control.

Xxx

"Ok, got it, here goes nothing." DJ said.

As he spoke, a black mist like substance came out of the cables and panels around them and floated up through the roof.

"Whoa! Man that was spooky!" Darth Alejandro said.

"Was that a-a-?" Lindsey stuttered.

"Ghost!" Justin and Beth shouted at the same time.

Kurt, Carlos, and DJ raised one eye brow at the antics of the group.

Eva slapped the three who had spoken on the back of their heads. "Oh calm down you morons, DJ said he'd be making one ten seconds ago."

"Ah, for once somebody else who can keep their head on." Carlos said, grateful that he, Kurt, and DJ hadn't been left alone with the most panicky campers.

Xxx

Outside the house the spectres flew out of the house and spread out creating a dome like shield with the same green tinge that the towers had over the house while at the same time spectres did the same thing at the factory. The Kolossus looked down at the shield, which had a warm appearance to it unlike the usual black and smoky substances XANA sent out.

Xxx

"_Aelita, the spectres have created shields around the house and factory._"

"Good, so now when the Terror Bird arrives we'll have a little more time to fight through the monsters. But in the meantime while we have the opportunity there is something I would like to ask the Total Drama producers."

DJ handed Kurt and Carlos some of the spare head sets.

"Uh...testing?" Kurt tapped his head set.

"We heard you Aelita, go ahead," Carlos said.

"There's a few things I need to ask about Realitech." Aelita stated.

"Okay...they provided the VR technology used for Total Drama Reality," Kurt said. "They're one of the foremost world famous producers of video games, electronics, alternative energy sources on a minor level-"

"I have a reason to believe that there is a connection between Realitech and XANA," Aelita cut him off.

"Realitech is one of the most publicly known corporations in the world, how does an AI get anything done if every move they make, ever thing they make gets reported to any other rival company or any curious government?" Carlos asked.

"It was when I looked over their financial records that I discovered something about them and their VR Pods." Aelita explained. "They tried making them two years ago before the government cut their funding. Their pods could have worked, but at the time they were too unstable. They were meant to be used as a new form of enhanced training simulator to allow a soldier or pilot to experience a real life battle without fear of death. Also, when I examined the Diary of my father, I discovered that the VR Pods were similar to the earliest prototype of the Scanners that was built when my father and his colleagues were working on Project Carthage. An old, less advanced version of what we have now."

"So you're telling me the stuff we got is about thirty years behind?" Carlos blinked. "Aw hell, they still find ways to rip me off...continue."

"After the government cut their funding, every part of Realitech received a large donation by a financer named Xavier Archer Nigel Adams."

"Wow, fancy name," Kurt noted.

"It's the name XANA came up with while disguised as a human!" Gwen said with wide eyes.

"She's right, the beginning letters in each name." Carlos nodded. "Okay, so XANA gave Realitech funding so they could...build realistic video games?"

"It's a long story, but I need to know if Realitech has been keeping any labs in the studio or has any other special, hidden projects." Aelita said.

"Well, there's a private lab in the basement of the studio that's off limits," Kurt replied.

"If I had the time I'd look into Realitech," Carlos shrugged. "Helps if your ex girlfriend is in MI5."

"Okay, putting aside that fact, Realitech is starting to sound fishy." Kurt said.

"After this I can take a look into it if you want Aelita." Carlos offered. "We could be plenty of help to you."

"We'll discuss it later," Aelita replied. "Right now I have a battle to finish."

As the conversation ended, Carlos and Kurt stood and removed their head sets.

"Well, the plot unfolds." Kurt said.

"Man, this is like some badly written Sci Fi movie." Carlos sighed. "I chose the worst year to stop drinking."


	31. Episode 30: Fight to Live

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 30

Screams filled the night as the massive Terror Bird was now in sight of anyone who was looking outside in the city of Paris. Most of the people watching the bird were soldiers who were sent to try and protect the city should the bird be hostile. They watched in awe as the Terror Bird flew over buildings, ignoring the people below. Helicopters followed the bird as fast as they could just in case it left the city but to keep an eye on it.

It was difficult however as the Terror Bird was flying at speeds that was dangerous to humans. Not even jets would be able to keep up with it. Tanks were lined up in the streets as a precaution in case the creature endangered lives. However to them they were just an unneeded annoyance to the Terror Bird as it had far more important targets.

Xxx

"What was that all about?" Courtney asked as Aelita turned around.

"I wanted information on RealiTech and now seemed like a good time as any to get some information." Aelita replied.

"So, you think RealiTech is really the company that XANA has been using?" Gwen said with a frown.

Aelita nodded.

"We better hurry now."

"It's not going to be easy. We've lost two vehicles." Bridgette said.

Aelita smiled and held up her wrist computer.

"I thought we would which was why I kept a few surprises ready." She typed some commands in and in front of everyone appeared an OverWing and an OverJet surprising Gwen and Bridgette.

"I thought we couldn't use the vehicles again until a few hours when they're destroyed." Gwen said.

"That's right which was why I made a copy of them like how I made a copy of your avatars to give you extra life points." Aelita replied with a smile.

"Aelita, you are amazing!" Bridgette said smiling happily.

"I do what I can. But we better hurry now."

Everyone got back on their vehicles and took off from the island towards the tower. As soon as they were in the air Noah decided to ask a few more questions.

"So what did you mean when you said you believed RealiTech had a connection to XANA?"

"Well, it's a long story but I'll make it short as possible. Before you and the others came to Lyoko my friends, Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, and Jeremy were the ones who originally fought on Lyoko against XANA after Jeremy discovered the super computer in the factory near Kadic Academy. We fought him for nearly four years before Jeremy came up with a way to destroy XANA by creating a multi-agent program designed to delete any and all programs associated with XANA on the internet like how my father created him to destroy Project Carthage. XANA himself is also a multi-agent program meaning he is capable of multiplying and dividing himself allowing him to accomplish tasks worthy of more than one intelligent individual which means the only way to destroy him was to locate and destroy any and all pieces of him." Aelita explained. "However XANA was one step ahead of us and planned for us to create and use it. In order to fake his death he created a supercomputer like the one in the lab to hide in along with a copy of himself that was destroyed by the XANA-Destruction program, leaving us to believe that all traces of XANA had been wiped out. The red eye virus attack was XANA's way of letting the world know he was back and ready to take revenge, which led to my friends being captured since we lived the last two years as normal people while XANA upgraded and evolved to make sure he was ready."

"And he also tricked Aelita's dad into sacrificing himself to power that program, believing he was taking XANA with him." Gwen added.

"That just REALLY sucks," Duncan commented. "No other way to put it."

"Anyways, I looked over my father's work and what he did when and his colleagues were part of Project Carthage and it mentioned pods containing visors that were meant to project the mind in a digital environment." Aelita continued.

"Like the ones at the studio." Bridgette said.

"Exactly. You saw the scanners but it's obvious that they were not invented over night. It took years of calculations and prototypes before they were perfected."

"Makes sense. Making something that could turn flesh and blood into data must have been a LOT of work." Noah said.

"Right. I believe that XANA presented the schematics of the pods to RealiTech using his human name and diverted a large amount of money through the internet to fund them."

"Meaning he has the resources of one of the largest corporations in the world at his disposal." Gwen said.

"Okay, but if those pods were made from a military project how come the government has not taken an interest?" Trent asked.

"_Actually . . . They did._"

Everyone looked up when they heard Kurt's voice.

Xxx

Back in the lab Kurt had taken a headset and decided to add his two cents.

"RealiTech had presented the pods along with the visors believing they would be the next generation of state of the art video game technology. There were some who were hesitant to approve of this so they contacted the executive director of the Total Drama franchise and presented her the idea of using them for a new season of Total Drama. The director thought it over a bit but they got their answer after the fiasco in Hawaii during the finale of World Tour along with complaints from many interns, parents, and others for problems related to Chris."

"Hey!" Chris said.

"Problems including Chris' treatment of Ezekiel such as not feeding him when he allowed him to be part of that challenge during London and again when he was treated as an animal in Africa, abandoning Sierra after she blew up the plane, Alejandro being burned alive by lava, numerous interns being injured and one or two even dying." Kurt added, glaring at Chris.

"Prairie boy was supposed to go and fanzilla blew up my plane!" Chris retorted.

"And of course that has led to several parents along with Ezekiel going to court with you." Carlos said.

"Hey, they signed the contract."

"Ah, but if you remember my mop headed _friend_ you got away with treating them the way you did when they were competitors however your elimination of Zeke on the first episode was bias and against the rules since he was not voted off along with abandoning Sierra which is against the contract in which when a contestant is eliminated it is seen that they are _safely_ transported to Playa Des Losers, which you did not. You abandoned her because you were cranky at her for blowing up the plane." Kurt said, slightly smacking Chris on the head before turning back to the screen. "Due to Chris' bumbling and the amount of complaints the director decided to take RealiTech up on their offer since both parties would benefit. Total Drama would show the world that it can treat its contestants like actual human beings and RealiTech would get the perfect chance to test their new inventions and if it was a success they would be at the top of all video game making corporations that would be selling the state of the art video games. After all Total Drama was now broadcasted internationally so what better to show their new inventions than using them for the next season, of course because of Chris they hired Carlos to keep Chris in line and me to manage the budget."

"And also to keep Roberto in line, seeing as he has had a history of temper tantrums." Carlos pointed out. "Essentially, I'm the muscle man who's guaranteed to _not_ freak out and kill you for a small reason..." He paused. "Like a certain punk boy putting sugar in a gasoline tank." He sighed. "He's just lucky it wasn't my car he did it to."

"Let me guess, if he did, your revenge would involve an explosion." Kurt rolled his eyes.

"You know me all too well." Carlos nodded. "But anyways...yeah, the Director was all too glad to let me in when she found out I constantly hit Chris whenever he annoyed me back in school."

"So we set up the studio here in France because RealiTech's corporate HQ is set up there, and they got the chance to advertise their new technology." Kurt finished.

"And in the time we've been on air I got seven different offers from sponsors to get back into fighting...and oddly one Mercenary Contract from somebody in Russia." Carlos added. "Plus the ratings for Total Drama had gone up, and there have been several offers to buy similar VR pods from what I've heard."

Xxx

"Well that explains why Chris dragged us all the way here." Gwen said.

"So us being here at the same time XANA came back was coincidence." Bridgette said.

"A good one. If you weren't around I might have died." Aelita said.

"That's true."

"So, the only reason we're up here is because RealiTech is advertising those pods which they got from this XANA thing?" Heather said.

"Sounds like it." Duncan said.

"Great."

"In the meantime, DJ how are things out there? Is the shield holding against the Kolossus?" Aelita asked.

"_Well the shield is up but that thing hasn't done anything. Might be waiting for the Terror Bird to get to the factory._"

"In that case maybe it'd be a good idea if you get into the scanners to help us."

"_You sure about that? What it decides to attack while I'm being virtualized?_"

"The shield should be able to hold out a little while against it and we need all the help we can get."

"_All right, I'm coming._"

Xxx

"Can someone take my place and monitor them while I'm getting in?" DJ asked turning the chair around to face everyone.

"I can . . ."

Everyone looked back to see Cody leaning against the wall and on his good leg. He hobbled over with help from Sierra and took over for DJ, who rushed over to a Scanner.

"Aelita, I'm taking over for DJ."

"_You all right, Cody?_"

"I'll live. I'm virtualizing DJ on an island west about two kilometres from you." Cody then began the virtualization sequence.

"Transfer DJ."

DJ's scanner closed.

"Scanner DJ."

The white ring travelled up DJ's body.

"Virtualization."

The computer's alarm siren began to wail.

"What the?"

A red exclamation point appeared over DJ's avatar.

Xxx

DJ landed softly on a beach and stood up.

"All right, I'm here."

"_DJ, are you okay!_"

"Yeah, what's wrong?" DJ asked puzzled.

"_There was an error in the transfer!_"

DJ quickly looked over himself to see anything different.

"I don't feel different."

"_Quick, check your weapons._"

DJ quickly activated his barrier and saw it was functioning correctly. He then activated his golem form and found it was fine too.

"Everything is working normally, Cody."

Xxx

Cody banged his fists against the keyboard he was working on. Despite DJ saying he was fine the alert scans said differently.

"_Cody, what's wrong?_" Aelita asked through the speakers.

"Something happened with DJ during the transfer. There was an error when he was virtualized."

"_Is he all right?_" Bridgette asked.

"I am just going check his avatar to see if anything's wrong."

He quickly ran a scan of DJ's character.

"That's odd. The scan says he's normal." Cody scratched his head. "DJ, stay there and wait for the others.

"_Okay."_

Xxx

"_Aelita, DJ's been virtualized and is waiting for you guys._"

"Thanks, Cody." Aelita looked over to the others. "We'll need to make a quick detour to pick up DJ."

"Fine by me. We could use the big guys help." Duncan said.

They turned west towards the island. Little did they know was that someone had been listening on their conversation.

Xxx

'Try to break my rules will you, Aelita?' XANA thought amused as he watched the warriors through one of his many screens. 'I don't think so.'

He looked to the island DJ was on and sent out a message.

'Another warrior has been virtualized and the warriors intend to rendezvous with him. Eliminate him.'

Xxx

Cody was watching over the map when thirty red dots appeared near DJ.

"DJ, you've got thirty monsters heading towards you!"

Xxx

DJ spun around while transforming into his golem form, ready to fight the incoming wave of monsters. However there was one small problem. He could not see or hear any monsters coming towards him.

"Cody where are they?"

"_What do you mean? They're right on top of you!_"

Shaking his head even though he knew Cody could not see him doing it he looked back up.

"Sorry man, but I don't see any monsters."

Xxx

"Oh man! How cannot he see all those monsters right in front of him?" Cody panicked as he saw the thirty dots now surrounding DJ and right in front of him as well. "The scans are picking up twelve Krabs, eight Hornets, three Megatanks, four Dragon Knights, and two Mantas and . . . Oh no!"

Cody's eyes widened in fear and panic as he looked at the scan of the final monster.

"What? What is it?" Kurt asked.

"Aelita, there's a general with DJ but it's not Shadow, Ryder, or Yuki!"

Xxx

"I'm telling you man, I don't see a thing!" DJ said.

"_And the scan is showing a whole freaking army around you!_"

"Check it again!"

"_I did_!"

"Guys, I'm seriously freaking out here!" DJ said as he looked around.

Xxx

"Hold on, we're on the way." Gwen said.

"I thought there were only three Generals!" Trent shouted.

"Maybe XANA's made another one!" Bridgette suggested. "That would make it the final one, that's all five kids he'd be using to make Generals."

"Hold on, I'll take a look."

As the group began to close in on DJ's location, Aelita shut her eyes and began to activate her Second Sight.

Then she saw them, right behind DJ, Hornets!

"DJ! LOOK OUT!" She shouted.

"What- UGH!" A stinger came out of DJ's mouth, and he devirtualized.

"Whoa! That was not right man!" Trent shuddered.

"Uh...care to fill us in?" Duncan glanced at Aelita.

"It's an illusion! He couldn't see because they were invisible to him!" Aelita explained. "The monsters are being protected by something."

"Odds are it's that General." Gwen's eyes narrowed as she extended her scythe.

"Okay, just point the way and let me do the slicing." Duncan whipped out his Short Sword.

"Uh...is anybody else worried that if we go down there we'll end up like DJ?" Heather asked.

"Yeah, if we try to go down there and fight we'll be slaughtered!" Courtney added.

"Kill Joys! Kill Joys!" Izzy shouted, pointing at Courtney and Heather and getting a bit too close for their comfort, pointing in their faces. "Kill Joys!"

"We need a plan if we're going down there." Noah said. "Let me see...wait...the water, the sand...we need some wind."

"On it!" Gwen glowed green and shot out a wind spell. The sand on the beach and the water near the shore was gathered up in a large cyclone that began to form. Suddenly, shapes could be seen in the middle of the storm. Several flashes of light came from the cyclone, indicating monsters exploding.

"_You just got one of the Megatanks, two of the Hornets, four Krabs, and one of the Mantas!_"

"Okay Gwen, let's cut the Twister remake and start chopping!" Duncan angled the OverBike down.

"ATTACK!" Gwen shouted, dropping the cyclone.

"CHARGE!" Izzy cackled, firing her cross bows at the shapes of monsters covered in mud.

Instantly, two Krabs exploded, and Duncan landed on the other Mega Tank as it opened up and successfully impaled the XANA eye. Gwen cut through a Hornet as she flew by it.

"Jump!" Bridgette and Courtney landed on the sand, weapons ready. A moment later Noah flew over and deposited Heather from the OverWing.

"Hm...what should I control..." Noah looked between them. "Let's see..Krab? Nah...Hornet? No, too small...where's that other Manta?"

_Heeheehee..._

"Uh...okay, that was creepy-"

"_Noah! The General is on the Manta!_"

"Okay...but where-" Trent leaped by and pulled Noah off of the OverWing in time to avoid being vaporized by a bombing run from the second Manta as it flew down with a figure on its back.

"Welcome to the party!" The General said.

Everyone who heard the voice could tell that the general was a female. To Gwen, Bridgette, and Aelita that was odd as Jeremy was the last member of the original team Lyoko to have his DNA scanned. The Manta reappeared and floated just a few inches above the sand while the general stepped down. It was indeed a girl who looked to be the same age as them with red hair that extended all the way down to her waist and was tied back in a low pony tail with two bangs over the sides of her face.

She had blue eyes and her skin was pale. She wore a black sleeveless tank top that hugged her body along with a pair of black gloves and a dark skirt with black biker shorts and a pair of black sandals. On the back of her shirt was the Eye of XANA.

"Well ain't that just original, hot girl trying to kill us." Duncan shook his head.

"It's called Femme Fatale." Noah stated.

"Whatever."

"So, you're the so-called Lyoko Warriors I've heard so much about." The girl looked at each and every one of them. "Not very impressive."

"Said the cliché." Noah coughed into one hand.

The girl giggled.

"What is it about so called heroes and them always making jokes?"

Noah blinked. "Aw hell, she got me!"

"I already know most of you are new here and the one I just took out was a veteran. If someone as boring as him was actually a veteran Lyoko warrior than I guess all the fun I planned will now go down the drain." The girl sighed in disappointment.

Duncan yawned. "Yeah-yeah, tough talk, now back it up."

The girl smiled evilly.

"All right, but before I send you on a one way trip back the scanners I guess the best I can do is properly introduce myself. I am Lilith of the Mirage."

"Okay then Lilith," Duncan got into a defensive stance. "I'm Duncan and I hate fancy titles."

Lilith smirked. She then disappeared and reappeared in front of Duncan. Before the delinquent could react Lilith impaled him through the shoulder with her left. Duncan gasped in surprise before he tried to fight back. However Lilith disappeared before Duncan could slash her.

"_That cost you ten life points, Duncan._"

Courtney then got a mean kick in the stomach when Lilith reappeared right in front of her. Before she could recover Lilith launched several blows but by that time the others moved in to help. Bridgette tried slash her but she dodged easily while laughing like a little girl. She disappeared again with her laughter echoing through the air.

"She's fast." Noah commented.

"That's not speed. It looks like she's teleporting." Gwen looked around.

"_It looks that way Gwen. Whenever she moves it looks she's disappearing from one spot and reappearing at another one._"

"Can you afford to talk while fighting me?" Lilith appeared behind Gwen and tried to impale her but Heather fired a shuriken that flew in front of her face.

Lilith jumped back disappearing again.

"Thanks." Gwen looked at Heather.

"Whatever."

"_She's now five feet away from you guys hiding behind one of the trees._"

They looked to the small forest on the island.

"We better blast her out." Duncan said.

"We don't have time for this. This is just like how Shadow and Ryder distracted us earlier. She's buying the Terror Bird more time to reach the factory." Aelita said.

"Smart little elf." Lilith appeared back on her Manta. "It looks I was wrong. You guys might be some fun after all."

"Are you running away?" Courtney asked, glaring.

"Don't be so sure of yourselves. It's obvious who has the advantage here and it's not you because most of you are a bunch uncoordinated newbies. The job I was sent here to do is completed. You won't be receiving anymore reinforcements from the others and if anyone else thinks of entering the scanners they'll soon learn what happens when someone tries to mess with Master XANA's rules. I'll be waiting on the island for you all, if you can make it past the Terror Bird. Try not to die before the real fun begins." Lilith giggled as she and the Manta disappeared.

"Great, we'll have to fight her and the generals and that's if we can get past the Terror Bird." Bridgette said.

"Wait, I thought the house had a shield around it." Duncan said. "So...how would somebody else coming to help us cause trouble if the monster can't get past it?"

"_Aelita, we're getting another message from XANA!_"

Xxx

Cody glared as XANA reappeared on the screen.

"Hello once again. It seems some of you decided to go behind my back and play with my towers in my domain. Since you broke my rules there's going to be severe repercussions. If you'll direct your attention to the holo map."

The holo map changed from a map of Lyoko to now showing the Earth with several areas highlighted. One was an area of London, England, another was an area of Saskatchewan, a third was New York City.

"What are these locations supposed to mean?" Eva asked as her village in Eastern Europe was highlighted next. Finally, many locations in Ontario were added to the list.

"Hey...Melissa is in Saskatchewan! And I live in London!" Carlos realized what XANA was doing.

"As you are all aware, these locations are familiar to you. The thing about satellites is that when positioned above our world, they can materialize my monsters just about anywhere I want. If another person enters the scanners, then you will have about..five minutes to contact or attempt to contact anybody you care about and prepare them...for the _hunt._" XANA hissed. "So just sit there like the good little audience you are and watch the battle."

He vanished from the screen.

Carlos cursed. "Over developed piece of-" He grumbled the rest of the insult out.

"Now we really are stuck here." Kurt said.

Xxx

"_Aelita, XANA's targeted all of our homes along with the producers! If we try to send anyone else he'll materialize monsters where everyone's families are!_" Cody sounded panicked as he informed the group of the newest development.

"That slime ball!" Trent snarled.

"So that's what she meant." Noah slapped himself in the face.

"We need to get to that tower and end this, it's gone on far enough as it is." Aelita declared.

"So let's go then! We're all gathered, let's hit it!" Duncan suggested.

"Agreed, it's now or never!" Aelita activated her Angel Wings and shot into the air. "Follow me!"

The Lyoko Warriors shot across the Digital Skies towards the island where the tower was located.

Xxx

When they finally arrived, they found what could have passed as a fortress island instead. The Terror Bird flying over the island carried dozens of Dragon Knights carrying guns, while on the island below, hundreds of monsters were at the ready to defend the Tower. And right in front of the tower itself was a group of a dozen Krabs.

"This just got a little harder." Noah raised an eye brow.

"Like you said Noah, if you can possess the Terror Bird, you can clear the island, and maybe give us a living shield that we can ride on." Aelita pointed out.

"Ok, just get me up there and I'll handle the rest." Noah nodded.

No sooner than he spoke, the Dragon Knights on the Terror Bird spread bat like wings and took to the skies.

"They can fly too?" Courtney asked.

"Hit em with everything you've got!" Trent raised his guitar and fired off a lightning attack that blew back three Dragon Knights, cutting their life points down to half. A second attack took them out entirely.

Duncan whipped out his sword as two Dragon Knights tried to close in on him. He cut one in half at the waist, and then impaled the second on his sword, and cut upwards through its head.

Izzy howled and did a hand stand on her OverBoard. "Fox style!" She snapped both feet out, slamming her heels into the heads of two Dragon Knights and knocking them out of the air and into the ocean. She then fired a cross bow bolt into another Dragon Knight.

Heather fired her shurikens in every direction, trying to avoid hitting her friends. Courtney swung her staff and managed to clothesline a Dragon Knight at the neck with it.

Bridgette shot waves of energy out of her arms, taking down one or two Dragon Knights before she shot upwards and dove down at the ones surrounding the Terror Bird. As dozens of lasers fired around her, she jammed the tip of her board through one Dragon Knight, bisecting it. She repeated this two more time and retreated after one blast hit her.

Gwen activated her wind aura and blew the Knights in all directions as she cleared a way for Noah to the bird. Noah flew behind her while Heather covered their rear. They flew above the Terror Bird as it angled its beak at the warriors.

"Look out!" Courtney shouted as the Terror Bird charged its main attack.

It fired a beam of energy that flew at them.

"Get behind us!" Trent shouted as he played a note that activated his shield while Aelita reinforced it by creating a protective bubble under Trent's shield.

The blast collided with the shield and knocked Trent off the OverSled.

"Oh crap!"

Trent was falling like a rock into the ocean. That was until Duncan flew in and grabbed him.

"Thanks man."

"No problem."

"It's now or never Noah!" Heather shouted.

"Got it."

Noah jumped off the OverWing and fell towards the bird. Activating his phase ability he phased into the giant monster. The Terror Bird stopped in mid-air and looked down at itself.

"Whoa, not bad." Noah's voice came out of the bird's beak.

"Quick, take them out!" Gwen said.

The Terror Bird nodded and fired down at the island were the monsters were lined up. The beach was filled with explosions as monsters that were not immediately destroyed attempted to flee but some tripped over other monsters destroying themselves in the process. Others turned their guns and fired at the Terror Bird but their lasers were ineffective against the massive monster.

"Yeah!" Duncan shouted with a fist in the air, watching the monsters getting destroyed.

"Awesome!" Trent shouted in agreement.

"That ought to clear a path." Gwen smirked.

"_Don't celebrate just yet guys, Lilith is back and she's reappeared right on the Terror Bird._"

That was when Lilith appeared on the XANA Eye on the back of the bird. Holding out her hands they started to glow. The light moulded into a white bow which she took in her left hand while a white light appeared in her hand as she pulled back the bow. She fired the arrow but instead of stabbing the Eye it passed through it and came out of the belly but Noah fell out with the arrow in his left shoulder.

"OW! OH THAT IS JUST NOT FAIR!" Noah shouted before he was caught by Heather on the OverWing.

"_Guys, something was odd with that arrow. It hit the Eye but it seemingly passed through it and the bird when it took Noah._"

"No, really? I had no idea!" Noah jerked the arrow out of his shoulder. "Somebody get rid of her!"

"Got it." Duncan hopped off of the OverBike and landed several feet from Lilith, sword in hand. He twirled his sword once.

"I had no idea they'd trust you to fight me," Lilith raised an eye brow.

"Eh, I'll do." Duncan shrugged.

"Wishful thinking." Lilith sneered and brought up her bow, notching an arrow and firing, but Duncan parried the projectile. She began to teleport around Duncan, firing arrows, but he continued to react with lightning fast speed. But suddenly one arrow became ten as they shot at him from the fight. Blinking in surprise, he was caught off guard when something hit him in the back. Grunting, he jerked the arrow out. "How- oh right, illusions."

"_Hold on, I'll_ _point her out for you. Standstill, and react when I give you a direction._" Cody instructed him.

"Ok..." Duncan got into a stance.

"_Six oh Clock!_"

Duncan pulled a 180 degree turn and parried an arrow in time.

_"Three oh Clock!"_ Duncan turned to his right and saw ten arrows coming. Not taking chances, he spun his sword, which began to glow green as it spun faster and faster . The real arrow bounced off of the blade.

"_Behind you again!_"

Duncan spun, but the arrow got through his guard and hit him in the chest.

_"You're down to thirty life points!"_

"AGH!" A third arrow hit Duncan after he managed to parry several waves of projectiles.

"_Five!_"

Lilith laughed. "Pathetic! No wonder they never wanted to let you in on this, because for all of your tough talk, you-" She teleported in front of him and playfully slapped him. "Can't." She teleported behind him and shoved him. "Fight." She kicked him in the gut. "Worth." She punched him across the face. "SHIT!" She swept his feet out from under him. She held up one arrow in her hand. "Now, do yourself a favour, go back to Kindergarten, brat."

Duncan's eyes snapped open. "You...BITCH!" Suddenly he seemed to literally explode in a flash of green fire that sent Lilith flying back.

"WHOA! WHAT JUST HAPPENED?" Gwen shouted.

Duncan slowly stood up...entirely changed. His skin was gone, revealing a skeleton covered in green fire. His sword was on fire also, and fused to his arm above the wrist. He raised one hand and pointed at Lilith as she got up. He then made a cutting gesture across his neck, and his skull formed into an evil smirk.

"...Now that's just creepy." Lilith fired a narrow at him, but his sword shot out a wave of fire that incinerated it.

"**You. Dead!**" Duncan-er...Berserker Duncan growled before it rushed forward.

"DAMN!" Lilith tried to teleport, but before she could even muster the thought to begin the process, Duncan had her by the throat.

**"Pathetic." **Duncan growled. "**Weak. Brat.**"

It then slammed her into the Terror Bird's outer shell, repeatedly. She cried out in pain as he shook her around like a rag doll. Lilith chuckled weakly.

"Not so weak."

Lilith suddenly disintegrated in a shower of pixels of energy.

"**What the . . .**"

"That was an alias." Aelita said.

Duncan looked down at the Terror Bird, which had focused its sights on the Lyoko Warriors again. He brought his sword up, and then slammed it down on the center of the XANA eye. The Terror Bird shrieked in pain.

It exploded, and Duncan fell to the island below, landing on his feet in a crouch, but making a small crater lined with green fire. He stood up, and laughed, sounding and looking like the Ghost Rider. Slowly, the flames retreated, and soon plain old Lyoko Duncan stood there. "That'll show her!"

"Not exactly." Duncan was ready for this, and spun, knocking aside the arrow Lilith fired at him, and then lunged forward as she got another ready. She teleported out of the way as he jabbed at her.

"So you're not so weak after all!" Lilith taunted him. "You still won't win!"

She was about to fire, but then a sonic attack hit her. Trent landed next to Duncan, firing his Guitar at her. Lilith back flipped into the air to dodge the attacks and landed between them both.

Bridgette landed on the ground and Courtney jumped off as Bridgette fired an energy wave at Lilith. But just as it was about to hit a wall of electricity appeared in front of her and blocked it.

"Ryder!"

"Miss me?" Ryder smirked as he landed beside Lilith. "I see you're getting to know our newest general. The funny thing is that Jeremy's DNA code was used to create her human form but instead of creating a guy it turned it to be a girl. Funny huh?"

THWACK!

"OW!" Ryder rubbed the back of his head and glared at Lilith. "What the hell was that for?"

"For being a sexist bastard!" Lilith shouted.

"I just thought it was surprising!" Ryder shouted.

"Sexist! Sexist!" Lilith pointed at Ryder with her finger inches from his nose.

"Enough you two!" Shadow and Yuki landed beside them.

"Oh great, these clowns." Gwen growled. "Take them down!"

"Hold it right there spell caster, we need to wait for everybody to gather," Shadow wagged one finger.

"I...hate...computers." Duncan said.

"Computers? Is that what you consider us to be? Simple AIs designed to fight you?" Lilith chuckled. "Only a human would make such foolish assumptions. Of course, one can hardly blame you, you are just so . . . ignorant."

"Yeah, and last I check you're a cheap copy, so we're even." Duncan replied.

"Copy? The DNA came from a boy!"

"And still, you're made from said DNA," Noah pointed out. "No matter how you look at it, you're just a clone of the schmuck who XANA locked up."

Lilith shook her head.

"Oh you poor naive little kids. The DNA was never taken or copied just scanned to give me a humanoid form. I am as different from Jeremy Belpois as night is different form day. A clone is an exact copy of the original in every way. Do I even remotely look like the boy? "

"Hm...you're right." Trent nodded solemnly.

"Yeah," Duncan added.

"What do you mean by that?" Lilith tilted her head.

"We mean...that the Belpois kid wasn't a total PSYCHO BITCH LIKE YOU!" Duncan shouted. "Hell, I don't even know the kid and I already like him way more than you."

"That's just because I've been kicking your ass."

"Don't make me go Berserker on you again woman."

Lilith giggled.

"So funny!"

"Lilith, that's enough." Shadow said.

Lilith pouted but obeyed.

"Seeing as how everyone is assembled I guess we can pretty much get started." Shadow said, hoisting his sword over his shoulder.

"Let me guess, we fight through you guys to get through to the tower." Gwen said, pulling out her scythe.

"Sounds fun doesn't it?" Ryder asked, smirking. "No plans. No traps. Just an all out fight to the finish."

He stepped forward while pulling out his sword.

"And as always I'll be the one to go first. And it just so happens, Spell caster, that you and the ninja are the ones that I intend to fry."

"Still sore about how we kicked your ass before?" Heather asked.

Ryder chuckled.

"I don't need to hold back this time. Besides, I despise XANA's method of traps and trickery. I have no need for them and if anyone tries to help they'll be fried." He spun his sword in his grip three full times, leaving a trail of electricity behind it. "Unless you two are too scared to fight without help."

"Us? Scared of you? The guy who needs to carry around the longest weapon to compensate?" Heather asked.

"Ooh, burn." Noah whispered.

Ryder replied by shooting a beam of lightning at Gwen and Heather, who leapt aside. Gwen landed next to Ryder and rolled under his next slash. She began to exchange blows with him using her Scythe. Heather landed behind Ryder, two shuriken in hand and swung them. Ryder began to spin and duck, moving faster and faster and countering every attack they made.

Gwen activated her fire aura and attempted to burn Ryder but a volt shield protected him from the flames. Heather tried to punch him but he dodged and tried to slash her so she tried to kick him but he blocked with his arm. Heather jumped back and landed next to Gwen.

"Is that the best you can do?" Ryder shouted as electricity sparked all over his body. "If that is the best you can do I might as well blast you and every other Lyoko warrior on this island!"

He swung his sword and unleashed another beam of lightning but Gwen stepped in front of Heather and spun her scythe and created her barrier to block it. When the smoke cleared Gwen lowered her scythe.

"You're dead wrong about that. Everyone here will see your ass get kicked off this island." Gwen said.

Ryder laughed.

"How typical of you all! Actually believing you have the skills to win every battle!" The electricity sparking throughout Ryder's body increased in power and Ryder was engulfed in a red light.

He held out his hands towards them.

"Lightning!"

Heather and Gwen dodged as bolts of lightning attempted to vaporize them. Ryder ran at them at full speed and attempted to slash them but Gwen blocked with her scythe allowing Heather to punch him. But the moment her fist touched him she was shocked from the intense electricity that knocked her back.

"_That's ten life points down, Heather._"

Gwen activated her wind spell and it tossed Ryder back hard. He slammed into a boulder and it shattered on impact.

"You okay?" Gwen turned around and looked at Heather.

"I'm fine." The ninja got up on her feet.

They turned around to see Ryder back on his feet and looking at them with a smirk.

"He's still up? A blow like that should have broken his back!" Heather said.

"That was just a warm up. He's going to get serious on us now." Gwen replied.

"I won't have to fight you two seriously. I guess you two haven't noticed it yet." Ryder pointed at them.

"Noticed what?" Heather asked.

"Like I said, my body can hold up to a million volts of electricity. Don't you get it? Every time you or weapon touches me the power that is stored within me flows directly into you. Like this, Shock!"

Suddenly Gwen and Heather were instantly electrocuted from the inside. Both gasped in pain as they fell to their knees.

"As I thought. How does it feel? The bad news is I can't drain your life points but it takes away the program that allows you to not feel any pain, meaning you both feel your bodies being electrocuted from the inside." Ryder chuckled. "Shock!"

Gwen and Heather were once again electrocuted just as they managed to stand back up. They shouted as they fell to their knees again.

"Where's that annoying banter of yours now, huh?" Ryder asked, laughing. "For every time you managed to punch, kick, or stab me with a close range weapon is now coming back to bite you in the ass Or should I say, Shock!"

Both of them were electrocuted again.

"You know I find it sad that you decided to recruit a bunch of newbies instead of coming to fight us like real warriors. You brought them here just because some of you were injured and actually believed they could help you win. You actually believe that if you survive this one they'll actually agree to keep this a secret, much less put their lives on the line now that they've seen what they are up against. A bookworm, a crazy girl, a wannabe punk, an Elvis rip off, and two loud mouth divas who take what they want and bitch when they are denied." Ryder said, slowing walking to them. "What a waste."

Gwen gasped for breath as she leaned on her scythe while struggling to stand. Being electrocuted like that three times was tough.

"Oh? You can still stand? I guess this isn't the first time you've been in that much pain. That's a good thing about being virtualized, your body doesn't tire on you like it would in the real world. That just means I'll get to fry you again." Ryder said, smirking. "I hope you and your friend are ready for another."

". . .You know, I think I should correct something you said." Gwen glared.

Ryder raised an eye brow.

"First off, Heather and I are _not_ friends. Second, I said I was going to kick your ass off this island." Gwen's figure started to glow light blue. "Third, ever since coming onto Total Drama and meeting Chris I got to say, people who love torturing while flapping their gums off.." Gwen's head shot up and threw a terrifying glare at Ryder. "ARE THE KIND I HATE MOST!"

Xxx

"Uh...Gwen? Your life points are dropping." Cody pointed out, but Gwen didn't listen.

Her life points went down to seventy five in an instant.

Xxx

She shot forward in a flash of blue light and slammed right into Ryder, sending him right into and through not one, but five rocks. She then stopped, but grabbed him by the throat before he could be carried by his momentum, and tossed him up into the air. She leaped up and swung her scythe at him, cutting deep into him. She then slammed the butt of her scythe down on his forehead, shooting him back down into the ground.

Groaning in pain, he looked up in time to see her swinging her scythe down on him.

"Lightning sprint!"

He disappeared in a flash of red light just as Gwen's scythe was mere inches from slicing him in half. Growling he glared at the spell caster that had somehow become a lot faster.

"Whoa! What exactly did she do?" Duncan asked.

"_I don't know but it just took off twenty five of her life points!_" Cody exclaimed.

"It's another spell but unlike the others this one was not an elemental aura. You see, when you're character form is created you have five stats, speed, power, strength, defence, and stamina. They're each shown with a number between zero and ten. Gwen's spell, it allowed her to increase her speed but the cost was that she gave up about a quarter of her life points." Aelita explained.

"And I thought I had the bad ass ability," Duncan said as they watched Gwen all but mop the floor with Ryder.

"It's not over yet." Bridgette warned them.

Ryder landed on his feet and turned to face the spell caster. Gwen stood a few feet away with her scythe held up, ready to slice him. Ryder chuckled at her.

"Another fancy spell that increased your speed, huh?" Ryder asked, smirking. "You're a lot faster than before. My eyes only saw a blur. However . . . "

He pointed his index finger at her and a stream of electricity blasted out towards her. Gwen easily dodged it and another blast from Ryder.

"The more you and your weapon touches me more of my power is able to hurt you from the inside."

Gwen ran at him but he blocked her attack despite how fast she become.

"You have that extra life card regenerating your life points, but against me that'll only prolong it. Especially since my powers can take away the program that prevents you from feeling pain. The more you attack me the closer you are to being fried." Ryder chuckled again.

"I wouldn't be so confident if I were you." Gwen spoke up.

Ryder raised an eye brow.

"You might end up sliced in half."

"Unless I do this . . . Shock!"

Gwen was once again electrocuted and this time it was much stronger. This time she managed to stand but she was gasping for breath.

'If this keeps up then I won't have to worry about life points. My body might just quit on me.' Gwen thought as she struggled to keep herself standing.

"If you think you can still win than I guess I must have fried your brain. Even if you have increased your speed you're not used to how fast you can now go. But me. . ." Ryder disappeared and this time Gwen could not defend herself as he drove his fist into her mid section.

Gasping Gwen was knocked back as Ryder then appeared behind her and with a powerful kick she was sent flying face first in to a tree. She slammed into the tree hard and she fell to the ground.

"Not dead yet?" Ryder asked walking towards her. "You may be just as fast as me now but I have done it a lot longer than you."

Gwen grabbed a fist full of dirt as managed to lift herself on her hands and knees.

"Face it, your through. You managed to put up a fight but this it. Your kunoichi friend will be easy to deal with."

"Didn't you hear her?"

Ryder ducked as Heather aimed a kick at his head.

"Goth Girl and I are _not_ friends!"

She then leapt in the firing a stream of shurikens at him from both wrists.

"Lightning Sprint!"

Ryder vanished and reappeared behind her and drove his into her back, sending the ninja towards her shurikens. She landed next to Gwen with a hard impact. Groaning she looked over to the spell caster who got on her knees.

"Got any more fancy spells?" Heather asked sarcastically.

"Maybe, have you managed to find out what your special power is?" Gwen retorted.

"...Maybe."

Ryder laughed as he walked over to finish them off.

"It's time to end this. The show's over."

His sword started to spark with an immense amount of electricity and got bigger with each second that passed by.

"Move!" Gwen shouted as Ryder prepared his attack.

"LIGHTNING STORM!"

The giant stream of lightning obliterated anything that came in its way.

"GWEN!" Trent shouted as she and Heather vanished.

Ryder smirked at the devastation.

"Looks like it's over."

"Want to bet?"

Suddenly Gwen and Heather appeared in front him and Heather punched him across the face. He growled as he dodged Gwen's scythe slicing him in half.

"How the hell did you escape that?"

Heather smirked as she vanished from sight. Ryder's eyes widened before he felt a fist slam into his face and then he was kneed in the stomach. He tried to look but he couldn't even see who was hitting him.

"Enough! Volt Shield!"

Heather reappeared as she was sent flying back after she was shocked costing her twenty life points. She landed on her back while still sparking. Gwen looked over her.

"You okay?"

"Yeah." Heather got back up.

"You can turn invisible!" Ryder said, with an angered look.

"Wow, give the psycho a cookie." Heather said getting up. "Yeah, I can turn invisible. I figured it out while you were getting your electric ass kicked by gothie. I used it to turn myself and Gwen invisible so when she got us out of the way so we could sneak up on you."

Ryder growled and swung his sword, unleashing another stream of lightning. The female warriors dodged as Ryder fired lightning at them without stop. They hid behind a boulder as Ryder searched for them by destroying the whole area.

"Where are you?" Ryder shouted as he blasted another boulder. "Come out and let me fry you!"

Gwen peaked out to see Ryder blast another large rock.

"We need to surprise him. Ryder's not someone to trick so easily but right now all he can think about is killing us." Gwen suggested.

"So you have a plan?" Heather asked.

"Don't worry, Heather. You're not going to be the bait on this one." Gwen said.

She stood up to run but Heather grabbed her wrist.

"Wait a second, what the hell are you doing?" Heather asked.

"Relax, I know what I'm doing." Gwen looked back.

She shook Heather's hand off and flew at Ryder. Before Ryder could react Gwen punched him and knocked his sword out of his hands. She then slammed the butt of her scythe into him which sent him flying back. He crashed into a boulder. Growling he got back up and glared at her with hatred.

"Damn you. .. Damn you . . ." Red electricity sparked all over his body and it began to grow."That's it! I don't care if I blow up this island! You'll be in a coma when you fall out of the scanners and helpless when the lab collapses on you!"

Large amounts of electricity was gathered into his hands as he brought them together. The sparks increased in power and size and scorched the ground Ryder stood upon.

'Now's my only chance.' Gwen thought as she flew forward.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" Heather shouted as she saw what Gwen was doing.

Ryder stretched his arm out and pointed his index finger at the incoming spell caster.

'This is going to be close!' Gwen thought as she started to glow black.

"LIGHTNING HURRICANE!"

As soon as Ryder shouted this, a massive blast of lightning exploded him his hand fingers. The light from the attack was so bright that everyone had to cover their eyes.

"GWEN!" Trent, Duncan, Bridgette, Aelita, and even Courtney and Heather shouted in horror as Gwen vanished from their sight.

The resulting explosion caused a massive earthquake that shook the entire sector. Debris flew everywhere and many pieces flew into the ocean as the attack blasted everything in front of it. Soon enough the attack ended the earthquake followed a few seconds later and bright light faded after that. When the dust cleared half the island was gone.

The entire Lyoko Warrior group stared in shock and a little horror.

"Holy. Crap." Duncan said with wide eyes and his mouth hung open.

"M...m...my..God!" Courtney said her eyes wide like Duncan.

"He just took out half the island!" Trent looked around frantically. "Uh..where's Gwen?"

"She just vanished." A disbelieving Bridgette said.

"She's spooky that way," Izzy commented.

Aelita and Bridgette were quiet since they knew that if Gwen had been devirtualized Cody would have said so. Heather was trying to hold her ground against Ryder, but was intimidated by the show of power he had used. Her eyes wide and she was on the verge of having a panic attack.

"What's the matter, scared?"

Heather quickly wiped off the fear off her face as she tried to look brave but inside she was still scared of what she had seen.

"You wish. You think that did her in? Please, she's just waiting for you to fall into her trap."

"Is that so?" Ryder asked, laughing.

"Yeah. Any second now she's going to pop out and kick your ass when you're not looking." Heather crossed her arms with a confident look.

Ryder smirked fired a spark disk. Heather yelped and dodged it. Ryder then appeared in front of her which made her gasp as she stepped back.

"Well, where is she?"

Heather stepped back with a scared look.

"She's-she's . .. "

Ryder laughed.

"Looks like my attack really did fry her." Ryder raised his sword to finish her.

"GWEN, WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU! YOU SAID YOU HAD A PLAN SO WHY HAVEN'T YOU DONE ANYTHING! DON'T YOU DARE LEAVE ME LIKE THIS!" Heather shouted looking around for Gwen. "SHOW YOUSELF YOU GOTH WANNABEE!"

Ryder snickered as he advanced, his sword still crackling with energy. "Time to go back to your world little girl. Say hi to your spell caster friend for me."

"She." Ryder paused. "Is." He looked around. "Not." He paused and looked at the ground. "My." He looked confused until something burst out of his shadow and slammed into him. "FRIEND!" Gwen had literally come out of Ryder's shadow to attack him!

"AGH!" He ended up on his back with her scythe at his neck. "How?"

"Shadow Veil," Gwen said looking down at him. "Perfect for dodging big flashy techniques like that one. Too bad it took half my life points. I had to get in close to your shadow otherwise I wouldn't have been able to take you by surprise like that."

"WOW! Man what can't she do?" Izzy shouted.

"Come on Gwen, finish him before he gets up again!" Trent shouted.

Gwen brought her scythe up and swung it back down, but as she did a block of ice appeared between her and Ryder. Yuki had stepped in with her hands glowing light blue.

"Y-Yuki?" Ryder asked.

"Your part is over, Ryder. Accept your defeat and allow me to take over."

Ryder grunted as he stood up and walked slowly back to Shadow and Lilith.

Gwen glared at Ryder as he walked away.

"GWEN!"

She looked over and saw Heather and the others running towards her. Heather got to her first and grabbed her by the collar.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT? YOU NEARLY LEFT ME TO DIE WHEN YOU DID THAT!" Heather shouted with her face close to Gwen's and she was glaring deeply.

However Gwen simply chuckled.

"Nice to know you were worried."

Heather let go and glared at her trying to be mad but on the inside she was relieved Gwen was alive. Sure, they both hated each other but wanting Gwen dead was too much even for Heather.

"Whatever, I knew you were not gone. I just acted to fool him."

Gwen chuckled before she fell over, collapsing from exhaustion. Heather caught her before she hit the ground. Her looks softened a bit.

"Who know you could be so much trouble?" Heather muttered as she put Gwen's arm over her shoulder and helped her walk back to the others.

"So, Ryder, once again your arrogance cost you the fight." Shadow said with an icy glare.

Ryder glared at him for that.

"Yuki, you're up. Finish them off."

Yuki nodded and looked to the warriors.

"I'll take her," Trent hefted his guitar and stepped forward.

"I want a shot at her also." Duncan drew his sword.

"Duncan you're at five life points!" Bridgette pointed out.

"Well, I might as well make myself useful before I go then." Duncan spun his sword in his hands, leaving a light trail of green energy behind it. "Ready Guitar Hero?"

"Sure am you Three Days Grace Reject." Trent replied.

"Ok, is it the mohawk? I will seriously get rid of that if I have to."

"You sure just you guys should do this? Yuki's not someone to take lightly and she doesn't have Ryder's arrogance." Bridgette said.

"Yeah. I'm in." Courtney stepped forward.

"Are you sure about that?" Trent asked.

"I can handle this. Besides we all know what'll happen if we lose." Courtney nodded.

All three of them turned to face Yuki as she calmly walked towards them.

"I usually don't like to hit chicks but I guess I got no choice." Duncan held up his sword.

Yuki said nothing as she started to glow blue. Ice started to form on the trees, rocks, and the ground surrounding her.

"Do not underestimate me. This sector gives me an advantage over you." Yuki looked over to the ocean as ice began to cover the shore. "Unlike Ryder I will not hold back. Aelita has already told you my power over ice but I can do more than that. That is why I am known as Yuki of the Blizzard."

"Yeah, well it just so happens fire extinguishes ice." Trent said as he played a note.

A stream of fire blasted from his guitar towards the ice user. Yuki twisted her body to dodge and ran towards them. Courtney ran at her and swung her staff. Yuki side stepped the attack and jumped up and landed behind Courtney. She then launched a horizontal chop to Courtney's neck.

Courtney saw the attack and back flipped. After landing she thrusted the sharp end of her staff forward but Yuki dodged by back flipping herself. Duncan ran forward and swung his blade but Yuki evaded by jumping to the side. Raising her hand Yuki launched ice needles that Duncan managed to block but one managed to hit his shoulder and Courtney was hit in the arm by a few needles.

Cody winced as he saw Duncan's life points go down to three while Courtney's life points were still full when she was hit. Her life points were now at ninety. Duncan charged again and swung his blade again and again but Yuki managed to dodge every attack Duncan made. She back flipped when Trent sent another stream of lightning towards her and landed gracefully on a large boulder.

"She's good. She managed to dodge every attack they made." Bridgette said as they watched the fight.

"Yuki's taking the fight seriously unlike Ryder did when he started." Aelita nodded.

Yuki looked down at the fighters that had reassembled and got ready to fight again. A light blue aura surrounded her and ice began to cover the island they were on. She took off her cape to show everyone her athletically curved body as she pulled out two wooden hilts. Ice sprouted from the hilts creating two short swords.

She jumped off the boulder and landed on the now ice covered ground. "It is best for me to go all out and end this as quickly as possible." She knelt down and with a flick of her wrists, ice blades came out of her boots, forming skates.

"Oh no, don't tell me." Duncan shook his head.

"She's gonna do it," Trent sighed, sounding exasperated.

"Willing to go berserk and kick her ass like I did Lilith, just need...to...be...angry-WHOA!" Duncan ducked under a shard of ice that was launched at him. He parried two more aside and dodged several more before Trent got in front of him and sent a sonic wave at the next salvo, shattering them and killing their momentum.

Yuki slid forward across the ice, her skates sending up tiny flakes of digital ice chips as she went. She swung one of her short swords at Courtney, who parried it aside with her staff. Courtney swung but Yuki jumped over the staff and somersaulted through the air and landed on her skates while still sliding on the ice. She swung her swords and slashed Courtney in the back, decreasing her life points down to sixty.

Yuki then fired a stream of ice needles at them. Trent played a note and another sonic wave cancelled out the attack. Yuki continued to skate around them while firing ice needles that they all managed to parry.

"This is getting old real fast!" Duncan said blocking another barrage of ice needles.

He ran forward as Yuki skated in his direction. He swung his sword but Yuki jumped over it and once again but as she was in mid air Yuki threw both of her swords at Duncan's back. Duncan shouted as both swords pierced his back and his body was instantly frozen in ice. Before anyone could move to help him Yuki pulled out the swords and Duncan's frozen body shattered in pieces.

Xxx

Duncan tumbled out of the scanner, one hand clasped to his chest. "Oh man...that really sucked."

"I know man, it sucks to be devirtualized." Cody said.

"At least you didn't have a stinger go through your mouth." DJ added.

"No, instead I was frozen and my body shattered into a million pieces." Duncan sighed. "That is just _so much_ more attractive than what happened to you DJ."

Xxx

Trent played multiple notes, trying to keep Yuki from getting close enough to attack. Courtney on the other hand provided defence for Trent, shattering ice projectiles with her staff and not allowing even one to pass through her circle of protection.

"We need a new plan." Trent said after thirty flat out seconds of shooting musical spells.

"Okay, I'm all ears!" Courtney parried three ice swords and swatted another one aside.

"I'm thinking!" Trent shattered another wave of ice arrows with his guitar, and then used the instrument itself to swat aside another sword. "If she didn't have all of these swords I could think better...wait, I shoot fire, what am I doing?" He shot fire spells out of his guitar and began to melt the ice around them. He began to strum notes faster and faster until a stream of fire was shooting out of the guitar. Yuki tried to reform the ice, but Trent was equally as fast when it came to melting it.

"Okay, that's pretty good!" Trent nodded. "Burn baby, burn!" The stream of fire grew in size.

Yuki started to glow light blue again.

"Wrath of the Blizzard!"

Her aura exploded in a shockwave that covered the island and froze everything it touched. The frozen air extinguished Trent's flames quickly.

"Well, I guess it was too early to celebrate." Trent watched as the ice began to cover the island again.

"Quick, play some more notes!" Courtney shouted.

Just as Trent was about to play his guitar again an ice cold hand sprouted out of the ground and grabbed his ankle.

"What the?"

Snowmen sprouted from the ice and snow covered ground surrounding them and attacked. Courtney swung her staff and sliced one snowman's head off while bisecting the other. However both quickly regenerated and attacked again. Trent attempted to play his guitar but one punched across the face which made him lose ten life points and four more snowmen jumped on him making him taste the icy floor.

"This is not good. If Trent can't play his fire note than they can't take out Yuki's snowmen or melt the ice." Gwen said with a concerned look.

"And Courtney has not discovered her special power yet." Bridgette pointed out.

"Wouldn't we just take over and take her out?" Heather asked.

"It's not that simple, Heather. Even though some of us still have plenty of life points if we've been through a pretty intense fight we would still be exhausted and low on energy." Aelita said.

"She's right. After that fight with Ryder I don't think my fire aura would be strong enough to melt those things." Gwen said.

"Not to mention the earlier fights with the monsters, Shadow, Ryder, Lilith, and the Terror Bird. We're all a little weary while Yuki is fresh and ready." Bridgette said.

"And we still have two more to fight." Noah looked over towards Shadow and Lilith. "Man, if I survive today I am never playing video games again."

Trent swung his guitar and slammed it into the side of one snowman's head. He repeated this, and managed to get one fire note off, melting two more near him. When he swung, one of his hands brushed over the strings...and a spinning blade extended out of the tip of his guitar. It sliced through the next three snow men like tissue paper.

"Wow, chain saw." Trent swung the chainsaw tipped guitar-a very odd sounding name by the way at the next snow man. "Ok, I think I might have a plan figured out."

"What is it?" Courtney shattered another snow man. "And hurry!"

"Okay. I'll hit the ice by Yuki, and then zap her." Trent aimed his guitar at the area where Yuki was coming at for another pass. "You keep these snow men off of me."

Courtney nodded and stepped closer to him as he fired off a fire note. Yuki stumbled as the ice vanished under her. She dismissed her ice blades and landed on her feet. "What's the point of th-"

BZZT!-!-!-!-!-!-!

Yuki was given the shock of her life a second later as Trent fired an Electric Spell at her. She screamed as the water conducted the electricity. When it was over, Yuki stumbled over to the side of the small pool that had formed and leaned against a wall of ice.

"Alright, now to clear some space." Trent began to shoot Fire Spells all over the area. With Yuki wounded, he was able to melt all of the snow men and the ice field that Yuki had conjured. "Finally! I hate ice so much now!"

"Now we just gotta finish her off." Courtney started towards Yuki, staff ready to break the General open.

Yuki looked up with a blank stare as Courtney stood over her. Courtney raised her staff but she hesitated to land the final blow. That was when suddenly Lilith appeared behind Yuki and touched her before reappearing next to Shadow and Ryder.

"Sorry, Yuki but it looks like your fight is over." Lilith said as she sat Yuki down.

"So, Lilith can you finish what they started?" Shadow asked.

"Watch me."

Lilith teleported back to the battle field and smirked.

"Seeing as the Punk is gone, who will face me?"

"Yo," Noah stepped forward.

"Me!" Izzy did a handless cart wheel and landed next to Noah.

"I'll help, you'll need me to see through her illusions." Aelita joined them.

"Are you sure, Aelita? If you are devirtualized we lose our one chance of saving everyone." Bridgette said.

"I have to. I'm the only one with the ability to see through Lilith's illusions."

"Okay, Izzy, Noah, you got to make sure Aelita is not devirtualized. If she is we all lose." Gwen advised.

"Yeah, whatever," Noah shrugged.

Curse that omnipresent lack of empathy Noah managed to keep! All three stepped forward as Lilith pulled out her bow. Before anyone could get ready to attack Lilith held out her left hand and a glowing purple orb appeared on the palm.

"Before we start to fight here's a little something to prevent the audience from warning you." She tossed the orb into the air and it exploded into a flash of energy that turned into a barrier that shielded the island.

"Cody, can you see what this is?" Aelita asked.

"_It's some kind of barrier but I don't know what it does. I can still see all of you._"

"But can you see through this?" Lilith asked as she suddenly split into three.

"Cody, can you see through the illusion?"

"_No! The map shows three of her! I can't tell which is the real one!_"

"That's right. I know Aelita can see through the illusion but earlier when I fought the punk the audience helped him when I teleported while fighting him. This barrier keeps them from seeing while I teleport or use my illusions." Lilith smirked. "Not so easy anymore is it? You'll have to rely on your reflexes now."

"But if _I_ get a hold of you, that won't make a difference." Noah replied.

"You don't even know how to fight!" Lilith mocked the Genius.

"Well apparently DJ was supposed to be a defensive based player, yet he could still fight. So maybe..." Noah looked at his gloves. "These don't look fancy for no reason, nothing does, everything means something here." He glanced up. "And I have a damn good guess at what I can do here."

He raised his arms...which began to morph into something else before his eyes. When they were done, his arms had become a set of guns similar to the Tarantulas' arms! The only difference was that they matched the pattern of his gloves. "Boo yah!" He fired on her.

"Wow, he figured out his special ability faster than anybody else!" Gwen watched as Noah began to push Lilith back with barrages of rapid laser fire.

Lilith raised an eyebrow, and raised a hand and a portal appeared in front of her and swallowed the lasers.

"Real cute kid, but you'll need a whole lot more than that!"

"I'm glad to oblige!" Noah stopped firing, and morphed one of his arms into large blades like the Krabs' legs that had the same pattern as his Laser Arms and gloves!

He leaped forward and swung downwards, nearly cleaving Lilith in half. Lilith easily dodged each and every swing with the grace of a ballet dancer, laughing a little girl in the park all the while.

"You're enjoying this?" Noah asked, swinging again.

Lilith easily dodged and smiled. "Why not? This is getting a whole lot more fun!"

She pulled out her bow and blocked Noah's next strike and kicked him in the stomach.

"In Lyoko the laws of psychics still exist but we are able to move faster, jump higher, and can even be stronger than what would be considered impossible in the real world. Once you get used to it, the skills automatically come to you like you've known since you were born." Lilith said.

She levelled her bow as an arrow appeared in her other hand. "You still have all five senses in this world. And guess what, I can fool them long enough to finish off my prey."

She fired her bow and Noah blocked but he felt the arrow pierce his back.

"AH!" He arched his back, his hands forming back to normal as he tugged the arrow out. "Damn, well you sure weren't lying!" He looked at Aelita and Izzy. "A little help?"

"Izzy, you go in, I'll tell you if she or the attack is real." Aelita ordered.

"BONZAI!" Izzy leaped into action and fired her cross bows at Lilith.

Lilith teleported before the arrows hit her and reappeared a few feet away.

"Eleven o'clock!"

Izzy fired her arrows again but like before Lilith teleported out of the way. She teleported above them and fired arrows down at them.

"Run anywhere!" Aelita shouted.

They all ran out of the way as the arrows hit the ground. Lilith teleported and landed on the ground.

"Okay, so as long as she's directing them they won't fall for my illusions. I guess I better take her out."

Lilith teleported and landed in front of Aelita with an arrow ready but Aelita held an energy field out and blocked the arrow. The resulting collision created an explosion that blew them both back. Aelita slid across the ground and looked up.

"Lilith's going for Aelita now!" Bridgette said.

"Yeah. Without Aelita we'll all be blind while Lilith takes us out." Gwen observed.

"AYE-YA-YA-YA-YA!" Izzy managed to land a hit, slamming one heel into Lilith's head as she ended a cart wheel.

Lilith snarled and notched another arrow. "STAY OUT OF MY WAY YOU ANNOYING LITTLE PYSCHO!" She fired an arrow, which caught on Izzy's dress and went into a rock next to her. Izzy glanced down at it and tugged. She stood there, trying to tug her dress free-and not really looking like she was in much of a hurry to do it.

With Izzy thoroughly distracted, Lilith fired on Aelita and managed to knock her out of the air when she tried to fly up to shoot another energy field. Noah fired several lasers at Lilith to keep her from attacking while he positioned himself between her and Aelita.

_"Noah, I don't mean to pressure you but you lose five life points every time you change one of your hands."_ Cody informed the genius. _"You have fifty five life points left."_

"Well that's just perfect!" Noah shot two arrows out of the air. "Izzy, a little help please?"

"Uh...kinda stuck dude." Izzy tugged on the end of her dress with one hand. "Be a sec."

"WE'RE IN A BATTLE OF LIFE OR DEATH!" Noah shouted.

"Alright, alright, yeesh you boys are SO moody, and you say we girls are too emotional." Izzy rolled her eyes. "Just one second!" She raised one hand, with one finger up...and exploded in a cloud of red smoke.

The fighters stopped for a moment. Noah stared at the smoke. "Uh...what just happened?"

Suddenly, with a yowl, a large red furred creature came out of the smoke. It had black stripes, and looked like it could wrestle a Tarantula and win...

"Izzy?"

"RAWR!" Izzy, who had turned into a large tiger snarled, and then grinned dumbly. "Wow! Awesome!"

"She-she turned into a...tiger?" Trent raised an eye brow.

"Wait...a sec." Noah rubbed his chin with the tip of one laser. "Ow, that thing burns! Uh...Izzy, imagine yourself as an uh...eagle!"

Izzy vanished in a puff of smoke, and a red feathered eagle shot into the air.

"Her special power!" Noah actually laughed. "Metamorphosis!"

Izzy landed. "Sweet! I have JUST the thing for Lily!" She then turned...into a large red Elephant.

Lilith stared up at the large creature and took a step back. "Uh...wow."

"CHARGE!" Izzy cackled.

The elephant stamped forwards towards Lilith who teleported out of the just in time before she was flattened.

"Wow, an actual shape shifter." Lilith noted with a grin. "This is going to get fun."

Izzy transformed back into an eagle and flew straight at her but Lilith back flipped into the air and fire an arrow down as Izzy flew under her but Izzy dodged it and morphed into a bear. She tried to slash at Lilith with her claws but Lilith dodged each swing easily. Noah decided to help by firing lasers but Lilith created a portal that sucked all the lasers in.

"How is she doing that? I thought illusions were her primary power. It was bad enough she could teleport." Noah said.

"Oh, Noah. You don't remember the arrow I used to force you out of the Terror Bird do you?"

Noah's eyes widened as he though it over.

"I can move to any place in Lyoko instantly because I was given the ability to warp space and time here. When you see me teleporting I am just warping from one spot to another. It allows me to move from one point to another anywhere. You're right, my primary power is illusions and combined with my ability to warp makes me very dangerous." Lilith smirked evilly. "Allow me to show you."

Instantly small portals opened on all sides of the three Lyoko warriors.

"What the-" Aelita was cut off as laser arrows flew out of the portals and struck her.

The same happened to Izzy and Noah as they were hit on all sides instantly before they could respond. They all fell to the ground after the attack was finished.

"Like it. I can open small portals all around you and fire laser arrows. The price I must pay is only one arrow per portal and each one only does five life points damage." Lilith sneered. "Twenty arrows to take down one warrior, but you're all wounded so I'd wager I'll need less than that for all three of you!"

Noah grunted. "How many do we have left?"

"_Noah, you're down to fifteen while Aelita and Izzy are down to sixty._"

"That's right. I lost ten life points each arrow earlier and the life points I lost from changing my weapons." Noah nodded as he went over the numbers in his head from all the time he was hit.

"There must be a limit to that ability or we would be finished by now." Aelita said. "Each player has a limit to their abilities that either takes away life points or leaves them unable to use it again until they are virtualized again or a certain amount of time has passed."

"Like how I lose life points when my hands change." Noah nodded and looked over to Izzy. "Izzy can you imagine a monster or a mythical creature and try to morph into it?"

Izzy nodded and pictured it in her head but unlike before she did not change.

"Looks like her limit is that she can only morph into animals from Earth and real." Aelita said.

"Aw...I wanted to turn into a Hippogriff, like in Harry Potter!" Izzy whined.

"That's from England, not France." Noah said.

"Uh..duh, I'm talking about the book, not where it happened, smart guy!"

"I think I have a plan to beat her." Aelita said.

"We're listening." Noah said.

"From the way she teleports and uses illusions it's obvious she's a long range fighter, considering she's avoided close range combat as much as possible. If we want to win we have to get in close."

"And what about that portal thing?" Noah asked.

"The key to winning is to never stop moving. She's doesn't have eyes on the back of her head so she might only be able to use that attack on those in her eye sight. So we must be keep moving while moving out of her sight. Use misdirection and get in close, force her on the defence."

"Ok, I think I know one thing I can turn my arms into, get one last good hit in." Noah said. "After that, just distract her, and I'll move in and take control."

"If she opens those portals again, keep moving. They can't move, but we can." Aelita nodded. "Alright, go!"

All three of them split up different directions.

"Where do you think you're going?" Lilith shouted as she aimed an arrow at Aelita.

She fired but Aelita turned and raised her hand.

"Plasma Beam!"

The beam shot through the arrow and headed towards Lilith. She teleported to avoid it and landed a few feet away. She prepared to fire again when she heard a roar. Spinning around she saw a red and black tiger jump at her.

Lilith's eyes widened as she teleported just before the tiger slashed her. Reappearing she prepared to fire her arrow when Aelita threw an energy field at her. Once again Lilith teleported, avoiding being hit. She reappeared above both of them but Aelita used her creativity to create a dome that blocked the arrow. Lilith growled in frustration as she teleported into the dome and looked for Aelita and Izzy.

Looking around she noticed they were gone. Lilith teleported out of the dome to find them.

'Where did they go? None of them could have gone invisi-' Lilith's eyes widened. 'That genius kid phased in and phased them out.'

Teleporting again she landed on top of a hill to look around. Her eyes spotted a pink blur and she smirked. Teleporting she appeared in front of Aelita and held her bow in front of the pink haired girl's face.

"Got ya."

She fired and Aelita exploded into energy and pixels.

"Yes! Too easy."

"Got ya."

Lilith's widened as she spun around and an energy field hit her. Gasping from shock and pain Lilith was tossed back and hit the ground hard. Before she could get up Noah shot several lasers at her forcing back even further. Izzy charged in as a tiger and slashed her which sent her flying back again.

Lilith hit a boulder and looked up with wide eyes as they surrounded her.

"How?"

"I created an alias to serve as a decoy to trick you. When Noah phased me and Izzy out of the dome I took the chance to make it before taking cover with them." Aelita explained. "Your illusions might be realistic, but I've been in the business of making them for years." She had a smug look on her face as she crossed her arms.

Before anyone else could do anything a black cloud grabbed Lilith and lifted her up. They looked up to see Shadow with his hand raised. He dropped Lilith next to him as he looked down.

"Well, I'm impressed. You managed to outwit our illusionist but before you get cocky you must know you still have one more to face and I happen to be the strongest of the generals." Shadow said with a cold look. "And many of you are quite exhausted and damaged."

"I'm pretty sure you won't be that much of a problem." Bridgette whipped out both of her swords. "Can I actually count on a straight up fight? Or will you be like your pals and try to make some 'elaborate' plan to change the whole game field before you fight?"

"You fight alone?" Shadow laughed harshly. "I took all six of you on before!"

"Yeah, and we weren't exactly 'veterans' at the time except Aelita." Bridgette replied. "So come on then, or are you scared of the little Surfer Girl?"

Shadow glared darkly at her. He jumped off the boulder and landed in front of her leaving a small crater.

"Things have changed since our last fight." His sword materialized in his hand out of a cloud of black smoke.

Xxx

"All right! The last general!" Duncan said.

"Come on Bridge! Kick his ass! That's my girl!" Geoff managed to hobble over to the computers despite protests from the resident medical experts: Kurt and Carlos.

"I know you're a party animal but this is ridiculous!" Kurt said. "If you push yourself too far you'll open your wounds and start bleeding again!"

"And a large amount of blood being lost at once can result in blacking out due to a lack of blood pressure to the brain." Carlos pointed out. "So stay off your feet and stay awake so you can watch your girl save our asses."

"Yeah-uh oh." Cody said.

"What is it Cody?"

"The Terror Bird is at the factory!" Cody showed them an image. "And it looks like France's fly boys aren't exactly fairing too well, XANA's got a whole army backing it up! That and any air craft are being redirected automatically."

"XANA's programming," DJ stated. "Remember? He's stronger, but can't kill anybody directly like blowing their planes out of the sky. That and its us he wants."

"For the moment." Cody looked at the screen. "I gotta check on the Kolossus. If the Terror Bird's at the factory it's only a matter of time before both of them try to break through the shields!"

"And when that happens we're pretty much dead," Kurt said grimly. "It'll bury us alive."

Carlos looked at the air lock doors. "Well, stuck between a rock-" He pointed at the collapsed Emergency Exit. "And a hot rock." He nodded to the image of the Kolossus. "And when I say hot I don't mean hot like Melissa...or Sarah."

"You got that right." Kurt added.

"Oh boy, if we die and somebody tells them a flaming rock killed us..." Carlos hesitated. "I don't know if they'll cry or beat the guy who told her to death for such a ridiculous story."

"Dude, you have military weapons in your vacation room, the story got ridiculous at the point you went from smart ass producer to a MacTavish wannabe!" Kurt said. (Note the 4th wall being broken a bit)

"Gotta get outta here, gotta get outta here, GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE!" Chris ran around in a panic. "OH PLEASE GOD I'LL CHANGE MY WAYS! I'LL STOP TAKING PICTURES OF SARAH AND MELISSA! I'LL STOP TORTURING THE CONTESTANTS! I'LL STOP USING THE BUDGET TO SECRETLY SELL MY HAIR GEL! I'LL STOP TAKING THE GAS OUT OF CARLOS' CAR-"

"Cuz," Carlos said sternly. "Stop now while you're still alive. Just sit down by the wall, or find some pom-poms and start cheering for our Surfer Girl."

"...do you have any pictures of Sarah and Melissa on you?"

"Uh...yes-?"

THWACK!

"Ooh!" Carlos winced, and laughed.

"Well the good news is Carlos, if we die, we get to look at the pictures of our lovers." Kurt sighed as he looked at the pictures of Melissa and Sarah. "Right before they die and come to heaven to kick our asses for getting killed in such a ridiculous event."

"Dude, the second you suddenly learned how to use a bow to fight against laser wielding monsters in such an implausible situation made the whole damn story weird." Carlos replied.

"Just shut up and look at the pictures of Melissa."

"Aye sir!" The Producers sighed in content as they looked at the pictures of their lovers.

"You're thinking of Melissa from when you were on that vacation in Spain, aren't you?"

"That depends, are you thinking of Sarah from that trip you took to Barbados?"

"It's the only happy image in my mind."

"Touché."

"Now, GO BRIDGETTE!" Kurt shouted.

"GO BRIDGETTE/SURFER CHICK/GIRL!" Every camper and employee shouted.

Xxx

Miles away, Roberto groaned overly dramatically. "I HATE YOU CARLOS!"

Xxx

"Can Bridgette take on that guy by herself?" Courtney asked as they watched the two prepare to fight.

"It's hard to say." Gwen replied.

"What do you mean?" Trent asked.

"Shadow was the very first general we fought and back then we were still learning about our powers. He was strong enough to take on all of us at once and since then we've all gotten a lot stronger. The fight could go either way since Shadow's power is darkness while the ocean gives Bridgette a lot of water to use." Gwen explained.

Shadow smirked as he held his sword over his shoulder and his other hand motioned for Bridgette to charge. Bridgette glared as she twirled both of her swords simultaneously before rushing forward. Shadow did the same and both opponents met with their swords clashing together before the force each was giving pushed them away from each other. Shadow swung and Bridgette ducked giving her an opening which she took advantage off. She plunged one of her swords into her enemy but Shadow preformed his super smoke and the sword passed through his black cloud form.

Shadow solidified back to his human form and swung again. Bridgette, knowing that blocking one of Shadow's strikes would send her flying back because of his strength settled for dodging his strikes. However Shadow was able to make it hard for Bridgette to strike him by blocking with his sword and gauntlet.

"Not bad, surfer girl. You can keep up but this warm up is over. Shadow Strike!"

That was when black cloud came out of Shadow's hand and punched Bridgette in the face, knocking her back. Shadow raised his sword to finish her.

"Pathetic."

However before Shadow could finish her Bridgette's tattoos glowed and a blast of water flew out of the ocean and smacked Shadow in the side knocking him from her. Bridgette jumped up and held her swords out. Shadow growled as he turned to face her and charged. Bridgette summoned another blast of water from the ocean and several large balls of water shot towards Shadow like bullets.

"Shadow Strike!"

A black cloud flew out and blocked the attack as Shadow charged and swung his sword. Bridgette blocked but the sheer strength of the attack knocked her back. Before she could do anything Shadow caught her as a black cloud hit her and lifted her into the air.

"Enjoy the last moments of your life in the real world."

He slammed Bridgette into the ground again and again before he held his sword in front of him and pointed it at her. The cloud then propelled Bridgette towards him but at the last second Bridgette fired her energy wave that knocked Shadow back. Bridgette landed on the ground face first but got up and retrieved her swords.

"You didn't think it was that easy did you?" Bridgette asked as Shadow got back up.

"I admit you caught me off guard but if you think you have the advantage I must shatter your hopes. Shadow Strike!"

The shadow flew at her again. She swung her swords firing her energy wave destroying it but Shadow swung his sword and unleashed his own energy wave that blasted her swords out of her hands. Shadow then kneed her in the stomach and knocked her back. Shadow then swung his sword down but Bridgette rolled out of the way.

She quickly used her hydrokinetic powers and this time a tidal wave came straight at Shadow. The leader of XANA's generals dodged by performing his super smoke manoeuvre and flew out of the way. While Shadow was distracted Bridgette retrieved her swords and turned to face him.

"This is good. Bridgette's using her water powers and skills to keep Shadow off balance. Shadow has more power but Bridgette's using her skills to keep him from finishing her." Aelita said, observing Bridgette's skills.

Bridgette charged forward again and her swords clashed with Shadow's. Both enemies attempted to push each other back again but this time Bridgette managed to push Shadow's sword out of her way and then slashed at him with her other sword. But Shadow disappeared into his super smoke and reappeared above her. Raising his sword high as he descended upon her, who managed to leap aside in time, his sword connected with the ground and left a large crater.

Jumping out of the crater he raced at Bridgette and swung his blade at her only for Bridgette's two swords to block it held in a cross formation. Shadow swung again and Bridgette was sent flying into a tree. The tree fell over as a result of the impact while Cody winced as Bridgette lost fifteen life points from the hit. Bridgette got up and charged but Shadow slammed down on her when she took two steps.

Luckily for Bridgette she managed to block in time but she was slammed back into the already knocked over tree. Looking up she saw Shadow's sword coming towards her neck to behead her she rolled out of the way in time only losing a few strands of hair. Looking up she saw Shadow bring his down on her but she managed to block in time. Growling Bridgette pushed Shadow back as she got to her feet and they clashed again only this time Bridgette was on the offensive, forcing Shadow to block with his sword and gauntlet.

Finally Bridgette managed to get an opening and thrust her right sword forward at Shadow's head. Only for him to disappear into his super smoke again and reappear behind her. Spinning around she managed to block a thrust but Shadow knocked her left sword out of her hand forcing Bridgette to block with only one sword. Stepping back, Bridgette desperately blocked Shadow's sword until he managed to slice her shoulder.

Bridgette gasped from the sensation as the cut bled out small lines of code before it healed itself. But Bridgette lost fifteen more life points. Shadow swung his sword down to slice her in half but Bridgette managed to raise her sword and block it in time.

"Why are you still trying to fight?" Shadow asked.

"What?"

"It's too late to win. The Terror Bird has reached the factory and now both it and the Kolossus will break through those shields like tissue paper. You, your comrades here, and the ones in the real world are finished. You cannot win."

"Shut up!" Bridgette shouted angrily. "That's not going to happen!"

Shadow raised an eyebrow as Bridgette started to push his sword back.

"I'm going to win this fight and Aelita will get into the tower and shut it down! And we'll plough through any army of monsters in our way!" Shadow's right foot slid through the sand as Bridgette continued to push him back. "There's no way we're going to lose!"

Bridgette's sword glowed bright blue and it started to slowly cut through Shadow's sword. Shadow's eyes widened but before he could do anything Bridgette's cut his sword in half. Shadow stared down at his now shorter by a half blade in shock.

"You...you...!" He was cut off when Bridgette brought her sword down and cut his right arm off. Shadow screamed as code streamed out of his severed limb. He leaped back, one hand over the breach until his arm reformed. Gasping in pain, he backed away from Bridgette. "Damn...how?"

"The hell if I know, this whole world is messed up, but maybe I can make a good start on making it a better place by cutting you to pieces!" Bridgette snarled and swung, but a shield formed around Shadow.

He looked and glared at Bridgette. "This is far from over. I hate it that I have to use it on someone like you but I have no choice. Prepare yourself as you, Aelita, the spell caster, and all the rest feel despair."

Shadow's form glowed back as he gritted his teeth growling. His form started to grow larger as bat like wings tore their way out of the back of his suit. He grew to be as tall as tall and muscular as DJ, tearing his suit apart. His body was now pure darkness his hair grew until it reached his shoulders and two large horns sprouted from his head.

His eyes were now yellow and the Eye of XANA glowed bright red on his forehead. Finally a very long and thin tail sprouted from his back. His mouth opened to reveal pure white colored shark like teeth.

"This is my second form. My power has increased so much that even all the other generals combined could not stop me." Shadow growled, his voice deeper and more demonic. "I AM SHADOW OF THE ENDLESS NIGHT!"

"Uh...guys? I don't suppose this could allow me to call for some help, could it?" Bridgette looked at her comrades.

Without replying, Aelita raised her hands and had an energy field ready while the rest of the group prepare their own weapons-except Noah, who could not afford any more life points.

"This is gonna be ugly." Noah said.

"Just start fighting!" Gwen shot a fire aura spell out.

"Can't! Not enough life points!" Noah retreated as the rest of the group went on the offensive.

Cody quickly ran a scan of Shadow's new form. His life points were still low thanks to Bridgette but his speed and stamina gauge was much higher.

"_Guys, be careful. Shadow's now a lot more agile and fast. Good news is that his life points are still the same._"

"And that changes the fact that we still have a really messed up monster facing us?" Bridgette asked.

_"It means a few more hits on him will let you win. Taking off his arm took off sixty life points."_

Shadow laughed.

"So confident, you pathetic little flesh walkers. If you want to test that then come."

"Gladly." Aelita held out her hand and fired her plasma beam.

Shadow jumped into the air and flew at them with his arms stretched out. "You'll need to a lot better than that!" He then reared his head back, opened his mouth, and gathered red energy into it.

"SCATTER!" Gwen shouted before he fired a massive sphere of red energy down at them.

Luckily nobody was hit, but it left a massive crater in the already much abused island.

"I don't even want to know what he's on, because it was even deadlier than Owen's breath!" Trent said.

"Hey, don't insult my boy friend!" Izzy shouted as she ran by in the form of a fox.

"We need a plan!" Noah, who was hiding behind a large rock with Bridgette shouted. "Okay, recap, he's a transformed, he's faster in the air, and he pretty much blew the nineteenth crater into this island...we're screwed!"

"We just have to hit him!" Trent fired off a few lightning spells.

"Problem! Too fast in the air!" Noah shouted. "Can you hit him while he's flying like that!"

"Uh...good point!" Trent dodged another laser from Shadow.

"Ok, Aelita is the only one who can fly as fast as he can but we need her to get to the tower." Noah began to plan. "Gwen can't use her spells while in flight and Bridgette's mode of flight is most prone to be knocked out from under her. Izzy...I am not going to fly on something she turns into. Can anybody else fly?"

"Not really!" Heather said. "I can uh..turn invisible along with anyone I touch!"

"Ok, what can Courtney do?"

Courtney coughed awkwardly as she knelt behind a downed tree.

"Oh, right, out of all of us you haven't found your power yet." Noah face palmed. "Not to mention we're all a little winded from the first three."

"So once again, we're screwed!" Courtney ducked under another laser. "This is crazy. This is crazy!"

"Oh crap, she's losing it." Gwen sighed, and dodged through a field of lasers and explosions to reach Courtney...who she promptly slapped across the face. "Snap out of it!"

"This is not real! This is insane!" Courtney shrieked. "I never even asked to come here!"

"No, you jumped into a scanner after I told you to do what DJ said-and by the way you pretty much ignored me." Gwen glared at her.

_"Give me that-Courtney, can you hear me?"_

"Duncan?" Courtney looked up.

_"Courtney, look, I know it's all scary, but this isn't a time to panic. Come on, you've always said you can handle whatever Total Drama tossed at you! You can handle this!" _Duncan said. _"Look. Princess! I know we've been having a ton of trouble through the months. You did horrible stuff, I did horrible stuff, we all pretty much did horrible stuff, some of us didn't even mean it and some of us caused a lot of it for those people. And we screwed up people who we called our friends and I especially screwed up you, Gwen, Geoff, and Bridgette!" _He sighed. _"So I'm sorry! I. Am. Sorry. And that is not something you will hear me say a lot if at all! You gotta work with her Courtney, she knows what she is doing, she's pretty much known about this since day one and saved us god knows how many times despite how much shit we've caused her."_ He paused. _"Hey, what the- dude I'm not done yet-"_

_"Out of the way you stupid Punk!"_

"Alejandro?" Heather asked, peeking out from cover as though he were with her in Lyoko.

_"Listen babe, we both pretty much tried to screw each other over on World Tour, and I did have a right to be mad at you. But listen to me: I forgive you Heather! I forgave you for what happened in Hawaii! It taught me a real lesson and I want to have another chance with you! Without all the sneaking around and scheming, I want us to have a real relationship. But we have to survive and that means you have to help them."_

Heather, if she had tears ducts in her digital form, would have been crying by now. "You . . .forgive me?"

"_Yes, I do._" Alejandro said.

Heather stood up and fired at Shadow. "I'M COMING BACK OUT THERE ALIVE AND THIS OVERGROWN BAT IS _NOT_ GETTING IN MY WAY!"

"Dang, and I thought LeShawna had a temper." Trent whispered.

Gwen smiled and looked down at Courtney before holding out her hand. "What do you say, Courtney? Can we shelve the hate and work together to save everyone?"

Courtney stared at the hand and then looked back up at Gwen. She reached up, took Gwen's hand, and stood up.

"And I'm sorry too." Gwen said smiling at her before she turned around to see Shadow flying above them.

She ran up next to Heather as she tried to shoot more shurikens at Shadow.

"Hold your ammo. I've got an idea."

Heather stopped and looked at her.

"Just trust me on this. Izzy get over here!"

Izzy ran up to them in tiger form.

"What?"

"Change into your human form and get your crossbows ready." Gwen said as she looked at Shadow.

The winged demon glared down at them as he noticed three of them group together.

"When I say now, fire everything you've got at him." Gwen said as she looked up.

She threw her scythe towards him but he batted it away and flew at them with his mouth glowing red. Gwen glowed green, activating her wing aura. Her scythe appeared back in her hand.

"NOW!"

Heather and Izzy fired and Gwen swung her scythe sending forth a whirlwind that made the shurikens and explosive arrows fly even faster. Shadow could dodge before but with Gwen's wind spell making them even fast enough that Shadow could not see them. He was hit and Izzy's arrows exploded, enveloping him in a flash of light.

"Did that do it?" Gwen asked.

"_Sorry, his life points didn't hit zero. But they are at twenty now._"

"Crap." Gwen muttered as the smoke cleared.

Shadow glared down at them with even more anger not thought possible.

"This is the end for you." He spread his wings out. "Your end will be in the darkness of the never ending night."

"Oh crap, he's talking like some bad cliché!" Izzy bristled.

"Guys, does anybody notice the uh...change in scenery?" Noah looked up at the darkening sky.

"He's blocking out the sun?" Bridgette looked around. "I didn't think Lyoko even had a sun!"

"Heh, well looks like XANA really went all out to make it realistic." Gwen shrugged. "Ok, it's dark, so what?"

"THIS!" Shadow roared before...energy built up in his wings and unleashed streams of dark energy blasts down on them.

"Trent, shield!" Gwen shouted.

Trent played the note for the shield from his guitar just as the dark matter blasts collided with the shield. The barrier started to crack from the endless attacks.

"SCATTER!" Aelita shouted.

Before Trent could run the barrier cracked open and a blast of dark matter blew his avatar into streams of data.

"And that's two down!" Shadow laughed. "You're dropping like flies!"

"Okay this is getting us nowhere." Gwen said as they hid behind a rock. "We can't take him the way we are now. We're all exhausted from the fights with the monsters and the other generals."

"Can't we bring someone else in?" Heather asked.

"You want to risk the lab collapsing on them while being virtualized?" Bridgette asked.

"What are those shields for?" Courtney asked.

"There's no guarantee they'll hold up for very long. They were there just to give time not hold indefinitely." Aelita replied.

"Maybe they can hold long enough to defeat this guy." Noah said.

"That's the problem. They would have no idea of the powers or weapons they would have and would not last a second." Gwen said.

"Gwen, we might have to take that risk! We're getting our butts kicked and most of us are short on life points!" Courtney tugged Gwen close by the shoulder. "Come on! Just get Kurt or Carlos in here and-"

"If the lab collapses everybody dies!"

"And if we lose everybody dies anyways!" Courtney replied. "Gwen, I am not trying to be a bitch this time around, I am telling you that if we lose here, then everybody in the real world and a lot more people will die if we don't get some reinforcements. Worst case scenario, we die no matter what we do, so-" She paused as her hand began to glow, and energy flowed into Gwen. "What-what am I doing?"

_"Gwen! Your energy bar is going back up!"_ Cody shouted. _"Seventy...seventy five...eighty...eighty five...ninety! Your attack power is also increasing!"_

"Courtney...you're healing me! And making me stronger!" Gwen stood up. "That's your power! You're giving...wow, no offense but I never thought that would be it."

"None taken." Courtney released her. "Guys! Get over here!"

Shadow smirked as he looked down at the boulder hiding the last Lyoko Warriors. Suddenly the boulder was lifted up into the air. Shadow raised an eye as he saw Gwen with her Earth aura activated. She flung her arms forward and sent the boulder flying towards him like a speeding bullet.

"Tch, like that will work." Shadow smashed the boulder apart with his right fist.

He smiled down at her.

"Was that your attempt at a final stand?"

To his surprise, Gwen smiled.

"No, just giving them a distraction."

Shadow's eyes widened as he looked around. Looking around he saw no signs of the other warriors. Looking back down at Gwen he scoffed.

"A distraction for what?"

"THIS!"

Shadow spun just in time for an energy wave and lasers to slice tears and blow holes into his wings and Aelita's plasma beam to slam into him and he plunged into the island. He smashed into the ground and created a large crater. Gwen smiled as she looked up to see the eagle Izzy had morphed into with Heather, Aelita, and Bridgette standing on her back. Shadow stood up, returning to his original form.

"How?"

"Courtney. She has the power to give us back our strength. She restored us our strength which was lost when we fought the others." Gwen said with a smile as Courtney stood next to her. "Izzy used her metamorphosis to change into an eagle and Heather turned her and anyone on her invisible since Heather can turn herself and anyone who touches her invisible."

"My power is that I can restore people's power, stamina, and at the cost of my own life points I can restore their life points enough that they can fight." Courtney said.

Izzy landed and everyone got off. Noah smirked as he turned his laser guns back into his hands.

"I'll deal with the tower." Aelita took off towards the tower.

Shadow growled. Gwen held her scythe over him.

"Don't even think about it. It's over, Shadow."

"You're right, Gwen. It is over."

Suddenly Lilith teleported beside Shadow, grabbed him and teleported out before anyone could do anything. Everyone turned to see Lilith along with Ryder, Yuki, and the wounded Shadow standing in front of a transport orb. But unlike the usual one this one was black with the red Eye of XANA.

"Congratulations. You all managed to save everyone. Even if the Terror Bird and the Kolossus attack at the same time there's not enough time for them to smash the shields and destroy the labs." Lilith looked over her shoulder. "But we have not totally lost either. Counting those two along with the others you think there are now thirteen Lyoko warriors, am I right? But . . . I'm afraid that four warriors have now been removed."

"What are you talking about?" Heather demanded. "We just kicked your ass and the others will recover from your attack in the real world!"

"I have no need to explain myself to you. Just remember this: if Shadow had not interrupted me I would have finished off the rest of you despite your beliefs." Lilith snapped but then smiled. "Well, that was more fun than I thought. See ya, hope we get to play again."

"Like that'll happen." Noah said. "Sorry lady, but next time we meet I'm gonna possess you and make you punch yourself in the face until the cows come home."

"Ha, go ahead and think that, it's a pity I never had a chance to try my trump card on you, so see ya next time!" Lilith and the others stepped into the orb and vanished.

Aelita stepped into the tower and flew up to the upper platform. She placed her hand on the screen.

**Aelita**

**Code: Lyoko**

"Tower deactivated."

Xxx

Back in the real world both the Kolossus and the Terror Bird vanished into clouds of black smoke and faded from view.

"They did it!" Trent shouted.

The group broke into applause.

"WOO HOO!"

"WE'RE ALIVE!"

"THANK GOD!"

"OH THANK YOU GOD FOR SAVING ME!" Chris shouted.

"...Can you let go of my leg now?" Carlos asked impatiently.

"Oh, I am so a new man! I am a new man cousin! You're gonna see a brand new Chris!" Chris leaped to his feet. "I am gonna be a better man from this day on!"

"Too bad we'll never be able to see that." Cody sighed as he typed in a new set of code.

Xxx

"So what happens now?" Noah asked.

"Well...we wait for Cody to input some new codes...and you'll wake up back in your bed." Aelita explained.

"What's going on?" Heather asked.

_"Wait one second and..."_

"Cody?"

_"Return to the past now!"_

Suddenly everyone was enveloped in a white light.


	32. Episode 31: Aftermath: Keep it Secret?

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 31

Duncan opened his eyes and slowly looked around.

'Am I...?'

Justin was snoring loud enough to wake the dead.

'Yep, I'm here...when am I though?'

He looked at his watch. 'This was...three hours ago?'

Turning his head he saw Noah sit up on his bed and look over at him. The genius had the same confused look on his face. They looked at Izzy and found she was confused as they were. That was the first time she ever looked confused.

"I think we need to talk to Gwen and the others." Noah said quietly.

Xxx

Heather had no idea how she managed to land right back in her bed. Opening her eyes and sitting up she saw the other members of her team in their beds sleeping, except Courtney. She had the same bewildered face as Heather as she looked around with a confusion and surprise. Looking around they saw that Gwen and Cody's beds were empty.

Who knew what those two were up to anymore? Gwen had been rather secretive before, but this took it to an all new level. And Cody, he was always open with everybody! He never kept a secret from anybody as far as she could tell.

But they'd been fighting a super computer bent on world domination for a whole month now...unless it was all a big dream. But Courtney would have had to have one really freaky dream if she had the same look Heather did.

"Did you have the same dream?" Courtney whispered.

Heather only nodded.

"We better find Gwen and Cody."

Xxx

Trent sat up on his bed and looked around. One second he was in this digital world fighting alongside Gwen and Bridgette to help save everyone from a mentally berserk computer program. Looking around he noticed LeShawna, DJ, Geoff, and Bridgette were not in their beds. Looking at the watch he noticed the time.

'This was three hours ago!'

How could that be? Did they go back in time? Bridgette said they could erase the memories of anyone who were caught up in any attack so maybe that's what they did. They erased everyone's memories and brought them back here.

But then how did he get back into his bed without remembering?

'I got to find Gwen.'

Xxx

Duncan, Noah, and Izzy snuck out of their room.

"I'll go see Team Amazon. You two find Team Victory and see if Trent had the same dream."

Noah nodded and he and Izzy walked towards Team Victory's room. Duncan then headed to Team Amazon's room. He ended up bumping into Courtney in the hall. They both scrambled and then managed to get off each other without making noise.

They looked at one another and then moved into the bathroom next to them.

"Uh...did you have the same uh...weird 'dream' that I did?" Courtney asked.

"That depends, did you learn the entire world is under attack from a computer and we had to go into some messed up video game to fight it?"

"Yeah..."

"Uh...that totally happened...but how did we end up here-" Duncan paused as the door opened...

And Carlos blinked as he looked at them. "Do I want to ask?"

They shook their heads.

"Ah, very well." He shut the door...but opened it back up. "Just FYI, you better clean up the mess when you're done." He shut the door.

"Well...he looked rather...relaxed." Courtney said.

"Yeah...did he forget everything that just happened?" Duncan scratched his head. "...and did I really promise to get rid of my Mohawk?"

"Yep." The door opened again, and Gwen was leaning against the side of the door.

"Yipe!" They silently yelped and spun to face her.

"Am I interrupting?" Gwen raised an eyebrow.

"Uh...kinda, what just happened?" Duncan asked.

"Did _what_ just happen?" Gwen asked with a sly grin. "Did I just walk in after you got your clothes back on?"

"Gwen, this isn't funny and I would like to know what the hell happened." Duncan said as he kept calm, making sure not to explode at her in the middle of one very disgruntled ex-SAS soldier's cottage. "So please tell us what that flash of light was."

"Oh alright, you two need a sense of humour." Gwen stepped in, accompanied by Cody. "Simply put...we went back in time and nobody except...well everybody on Team Lyoko can remember it because they were not affected by the time reversal."

"...you had a time machine hidden under a rundown cottage?" Courtney asked.

"And how the hell do you go back in time?" Duncan demanded.

"Sorry Duncan, even I don't have the answer to that. I'd suggest you watch some sci-fi films Harold likes but I doubt you'd appreciate the inevitable teasing." Gwen replied.

"Look, the bottom line is that we're all in this now, and if you want to find out more we'll be meeting at the rundown cottage." Cody chimed in.

"So feel free to come along or uh..._finish your business_." Noah added as he stuck his head in through the door. "And can you hurry up? Other people have to use the bath room too."

Duncan's eyes narrowed at Noah. He had been given one innuendo too many now.

"Uh...what are you doing?" Noah gulped.

Duncan grabbed the boy genius. "Ladies and Cody, please step out."

Not willing to stop Duncan, the three teens left Noah to his fate...Duncan locked the door from the inside after they left.

"Okay, so who else is-"

"Gwen!" Heather shout-whispered.

Gwen turned to see Heather walking towards them. She raised an amused eyebrow at the look Heather was giving her and smiled friendly.

"Oh hey Heather-"

"Gwen, talk, now. What the eff was all of that crazy crap?" Heather cut her off and got really close to Gwen's face with a glare.

Gwen had a blank look at how close Heather was and the look she was giving. She knew that she along with Courtney and Duncan were in no mood for jokes but she was having too much fun to care.

"Your make up?" Gwen teased her.

Heather gave her a very deadly glare. As Trent and Izzy joined them she whispered. "We want to know everything about this Gwen, no holding back."

"Well there's one problem right now," Gwen stated. "We have to wait for Duncan to stop torturing Noah, and then we have to meet the others at the cottage where the lab is hidden so we can talk to Aelita."

"Alright, when do we go?"

"...as soon as Duncan finishes Noah's makeover."

Xxx

As soon as Duncan was finished dyeing Noah's hair green the new Lyoko Warriors followed Gwen and Cody through the forest towards the cabin.

"So . . . You're saying that we went back in time to before we were attacked by giant freaky monsters?" Noah said with his face still amazingly still blank as usual.

"Yep. Kind of like how you rewind a movie but now no monsters." Gwen replied looking over her shoulder.

"So then why are we still worrying about this?" Duncan asked.

"Because its only capable of stopping the attack we went back through, not future ones." Gwen said. "XANA will have to recover for a few days, and at that point he'll attack again with something different."

"So all if it was real?" Trent asked.

"Yep. The giant monsters, the lab, the virtual world, the fighting, and the awesome powers." Cody said.

"I could morph into animals! So cool! I know over ninety different animal languages!" Izzy rambled excitedly.

Soon enough the house was in sight and they could see LeShawna, Geoff, Bridgette, and DJ waiting for them.

"LeShawna!" Gwen called out before running up to hug her. "I'm so glad to see your all right."

LeShawna chuckled. "You know me, girl. You can't get rid of me that easily."

"Geoff and Bridgette pretty much made out one second after we got back, didn't they?" Cody asked.

"Shut. Up." Bridgette said, blushing a bit.

"Hey, don't be embarrassed, Duncan and Courtney were in a bathroom consummating their renewed relationship." Gwen smirked.

"Shut. Up." Both Courtney and Duncan glared at Gwen.

Gwen chuckled at them. She turned back to LeShawna and the others.

"So how are you guys? Before we went back in time Lilith mentioned that four of us have been removed and you, Geoff, and Cody were injured before we got to the lab."

"No idea, girl. We all seem fine." LeShawna replied.

"Yeah. I feel good." Geoff agreed.

"What about Aelita? Can she help?" Gwen asked.

"Actually, she's coming over." DJ said.

Gwen raised an eyebrow at that.

"How is she going to get all the way here from Kadic?"

"Come on. Let's get into the lab." Bridgette walked into the house and they followed her.

Opening the floor door to the basement they walked down the stairs to the door and Bridgette inputted the password. The door opened and everyone was soon enough back in the same lab they were in before.

"So why is this lab here?" Trent asked.

"The house above this lab is the house Aelita lived with her parents during the winter holidays until she and her dad moved when they were six." Gwen replied. "Her time in Lyoko left her with some memory trouble so we didn't figure it out for a bit, and she never remembered this lab..or was never in it, her dad is the architect of this whole thing. He made XANA to destroy a government program called Carthage...and things kind of went out of control."

"From what she can remember the government abducted her mother when she was six years old and they moved to the city after that. We think the government wanted her dad to turn over XANA since he made something better than their toy. When she was twelve they showed up at their house near the Kadic school and they fled to her dad's lab in a nearby abandoned car factory where he had scanners and a supercomputer like the ones here." Bridgette said.

"The plan was to hide in Lyoko, safe from the government and anyone else looking for them." LeShawna continued. "But even there they weren't safe."

"Yep, guess who was sitting there and in the mood for some cliché world domination?" Gwen asked rhetorically. "Good ol' XANA. He imprisoned her father and took her memory from her. She spent years stuck in Lyoko before she was discovered by several Kadic students: Jeremy Belpois, Odd Della Robbia, Ulrich Stern, and Yumi Ishiyama. They were the original Lyoko warriors, well Jeremy was their analyst and support while the other three guarded Aelita on Lyoko. They also recruited William Dunbar temporarily. They thought they had destroyed XANA two years ago, but...he survived. They tried to take him out again, but everybody but Aelita was captured."

"And during the second challenge, we ran into Aelita, saw a monster attack her, and helped her out. She took us to the factory and showed us the scanner. We agreed to help, and we've been doing it ever since." DJ chimed in. "And Cody joined up further along the line, and then you all ended up in the scanners and here we all are."

"And we were lucky to get this many new fighters, and we would have lost for sure if this lab wasn't here." Gwen said.

"Ok...so you've been at this since...day one?" Trent asked. "And you never told anybody?"

"First rule of being a Lyoko Warrior: Never tell anybody. Plus, recruiting has been a bit of bad luck in the past for this team. The first time around they had somebody else they tried to spill, and the second time William ended up possessed as a puppet not too dissimilar to Shadow." Bridgette replied. "Plus, would any of you believed us unless we dragged you to the factory?"

"And no offense, but we were hesitant in telling some people." Geoff added.

"Uh...point taken." Heather whispered, looking away in shame.

"Besides, being a Lyoko warrior isn't suited for everybody. Katie and Sadie aren't fighting material, they'd break faster than glass. Sierra, Justin...just no." Gwen shook her head. "Lindsay and Beth...they can be self dependant on some occasions but they wouldn't be suited for this. Eva's too much of a loose cannon to be trusted, Harold was eliminated right after the second challenge after we helped Aelita, Owen might have gone along with it, but no offense to your boy friend Izzy but he would not have fit in the scanners, and Tyler...he's got good intentions, but he was not a fighter. Ezekiel and Alejandro were too injured to try, and plus I really didn't trust Ezekiel to keep a secret. If we recruited Duncan, Courtney would have gotten more suspicious. Heather, you were still in a wheel chair until now."

"Ok, we get it." Courtney sighed. "We're not exactly the most...trustworthy and that's for a very good reason."

"But why not try recruiting Kurt or Carlos? You saw them kick butt and you heard everything they talked about. They know stuff about Aelita's dad." Trent said.

"Because the government has a group that doesn't care about the right thing, they only want new stuff to make a new toy out of and make their country the dominant power on Earth." Gwen said. "They sure as hell didn't feel bad about dragging a six year old girl's mother away in front of her eyes."

"Yeah, but they didn't sound too eager to tell them either. Hell, they were pretty much for keeping it shut up from the government and handling it well...kind of in a quiet manner." Trent pointed out.

"Maybe, but RealiTech is the prime suspect in giving XANA a way to fake his death the first time around. And the only reason we're here is because they want to show off their technology while the producers get to prove that they don't condone Chris' behaviour." Cody crossed his arms.

"Hey, come on, that's making those two sound as bad as that government group. They saved our lives like half a dozen times and risked their lives fighting off dozens of monsters out there. Hell, bring them into Lyoko the way they are now and you'd have like...super soldiers." Duncan tried to reason.

"It's not our call to make Duncan, technically Aelita is the team leader because of her experience, and I can't really see her trusting anybody else." Gwen sighed. "But she does have good reasons. We could still make temporary use of people before we reverse time. We're definitely calling on those two for some help if XANA tries playing the 'monsters in reality' card again...calling on them and perhaps one of those grenade launchers Carlos snuck out-why I'm not turning him in I still don't know."

"Because he's awesome and he punches Chris and he keeps us safe and he's a lot more reliable than Chris, Chef, and Roberto?" Izzy asked.

"...good point. But anyways...it's Aelita's call, if she says we can, we will, but until then, we won't." Gwen said. "Besides, we still have problems of our own."

"Like what?" Noah asked.

"We think this lab might be the original lab where Aelita's dad created everything, meaning it might have more clues on Lyoko, Carthage, and XANA. Might even give us a way to track XANA to whatever digital place he's hiding." Bridgette said.

"But the restricted section of the computer is protected so we'll need Aelita's help." LeShawna said.

"Speaking of, how is she getting here?" Gwen asked turning to them.

"The scanners." Geoff said pointing at the scanners.

"Aelita says there might be a way for us to materialize her in here from Lyoko. We simply use the devirtualization program." DJ said.

"Well, that's a simple way." Cody said.

"She also wants to scan LeShawna, Geoff, and Cody because of what Lilith said." Bridgette said.

"Yeah, four have been removed. Since these three were injured in the attack I guess Lilith would refer to them but who would be the fourth?" Gwen asked.

"I think it's DJ. When I virtualized him there was an error and he was almost devirtualized immediately." Cody said.

"You think that error did something?" DJ asked.

"Yeah. Why else would it show up just before your attacked by thirty monsters along with XANA's general who could make illusions?" Cody replied.

"Four have been removed." Gwen said, remembering what Lilith had told them. "Let's see what she meant. "

"How?" Bridgette asked.

"Well, she said that have been removed but they are standing right here alive. So we do the best next thing to find out. We virtualize them into Lyoko."

Xxx

_"Transfer DJ, Transfer Cody, Transfer Geoff, Transfer LeShawna."_ Bridgette typed in the codes.

_"Scanner DJ, Scanner Cody, Scanner Geoff, Scanner LeShawna."_

_"Virtualization."_

The group waited for their four friends to vanish into Lyoko...but instead the scanners opened, and the screen turned red.

"Error...bio-signatures rejected?"

"What?" Cody rushed over and looked at the screen.

"Look at your DNA scans, they're all red." Bridgette pointed them out.

"Pretty sure they weren't like that the first time." Geoff scratched his head.

"Wait...you three were injured, and DJ had an error when he was virtualized before Lilith attacked." Gwen stated. "Maybe something's happened that's preventing you from being scanned?"

"Let me see here..." Cody took the control chair. "...I don't get it, Aelita showed us how to work this stuff, she said once our DNA is scanned in there we're set...but according to this there's a data corruption in our DNA scans...XANA coding."

"He messed up our scans!" Geoff exclaimed.

"And locked us outta Lyoko." DJ added.

"How? He doesn't have access to this kind of stuff!" Bridgette asked.

"We need to get Aelita here, fast." Gwen said. "Has she virtualized onto Lyoko yet?"

"There she is." Cody pointed out her on the map. "She's heading for a tower, I'll devirtualize her when she's in position."

Two hundred seconds later, Aelita appeared out of the scanner.

"Newbies, allow me to reintroduce you to our boss, Aelita." Gwen nodded to the pink haired girl.

"Thank you all for helping us last time around, you may have just saved our lives." Aelita said with a smile.

"Aelita, I hate to break up the uh...reunion, but we have a problem. Geoff, DJ, LeShawna and I can't go back to Lyoko, our DNA's got XANA coding within it that's making the computer mark it as corrupted and is refusing us access." Cody said.

"Allow me to have a look,"

Aelita walked over to the computer and Cody stepped out of the chair and she sat down. She looked over the scans of the four and then opened another window. Her eyes widened.

"I don't believe it." She said in shock.

"What? What happened? You find out how XANA managed to lock us out?" LeShawna asked.

Aelita shook her head. "True, XANA corrupted your Scanner Data, but what's keeping you out isn't the computer or even the corrupted data, it's a security program installed in Sector 5. It was created by Jeremy."

"Jeremy? The boy genius of the original warriors? Why?" DJ asked.

"A while back a polymorphic spectre created by XANA disguised itself as Odd and was virtualized on Lyoko. It happened when we tried to decode my father's diary using a tower. The clone proved to be formidable and could shape shift into the others. After Lyoko was temporarily destroyed Jeremy created a new security program once he was given the schematics to rebuild Sector 5 and had it integrated into the sector just in case XANA tampered with the supercomputer." Aelita explained. "A polymorphic spectre is capable of shape shifting into any person or animal of any size and since Odd's DNA had been scanned into the computer it was easy for it to mimic his DNA when it was scanned. Since my father had not planned on XANA turning on him he did not have a program set up to scan XANA's ghosts so Jeremy made one and now XANA has used it against us."

"The monsters." Gwen said.

"Exactly. Apparently XANA believed there was a chance his attack would fail so just in case it did he modified his monsters data when he used the satellites for the Translation program to materialize them. Jeremy originally created it to materialize the others into the real world as spectres in their Lyoko forms but it's a lot easier to modify their programming when materialized here than in Lyoko so XANA was able to implant his virus in them and they spread it by hitting their targets with their lasers."

"Wait. I was not hit by lasers." Geoff said, remembering how he was injured.

"No. But the piece of wood that lodged itself in your shoulder was." Gwen pointed out.

"The virus was transferred to Geoff when that piece of wood went into his shoulder and entered his bloodstream upon contact." Aelita said.

"But what about me?" DJ asked.

"With you it was more complicated, DJ. XANA did not bother to do anything about Gwen and Bridgette because he most likely did not count on more people being scanned and virtualized into Lyoko. So when I suggested you come to Lyoko he infected the scanners with an error that was only able to carry half the virus so Cody would not detect it. I believe I know where the rest of it came from." Aelita turned and opened a window. "Even though we went back in time Lyoko has records of all the battles. I can recall the scan logs from the previous battle easily."

She brought up the image of the hornet devirtualizing DJ and stopped it. She brought up another window and showed some layers of coding. Aelita pointed at a row of codes.

"There's slightly changed coding in the hornet that devirtualized DJ. It uploaded the rest of the virus and activated immediately when DJ was devirtualized." Aelita then brought up several more windows.

They showed the DNA scans of the four warriors both past and present.

"The security program Jeremy created works by scanning anyone who has entered a scanner more than once and then compares their original scans to the current scans that are taken during the virtualization sequence. Since you four have been scanned already the first four were made the first day you were virtualized. The new ones were scanned by the security program and compared it to the first ones. Once it found XANA's data in the current ones it saw them as XANA clones instead of the real ones and the scanners rejected them." Aelita showed them. "So instead of getting rid of his enemies, XANA went for the next best thing, finding a way to keep them out of Lyoko."

"Aw man! We're out of the fight then!" Geoff shouted.

"Not exactly," Aelita faced them. "There are two ways to fix this. One: I find an anti virus to the corrupted data, which could take time. Or two: I find a way to uninstall the security program...which could take longer. The program was integrated into Lyoko's central hub. It's heavily encrypted so nobody can tamper with it. It could take me a whole lot longer than finding an anti virus."

"Until then maybe you can help out in this world," Bridgette comforted her boy friend. "You know, keep people here safe while we fight in Lyoko."

"Yeah...but it still sucks."

"Since XANA did not count on us bringing others into Lyoko he did not have the resources to tamper with the scanners so he threatened to materialize monsters where your families where. A bluff to keep us from recruiting anyone else." Aelita said.

"Wait, he bluffed us?" asked Trent.

"Yes. Despite how powerful he was XANA did not have the power to materialize any more monsters after he materialized the Terror Bird which was why he used the energy from his monsters to materialize the Kolossus in order to still have enough energy for creating the Terror Bird. He knew we would not call his bluff so that kept us from sending anyone else."

"Aw man! We were punked!" Duncan growled and lightly knocked his head against the wall next to him. "Stupid, stupid, stupid!"

"No one's to blame here, it's our job to make sure nobody gets killed during these fights and XANA knew that too." Gwen said.

"I know but we could have used some help in there." Duncan replied. "That was _way_ too close."

"They always are when it's on Lyoko." Gwen shrugged.

"Yeah, but why don't we just bring in some more people to help us?" Trent asked.

"Because there is a good chance that if we do, XANA may follow up on his threat when he is ready," Aelita replied.

"And I don't know about you, but I'd rather not have giant lobsters chase my parents around." Cody added.

"And who else would we bring in here?" Bridgette asked. "You made a good case for Kurt and Carlos but who else?"

"Um...well Alejandro is due to be out of the Total Drama Bot in a few weeks." Courtney said.

Bridgette and Geoff frowned when Courtney said that.

"He'd still be slightly injured enough that devirtualization could cause enough damage to result in a comatose state." Aelita chimed in.

"I'm injured though." Heather said, pointing at her bandages.

"Take a look at your body Heather, you look almost as you were before the accident." Gwen said gesturing to where Heather used to have several visible cuts.

Heather took off her bandages, revealing her burns and cuts were gone. She had no damage whatsoever!

"Wait...if it healed me...and I didn't get devirtualized...why not bring Al in and make sure he's far from any fighting? I mean, if we won again and he's in there with us, he'd be good as new too!" Heather said hopefully.

"The same reason why I never told Duncan when we were technically together." Gwen replied. "We can't just bring people in because we feel we can trust them, it's a group decision."

"Besides, there's another problem with recruiting newbies," Geoff spoke up. "Until you go to Lyoko and fight enough times, you are practically an open target for XANA, he can possess you. But when you're a Lyoko Warrior, it's a lot worse."

"If you're normal than you have no memory whatsoever." DJ said. "But if you're on Lyoko and end up possessed, you'll see _everything_."

"It's like watching a TV while something takes control of your movements and thoughts." Gwen said with a dark look. "You fight people you don't want to fight even if you hate them. And eventually it gets so bad you can't even look yourself in the mirror because what's looking back at you is not you."

"And right now there are six people who are vulnerable to being possessed just like that. Adding any more increases the risk." Aelita said. "So even if we were to consider recruitment in the future, we would not even discuss it until you all were immune to possession attempts. That means several trips to Lyoko, five or six at the least."

Courtney gulped. "I...I don't know if I want to go there repeatedly. The first time was...well I kinda just...went with it once I was in there, everything seemed natural but now that I'm out here I...I'm wondering what the hell I was thinking."

"You were thinking of saving everybody's lives." Aelita explained. "And a lot more people will be in danger in the future unless you stay on and help us."

"Like I said before Courtney, when you jumped into the scanner, you made yourself a target. At least when you fight with us you won't have to look over your shoulder and worry that you'll be possessed." Gwen said. "Nobody is forcing you in here but I'd rather have you as an ally instead of an enemy in _this_ fight."

"Eh, bubble gum's got a point." Noah shrugged, ignoring Gwen glaring at him for the nickname. "We run, we're bound to get possessed, which means we have no choice but to help. Sorry Ms CIT, but I really don't see a way out of this one...and plus I have to admit it's not something we can really just ignore."

"You're in Noah?"

"Eh, nothing better to do." Noah replied. "Plus...after XANA's gone, if he is ever gone...I'd like the sound of a gold statue of myself being built." He held up a hand as he pictured it. "Noah, saviour of Earth and Boy Genius...loving it already...by the way, I'm hungry, anybody got a candy bar?"

"I'll take that as a yes."

"Well, I ain't walking. I haven't walked from a fight since I was...about...well let's see how long ago was my first visit to Juvy?...oh yeah, that long ago. Yeah, anyways, I'm in." Duncan said.

"Trent?"

"I'm staying, I can't bury my head in the sand."

"Izzy?"

"Arf Arf!"

"That means yes." Noah said.

"You speak dog?" Izzy asked excitedly.

"No, I speak moron."

"Huh?"

"Never mind, Izzy's in!" Gwen spoke up. "Heather?"

"...well we did almost die...and it did make me better...okay, I'm in."

"Courtney? Have you made up your mind?" Aelita asked.

Courtney swallowed. "I..."

"Hey," Suddenly Duncan took her hand. "Your choice, and if I have to play body guard in case the big bad spectre comes for you I'm game."

"I...alright, I'll stay on!" Courtney smiled a bit.

Behind them, Geoff pretended to play the world's smallest violin, making a high pitched noise as he made the motion of playing the imaginary instrument...until Duncan kicked him in the shin. "Doh! Okay I had that one coming."

"Well, looks like we're all in this together. XANA won't know what hit him." Gwen smirked.

"WOO HOO!" Izzy hopped up and down.

"...I'm pretty sure she like's shape shifting into animals." Bridgette said, an amused smile on her face.

"Are you kidding me? I can speak ninety different animal languages! And I can be ninety different animals! Woo!"

"..Like I said, I'm not sure whether to pat her on the head or call the pound." Noah rolled his eyes.

"As for you four," Aelita turned to LeShawna, Geoff, DJ, and Cody, "I'll attempt to work on an anti-virus but it make take some time and I am already swapped with trying to find XANA's digital domain and locate the others."

"Why don't you just make 'The Professor' and Mr Fantastic's shorter, ruder clone help you?" Duncan jerked a thumb at Cody and Noah.

"Are they familiar with working on trying to clear corrupted data for scans inside a scanner that transforms flesh and blood into code?" Aelita asked.

Noah shrugged. "Sounds like that Jeremy kid didn't know how to when he started and from all I've heard about the guy he practically wrote the book on how to use these things."

"He was a prodigy."

"Uh...hello?" Noah pointed at Cody and himself. "So are we."

"This might be a bit more challenging than digital web sites and playing online video games. If you make one small error on this and the next time you go into a scanner your digital body might be torn to pieces and scattered through the web."

"Oh is everybody going to keep referencing the web site? I can do more than hack some two bit web site, ever hear of the uh...cyber attack over in British Columbia? Uh...I kinda did that by accident when I was ten. I kept the code written down just in case though."

"You caused the three day Internet blackout in British Columbia?" Gwen asked, with a sceptical look.

"In my defence I wanted to show up this guy, he was as smart as me but he was arrogant, cocky, and never once shut up about his work." Noah said. "...plus I only meant to black out a few towns for a few minutes. I didn't make the mistake of making my programs too strong since then. Black out in New York City on seven blocks? Yo." He held up one hand.

"I can't tell whether to smack him, or pat him on the head and tell him it'll be alright and he won't share a cell with Izzy." Bridgette whispered. "No offence Izzy."

"None taken."

"One day my high school's entire computer system got infected, and I mean even lap tops got it. I cleaned out every one of them." Cody added.

"Well, I guess you two could handle that. But I want you to show me it before I decide to use it on the supercomputer." Aelita said.

"Got it." Cody said.

"So what now?" Heather asked.

"Well, I can take a look at the restricted section. But first," Aelita stood up from the chair. "I want to see the home I spent the first six years of my life in."

Xxx

Aelita came up to the living room and looked around. Noticing there were no lights on she walked over to where the light switch was.

"I kind of doubt the power would still be on after two decades-" Geoff started but was cut off when the lights came on. "Uh. That just pretty much contradicted what I just said."

"Wow. I honestly didn't think you would a smart word like that." Duncan said.

Aelita looked around and smiled.

"I can't believe it. This is it. The winter house my parents lived in during the winter months." Looking around she noticed a corner of the room. "I remember . .. That corner was where my mother placed the Christmas tree."

Looking over to the piano she walked over to it, lifted the lid and looked at it.

"My father used this piano to play songs to me. The one he liked to play to me the most was Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." She tapped a few keys. "He promised to teach me how to play eventually."

Looking around again she had a thoughtful look on her face.

"When we left I thought they would ransack this place like they did the house my father and I lived until I was twelve. But it looks like the same as it was since the last time I was here, minus the dust." Aelita said wiping some dust off the couch.

Aelita walked up stairs and found her room. Like the living room her bedroom looked the same as it was since the last time she was in it. She smiled happily at it.

"The bedroom I lived in. I forgot how many toys I had back then." Aelita chuckled at the chest full of stuffed animals. "Now that I see it after all these years I kind of find it hard to believe that one little girl could have so many toys."

"At least they were just stuffed animals. You should see the toys my brother got. He wanted one so badly and when he got it there was a better one he wanted more." Gwen said, smiling at the memories of taking care of her brother.

"You should see how many toys my parents get my siblings. There's enough to fill a vault." Noah commented. "The moment one of my brothers wanted something my parents would just go out and buy it."

"Is your family loaded or something?" Geoff looked at the boy genius who had caused anarchy in British Columbia.

"I choose to plead the fifth for that," Noah replied. "For anybody who is slow, that essentially means my lips are sealed."

"So what are we supposed to do until XANA's next attack?" Courtney asked.

"Nothing, unless you want to help scan the internet for hours on end, looking for a digital copy of Lyoko." Aelita replied.

"That's it? Just...wait?"

"Well imagine it like this. I'll be searching for where my friends are being held and then find a way to get us there so we can destroy XANA. When XANA attacks, you act as a...reaction force." Aelita said. "It's how we've always lived. Living life as normally as you can, but when facing an attack you either head for the factory, or help any innocent bystanders who are put in danger by the event."

"And odds are the whole cast is up for grabs by XANA." Noah speculated.

"Just the ones who know about the super computer. So if you are with anybody during an attack, they will most likely be in danger."

"So we just sit around until the next attack?" Heather asked. "I really don't like the sound of it. I mean, we could be doing anything like normal, like having a shower or we could be sleeping or even be in the middle of a challenge and then he could attack out of nowhere!"

"That is usually what happens, and other members of the group who are not indisposed handle fighting on Lyoko or assist group members who are in danger." Aelita explained.

"How did you expect us to survive all this time? Did you honestly expect we were never attacked during a challenge?" Gwen asked. "We were, plenty of times, you just don't remember. Like I said, you're a target, you pretty much have to walk day and night looking over your shoulder for anything odd. Short circuits, odd changes in weather, any electronics acting...out of turn. And if you see anything and you end up being attacked, you either fight or run like the devil's on your heels."

"We usually have all of your phones on and Aelita keeps her laptop running to inform her of any activated towers." Bridgette said.

"Not to mention we stick together." Cody said.

"We have been separated before but we usually count on the others to win and save us when it looks like it's game over for us." Geoff said.

"That's pretty much how we've survived. We count on each other to fight and win." Said LeShawna. "Because if we lose . . . "

She held up one finger and gave them all the dead signal. "And no Return to the Past fixes that. You die, you stay dead."

"Uh...that's..." Trent searched for the right word. "Uh...informative?"

"Ah don't sugar coat it Guitar Hero," Duncan said. "Hell, that pretty much spooked all of us."

"For those of you who said you were in before, do you still think you can handle this?" Bridgette asked.

Nobody replied to that question, but nobody left.

"I guess that's our answer." DJ shrugged.

"So...should we just go back to Carlos' cabin?" Trent asked.

"Yeah, it's late, we just went through a major attack, and I am bushed." Gwen stretched. "If we stay here tomorrow during free time we can try getting you all some time in Lyoko. If you have any more questions about it, just ask."

"We don't plan on letting you get in any unnecessary danger on this." Bridgette added. "See you later Aelita."

"Good bye." Aelita nodded, and went back to examining the remnants of her child hood.

Xxx

"He has GUNS hidden in the outhouse!" Chris shouted.

Kurt groaned. "Chris, for the ninth time, I am not going to believe you every single time you come running to me saying Carlos broke a rule."

"How can you not believe me? You're friends with the dude! You should know how he works!"

"And you're his cousin." Kurt snapped. "So I just happen to know you break the rules, even your own rules when it suits you. How can Carlos hide military grade weapons in an _outhouse?_ Especially one that his wife and kids end up using-or just going near during the summer?"

"Come on! I'll show you!" Chris said.

Unknown to them, Carlos had snuck across the lawn to the outhouse, and came back carrying arm loads of weapons that he hid in the basement via the entrance on the outside of the cabin. Kurt was non the wise.

"It's two AM in the morning Chris! I'm not gonna let you lead me to an outhouse just so I can peek inside, looking for assault rifles and grenade launchers when all I know I will find is the smell of years of the former owner using that crap trap!" Kurt growled. "Go back to your tent! And if you go now I'll even toss you a few Klondike bars, since that's pretty much the only thing you have in common with your pyromaniac of a cousin!"

"Hey! I resent that! Carlos, who had climbed in through his bed room window said as he came into the hall...with his left sleeve on fire.

"Uh..Carlos? Your shirts on fire?"

"Really? Oh." He looked at his sleeve. "Never noticed."

...

"Wow...he's good." Kurt looked at Chris. "Anyways, get out! My offer for Klondike bars has EXPIRED!" He then tossed Chris out by the scruff of his shirt.

"...you weren't really gonna give him my Klondike bars, were you?"

"Sometimes you can feel sorry enough for a guy to throw him a bone. Besides, when it's this late, you'll do anything to get rid of a maniac so you can sleep." Kurt yawned. "And he accused you of keeping guns from the SAS here. Can you believe that? I know even you are not that stupid!" Kurt laughed.

"Yeah! Not that stupid!" Carlos laughed nervously. 'If I'm lucky he won't step on the secret switch that will lead to the weapons vault under his bed. If he tells Melissa about that I am G-O-N-E gone...like the Dinosaurs!'

"Well, g'night Carlos. I locked the door so your paranoid cousin won't get in." Kurt said. "One of these days I'll get him in a roast like William Shatner's roast. Just cook him alive like all the other stars."

"I liked David Hasselhoff's the best." Carlos chuckled. "Well, g'night. Oh, and keep away from the medicine cabinet." 'Where the secret switch is'.

"What's in the medicine cabinet besides medicine?"

"My wife's uh..." Carlos coughed awkwardly. "Ritalin and tampons."

"You couldn't have just said it was a stash of Klondike bars?"

"That would be lying!" 'Like I am lying right now to make sure you never reveal the fact that I never gave back my weapons and intend to keep them.'

"Come on I've come upon a hidden stash of Klondike bars before. It's no big secret that you have a secret stash in your bathroom drawer."

'Which is really where the secret switch to the gas tank for my flame thrower is hidden.' Carlos thought. "Let's just call it a night and agree that Chris is a moron...with a mop head."

"Alright."

Suddenly an explosion rang out and the cabin shook.

"...What was that?"

"Uh...maybe it was a trap we forgot to disarm?"

"I checked everywhere, the only trap I missed was the trap that kicked you in the nuts."

"Which I believe you kept out on purpose."

"Dude, what is a kick in the nuts compared to your wife's phone number?"

"Ah, touché."

'Curses! Chris must have stumbled upon the stash of explosives hidden under the mail box!...when did I make my cabin into a war zone ready to happen?...and why am I talking to myself? I'm probably just standing there looking like a tool-'

"Well don't just stand there like a tool, go check it out!" Kurt said. "It's two in the morning and it's too early for this crap!"

"Ok, g'night Kurt!" Carlos added in a whisper. "_Don't let the flame throwers bite._"

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Hm...I should be suspicious...but on the other hand you've been straight up with me to this point, so I'm gonna go to bed!" Kurt walked off.

Carlos sighed in relief. "Right. Straight..up...okay."

'If he or Sarah or Melissa find out, I am so doomed. I think I might actually have to see a psychiatrist about my explosive obsession. Or maybe I should just get rid of these weapons, it's not like I'll ever actually need them for anything really useful. I mean, what's gonna happen, is the government gonna invade my cabin? Hah!...and why am I think-talking to myself again?'

'You should just go.'

'Good idea- HOLY CRAP!' Carlos yelped in real life. '...I need some serious help.'

He ran off to cover up the evidence of Chris finding the explosives under the mail box.

Xxx

Heather got back into bed and shifted nervously as her head now lied on her pillow. All chances of her having a decent sleep went out the window with tonight's revelations and the fact that an attack could happen any time made her nervous. Looking over she saw Courtney was trying to sleep too but she saw that the CIT was about as nervous as she was. She then moved to look over where Gwen was sleeping and noticed that the goth was already fast asleep.

How was she able to sleep knowing there was a good chance that something bad like those monsters attack could happen again? She noticed Gwen's cell phone was on the small desk next to her bed. Most likely kept on just in case Aelita calls to tell them of another attack.

How were they able to put up with it all every day? Heather had barely been a Lyoko Warrior for several hours and she couldn't picture herself going at it for days, weeks, maybe even months until the whole war with XANA was over.

Xxx

Heather was not alone in her fears.

Courtney buried her face into her pillow, glancing at Gwen from time to time as if trying to figure out just how the Goth Girl managed it. And she was sleeping with her cell phone in reach and left on? She really was committed to this whole 'Lyoko Warrior' thing, then again she had been at it for weeks.

Maybe it got easier as it went, maybe Courtney would adapt and get used to it. She got used to conditions on TDI, TDA, and TDWT to the point where she hardly even noticed how Chris was screwing them all over to keep himself in the lap of luxury. All she needed was time...right?

She couldn't stop shivering until she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked over and saw that Cody was the source. He held up a note.

'Don't worry, we all were scared.' He flipped it over. 'We'll help you get used to it.'

He then held up a second card. 'Get to sleep, you'll need it for-' He flipped it over. 'Chris's challenges.'

Courtney nodded and rolled over, slightly less nervous than before.

But she had one question: how the heck did Cody manage to find the room and light to write down those cards?

Xxx

Trent himself was just as nervous but he attempted to keep himself distracted. He had out several pictures of his family, his friends, and the one picture he had of himself and Gwen when they were still in a relationship. The last hours had been tough and what he had learned had been beyond shocking. If anyone told him before he would have said they were insane.

Gwen and the others had been fighting some demonic AI for nearly a whole month they kept it hidden from them until now. And they put up with the attacks during Chris' challenges and fought to save themselves and their friends. Were they as nervous as he now is when they first started?

He couldn't tell how the other new 'Lyoko Warriors' were taking this. Noah, Duncan and Izzy seemed the most willing to accept this new change and embrace it as 'necessary' to fight. Truthfully Trent suspected Izzy was too ignorant to realize they were in danger. Noah was probably covering up to keep up his usually calm and all knowing facade. And Duncan was probably just trying to stay tough-like usual, but his performance in Lyoko-despite being the first to go down was rather impressive, maybe that was why he accepted it: because he was so in touch with himself on Lyoko as a fighter.

Xxx

Despite Trent's belief, Duncan was just as nervous on the inside as the others were. He's done a lot of crazy stuff in his life time. Since he was a child he had broke of lot of laws as a way of spiting his dad who almost was never pleased with him so he used crime as his escape. He liked being bad, had no problems as a bully, anyone could attest to that, and he made sure everyone knew he was _not_ nice.

On Total Drama he actually found a girl he liked, a girl who was as every bit as competitive as he was and her temper combined with her strength made her a challenge. Courtney was his opposite. She respected authority, she had ambitions, and she stepped over anyone who was in her way. That's what attracted him to her but when they got together Courtney's attempts to change him because she couldn't stand up to her parents had hurt him.

He was attracted to her fiery spirit but no one would change him. Not her, not his father, or the officers in juvy. That was why he left her for Gwen. Of course he hadn't meant to put Gwen through all that shit, she was pretty much caught up in this by accident.

She was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. She had similar interest as he did, she was comfortable with who he was, she would even smile and say things that Courtney wouldn't in public. Of course Gwen dumped him when she found out why, which he suspects she actually found out during one of those attacks and used his fight with Trent as an excuse. After the wrestling challenge Gwen was distant from him as if she knew something.

Maybe he confessed about why he did what he did and he couldn't remember because they did that Return to the Past thing and Gwen waited for the right time. She sure was sneaky that way. Especially how she was able to hide something like Lyoko from him for nearly a whole month.

Xxx

Izzy was a very excitable person to say the least. She almost always had a smile on her face day or night. She even smiled like she hadn't a care in the world during some of Chris' challenges. She enjoyed them. They gave her excitement she would not find in her boring home.

Acting in the movies after TDA was fun too. It gave her an outlet for all of her pent up energy. Despite how everyone said she was insane Izzy was smart, her alter ego Brainzilla proved that. Sitting around being perfect was too boring which was why she acted that way.

She was smart enough to know how dangerous the fight she was now a part of was. She knew that if they lose people would die. She would always cover up her fears and concerns with that bright, cheerful disposition, inspiring some confidence in others.

She didn't care if they thought of her as naive or childish, she wouldn't change her ways for anybody. When she went back home to Canada- and she intended to do so, she would act like the war hadn't happened, she would smile, laugh, jump, scream, and continue to make others feel either amused or just plain awkward with her antics. She had been doing it since she was little and she wouldn't stop now.

She just had to do her part, there was no use in panicking, it would only cost her. She had to stay on focus, she had to help them when the time to fight came.

Xxx

Noah was a genius. He knew it, his teachers knew, his family knew it, and what little friends he had knew it. When he was just a kid he hacked a web site and did what the webmasters should have been doing. He played plenty of video games, both online through his laptop and games on whatever gaming system he or any of his siblings got. He was smart enough to make a bully cry by just insulting his shoes.

He didn't bat an eye when bullies like Duncan threatened him. He came on Total Drama to test his skills. There was no challenge where he was which made him bored. Of course his confident attitude got him booted off Total Drama Island very early because he thought everyone knew how smart he was and would let him stay if he skipped one small challenge.

That was one of the few times he was wrong. He could admit when he was wrong with no problems. When he saw how Cody along with Gwen the others were hanging out more than usual he paid no attention to them since he assumed they would just head out into town and have some fun with whatever activities they would find to amuse themselves. He was wrong, again.

And now where was he? In the middle of the smallest, yet most important war on the face of the planet. He had to help fight off an AI that could do things like cause a miniature ice age, create armies of monsters, and bring down doom upon entire cities. What kind of enemy could be fought if it had limitless methods for how to attack? The answer was simple: wear them down until their attacks become so predictable you can counter at every turn, and then take the fight to them where their options are limited. XANA couldn't do as much in Lyoko as he could in the real world, so in Lyoko he was the most vulnerable.

That was the strategy used before, they just had to make sure it worked this time. Was this the challenge he been looking for? Yes it was and even more than he could have asked for. He knew he was already in too deep to back out. They made that clear so there was only one option: fight with them in any way he could.


	33. Episode 32: New Warriors New Monsters

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 32

The sun slowly rose into the sky and the light slowly made its way into the cabin.

"CHRIS! YOU OVER GROWN CHILD! I'M GONNA SHAVE THAT MOP RIGHT OFF YOUR EMPTY SKULL WHEN I'M DONE WITH YOU!" Carlos roared.

"Oh great, gathering of the retard family," Trent groaned as he sat up. "Someone kill me."

"I HEARD THAT ELVIS!" Carlos stomped past Trent's room. "And that moron STOLE my car so I have a reason to be mad this time!"

"Oh...well I guess that _does_ kinda explain it." Trent blinked.

Kurt stuck his head out of his room. "Just humour the guy for now-" He ducked under a knife that was flung his way. "Whoa! Okay where the hell did you learn to be a ninja?"

"I _didn't!_ I had a crazy dream where I was kicking around ninja robots!" Carlos declared. "And I totally remembered how I threw the knife in the dream."

"In the dream, was your finger bent oddly when you did it?"

"...say what?"

Kurt pointed at Carlos' throwing hand. His index finger was bent the wrong way.

"...I may need to practice a bit, but you gotta admit that was a bad ass shot."

"Uh...Carlos? I'm looking at where the knife landed." Kurt walked back into his room. "It went into the medicine cabinet in the bathroom and I see some switch that-"

"KURT IF YOU DARE TOUCH THAT SWITCH I WILL RIP YOU A NEW HOLE TO CRAP OUT OF BEFORE I SHOVE CHRIS' HEAD UP IT!"

"Why, what's the switch for? Are you hiding something?" Kurt demanded...before another knife hit his sleeve and pinned his arm to the wall. "...that was actually cool...if not for your finger getting bent backwards more. And if you throw that again I'll tell Melissa about these hidden switches. And if you do injure me in any way you'll have to explain to Sarah, and she can see right through you!" Kurt pulled his arm free. "Remember when she found out that I broke my leg and you said it was a 'hunting accident'? And when it was actually you losing your temper ,again-"

"Kurt ,say one more word and I won't miss and I'll deal with the consequences, now get out of there, that's the only working bath room and I seriously gotta go!" Suddenly Carlos tossed Kurt out of the bathroom.

"God, he's crankier than an old lady in the morning-"

BOOM!

An explosion came from outside. "What the-?"

He ran outside and saw Chris, in Carlos' car, crashed into a tree while the grass all around was scorched.

"Uh...Carlos?"

"WHAT IS IT NOW?"

"I found your car."

"Good." Carlos came out of the bathroom, zipping his pants up. "If he so much as put a dent in it I'll rip him apart!"

Kurt and Chef exchanged a look.

"Should I tell him or should you?" Chef asked.

"Uh...you." Kurt ran away so fast that he left a cloud shaped like himself.

"Uh...hey Brit Boy? Chris may have uh...potentially caused possible harm to your car...possibly." Chef gulped.

Three...

Two...

One...

Carlos shot out of the cabin so fast that he left a cloud shaped like himself in the hall way. "What did he do? Scratch the paint? Flatten a tire? Throw up in the-OH DEAR GOD! NO!-!-!-!-!" He fell to his knees. "I finally got all my payments on that finished off! It cost me forty grand! FORTY GRAND!" Carlos growled. "You shall be avenged!" He suddenly picked up a base ball bat and got an eerie smile. "Let's go out and play some base ball like we used to _cousin!_"

"Meep!" Chris tried to get out of the car, but the door was jammed. "Oh man. Oh man. Oh man. Oh man! MOMMY!"

His screams echoed through the forest.

When Carlos came back in ten minutes later, he was calmed down and had a smile on his face. "Ah...I feel so much better." He sighed. "But Kurt, we must have a funeral."

"You killed Chris?"

"What? No! And I wouldn't spend ten cents to bury him in a wet, mouldy card board box! He MURDERED my car." Carlos explained.

"I don't think we should have a funeral for your car."

"Why not?"

"How would Melissa react to it?"

"I already called her, she agreed." Carlos held up his phone.

"Yeah...well you're in, I'm already in charge of transportation duty to get the others back to the studio on time and your cousin to the hospital."

"Oh don't worry about Chris, he's fine."

Xxx

Chris was hanging upside down in nothing but his pink boxers and was covered in feathers and glue. He was gagged and had a sign on him that said 'Free Piñata! Extra Candy! Hit Extra EXTRA HARD for more!'

And he had put it outside the cabin of a nearby family that had children...who were having a birth day party REALLY soon.

Xxx

Gwen sighed in irritation from all the loud noise. Carlos may be nicer than his cousin but he had a much shorter temper and he was louder than any bullhorn Chris had. Looking over to her cell phone that was placed on the night table next to her bed she found no messages. Aelita may have gone back to the school through the scanners or she spent the night in the house she grew up in as a child.

It was most likely the latter since she would have to wait a few hours before being virtualized again. Standing up from her bed she stretched her limbs and looked around. Most of the others were getting up since they too were awoken from all the commotion. Eva was grumbling as she got up, muttering dark curses about Carlos, Beth and Katie simply yawned and stood up, Cody was no doubt sent out of the room to avoid watching them, much to Sierra's disappointment, and she noticed Heather and Courtney were more quiet than usual.

Most likely they were still trying to adjust to their new 'profession'. Best just to leave them be for now, and talk to them when it was more appropriate.

"Yo, breakfast's ready!" Carlos called.

Well, point to the ex-soldier, he could cook a lot and real fast and even got Chef to help him make food that was considered digestible. By the time the cast of TDR came out into the living room and dining room-it was hard to fit so many people into one room so they split them between the two instead Carlos and Chef had plates of pan cakes, bacon, eggs, and glasses of milk or juice ready for the cast.

"Wow, how the heck did you guys get all this done so fast?" Kurt asked.

"Well when Chef is persuaded he can actually cook, and me...well I had to do something while Melissa was pregnant." Carlos shrugged, tossing away his chef's hat. "Dig in!"

The cast each took a plate that picked the food they wanted before attempting to find a place to sit down and eat their meal. For those who had noticed, Gwen, Cody, LeShawna, Bridgette, Geoff, and DJ would usually pick a table or spot to hang out together and discuss a few subjects that no one could hear. Those six had picked out a table as usual but this time they were not alone. This time they were accompanied by Heather who seemed to look better as some of the visible cuts seemed to have fully healed, Courtney which was surprising considering she and Gwen were sworn enemies, Duncan which was a bigger surprise since their big break up in World Tour they would have thought Courtney would be yelling at him or Gwen, Trent which was not so odd, Noah it might look a bit out of place since he was mostly only friends with Owen, Izzy, and Cody, and Izzy who nobody would even think to comment on since no one could understand what was going on in her head.

The group did not exchange words, but Gwen knew that the newcomers were dying to ask more about Lyoko, XANA, and Carthage. Courtney's hand shook as she tried to sip from her glass of milk, Heather almost swallowed a piece of bacon down her wind pipe rather than her throat, and Izzy ended up accidently spilling juice down her chin...wait, that last one was normal with Izzy, so never mind. Noah simply ate his food and drank his milk without any accidents, the same with Duncan and Trent. Evidently they were mostly handling things rather well considering all that happened. Bridgette gave them a sympathetic look while Cody and DJ simply smiled friendly at them.

Well Cody smiled friendly at the few he liked, Noah, Trent, and Heather. He still had a bit of anger at Duncan for his actions during World Tour but he would try to be civil with him and Courtney. Gwen kept a civil look on her face as she knew they would need all of the help they could get. So she had to make sure any of the past feelings she had with Heather or Courtney would be kept in the past.

LeShawna was uncomfortable being temporarily out of the fight since some of her best friends would most likely be in need of help and Geoff most likely felt the same knowing his girlfriend would be going into Lyoko without him. DJ was raised by his mother who taught him violence never solved anything but for the last month he had pretty much been bending that rule whenever he went into Lyoko. Sure he felt guilty about it but the world was in danger and they needed him. So he decided that he would only use violence if necessary on Lyoko or any attacks aimed at his friends.

After finishing his drink, Noah sighed..and then spoke. "Uh..hey Gwen?"

"Yeah?"

"I need some help, I accidently ended up mixing one of my favourite shirts in with Chris' pink boxers and now its ruined, do you know anything about it?" Noah gestured towards the door with his head.

"Uh...yeah, sure, I have something that can help." Gwen set her empty plate aside. "Come on."

"OH I gotta see this." Izzy snickered as she got up.

The three left the room. When they were out in the hall, Noah sighed. "Well that was the most awkward breakfast ever."

"I thought it was funny." Izzy added.

"So what's on your mind?" Gwen asked.

"How am I going to be able to help Aelita work on finding this uh...copy of Lyoko when Chris will have us swamped with challenges and cameras?" Noah asked.

"Aelita already thought of that, she hacked the cameras to display false images."

"Ok...but what if somebody notices I'm gone?"

"They don't have to, she can set up a link to the super computer on your lap top like Cody's." Gwen replied. "Cody's been helping out in the last few weeks from his laptop and no one noticed."

"So she can set up a link to the other supercomputer to my laptop?" Noah asked.

"Sure. That's how she's able to know when a tower is activated. The super scan detects a tower and sends a message to Aelita through her laptop which is kept on." Gwen said. "As for looking for a digital copy of Lyoko it might be easier now since Aelita has had a look at the computer in the basement of her old house."

"What about Chris' challenges?"

"For those of us who know a thing or two about the virtual stuff they help out with what time they have after a challenge and the few days we have off." Gwen crossed her arms. "Since Cody has been the only one to understand most of this stuff up till now we've had to mostly on Aelita making a breakthrough. She leaves out a book full of instructions such as how to run the virtualization sequence, the Return to the Past, uploading the vehicles, and how to debug a few important programs just in case."

Noah nodded as considered this.

"Okay, seems like you guys have this covered. Then again you've had to for this long."

Gwen smirked.

"Was that actually a compliment from you, the so called bookworm of Total Drama?"

"Sounded like one." Izzy snickered.

"Oh ha ha. Like me complimenting you guys is really that out of the ordinary." Noah scoffed.

Gwen and Izzy chuckled.

Xxx

Cody finished his breakfast and placed the plate in the dish in the kitchen after dumping the left crumbs in the trash. He wanted to simply relax after the fierce attack last night but apparently he wouldn't get his wish. The answer to why came in the forms of Heather and Courtney who followed him.

"Hey, Cody, could you come with us for a second?" Heather asked.

Cody knew that they had questions and that they were the most nervous out of the new Lyoko warriors so he nodded. He led them outside and once they were far enough from the cabin Heather and Courtney decided to start asking their questions.

"DJ told us you joined up later than the others did." Courtney started the conversation.

"That's right." Cody replied.

"We want to know, just how did you join?" Heather asked.

They both wanted to know how Cody adjusted to being a warrior since he must have joined during an attack like they did. Cody had a look that told them it was not something he liked to remember.

"Well . . .It started when we all started getting these calls. Whenever we answered there was no one on the other end but we each received visions. They showed us the factory and they were there. With people like me, Duncan, and Trent we saw Gwen in front of the factory being brutally killed by Aelita and XANA's symbol was in her eyes." Cody started.

"Visions? What were they for?" Heather asked.

"XANA was using the cell phones as a way to implant visions in our heads because he wanted us to start getting suspicious of them and following them into the factory. He wanted us to spill the beans on them so the authorities would lock down the factory. Then XANA went on the attack and we overheard them and started to follow them. Well, Heather you were still on a wheel chair so you, Alejandro, Sierra, and Ezekiel couldn't come with us." Cody said. "I got there before anyone did and saw what I learned to be a polymorphic spectre attacking Gwen. She told the others to go on ahead while she kept the clone distracted. I tried to help but she told me to stay put and then the clone pulled out a knife just when the others got there."

Cody had a look that both knew meant that it was one of the worst memories he had.

"Right in front of me and everyone the clone stabbed Gwen, puncturing an artery and then dropped her to let her bleed out on the floor." Cody almost choked remembering how he watched in horror as it happened right in front of him.

Courtney turned a shade or two pale. "It _stabbed _her? Like, actually did real damage? With all the-the blood?"

"Yeah...most of you started beating on the clone, but it was pretty much invincible. Noah, Beth, and I attempted to stop the bleeding. Then LeShawna came out of the elevator and started attacking the clone. I never saw her as mad as she was ever before." Cody continued. "LeShawna was supposed to go if one of them was devirtualized but when she saw what happened she came up and attacked the clone. DJ was devirtualized and the others were backed into a corner by Dragon Knights. The clone toyed with everyone, laughed while they punched it, taunted LeShawna, and made sure no one could call for help. DJ came up to help and Gwen asked me to follow him into the elevator."

"And that's how you got introduced to this?" Heather asked, with a scared look.

Sure she and Gwen had pretty much nothing but utter contempt for each other but the idea of her bleeding to death made her feel very uneasy.

"I couldn't say no. Gwen trusted me to save her. I went into the scanners and got a crash course like you guys did. If I didn't then Aelita and Bridgette might have been devirtualized and Gwen would have died." Cody said. "When she explained it to me I agreed to help out. Seeing that clone stab her was about the most horrifying moment I ever saw in my life and I vowed to make sure that would never _ever_ happen again."

Heather and Courtney were silent as they took in what Cody told them. Compared to him they got off easy. Sure they were there when he, Geoff, and LeShawna were injured but to see one of them bleeding to death in front of them . . .

"I was good with computers. I wanted in. Gwen trusted me because if she didn't she wouldn't have asked DJ to take to the scanners. He could have just gone and got LeShawna but Gwen convinced him to bring me in." Cody smiled. "Was kinda flattering, I mean, just...being chosen like that. I think that I was the only case where they were fine recruiting somebody. No offence intended but they wanted to have as few people as possible involved. Duncan and Trent alone would have been stretching it."

Heather leaned back against the wall behind her. "What about all of the random attacks?"

"It's scary the first few times, but after a bit you learn to react to them. The fear might still be there, just being afraid of dying or somebody you know being hurt, but you learn to deal and do your job." Cody explained. "It's almost like going to Lyoko leaves a little part of that fighter in you. It's like after you fight the monsters in Lyoko, you start to feel like you can at least try to deal with whatever XANA sends at you."

He turned to walk away but he looked over his shoulder.

"You'll do fine. The both of you can be good when you want to be."

He walked away leaving them to think.

Xxx

"So, you didn't even have any attacks when you started out?" Trent asked as he, DJ, Duncan, Bridgette, and Geoff walked along the tree line surrounding the property.

"Yep, turns out it makes your character based off your personality. I'm strictly non-violent, so it gave me my shield." DJ smiled. "But...I still had to do something in a fight, so I also got my Golem form."

"Dang, wish we had you in the fight, it would have been a lot easier." Duncan said.

"Or if Courtney found her power about ten minutes faster," Trent added. "If we had our full power, it would have made things a hell of a lot easier."

"If we knew all of our abilities at the beginning we would have a lot easier time." Bridgette said.

"We usually learn them during the fight, especially when we get angry." Geoff said.

"Like how I did with Lilith." Duncan said.

"Exactly." Bridgette nodded.

"So do I even have a special ability? I played a lot of notes that did a lot of things." Trent said.

"Could be. That guitar was awesome." Geoff said.

"Well, you shot fire, lightning, sonic waves, and maybe you can shoot a lot more. Try experimenting a bit." Bridgette said. "You'll learn, we all did."

"Awesome. Maybe I can do a lot more than shoot musical attacks." Trent nodded. "Next time we're in Lyoko, I'll test it out."

Xxx

Courtney was almost never unsure about any decision she made. She had already planned her career, she worked to get top grades in her class, and she entered Total Drama to show her skills. Of course a few things happened that she had not planned. The first one was that she fell for a delinquent, second was that she was voted off unfairly when the votes were rigged, and the third was that said delinquent cheated on her and broke her heart.

The fourth and most recent one was that she got caught up in a war against a crazed computer program and that Gwen and Bridgette along with the others they had been hanging out with had been fighting said computer program in a virtual world. That one came as a bit of a shock. Since TDWT she had been working to working to find ways to get revenge on Gwen and Duncan for what they did. When she noticed Gwen had been sneaking out of the studio along with a few of the others she had attempted to find out what they had been hiding as a way to get even with Gwen.

Of course she could not find out anything from them at all. They never said anything out in public or in the studio most likely to Chris having cameras. She even confronted Gwen a couple of times and that got her nowhere. Then she heard that Gwen had even run out on Duncan in the middle of a date and thought they would have broken after that.

She most likely ran to help her friends during a XANA attack. That's what she would do. Ditch her boyfriend without an explanation to help her friends who are in danger.

'If she could do that for her friends than why did she steal my boyfriend and lie to me when we were friends?' Courtney thought in her head.

When Duncan was gone she and Gwen were finally starting to get along. She actually got to know Gwen and she was honestly surprised by how well they got along. They found they had similarities such as they both were strong, they were fighters, and they wouldn't back down. Gwen was one of the few people who would actually listen to her and she gave good advice to whatever problems her friends had.

So why go behind her back with her boyfriend? She was getting frustrated and she hated getting frustrated. How could one person be so hard to figure out? She thought she had Gwen figured out.

A sleazy no good boyfriend stealer. One that actually said she was sorry while Duncan seemed to have no regret about cheating on her and he admitted that he screwed up both her and Gwen. So why hell had it happened in the first place? That was pretty much why she was going to confront Gwen on this.

As for why Heather was still following her she had no idea and she was getting a bit annoyed. Both girls had found their target conversing with Noah and Izzy. No doubt the boy genius was still asking a few questions while Izzy was just hanging around not caring what they were talking about.

"Gwen." Courtney called out.

The loner of Total Drama turned to see them coming. No doubt to talk about Lyoko and a few other things.

"Looks like I'm needed elsewhere." Gwen turned to Noah.

"Good luck, I know I wouldn't storm _that_ beach alone." Noah walked off, whistling a tune.

Izzy just stood there until Noah whistled a particular two notes and patted his thigh. She ran off on all fours, barking like a dog.

"So what do you want?"

Both Courtney and Heather both opened their mouths to speak before trailing and glaring at each other.

"In your own time." Gwen said casually.

It was a bit funny to see both girls who hated her guts fight over who gets to talk to her first. Luckily she didn't say this out loud nor did she smile but she had fight the urge to do so very hard.

"All right, Gwen, we're here because of . . .you know what." Courtney started for the both of them.

Gwen nodded silently as she waited for them to continue. "Go on."

"We're...not too sure about all of this. It all seems a little...too big for us to handle." Courtney said.

"Really? So what do you suggest we do? The rest of us to continue to fight XANA while you just ignore this. You already know that if you don't go to Lyoko enough times you can be possessed." Gwen crossed her arms.

"Isn't there anything we can do? I mean, XANA needs electronics, right?" Heather asked. "What about an...Amish Community?"

"And how do you suggest you hide in an Amish town when XANA can use satellites? If any satellite is within hundreds of miles of being in geosynchronous orbit over your so called hiding spot you could be attacked by monsters or blown off of the face of the planet by missiles or lasers." Gwen explained. "If you guys are scared, you can go ahead and say it."

"Ok, we're scared!" Courtney said. "I'm freaking out! I'm scared out of my MIND-mph!" Gwen had put a hand over Courtney's mouth.

"Uh...be scared _quietly._" Gwen whispered.

"Aw man, this sucks." Heather slid down into a sitting position and lightly knocked the back of her head against the wall behind her repeatedly.

"How did you deal with this?" Courtney asked. "We heard from Cody that you were _stabbed!_"

"Oh yeah, that," Gwen sighed. "Taking on a polymorphic clone was not my smartest choice."

"Didn't that scare you? I mean, you had to have second thoughts at some point." Heather said.

"Of course I did, we all did!" Gwen replied. "We were terrified every time Aelita called and said there was an active tower! But guess what? Being afraid of fighting, that was nothing compared to being afraid of what would happen if we lost. You'd be dead if I was too scared to fight. All of us would be dead if one of us was too scared to take a stand." She sighed. "We've pretty much gone up against whole armies of monsters, and a couple times you guys have been caught up in it. One time you were all possessed by XANA! Another time you were stuck in a simulation bubble where you all lived the worst moments of your lives."

"Worst moments? What do you mean?" Heather asked.

"Port Gray High School, Freshman year, Heather." Gwen sighed.

Heather paled. "OH...I...you saw...?"

"Yeah, I did." Gwen looked at Courtney. "When you were a kid, a toy...your friend Tommy lost after it fell down through a grate?"

"I...I remember that..." Courtney turned green. "Excuse me a sec." She rushed into the bath room next to her.

"What is she-?" Heather paused as Courtney threw up into the toilet.

"Uh...it's not my business to tell you anymore than it's my business to tell her what I meant by your freshman year in Port Gray High." Gwen shrugged.

Courtney came back out, one hand on her stomach and she looked like she was still a little sick. "I...I'm sorry, it was just _really_ disgusting."

"Trust me, I understand." Gwen nodded. "Everybody had a bad experience. And it wasn't the only thing I saw. I saw what tore you and Duncan apart despite what happened last season." She hesitated. "Honestly, you two really need some help, or you just need to learn to accept that he's gonna be the way he is."

"What do you mean?"

"What I saw was how you two argued after you promised your parents to turn him into the perfect gentleman." Gwen rolled her eyes. "That was not a very smart thing to do considering Duncan's history. I mean, since he was a kid he broke a lot of laws just to spite his dad and his brothers because he wasn't how they wanted him to be. To him, you were acting as bad as they were, always expecting him to be the perfect boy and well...sounds cliché but you wanted him to conform to your preferred style despite the fact that we both know that if he had given you a list of changes he wanted you would have tossed them back into his face." Gwen put a hand on Courtney's shoulder. "I was a replacement to you. Someone he wanted you to see who could be with him and not change a damn thing. Now, all three of us admitted that he screwed us over and I admit I could have tried harder to avoid it. But this love triangle has got to stop. You two had something good going together, don't waste it."

She stepped back and let Courtney think over what she said. "I won't force you guys back into Lyoko, but remember this: if you decide to hang back, it's fine, but watch your backs. If you're on, that's great. And by the way..." Gwen winked at Courtney. "Duncan's staying on, and that's a big surprise enough. He might like it more if you stayed too."

She then looked at Heather. "And Heather, quite frankly the two of us have hated each other since Season One. It's got to stop here now that we have more at stake than money. I don't care if we're never friends. Given our history it's very unlikely, but I'm not asking you to be my friend, I'm asking you to help me and the others fight before XANA can destroy everything." She turned away. "Think about it. Don't tell me now, answer by showing up the next time we have an attack." She left the two women.

Xxx

Noah walked back to the cabin with Izzy following him. Knowing the history of those three girls it was not surprising Heather and Courtney would go see Gwen. Those girls were more alike than they would care to admit and since they were on the same team it made it easier for them to see Gwen about this. Out of all the newbies Heather and Courtney were the most hesitant and scared ones since they came to win one million dollars by any means necessary, not to be part of a group going into a virtual world to fight a rogue computer program.

He soon came upon the others who were sitting out in the woods talking about their powers.

"Yo." Noah said, getting their attention.

"Hey, Noah. Where'd you come from?" Cody asked.

"A whirlwind that had just upgraded to cyclone when we left." Noah replied pointing to himself and Izzy.

"What?" Bridgette asked.

"Courtney and Heather came to talk to Gwen." Izzy translated.

"Ah," Bridgette nodded. "How bad?"

"Uh...take the whole soap opera that Duncan, Gwen and Courtney made in World Tour...times ten." Noah explained. "Combined with the shock of the whole...you know, evil computer trying to take over the world. All we need is Christian Bale and Sam Worthington with a metal skull and we'll have a Terminator Re-enactment."

"There's not going to be trouble . . . right?" Trent asked.

Noah shrugged.

"You got me, Elvis. "

"Don't worry about it."

Everyone turned around and saw Gwen walk towards them.

"How'd it go?" LeShawna asked.

"Not as bad as I feared. I think the shock kept them from beating me to death. Heather considered running to an Amish community. Cody, you told them how you were recruited?" Gwen looked at Cody.

"Yeah. DJ told them I joined up later and wanted to know how I handled it. Sorry."

"It's fine. They would have found out sooner or later. I think I got through to them." Gwen shrugged.

"So ... You'll be okay?" Bridgette asked.

She hoped Gwen and Courtney could resolve their conflict because she honestly didn't believe they should risk their friendship over Duncan.

"I think so. The good thing about the Return Trips to the past is that you can learn stuff even Sierra wouldn't know." Gwen replied. "The simulation bubble gave me a lot of tips."

"Simulation bubble?" Trent asked.

"Oh. During Chris' wrestling match XANA sent you guys into a simulation bubble which is pretty much a world parallel to Lyoko as a trap to capture Aelita. You guys ended up trapped in memories of some of the memories you wouldn't like to talk about."

"Like what?"

"Well, Trent you found yourself as a kid at your grandfather's funeral. Duncan, you relieved your fights with Courtney and the time your mom split up your dad and lived with another cop named Dalton and getting beaten by some guy named Michael."

"Ah...that douche bag thought I was stealing his girl friend...did I even have a Mohawk or piercings back then?" Duncan asked.

"Not from what I saw...was kinda weird after being familiar with you this way." Gwen replied.

"Izzy where you at one time put in a mental hospital by the RCMP?" Cody asked.

"Oh yeah...I WAS SO BORED!" Izzy wailed.

"Well good luck with any bad memories on me-" Noah started.

"Oh don't worry, we found it." Cody sighed. "Total Drama Island, Awake-A-Thon episode..."

"Say no more!" Noah spoke up.

"The most amazing one was Lindsay's. Her memory was literally blank on account she can't remember anything bad." Gwen said smiling.

"I knew it!" Duncan said. "Pay up!"

Noah grumbled and slapped a twenty dollar bill into the punk's hand.

"You knew about the simulation bubble?"

"No, I knew that Lindsay couldn't remember anything bad." Duncan said. "In juvy they had a psychologist see me, the guy thought I used selective memory so I wouldn't feel guilty about my crimes. And then I meet Lindsay on Total Drama Island: bud a bing. And Noah thought not even she was that dumb. How about the others?"

"None of your business, Duncan." Gwen said sternly.

"Yeah. Even though we saw them we decided it was none of our business to spread it out." Bridgette said.

"Even Heather's?"

"Yep. Even Heather." Cody nodded.

"Most of the attacks are aimed at us but the simulation bubble was made to use you all as bait so XANA could trap Aelita." LeShawna said.

"What he didn't count on was that Aelita's dad installed a security program inside her in case XANA tried to take her copy of the Keys to Lyoko." Bridgette said.

"Keys to Lyoko?" Noah asked.

"We think the Keys are what gives Aelita the ability to shut down the towers XANA uses. We guess they can be used to control Lyoko but since Aelita and her dad were attacked the second they arrived in Lyoko and then Aelita lost her memories she does not know how to use them." Gwen said.

"XANA was not only a program to destroy Carthage but he was also the supercomputer in the factory designed to run Lyoko. He needed both sets of the Keys to severe the connection he had with Lyoko and the Supercomputer." Cody said.

"And seeing as you didn't just hit the off switch I'm guessing there's a twist." Noah pointed out.

"Yeah...destroying Lyoko would not be in our best interests. Destroy it, we destroy our best chance of fighting XANA." Cody explained. "At one point it would have worked...but now he's not stuck in Lyoko, he's on the world wide web now."

"Snap." Noah didn't sound all too panicked when he said that, it was more of a sarcastic 'snap'.

Xxx

Heather was just as confused as Courtney was with Gwen and her group but for different reasons. Sure, like Courtney she was scared to death of what she had seen. A crazed computer program out to kill them, a virtual world full of digital monsters, and they are given special powers like super heroes. But what almost surprised more than those was what Gwen revealed.

They knew! Gwen and Cody knew her deepest secret! Heather always made sure no one on the show knew but now two, probably all the others who were in on the whole Lyoko secret knew about what she like before! One of them was a friend while the other was one of her worst enemies.

She was always afraid what would happen if her secret got out but to her surprise both Cody and Gwen didn't care. She always figure if someone found out about her past they would mock her and she would be a laughing stock of the whole cast. Gwen had no reason to keep it a secret. Hell, she thought Gwen would have been among the people who would have spread it with the most enthusiasm to get back at her.

What reason would they have to keep her past a secret after the grief she had caused? Heather for the life of her just found it hard to understand what the hell was going on in Gwen's head. She hated her but kept what could have ruined her reputation a secret. So she followed Gwen where she met up with the others and listened on their conversation.

She had arrived just when they started talking about the Simulation Bubble. Gwen and Cody had not even told the other warriors about what they had seen! That was when Gwen's cell phone started ringing. She pulled it out and pressed the answer button before holding it up to her ear.

"Hello? Oh hey, Aelita."

Everyone looked up when they heard that. A few were afraid that they had another activated tower so soon.

"Yeah. Oh okay, thanks for the heads up. We'll see who can come." Gwen pressed the end button, ending the call.

"What'd she need? We don't have another activated tower already?" Geoff asked.

"No. She needs someone to help her get back to the lab in the factory from Lyoko. She's found out a whole of stuff. Looks like we were right the lab did have some info that we couldn't find in the factory." Gwen replied.

"I got it!" Cody said.

"Wait...take some of the newbies too, they need more Lyoko time so they don't get possessed." Gwen said.

"Ok, should we track down Heather and Courtney?" Cody asked.

"Naw, let them think it over a bit." Gwen shook her head. "Oh, and when we're done she wants us to shut down the lab. No use leaving it running if there's no way back here. She wants to keep it shut down to preserve power and keep it safe until the day it might actually be useful again."

"Okay, one quick training trip to Lyoko, then I get Aelita back home, and then hit the off switch on the way out, got it." Cody nodded.

Heather watched as Cody led the other new warriors except for her and Courtney back to the cottage. She debated whether or not she should go with them to get some training. On one hand she would be probably be in over her head as she'd be just be painting an even bigger target on her head while on the other hand she would be building up resistance to being possessed and be used against everyone. It was just so hard to choose.

Xxx

Cody led Trent, Noah, Izzy, and Duncan to the cottage. After opening the door they found Aelita sitting at the computer.

"Hey Aelita." Cody waved a hand at her.

"Hello, Cody. Thanks for coming." Aelita smiled as she got out of the chair. "Did you bring your friends with you for some training?"

"Yeah. Figured while we're were we could help up some resistance to XANA possession as soon as possible." Cody replied.

"All right. I found out how to shut down this computer and I wrote the instructions down." Aelita gestured to a piece of paper taped to the screen.

"Thanks. Okay guys," Cody turned to face them. "We have nine sectors to pick from. Anyone feel picky? We've got Forest, Polar, Desert, Mountain, Sky, Swamp, Beach, the Ice Tunnels, or Sector 5."

"Don't care." Noah shrugged.

"Same with me." Duncan said.

"OH! OH! Let me go the swamp! I can morph into a frog and eat flies!" Izzy stuck her tongue out several times like a frog.

"Sorry, there are no mosquitoes in Lyoko." Aelita replied, smiling.

"Aww!" Izzy pouted.

"How about the Desert? Seems an easy enough place to start." Trent suggested.

"Desert Sector it is." Cody sat down at the computer.

Aelita walked into one scanner followed by the others. Izzy had a big smile on her face which was no doubt because she was excited to be going back to Lyoko, Noah and Duncan kept their looks calm while Trent had a small nervous look.

"Transfer Aelita. Transfer Izzy. Transfer Noah. Transfer Duncan. Transfer Trent."

One by one each scanner closed.

"Scanner Aelita. Scanner Izzy. Scanner Noah. Scanner Duncan. Scanner Trent."

Everyone felt the ring of light travel up their bodies along with the gust of wind.

"Virtualization!"

Xxx

Noah grunted as he once again as his now digital butt made contact with virtual desert ground of Lyoko. The sand didn't help dampen the impact of his landing. Getting up he noticed all of the others had landed on their feet unlike him. Trent was back in the white tuxedo with the guitar strapped to his back, Duncan was back in his punk . . . Make that digital punk clothing while Izzy was back in her red long robe with her, now clawed hands and pointed ears making her look like a fox.

Aelita was simply waiting for them to re-familiarize themselves with Lyoko. Noah brushed off some of the sand off his coat that stayed with it when he got up.

"Wow." Izzy looked around the desert.

"Yeah, wow. Like a desert is something to gawk at." Duncan rolled his eyes.

"Good thing I brought sunglasses." Trent said jokingly while pushing his sunglasses.

"You know why you're all here, right?" Aelita asked, getting their attention.

"Yep. Come here, gain immunity to being possessed, and help save the world." Noah replied.

"That and we believe it's a good idea to gain some practice sessions here so you'll be more effective fighters in the future." Aelita said.

"So how do we do that?" Trent asked.

"Right now we'll start with you all getting used to your weapons and your abilities. Get a feel of your limits and see what you can and can't do. You all pretty much learned how to fight during the last attack but some practice will make it easier." Aelita looked around. "Take a look around. Here you are a bit more agile and stronger than in the real world. Learn how to use that to your advantage."

"Sounds good to me." Duncan pulled out his sword.

Xxx

The fresh air was doing her good. She needed to keep herself calm or she might end up attracting attention. She had asked Cody, then Gwen, and now she's going to the next one. She came upon Bridgette as she came out of a small bond while wearing her swim suit. Bridgette was smiling at getting a chance to have a quick swim before they had to leave in a few hours.

"Bridgette!"

The surfer looked over her shoulder and smiled friendly.

"Hey, Courtney. What's up?"

"I've been looking around and a couple of us had vanished." Courtney replied as she walked up to her.

"Oh. Aelita called and said she needed someone to help materialized back in the lab at the factory since she can't get back to her school by walking. Cody volunteered and Gwen suggested that a couple of our new recruits get some practice time."

"So they're back in . . ." Courtney asked but hesitated to finish her question.

Luckily Bridgette knew what she was asking.

"Everyone except you and Heather." Bridgette said. "We figured you two were still thinking it over and plus everyone else was with us when Aelita called."

"Oh." Courtney said with a surprised look.

"So what's up?" Bridgette asked.

"A whole lot, but I think you know that already." Courtney sighed.

"Yeah. It's a lot to take in." Bridgette nodded.

"That and a few other things." Courtney looked away.

"Would any of those things happen to involve a certain delinquent?"

"What?" Courtney began to stammer. "No way . . . After what he did . . . "

"Calm down, Courtney." Bridgette attempted to quell Courtney's temper at the mention of Duncan. "I know all about that. I was there."

Courtney was uncomfortable that so many people knew.

"I'd like to know something and I need you to be honest. Am I a control freak?"

Bridgette was hesitant to answer to that but she had no way of telling her otherwise.

"You can come off as a bit bossy."

"So in other words that's a big yes." Courtney looked down. "And that's why Duncan did what he did."

"Come on. You blaming yourself a bit much when Duncan could have done better." Bridgette tried to reassure her.

"How? Look at our history, Bridgette. We've pretty much brought out the worst in each other and that screwed half a dozen friends." Courtney replied looking back at her.

Bridgette sighed.

"I guess. We all made mistakes and there's nothing we can do except learn from them. Look at mine and Geoff's history. I thought I could never face Geoff again after what happened with Alejandro." Bridgette frowned at the name. "But we're back together and we've forgiven each other for both of our mistakes. Geoff going crazy in the aftermath and me letting Alejandro mess with me."

"It's not so simple with me, Bridge. Both me and Duncan have never backed down from each other and we did all we could to drive each other nuts."

"So what do you do?"

"I don't know."

"Bridgette!"

Both turned and saw Gwen run up towards them.

"What is it, Gwen?" Bridgette noticed the urgency in Gwen's voice.

"We've got to get to the lab."

"What happened?" Bridgette asked. "Another tower?"

"Thankfully no." Gwen shook her head. "But a few of our newbies got their virtual butts blasted."

Xxx

(Flashback)

"Whoo-Hoo!" Izzy shouted.

She sped through the Desert Sector on the OverBoard doing all sorts of flips and tricks.

"Slow down, Izzy. This is not a competition." Trent said while piloting the OverSled.

"Kill joy!" Izzy shouted back.

"You can't say the guy doesn't try." Noah said while using the OverWing.

"_Glad you're enjoying yourselves._" Cody said.

Duncan shot past them on the OverJet. "Ah loosen up Elvis!" He swung his sword and cleaved through a rock pillar in a flash of red fire that spat from his blade at the moment of impact. The pillar fell, cleanly severed near the base.

"Looks like the Techno-Punk is _really_ enjoying himself." Noah added. "Hm...I wonder..."

He positioned himself over Duncan, who had hopped off of the OverJet and stood in a field of rocks. Noah smirked and leaped off, ready to possess him...

But then Izzy shot under him, and he sank into her body instead. Startled, the now possessed Izzy toppled off of the OverBoard and face planted. "...If anybody says a thing, I'll make them hit themselves in the balls."

"You're inside...Izzy?" Trent floated by.

"Nice going genius, now I'm definitely keeping away from you." Duncan hopped back on the OverJet, abandoning his training field and took to the sky.

Noah-Izzy sighed. "Crap." Noah slid out of Izzy's body...and was immediately slapped 67 times, punched 13 times, kicked 43 times, and slammed into the ground over and over 56 times. Afterwards Izzy set him on his feet perfectly. He stared at her for a moment. "...ow." He fell over.

_"Wow, all that and not a single life point off." _Cody snickered. "_Go figure._"

"You're lucky you're not here, Cody." Noah stood up.

"You kind of had that coming." Trent said.

"Like you wouldn't have passed up the chance to take Duncan down." Noah retorted.

Trent shrugged.

"_Uh oh. Guys, you've got company coming._"

"What's up?" Izzy asked.

"_You've got a group of monsters heading towards you._"

"I see them," Trent said. "Uh...it's a pair of freaky looking Krabs with some freakier looking Spiderlings...and did I mention the really freaky vibe I'm getting off of those Mantas flying with them?"

"What? Lemmee see!" Duncan flew up next to Trent.

The monsters' colours were all inverted. They were all dark with blood red XANA symbols, and some streaks of their old colour left. There were two Mantas, two Krabs, and eight Spiderlings.

"We can handle this!" Duncan said.

"Wait, maybe we should get Aelita on the phone and ask her if-" Trent was cut off when his vehicle was hit by a single power blast of bright white energy from a Spiderling ,destroying it. He hit the ground, hard. "...okay screw it, TAKE EM!"

Trent began to fire off electric spells at the monsters. It mostly missed them as they dodged easily. A Spiderling that was in the way of the attack preformed a sudden flip. Izzy fired an explosive arrow that collided with a Krab and exploded. But when the smoke cleared it was still there.

"Uh...Cody? Why are they still here?"

_"Extra life points ,extra armour, man these things have extra everything!"_ Cody said. _"Be careful, fifty life points per hit! Trent, your spells did about thirty points each...out of two-fifty."_

"Two hundred and fifty life points? Aw man that aint fair!" Trent ducked behind a rock as the Spiderlings opened fire. Suddenly Duncan landed on one and jammed his blade into the other.

_"One hundred points of damage ,but no cigar!"_

Duncan growled. "How about THIS?" His sword glowed...and the Spiderling exploded in a green plume of fire. He got off of the other one and kicked it into a wall. He was about to finish it, but saw a shadow matching his own that looked particularly like a Krab's...and managed to duck in time to avoid being cut in half by a Krab leg.

Izzy fired her cross bows, and scored four direct hits on the Krab, but it remained standing. And Cody chose the worst time to reveal how many life points the Krabs had...

Four hundred life points a pop.

The Lyoko Warriors began to go on the retreat. Trent took a blast to the chest, and quickly moved further back, firing more spells.

With their combined fire power, another Spiderling fell.

Noah then chose that moment to act. He leaped off of a toppled over rock pillar and possessed a Krab. It twitched and spasmed...and then slammed into its companion. Noah fired multiple blasts into the Krab until it exploded. "Heh, not so tough now are you-wuagh!"

He was hit by the two Mantas multiple times. The Krab's armour held out for a few seconds and let him return fire, but by the time one Manta went down Noah's monster exploded and left him exposed for three Spiderlings to hit at once.

He vanished into thin air, returning to the real world.

"Uh...we might wanna run now!" Duncan said, but their escape was cut off by a trio of Tarantulas that had a similar colour scheme to the other monsters. "Oh man!"

He began to parry multiple blasts while Izzy and Trent joined him. They began to form a defensive circle, deflecting blasts as the monsters closed in on them.

"I got those!" Izzy aimed her crossbows at the Tarantulas.

"_Izzy wait-_"

Izzy her crossbows and they exploded, enveloping the Tarantulas.

"Yes!"

But a second later a barrage of lasers slammed into her and she was devirtualized. The smoke cleared showing the monsters were not only not harmed but had red glowing shields.

"_Those monsters have shields!_"

"Crap!" Duncan shouted.

Duncan tried to block the incoming lasers but then a familiar unwelcome buzzing sound was heard above them. They looked up and saw Hornets that had undergone the same transformation.

"Damn it!"

Trent played a note that unleashed a stream of lightning but the Hornets dodged easily and fired down on them. Both were trapped by the monsters surrounding them and the ones above them. They were devirtualized in the next moment.

(End Flashback)

Xxx

"Yeah, bottom line, we sucked." Trent said.

"So what happened? No activated tower? No nothing?" Gwen asked.

"Nope, I'd say when XANA found out about our practice trip he just wanted to throw a welcoming party." Cody shrugged.

"And his messed up monsters sure rolled out the red carpet." Duncan sighed.

"Great. So not only are some of the veterans kicked out but we got generals and new more dangerous monsters on the loose." LeShawna lightly slammed her fist into the wall.

"So, they were dark colored monsters of the usual ones we fought?" Geoff asked.

"Yeah, except bigger, badder, and a whole lot smarter." Cody replied.

"And had shields." Trent added.

"And instead of us kicking ass, our asses got _kicked._" Noah added. "Hard."

"It was such a BUZZ KILL!" Izzy shouted. "I was having fun up until they ruined my good day!"

"Trust me, we all sympathize with you, we also got the scenic route back to reality." Noah replied.

"Why do I have a feeling that the whole 'Dark Monster' thing is a sign?" DJ asked.

"Because whenever the word 'Dark' is used ,you just know you're screwed?" Geoff inquired.

"Uh...maybe."

"So what now?" Cody asked.

"Well we only have half an hour left before we have to go back to the studio-assuming Carlos decides to let Chris out of the tree instead of letting him hang like a piñata." Bridgette said.

Xxx

Chris was sobbing silently, badly bruised and beaten. The kids had walked off after half an hour of beating Chris without any candy to speak of.

"I HATE YOU CARLOS!"

Xxx

"So unless we can convince Heather and Courtney to step in and practice on their own while risking another initiation party, courtesy of our good friend XANA, we should just shut this thing down." Cody said. "All agreed?"

"Yo."

"Yep."

"Duh."

"Yep-yep!"

"Mhm."

"Go for it."

"Okay, here goes." Cody began to access the master controls. Slowly, the screens darkened ,and the map of Lyoko vanished. "There we go!"

"Awesome...I'm hungry now, getting sent back from Lyoko left me on an empty stomach." Noah said. "If we hurry there might be some pan cakes or bacon left."

They all left the lab, locking it behind them. They then left the cottage after placing a new lock and chain over the front door. Gwen hung onto the key to it-saying it was 'just in case'.

Xxx

"Where were you all?" Heather asked as the defeated warriors filed back into the cabin.

"Training," Duncan said.

"Attacked by XANA." Trent added.

"Got our butts kicked." Izzy said gloomily.

"And we shut the lab down. We'll be using the main one back in Paris from now on." Cody said.

"Attacked? You don't mean-" Courtney asked, concerned that they were going face monsters again like before.

"It was in Lyoko, no towers were activated." Bridgette assured her.

"He was just testing out some new monsters." Gwen sighed. "And threw an initiation party for our newbies."

"In the form of blasting us to pieces!" Noah groaned. "It sucks getting devirtualized like that!"

"You're telling me, I was devirtualized twice." Trent said.

"Same here Elvis, same here." Duncan flopped down onto a chair.

"Don't be so down. It happens." Gwen said. "It's just one battle. There'll be plenty more battles."

"Doesn't mean I have to like feeling like I went a round with Roberto or Carlos." Duncan replied.

"Trust me, if you fought Roberto the smell would kill you first." Geoff teased.

"...touché."

Courtney listened to the group chat, and swallowed with every description made about the battles, both past and only recent. She sat down and took a deep breath, making an effort to _not_ break down and run to tell Carlos, Kurt, and Chris the whole thing and make them air it. She wanted to so badly just to put the burden on somebody who could handle it, but she didn't want to betray them either after what Gwen had said to her, and after what she and Duncan had said to one another.

Heather was listening and keeping the nausea in her stomach where it was. How could they just sit around and talk about it so casually? It's like they just forgot that they could die! It's like they forget everything!

Heather did not come on for this. She wanted to win the money and become famous. With the money she could show the world who's boss. This was not what she had signed up for.

Yet she didn't want to stab them in the back and run to the authorities. Not after they saved her and knowing that if they did find out there'd just be political bickering while XANA takes over the world.

Gwen noticed that Heather and Courtney were still having second thoughts about this whole thing. She mentally sighed knowing that they would have to make a decision sooner or later. Honestly she hoped it was sooner than during an attack which would save them a lot of trouble.


	34. Episode 33: Race Down the Mountain

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 33

Shadow growled as he finally healed himself from the latest battle. Getting up he found himself back in the Sector 5 of XANA's Carbon Copy.

"Wow. You're healed."

Shadow turned and saw Lilith leaning against the tower with a bored look on her face.

"Now let's go. XANA wants to see us." Lilith said in a snooty tone that made Shadow raise an eyebrow at the tone of disrespect.

He followed her into a chamber that had multiple screens and interfaces on the walls showing streams of data, maps, and charts. In the center of the room lines a wire frame of a human body appeared before them. The wires were dark red and a black cloud traveled up the frames that began to form skin and clothing in a flash of red light. When it was finished XANA stood in front of them in his preferred Avatar form.

"Welcome back everyone and congratulations, Lilith. You managed to survive your first fight with the warriors. Even if they were new ones." XANA said.

"Thank you, Master." Lilith bowed.

"The plan partially succeeded. Four out of six of the current warriors were removed but six more were chosen to aid the surviving ones." XANA brought up a recording of the new warriors. "Now that we have that out of the way, can anyone explain to me why you lost when six of them were newly arrivals unlike the veterans?"

No one bothered to answer that question as XANA already knew.

"Lilith's illusions easily dealt with the golem DJ and she brought down the warrior Duncan's life points to a mere five before the battle started. Ryder allowed his arrogance to get the better of him in the fight against the spell caster and the newly arrived ninja. Yuki finished Duncan but did not count on the musician Trent's various attacks. And Shadow, you interrupted Lilith's fight even though it looked she was finished." XANA looked over at Shadow. "The warrior Noah's life points was too low for him to attack. The fox girl Izzy and Aelita would have been at her mercy if she followed up with her final attack."

"What final attack?" Shadow growled out.

XANA glared at him and he backed down, hating himself for being so afraid.

"None of your concern. It was just you against the water warrior Bridgette and your confidence allowed her to beat you and your hatred when you transformed clouded your judgment." XANA paused as he pointed out what went wrong. "It seems I was mistaken putting you in charge. For this you are demoted."

Shadow's eyes widened in shock as XANA turned to Lilith.

"Lilith, out of all of my generals you showed better results and saved Shadow from certain death. It seems I was wrong in not choosing your idea of how to defend the tower over Shadow's. That was my mistake, from now on you are taking Shadow's place."

"WHAT?" Shadow shouted and pointed at Lilith. "Her, Leader? You can't be serious!"

"I am. If you believe you are being wrongfully blamed than you are well within your rights to challenge Lilith to keep the title of the top general." XANA didn't even bat an eye at Shadow's outburst.

Maybe it was because he predicted this.

"Damn straight I am challenging her!" Shadow pulled out his sword.

"Lilith, do you accept?"

Lilith nodded. "I think it's time Shadow learned how to use the subtle approach."

Ryder and Yuki stepped as a transport orb appeared and transported Shadow and Lilith to another sector. The sector they were in was the Sky Sector, standing on a platform in the fortress that floated in the sky above the Mountain Sector. Shadow pulled out his sword and pointed it at Lilith.

"You still have a chance to walk away alive."

Lilith smirked.

"Now I'll show you what my real power is."

Shadow growled and charged, swinging his sword at her. But Lilith disappeared from view before the sword could cut her.

"If you think your little teleportation trick is going to help think again." Shadow said looking around.

"Then I guess I will have to do this."

Suddenly Shadow was surrounded by a sphere of energy. Inside all the lights went out leaving Shadow in darkness.

"Like it? You're Shadow of the Endless Night and here we are in a void of darkness." Lilith's voice ehoed around him.

"What is this?" Shadow demanded.

"My best trick. The one I would have used if you hadn't interrupted my battle." Lilith said.

Suddenly an arrow hit Shadow in the left knee.

"GAH!"

He was then hit in the back by another arrow. Then again in the right shoulder. Each hit continued to weaken him and lower his life points. When the sphere lifted Shadow was kneeling on the ground with Lilith pointing an arrow between his eyes.

"Think you're strong enough to be the top dog now?" Lilith asked.

"Enough." Both heard XANA's voice. "Lilith has proven herself to be stronger and now she is the leader. Shadow, for your incompetence you should be tossed into the void but you are still valuable so by my will alone you will survive. But if you fail again Lilith will be the one to finish it."

Lilith smirked down at Shadow's angered face.

"We do things my now."

Xxx

"Okay, everyone. Now as you all know you, me, my fellow pyromaniac of a producer, we all had our collectives asses dragged up here by a fury caveman that I bet no one is missing back in whatever cave or dirt hole he crawled from and an idiot host who thinks having a mop for hair makes him look stylish. Now apparently Chris is going to have a challenge up here so hurry up so we can get back to the heck hole we call our current headquarters so I can once again purchase my many anti-depressants that always me such a good damn optimist." Kurt said to the competitors. "That said, get your crap together and make sure it's on the bus or you'll lose it forever."

"And don't mind Chris' absence, he will join us at a later time before the day is out." Carlos added.

"Carlos ,we need him here to host the show or people will ask questions." Kurt pointed out.

"Can't we just say he quit?" Carlos asked.

"No, now go get him." Kurt said. "Knock him out but drag him back alive."

"With minimal damage I assume?"

"Sadly yes."

"Ah what the heck, he's probably suffered enough." Carlos walked off.

Xxx

...when he returned, he was carrying Chris, who was covered in bruises and giggling like a maniac.

"So many bats! BATS! Batty bat bats! They wanted my candy, but Chris no give any candy!" Chris giggled as Carlos set him on a seat in the bus.

"What the heck did you do to him?" Kurt asked.

"I left him to a fate that would make grown men-and by men I don't mean mop head weep and ponder ending their misery." Carlos said grimly.

"You hang him upside down and disguised him as a piñata, didn't you?"

"...yes, yes I did."

"Okay. Like I said everybody, pack up and get moving." Kurt sighed. "Half an hour!"

"Gotta say Kurt, you seem oddly apathetic today." Carlos commented.

"Let's just say that the sooner we get out of here the sooner I can get my anti-depressants and get as far away from Chris, Roberto-and to a minor extension you, no offense,-"

"None taken, I hate you too buddy."

"As far as possible and get home to Sarah."

"...You two still haven't reached third base, have you?"

"I blame Roberto and Chris. I'd blame you, but you didn't have a hand in being a buzz kill this time." Kurt sighed. "Let's just go."

Roberto suddenly came out of the forest, covered in dirt and mud. "CARLOS!"

"Oh great," Carlos sighed. "I forgot to mention that I left Roberto to sleep in some mud hole I dug up."

Xxx

"Last time on Total Drama Reality! Our challengers faced one another in a mega wrestling tournament!" Chris said. "There were punches, kicks, bruises, and screams! In the end there were some surprises as Cody ,the second geekiest teen in the show whooped Duncan the all around bad ass punk. Gwen managed to survive a round with Izzy. And in a surprising shock Alejandro managed to outsmart and beat Eva. Much to my utter disgrace, it was Team Chris that lost, and being the sore losers they are took it out on Tyler for losing to Courtney." He sighed. "Will Team Me bounce back from this losing streak? Will Duncan live down being beaten by Cody-OOCH!" He paused as he found his underwear brought up and over his head, stretched painfully while Duncan wiped his hands, a smirk on his face. "Find out today-ow on Total Drama Reality!"

Xxx

The three teams stood in a stadium with various pieces lying around.

"Howdy, campers. Today, in this challenge we'll be bringing back the EXTREME part of Total Drama!" Chris announced.

"Cuz you sure aren't bringin' sexy back in this life time." Carlos pointed out.

The cast and many viewers snickered.

"Oh Ha-ha-HA!" Chris frowned. "Anyway since we're up here I decided to do next challenge in the outdoors to get some well needed exercise."

"You'll actually walk five inches?" Noah asked.

"Burn!" Kurt and Carlos said at the same time.

"No. You'll have to race to the river where the next challenge will be held. Oh, and watch for booby traps."

Everyone stared at Chris blankly until he got fed up with the staring.

"GO!"

All three groups took off towards the river like a stampede. Running at top speed all three teams attempted to get ahead of each other. As they ran they kept an eye out for any traps but didn't see any.

"What is this? Where are the traps?" Eva growled.

"Don't know, don't care!" Heather replied.

That was when a sound was heard someone screamed.

"Sounded like Justin." Gwen said.

Xxx

Confessional: Justin

"WHY? MY LOOKS ARE RUINED!"

He was covered in mud, head to toe and crying.

End Confessional

Xxx

"Probably got his face covered in mud." Cody joked.

A whooshing sound was heard.

"Duck!" Courtney shouted.

Everyone did as she said and something flew over them.

"What was that?" Beth asked.

Xxx

"Where's my pie?" Chris asked.

"I think I saw it by one of those traps." Carlos said blankly.

"And you didn't pick it up?"

"Why? It's not my pie." Carlos shrugged.

Xxx

"Doesn't matter! Keep going!" Heather said.

The team started running again but Katie stepped in something and started sinking.

"Oh no! Guys! Help!" Katie shouted to the retreating backs of her team. "Guys! Sadie!"

Sadie suddenly stopped running and turned around.

"Sadie, what's wrong?" Bridgette noticed Sadie stopping.

"Katie's in trouble! I'M COMING KATIE!"

"Sadie, wait!" LeShawna shouted but Sadie ignored her.

Sadie ran towards where she heard Katie and found her in a pit of quicksand.

"HANG ON KATIE!" Sadie reached in to grab her but she fell into the pit next to Katie.

"Oh no! Now we're both stuck!" Katie cried.

"We're both going to sink!" Sadie cried back and hugged Katie.

"Oh Sadie!" Katie hugged her back. "Best Friends Forever!"

"Yeah!"

Bridgette and LeShawna ran to the pit to find the girls crying with the quicksand up to their waists.

"Hang on you two!" LeShawna shouted as she reached out and grabbed them both.

She pulled them out of the pit with Bridgette helping.

"Oh my gosh, thank you, LeShawna!" Katie cried.

"Yeah, I thought we were goners."

"No problem. But we better move. We're probably in last place."

Xxx

"Well, it looks like Team Me Me _Me_ is first." Chris said.

"What about us?" Heather asked.

"Yeah. We made it here first!" Courtney said.

"Look again." Chris said.

"Guys, Katie's not here!" Cody said.

"We must have left her behind somewhere." Gwen looked around.

"Great!" Heather growled.

"And Team Victory is missing LeShawna, Bridgette, and Sadie." Chris looked over to Team Victory. "It's a good day to be me."

"Chris, the day it's good to be you is the day it's good to listen to Justin Bieber." Carlos said sternly.

"For this challenge we have three types of boats!" Chris said. "One motor boat. One sail boat. And one row boat. Since Team Me is the winner of this round they get the motor boat! And seeing as Team Victory is missing more-"

"Hold up you mop head turkey!" LeShawna, Bridgette and Sadie came running onto the scene.

"I stand corrected. Team Victory is second with the sail boat! And in last, Team Amazon with the row boat."

In the water were three boats like Chris had said. A motor boat, a sail boat and a canoe.

"This challenge will be a great journey and sail the creek. It's a race down the river of the mountain." Chris said.

"That's it? What's the catch?" Gwen asked.

"No catch whatsoever. The journey itself will be long and dangerous." Chris said.

"Let me guess; no lifejackets." Noah said.

"Budget cuts." Chris replied.

"Translation he either spent it on hair gel or he bribed Carlos with the promise of paying for the destroyed car." Kurt said.

"He can't do that! My lawyers won't let him!" Courtney ranted.

"Too bad. See you down at the finish line." Chris walked away with a fake smile.

Everyone gave him the evil eye while thinking of how to get revenge. Then each team got into their boats.

"Looks like we'll be winning this one." Duncan said smirking.

"One question; how do we get Darth Alejandro on without sinking?" Noah asked.

Alejandro's robotic suit kept him safe from being injured but it was also very heavy. The boat would easily sink.

"I know! I know!" Izzy jumped up and down.

"What?" Noah sighed.

"We attach the motor to Alejandro's suit and use his suit as the motor to propel the boat."

Everyone looked at each other.

"Not the worst idea I ever heard." Duncan said.

"Wait! What if I crash?" Alejandro asked.

"Relax. We just need a good driver." Duncan smiled evilly.

Meanwhile Team Victory was already setting up their sail boat.

"Wow. This is easy." Geoff said.

"Thanks. I know more than surfing in the ocean. My dad showed me how to sail." Bridgette replied as they set sail.

"They're getting away!" Heather said, glaring at Team Victory's boat.

"We know. We're right here." Eva grumbled.

"Okay, so who rows?" Gwen asked.

"I can." Beth raised her hand.

"No. Me and Eva will row. Cody will sit at the front and guide us." Gwen said.

"Why can't I lead?" Courtney asked.

"Because we need someone who's good at leading. You or Heather would just shout at us to row."

"Okay. All in favour of Cody leading." Heather said.

"Aye!" Gwen, Sierra, Beth, and Katie said.

"Don't care." Eva said.

"Okay. Cody leads."

"YAY CODY!" Sierra said.

Gwen and Eva sat down in the middle to row while Cody sat in front with Sierra just behind him along with Katie and Beth while Heather and Courtney sat behind Gwen and Eva. The Goth girl and the muscular girl began to row in synch and they were out in the river.

"You might want to hurry. We're falling behind!" Justin said.

"Hang on!" Izzy shouted.

By some miracle Izzy had hooked up the motor to the back of Alejandro's robot suit with a rope tied around the robot to the boat behind them.

"You sure we should let Izzy lead?" Alejandro asked.

"Relax. I know what I'm doing." Izzy said sitting on the back Alejandro's robot head.

Xxx

Confessional: Noah

"Good thing I signed my will. All of my stuff will be donated to a university so none of my siblings will steal, burn, and break them. And my parents get to fight over who gets my room."

Xxx

Confessional: Alejandro

"I know what I did last season so I am really hoping none of them decide to accidently crash me while racing down the river."

Xxx

Confessional: Duncan

"Better him than me."

End Confessional

Xxx

Izzy turned on the motor and they sped off with Izzy screaming wildly while holding on the back of Alejandro's robotic head. Heather and Courtney saw them catching up fast.

"Row! Row, you two! They're catching up!" Courtney shouted.

"We're rowing as fast as we can!" Eva shouted.

"Row faster!" Heather shouted.

Gwen looked down when she heard a thud sound and then cracking sound after that. When she looked down her eyes widened.

"Guys."

Team Chris' boat sped past them.

"Come on! We've got to go faster!" Courtney shouted.

"Guys!" Gwen shouted a little louder.

"We can't go any faster! You want faster get out and push!" Eva shouted.

Gwen was starting to feel her boots get wet.

"GUYS!"

"WHAT?" Everyone except Cody shouted.

"THE BOAT'S SINKING!"

Everyone looked down see a whole the size of a hockey puck in the middle of the boat between Gwen and Eva's feet.

"How did that get there?" Katie asked.

"Who cares how it got there, plug it up!" Heather shouted.

Sierra and Katie jumped down and tried to push the water down with their hands but the water kept coming up.

"We've got to get out!" Gwen shouted.

"NO! We'll lose!" Courtney protested.

"And if we don't we'll sink and _still_ lose!" Gwen shot back.

"She's right. We've got to go!" Cody said.

"All right, Cody." Sierra jumped out of the boat with Cody and swam to the shore.

"You can stay on but this boat won't last a moment longer." Gwen jumped off the boat followed by Eva and Katie.

"I hate to say it but she's right." Heather jumped off the boat.

Courtney growled before jumping off and swam back to the shore with the others. Once she got up everyone looked down the river.

"So how do we go down now?" Beth asked.

"We can just follow the river. It might take a whole day but I wouldn't count on Chris coming back up to pick us up." Gwen said.

"Works for me." Eva said.

They started walking down the path down the mountain.

Xxx

Confessional: Heather

"It's pretty clear whose fault this is."

End Confessional

Xxx

"Oh sweet! We're totally winning!" LeShawna shouted with wind blowing through her hair.

"This is so much fun!" Lindsay squealed.

"I think we're so far ahead no one can catch up." Trent said.

"Think again!" DJ looked behind them and pointed.

They all turned around and saw Team Chris catching up to them and fast.

"Oh crap! They got their motor working!" LeShawna shouted.

"Can't this go any faster?" Lindsay asked.

"It's a sail boat, it goes as fast as the wind." Bridgette replied.

Carlos and Kurt were sitting on top of a raised platform watching the race.

"And Team Victory is in the lead with Team C close on their tail! Alejandro is tearing through the water-and I still don't know how Izzy made that happen!" Carlos announced. "And they're neck and neck, toe to toe, eye to eye, foot to foot, nail to nail! Somebody stop me!"

THWACK!

"Ow! I wasn't serious!"

"Yeah well with you it's hard to tell," Kurt said. "So give me a heads up next time you say 'somebody stop me'."

Carlos just gave him a deadly glare...

"Uh..Carlos? What are you doing that chain?"

Xxx

"You're such an immature brat at heart." Kurt sighed as he hang upside down from the edge of the platform ,dangling by his ankles. "I was completely justified in whacking you."

"About as justified as I am in doing this, so yeah, I guess you must have been." Carlos replied.

"Oh you're just having a temper tantrum cuz somebody broke your car and you haven't had your pie!" Kurt accused him. "You didn't have to do that to the delivery guy you know!"

"When I say 'no anchovies whatsoever on the pie', I mean no anchovies!" Carlos growled. "Now shut up or-"

"CARLOS LOOK OUT!"

"Oh like I'll fall for-" THUD!

"AH!"

Team Chris' boat crashed over the top of the platform...and took Carlos with it...and Kurt's chain.

Kurt watched as the length of chain slowly began to unravel from the pile it was in on the top. He sighed. "This is an interesting conundrum I find myself in."

"Any last words Kurt?" Chris asked.

"Yeah, in case I forget to say this later...oh dear god the pain, somebody put me out of my miser-EE!" Kurt was dragged along with the boat. "You suck Chris...!"

"Hate you too buddy! Now go get me ratings!"

Xxx

"What the hell just happened?" Carlos ,now sitting in the boat shouted.,

"Carlos? Where'd you come from?" Duncan asked.

"That's what the minister said at my wedding!" Carlos sighed.

"Hey look we also have Kurt on the back!" Izzy shouted.

Kurt was...water skiing on the water. "YEE HAW! Carlos I have you to thank for this, I am having SO much fun!"

"Uh...nice to know buddy!" Carlos looked ahead and gulped. "Hey remember that time you wanted to see Mount Rushmore?"

"Oh don't tell me, we're about to hit a big cliff face!" Kurt replied.

"Uh...yep!"

"Chances of death?"

"Most likely!"

"...bring it on."

The Boat crashed into the wall...and Alejandro ploughed right through it, sending rocks everywhere.

"WOO HOO! YEEEEEE HAWWWWW!" Kurt cheered.

"Wow...it's a paradox!" Carlos said, amazed. "This is unreal."

"There's the finish line!" Justin shouted.

Looking ahead they saw a large flag with Chris' face on it.

"Oh that is just an eyesore." Carlos commented.

Team Victory was right next to them and they headed for the finish line at full speed.

"Faster! Faster!" Izzy said pounding the motor . .. Which started to stall on them.

"Oh crap!" Kurt shouted as he flew forward.

As he was about to hit the boat he jumped and flew over the boat.

"Hey, Noah, Duncan, Justin, Izzy, Alejandro, you suck Carlos!" He flew over them and flew back into the water.

"...damn, that jack ass beat me at my own damn game." Carlos sighed. "Before you know it I'll be the kill joy at every party we throw."

Team Victory's boat made it past the finish line and they cheered in victory.

"And for once Team Victory _has_ a victory." Chris said. "Now we need to wait for the other teams to make it to the finish line."

"Swim for it!" Duncan said.

Everyone in Team C jumped out of the boat and swam for the finish line.

"Wait! What about me?" Alejandro shouted.

"We need to get him across the finish line." Noah said.

Duncan groaned and swam back and started pushing Alejandro's robotic suit with Izzy helping him. Luckily when Alejandro had been put in the Drama Machine they provided him with a floatation device in case he fell into deep water since when it came to Chris you could not be too careful. It took a good five minutes but they managed to get him over the finish line.

"Well, even though Team I am So Awesomely Hot came in second place they didn't lose this time. And Team Amazon, where are they?"

Xxx

Elimination Ceremony

Team Amazon sat around a camp fire like they used to during Total Drama Island. The other teams were watching as Chris walked towards them with trophies.

"Well, well, Team Amazon, you _first_ elimination ceremony. How does it feel?" Chris asked.

They glared at him for that since he was basically rubbing it in their faces.

"Crappy! Now hurry and get this over with!" Heather demanded.

"All right, all right." Chris said holding up a tray of Chris trophies. "Before we start here's a hint to whose going tonight."

He held up a remote, pointing it at a portable TV. He hit play and it came on.

Xxx

Voting Confessional: Heather

"This is all Katie's fault. If she hadn't got stuck in the quicksand we would have had the motorboat and won."

Xxx

Voting Confessional: Courtney

"Katie is literally useless to the team."

Xxx

Voting Confessional: Sierra

"According to my Total Drama databanks there will be a one hundred percent chance that Katie and Sadie will cry tonight."

Xxx

Voting Confessional: Cody

"Nothing personal Katie."

Xxx

Voting Confessional: Beth

"Sorry, Katie."

Xxx

Voting Confessional: Gwen

"We could have gone back to get her if we heard her but if I know everyone on this team it's likely the person who goes is Katie."

Xxx

Voting Confessional: Eva

"Whatever."

End Confessional

Xxx

Chris turned off the TV and looked at the team. Katie had a terrified look on her face as she watched this. Gwen, Beth, and Cody gave her sympathetic looks, Eva just scowled, Heather and Courtney just wanted to get this over with.

"And the trophies go to Gwen."

Gwen caught her trophy.

"Cody."

"Sierra."

Sierra squealed as she got hers.

"Heather."

"Courtney."

"Beth."

Chris held up one last trophy and looked at Eva and Katie.

"One last trophy which means someone is going to be leaving and never come back. **Ever**."

He held up the trophy and . . .

...

...

...

...

...

...

"Is this necessary?" Gwen asked.

"Shush! I'm building drama!"

...

...

...

...

...

...

"Just hurry up!" Heather shouted.

"Quiet!"

...

...

...

...

...

...

"Eva!"

Eva smiled as she caught her trophy.

"NO!"

They looked and saw Sadie run towards Katie and they hugged while crying.

"You can't go! How can I survive?" Sadie cried.

"Do we have to go that again?" Courtney asked.

"Actually, I think I'll boot them both off since I don't want to put up with Sadie's crying again." Chris said.

"What?" LeShawna shouted. "You can't do that."

"I can if Sadie wants to quit." Chris replied.

"Fine! I quit!" Sadie said. "I don't want to be apart from Katie again!"

"Oh Sadie!" Katie cried and they both hugged each other.

"Fine. Chef."

Chef came up and escorted both girls to the car that would take them to the Jet of Losers. Both teams waved good bye to them.

"Well, at least they won't be sad." Bridgette said with a sad look.

"Well, that wraps up another episode. Will Team Victory keep their winning streak? Or is this the last _victory_ they'll have." Chris turned to the camera. "Find out next time on, Total, Drama, REALITY!"

"Good. Now everyone has thirty minutes to get their butts back up to the cabin, gather up their crap, and get on the bus or they'll be left behind to walk all the way back to the city which may mean a fate worse than being on a show with Chris." Kurt said.

"Dude, you obviously were not at his thirteenth birthday when he started using a mop for a hair style." Carlos said.

Xxx

"Well we can't say this trip wasn't interesting." Bridgette said with her stuff already packed.

"Yeah. You could say that." Trent agreed.

"Wait. What do we do when we get back? Do you just go to this factory with that lab?" Heather asked.

"Don't have to. Besides it'll be a while before we get an attack." Gwen replied.

"And I got off the phone with Aelita. She believes it'll take even longer than XANA for his generals to recharge back up to full strength since they don't recharge exactly like our characters do. It might even take half a month for them to be fully recharged." Cody said.

"So we might just have to worry about those dark monsters." Duncan said.

"Well, I intend to do some reading to help me forget this whole thing." Noah said with a book in his hands.

"I'll be practicing my fox style moves " Izzy smiled.

Courtney and Heather stayed silent through the conversation while considering whether or not to actually go to Lyoko when the inevitable attack

Xxx

Everyone got some decent sleep that time...up until Roberto tried to toss Carlos out of the bus and instead ended up being dragged behind it, a rope tied around his ankle as it went down a particularly steep road with LOTS of rocks and junk such as glass pieces left on it.

"DAMN! OW! YOU! OUCH! CARLOS!"

By the time everyone got back to the studio things were mostly quiet. Tomorrow would be the day the next episode would be broadcasted. In the meantime everyone was doing their best to settle in. Duncan was relaxing when he heard a knock on his door.

"Yo!"

The door opened and much to his surprise his visitor was Courtney.

"Hey." Courtney said sheepishly.

"Hey." Duncan replied trying to avoid the awkward moment.

"Can I come in?"

"Go ahead."

Courtney walked in, looking at the punk posters on the wall. It was almost like Duncan's room back home.

"We need to talk." Courtney looked at him.

"About?" Duncan knew but he wanted to try and avoid any more fighting.

"About us. You admitted you screwed with me and Gwen. Also Gwen said she was a replacement for me because you wanted to get back at me."

"Really?" Duncan raised an eyebrow. "Let me guess, she told you about the whole simulation thing where they saw the worst parts of lives."

"That's not important. What I want to know is why?"

"Why? It's pretty obvious princess." Duncan said.

"Don't call me that. You lost the right to call me that last season." Courtney glared.

"Like you can stop me from doing that. Besides, you're anything but innocent." Duncan glared back at her.

"How? How am I not innocent when you were the one who cheated on me with Gwen just when we were becoming friends? And not only did you do that but you did on NATIONAL TV! And for what? Just to get back at me because I wanted to gain my parents' approval!"

"Hey! If you want to please your parents that's fine, just leave me out of it! While I was on the run I thought about our relationship and while it was nice in Season 1, we were pretty much fighting all the time during TDA and before TDWT. Excuse me for wanting to date a girl who had no problem with who I was or the fact she was for most part sane!"

"Sane? The idea of you knowing what sane is, is _hilarious. _I just wanted you to reach the potential you had and you threw it back in my face!"

"That's because I _liked_ being the way I was! You may be hot but I wasn't going to change just because you didn't like me the way I was." Duncan said. "I was polite to your parents, I made an effort to try and meet with your approval without going through the whole make over but nothing I did was ever good enough for you. You nagged me for any little detail you could think of, and you did it in public where people could see us. And for what? Just so you could please your parents and make them think you were the perfect daughter?"

"And how are you any better? Wanting me to join you and your little gang in whatever pranks you guys did and saying I had a five foot pole stuck up my butt. And all the times I had to bail you out! You think that made my parents happy every time I used our money."

Duncan looked away with his arms crossed.

"I never asked you to."

Courtney's looks softened a bit.

"I did it because I cared."

They both glared at each other but then they suddenly looked down and sighed.

"Wow. Gwen was right. We both need some serious help." Courtney said. "I came here hoping to talk this over like we were civilized and two seconds later we're fighting again.

She chuckled.

"Times like these I just really hate Gwen. Always knowing more than she should."

"I always knew she kept something hidden from everyone." Duncan replied.

"Right. Like the whole Lyoko thing."

"You still having second thoughts?"

"How can I not? I never signed up to do this. I wanted to win and become famous, proving my skills to the world."

"Here's a reason: there might not be a world to prove to if we lose." Duncan said.

Courtney looked out the window.

"For all the crap we put Gwen and her friends through on the show they probably saved us more times than we could count. I'm in, even if Gwen doesn't have a crush on me anymore she's still my best friend even if she won't forgive me for the whole little replacement thing." Duncan shrugged. "You can stay out of it if you want. No one's expecting an answer out of you yet. We'll probably get it during the next attack."

"That's what everyone has said to me. Cody, Gwen, Bridgette, now you."

"Really? It's not a complex thing to figure out. Fight or don't fight."

Courtney shook her head.

"I guess I might give it a try."

"That's the spirit." Duncan smiled.

She left to go back to her room to get some sleep.

* * *

Just to let you all know I've posted the Lyoko forms for the cast on my profile and I've made some changes to Bridgette and Heather's Lyoko forms since I felt I didn't put much effort into creating their Lyoko forms so I went back and changed them and reposted the chapters and now I'm putting their forms and the rest on my profile.


	35. Episode 34: Total Drama Zombie Slayers

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 34

"Go man, go!" Geoff encouraged.

"I'm trying!" Cody said.

"He's not going to make it." Noah said dully.

"Don't say that, he'll make it!" Geoff said.

Cody quickly ran for it, dodging anything that would have taken his life. He didn't offer any reply to Geoff's encouragement or Noah's cynicism as he dodged an attack from another enemy. He shot his foe several times before it's health bar hit zero..

"Nice one!" DJ complimented.

Cody quickly ran to the towards his destination only to find a pit between him and where he needed to go. He jumped into the air, confident he was going to win but at the last second an enemy fired at him and it was too late to dodge.

"No!" Cody screamed.

"He's finished!" Geoff shouted in terror.

They watched as he fell into the pit and two words came up.

GAME OVER

Cody put down the controller and sighed.

"So close."

"Told ya, he wouldn't make it."Noah said, still reading his book.

"Aw man, this blows!" Cody said. "What was it called again?" He picked up the game box. "Geriatric Scrolls...why do I hate it even more now?" (The joke is pretty obvious here people)

"Try this one, Evil Samaritan," Noah held up another box.

"Is it any good?"

"It's about turning mean neighbours into zombies and killing them when they try to take over the world."

"...First Person shooter?"

"Third person with awesome chainsaw combat."

"Who made it?"

"Made it myself and sold ten thousand copies in one city." Noah shrugged.

"...you made one of the bloodiest video games ever?" Duncan asked.

"Just need Microsoft to sign the damn IT contracts and I'll let them sell it nationwide for all I care.." Noah frowned. "Damn suits, they think just cuz they have the world's richest nerd they can ask me for my idea, but they didn't know I took and passed seven different law classes." He smirked. "Suck on that big ass corporation."

"Noah...don't take this the wrong way but I sometimes I think you're one mental accident from being a super villain." Gwen said.

"You think I'm nuts? Try talking to my partner, Ethan. With a friend like him, who needs Alejandro, Justin, Duncan, Heather, Courtney or XANA?"

"Oh how bad could one normal guy be?" Geoff asked.

"Uh...he designed Saskatchewan Pitch Fork Massacre, and its sequel, SPFM: Bloody Crops."

"...now I believe him, anybody with graphics that gory has got to be a little nuts, even by my standards." Duncan nodded. "What about...Dead International Space Station?"

"He made it."

"The Very Angry Haunting?"

"He made that. Good game, terrible title, his girl friend helped design the monster girl."

"...she went nude in white make up?...okay that's just too far." Duncan shuddered.

"Yeah..." Noah nodded. "But I now know just how Holly Wood uses all those overly loud screams. You know the monster's screaming? No sound effects, it was all her one hundred percent."

"That nearly made me lose my ears..." Gwen, who had played the game before gulped. "Let me guess, he also made 'Try to Stay Not Dead'?"

"How'd you know?"

"Bad title, good game?"

"Touché."

Most of the Lyoko Warriors were in the recreation room of the studio. It had been a few days since their trip to the mountains and they were mostly enjoying the free time. XANA had been quiet since his attack in the mountains which was nice to everyone who were usually the victims of his attacks.

"This is boring. None of these games compare to the big one." Izzy complained.

Everyone knew she was talking about Lyoko.

"Izzy, we told Aelita that we would go train after she finished school today. Her dad made the lab so technically its hers now and we can't just go playing with the computer." Bridgette said.

"I know but none of these games can compare to Lyoko. It's like the best video game ever!" Izzy pouted as she lied down on the bench.

"Except if you lose you die." Trent pointed out.

"There is that." Izzy admitted.

"Well, XANA has been quiet lately." Cody said.

"We all know that but I'm not complaining. Worrying about being attacked on a daily basis can a bit stressing." Gwen said as she stood up from the chair she was sitting on.

"He's likely plotting another big attack." Bridgette said.

"Or when he saw how badass I was he got scared and ran away." Duncan said smirking, throwing in his two cents.

"Sure, and Justin is going to get a girlfriend." Noah said.

"Hey, it could happen!" Duncan said. "Me and my Berserker kicked all sorts of virtual butt!"

"You all got your butts kicked by his new monsters, I doubt that put fear in him." Gwen crossed her arms and raised one eye brow.

"..." Duncan looked down and mumbled. "Touché."

"Hey get your own line!" Noah whined. "I hear it enough from Carlos and Kurt in their arguments!"

"Hey, whose the guy who keeps Chris off your backs?" Carlos demanded as he passed by the open door. "And who keeps leaving every damn door open around here?"

"...there was a policy to close doors here?"

"...No, don't think so...but still...it's weird...and has anybody had any Klondike bars today?"

"No, why?"

"...Because I can't find any."

"Actually, I think I saw Chris and Roberto loading a box of them into...their..." Gwen gulped as she realized what terror she was about to unleash.

"Wait now," Carlos chuckled a bit, sounding like he was restraining himself. "Now Gwen, no matter what you tell me, I won't get angry...at you."

"...I think they were pulling a prank and they tosses your Klondike bars into the garbage truck."

Carlos let out a huff of air. "...Okay."

"...so wait, you're not gonna get angry?"

"No...I'm fine, and I promised I wouldn't get mad...at you." He sighed. "Excuse me." He turned and left the room.

"...Chris and Roberto are so dead."

"Well, as long as we were in the topic of Lyoko I went to see Aelita and she managed to set up a connection between my laptop and the supercomputer in the factory. So even if Aelita is in class where she can't have her laptop on so she can hear the scan detecting a tower I usually have mine with me." Noah pulled out his laptop. "So we'll know if our virtual psycho decides to attack us."

"Is that all you have that for?" LeShawna asked.

"No. It just so happens that Izzy is actually right that Lyoko is like a big video game if one ignores the possibility of certain death and one could decide to make 'cheat codes' if they know what they are doing." Noah said.

"Your tampering with your character?" Cody asked.

"No. I'm still looking over the data before I try something like that." Noah said. "Despite popular believe I'm smart enough to know not to go ahead and try to make myself in a virtual Superman until I'm sure I've learned everything."

"That'll be something to look forward to." Gwen said.

"How are Heather and Courtney holding up?" DJ asked, sitting on a nearby bench.

"They're holding up fine, but they're still not going to train." Gwen closed her eyes with a frustrated look. "As much as they two have gotten under my skin I'd really wish for them to make up their minds. I never thought I'd be worrying this much about them."

"We've just got to give them a little more time." Cody reassured as he pressed 'START GAME'.

"A little more time is not going to cut it." Gwen opened her eyes. "We've got a whole new bunch of monsters waiting for us and a new general. Forcing them is the last thing I want to do but I figured they would have decided by now."

"But we can handle it for now, right?" Trent asked.

"Assuming none of us are the next ones kicked off." Gwen replied. "Or Aelita finds a way for LeShawna, Cody, DJ, and Geoff to get back into the scanners."

"True that, girl. I'd hate to leave in the middle of the fight." LeShawna said.

"I know." Geoff said.

"I hope we hurry and get this done. We're running out of non-Lyoko warriors to vote off." Bridgette said.

"Aelita's working as best as she can." Cody said.

"_Attention all contestants, get your butts to the supercomputer room!_"

"Sounds like Chris has got his next challenge ready." Bridgette said, with a resigned look.

Xxx

"Last time on Total Drama Reality, we took a small trip to the mountains were we set up a couple of challenges to show everyone's outdoor skills. The first challenge was to give a team the advantage but ended in a tie. The second challenge was more awesome, involving quick sand, sinking boats, and my own cousin and his carrot top friend ended up taking part and making it look more awesome! In the end, Katie was voted off and to save us a lot of crying Sadie took the Jet of Shame home with her." Chris announced. "Who will be voted off today? Find out today on, TOTAL. DRAMA. REALITY!"

Xxx

Everyone was waiting in the lab, a few were scowling, imagining what challenge Chris had for them this time. That was when Chris walked in with a pleased look.

"Oh crap!" Duncan whispered. "He's happy!"

Everyone noticed how happy Chris looked and knew something was up.

"Hello, contestants!" Chris said. "Who can guess what's going to show today?"

"Is it going to be something stupid?" Gwen asked.

"Warmer!" Kurt and Carlos said.

"No. It's going to be something I think even _you_ would like, Gwen. For this challenge will test your strategic minds and survival skills." Chris said.

"Along with leadership skills?" Courtney asked.

"Eh, why not?" Chris shrugged. "This challenge will taken in the supercomputer room. It shall be an awesome, gut spilling, dramatic, virtual reality battle!"

"Woo-Hoo!" Izzy cheered.

"Great." Noah groaned.

"Yep, and for this I called on the third of my many cousins, Mike!" Chris said. "Legendary game designer."

"The guy who made Clogs of War?" Noah asked.

"Yeah, you know him?"

"No, but he and my friend have something in common: awesome game play with weird or crappy titles."

"I resent that!" A blonde version of Chris walked out of the same door Chris came from.

"Great, one of Chris' cousins looks like a younger Sylvester Stallone, one looks like Red Green's younger clone, and the other looks like a blonde clone." Noah said. "We're doomed."

"Hey, who bought you all those snacks yesterday?" Carlos asked. "I know you liked that Aero Bar Noah."

"...touché." The boy whispered.

"Yeah, way to go Sylvester, you fetched food for the kiddies," Mike yawned.

"...and he sounds more like Noah, damn it the last thing we needed is a smart Chris." Kurt said.

"And now ladies and gentlemen get ready, for who knows how to deal with the following undead!" Chris said.

"The scenario is based off of Devil May Cry and Twilight," Mike said.

"The movie sucked! What kind of vampires sparkle?" Gwen said. "I went for gore and blood and I got some whiny girl clinging to a messy haired old guy and a guy who turns into a runt!"

"Well good news, I made the Slaying Sparklepires game for people who wanted to take their anger and disappointment out on those crappy undead...and just for good effort I also added some from Legacy of Kahn."

"What?"

"...It was some movie made to try and cross Star Trek over with Legacy of Kain...the makers got sued half way to hell but people liked it." Mike explained. "And the vampires, oh you will love them!"

"They don't sparkle, do they?"

"Burst into flames at the mere mention of sun light." Mike replied. "For this first level, it will be a basic death match. There are a few small buildings that might get you a few extra seconds against the undead hordes, but for most of this you'll be on the run."

Chef hooked up a projector, and Mike attached a laptop to it, showing the view of the level, which was half covered by the ruins of a town, and the other half by forests and lakes.

"The role of this game is to slay over one hundred zombies, and then go for...the vampire." Mike said, displaying pictures of zombies and the vampires. "Now, the vampire you want will be hiding from the sun if the day/night time cycle has the in game time set to before seven oh clock. Twenty four hours in there is forty eight minutes out here, so you can adjust your fighting to fit the day. If you locate the vampire, he will have his Sparklepire living shields around him...they each only have one life point so go ahead and have fun with them. Just slay the vampire, and your team wins!"

"Awesome," Cody said.

"Alright, so let's get you all into your pods and get you set up, you're all going Vampire Hunting!" Mike said. "And just to add a little fun to this, before the game starts you all will be able to customize your avatars and their weapons or powers. This can give you an advantage over the vampire in some cases, but there is one thing you must always be weary of: the Archdemons. They will come at midnight every day and go on an in game two hour rampage. They have ten thousand life points and shielding and armour all over. They also have a built in tracking program that lets them pin point any character who moves faster than 2 miles per hour, so that means you have to tip toe if you want to remain undetected. They have one hit kills like I said and they are truly bad ass."

"Wait...that sounds like something from Geriatric Scrolls." Noah said.

"Yep, now get ready for some nightmares kids because I went all out on this." Mike grinned.

Carlos said. "This is why I hate him slightly less than I hate Chris, he's a riot at parties."

Xxx

The competitors climbed into their VR Pods and lied back as the canopies closed over them.

"Alright, let's hope we don't have any accidents," Carlos said. "Initiating VR Simulation."

The competitors were put under.

Xxx

When they awoke ,they stood in an empty room with stone walls and three doors. One had the Team C logo above it, one had the Team A logo above it, and the third had the Team V logo over it.

"Alright kids," Kurt announced. "To open up your Avatar Menu, just hold your right arm up. After that, the mental coordination and control programming will take care of the rest. Just pick what you want."

Duncan and Cody were the first to follow instructions. A pair of bright blue holographic screens appeared in front of them.

They had an image of the two competitors in their normal clothes. There were many various selections to choose from.

Cody began to cycle through different vampire hunter outfits. Gwen looked over them. "Wow, Mike really looked through his Vampire films."

"I do my best," Mike said smugly.

Cody soon settled on a basic dark attire with a trench coat and hat. He began to choose weapons. He grinned as he looked through pistols, rifles, cross bows, and equipment that could be used to easily slay the undead enemies they would face. First he chose a pair of revolvers, and a bandoleer with six stakes. Next, he took a cross bow and a bottle of holy water.

When he was done, the others admired his new appearance.

"Now that looks bad ass." Trent said, opening his own menu.

"So handsome." Sierra said in awe.

"Now you only have limited ammo so there are random ammo drops all over the map. Just open the box labelled ammo and it will refill your ammo stocks." Kurt explained. "There are also other weapons hidden around the field. And Cody, you might want to look through the last selection."

Cody opened a list of what looked like spells.

"You can choose two spells to use during this. You can also pick up scrolls that have other ones, but those only work once before they vanish." Carlos added.

"Solar Flare, Fire Blast, Lightning Bolt, they have the whole set of magic here." Cody said, selecting a spell that improved his accuracy and reaction time and a fire spell.

"Like what you see?" Courtney turned to Duncan, who now wore vampire hunting gear like Cody. He had chosen a pair of black pants, boots, a long sleeved black shirt, and had two bandoleers crossing over his chest. One held knives, the other held what looked like small vials. He also had a sword on his back, matching his style from Lyoko.

"Liquid Garlic," He held one up. "Man if I had this back home the Goths at school would throw a hissy fit."

"Oh ha ha," Courtney cracked a smile and opened her menu.

Gwen was the third to finish her outfit. She had chosen a pair of knee high boots and tights under a dark red tunic that went to her mid thigh. She also had a long black coat that had shoulder pauldrons. She rolled up her sleeves and looked at the arm blades attached to them, and then picked up the extendable scythe she had chosen as her signature weapon. She chose Telekinesis and Fire as her own spells.

Then a second later, Sierra came out...in the exact same outfit, but she had a pink tunic and a witch hat. She even had the same weapons as Gwen!

Xxx

Confessional: Gwen

"Copy cat much?"

Xxx

Confessional: Sierra

"I know I may look like a copy cat but the way I see if I try and mimic some of Gwen's habits and then do even more to make Cody notice me. I chose the same style of clothing Gwen did and even the same weapons and spells. He'll notice me for sure if I do better than Gwen in the match! Mwahahaha!"

End Confessional

Xxx

Trent came out in a pair of charcoal pants, boots, a grey shirt under a black trench coat, and had chosen a large chainsaw as his prime weapon and a large cross bow hang on his back with a quiver of bolts. He had also added a vial of holy water to his belt along with a butcher knife. For his own spells he took a lightning spell and a teleportation spell-he wanted a quick escape since he had some of the worst luck when it came to running around large areas, he usually fell or tripped on something. He was NOT taking a chance this time.

Geoff and Bridgette finished selecting at the same time. Geoff wore basically a black and gray version of his usual outfit with a matching hat and had a large axe on his back and a pair of large knives to go with it.

Bridgette on the other hand had chosen what looked like a full body suit, pitch black and didn't help to make Geoff focus more on the game. She had taken a pair of swords and many small vials of holy water and garlic.

They both chose water based spells.

"Looking good Bridge," Geoff said, tilting his hat to her.

"Don't you DARE start making-" Courtney was too late, and they went at it. "Aw crap."

Xxx

Confessional: LeShawna

"Who didn't that coming?"

End Confessional

Xxx

"Ah relax princess, just choose your outfit and let's get going." Duncan said.

Courtney sighed, opened her menu, and quickly chose. She went with a light attire-so as not to slow her down, she knew she'd be running a lot in this. It consisted of a pair of pants and a long sleeved shirt to help her camouflage at night. She then chose a staff not unlike her Lyoko one and after some helpful advice took a few knives and then a machete. Her hair was done in a pony tail and she had a pair of sun glasses to go with it.

"Not bad," Duncan admired how Courtney's uh...figure stood out rather well with the clothes.

In the real world, Carlos and Kurt could already sense the hormones flowing.

Izzy ended up choosing an outfit similar to her robe from Lyoko, except darker and more ragged looking. She also had a set of retractable claws attached to her hands and had chosen a set of spells that allowed her to move and jump further and faster than normal.

Noah chose a pair of dark pants and a button up shirt under a black coat. For his weapons he just took a sword and a 'Book of How to Slay Vampires', it had a few more creative ways for him to deal with the undead leader if he met with it. He wisely chose an invisibility and lightning spell.

Heather chose a full body suit similar to Bridgette's, but she chose nearly twenty shuriken and two Chakram as her weapons. She took a telekinesis spell and a phase walking spell-she expected she'd get cornered eventually so she wanted a way out and what better way than phasing through ha wall like a ghost?

DJ's trench coat looked so big that it had to weigh as much as some of the smaller fighters. He had taken only a lot of holy water vials and a set of spiked gloves. He chose healing and shielding spells. Despite this, he still looked like the jolly giant he always was.

LeShawna went with some more armour over a body suit of her own, and was carrying two hammers, she also had a pair of butcher knives and machetes among her other weapons. She was in all ways a walking arsenal.

Alejandro chose a dark version of his usual attire, but had also added a long black cloak to it. Under it, hid many knives and small weapons and in one hand held a chainsaw like Trent's. Hanging on his back however was...

A flame thrower!

"Good choice," Noah commented.

Moments later Beth and Eva had slightly similar, generic outfits with the trench coats and dark clothing. Eva had spiked gloves like DJ while Beth nervously held a shotgun.

Lindsay had chosen an outfit that was more like a dress that reached her knees and left her arms bare. As she hummed happily, she carried a chain saw in one hand...making many step away from her.

Justin had chosen the flashiest outfit, going for brighter colours and had a shotgun in hand. He looked bored with this new challenge, but odds were he'd wet himself in the actual fight. He had wisely chosen an invisibility spell and just for good measure he had taken a spell that let him see in the dark.

With all of the fighters appropriately armed and stereotypically dressed like Van Helsing-or Van Helsing's sister they went to their own doors.

"Alright ,when you get out there you have a none hundred second count down before anything attacks you." Kurt said.

"You can attack other teams ,but in the long run you'll find it easier to just ignore them and focus on the large army of zombies after you." Mike spoke. "Now, let the games begin!"

Xxx

**Team Amazon**

"So what do we do?" Beth asked as Team Amazon appeared in a dark, deserted neighbourhood.

"We split up and kill as many as we can come across." Courtney replied, pumping her fist.

"Bad idea." Gwen said. "I guess you haven't watched any zombie or vampire movies."

"But I have leadership skills, I know-"

"Not in a zombie invasion! I've watched all the zombie movies and the vampire movies, even the crappy ones so I know what we're dealing with and what rules are needed to survive it!" Gwen said.

"Rules? They have rules for a movie of rampaging dead guys eating flesh?" Beth asked.

"I've played all the zombie games." Cody said.

"And he scored the highest in all of them!" Sierra said, happy to share more about Cody.

"Whatever, you shoot the zombie in the head and they're dead, right?" Heather asked.

"Right-" Gwen replied.

"Then let's just go find some zombies and kill them! We're falling behind!" Heather started walking down the street.

Gwen sighed. "Never go alone."

She walked after Heather with Cody following her who of course was followed by Sierra. Beth and Eva decided to follow them, leaving Courtney.

"Hey! Where are you going? Didn't hear me when I said I had a plan?" Courtney shouted but they did not listen.

Finally Courtney gave up and just followed them, frustrated.

Xxx

**Team C**

"Okay." Noah clapped his hands and looked at everyone. "We need to be organized for this challenge. We need to kill one hundred zombies and find the vampire before the others do. So we should split up into groups of two."

"Who made you leader?" Justin asked.

Noah scoffed. "Anyone in this group who knows how to deal with zombies raise your hand."

Duncan and Izzy raised their hands.

"Okay, so between me and anyone else who is _not_ Izzy should know how to deal with this." Noah said.

"Quick question man, there are five of us so how can we split up in groups of two?" Duncan asked.

Noah raised an eyebrow.

"Good question. Someone should go with Justin cause he'll likely freak out when the first zombie comes out."

"Hey!" Justin said, taking offense.

"Who votes to pair Justin and Alejandro?" Noah asked.

"Aye!" Izzy and Duncan said.

"Hey!" Alejandro and Justin said at the same time.

"I agree. Three to two, you two are together." Noah said, smirking a bit.

Xxx

Confessional: Noah

"The way I figure it the faster we get the model and the eel away from us the better."

Xxx

Confessional: Izzy

"Pair one liar with another! Izzy HATES liars!"

End Confessional

Xxx

**Team Victory**

"Alright baby, bring it ON!" LeShawna roared as she crushed one Zombie's skull under her hammer.

Team Victory had ended up in the forest half of the level. Luckily when the zombie swarm had come they had managed to locate a nearby farm and began to fight the zombies off in the middle of the dead crop fields.

Geoff cleaved one zombie in half, and then brought his right foot up in a side kick that knocked another zombie's head off. Jerking his axe free, he swung it around in an arch and cut another zombie in half.

DJ simply crushed a zombie's skull if it got too close to him. When Trent, who was sawing through three zombies took a bite to the shoulder, DJ rushed over and began to use his healing spell on him. When it was done, a yellow meter marked 'Magic' appeared over DJ and went down from 100 to 90.

"Looks like we only get limited magic uses." Trent said ,revving up his chainsaw again.

"Bridgette! There's a well over there, think you can use it?" Geoff shouted as he tried to fight off a dozen zombies on his own. He backed away, hacking at them.

Bridgette called on her magic, and the Magic Meter over her went down from 100 to 80. Suddenly the well Geoff had pointed out shot out a torrent of water that began to flood the field in the general direction where most of the zombie horde was coming from. Many were washed away.

After it was over, a symbol appeared over Bridgette.

"**Zombieocalypse!**" A disembodied voice shouted.

"Oh right...there are achievements you can get in this, like on X Box. You just took out fifteen zombies within ten seconds Bridgette." Mike said.

"Awesome!" Bridgette said.

"Looks like your magic meters are down," Kurt said. "If you want to refill them or if DJ can't heal you, you can find Magic Potions. They're dropped in random locations, but there's a limit to them."

"And what's worse the in-game time is at ten oh clock, you have four minutes until you get a visit from the ArchDemons." Carlos said. "That farm looks a little...underprepared for holding off the opposite of an Arch Angel, you should find a better place to hole up in or just keep on the move."

"And word of warning to all teams, these guys will move a lot faster than Zombies or vampires." Mike added. "They will tear up everything around them if they even get the hint that you're there. Now these might be simple AIs but I've programmed an intentional error in them. They can make mistakes, they might assume you're nearby if there's a loud sound like a stone dropping or a splash. When they register it, they'll unleash hell."

"Ain't that comforting?" Geoff hefted his axe.

"Well, who votes we hide in the farm?" Trent asked.

"Me!" Lindsay, who was sitting on a pile of a dozen or so zombies she had slain-by accident apparently said as she looked at her reflection in her chainsaw's flat side.

"Uh...it's settled, we're moving out." Bridgette said when nobody else agreed with Lindsay.

Team Victory jogged out of the field and into the forest.

"One more word of advice," Mike said. "No taking roads outside of town. Trust me."

"What is that supposed to- WHOA!" Trent suddenly fell out of sight.

His team looked back at where he vanished...and saw a hole. They looked down and saw he had braced his hands and feet against the sides of it...mere feet from some spikes aimed up at him.

"Wow...you really do have the worst luck." Kurt chuckled.

"Don't worry, I prepared for this!" Trent shut his eyes ,and his magic meter went down to 75. He vanished in a flash of purple light and reappeared next to his team. "That was awesome."

"Well, that isn't." Bridgette pointed to a timer that appeared in the sky. IT was a clock...which was counting down to midnight!

"Two minutes to Demon time, run!" DJ shouted, and they went at a sprint for safety.

Xxx

**Team Chris**

Noah retracted his arm blades from the Sparklepire he had found. The creature collapsed ,screeching in a high pitched voice as it melted from the holy water on his blades. "Ok, if this weirdo was here the vampire is around here. Maybe if we stick at a certain distance and keep killing zombies we can hit him like ten seconds after we get a full load."

Duncan jerked his short sword out of another Sparklepire .He had impaled it through the back of its neck and made his sword come out through its mouth. He wiped his sword on a wall next to him and grimaced. "Pretty sure he heard us taking out his boy-toys here and took off."

"Or maybe he's in a coffin," Alejandro offered his input. "Could be hiding underground or..." He locked onto a church. "Ah-bingo!" He pointed at it. "That looks promising."

The doors were locked though, and after some effort the team found they were also reinforced. Noah looked at Alejandro. "Any other bright ideas?"

"I might have just the one." Alejandro said. "What spells do you all have?"

"Pretty sure if we burn it we'd burn the whole damn place and hit everything except the vampire if it went underground." Duncan said.

"Well then it's a good thing I got this." Alejandro called on his magic, and his meter went down to 90. Suddenly he reached for the door...and went through it and inside.

"...oh right ,we never found out what his spells were." Noah said.

As the doors opened Alejandro said. "Phase Walking and Invisibility, why do you ask?" He had his hands on his hips and a smug look as he jerked his head, gesturing for them to get inside.

"Hey good job guys," Carlos said. "That's one of the few secure areas in the game. ArchDemons don't go near it, and zombies are slowed down in it. Only the vampire is immune to it. Well him and his Sparklepires. If he's hiding here ,you just need to kill off a few more zombies."

"How many do we have again?" Noah asked.

A meter marked 'Zombie Kills' appeared overhead and showed 48 out of 100.

"Ok, plan," Noah said. "Two of us guard the inside and make sure the door is ready to open while three of us go outside and kill as many zombies as possible. When we're done, we regroup inside and look for the vampire."

"Sounds good to me." Duncan said. "Oh and dibs."

"DIBS!" Izzy said.

"Dibs." Alejandro said quickly.

Noah shrugged. "Be my guests." He gestured to the door, and the three stepped outside. He and Justin shut the door and locked it.

Justin sighed and lounged in an old chair that had been left lying around. "Now this is better."

"Yeah...stay and guard the door, I'm going to look for our vampire." Noah said.

"What?" Justin hopped to his feet.

"Just to confirm his location. If he's in here I'll let you know." Noah said.

Justin whimpered as Noah walked off into the darkness of the chapel. It was so dark he never saw Noah reach the altar at the end.

Noah looked at it. "I'm guessing this is a fictional religion, right?"

"Yep, gonna be used for my next game," Mike said. "No spoilers but it'll be good."

Noah sighed and moved around the altar...and paused as he heard a 'creek'. He spun, both arm blades extending out. Justin heard the brief sound of the blades singing to life and squeaked. "What's going on?"

Noah looked around. "Nothing...just thought I heard something."

He sheathed his blades and looked down. "And hello there." He had stepped on a trap door! He knelt and opened it. He saw a stair case leading down into shadows.

"You might want a light source for that place Noah," Kurt advised.

"I grabbed this on the way here." Noah held up a lighter and flicked it on. Then he grabbed a candle from the altar and lit it. Holding the candle in one hand, he dropped down onto the landing at the top of the stairs and then reached up and looked in Justin's direction. "Justin! I found a trap door! I'll go look around! If I shout 'Alamo', shut this trap door or get outside and warn the others!"

"Alright man!" Justin replied.

Noah dropped back down and started down into the dungeon under the church. When he reached the bottom he found a scripture carved into the wall on his right just before the wall ended in a corner that lead into an equally dark and generic corridor. He looked at the scripture. Suddenly words in basic text appeared, glowing white as they floated before him.

_'If you seek the Beast of Blood, enter the labyrinth of the damned. But should the dead discover you, darken your hopes to escape.'_

"Ooh...spooky." Carlos said.

"Wonder what it means." Kurt said out loud.

"It's obvious," Noah said. "Well I'm sure you got the first half. The vampire's most likely here or frequents the labyrinth. The next half means that if I'm discovered I should dim my hopes. When you wander in the darkness with a vampire you usually want a light so you can see, the light is your hope. So if the vampire or a zombie gets the drop on me I should just put my candle out to avoid it."

"Wow...pretty good kid," Carlos said.

"Ok, so one vampire is really down here, the only question is-" Noah paused as a sound filled the silence of the labyrinth. It sounded like some soulless, inhuman wail. More like an animal instead of a man. It made the labyrinth shake. The temperature dropped ,and frost began to form on the walls and floor.

"Uh...there you go dude ,it's down there," Mike said. "My vampire sends out that wail to let you know it's within a hundred meters of you. And when the frost forms, that means its less than fifty meters from you."

"Uh..." Noah swallowed. "Nice?"

"Oh, and if you start to hear really loud ragged breathing-"

A loud rattling breathing filled the darkness, it sounded like some of the boys did when they anticipated dinner.

"And if the frost starts to appear on you-"

He shook some flakes of frost off of his coat.

"And your candle's fire get bigger-"

"Okay I get it!" Noah shouted as his candle's light source grew.

"Uh...I was gonna say don't make a noise or it'll retreat and then close in on you from another direction." Mike said. "...nice knowing you Noah."

"I hate you," Noah said, and then noticed something built into the wall ahead. "Hello..."

He walked closer as the frost faded and silence returned. He was looking at a skeleton that was partially stuck in the maze wall. It looked dissimilar from the other skeletons Mike had added in random areas for effect. They looked cracked and yellow. This was white, smooth, reflecting the light of his candle, and had not a mark on it. It was like somebody had cleaned it recently.

But what drew his attention were the eyes. They glowed bright red and seemed to be staring at him.

"Meep!" Noah squeaked.

"You see him Noah?" Carlos asked.

"Uh I-uh...think so!" Noah rushed down the corridor, extending one arm blade as he went through twists and turns, memorizing each turn he took and modifying them in his memory so they would lead him back through the maze. 'Two lefts, one right, left, right, left, two rights!'

He stopped in a wider area that had a large hole covering the majority of it. Down in the hole was a series of stairs and walking planks. It was like a jungle gym.

Noah looked around, raising his candle as the frost began to form once more. The ragged breathing was so loud it was like it was in his ear now. Noah spun after determining the general direction...and reacted the moment he saw a shuffling of clothing, a figure beginning to form out of the darkness. He put out his candle and held his breath. The ragged breathing was literally right next to him within moments, and the frost was so heavy that it was making him feel numb and his hair feel heavy.

He shook as several footsteps breached the silence. At that moment Noah knew the vampire was within several feet of him. He shut his eyes, and slid the candle into one pocket. He then held both arms up, hands aimed upwards as he opened his eyes. He slowly turned in the direction of the noise.

He aimed one hand, and called on his magic. A stream of lightning shot out of his hands, lighting up the maze! He caught a glimpse of the vampire. It was clad in ragged clothing of what had once been formal attired. It's head was bald and misshapen, it's fingers gnarled and twisted, tipped with claws. It's flesh was falling off with every passing second and seemed to re-grow. It's eyes were pitch black entirely, except for a single red light within them that glared at Noah with such intensity he was glad that his spell hit it in the chest.

It flew back and hit a wall. It shrieked, opening its jaws as the light faded. Noah caught sight of the jaw splitting into several segments and multiple mouth tipped tentacles coming out of its throat.

He chose that moment to flee.

Xxx

Justin jumped when Noah ran out of the trap door.

"What'd you see?"

"There's no doubt about it. The vampire's down there. We've got to find the others." Noah said as he walked towards the front door.

Xxx

Beth cowered behind a car as Eva beat down several zombies with her fists. Heather threw several shuriken straight through the heads of a few zombies that charged at her. Gwen used her scythe to cut off a zombie's head after it tried to sneak up on her. Cody shot several zombies that were a few feet away.

Courtney swung her staff and took out zombie after zombie while Sierra used her scythe to cut down a zombies that even glanced at Cody with malicious intent.

"What's the count?" Heather asked.

Gwen look up and saw the score for Team Amazon.

"We've got seventy out of one hundred. Just thirty more to go."

"Yay! We're almost there!" Sierra cheered.

"But it's getting close to night and we'll be on the run from ArchDemons!" Beth said.

"She's right. We better find some place to hold out till done." Cody said.

"But we're so close to getting one hundred!" Courtney said, killing another zombie.

"Which doesn't help us if we don't know where the vampire is." Gwen said, slicing another zombie in half.

"So where do we go?" Eva asked.

"Who knows? In the meantime, can you shoot now Beth?" Heather asked.

"I'm just not good with guns." Beth said.

"Leave her alone, Heather. We're killing plenty already." Cody said.

He shot another zombie in the head which meant they had another twenty four zombies to kill.

"HI-YA!"

They turned and saw Izzy jump off a lamp post and cut up several zombies before they could react.

"OH YEAH!" Izzy shouted in enthusiasm as she ran at the next group.

"Hey! Those are our zombies!" Heather shouted.

"Don't bother, it's Izzy." Gwen said as she cut up another zombie. "Just hurry and up while there's still some left."

"Got it!" Sierra replied as she ran at a group of zombies with her scythe ready, letting out a battle cry.

"Sierra wait!" Cody shouted.

That was when a figure came out of nowhere and Sierra was sent flying straight into a lamp post. Her life points hit zero and she vanished back into the studio in the real world. Everyone turned to see an ArchDemon looking at them. It fit the rather stereotypical demon, standing at over ten feet in height and covered in scales that were blood red and with claws that looked big and sharp enough to rip an elephant in half. It's head was angular, with a snout like some dog's that had rows of rotting, yellow teeth. A pair of large horns stuck out of the back of the head, nearly as long as some of the contestants were tall. And then it stomped one cloven foot, cracking the ground underneath it.

It reared back its head, and then roared at the group. Everything seemed to slow down at that point, and several fighters nearly lost their balance. When it was over the ArchDemon clapped its hand over its head, and formed a giant, dark bladed sword.

"Oh crap!" Everyone nearly said.

The demon stared down at them with malicious red eyes. It quickly started to tear through the zombies since they were closest to it.

"There's a church nearby that'll keep us safe! RUN!" Duncan shouted.

Everyone took off following Duncan, Izzy, and Alejandro as they ran through the streets back to the church.

"What good will hiding in a church do?" Heather shouted.

"Carlos said ArchDemons don't go near churches and zombies are slowed down!" Alejandro replied.

"No time to talk! Just run!" Duncan shouted.

The Archdemon ran after them but they soon found the church and ran inside. The ArchDemon growled as its prey got away. They closed the doors and everyone sighed in relief.

"That was close." Cody said.

"Guys!" They turned and saw Noah and Justin come towards them.

"I see you brought company back." Noah said.

"Yeah, we ran into an ArchDemon and lost Sierra." Gwen said.

"Yeah and I found the vampire." Noah said.

"Where?" Duncan asked.

"Lurking under a trap door beneath the church." Noah said.

"Of course." Gwen said, deadpanned.

Xxx

Confessional: Gwen

"I should have known they would have the big showdown here."

Xxx

Confessional: Beth

"The only thing that was almost even more scary than this was the time DJ walked in on Heather while she was shaving her legs and her makeup. Heather's no psycho killer but I saw how scary it was on reruns of Season One."

End Confessional

Xxx

"Well, let's go!" Eva said as soon as Noah pointed to the trap door.

She ran towards it, tore it off its hinges and jumped down.

"She's excited." Cody commented.

"She loves kicking butt." Gwen said.

"We better hurry and catch up!" Heather said.

They all ran after Eva and jumped down the trap door. They landed in the tunnel and looked around.

"Nice." Gwen said, admiring Mike's work of the basement.

Beth and Justin trembled in fear from the skeletons on the ground and hanging on the wall.

"So which way was the vampire?" Duncan asked.

"Don't know. We'll know if we hear a soulless, inhuman wail." Noah said.

He pulled out a candle and lit it.

"Don't make a sound. If we do the vampire will retreat and then come at us from another direction." Noah said.

"Uh, we have a problem. There are two different teams here. How can we work together if the one who destroys the vampire wins?" Courtney asked.

Everyone stopped when she said that.

"That's a good point." Noah said.

"Do we fight over it?" Cody asked.

"Bad idea. Fight over who gets to fight the vampire means whoever is left will be easy for the vampire to get rid of." Gwen said. "Here's a better idea, what's your zombie count?"

"Eight three." Duncan said.

"And we're at eighty seven." Heather said smirking.

"It doesn't matter if we kill the vampire now because we'll just have to go back up and kill those zombies." Gwen said. "So each team sends only two down here to take out the vampire."

"Why only two?" Justin asked.

"There's no guarantee that we can take out the vampire so if we leave a few behind to finish the zombies and they come back and take out the vampire than one team will still win." Gwen explained her logic.

"Dibs on the vampire." Alejandro said.

"That things mine." Eva snapped.

"Justin, go with Alejandro," Duncan said.

"Why me?"

"Because I don't like you." Duncan replied tersely. "At least you can do something besides cower from zombies."

"Dude! Did you see how ugly their faces were? And all that rotting teeth!"

"...it's settled, you're being vamp bait so Al can gut it." Duncan said. "Or you can be dangled from the second floor of the church and play bait for the ArchDemon."

"I hate you man." Justin grumbled as Alejandro cracked his knuckles.

"I'll go with Eva," Cody volunteered ,holding up both revolvers.

"Alright, now we gotta handle that ArchDemon or wait it out." Gwen said as the four chosen ones rushed off to find their adversary.

"And give one team a chance to finish off the vampire?" Noah asked.

"Uh...genius, in case you haven't noticed, we can't help the guys who go for the vampire. So it goes either way." Duncan pointed out. "Say we kill more zombies up top, but Al and Justin bite the dust. We won't know until we kill a full hundred zombies. So that's why this is so fun, it's surprising!"

"And I think we can afford to team up on that ArchDemon." Courtney added.

"Beth, do you know how to use that shotgun?" Heather asked.

Beth nodded.

"Okay, I have an idea." Gwen said. "Duncan, Noah, Beth, you three head up to the second floor and get ready for my signal. Heather, Courtney, we'll bust the door down and distract the ArchDemon. We'll hit it with spells or far range weapons, and then...well follow me."

She led them back up into the church. She looked around. "I know it was here somewhere...ah ha!" She picked up a rather large jug of holy water. "This is ten times what we can carry in a flask. So maybe it'll deal some damage to the ArchDemon. You three get to pour it on the ArchDemon."

She handed it to Duncan. "After that, Beth goes to work with her shotgun and Izzy will run out and leap onto the roof of that hotel that was on the other end of the street outside. She'll attract the zombies while we all pile out and finish off the demon, then we all move in and cut the rest of them to pieces. After that, guess we just wait and see if the Vampire's dead or not."

"I like it." Izzy said. "Especially the part where I play bait!"

"I figure you would." Gwen said with a knowing smile. "Get into position."

Xxx

Five minutes later...

Duncan and Noah whistled at the same time.

"Wow..." Noah said. "I think more of them gathered.

"Yeah...hey Beth? You might want more shells." Duncan added as over a thousand zombies pooled in the area while the ArchDemon stood twenty feet away from the doors.

"Meep." Beth squeaked.

"Well, it's almost time," Duncan hefted the jug. "Ready?"

"Ready-" Noah paused as the front doors exploded outwards. Courtney, Heather, and Gwen leaped out, weapons cutting down zombies and magic flaring. The ArchDemon roared and pounded towards them.

"Okay, steady!" Noah advised Duncan. "Wait til I say to drop it!"

"Well you're the smart guy, so I won't whine this time." Duncan replied.

"Wait for it..." Noah said as the zombies began to advanced, many being crushed by the ArchDemon. "Wait for it..."

The ArchDemon formed its large sword again and prepared to cut down the three women.

"NOW!"

Duncan tipped the jug over, and the water poured down onto the demon. It's skin sizzled and boiled as it shrieked in pain, falling to its knees. Its life points began to drop.

"How much will that do?" Courtney asked.

"Well, one regular bottle is supposed to do forty," Gwen said. "So..."

The ArchDemon's life points stopped at 600, but it still lost one life point every few seconds as a side effect damage of being a Malignant Monster being touched by Holy Water. It growled, trying to get up, luckily the holy water also cost it speed and strength. The three women fell upon it, stabbing and slashing. Suddenly Duncan leaped down with a roar and jammed his sword into its back. It shrieked, unable to acknowledge Izzy as she rushed out on all fours, leaped on its head, her claws digging in and costing it another few life points before she leaped off and landed on the roof of her target: a two story hotel. She then howled, waving her arms. "Yoo hoo! Over here!"

Many zombies looked to her. Their programming made them react to the situation by choosing to go after the lone target instead of the four surrounding a powerful ArchDemon. They shuffled towards Izzy, who leaped down and cut two of them to pieces.

"Might want to get them before more show up!" Noah said as he and Beth joined the fight.

Beth's shotgun went off once and blew apart a zombie that had been mere inches from Noah, splattering him with uh...whatever it was made of. He sighed, wiped some of the gore off his face ,and said. "Okay Mike, you win, you're the better horror game designer."

"Hell yeah I am." Mike said smugly.

"I guess somebody in Chris' family had to be good at something besides having a mop for a head and blowing up stuff." Noah sighed.

"Hey, I went to Harvard damn it!" Carlos growled.

"And you were banned after that one incident that burned the principle's eye brows off! We still get some mail from him each month." In the real world Kurt held up an envelope. "Here's the latest." He pulled out a sheet of paper, which had letters cut out of newspapers and magazines to form the sentence 'I'll get you for this.'

"It was _after_ I graduated though," Carlos pointed out.

"I thought you graduated on line!" Kurt said.

"Nope, total diploma and everything!" Carlos replied.

"...I swear the world just stopped and is going backwards now." Kurt shook his head, unable to accept that Carlos had truly gotten out of Harvard with a diploma. "I only hope the janitor got over his other accident."

"DO YOU GUYS MIND SHUTTING UP? WE'RE GETTING CLOBBERED!" Heather shouted as she tried to shove away multiple zombies, some of which bit her and soon had her life points down to 65.

"Sorry." Kurt and Carlos said at the same time.

Gwen swung her scythe and cut the zombies that were attacking Heather. The Zombie kill count for both teams rose up until both passed one hundred.

"Yes! We've done it!" Courtney shouted happily.

The ArchDemon roared as it finally stood up. It swung its claws down at Noah but Izzy jumped and pushed him out of the way. The demon's eyes narrowed as Beth shot at it. Taking the hit it roared in outrage and tried to strike her.

But Gwen used her fire spell that set the demon on fire. Screeching in pain and anger the demon turned its eyes to her. Its life points continued to drop from being attacked all around and the holy water was still weakening it. It attempted to strike her but Duncan stabbed his between its eyes.

The demon screeched and then fell over. Its skin turned to data streams and vanished.

A large sign labelled **Bonus** appeared over Duncan.

"You just killed an ArchDemon. A thousand point bonus!" Mike said.

"Hey! It was my plan!" Gwen said.

"Sorry, Pasty, but I killed it." Duncan said smirking.

Xxx

While the others were fighting the zombies above Justin was shivering as he, Alejandro, Cody, and Eva walked through the dark tunnel in their search for the vampire.

"So, what's the plan for taking out the vampire?" Eva asked.

"Well, one or two of us distracts it while the other takes out." Cody said.

"So who distracts it?" Justin asked.

Everyone turned and looked at him.

"Me? No way! I'm a model! I'm too handsome to be used as bait!"

One minute later . . .

Justin was hung upside down and gagged. He was thrashing around and his screams were muffled by the gag. It wasn't long before large footsteps were heard. The vampire slowly came out of the shadows and Justin struggled harder and his muffled screams even louder.

The vampire stopped right in front of him and started sniffing. Justin, who only heard its breath in the dark, activated his night vision spell...and fainted from just looking at the vampire's face.

"Peek-a-boo!"

Alejandro dropped the invisibility spell he used to cloak himself and Cody. The vampire screeched in shock as Cody threw his bottle of holy water into the vampire's face. The bottle smashed and holy water burned through the vampire's skin like acid. It screeched, and it's clawed hands seemed to grow, flesh ripping from bone as claws the size of machetes formed.

It howled, frost forming over the area as its power flared. It's lower jaw splintered into pieces ,and many tentacles tipped with hissing snake heads uncoiled and hissed at the fighters from the vampire's throat. It ripped its coat and shirt off, revealing two large bumps forming on its shoulder blades. Its spine began to bend and stick out through the dead flesh, spike cutting their way to the surface as blood flowed out.

And soon, an even scarier vampire stood before them. It's two eyes became eight eyes like a spider, and to end the transformation, a tail shot out of the base of its spine, tipped with spikes and lined with even more. It dropped onto all fours.

Shocked, the two warriors looked at one another.

The words appeared over it in blood red: **Vampire King Form.**

"Did we have a contingency plan for it becoming a uh...Vampire King?" Cody asked.

"Two." Alejandro held up two fingers as they backed away from the advancing monster.

"What were they?"

"Number one, we count on Eva to save us."

"And the other?"

"Number Two, the most likely one...we run away screaming so loud people will think we're eunuchs." Noah replied tersely.

"I like that one-" The vampire launched itself at them. They raised their weapons in defence ,but it swept them aside with a swing from its tail and made them hit a wall. It leaped onto the ceiling of the corridor and snarled at them. Many snakes shot out of its mouth and began to rain down on them.

_Brrrr-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r!_

Suddenly Eva came out of the shadows, her chainsaw on fire and cutting through the snakes. She looked up at the vampire. "Come on, bring that pretty little face over here and let's give you a quick shave." He held the chainsaw up. "Let's not make it too difficult."

The vampire lunged at her. She swung, and his chainsaw dug into its shoulder ,but didn't cut its arm off as he planned. It slowly gripped the chainsaw between both hands and forced it back up. Eva blinked as it forced his weapon up and away from itself, leaving nothing between them. She chuckled nervously. "Uh he-he-he-he...bye!" She let go of the chainsaw and rushed back to Alejandro and Cody before it tore the weapon to pieces. "Plan C?"

"What's plan C?" Cody asked.

"You don't know? You're the smart one!" Alejandro said, panicking as the vampire closed in on them.

"Hm..." Cody saw Justin's shotgun hanging from him by a strap. "I got it!"

He rushed by, and dove to the floor as the vampire tried to take his head off. He got up and grabbed the shotgun, tearing it free. He spun and fired ,being launched off his feet by the recoil. The shell tore a hole in the vampire, splattering blood on the floor but not killing it.

It howled, and Cody took this chance. He attacked, jamming a knife into its back and trying to sever its spine. It twisted and knocked him aside with an arm. Alejandro attacked next, slamming it into a wall and then tossing it to the ground. He grabbed a rather large stone ,and all three boys came upon it at once, smashing and stabbing. Its life points went down bit by bit as it futilely struggled against its inevitable fate.

And then, after Cody finished loading the double barrelled shotgun again with some shells he took from Justin's pockets, he rushed up and jammed it into the vampire's open mouth. He fired the first shot, and blew a hole out the back of its neck. It kept twitching, its tail swinging. Its wounds were beginning to slowly sew themselves back together.

"Heart! Go for the heart!" Alejandro shouted as he slammed his rock down on its skull again and again.

Cody obeyed ,jamming the shotgun under its easily visible ribs. He angled it up under them, pressing into saggy, dead skin, and fired. The vampire froze, and then went limp.

Over Cody, the words appeared in gold: **Vampire Slayer, Victor!**

Cody sighed in relief and tossed the gun away. "I won!"

Xxx

"Well, never saw that coming." Kurt said as he, Carlos and Mike sat with 3-D glasses and popcorn, watching what had been a rather entertaining movie for them.

"Yeah...man, they should use this program to make all the new horror movies from now on," Carlos said. "Van Helsing would have been a hell of a lot better like that."

Everyone woke up back in their pods and sat up.

"We won!" Cody said.

"Yay, Cody!" Sierra ran over and hugged him.

"Congratulations, Team Amazon. Team Victory was stuck in the farm fending off zombies and ArchDemons while Team I Am Soooooo Hot actually killed an ArchDemon but since Team Amazon killed the vampire and over one hundred zombies they are the winners." Chris said.

Team Amazon cheered and they held Cody in the air.

"Team Me was given a bonus for killing the ArchDemon so they come in second place. And Team Victory . . ." Chris looked at them. "See you at the loser ceremony."


	36. Episode 35: Demon in the Dark

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 36

All was quiet in the Mountain Sector of Lyoko. On a small island that was connected to rest of the sector by a very narrow bridge was a tower surrounded by two large walls made of stone. On the other end of the bridge was a tunnel that led to the other side of the large rocky island. Lilith appeared out of thin air, landing on the ground in front of the tower.

"This'll do." Lilith said, smirking.

"What good will this spot do?" Shadow asked, as he appeared out of the tunnel.

"Look around, Shadow, a narrow bridge, these walls will keep them from finding any other way in unless it's through that tunnel, even with their vehicles." Lilith shook her head. "Your tactics relied on brute strength and we've seen how well that goes. You could at least humour me and go along with trying to be subtle."

Shadow clenched his fist.

"Besides you'll have your chance to get even. They can only come in one direction and they'll have to get through you. Don't tell me the chance to take them out one by one doesn't agree with you in the least?" Lilith chuckled.

She turned to the five Dark Pyramids behind her.

"You, over there! You too!"

The five monsters walked in front of the tower and pointed their weapons at the tunnel. Turning back to the tower Lilith and Shadow watched as the tower's aura changed from blue to red.

Xxx

Team Victory sat in the elimination room as Chris came out with the trophies.

"Tsk, tsk, once again Team Victory sits on the loser bench. What were you thinking when you came up with that name?" Chris asked.

"Just get it over with!" LeShawna snapped.

"Actually there's no elimination today!" Chris announced.

"Why?" Trent asked.

"Well, since both Katie and Sadie left the last challenge we decided this challenge should not count since if we decide to eliminate someone now then the drama will be over faster and we wouldn't want that." Chris said, chuckling. "Instead, I'll be reading who voted for who."

He brought up the cards.

"We have one vote for Lindsay." He picked up another card. "Another vote for Lindsay."

...

"Three votes for Lindsay."

...

"Four votes."

...

"And if this was an elimination ceremony Lindsay would be going home." Chris said.

"What are we talking about?" Lindsay asked, looking up from her mirror.

"...nothing." Everybody said in unison.

"Well, I for one am bored and am going to spend the rest of this crappy day in the Chris Zone." Chris said, opening the door, stepping out into the hall, and looked back at them. "I'd invite you all ,but I actually bought this hot tub with my own money this time so sucks to be you guys!" He snickered and looked forward before the light above him flickered.

"Hm?" He looked up. "Hey Roberto, the light out here is on the fritz again, get your tool box and-"

FLASH!

"AH!-!-!-!-!-!-!" Chris' hands flew to his face as the lightbulb let out a blinding flash of light and shattered. "MY EYES!"

Seconds later Carlos fell out of a nearby shower room, luckily managing to pull his pants on while Kurt came running from the opposite direction...well he was riding a skate board actually. He hopped off before he got to Chris and let the skate board sail off the ground and into Carlos' face.

"OW!" Carlos grumbled, and ran to join them.

"Sorry!" Kurt said before he knelt over Chris. "Chris, hands away, let me see it!"

He managed to pry Chris' hands away. Chris opened his eyes and blinked...and then screamed his usual high pitched scream. "I CAN'T SEE! I CAN'T SEE! I'M BLIND!" He flailed.

Kurt promptly slapped him across the face. "KEEP IT TOGETHER MAN! That light bulb couldn't have blinded you, it would have to be a hell of a lot brighter than that."

"I can't see man! I'm telling you I can't see anything!" Chris said. "It-it's just dark, nothing!"

Kurt looked up. "Carlos, call an ambulance, NOW!"

Carlos already had his cell phone out and was dialling.

Chris however accidently tumbled away from Kurt ,and almost went down a stair case...only for Carlos of all people to grab him and pull him back.

"Let me know when you do that again!" Carlos growled. "And be happy that you're blind or I'd have let that happen Chris!"

Xxx

"Wow! That was actually pretty fun for a challenge!" Bridgette sighed as she sat on her bed.

"I know. It was sure fun to cut up those zombies." Geoff agreed as he sat next to her. "But now we can relax for the next three days right?"

Bridgette giggled as she and Geoff embraced to each to make out, _again_, when both of their phones vibrated. Bridgette pulled out her phone and her eyes widened.

**XANA attack, meet at factory, ASAP.**

"We've gotta go now!"

Just as they both stood up Bridgette's light flickered and started to glow brighter.

"Uh oh!" Geoff grabbed Bridgette and buried her head in his shoulder just as the light exploded in a flash of light.

Geoff screamed as he fell down covering his eyes.

"Geoff!" Bridgette fell to her knees as she put Geoff's head on her lap. "Are you all right?"

Geoff lifted his hands and opened his eyes. Blinking a few times and moving his hands over his eyes he gasped.

"Bridge, I can't see!"

Bridgette gasped in horror. Looking up at the now broken and back down at her now blind boyfriend her eyes widened in realization and horror. A knock at her door was heard before LeShawna busted the door open.

"Bridge, we got to go!"

"Geoff's blind!" Bridgette cried.

"What?"

LeShawna, Trent, and DJ ran in.

"The light exploded and blinded Geoff!" Bridgette said, looking down at her boyfriend while tears swelled up in her eyes.

"What about you?" Trent asked.

"Geoff grabbed me and covered my eyes. I didn't see it."

"Guess we know what the attack is. We've got to get the others before they go blind too!" LeShawna said.

She pulled out her phone and sent a message to Gwen's phone.

Xxx

Gwen was relaxing in her room with her sketchbook open and she was drawing when she felt her cell phone vibrate and she opened it to see the message.

"Crap!"

She ran to Cody's room and knocked on the door. Cody opened the door.

"You got the message?" Cody asked.

"Yeah, let's go."

"What about Heather and Courtney?"

"Let's see if they're up to it."

Gwen and Cody ran to their rooms. Gwen opened the door without knocking, shocking Heather, who was sitting down with a game controller? Gwen looked with surprise to see an X-Box 360 and the game Heather was playing.

Dead Space 2?

"Hey! Don't you know how to knock?" Heather asked, irritated and trying to distract Gwen from the game.

Gwen quickly remembered why she was here and held up her phone for Heather to see the message. Hers eyes widened as they read it over.

"I know you're still having second thoughts about this but it's now or never." Gwen said.

Her eyes widened when the light in Heather's room started to build up.

"What?" Heather turned around.

"DON'T LOOK!" Gwen covered Heather's eyes with her hands just as light bulb exploded in a flash of light.

Cody and Courtney ran over, luckily they came after the light exploded. Gwen fell to the ground with her hands covering her eyes.

"Gwen!" Cody shouted as he kneeled next to her.

Gwen lifted her hands and slowly opened her eyes. She gasped as she held her trembling hands out in front of her. Her mouth hung in shock.

"Gwen, what is it?" Cody asked in fear.

"I . . .I . . . I can't see." Gwen stuttered. "That light bulb blinded me with a huge flash!"

"That must be what XANA's doing, he's blinding us!" Cody gulped. "If we can't see, we can't get to the factory, and we can't fight! He can shut down the tower on his own when we're all blind and hit us with another attack!"

"Which means you guys have to get to the factory, preferably some way that's dark or has no lights." Gwen sat up, leaning against the wall behind her. "Get going, I'll be fine here! If I try going I'll end up falling down every flight of stairs between here and the lab."

"Hold on, let's move you out of the hall first." Cody reached down and pulled Gwen's arm over her shoulder.

He looked up and was surprised when Heather had Gwen's other arm draped over her shoulder.

"What? She saved me from being blind!" Heather said when she noticed Cody's stare.

Shaking his head he and Heather helped her up to her feet and into her own room. They walked Gwen over and placed her gently on her bed.

"Good luck." Gwen said.

"We'll make it, Gwen." Cody said as he looked at Courtney and Heather.

Both girls were still afraid but they nodded. They ran out of the room, making sure they did not look at any hall lights along the way. They proceeded carefully, looking down at the floor and keeping their hands closed to their eyes to cover them if XANA detonated another light bulb again. Finally they made it to the lobby where they found most of the others were waiting with them.

"Hey, where's Gwen?" Trent asked.

"Heather's light exploded but Gwen took the full blast for her." Cody said.

Heather partially looked down, feeling guilty for letting Gwen become blind.

"What about Geoff and DJ?" Cody asked.

"Geoff ended up blind too and since DJ can't go to Lyoko right now he volunteered to stay behind and look after Geoff." LeShawna said.

"How can we get to the factory if we have to go through streets full of lights?" Noah asked.

"I don't think it's the whole city." Cody said. "The way I figure XANA must have taken control of the studio's electricity in order to effect all of the lights, which allowed him to brighten them as much as he needs to make us blind."

"So if we cut the power it'll stop, right?" Trent asked.

"Sorry, Trent, but XANA's got his own power source. Cutting the power won't work." LeShawna said. "We have to get to the factory."

"_All_ of us?" Duncan asked, looking at Courtney and Heather.

"All right! We get it! You all know we're scared! But you know what, Gwen just saved me from going blind even though she knew I'd probably say no so I'm pretty much in now, all right?" Heather yelled.

This stopped everyone in their tracks.

"Wow...remind me not to get her mad again," Cody whispered.

"Okay people let's go! Come on!" LeShawna shouted. "We're wasting time!"

That got the team moving once again.

Xxx

The group ran through the forest until they suddenly stopped.

"What are we stopping here for?" Trent asked.

"Look down." LeShawna said.

The new Lyoko Warriors looked down and saw a sewer hatch.

"A sewer! You expect us to crawl through a sewer!" Heather asked.

"It's the only way to get to the factory without going through the city and risk a bunch of exploding lights." Bridgette said.

LeShawna lifted the hatch and jumped down. Bridgette looked at the others.

"Just to let you know, after being on three seasons of Total Drama I think a sewer is easy compared to that." Bridgette then climbed down.

Izzy was the first, followed by Trent, Duncan, Noah and then by Heather and Courtney. They followed Bridgette and LeShawna through the sewer until they came upon a latter and climbed up on the bridge leading to the front entrance of the factory. Running over the bridge they stopped as they saw Bridgette, LeShawna, and Cody jump and slide down the cables into the lobby. Duncan, Trent, and Izzy jumped forward and slid down the cables.

"You two sliding down or taking the stairs?" LeShawna asked, slightly impatient.

"Uh...I'll walk!" Courtney and Noah went down the stairs...and Heather shot past them on one of the cables and landed expertly on her feet.

"Those ballet lessons come in handy, don't they?" LeShawna raised an eye brow.

"That and gymnastics for five years straight." Heather replied.

When the elevator doors opened the new recruited warriors took a good look at the lab. It was smaller than the one at the cottage but it had the same kind of computer, chair, and the holo-map of the virtual world they had become familiar with. Aelita was already waiting for them, sitting in the chair at the computer looking over the map.

"You made it!" Aelita looked up and smiled in relief. "When I heard what happened I was worried."

"Well, we made it. Some of us did." Cody replied. "Gwen and Geoff got blinded and DJ stayed behind to look after them."

"So where's the tower?" Bridgette asked.

"It's in the Mountain Sector this time. No monsters or generals yet." Aelita replied.

"No generals?" Courtney asked since she remembered how tough they were from the last battle.

"No. Probably still recovering." Aelita replied.

"Well, let's go! We need to hurry!" Heather said as she headed to the elevator.

"She's determined. What changed her mind?" Aelita asked.

"Probably because Gwen saved her from getting blind but got blind herself." Cody said.

Cody sat down in the chair and waited for them to get into the scanners. When the door opened Courtney and Heather looked at the scanners.

"If you're still having second thoughts about this now is the time to make up your minds." Bridgette said as she stepped into the nearest scanner.

Izzy jumped into scanner closest to her with an excited look while Trent stepped into the last scanner.

"Transfer, Bridgette. Transfer, Izzy. Transfer, Trent."

All three scanner doors closed.

"Scanner, Bridgette. Scanner, Izzy. Scanner, Trent."

All three girls closed their eyes as a bright ring of light traveled up their bodies and a gush of wind blew through their hair.

"Virtualization!"

Xxx

Bridgette, Izzy, and Trent landed on the rocky ground of the Mountain Sector without incident. They stood upright and took a good look around.

"All right! Izzy can't wait for the monsters to show up! They won't win this time!" Izzy laughed as she spun in excitement.

"Don't get over excited, Izzy. And remember if you fall off into the Digital Sea it's permanent virtualization and your data will be scattered across the web." Bridgette said.

"Got it." Trent said.

"Aye aye!" Izzy gave her a military salute.

Xxx

"All right, who goes next?" Cody asked over the speaker.

"I'll go in next. You guys decide." Aelita said as she stepped into the scanner.

"I'm in." Noah stepped into another scanner.

Duncan looked at Heather and Courtney.

"You coming?"

Heather gulped and walked into the scanner, surprising everyone.

"So, you finally decided." Noah said.

"Whatever. Like I said, I'm pretty much in now since Gwen saved me from going blind. I really don't like the idea of owing her one." Heather replied as she crossed her arms and look away.

"All right, then. Transfer, Aelita. Transfer, Noah. Transfer, Heather."

As all three scanner doors Heather got a small scared look on her face.

"Scanner, Aelita. Scanner, Noah. Scanner, Heather."

Heather closed her eyes as the ring of light like before traveled up her body and she felt a familiar gust of wind blow through her hair.

"Virtualization."

Xxx

"Ow!"

"I guess you still need to get used to this." Bridgette said, a slight smile on her face.

"Hardy, har, har." Heather replied, making Bridgette smile at the kunoichi as she got to her feet.

Noah looked around the Mountain Sector as they waited for the last two.

Xxx

"All right, two more to go. You two ready?" Cody asked.

Courtney looked hesitant but Duncan put a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, if you want to sit this one out that's okay. There's more than enough for this." Duncan said with a smirk.

Courtney shook her head.

"I'm going."

She stepped into the nearest scanner and waited for Duncan to get into the other one. Seeing the last two step into the scanners Cody once again started the virtualization sequence.

"Transfer, Duncan. Transfer, Courtney."

The scanners closed and Courtney got herself ready.

"Scanner, Duncan. Scanner, Courtney."

Courtney felt the wind against her hair as the ring of light scanned her.

"Virtualization."

Courtney closed her eyes as a bright light engulfed her.

Xxx

Duncan easily landed on his feet while Courtney landed on her butt.

"Ow!"

"That's another one who needs to work on her landing." Noah said.

Courtney gritted her teeth as she stood up and looked down at her black ninja dress with gold trimming and the red sash around her waist. She didn't dislike the outfit she wore but at the same time it irked her since it made her look like a princess that everyone called her.

"You all ready?" Aelita asked.

"Just lead the way, Aelita." Trent said.

She nodded and pointed in the direction of a tunnel.

"The path to the tower is on the other side of this tunnel." Aelita said as they headed towards in a light sprint.

"Cody, any monsters?" Bridgette asked.

"_Five Dark Pyramids._"

They group soon enough saw the tower surrounded by huge wall of stone with only one narrow exit to a thin stone bridge which connected the small floating island to rest of the sector. As soon as they came into view the Pyramids pointed their Eyes as them and charged.

"Watch out!" Trent's shouted.

However his warning came too late as a laser flew out and struck Duncan in the chest. The shot knocked him back and he flew back into the tunnel. The five Dark Pyramids stood on the other side of the narrow bridge began to fire on the others as well.

"Snap!" Noah shouted as they scrambled into the tunnel.

Taking cover behind a few boulders the group could only stay there as the Dark Pyramids continued to fire on their temporary shelter.

"Aw great. First few minutes we're here and we're already pinned!" Duncan said. "Let's get out there and take them out!"

"We can't!" Bridgette replied. "By the time we get close enough we'll be blasted. There's no way we can dodge or block those attacks inside this tunnel or on a bridge that narrow!"

"For those of us who have long range attacks they can try hitting them!" Trent said.

"I'm not so sure about that." Noah said doubtfully. "Let's check if we can get into position."

He looked down at his hands as they turned into laser guns and he stepped out of the boulder they were hiding behind and stood in the mouth of the tunnel. Before he could even aim the Dark Pyramids fired another barrage of lasers at him. Noah barely made it back as he jumped out of the way.

"Nope! That won't work!" Noah said.

"So what now?" Heather shouted over the sounds of the lasers blasting the rock.

"Trent's guitar can create a shield like DJ's. Maybe we can use to make it across the bridge." Aelita said.

"That could work." Trent said, pulling out his guitar.

"Noah, you and Izzy go with Trent and keep the monsters at the bay. Once we get to the other side me and Duncan will rush them and take them out at close range." Bridgette said before turning to Heather and Courtney. "Heather, you and Courtney cover Aelita just in case monsters or generals attack us from behind."

They both nodded, all though they felt nobody trusted them enough to join them.

"Good luck." Aelita said.

Trent rushed out and played the note to activate his barrier just as the Dark Pyramids fired another deadly swarm of lasers at him. They hit the barrier, protecting him from the monsters as they attempted to remove him from Lyoko. Noah and Izzy got up behind followed by Bridgette and Duncan as they started to walk across the bridge. Noah and Izzy aimed and fired their weapons.

Four arrows from Izzy`s crossbows successfully struck one Dark Pyramid while at the same time Noah managed to score a hit against another one. Both monsters exploded in a shower of digital sparks and coding. The three remaining monsters unleashed another stream of lasers at them but like before Trent's shield blocked them.

"I don't know how long I can hold this up!" Trent said as they made it to the middle of the bridge.

"_Incoming Mantas!_"

That was when the trap was sprung. A squad of Mantas flew over the bridge and dropped flying mines that rammed into the bridge and exploded, shaking it and causing pieces of debris to fall into the Digital Sea.

"Quick, take it out!" Bridgette shouted.

Izzy and Noah fired but it vanished into the mist.

"We might need a little help here!" Noah said. "Bridgette, can't you handle those mantas?"

"On it!" Bridgette raised her arms and fired her energy waves into the fog. After three shots something exploded. But the other two Mantas came down and dropped mines near her. She gulped and covered her face, but then Duncan leaped out, whipping out his sword, which was gathering green fire along its length. He spun it once in his grip and slammed it down. A wave of green fire went out ,and the mines were launched off of the bridge and exploded at a safe distance.

Bridgette was unharmed, as the fire had started spreading out five feet from Duncan, seeming to appear from nowhere after his blade hit the ground. The swordsman stood up and smirked. "I so wanted to test that out."

Courtney, Aelita and Heather watched the progress of the other fighters as they eliminated another Dark Pyramid. The Mantas came down for another attack. Duncan watched one of them as it tried to make a pass rather close to where Noah, Izzy and Trent were. He took off in a sprint ,and leaped into the air.

When he leaped, his feet let out a small trail of green embers right up until he landed on the manta. It went off course ,and its mines detonated harmlessly away from the others. Duncan gripped the front of the manta. "Alright big guy, I'm driving now!"

It flew off into the mist as he fought to control it.

"Aw thanks a lot Duncan-" Bridgette paused as she noticed that a mist was beginning to roll in from the sides of the bridge. "Aw man what now?"

"_Incoming! Courtney, Heather, Aelita, behind you!_" Cody shouted.

The three women spun around, weapons and powers ready. There was a Dark Krab advancing towards them through the tunnel, and on top of it, perched with her bow ready to fire was Lilith.

"Hello again!"

"RUN!" Courtney extended her staff and Heather drew her Shuriken. "Aelita get to the others, it's safer there!"

Aelita obeyed, but fired an energy sphere over her shoulder for good measure. It bounced off the Dark Krab's armor, and it charged a single laser, but Heather blocked it with one Shuriken. Courtney leaped onto the Krab and swept Lilith's feet out from under her with a single swipe of her staff. "You don't know when to quit Lilith!"

"I just have too much fun with you!" Lilith replied, and pulled a fast one by flipping onto her feet, kicking Courtney off of the Krab as she went. She then fired an arrow at Heather while the Krab raised one leg.

"Courtney, watch out!" Heather shouted, but it was too late.

Courtney, who was on her feet looked up in time for the Krab's leg to cut her into Digital pieces down the middle.

Xxx

The scanner Courtney closed and then opened back up, revealing Courtney as she fell out and collapsed onto the floor. Her entire body felt weak as she attempted to stand up while at the same time a look of frustration was seen on her face for letting herself get taken out so easily while in a small corner of her mind a voice chastised her for skipping out on the training sessions because she was so scared earlier.

Xxx

Heather back flipped to avoid a salvo of lasers and arrows. She tossed two shuriken that cut into the Krab's fore legs. They did not split or shatter, but they began to creak and were stiff when the shuriken hit the joints.

"Nice hit." Lilith leaped off of the Krab and advanced.

Heather backed out of the tunnel to where Bridgette, who finished off the last Manta joined her with her swords ready. "You guys are doing pretty good here."

"What makes you think that you can win this time?" Bridgette asked.

"Well perhaps...that." Lilith snapped her fingers, and two more Mantas suddenly shot out of the fog. Heather gasped and back flipped into the air to avoid being sent flying off of the bridge. Bridgette was clipped by one, dropped her swords, and almost fell over the side, but caught herself on the cliff.

Lilith pulled out a single arrow and walked over to Bridgette while Heather tried to fend off the Mantas and the Krab that advanced out of the tunnel. "Bye-bye Surfer Girl." She raised the arrow...but she looked and saw a flash of green fire shattered the weapon but she jumped back, yelping in surprise.

"Forgot me already?" Duncan shot out of the fog on his new mount, gripping it by the front and tugging on it to direct it. His sword was glowing bright green with fire in his free hand.

Lilith leaped aside as Duncan directed the Manta down and leaped off in time for it to crash and explode on the bridge. Duncan landed, standing across from Lilith ad Bridgette pulled herself up.

"Well that was fun, now to take out the trash." Duncan aimed his sword at her. "I have a few new tricks girlie."

"Well aren't you excited?" Lilith drew an arrow and notched it in her bow.

She fired it with lightning speed, but Duncan's sword spat out a single burst of fire that destroyed the arrow. Duncan grinned. "Like it? My new favourite attack! Well right next to my Berserker Attack."

"Bragging is for little kids." Lilith began to fire more arrows.

"Not falling for that this time!" Duncan began to rush forward as arrows came out of nowhere. He knocked some aside with his sword. Whenever she fired one arrow, he would take a quick look for the portal it would come from and counter it before continuing on his way. When he was close enough he charged fire into his sword and slammed it into the ground. A wave of green fire shot up in front of Lilith. She yelped and backed away, dropping an arrow.

"Well that looks hot!" Lilith frowned.

"Enough with the bad jokes, it's doing a lot more damage to me than you are!" Duncan called to her as he leaped over the fire and landed right in front of her.

They circled one another, ready to fight.

"You know, you're being a little dense about this," Lilith said.

"How's that?" Duncan asked.

"I mean, do you think I'm the only General here?" Lilith grinned. "Unlike Shadow, I plan ahead, and plan what to do if that plan fails and so on."

Duncan cut her off with a stab from his sword. She spun aside, but it cut her a bit. She swiped her bow to the side, and lightly hit him across the faced with it, but he didn't let it slow him down. He swung his sword, aiming at her legs. She hopped up to avoid it and swung her bow down as she descended, hitting him on the top of the head.

Duncan rubbed the top of his head. "Okay...I think I'm seeing a pattern to this now."

"Really?" Lilith asked, and aimed a snap kick at him, but he side stepped it and swung at her stomach. She bent backwards to avoid it and then tried to jam the tip of her bow into his neck, but he caught her hands and held them tight. "Got you now you jumpy little minx!"

"Do you say that to all the girls?"

"No, just the ones I do _this_ to!" Duncan picked Lilith up by the arms and tossed her over the side of the bridge. This action somewhat startled her and she yelped before she vanished from sight.

"...you know she's probably got a flying monster waiting to catch her, right?" Heather asked.

"Yeah, but it stalled for time." Duncan shrugged.

"Not much." Lilith reappeared right behind him with an arrow ready.

Duncan spun around just in time for the arrow to hit him. Instead of draining life points the arrow turned into dark energy. Then the dark energy spread and covered his body. The energy expanded and formed into a clear black cylindrical prison with Duncan inside.

"What the hell-"

"Like it. This arrow homes in on whoever or whatever I target in my mind. Simply dodging it is not enough and not even your sword can shatter it." Lilith smirked. "That cylinder is unbreakable, so that saves me a whole lot of trouble."

Duncan slashed the inside of the tube but it had no effect.

"Can't use your fire without burning yourself in the process and the Berserker is activated when you feel . . . Very upset." Lilith said.

"Stating the obvious?" Suddenly Heather was behind Lilith, who was startled and spun in time for Heather to head butt her right in the face. Lilith stumbled back, but Heather was right on her, pulling out two shuriken. She slashed at Lilith twice, but she blocked the second blow with her bow. They circled, half crouched and like wolves, ready to lunge.

Bridgette rushed over to the prison. She briefly tried to pierce it with her energy waves, but without any success. "I can't get through!"

"Try to get Aelita, or Noah! Maybe they can do something about it." Duncan said.

"On it!" Bridgette hopped on her hover board and shot in the direction of the group, which was currently pinned down by the last two Dark Pyramids and the Dark Krab was attacking them from behind.

Heather and Lilith continued to swipe at each other. Lilith lunged, but Heather smirked and turned invisible. Lilith looked around. "Oh please!"

"Okay then, you asked for it." Suddenly Heather appeared next to her and gave her a fierce punch across the face. But her figure shattered in a flash of light and data.

"You don't have Aelita's second sight and I've set up a barrier that keeps those guys in the lab from seeing through my illusions."

Lilith swooped down like a hawk and tripped Heather and then kicked her into the wall before pulling out a arrow and shooting it at the mountain above her. Heather looked up and saw rock slide fall down on her.

"That's over." Lilith landed and then looked at the bridge where the others were.

"_Guys, watch out! There's a Dark Krab coming up behind you!_"

Just as Cody finished Izzy felt two hot pains in her back. The attack lowered her life points to fifteen and the Dark Krab planned on finishing her off. But not if Aelita had anything to say about it.

"Plasma Beam!"

She fired her beam of pure energy and it struck the Krab head on. It was vaporized, no digital particles remained of it when the attack was over. Noah had managed to help Izzy to her feet as they hid back behind Trent's shield.

"Well, glad we're all still in one piece." Noah said casually.

"Noah!" They turned and saw Bridgette land next to them on her surfboard.

"Duncan's trapped in some of tube prison created by Lilith. We can't bust him out." Bridgette said.

"And we're not exactly having a tea party ourselves! Those guys are relentless!" Noah said as the Dark Pyramids continued to fire.

Bridgette looked to the last two monsters guarding the tower.

"I'll distract them and you guys rush them." Bridgette said.

She jumped onto her board and flew into the air before anyone could stop her. She flew down to the Dark Pyramids just as they aimed their eyes at her. Her surfboard glowed blue as she rammed into a Pyramid and sent it crashing into the tower, exploding on impact. Izzy rushed out from behind Trent's shield recklessly as she aimed her crossbow and fired.

The arrow flew out and plunged into the Dark Pyramid's Eye before exploding.

"Yes!" Izzy jumped up and down.

"The path is clear now, Aelita." Bridgette called out.

Aelita nodded as she rushed out as Trent lowered his shield and sprinted towards the tower.

"That was way too close." Trent sighed in relief.

"_Don't celebrate, Trent. Lilith's coming right at you and . . WHAT THE!_"

That was when a figure stepped out of the tower before Aelita could enter it. Aelita's eyes widened as Shadow came out with his sword appearing his hand. He sent a cloud of black smoke at her and it caught before it slammed into the stone wall.

"Hang on, Aelita!" Bridgette shouted as she flew down.

But before she could Lilith aimed an orange arrow and fired. As it flew at the surfer it expanded into a large fire ball. Before Bridgette could do anything the ball of fire engulfed and her virtual body was burned to virtual ashes.

Xxx

Bridgette fell out of the scanners. She slammed her fist against the floor for letting her guard down.

Xxx

Things were not looking well for the remaining warriors. With Shadow in front of them and Lilith behind them they were basically surrounded.

"Well, this is great." Noah said as Shadow stepped towards them.

Aelita stood up and prepared to attack. Lilith pulled out another flame arrow and fired at the group. Trent rushed out and blocked it by playing his shield note.

"You guys help Aelita. I'll take care of Lilith."

Noah and Izzy nodded and rushed towards the tower. Noah turned his arm into a sword and rushed Shadow who blocked with his sword.

"HI-YA!" Izzy jumped and launched a kick but Shadow blocked.

"Shadow Strike!"

A spectre came right out and smacked Izzy away while he pushed Noah away.

"Plasma Beam!"

Shadow dodged by performing his Super Smoke move and Aelita's plasma beam blasted the wall behind him. He flew out and reappeared behind Aelita and tripped her. Aelita rolled out of the way as Shadow brought his sword and shattered the rock ground where she was before. That was when the last two Mantas flew in and fired down at them.

"Energy field!" Aelita shot a sphere of pink energy up that clipped one the Mantas and made it fly out of control before crashing into the wall.

The other one vanished into the fog before anyone else could hit it. Trent played a note and unleashed a stream of lightning but Lilith spun out of the way. It was then small portals opened up around him on all sides. Thinking quickly Trent used his shield note to make a dome around him as the portals launched arrows at him.

However Lilith held out her bow and launched an arrow that shattered the dome easily. Trent quickly played his own fire note and sent a stream of fire out. Lilith teleported out of the way and appeared behind Trent. She quickly launched a fast kick that sent Trent flying forward and dropped his guitar.

"Don't you know you're supposed to watch your back?" Lilith sneered.

"Like you should?" Heather asked, reappearing right behind Lilith and punched her and sending her flying off the bridge, plummeting into the Digital Sea.

"I thought you were gone." Trent said, getting up.

"Luckily I avoided that landslide but it was close."

Before Lilith hit the Digital Sea the last Manta flew out and caught her. She looked up at the island where the fight was continuing.

'I guess we lose this one. I don't have the strength to teleport all the way up there.' Lilith thought as she sighed but then smiled. 'Aw well, this was fun and I can't wait next time they come here.'

The Manta flew away from the battle as Lilith sat down on it and relaxed.

'Good luck, Shadow.'

The sword wielding General stood between the group and the tower. He sneered as he aimed his sword at them. "Alright, who goes first?"

Trent, Noah and Izzy advanced, their respective weapons in hand. Shadow frowned as he noticed something.

"Hey, where'd Aelita go?" Shadow demanded.

"None of your business, creep." Heather said as she drew two shuriken.

"Alright, either way you cut it you still won't get by me." Shadow got into a stance.

"They might not be able to, but I've still got all my life points!"

Shadow looked up and saw Aelita carrying...Duncan! She dropped him, and he landed in front of Shadow, sword drawn.

"Finally, somebody gets me out of that thing." He stretched. "Alright pretty boy, let's go." He charged his blade with green fire.

"Oh great, the punk." Shadow and Duncan began to circle one another.

"You people have no imagination, you know that, right?" Duncan asked.

"Do I care?" Shadow swung at Duncan's feet, but the punk's sword countered the swing and Duncan charged forward, jabbing at Shadow's chest. The general side stepped it and tried to cut upwards through Duncan's sword arm, but Duncan pulled back, and their swords met in a flash of sparks. Duncan began to go on the offensive with several basics slashes and stabs aimed towards Shadow's chest and head.

Shadow retaliated with a combination of his powers and swordsmanship. They countered, blocked ,and dodged each other's assaults right until they were in a standoff.

"You are really starting to annoy me now, kid." Shadow growled.

"Heard that one before," Duncan rolled his eyes. "But have you heard this one?"

Charging fired into the tip of his sword until it was entirely glowing green with energy, he swung. Shadow brought his own blade up, but the moment the two weapons met fire exploded from Duncan's sword and washed over Shadow, sending him flying. His sword fell from his grasp, and he flew head over heels until he hit a cliff face. He began to fall, but Shadow Sprinted to the top of the cliff. He retook his form, kneeling and gasping for breath.

"Like it?" Duncan called to Shadow. "Bye-bye, tell XANA he sucks!"

As the punk taunted him, Aelita rushed towards the tower.

Shadow growled. "I won't let you make a fool of me AGAIN!" He began to transform again.

"Aw hell, not again!" Heather said.

"Did you have to taunt him?" Noah asked Duncan.

"...I'll be honest, I kinda forgot he could transform." Duncan admitted.

Shadow, in his 'true form' launched himself across the gap between himself and the bridge, his wings keeping him in the air. He landed...and the bridge began to crack. It had taken a lot of damage from explosions, lasers, and other attacks.

"...am I the only one who thinks we should get off the bridge?" Noah asked.

"You all are so confident in your ever growing powers, but you never knew we Generals can develop new powers too!" Shadow laughed. "Here's mine. Dark Immolation!" His eyes turned pitch black.

The air around Duncan began to shimmer with some dark haze. The punk looked around. "What the- AH!" He burst into black flames. His life points began to go down by five every second.

"What the-" Noah looked between Shadow and Duncan. "Get him!"

The team rushed forward. Shadow took his eyes off of Duncan and focused in on Noah, who was the closest. The genius lunged at Shadow, hoping to possess him...but burst into dark flames like Duncan. His life points had been more depleted from the battle, so before he hit the ground he was dropped to zero and vanished.

He then sent his tail out and impaled Heather straight through the heart, devirtualizing her instantly.

"Aw man what do we do?" Trent asked as he and Izzy tried to back away from the monster that was slowly taking them down.

"How about THIS?" Suddenly the black fire around Duncan was dispersed as green fire exploded from within the cocoon of darkness around the punk. The Berserker stood up, a snarl on his skeleton face as he looked at Shadow.

He raised one hand...and flipped Shadow the bird. The beast growled and started forward. It reared back one fist and tried to crush the Berserker under it, but Duncan caught it with both of his hands. He slid back a foot ,but no further. He then gripped Shadow's hand and swung him up and over his head. He slammed Shadow into the ground.

Shadow's tail swung Duncan's feet out from under him. Getting to his feet, Shadow tried to immolate the Berserker again, but the air barely shimmered before a pulse of green energy dispelled it. The Berserker stood up and dusted its jacket off. The ridge of its skull above its left eye raised slightly, the equivalent of an eye brow. The Berserker raised one hand and gestured with its index finger, saying 'come closer'.

Shadow obliged, lunging at the Berserker. He opened his mouth, planning to snap the Berserker in half. A pair of green skeletal hands caught his mouth, one to the top and one to the bottom jaw. The Berserker was holding the monster back with his bare hands and keeping its mouth open. The Berserker let out its distorted, cruel laugh and then forced Shadow's head down, reared one fist back, and slammed it down on the top of his head, slamming Shadow into the ground.

Then he pulled himself on top of the monster's neck and began to pummel him with his fists, each blow making the bridge grow weaker under the force of the Berserker's blows. Soon, Shadow was lying on the bridge with the Berserker standing in front of it, picking his sword up and turning his back to it. He pretended to be cleaning the blade of his sword ,uninterested in his fallen opponent.

Shadow looked up, growling. He opened his mouth, revealing the large amount of energy gathered in his mouth. He got on all fours and began to discharge it.

Duncan spun, revealing a large amount of fire gathered into his sword blade. They unleashed their attacks at the same time. They collided, and soon cancelled one another out. When it was over, Shadow and Duncan were back in their normal forms, gasping for breath.

Shadow growled but then Lilith appeared between them.

"Sorry boys, play times over." Lilith jumped to Shadow and knocked him off the bridge where he landed on the Manta.

Lilith jumped onto the Manta and waved to the warriors with a smile.

"See ya, next time!"

They flew off just as Aelita entered the tower. Just a few seconds later the tower was free from XANA's control and Cody activated the Return to the Past.

Xxx

Heather looked up and found herself back in her room. Looking at the TV she found herself in the middle of her game around the time Gwen came in and told her of the attack. Hearing a knock at the door, she got up and answered. Gwen was the one waiting at the door.

"Hey."

Heather was unsure how to answer. "Hey."

"Is this a bad time?" Gwen asked.

"No. Come in."

If anyone was in the hall they probably would have dropped their jaw from seeing this. Gwen came in and saw the paused game.

"So, you've got an X-Box _and_ Dead Space 2?" Gwen asked.

"Yeah so!" Heather said getting all defensive.

"I just found it surprising you would have an X-Box or even game as gory as Dead Space 2." Gwen said with her hands in front of her.

"It's not mine, it's my brother's." Heather said quickly.

"Your brother's not old enough for a game like that even if he had the money. That's your game."

"Whatever! So that's another thing you know about me! It's not like my life's a secret anymore!" Heather turned around her arms crossed.

"It's not a big difference to me despite what you may think, Heather. It certainly would have made little difference even if I had known when I first met you."

"So why are you here?" Heather asked turning around.

"I was just curious as to why someone like you would be into gory and bloody games. You don't have to tell me why."

"Yeah, so why are you asking?"

"Because like I said I'm curious. If you don't want to talk about it that's fine, I'll leave." Gwen turned to walk to the door.

"Wait!"

Gwen stopped and looked over her shoulder.

"What?"

Heather sighed.

"I do it because it helps me take out all the frustration I have for my family, the frustration I have at high school, the Total Drama show with Chris and recently this whole Lyoko thing."

Gwen turned around and watched as Heather pulled out a few more games she knew. These games were just as dark and gory as Dead Space 2.

"I wasn't into them because I liked them but they helped me a lot because I could take out the stress and frustration I had out on anything I was fighting."

"That tough, huh?"

"You have no idea. Those snobby rich girls and those brain dead jocks they like to hang out with, my slacker sister who likes to brag she's in university, my bratty little brother, my cheap dad. The only person in my family who I can even stand being with is my mother."

"Well, at least your parents are together." Gwen said as she sat down next to Heather.

"What do you mean?"

"My parents were younger than the appropriate time to have a kid when mom was pregnant with me."

"Really, how old were they?" Heather asked.

"Early 20s." Gwen said with a sad look. "Dad wanted an abortion but my mom refused and when she was pregnant with my brother they got into a whole bunch of fights and he left when my brother was born. My mom was really emotionally hurt when he left. Things got worse when we heard he ended up in a car crash, cause of death was drinking while driving."

Gwen was silent for a moment and then smirked.

"So we're even now."

"What do you mean?" Heather asked with a confused look.

"I knew the worst parts of your life and now you know mine." Gwen said getting up and walked to the door. "And I heard you did a good job on Lyoko."

"Please, it was nothing."

"If you say so." Gwen walked out of the room.

Heather sighed and then smiled.

"How nice." Heather's eyes widened as the voice that came out of her mouth was not her voice.

It was a cold tone, laced with malice and hatred. A voice she was very familiar with from her last two fights on Lyoko.

"Shadow!" Heather spun around. "Where are you?"

Shadow's laughter echoed around her.

"And you think you're actually smart. It's obvious where I am, little girl. In your head!"

Heather's eyes widened as she attempted to scream but no voice came from her mouth.

'But how? I thought going to Lyoko makes us immune to being possessed!'

"And you would but you and the other girl never went to Lyoko since the first time until today." Shadow's voice replied. "For nearly a week you've avoided it because of your own fears and I thought I could take advantage of that. I am not be able to divide myself like XANA but when I stabbed you I injected a special little program I cooked up into you. When you devirtualized my virus bonded to you like a symbiote, imprinting you with my image. Not like how XANA possess his targets but this will do, my puppet!"

Heather attempted to scream again, she wanted to cry, run, but she couldn't. Shadow had taken control of her body and her mind was trapped behind a wall. She looked at the mirror and smiled. This smile was not one of Heather's happy, victorious or one of her evil smiles she saved for her enemies.

It was the smile of a demon, awaiting the chance to slaughter its enemies.


	37. Episode 36: Shadow's Evolution

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 37

Heather awoke to find herself in the middle of the room. Apparently she had collapsed sometime last night with no memory of what happened.

"Enjoy sleeping, little girl?" Shadow's voice came out of her mouth.

Heather's eyes widened as she heard his voice again. She looked at the mirror and took a look at herself. Everything looked normal, but as the memories came back she started to remember. That was when her reflection smiled back at her. She backed away from her reflection as the smile was colder than ice.

That was everything around her changed. Suddenly she found herself in darkness with a screen showing the room through her eyes. Shackles formed on her legs and wrists and pulled her down to her knees. That was when Shadow appeared in front of her.

**"So glad you decided to wake up."**

"_GET THE HELL OUT OF MY BODY!_" Heather screamed as she struggled against the restraints.

**"Now why I do that after all the trouble I went through to put a copy of myself into you?"**

_"Get out, get out, ge-" _Heather shouted before she was gagged by a black ball.

**"There, now that is done, perhaps I can get started on my plan. I wish I could possess you like XANA could since he never puts up with this from his victims but since I can't use a tower or create spectres this was the best way."**

Shadow turned and looked at the screen.

**"Now let's see if this works. Stand up."**

They watched as Heather's body obeyed Shadow's command and stood up.

**"Go to the door."**

Once again Heather's body moved to the door and stopped in front of it.

**"Perfect." **Shadow smirked as Heather struggled harder against her restraints.

Xxx

Noah whistled as he casually tapped away at his key board. "And...here we go." He closed the window. "Now just to run a simulation and-" His computer got blue screened by the very program he made. "And I end up wiping out all of Lyoko by accident, swell."

"How are things going Noah?" Gwen asked as she approached the genius.

"Well I've given myself the blue screen of death a few times, but aside from that I'm good." Noah said.

"What are you doing anyways?" Gwen asked.

"I'm trying to work off of an old program used by Jeremy Belpois," Noah explained as he shut his laptop down. "Awhile back Aelita showed me a program he intended to use to destroy large groups of monsters. Now back then they only got a few at a time, with how many we're getting I felt it necessary to look through the program. The key flaw was that it went after Aelita also, since she had a connection to XANA in her. I'm trying to develop a better Hunt and Destroy program that will avoid that little fiasco...and instead I end up having it go for the core of Lyoko where XANA makes his connection to the towers from. That results in Lyoko collapsing and causing a total system loss, followed by the super computer being irreparably damaged as an after effect I made to neutralize anything XANA's possessed in the real world. As you can see this would not work well for us."

"This is the Marabounta, isn't it?" Gwen asked looking at the screen.

"Yeah." Noah nodded.

"Noah I don't want to criticize you, but the history of people using a program like this have a streak of bad luck." Gwen said.

"And how do you know that?"

"I know for a fact Aelita told us about it. This is a multi-agent program, and recent history shows a multi-agent program tends to uh...turn on its creator. There's Project Carthage, the time the Marabounta tried to kill Aelita, and well...XANA of course." Gwen explained. "Bottom line: Multi-Agent program equals 'big owie' for us."

"Relax, I happen to know what I'm doing here." Noah said.

"Pretty sure Jeremy and Aelita's dad thought the same thing."

"Yeah, but there's a difference."

"What, are you smarter?"

"Yes, but no." Noah said. "They had no history to base it on, there hadn't ever been a multi-agent program up until Schaeffer made XANA and Jeremy was just dabbing at it. I have material to work with and modify, and I am not going to unleash it at the first chance I get just so it can turn on me. I intend to make...a few dozen layers of safeguards so when it is ready, if it even thinks of turning on us it will destroy itself from the inside out. A few dozen self destruct programs guarded by many firewalls and various security programs of my own making, all of which will be guarded by another layer of self destruct and security files, it becomes a powerful but rather fragile web. Try to take one out; the rest of it will collapse on you."

He pulled up a shape on his computer when it rebooted. It was of a triangle with many lines connecting within it. "Picture it like that." A shape appeared in the middle of it, in the shape of a man. "The man is trapped. There are no walls to the pyramid, but those wires prevent him from leaving, so he tries to take one out." The man grabbed one wire and tore it out of its bases. "And ZING!" The rest of the wires went taut and snapped straight. The man stiffened as many passed through him, and he fell as digital pieces. "Cut to pieces when you try digging your way to freedom. Boom baby."

"Noah, I said it once, I'll say it again, you're one accident away from being a mad scientist." Gwen said.

"I have a white lab coat and an evil laugh prepared for that scenario." Noah shrugged.

"So quick question here...you may have put in self destruct codes but can this program...evolve?"

"Nonsense. I designed this baby with a life span. When I insert it into a network, its life starts and it has seventy two hours to live before it creates a minor copy of itself and destroys itself. The minor copy is like a newborn baby, right back to the basic coding I used. It will do the same thing over and over again. And if I want I can remove it and put it on a disc. I have no intention of letting this thing get away from me." Noah said. "Schaeffer made XANA, so I'll make the one thing that's even better than XANA, a XANA that actually does what its told and knows when to lay down and die."

"One more question: Has Aelita agreed to this?"

"I'm sure she'll say yes."

Xxx

"The answer is no." Aelita said.

They were now all in the mall, meeting with Aelita and Noah just finished explaining his plan.

"I know you're hesitant but I've checked and made sure nothing will go wrong." Noah explained.

"Out of the question, Noah. I've seen these codes and a lot of them look like the same codes that were used in XANA's creation." Aelita said looking at Noah's laptop.

"So I had to use some of your dad's work but it's the only way it can work since the program will need to work as fast as XANA." Noah said.

"And with each battle's its intelligence will grow and when its memories are passed onto its offspring it will get smarter with each new generation." Aelita said.

"And that's why my character will have a wireless communications link with the program so I can keep an eye on it."

"I don't know, Noah. This just does not seem like a good idea." Bridgette said.

"It's true, Noah. You know the laws of Murphy right?" LeShawna asked.

"Relax, I know what I'm doing."

Meanwhile inside Heather's head Shadow's copy smiled evilly.

"Maybe we should give it a chance." Heather said. "We do need an ace in the hole, maybe Noah does know what he's doing."

But the real Heather could only sense one thing: Shadow wanted that program for a reason, meaning it was bad news. She tried to open her mouth and scream at them not to use it, but it was no good.

'_Don't use it! It's what he wants!_'

**"Be quiet."** Shadow said as he shocked Heather inside her mind.

She fell over in pain as she struggled to take back control and warn them.

**"It's no use. Your voice can't reach them."**

"She has a point; maybe it wouldn't hurt to try it." Trent said. "I mean, you've stopped a rogue program before, if it goes buggy we'll just destroy it and return to the past."

"It's too dangerous." Aelita insisted. "Combating one XANA is hard enough, can we really afford end up fighting two of them?"

"Good point there," Duncan said. "I say we trash the idea."

"But XANA doesn't have all the features Noah's installed. He's practically made it the internet's Fort Knox." Cody added. "I'm just considering both sides of this. I mean on one hand it looks like a big help, but it's also a big risk."

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained." Noah said.

"Well how about we take a vote." Courtney said. "To just take a test. Who votes we test it?"

She, Heather, Noah, Geoff, Trent, Izzy and Cody raised their hands.

"Against?" Aelita asked.

She, Duncan, Gwen, LeShawna, Bridgette, and DJ raised their hands.

"Eight to six, we test it out." Noah flipped the disc into the air and caught it, a neutral look on his face. He at least had the decency not to rub it in. "And if anything happens you can kick my ass later...and for the record, nothing's gonna happen."

The boy pulled out his laptop. "We'll need somebody to go to Lyoko, for when the program manifests. But the one question is do we wait until the next XANA attack or should I just launch it now? I managed to go over four successful simulations in a row and I can guarantee this won't attack your avatars or blow up Lyoko and fry the super computer."

"I still say it's a bad idea poindexter." Duncan said, arms crossed. "You mess with a bull, you get the horns. You mess with the uh..multi-agent crap, you usually get shocked, blown up, beaten up, cut up, or screwed up. And me, I like me the way I am, none of the above."

"Relax, I'll run to my room and set up a last few things." Noah said, sliding the disc into the lap top. "After that I'll take it to the lab and run that test. Again, I need at least one person to go into Lyoko and get me a good visual of it. Nothing better than the human-er...digital human eye."

"I'll go with you." Heather volunteered, standing up.

"Awesome, starting to like you now." Noah said. "Let's go."

They left.

Duncan looked at Aelita. "They're gonna screw up, aren't they?"

"Believe me, I hope this works as much as anybody else...but deep inside I agree with Duncan." Aelita sipped her drink. "Get ready to start running the moment Noah calls us."

"You know Aelita, you're technically the boss, can't you stop them?" Gwen asked.

"I may not like it, but I've seen when a program works it can help a lot. Jeremy created the same multi-agent program Noah based his off of and that destroyed XANA's copy. Maybe this can work." Aelita sighed. "I just need to make sure it doesn't connect to the restricted section. Can't affect anything from there."

"...I agree with you about that running part." Duncan said.

Xxx

Noah whistled as he walked into his room with Heather. "Okay Heather, let's just hook this up and get the wheel rolling on this."

He took the disc out and put it into his laptop. He sat down. "Hey Heather, look at this for a second."

Heather walked over as Noah opened a screen.

"This is an emergency Disarm code. Sometimes the program would accidently destroy itself in a simulation, about one out of five times. I want you to input the disarm coder if it starts to spontaneously destroy itself." Noah said. "It's a safety precaution, but luckily the only way to input it is manually approaching the program's Lyoko Avatar to do it by hand." He pulled up an image. "Here's the avatar."

The Avatar looked like a middle aged human with blonde hair and wearing sand coloured clothing. He also had gold armour on his arms and chest. He had no visible weapons ,and was bare foot.

"The input command is accessed from here." The Avatar turned and showed a small blue device with a red gem on the back of the program's neck. "Tap it, and an interface will open. Input the code and the self destruct systems will go into maintenance mode until I can fix any problems."

"I'll keep an eye on it." Heather nodded. "Oh, and what should I call it?"

"The program? Uh...never bothered to come up with one, too busy for that...how about..." Noah sighed. "Oh just call him Smith or something."

"Smith, right." Heather rolled her eyes.

Noah pulled out the disk and put it in his bag. Once finished they walked out of the room and headed for the factory.

Xxx

The elevator doors opened and they stepped into the lab to find everyone there, waiting for them.

"Hey, everyone ready for the party?" Noah asked.

"And ready to run screaming." Duncan said as Noah walked over to the computer and handed the disk to Aelita.

"Heather, you ready?" Aelita asked.

Heather nodded. "I'll head in."

Heather walked into the elevator and when the doors closed she smiled evilly.

'_Don't use it! Aelita, Gwen, Cody, Bridgette, someone help!_' Heather screamed inside her mind.

Xxx

Heather manifested in mid air, and landed expertly. She stood in the middle of the desert region. "Alright, I'm here."

_"I'm uploading it...now!"_

Another image appeared in mid air, and fell next to Heather. The blonde haired boy, Smith slowly stood up. He opened his eyes and looked at Heather. "Use identity: Heather."

"_Alright we have a five second old baby who has three days to live so let's make the most of it._" Noah said. _"Oh and Heather, be careful with that code. If it turns out Smith is pulling a fast one, it will also disable his life span limit."_

"You got it Noah," Heather smirked, her eyes turning into XANA symbols.

Smith backed away. "Warning! User alert, corruption detected!"

Xxx

"Looks like the things broken already, genius." Duncan said as they watched it on the screen.

"It can't be. The program's working fine!" Noah said.

"Well it's about to tear Heather apart!" LeShawna said, pointing at the screen.

"Noah's right, it is working. Heather has XANA coding in her!" Aelita said, showing an image of Heather's avatar.

"What? How?" Gwen was at Aelita's side, looking at the screen with an alarmed look.

"I don't know. There's no way she was possessed because there was no activated tower." Aelita replied.

That was when another icon appeared on the holo-map.

Xxx

Smith turned and saw Shadow sitting on a boulder, smirking at it. Smith made a golden bladed sword appear in his hands. "Hostile identified, engage!"

He leaped at Shadow and swung his sword down. Shadow back flipped out of range, and Smith cleaved the boulder in half.

"Real strong program you have Noah, I like it." Shadow said. "But it doesn't look like its unleashing its full potential. For one...it's only identified 'one' hostile."

Suddenly two shuriken buried themselves into Smith's back. The program gasped and spun. A wave of golden energy blasted at Heather. A smoke shield appeared to block but the gold energy ate through it and dissolved it but Heather dodged just before she was hit.

"Perfect! Not only is it strong, it can neutralize XANA's data." Shadow laughed, drawing his sword. "I love it! Now let's take it for a spin."

Smith swung at Shadow, who parried. They quickly traded several blows. Smith slashed Shadow across the chest, cutting out a chunk of life points. Shadow shook off the damage and slammed the hilt of his sword across the program's face. It fell, but rolled to its feet.

"Neutralizing corruption." Smith slammed his hands together, charging another blast.

Shadow smirked. "Shadow Sprint!" He managed to avoid the blast.

Smith looked around cautiously. Shadow came down from behind, but Smith spun and shot a smaller beam that blew part of the cloud away. Shadow grunted and reformed. "Well it's strong, fast, not as good as XANA yet but it has potential!" He smirked. "Looks like my control is weakening thanks to that fancy light show of yours, but I still have enough for this...oh Heather!" He called in a sing song tone.

Suddenly Heather tackled Smith. She tapped the blue button on his neck. The interface came up as Smith struggled. Heather put the code in.

"Warning, disarm code initiated, self destruct systems inoperable." Smith announced in his deadpanned tone.

Xxx

"The self-destruction has been deactivated." Aelita said, the screen showing Smith's stats.

"But why?" Trent asked.

"It doesn't matter now. Fire up the scanners, I'm going in there." Gwen said, heading to the elevator.

"Wait for me!" Izzy said following her.

"Better lend a hand." Duncan stepped in with them.

Xxx

"Now for the coup de gras!" Shadow laughed as Smith elbowed Heather in the face and then sent her flying across the platform.

Smith stood up and gathered more energy into his hands. Shadow vanished into a cloud of black smoke.

"Neutralizing corruption." Smith fired, but Shadow was gone by then.

Smith looked around, drawing his sword again. He didn't noticed tendrils of darkness coming from a small crack in the earth near him.

"What the hell are you?" Smith looked up and saw a pair of Mantas hovering over him. On one was Lilith, while the other carried Ryder.

"Corruption detec-tec-tec-tec-tec-tec-warning, corruption detected in system!" Smith looked down as Shadow's tendrils slid up his legs. He struggled ,but then they began to fuse with his flesh. Smith slashed with his sword and hit nothing.

Finally, he went limp, his eyes going from gold to black. His hair turned black also. Soon Shadow stood in his place. He looked down at his hands with a smirk. "Jack pot!"

Xxx

"What happened to it?" Bridgette asked.

"They've somehow merged together!" Noah said with wide eyes as how badly things had been messed up. "Oh man! This is so bad!" He ran his hands through his hair, messing it up.

"We have no time to waste then." Aelita said as Gwen, Izzy, and Duncan got into the scanners.

Xxx

"What just happened Shadow?" Lilith demanded as she leaped down and landed in front of him.

"OH I just got myself...a new body." Shadow chuckled. "And a hell of a lot more power than XANA would ever dare give up."

"I don't like where this is going." Ryder muttered.

"I see you also infected a Lyoko Warrior." Lilith looked to Heather, who was just beginning to get up.

"Yes. She's come in handy, helping me take over their latest weapon." Shadow said with a smirk as Heather got up and walked over to them.

He fired a single sphere of black material that slammed into Heather. She gasped and her eyes turned entirely black.

"That should make my control over her better."

Ryder whistled. "Damn, that was some powerful attack."

"Yes...it was." Shadow smirked as he faced Ryder and Lilith.

For a moment the three Generals stood there. Ryder looked between Lilith and Shadow. "Changed my mind, I still don't like where this is going."

"So what are you doing Shadow? You came here without XANA's permission." Lilith said, arms crossed.

"Oh, I'm so flattered that you're concerned...mother." Shadow sneered. "Go tell XANA our partnership is over."

"You're walking away from the boss? Dude, that's suicide." Ryder said.

"Oh, and I supposed what Lilith is about to do isn't?" Shadow looked to Lilith as she raised her bow, an arrow ready. "Unlike you all, I am not some pawn he created."

"No, you're a pawn the Lyoko Warriors created." Lilith snarled. "I should have deleted you when I had the chance, traitor!"

She fired the arrow.

Shadow casually raised one hand...and the arrow exploded on impact, sending out a wave of energy that knocked Lilith and Ryder off their feet and halfway across the platform. When they got up, Shadow stood there, an energy field around himself.

"Now I am unstoppable!" Shadow laughed.

_"Wrong there ass hole." _Noah snarled. "_I can't delete you, but you ain't going nowhere!_"

"What do you mean by that, book worm?" Shadow demanded.

_"I inputted a piece of Smith's digital code into the super computer when I put it up, and it can't be removed! You're stuck in there, just like XANA was at Square One!"_ Noah snapped. _"Real smart move, genius! When I get in there I'm going to make you pay for laying one hand on my program!"_

Shadow snarled. "You pompous brat!" He calmed down. "Very well, eventually Aelita will have to come here. And when she does, I'm going to delete her and anybody else after I get what I need from her so I can get out of here."

"Ryder, we have to report back to XANA." Lilith stood up. "Get Yuki and regroup."

The two Generals vanished. Shadow looked around the desert. "So, I'm stuck here, just like XANA was..." He saw a nearby tower. "I guess that means one thing then."

"Shadow!"

He turned and saw Gwen, Duncan, and Izzy running towards him. Before they could get near him Heather appeared between him and them.

He smirked and walked over to the tower. He entered it, and stood on the platform. "If XANA wants a war, I'll give him and the Lyoko Warriors one." He spread his hands, and sent out tendrils of corrupted data into the tower. The blue aura turned into a black, smoke like mist.

Xxx

"This is impossible. Shadow shouldn't be able to take control of a tower even if he's taken over my program." Noah said.

"He found a way. But he didn't activate the way XANA would. He corrupted it." Aelita said.

"Is there much of a difference?" Courtney asked.

"No. If I input the Lyoko code it'll still shut down." Aelita said. "Let's hurry and get there before Shadow learns what he can do with that tower."

Just as Noah was about to follow them to the elevator Courtney put his hand on his shoulder.

"Hold on, should we even let you come? You pretty much gave Shadow that power."

"Hey, I didn't plan it, all right? You can kick my ass after we solve this." Noah replied.

"He's right. We need all the help we can get. Cody, take over and find out what Shadow is doing." Aelita said as she, Trent, Courtney, Bridgette, and Noah entered the elevator.

Xxx

"Scanner, Trent. Scanner, Bridgette. Scanner, Aelita. Virtualization."

All three warriors landed on their feet and stood up. In the distance they could see the tower surrounded by the black misty aura. A moment later Noah and Courtney landed on their feet and then Aelita and Noah were the last to arrive on Lyoko.

"We're all here. Let's get to the tower." Aelita said.

They headed to the tower, looking out for monsters.

"Are there any monsters?" Trent asked.

"Smith never had any monsters created. I just created it so it couldn't have created any." Noah said.

"Why bother with monsters when I can take you out myself?" Shadow said as he stepped out of the tower with black ripples seen as he came out.

Shadow's appearance had changed since he merged with Noah's program. He now wore a black cape that covered his entire body, silver gauntlets were seen on his hands and eyes were now pitch black.

"Ooh, new wardrobe." Duncan said sarcastically.

Shadow scoffed.

"I see some things never change. But now that you brought Aelita here I can take what I need."

"You want the keys I have, don't you?" Aelita asked but she already knew the answer.

"Yes. All though this new body has given me a power beyond anything I could have hoped I did not count on it that it's code would be inputted into the computer, keeping me here." Shadow replied, smirking.

"How did you possess Heather?" Gwen demanded, noticing Heather standing next to Shadow.

"Oh? That was easy. During her last trip here when I devirtualized her I was able to inject a special program into her. A copy of myself into her head that took control of her body, leaving her trapped in her mind. I could have done the same to the other one if Lilith had not devirtualized her." Shadow smirked evilly at Courtney. "It's sad. The two of you act so tough on that little show to win money but when it comes to real live the both of you ran and hid like two little scared girls. Both of you are just a couple of cowards under those little masks you put on."

"Watch your mouth!" Bridgette snapped, stepping on front of Courtney.

"Why? You know it's true. You warned the both of them that if they didn't take those training sessions they could end up possessed and they still ignored your warnings because they were so afraid." Shadow replied, glancing at Heather. "It's really sad, you should have just erased their avatars from the supercomputer and use the Return to the Past to wipe their memories of this place but instead you waited for them get their act together and practically handed this one over."

"Yeah, well your playtime is over." Gwen snarled. "Release her or I'll cut you up."

Shadow chuckled. "Come and get her, but I think you should know about what I'm using the tower for."

Xxx

Meanwhile back in the lab Cody noticed a pop up window with a warning screen.

"Great, now what?" Cody asked as he looked it over. "Oh crap!"

"What is it?" Geoff asked.

"Life points have gone active! If they lose all their life points its game over for good!"

Xxx

"_Aelita, life points have gone active!_"

"What's that mean?" Courtney asked.

"If anyone is devirutualized it's over for good." Bridgette said.

"So keep your life points above zero." Gwen said.

"That's right. So if I decide to cut her in half she would disappear forever." Shadow said as his sword materialized and he held it at Heather's throat. "That is unless Aelita is willing to trade her keys for this girl's live."

"Why do I get the feeling you are not doing this for XANA?" Aelita glared when Shadow's smirked widened.

"No. While XANA offered me the chance to even the score with you, Jeremy, and William that was the only reason I decided to fight for him. Even though I knew that once it was over XANA and I would have no use for each other. This program your friend has created is designed to erase any and all data associated with XANA. So why not give me the keys and I will finish XANA off for you?"

"You've got be to joking." Aelita said. "You'd think I'd fall for such an obvious trick, especially from someone like you."

"I guess that means I'll have to take them the hard way. It just so happens when I joined XANA I gained a few things like this."

In a stream of black coding a Scyphozoa appeared but Aelita did not seem to fear it.

"You obviously have a bad memory. XANA already tried to take the keys and the security program protected me. Even if you have left XANA's side I know that you still have his codes within you. Attempt to steal my keys will mean the end of you."

"That may be true but once I capture you I'll have all the time I need to find my around the security program."

"And seeing as that won't happen I have all day to kick your ass." Duncan drew his sword.

"I'm a lot stronger than before, punk." Shadow smirked.

"Okay seriously, I swear to god I'm getting rid of this damn Mohawk after this is over!" Duncan growled.

"For this girl, it may just be over." Shadow said as he prepared to cut Heather in half.

"No!" Gwen glowed green and activated her wind spell, thrusting her hands forward and blew Heather back away from Shadow.

Activating her flight ability she flew over Shadow and landed behind him. Pulling out her scythe she swung it but a pair of shuriken slammed into her back, knocking her forward. Spinning around she avoided Heather's foot colliding with her head. Getting up she held her scythe out.

"I don't want to fight you, Heather."

"Oh? That's too bad . . . For you. I want to cut you up into a million tiny digital pieces!" Heather sneered as she charged forward.

"Gwen!" Trent shouted as he ran to help but Shadow stood on front of them.

"Let them fight while I tear you all apart then I'll deal with Aelita."

Shadow raised his hand and shadow like creatures sprouted from the ground. They were humanoid with clawed hands and yellow eyes.

"Thanks to Noah's program I will be unstoppable. I will destroy, this world, and anyone who stands in my way!"

The shadow demons all jumped together in one large mass but at that time Aelita had fired her plasma beam and the shadow demons in were obliterated. However as soon as they were destroyed many more took their place. They charged at them, attempting to slash them with their claws.

"There are so many." Bridgette said.

"Just more targets." Duncan said. "Who wants the hundred on the right?"

With that said everyone launched themselves at the swarm of shadow demons. Gwen activated her wind aura and blew away any that tried to slice her. Courtney blocked their blows with her staff and stabbed and wacked any shadow demon that was near her. Izzy let out an Indian war cry as she punched, kicked, shot, and even bit any shadow demon near her.

She transformed into a bull and ploughed her way through the swarm. Bridgette, Duncan, Trent, and Noah spun around slashing the shadow demons with their weapons. Trent played his saw note and the saw came out of his guitar that cut through any demon close to him. Aelita held out her hands and energy spheres covered her hands as she reached out and pummelled any demon close to her.

Any shadow demon that touched her hand was eaten alive as pink energy ate through its shadowy skin.

"You cannot defeat them all." Shadow said. "It's only a matter of time before you all lose."

"Oh shut up!" Courtney shouted as she stabbed a demon through the chest.

Aelita fired another plasma beam that hit the swarm and tore through them. Smoke and dirt flew through the air as the attack went through center of the mass of shadow demons. The remaining shadow demons filled the gap in just a few seconds.

Many of the shadow demons were gone but a lot more still remained. Izzy transformed into an elephant and charged at the crowd, stomping the shadow demons underneath her feet, not giving them a chance to react as Izzy stampeded right through them, destroying them one by one.

"Now!" Aelita shouted as she fired her plasma beam.

Duncan swung his sword and unleashed a stream of green fire, Trent played his lightning note and fired lightning and Bridgette unleashed her energy that cut through the swarm again. A great number was destroyed but many still remained.

"Damn it! There's just no end to them!" Duncan said.

"But we're hurting them." Bridgette said.

"But not enough to stop them." Trent said.

"You can't win. Just save yourself trouble and give up." Shadow said.

"NEVER! Izzy never surrenders!" Izzy shouted.

"Fools, you cannot stop me. My resources are limitless." Shadow said, raising his hand again and summoned more shadow demons.

"Uh oh." Izzy said.

"Great." Noah said glumly.

"It's time to end this." Aelita said stepping forward.

She closed her eyes and opened her mouth letting out a soft song that caused the ground beneath her to ripple as if it obeyed her. The ground beneath the shadow demons suddenly began to fade and the shadow demons fell into the digital sea. Pillars of light blasted out of the sea, signifying the death of the shadow demons the moment they hit the sea. When Aelita opened her eyes and stopped her song the swarm of shadow demons was gone.

"Nice one!" Bridgette said.

"Now for the big guy." Duncan said.

"You may have defeated them. But you'll never defeat me. Say goodbye to your friends because I've gathered enough power." Shadow said. "Soon enough the connection between Lyoko and the supercomputer will be gone and soon all of you will be gone as well."

"_Gwen, you've got to remember that now the life points are active if you devirtualized Heather it's over for good._"

"I know, Cody." Gwen replied as she and Heather circled each other. "I won't kill her . . . But I am going to kick her ass."

Heather accepted her challenge and vanished in a cloud of black smoke and appeared just behind Gwen. The moment she was solid she grabbed Gwen from behind, wrapping one arm tightly around her neck. Gwen didn't waste a second as she snapped her head back as hard as she could before Heather could get a good head lock on her. The impact sent Heather back, stumbling with a hand on her head, firing shuriken out of frustration without aiming.

Gwen spun around, with her scythe ready . . . Only for Heather's foot to smash into her chest, the impact knocking her flat on her back. Before Gwen could regain her senses Heather's hand wrapped around her throat and a shuriken in her other hand, ready to cut her. Just at the last second Gwen regained her senses and latched onto Heather's wrists, holding the hand with the shuriken just inches above Gwen's neck.

Heather grinned wickedly, shaving downward with her enhanced strength; bring the sharp end of her weapon to Gwen's pale skin.

"Feeling scared yet, Weird Goth Girl?" Heather asked her voice colder than she had ever sounded before.

Gwen gritted her teeth as her figure glowed black. In the real world Cody winced Gwen lost half her life points to activate her Shadow Veil spell. Her figure went through the ground into Heather's shadow, making the possessed kunoichi land on the ground and Gwen rose up punching her in the face.

Shouting in anger Heather changed into black smoke again and reappeared a few feet away. Holding out her hands dark smoke swirled around her palms, taking the shape of two sharp blades.

"I'm going to enjoy this." Heather sneered and then charged at Gwen.

Twirling her scythe Gwen blocked and parried Heather's slashes which dodging any kicks or slashes sent her way.

Shadow fired multiple dark beams and in quick succession at the group, forcing them to dodge each time. Where the beam hit nothing remained.

"Let's get him!" Duncan shouted.

Everyone opened fire, energy beams, lightning, streams of fire, and explosive arrows at their enemy. Shadow whirled around calmly and created a shadow barrier that blocked their attacks. Duncan ran forward and slashed at him but Shadow dodged.

"Plasma Beam!" Aelita fired her beam at him.

Shadow fired a dark beam that cancelled out the attack. Bridgette and Izzy fired at him but like before Shadow cancelled the attack out.

"This is getting you nowhere." Shadow smirked. "You can't seriously expect to harm me. If this is best you can do than I guess all those times you avoided getting killed was because XANA never saw you as a threat."

"That's a lot of tough talk after all ass kickings you got." Duncan said.

"Don't make me laugh. You're nowhere near strong enough to take me. It's over for you here and now."

"We'll see about that!" Gwen shouted as she flew at him and swung her scythe.

Shadow effortlessly blocked it and flung her back.

"We've got to get to that tower!" Bridgette said.

"Good luck with him in the way!" Trent said.

"Guess we'll have to tear our way through." Duncan said. "There's only one of him and eight of us. We can take him."

"Oh? I guess I'll have to fix that." Shadow raised his hand and seven more humanoid clouds appeared in front of him.

The clouds materialized into copies of Shadow in his original form with their swords in their hands, ready to take them out.

"You just had to open your mouth, did you?" Noah asked.

"...How was I supposed to know he could do that?" Duncan replied.

"Like it? This is the power of a multi-agent program, to heal and separate into different forms! So what if you destroy this body? There'll be plenty more of me around to finish you off!"

Shadow's copies charged towards the warriors, ready to slice them all apart. Each warrior ended up duelling their Shadow drone while the real Shadow turned to Aelita.

"I don't need to extract the Keys from you. I'll just throw you into the digital sea and extract the Keys from your scattered data."

Aelita fired her plasma beam at Shadow who took it and fell backwards. Aelita thought she had hit him but Shadow rose back to his feet and fired a black beam at Aelita. She activated her wings and dodged just in time. Shadow flew at her and knocked her out of the air and she fell to the ground on her back.

Shadow landed on the ground and his sword materialized in his hand, ready to strike her. Aelita quickly fired an energy sphere that hit him in the chest and sent him flying back.

"_All right, Aelita. Better hurry and get to the tower!_"

Aelita nodded as she ran to the tower. But just before she could enter it three Dark Krabs materialized in front of her.

"What?" Aelita stopped and dodged a barrage of lasers.

Xxx

"I don't believe it!" Cody said. "Why would XANA's monsters help Shadow?"

Xxx

Shadow turned and saw three Dark Krabs protecting the tower.

'Why are they protecting the tower? Hasn't XANA realized that I have betrayed him . . . Or could it be he sent them to get rid of me?'

Aelita was running from the lasers as a Krab pursued her.

'What are you up to?'

Izzy yelled as she changed into a tiger and mauled the Shadow drone she was fighting and noticed a Krab chasing Aelita. Gwen finished off her Shadow drone fast and then threw her scythe at the Dark Krab and it slammed into the Eye. The Krab exploded and they ran over to Aelita.

"Someone want to fill me in? Why are XANA's monsters helping Shadow when Shadow just double crossed him?" Izzy asked.

"The hell if I know-and watch out." Duncan almost casually raised his sword so it was between Courtney and a laser blast as she came running up. She slid as she saw the laser, but it dissipated on Duncan's sword. "Aelita, you have any idea why our friendly neighbourhood maniac is helping the new kid on the block?"

"I don't know! Maybe XANA is looking to get rid of both of us at once." Aelita shook her head.

"If we take out those Krabs by the tower, think you can get inside without any more trouble?" Courtney asked.

Aelita nodded. "I just need a thirty second window."

"Consider it done." Courtney spun her staff in one hand.

"UH...Courtney?" Aelita's eyes widened.

"What?"

"Little late for the quick and easy finish." Duncan pointed behind Gwen to where four more Dark Krabs were approaching.

"Aw crap," Bridgette faced the new group. "Ok...Courtney and I take these four while Noah, Izzy and Duncan clear a way to the tower?"

"Can the others keep the uh...clones busy?" Bridgette looked to where Trent and Bridgette were blasting away at more of Shadow's clones.

"We got it! Just pray my hand doesn't get sore!" Trent shouted as he strung out lightning spells at the Shadows.

"All right, go!"

Aelita headed for the tower followed by Noah, Izzy, and Duncan while Bridgette and Courtney turned and faced the four approaching Krabs. The Krabs charged at them and fired their lasers. Bridgette spun her swords, blocking most of the shots aimed at her but a shot hit the ground in front of her, creating a blast that knocked her back. Courtney ran forward and jumped into the air while the lead Krab was distracted and stabbed it in the Eye.

The Krab staggered and exploded just after Courtney jumped off, back flipping through the air and landing on her feet. The other three Krabs continued to attack, keeping their distance, moving too fast for Bridgette to use her energy wave, and if they got close they used their claws.

Aelita along with Duncan, Noah, and Izzy ran for the tower that was still being guarded by the two Dark Krabs. However Shadow landed in front of them with his sword out.

"I don't think so."

That was when five more copies appeared next to him.

"Okay, I am getting tired of this." Duncan held his sword out.

"I know. I've wasted forty life points blasting the same guy." Noah said, his hands turning into blasters.

Izzy growled as she stood on all fours like an angry dog.

"I don't need them to get rid of you. These drones will keep Aelita away from the tower while I take care of you all myself." Shadow said.

'Now I believe I know XANA's plan. He wants me to get rid of the warriors so he can destroy the supercomputer and get rid of me. But all I need is get those keys so I can leave it and then I can face XANA on even grounds.' Shadow thought as he balled his hand into a fist and black mist appeared in it.

He fired a black ray that scattered everyone.

"Leave him to me. Get to the tower!" Duncan shouted as he charged at Shadow.

Gwen and Heather's fight continued as they both attempted to push the other back. Gwen ducked, and the blade coming for her head missed. Glowing green Gwen created a gust of wind that blew Heather back.

"Come on, Heather, snap out of it!" Gwen shouted as she blocked another strike.

Heather chose to respond with another swing, ready to cut through her. But Gwen was ready for her. She blocked the swing and slammed the blunt end of her scythe into Heather's chest. Heather released a short gasp of pain as she flew back but disappeared again, reappearing above Gwen, her connecting to Gwen's skull sending her crashing to the ground. Heather landed on the ground and rematerialized her swords. Gwen got back up to defend herself but to her shock the Scyphozoa appeared behind Heather and grabbed her.

"Cody, the Scyphozoa's grabbed Heather!" Gwen shouted as she charged to help but a few laser blasts to the ground in front of her stopped her.

Looking up she saw a squad of Dark Hornets surrounding the Scyphozoa as it placed its tentacles on Heather's forehead. Then she was still as it began to drain her. Cody typed in the commands and a window showed Heather's stats. Looking at it he saw Heather's brain activity was fine nor was it inserting a virus.

"_Gwen, you won't believe this, the Scyphozoa's not stealing Heather's memories or putting a virus in her. It's taking the virus Shadow gave her out!_"

"What?" Gwen asked with a shocked.

"_Yeah, it's taking the data out of her but looks like its scanning her from head to toe for anything else._"

The Scyphozoa released Heather and laid her on the ground. Gwen ran over to her as the monsters backed away from them. Tapping Heather's cheek softly the kunoichi sighed, exhausted from the ordeal she had been put through.

"Does that make you feel better?"

Gwen looked up and saw Lilith sitting on a boulder.

"Why did you save her?"

"Simple, we wanted to remove one of Shadow's weapons but if we tried to kill her you would have fought us and defended her so we removed the virus. The mission I am here is to make sure Shadow does not have an advantage." Lilith looked at the battle. "And from the looks of it it's going to be over in a few minutes."

Shadow leapt into the air and swung his sword down. Duncan stepped to the side and swung his blade. Shadow spun around and his sword collided with Duncan's. A loud clang was heard as their blades collided. Duncan spun around and tried to hit Shadow from the side but Shadow blocked.

Duncan than swung at Shadow's leg but Shadow jumped into the air and swung his sword down. Duncan bent backwards, doing a flip and landed on his back before rolling out of the way of Shadow's next strike. Duncan thrusted his blade at Shadow's chest but Shadow disappeared in a cloud of black smoke and reappeared behind Duncan. Shadow swung his Duncan's backside, Duncan attempted to block but his sword was knocked out of his hand as Shadow slammed the hilt of his sword into Duncan's chin.

Duncan fell to the ground, rubbing his jaw. Shadow picked up Duncan's sword and rubbed the two swords together, making a screeching noise.

"I win, punk."

He swung both blades down but Duncan rolled out of the way and both sword hit the ground, making a small crater. Shadow moved to finish Duncan but a red bull slammed into him, knocking him off his feet and the swords flew out of his hands. Shadow growled as he threw Izzy off him and she hit flew into a boulder. Noah and Aelita fired lasers and energy spheres at Shadow which forced him back as Duncan ran and picked up his sword.

"Thanks." Duncan said.

"No problem." Izzy replied, changing back into her human form.

"Damn you . . ." Shadow growled as he looked up at them with his eyes turning completely black. "DAMN YOU!"

Shadow glowed black and he transformed into his 'true form'. His black wings spread out and he flexed his claws, his eyes glaring at them with hate.

"Great." Noah said, levelling his guns at Shadow.

That was when the next unexpected thing happened. Just as Shadow prepared to attack a barrage of lasers hit him in the back. Shadow let out a yell as he fell on his hands and knees and spun around to see that four more Dark Krabs along with three Dark Tarantulas had appeared and three Megatanks surrounded the tower and fired their lasers at it.

"Am I the only one a little confused?" Izzy asked. "Are they with us or against us?"

"Beats me, just get 'em!" Duncan jammed his sword down at Shadow, who rolled backwards and came up standing.

Shadow growled, forming a dark sword in one hand. He and Duncan charged. Duncan leaped up and swung his sword down, forcing Shadow to press his blade up to defend. With a clang Duncan forced the weakened Shadow down and then brought his sword up over his right shoulder. He slammed into Shadow's defences three more times before he saw an opening and angled his shoulder, slamming into Shadow and knocking him back. Shadow knelt, trying to regain his strength.

Duncan rushed at him. Shadow swung his sword horizontally, trying to cut his feet out from under him. Duncan leaped, and rolled over Shadow's exposed back, landing in a crouch on the other side of the monster. He then dug his sword into Shadow's side. Digital information bled out of Shadow, who snarled as Duncan jerked his sword free.

Shadow swung at Duncan as he got to his feet. The punk parried, and swung down. Shadow suddenly brought one hand up and caught Duncan's sword in it. He slowly stood up straight, forcing Duncan's sword down. Duncan clenched his teeth as he tried to resist the sudden burst of strength Shadow had.

"Out of all these children, you've been the most annoying." Shadow hissed.

"Gee, thanks!" Duncan then twisted, swinging one leg out in a sweep kick.

Shadow back flipped out of range of it, and Duncan got up, his blade free. Shadow lunged, and swung at Duncan, who braced his blade to Shadow's. As they struggled, Duncan swung his right leg up, slamming his right knee into the side of Shadow's face. The punk tried to repeat this, but shadow moved one arm between the knee and his face.

They pushed off, and Shadow swung down at Duncan, who rolled aside and came up swinging his sword in an arch that cut off shadow's sword hand. Shadow roared as he lost his blade. Duncan then flipped his sword into a reverse grip and jammed it into Shadow's chest. Shadow roared, digital data squirting out of him and dissipating into thin air as Duncan forced the blade deeper until it came out through his back.

Duncan then tore the blade free, spinning it once in his grip.

Shadow lay on his knees, hands on his chest. "Why..." He looked up. "I merged with the program...I should be _unstoppable._"

"You mean you don't know?" Asked a voice.

They all turned and saw Lilith sitting in a boulder.

"Lilith . . ." Shadow growled.

"The reason why you've lost is because you've wasted all your power." She shook her head as she looked down at him like a he was just a pest.

"What?" Shadow's eyes widened.

"Do you know why XANA has never been able to summon an army of monsters that could overwhelm the warriors or even come and finish them off with his avatar? That's because even though he is able to multi-task like he was created to do the more he divides himself the more power he uses between activating a tower and creating monsters. One example is that it takes the power of creating around thirty Spiderlings or Pyramids to create about twelve Krabs while it would take around the power of creating ten hornets to create three Megatanks. He could summon the strongest of his monsters but only in small numbers and he could summon a large number of his weaker monsters but the power used to create them could have been used to create a smaller group of stronger monsters." Lilith paused and then continued. "When summoning his monsters and activating a tower he divides his power depending on what monsters he uses and how much power he needs to control whatever he uses in the real world through the towers he activates. Once done he has to wait to recharge whether his attack is stopped and he needs a few days to recover. He can't even use his avatar because it too takes a large amount of power. When he trapped those kids in the simulation bubble he had already created his monsters and he had about eight hours to recharge as he waited for the next Total Drama episode that he could use his avatar and activate a tower at once. And later he sent out his monsters first before his attack in the mountains and waited to recharge before activating the tower."

Lilith then glared at Shadow. "You on the other hand Shadow, you were not originally created as a multi agent program and you wasted your power between creating those shadow demons, the tower and those copies so much that it was only through the power that XANA gave you that you lasted so long."

"And I'm guessing he didn't want this guy feeding off him anymore." Gwen guessed.

"You..." Shadow growled, trying to get to his feet.

"Don't bother Shadow, you brought this on yourself." Lilith sneered. "You were too caught up in your revenge and you ended up trapped in here, and after all XANA did to help to get you out in the first place. You pretty much took the freedom he gave you and threw it back at him, like an ungrateful spoiled child."

"This isn't the end." Shadow growled. "I won't die here."

"Oh shut up already," With that Duncan swung his sword and took off the avatar's head. Digital information shot out in a stream of light, going into the sky where a shadow portal formed. It vanished inside.

"...sadly that won't get rid of him," Lilith said. "Now that he is a Multi-Agent program he isn't bound to a single form anymore. It will be a whole lot of trouble to get rid of him."

"Great, that means I get to kill him again and again." Duncan sheathed his sword.

"Are you going to stand in our way Lilith?" Gwen asked cautiously as the Lyoko Warriors regrouped.

"...go ahead and deactivate your tower, I was only sent to make sure Shadow didn't gain an advantage over my master." Lilith frowned.

Behind her, the remaining monsters did what could pass for a bow.

"Well, glad to see somebody has manners." Gwen crossed her arms.

Aelita rushed towards the tower and went inside it.

"Oh, and Noah?" Lilith glared at the boy. "Thanks to you Shadow is not only a lot stronger, but now he's going to be an even bigger problem...but I suppose I can let you off since XANA was given access to see what you did to make that program. Needless to say he's interested in seeing what was used to create it."

"What?" Noah blinked.

"You mean you didn't know? Shadow still had XANA's data in him when he merged with your program. Which allowed XANA to get a pretty good look at your programming. Very ingenious actually. If not for Shadow's possession of that Heather girl it might have worked out." Lilith shrugged. "That isn't for me to say though. I've done my job; I'll now take my leave." She turned as a XANA portal opened, taking her and her monsters inside.

The tower's smoke like substance turned into a blue aura moments later.

"Well, that was fun," Duncan said.

"Let's just get back to the real world." Gwen said. "Noah, we need to have a long chat about that program you made."

Xxx

Gwen stepped out of the scanner when Cody devirtualized her and she along with the other Lyoko warriors who were temporarily kicked out of Lyoko gathered around the scanner Heather would be coming out of. The scanner opened up and Heather fell out, luckily LeShawna caught her and they brought her up to the lab. Once everyone was devirtualized they were all back in the lab.

Heather was still unconscious. Aelita had brought out a pillow and covers that had been kept here since Jeremy had a habit of staying up late and falling asleep when he was working.

"All right, I admit it, I made a mistake." Noah said as he stood up with everyone looking at him.

"Really? What gives you that idea?" Duncan asked walking around him and patting him slightly on the shoulder. "It's no big deal. We just had to fight a possessed Heather, a bunch of Shadow clones, and the dude's got a bigger ego now."

"There is also the matter that XANA was given access to your program's codes through Shadow so now he can find a way to counter it." Aelita pointed out.

"Yeah...I messed up." Noah sighed.

"Aw relax; you couldn't have known Heather was possessed." Cody said. "And right up until your program was possessed it seemed to be doing a good job."

"XANA might have had a look at the code, but maybe we can still put it to use...after adding a safe guard against possession taking place on Lyoko." Gwen added.

"You still want to use it after all that just happened?" Noah asked, amazed.

"Noah, you made a good program, it just got hijacked." Gwen said. "And you saw Shadow, he's shackled himself now. And XANA gets stronger every time anyways, it's just either a few bigger monsters or a lot more smaller ones to deal with."

"About that . . . With Shadow trapped here we could use that to our advantage." Aelita said. "Shadow was XANA's second in command; no doubt he has useful information."

"So we just need to get him to sit still and beat it out of him." Duncan smirked.

"So we track him down the old fashioned way." LeShawna said.

"I have an idea where he might be hiding." Aelita said. "It might be hiding in the center of Lyoko, Sector 5. Also he maybe a multi-agent program now but I know a way to beat him, especially if his avatar is his main body. Destroy it and the rest of him will die."

"What if we dump him into the Digital Sea? He said he'd retrieve the keys from what was left of you, so could we possibly retrieve any data from him after that?" Cody asked.

"Very unlikely unless we're looking to bring him into the real world." Aelita shook her head. "Multi-Agent programs are immune to the affects of the digital sea. They were designed to evolve by building their codes off of any digital environment. That's why XANA is able to travel the network so Shadow would be able to survive it."

"And isn't he 'locked' in Lyoko anyways?" Duncan inquired.

"Yes," Aelita nodded. "Lyoko served to contain XANA when he was created and since it was connected to him and contained him if it was shut down Lyoko would power down and XANA would go with it. When he obtained the keys it allowed him to open the gate to the web and leave Lyoko."

"And since a piece of Smith's digital code was put in the supercomputer Shadow is pretty much stuck in Lyoko and he can't get the keys you have now because of your dad's security program." Bridgette pointed out.

"So he shouldn't have a way out, right?" Geoff asked.

"Not unless he breaks through the encryption that bonds his code to the supercomputer." Noah said. "I designed the locks that keep him here and since I've been to Lyoko enough he can't possess me to gain the information."

"Shadow should be easier to fight than XANA since he is trapped here now." Aelita said.

"We better make sure none of us end up possessed or in danger." Gwen said looking at Courtney.

The CIT sighed. "All right, I saw what happened to Heather so I'll make the time and go train in Lyoko."

That was when Heather groaned and they looked at her. She sat up and screamed. "GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"

She repeated the same line over and over until Gwen grabbed her shoulders. "Heather, it's all right! It's over! You're safe!"

Heather stopped struggling and looked at Gwen.

"Gwen?"

"Shadow's gone. He can't control you now."

Heather shook as she hugged Gwen and cried into her shirt. On instinct Gwen hugged back and waited for Heather to calm down. Everyone looked on in sympathy as Heather calmed down.

"You okay, now?"

Heather nodded as she pulled away. The rest of the night was not very eventful. The TD gang went back to the studio while Aelita snuck back to her dorm. Gwen, Cody, and Courtney made sure Heather made it back to her room unharmed.

Heather was still a bit tearful but she calmed down with the help of the other warriors. As she went to bed she vowed she wouldn't let something like that happen to her again.


	38. Episode 37: TD Zombie land

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 38

In the depths of Sector 5 a black cloud shaped itself and Shadow stood in its place. Roaring in anger he punched out a column with his own fist.

"DAMN IT! I WAS SO CLOSE!"

Shadow was beyond angry at what happened. He had finally obtained the power he needed to destroy the warriors and defeat XANA but now he was trapped here. He could not leave and enter the network to destroy XANA's digital domain and XANA himself. Worse he used up most of his energy against the warriors that he'd have to recharge.

And what infuriated him the most was that he could not gain the Keys to Lyoko that Aelita had because of the security program Waldo Schaeffer had left her. Which left him trapped here forever. Shadow roared again, his figure trembling with dark corrupted energy.

"Poor, poor Shadow. Trapped here, all alone. Just like when Jeremy was done with you." A female voice said.

He spun around, sending a wave of dark energy that blasted the column but Lilith back flipped, landing on her feet with a large hole in the wall behind her.

"What are you doing here?" Shadow demanded.

"Is that any way to greet your guest?" Lilith asked with a small grin.

"Don't toy with me, Lilith. I have nothing left to lose. I am through with XANA so leave or I'll delete you!"

"What if I told you there is a way to free you?" Lilith asked, tilting her head.

Shadow stopped at that.

"Oh, interested? I'll tell you but there's a price." Lilith held up her finger.

"I'm listening."

"Good. But before I get into that let's review how you ended up here. You put a copy of yourself in one of the two warriors who skipped out on training with their minds still vulnerable to being controlled. Using that you managed to find out about their plans to create a new program to defend the home front and found a way to disarm it and place your codes inside it. When that happened you became just like XANA but unlike him you are trapped with no known way out." Lilith smirked. "Unless the genius who made the program you merged with gives you the access codes to remove the program's digital code from the supercomputer."

Shadow listened carefully to what Lilith said.

"Noah has the power to free you because he was the one that bound Smith to Lyoko. Force him to give you the access codes and XANA can open the gate."

"And why would XANA want to help me?"

"Common goals. The destruction of the Lyoko warriors. You know you can't challenge XANA and all he would have to do to get rid of you is destroy the supercomputer. As you are you cannot challenge XANA and without the extra energy it's only a matter of time before the warriors defeat you."

"And what happens when I get the access codes?"

Lilith grinned. "Well, that's up to you. Know this Shadow, even if you are free from the supercomputer you still cannot challenge XANA no matter how good Noah made that program. Why? Because it is not strong enough."

Shadow grunted.

"So make this decision quickly; help us, be destroyed, or stay out of the way."

Lilith then disappeared from site. Shadow turned and looked around the blue colored sector he was alone in.

'Fine then. I'll behave but I need to get that genius to Lyoko and force him to give me the access codes.'

Xxx

Getting up early in the morning was something nearly everyone at the studio thanks to Chris and what it more annoying was that they now couldn't sleep in on a Saturday. Heather was more or less okay now but everyone kept an eye on her just in case. Also the team would be going to the factory later to discuss the situation with Shadow. Speaking of Shadow it had been two days since what happened with Heather being possessed and Shadow taking control of Noah's program.

Most were thankful for that. They had plenty of time off since the Aftermath show would air soon, instead of the next episode. So they spent most of their time, sleeping in, relaxing, or in Cody and Noah's case running some equations that should help in the digital war.

"Oh crap!" Geoff shouting, making everyone look at him as he played with Cody's laptop.

"Lose again?" DJ asked.

"I can never last twenty seconds on this. How does everyone do so good at this?" Geoff asked as the words GAME OVER flashed on the screen.

"Maybe because we aren't out partying all the time." Gwen replied biting her piece of toast.

"Touché."

"Is it me or is that going around a lot? I blame Carlos and Kurt." Noah said.

"They have said that a lot in their conversations." DJ admitted.

"Who knows what they're talking about now." LeShawna said.

Xxx

"I'm telling you, Kurt, if I drop this in his hair gel he'll never have a mop for a hair style again." Carlos snickered.

"Yeah and he'll never have hair again." Kurt replied, while reading the news paper. "Don't you think that's a bit too far?"

"Too far? You should have seen him at last year's Christmas party. When that happens the words 'too far' do not exist."

"Do I even want to know?"

"Not if you want retain your insanity." Carlos said laughing maniacally.

"Don't you mean _sanity?_" Kurt asked.

"Maybe, maybe not."

"...how you got into the army I'll never know."

Xxx

"How's Heather?" Bridgette asked.

"She's doing okay. She hasn't talked about it but she seems to be fine." Gwen replied. "She and Courtney had gone to Lyoko a couple of times already to build up resistance. I think they're in now."

"Cody is watching them on the holo-map. They've been exploring most of Lyoko to get the feel of the place." Gwen said.

"Noah, how you do play this?" Geoff asked, showing Noah the screen.

"It's not that hard, Geoff."

"For a guy who knows how to play. I'm not a computer expert, Noah." Geoff replied.

"Relax, Geoff, I'll show you." Noah replied pulling the laptop over to him. "Watch my hands on the keyboard."

Xxx

Courtney and Heather jogged through the Swamp Sector of Lyoko. Both were hoping to avoid being in a swamp despite it being digital but it was pointed out they have to if there was an activated or corrupted tower in it. They avoided the wetter parts of the swamp, preferring to stay on dry land and keep their clothes clean. Even though Courtney did not entirely like her dress she felt the need to keep it clean, at the least to look dignified.

Heather experimented with her ninja skills such as her agility, speed, and her reflexes. She jumped through the air, performing a flip, landing on a roll, pretending she was targeting a monster or preferably Shadow before raising her arm and firing at a rock close to her.

"_Looks like you two are getting the hang of this._"

"Yeah, if only the rock was that creep." Heather said.

"By creep I guess your referring to Shadow?" Courtney asked.

"Yeah, that creep played me like a puppet on strings and I'm hoping for the chance to get even." Heather replied.

"_Don't be too quick to go after him, Heather. He's strong, stronger than almost any of the other generals and now that he's merged with Noah's programming. If he gets his opening your done for._"

"Yeah, I get it. He's one tough cookie." Heather said as she shot another shuriken at the rock. "When I'm done we'll see how fast he crumbles."

Xxx

In the Ice Caverns of Lyoko Lilith waited by the tower patiently with her arms crossed, leaning against the tower. That was when a black cloud appeared and Shadow stood up.

"About time. You've made up your mind?" Lilith said, stretching her arms.

"If it means gaining my freedom I'll work with XANA, for now. But in return I expect him to help me get the access codes from Noah and open the gate to the network when I destroy the warriors." Shadow said.

"And what do you intend to do once your free? Go after XANA yourself, because you should know I'll destroy you before I let that happen." Lilith said.

Shadow glared and Lilith returned it with equal intensity.

"Remember this, Shadow, it's XANA's generosity that's keeping you alive. Don't disappoint him. Now shall we lure the warriors here?"

Shadow nodded and raised his hand towards the tower. A shadow flew out and into the tower, turning its aura from blue to black.

Xxx

"Hehehe...he'll never see this coming." Carlos said as he and Kurt rolled a giant barrel of hair gel belonging to Chris.

"He really buys it in barrels _this big?_" Kurt asked. "No wonder the budget almost got shot! Does he have anything else to treasure?"

"Well he has his hair to treasure...god knows how he can stand it though." Carlos said. "Okay, let's get this into the van and get that barrel of glue I bought-"

"AH!-!-!-!-!-!" Chef, Roberto and Chris came running out of the studio.

"...Carlos did you have something planned earlier I didn't know about?" Kurt asked.

"It's not me." Carlos said.

"Zombies! We gotta run man, zombies!" Chris screamed.

"...you know Carlos I noticed the only thing similar between you two is that you like Klondike bars." Kurt noted. Maybe he's having a Klondike induced hallucination like you get from time to time."

"Nah, if he ate that much he'd have an ice cream head ache too." Carlos said. "And I _never_ get one of those."

"You got one of those the first time you ate too much!"

"Which was in high school." Carlos pointed out.

They stopped the panicking staff members. Kurt sighed. "Okay Chris what's wrong now?"

"Zombies man!" Chef said fearfully.

"...Okay which one of you thought it was a good idea to sniff at the markers labelled 'non-toxic' again." Carlos sighed.

"No! They're real! We can prove it!" Chris said.

"OH really?" Kurt rolled his eyes, slightly amused. "So where are these zombies?"

"THERE!" All three panicking men pointed at the doors...just as a horde of undead came pouring out.

Kurt and Carlos stared.

"...I don't believe it." Kurt said.

"Chris is right?" Carlos looked at Kurt. "Unless we're having a Gang Hallucination from Klondike bars!"

"I don't eat Klondike bars!" Kiurt said as they began to back away from the horde.

"Okay...you guys it's a nice joke, you can take off the masks now!" Carlos said. "Okay seriously," He caught a zombie by the head as it lunged at him, managing to keep it away from him. "Cut it out, your breath STINKS!" He shoved the balding zombie...and tore its head off.

"...those are some very realistic robots Chris! You went full out on this one for once." Kurt nodded.

"IT ISN'T ME! Those things are real! They're gonna eat me alive!" Chris said, panicking. "Carlos! Cuz! You gotta save me! I promise I'll never bother you or Melissa again!"

"Chris you can cut it out now, I mean these are a little too real and it's losing it's flare." Carlos said, trying to push back the headless corpse that tried to claw at him.

"Uh...Carlos?" Kurt gulped.

"Yeah?"

"...I'd cry for my mom if I were you." Kurt pointed to the entrance.

"Really ?What's wrong- OH DEAR GOD!" Carlos shouted just before a giant, red scaled monster burst out of the doors. "Isn't that the Arch-Demon from Mike's game?"

Two more Arch-Demons burst out.

"...Oh." Kurt said.

"My." Carlos added.

"God." They finished at the same time.

"Okay...nobody move...don't make a sound." Kurt said calmly. The entire horde had turned to look at the three demons, as though their presence frightened even them. "Turn around and get ready to run if you want to live...and if you are in possession of a large gut...sucks to be you Roberto."

"HEY!" Roberto shouted, his voice echoing through the entire city.

The Arch-Demons and the zombies looked at the group.

"YOU SUCK ROBERTO!" Carlos shouted as the group ran for the gates.

"CARLOS!" Chef shouted. "I know for a fact you're somehow hiding weapons! Tell me where they are boy!"

"Oh lay off Chef!" Kurt said. "He doesn't have-"

"Actually I do have guns leftover from my military service. A few were hidden up at the cabin! Remember that button in the bathroom?"

"I KNEW IT!" Kurt shouted as they rushed along the sidewalk, pursued by Zombies. "I KNEW IT! I _KNEW_ IT!" He shook his head. Forget it, just take Chef and Roberto and go get the kids! I gotta go make sure the kids don't get eaten by zombies or Arch-Demons or-" He shuddered. "Vampires, and not the sparkly kind!"

"Well it ain't going outside in this weather if it came alive too!" Carlos replied.

"Wait! What do I do?" Chris asked.

"You Chris...well you can either go for help or scream like you've been neutered." Kurt then split off through an alley.

"Oh." Chris looked over his shoulder...just as a Zombie barely missed as it reached out to grab him with one clawed hand. "I can do that. AH!-!-!-!" He sped up as Carlos, Roberto and Chef split off from him.

"I taught him how to do that! All those times of being chased by me with explosives pay off!" Carlos laughed.

"So where are the guns anyways?" Chef asked.

"well, let's just say we'll have to circle back to the Studio and sneak onto the bus!" Carlos replied. "I hid them in a compartment hidden in the ceiling! So let's get going!"

"RIGHT! AH!" Roberto ducked as an Arch-Demon barely missed with a fire ball.

Xxx

"Uh...oh boy, tower!" Cody said.

"_What?_" Heather shouted.

"A tower was activated in the ice caverns!" Cody said.

_"Is it XANA?"_ Courtney asked.

"Nope, it's Shadow!" Cody replied. "The tower's corrupted! Get to a Way Tower and I'll get you over there."

_"Shouldn't we get the others in here?"_ Heather asked.

"I'll call them now. Wait at the Way Tower and keep an eye out." Cody dialled the team's numbers.

Xxx

"Aw man what the hell is going on?" Geoff asked as he and Bridgette came out into the hallway outside his room to see Duncan, Trent, Gwen and Izzy pushing against the door to the stairs.

"Zombies!" Trent said.

"Dang!" Izzy yelped as her red locks were grabbed by a zombie that managed to reach through. She grabbed the wrist and tugged the entire arm off. "Ew!" she began to beat a zombie over the head with it when it managed to stick itself partially through.

"A little help please?" Trent asked.

Geoff, Bridgette, DJ, and LeShawna managed to help them shut and lock the door.

"What happened now?" DJ asked before their phones rang.

"No points for guessing." Duncan answered his phone. "Let me guess, XANA?"

"Close, Shadow!" Cody exclaimed. "He corrupted a tower in the Ice Cavern Sector."

"And we have a horde of zombies here." Trent replied.

"Zombies?" Cody paused. "Hey, I'm getting a news report and...oh boy, Shadow apparently liked Mike's game because there's an Arch-Demon tearing up the street with Chris, Carlos, Kurt, Chef and Roberto on the run! Oh man it's going near Kadic now!"

"Kadic? Aelita!" Geoff said.

"Okay, we split up." Gwen said. "Duncan, Geoff, LeShawna, DJ and me go to Kadic and get Aelita. The rest of you get to the factory and help the others get ready to receive us."

"Gwen you won't be any mind for a whole load of zombies and an Arch-Demon despite your knowledge of Horror Movies! And aw what the heck, he brought out those crappy Sparklepires too?" Cody said as he watched sparkling creatures chasing Roberto, Carlos and Chef.

"Aw crap that'll light up the day." Gwen sighed. "Any ideas Cody?"

"I got one," Cody replied. "A while back during a XANA attack Jeremy managed to activate a tower and used a spectre to super power Odd to fight off a possessed nurse. I know how to activate a tower and make a spectre so I could super charge you to fight. But there's a catch."

"When isn't there?" Geoff asked.

"If XANA or Shadow take over the tower they can uh...shut down your bodies, and kill you from the inside." Cody said.

"Better than nothing." LeShawna shrugged. "It could allow us to help you guys in the real world anyways."

"We also need to get everybody else out of the studio," Gwen said. "Lindsey and Beth won't stand a chance and Alejandro won't last long in the Total Drama Bot."

"Ok...LeShawna, Geoff, go help the others and get them out of the studio. I'll take Duncan and DJ to Kadic and help Aelita." Gwen said. "Cody, supercharge us!"

"Alright...here goes nothing." Cody said. "I won't try activating five towers for five full spectres at once, it'll leave me unable to help out in Lyoko. I'll activate one and give you twenty percent each. Won't be as good but you'll still be the envy of any weight lifter."

"Do it."

"And...there!"

Xxx

On Lyoko, in the Desert Region a tower's blue aura turned green.

Xxx

The Lyoko Warriors looked up as several streams of what looked like the same Spectres XANA used came out of the power outlets. But instead of being pitch black they were more of a greyish tinge.

They went into Gwen, Duncan, DJ, LeShawna and Geoff. They closed their eyes as the spectres flowed into their bodies. When they were done, the five Lyoko Warriors felt a surge of power from within them.

"Oh yeah." Duncan said as the door burst open.

A zombie rushed him, but a single punch made it fly back into the stair well. The five supercharged warriors beat down the rest of the zombies.

"Aw...wish I had a spectre." Izzy said.

"Maybe next time, get to the factory!" Gwen shouted as she drop kicked a zombie.

The other warriors rushed to a window and forced it open. One by one, they leaped out from the second floor window and landed in the alley behind the studio.

"Okay, we just have to-" Trent paused and looked up. "Um...oh crap."

An Arch-Demon towered over them at the mouth of the alley, snarling at them. It's eyes focused in on Noah, and it gripped the two buildings. It began to tear them apart in an attempt to get closer to the warriors.

"Uh..." Noah backed up. "Crap!"

But then suddenly an explosion appeared on its back. It roared and looked over its shoulder.

"How the heck did you manage to keep this stuff?" Chef asked as Carlos took out another grenade.

"Just had to be extra careful and put a few dozen Child Proof safeties on the containers." Carlos took the pin out and tossed it. It bounced off the armoured hide, but exploded a split second later.

"Okay genius you got its attention!" Roberto gulped, sitting in the front seat of the car the three men had pulled up in behind the demon. "Now let's go!"

"We can't risk it going after the kids. Drive to the end of the street, I'll meet you there." Carlos pulled out a third.

"Deal!" Roberto said as chef hopped into the back seat. They took off down the road.

"Wow, he busts out the heavy artillery again." Trent said as the Arch-Demon started to chase Carlos.

"RUN AWAY!" Carlos shouted to them. "Get the hell out of there!"

"You heard him!" The three ran out of the alley.

"Did you see the way that thing look at Noah?" Izzy asked. "It was giving you the Evil Eye boy!"

"I think I know why!" Noah said. "The codes! Shadow wants the codes I have!"

"Codes? What codes?" Trent asked.

"The Access Codes to remove his Digital Coding from the super computer, or more precisely Smith's Digital Coding! With Shadow merged with Smith he's stuck in Lyoko unless I directly input the access code myself! Smith was designed to acknowledge my digital code and the pass word at the same time." Noah explained. "So unless I put it in, he's stuck there!"

"Or if he controls you into putting it in," Bridgette said grimly.

"He can't control me, I've been to Lyoko more than enough times to-" Noah paused. "Aw wait...the Scyphozoa! Of course! The one that stole the Keys to Lyoko from Aelita! If that thing got its hand on me, then it could copy or remove my digital coding and allow Shadow to pass himself off as me! And he'd have my memory too, so he'd have the pass code!"

"And knowing you it's a real long one." Izzy added.

"Fifty digits, but that isn't the point." Noah said. "I don't think it's a good idea for me to go to Lyoko!"

"Agreed, but you're not much safer here." Trent said. "Especially if the Arch-Demons and zombies are after you."

"Point taken."

Xxx

"Oh my god!" Aelita looked up from where she sat at her usual reading spot. Getting up, she slid her book into her bag and shouldered it just before several students ran by her bench.

"What's going on?" Aelita asked.

"Zombies! RUN!" A boy shouted.

"...zombies?" Aelita looked in the direction they came from...just in time to see the Zombie horde rushed around a corner, right for her! Giving a brief shriek of fright, she turned on the spot and ran.

She ended up fleeing near the science building. She tried a few doors and found them locked until one door opened and a hand tugged her in. She looked up and found herself with several other students and her science teacher in a hall. They shut and locked the door. Among the group was sissy, Nicholas and Herb.

"Thanks." Aelita said to Sissy, who was the one who pulled her in.

"No problem, but what are those things?" Sissy asked.

"I was hoping somebody would tell me." Aelita replied.

CRASH! The door at the far end of the hall, which went out the opposite side of the building opened and Jim came in. He slammed a bat he was holding into a zombies head and pushed another out before slamming the doors shut and locking them. Gasping for breath, the gym teacher looked over. "Uh...am I the only one who's wondering what the hell is happening?"

"You're not alone." Aelita gulped as zombies began to pile up against the doors that had been locked.

"This is like some bad movie," Herb said.

"Uh...hey," One student stuck his head out of a class room door. "The TV's working and the news is on!"

The dozen or so students and staff piled inside.

"..._only minutes ago when the streets suddenly became overrun with a number of assailants and reports have claimed several gargantuan creatures at least three stories in height have been sighted._" A reporter said as a police car stopped by. The two officers inside got out as a zombie came up. Tackling it to the ground ,they cuffed it and struggled to hold it down. _"A large amount of these assailants have been seen in the area around Kadic Academy and the surrounding neighbourhood. A nearby studio being used for the hit reality series Total Drama has also been surrounded by many of these creatures."_

"Oh man look at this." A kid moaned as he pointed to the hordes filling up the school yard outside.

"We can't stay here," Aelita said. "They'll get in sooner or later ,we need to go to the roof!"

"She's right! Everybody grab one of the stools and follow me." Jim said. "Single file and don't rush."

Everyone obeyed and once Jim opened the door they sprinted towards the stairs in single file while Jim kept a bat ready for any zombies that wandered in the hall and followed them. They rushed up the stairs and opened the doors. Once everyone was on the roof, the doors were locked and barricaded with what little they had. Everyone looked down at the ground around the science building to see the army of zombies that had surrounded it.

"This is crazy. Where are cops?" Herb asked.

Aelita thought as she remembered what that report had said. Recognizing the zombies and the Arch-Demons from the game played on the last episode of Total Drama this could only mean one thing.

XANA or Shadow were on the move.

That means there was a tower being used and she had to get to the factory and fast. That was when she got an idea. Looking around she remembered that when XANA possessed an army of rats and Ulrich, Yumi and Odd were trapped on the roof of the very same building she and the others were on. To get down they used the rooftop's fire hose as a way to get down by rappelling down the side of the building.

When no one was looking she threw the hose over the side of the building and grabbed it.

"Stones, what the hell are you doing?" Jim shouted once he saw her.

Aelita didn't even bother to look at him as she leapt over the building's side while holding onto the hose. Placing her feet below her Aelita made contact with the ground, her boots absorbing the shock and looking up she saw no zombies in sight. A sigh of relief came out of her knowing she had not been seen by the zombies and wasted no time in remembering where she needed to go. She took off towards the manhole cover that the Lyoko gang had always used to get to the factory.

It didn't take her very long but when the manhole was in sight Aelita had to duck and cover as a group of zombies were guarding it.

'Damn it!' Aelita cursed in her mind so the monsters would not hear her. 'I guess this means I'll have to go over the wall.'

Aelita then ran for it but just as she was outside the gate she stopped when an Arch-Demon stood over her. Her eyes widened in fear as the demon growled down at her. It raised its claws to slash at her when a sound was heard.

"YO!"

The demon turned and a certain delinquent jumped and a foot slammed into its face sending it into the wall. Duncan landed on the ground with both feet and pumped a fist in the air.

"Oh yeah! Van Helsing eat your heart out!"

Gwen landed next to Aelita.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine. Thanks." Aelita said looking at them. "I guess you guys have been given super powers thanks to Cody."

"Yeah. It was the only way we could think of to get you through a bunch of zombies and Arch-Demons and . . . _sparkly_ vampires." Gwen frowned, the idea of vampire actually _sparkling_ in sun light always agitated her since watching Twilight.

"Shadow's behind this." DJ said landing next to them. "Heather and Courtney are waiting for us on Lyoko."

"We better go." Aelita said.

"Gwen, get her to the factory. DJ and I will deal with these guys." Duncan said, cracking his fists.

Gwen nodded and they split up.

Xxx

Cody looked up and saw Trent, Izzy, Bridgette, and Noah come out of the elevator.

"At last. I was afraid you guys couldn't make it." Cody said in relief.

"We had a few close calls but we made it." Trent replied. "How are things on Lyoko?"

"Heather and Courtney are waiting at the Way Tower in the Swamp Sector with the infected tower in the Ice Cavern Sector." Cody replied, showing them the super scan.

"Okay, fire up the scanners. Me and Izzy are going in."

"Wait, just you and Izzy? Why?"

"Shadow wants me on Lyoko because he knows I have the access codes to sever Smith's program from the supercomputer. If he gets it we're going to have bigger problems." Noah said.

"Good point. I'll start up the virutalization sequence. Gwen, Duncan, and DJ are getting Aelita while LeShawna and Geoff help the others at the studio." Cody said.

Noah went to stand by Cody's chair while the others went into the elevator.

Xxx

Heather and Courtney were sitting by the tower they had been told to wait at when they saw Trent, Izzy, and Bridgette land on their feet.

"About time." Heather said, standing up.

"Sorry, we got delayed." Trent said.

"Where's Aelita?"

"Gwen, Duncan, and DJ went to get here. But we'll go ahead and clear the path to the tower." Bridgette said.

"So how do we use this tower to get to the Ice Caverns?" Courtney asked.

"Follow me in. I'll show you." Bridgette said.

They followed her into the tower to find themselves standing on a platform with the Eye of XANA engraved in it.

"In order to reach the sector we want to go to we've got picture where we want to go in our minds. So when we think we want to go to the Ice Cavern we jump off the platform and it takes us to whatever sector we're thinking of." Bridgette said standing at the edge. "So in your head think of the Ice Cavern and jump."

They watched as she closed her eyes and turned around before holding her arms out like she was preparing to take a dive and then jumped off of the platform.

When they landed, they stood on a matching platform. But the moment they exited the tower they were in the Ice Cavern sector.

"Wow...now if only we had something like that in real life," Courtney said.

"Wait about a thousand years, maybe they'll draw up plans for it." Bridgette cracked a smile and drew her swords. "Let's get moving."

Xxx

Duncan and DJ were back to back, constantly moving sideways in a clockwise pattern as they beat down multiple zombies. One Sparklepire got too close, and Duncan grabbed it by its ears and head butted it. "Take that! You ruined the horror genre for me!"

"Is this really the best time?" DJ asked.

"Dude, this might be the only time I ever get pay back in real life!" Duncan said.

Suddenly, the Arch-Demon he had knocked down sent them both flying. They landed in a tree.

"...wow, that didn't hurt as much as I thought." DJ said as he stuck his head out of the leaves, a bird's nest on his head. "Duncan, let's not provoke the Arch-Demon. You can get away wit hthe zombies and sparkly vampires but that thing is really messed up!"

"Touche ,but I think it's already got its eyes on us!" Duncan pointed as it advanced on them. "So do we attack or run away screaming?"

It roared in their faces.

"...RUN!"

They both leaped down, screaming and shoved aside multiple zombies ,fleeing through the school grounds. As they came out the front gates though ,they heard a novelty horn blaring.

"Oh good, the cops!" DJ said.

"That's not a siren, that's..." Duncan paused as they looked back at the demon...before a car slammed into its feet, knocking them out from under it and making it fall...and a second Arch-Demon chasing the car tripped over the first one.

"Perfect timing, as usual!" Roberto stuck his head out the window as Chef hopped out.

"Never thought we'd get saved by you two," Duncan said.

"Don't push it _punk!_"

"Oh for god's sake," Duncan sighed. "DJ, give me a razor or a knife, I'm getting rid of this stupid Mohawk!"

"You know I don't carry sharp objects! They hurt people!" DJ protested.

"Oh right...and here I am asking the jolly giant for a blade." Duncan slapped himself in the face. "Right after he kicked a lot of zombie ass too!" He looked at the two. "Hey, where's Chris and his Pyro Cousin?"

BOOM!

Several dozen zombies went flying into the air nearby. Carlos came out of an alley, sun glasses on and smoking a cigarette.

"I didn't know you smoke." DJ said.

"Not usually," Carlos shrugged. "It's a bad habit."

"OH yeah, that's the _only_ bad habit you have." Duncan said.

"Bear in mind I _do_ have all the guns and explosives here."

"Hey I got super powers now man! You got-whoa!" Duncan yelped as Carlos grabbed him by the shirt and tossed him up into the air. Luckily Carlos caught him by the shirt before he hit the ground and set the punk on his feet. "...okay ,you're good ,but you caught me off guard and eventually I will tag you ba-ACK!" He was tossed up again and caught.

"Carlos don't beat up Duncan, beat up the zombies!" DJ said.

"Oh relax, just wanted to make him shut up." Carlos said. "And it's all under control."

Suddenly a rather large zombie rushed out of the alley behind him, snarling. It looked around, and set its sights on the group. Carlos turned to face it. "Hm..." He pulled a set of garden shears off his back. "Come here big fella ,just want to take a bit off the top."

He strolled forward ,whistling 'If you're happy and you know it'.

SHING!

SQUISH!

The zombie fell in pieces, and Carlos came back, twirling the garden shears in one hand. "So boys, think this might be Zombie Kill of the week?"

Close but no cigar.

Xxx

"Come on boys, piece of flesh right here for you." Kurt, sitting on a lawn chair with a bottle of Coke in hand said, sun tanning in the parking lot of the studio. "Come and get me!"

A group of zombies rushed towards him, along with a few Sparklepires.

"Oh these sparkly vampires! Damn it." He sighed and put on some sun glasses. "Ah, much better, no wonder Gwen hates you guys." He looked up. "Let er rip!"

Suddenly a wrecking ball crushed the zombies and Sparklepires under it, a few feet from Kurt. "Score! Let's see Carlos pull off something better than that."

**ZOMBIE KILL OF THE WEEK!**

Xxx

"How close are we, Cody?" Bridgette asked.

"_You're close._" Cody answered.

"This is too easy. Are there any monsters?" Courtney asked.

"_No, but I see Shadow is in front of the tower._"

"He's mine." Heather said with a dark look.

"_Wait, hang on . . . Watch out!"_

Snow men and Ice Puppets sprouted from the ground, surrounding the group. Three snow men surrounded Trent and engulfed him with their bodies, covering him in snow and ice, keeping him from moving.

"Get off me!" Heather shouted, delivering a head butt to a snow man holding her that splattered its head and its body fell apart.

She held out her arms and wrist blades sprouted from under her hands. She quickly slashed at the snow men around with quick precision. Courtney swung her staff and smashed an Ice Puppet into tiny pieces and then ran at snowmen that had swallowed Trent and cut off their heads.

"Thanks!" Trent said once he was free.

Izzy transformed into an ape and smashed Ice Puppets and Snowmen with her fists. She then did banged her fists against her chest like King Kong did.

"Let's go!" Bridgette shouted.

But just as they began to ran spikes from the icy floor sprouted, nearly splitting them in two. Trent played a sonic note that blasted them to pieces.

"Okay, Ice Puppets, Snowmen, let me guess; Yuki." Trent said.

"This is bad. In places that have lots of ice she has the advantage." Bridgette said.

"Leave it to me. I can melt the ice with my fire note."

"And cause a cave in?" Courtney asked.

"She's right, Trent. If you use your fire note or the sonic or lightning notes it could cause the cavern to cave in on us." Bridgette said.

"Good point."

"Let's just get to the tower as fast as we can." Bridgette said.

That was the plan when an ice wall sprung between the group separating Bridgette and Trent from the others who were in the front.

"Hang on!" Izzy shouted as she transformed back into her ape form and punched the ice, but it had no effect.

"Go on without us, we'll find a way." Bridgette said.

They nodded and took off.

"Cody, is there another way around this?" Bridgette asked.

"_Yeah but it could take a while._"

"Just point us the way and we'll worry about that." Trent said.

Xxx

The elevator made its whirring sound letting Cody know that the doors were opening and someone was coming in. Looking up he and Noah saw Gwen and Aelita come out.

"Hey there."

"Hi, Cody. How are things going?" Aelita asked.

"Pretty well, you know if you ignore the zombies, the Arch-Demons, and the sparkling vampires out to kill us." Cody replied with smile. "Everyone else is on Lyoko, looking for the tower in the Ice Cavern."

"Why aren't you with them, Noah?" Gwen asked.

"Well, it was decided it was too risky for me to be in Lyoko at the time being because Shadow wants to get the access codes to remove the piece of Smith's digital coding I put in the supercomputer." Noah replied.

"Makes sense. Since he can't get the copy of the Keys to Lyoko I have because of my father's security program the next best way is to gain the access codes you have." Aelita nodded.

"Yeah, well it gets worse. It looks like XANA might be helping Shadow because the gang is having trouble in the ice tunnels, courtesy of Yuki." Cody replied.

"What?" Gwen looked at the map. "Won't Shadow escaping mean big trouble for XANA?"

"Unless XANA already has a plan to deal with Shadow." Aelita said.

"Makes sense. Use Shadow to take us out then take Shadow out." Cody said. "Where are DJ and Duncan?"

"Back at Kadic, keeping the kids safe from all the monsters. LeShawna and Geoff got the others back at the studio to safety." Gwen said.

"In the meantime we have a tower to deal with. Any monsters at the tower?" Aelita asked.

"Just Shadow along with Yuki causing trouble in the tunnels." Cody said.

"Okay, get those scanners ready. We're going in." Gwen said.

"Right."

Xxx

Heather, Courtney, and Izzy made it into a large ice chamber with the tower and Shadow was waiting for them. He sitting in front of the tower with his eyes closed. He opened his eyes when they came in, smiling evilly.

"I was wondering when you would get here. Now I can have some fun." Shadow sneered as he stood up, picking up his sword.

"We'll see who's laughing this time, creep!" Heather shouted back him.

Her wrist blades sprouted and she charged at him. Shadow smirked and blocked her strikes with his sword and gauntlet. With just a single push he sent her flying back, sliding across the icy floor on her back to the other two warriors.

"Is this it? That's all who could make it?" Shadow asked.

"You might be tough but there's no way you can take on all of us alone!" Courtney shouted.

Shadow just laughed.

"_Guys, look out! Underneath you!_" Cody shouted.

Suddenly massive spikes made of ice sprouted from the ground Heather and the others were standing. Heather dodged with her agility while Izzy pushed Courtney out of the way. Then Yuki sprouted from the ice with her hands covered in icy claws sharp enough to cut any metal.

"Who said I was alone?" Shadow asked.

Xxx

"TAKE THIS!"

Duncan smashed a Sparkling vampire to bit with his own bare fist. He, DJ, Roberto, and Carlos were surrounded by zombies, sparkling vampires, and an Arch-Demon was watching them with evil eyes. Their fight had gathered the attention of all the monsters that Shadow had conjured into the real world which meant most innocent bystanders would be safe. Carlos knocked a zombie's head off with his fist and blasted another with his rocket launcher.

The Arch-Demon growled and stepped forward, its foot flattening one poor zombie that was in its way.

"Uh-oh. Big guy's stepping up." DJ said.

"Leave it to me." Duncan said.

"Hey, it's my job to make sure you don't die so I'll do it!" Carlos said.

"Isn't that what you told Kurt before he fell off the roof of the building?" Roberto asked.

"Okay, I got carried away but this time it's better because I don't care if _you_ get in the way."

Roberto growled as Carlos stepped forward.

"Okay, Mr. Arch-Demon, you want them you got to get through me and I've taken more than one demon before." Carlos said. "Can I call you by a different name? I think I'll call you Bob. What do you think, Bob?"

The demon growled but smirked. Suddenly it split into five separate demons! Everyone stared at the five grinning demons.

"Carlos, there are times I just _hate_ you so much!" Roberto said.

"So do I." Duncan said.

"I don't hate you since my momma says it's not nice to hate people but I really am not liking you." DJ agreed.

"...You know what? There are times I hate me too." Carlos said.

"Relax man, with our super powers we can take them." Duncan said.

Xxx

However if Duncan knew what was happening in Lyoko he probably would have shut up and not invite the wrath of Murphy's Law. The green glowing tower in the Desert Sector that gave the warriors in the real world power slowly turned red.

Xxx

"Ah!"

Just as Gwen and Aelita were about to enter the scanners the goth girl collapsed forward.

"Gwen!" Aelita ran over to her and looked over her. "Cody, Gwen just collapsed!"

"_Sorry, but I've got bad news. The tower I used to give Gwen, DJ, Geoff, Duncan, and LeShawna spectre powers has been taken over by XANA._" Cody said. "_Hold on, I'll try and counter it._"

Xxx

The tower's aura began to shift between green and red, soon it took some twisted shade in between as XANA and Cody struggled for control over it.

Xxx

"Oof!" Duncan fell in mid leap.

"What's wrong?" DJ asked.

"DJ I think we're losing our super powers!" Duncan gulped as the Arch-Demon over him swung down at him. "Whoa crap!" He managed to back flip out of the way. "Never mind, got em again!"

BOOM!

One Demon was sent flying head over heels through the air as Carlos watched it. "Wow...that last one was stronger than I thought it would be...but take that Bobby Junior!"

The Demon growled and got up, splitting into three demons.

"...Why do you _do_ this?" Roberto glared at Carlos.

Suddenly a siren blared.

"Oh thank god the police, finally!" Carlos turned...just as a car crashed through a nearby wall. "Holy crap!" He and Roberto leaped aside ,screaming as the car slammed into one demon.

Kurt stuck his head out the driver's side window. "What are you standing around for? Don't you recognize a rescue when you see it?"

The car's original owner sat in the passenger seat, scared out of his wits.

"Well dang, good timing!" Carlos paused. "And _heads up!_" He raised his grenade launcher and fired over Kurt's head, blowing away the Demon that was about to crush the car. The demon flew through the air, landed on its head, and shattered into fragments of light.

"You guys gonna celebrate?" Kurt shouted, and then said in a deadpanned tone. "Come with me if you want to live."

"Alright, let's just do some redecorating first." Carlos said before he and Roberto took crow bars as they walked up to the car...and tore the roof off before leaping into the back. Carlos stood up and brought up his rifle.

"You do know this car doesn't belong to us ,right?" Kurt asked.

"Yeah but now we can actually fire at the GIANT FREAKING DEMON AT SIX OH CLOCK!" Carlos said. "Eight of them, hit it Kurt!"

Kurt gunned the car forward, roaring down the road . He paused to pick up Chef, Duncan ,and DJ. Now effectively overcrowded despite the lack of roof, the group fled in the car with now ten demons after them.

"This is better than the chase on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco!" Carlos shouted as he fired at the demons.

"What the heck do you two get into?" Duncan asked Kurt and Carlos.

"Don't ask, I don't even know how we do it half the time!" Kurt turned a corner.

"Duck!" Chef suddenly shouted ,and they all turned to see another demon.

"That's not a duck that's a GIANT FREAKING DEMON!" Roberto shouted before everybody ducked...except for Chef and Roberto who slammed right into the demon's uh...ouch. The demon groaned and fell over. Chef and Roberto were bent over the back of the car, groaning in pain.

"Well dang, let's be glad that thing didn't have a one eyed weasel." Carlos commented, sliding a fresh clip and firing at the pursuing demons again.

"Now what?" Duncan asked.

"Uh...guys? I think a little something else came out of Mike's games, and not just that Slayer one." Kurt spoke up.

"What?" Carlos asked.

"Yo." Kurt pointed ahead.

Up ahead was...the main villain of Evil Samaritan! The man stood at a full ten feet, bulging wit hred muscles and wore a black mask with holes cut in it for eyes and his mouth. And he held a massive flaming scythe in his hand. He cackled as they came closer.

"...Oh son of a biscuit." Carlos sighed.

"WATCH OUT!" Kurt wrenched the car to the side as everybody in the car screamed.

"Where's the super hero to save the day?" Roberto asked.

"Yo!" Carlos said as he ducked under the Evil Samaritan's scythe.

"I said super hero not pyromaniac-AH!" Roberto screamed as the scythe suddenly dug into the back of the car and dragged the Samaritan along with them.

"How's the road pal?" Carlos balanced on the back of the car and fired his rifle down at the Samaritan, ripping away parts of his face without effect. When the gun went dry, Carlos said. "Uh...I'm outta bullets."

Xxx

"_Okay, I've managed to keep XANA from taking control of the others through the spectres but they can't use their powers now._"

"You okay, Gwen?" Aelita asked.

"Yeah." Gwen got back up. "Thanks, Cody."

"_No problem but I'm not sure how long I can keep hold over the tower. I've managed to set up a temporary program to keep XANA from completely accessing the tower but there is a chance he might be able to delete it._"

"Does that mean we'll have to deactivate the tower?" Gwen asked.

"Yes. If Cody shuts it down from the computer XANA will take control of it and then . . ."

"The spectres will kill us from the inside." Gwen finished. "All right, we head to the Desert Sector first. Let's just hope the others can hold out. Let's go."

They both stepped into the scanners and Cody started the virtualization sequence and sent them to the Desert Sector of Lyoko.

Xxx

Aelita and Gwen landed in the Desert Sector of Lyoko on their feet and looked to see the tower was not too far.

"I'm willing to bet that the tower will be guarded." Gwen said.

She was not wrong when a laser struck her in the shoulder. Aelita looked to see Gwen get hit but a laser struck her in the abdomen. Looking up they saw three Dark Krabs surrounding them.

"I'm sick of always being right." Gwen muttered, pulling out her scythe.

The Dark Krabs opened fire at them once again, but this time they were ready. Gwen blocked the lasers by creating a barrier and Aelita stood behind her, firing her plasma beam that vaporized one Krab instantly. Gwen then swung her scythe to the ground, glowing yellow showing that she activated her Earth Spell.

The ground shook and cracked open, leaving the Krabs to fall into the Digital Sea. Two pillars of light came up and then it was quiet.

"All right, the coast is clear."

Aelita nodded as she ran for the tower. Gwen watched but suddenly her visions began to get blurry. Holding a hand up to her head she took several steps back.

"Cody, what's . . ." She didn't finish her sentence as she fell forward and collapsed.

"_Gwen? Gwen!_"

Aelita stopped and saw Gwen had collapsed on the ground.

"Cody, what's wrong?"

"_Gwen just collapsed for no reason!_"

"Run a scan!"

In the meantime Aelita ran into the tower and proceeded to deactivate it.

Xxx

Cody ran a scan over Gwen immediately. Her bio stats were fine but he noticed something up with her virtual scans.

"Aelita, from the looks of it I'd say the spectre I gave her was virtualized with her. I managed to make sure XANA couldn't take full control but from the looks of it, it was conducting a very powerful scan of her."

"_Send the data to my wrist computer._"

Cody nodded and sent the data to Aelita's wrist computer.

Xxx

Aelita ran over to Gwen and knelt down next to her. She held up her right wrist and looked at the data in her wrist computer. The outline of Gwen's character appeared on the screen and red line was seen trying to connect itself to an orb where her heart would be.

"I think it was trying to take her Nexus Core." Aelita said.

"_A what?_"

"A nexus core. It is the heart of every person who is virtualized into Lyoko. It is basically a person's entire physical body compacted into a single digital orb of energy. Gwen's body, her mind, and soul are broken down and reconstructed into a nexus core. Her nexus core is what gives her a digital form based off of her personality and desires." Aelita explained. "If it succeeded, she would cease to exist in all ways."

_"That's...actually a little scary to think about. But what can we do?"_

"The tower is already deactivated, so the Spectre should be gone." Aelita replied. "She should be fine."

_"But we won't be at the rate it's going out there."_ Noah said. _"We have a bird's eye view from a news chopper showing...Chef, Roberto, Carlos, Kurt, Duncan and DJ in a high speed chase with a LOT of demons chasing them towards here."_

"So we'd better hurry then." Aelita nodded.

She looked back down at Gwen and lightly patted her check. Gwen slowly started to stir and her eyes slowly opened.

"Gwen, are you all right?"

"Aelita?" Gwen sat up and rubbed her head. "What happened?"

"It's a long story. Are you all right?"

"Yeah." Gwen stood up and picked up her scythe. "The last thing I remember was you entering the tower and then . . . I blacked out."

"The spectre Cody gave you tried to delete you from the inside. But with the tower shut down you should be fine." Aelita replied.

"That's a relief."

"Right, but now we have to get to the others. Cody, send the vehicles."

On que an Overboard and an Overwing appeared. Gwen took the Overboard and Aelita hopped on the Overwing and they took off towards the Way Tower.

Xxx

Things were not looking good for the other Lyoko Warriors in the Ice Caverns. While Heather was fighting Shadow alone Yuki was using her ice powers and agility to fight Courtney and Izzy at the same time. Courtney swung her staff which Yuki blocked by covering her right arm with ice. Courtney ducked as Yuki covered her other hands with icy claws and tried to slash at her.

Izzy on the other hand fired a barrage of explosive arrows at her but Yuki simply waved her hand and they turned to ice.

"...Now that's just not fair." Izzy said.

In the meantime Heather dodged another swing that smashed a large ice boulder from Shadow's large sword.

"Why all the dodging? If you want to fight you could do a little better." Shadow said.

"Yeah, so you can skewer me!" Heather shouted.

"Or are you afraid that if I devirtualize you again I'll be able to get in your pretty little head again?"

That one comment got to Heather since she still remembered what it was like. She shouted in anger and leapt on top of Shadow, wrestling him to the ground.

"That's it! I'm going to break you into a dozen digital pieces!" She yelled furiously.

Shadow smirked. "Shadow Strike!"

Heather was thrown off of Shadow when a spectre grabbed her and held her in place. Shadow brushed himself off and then grabbed Heather's neck.

"I guess you're still having nightmares about being a scared little girl." Shadow taunted as he started to squeeze Heather's neck.

Suddenly a blue energy wave blasted him off her and sent him flying back. Looking at the entrance he saw Bridgette and Trent come out. Before Shadow could react Trent played his lightning note and a stream of lightning slammed into Shadow, pushing him back further. Heather was free now and she looked up to see the ceiling had large icicles hanging from it.

Smirking she held her right wrist out.

"Hey Shadow!"

Shadow turned and looked at her.

"Remember this, life's a bitch and so am I!" Heather shouted as she fired her shuriken at the icicles and they fell from the ceiling.

Shadow only had a chance to look up when a large icicle cut him in half, right down the center. Yuki kept a calm look on her face as everyone gathered. She simply phased through the ice, vanishing from site.

"Hah, showed them," Trent said. "Alright let's get that tower shut down, pretty sure the others are having a hard enough time in the real world."

"Well with Kurt and Carlos packing heavy artillery they might be okay," Bridgette said.

Xxx

"I'd just like you to know before he cuts our heads off with his scythe Carlos." Kurt gulped.

"What is it buddy?" Carlos asked ,fiddling with his pistol.

"...I was the one who knocked your ducky lamp over back in college."

"_What?_" Carlos glared at him. "You said it was the _wind!_"

"The window was open at the time." Kurt shrugged. "But in my defence Roberto snuck in, I fought him, and one of us knocked over the Ducky Lamp. Didn't know which of us did it but I thought you'd kill us both."

"Dam straight I will after this! That was a gift from my grandma dude!" Carlos said.

"Well now you know how I felt when you blew up my clock."

"It was a stupid Mickey Mouse clock!"

"It was a gift from _my _grandma when I was three!" Kurt said.

"Ah..." Carlos nodded in understanding. "Oh, wait, what was happening?"

"Well if I'm right we can ask that guy." Kurt pointed to the Samaritan, who was raising his scythe.

"Oh right, _decapitation!_" Carlos pushed Kurt aside and rolled the other way in time to avoid being hit by the scythe, which cut their flipped over car in half.

"Man why do all the weirdest games have the strongest bosses?" Kurt said.

"Forget that, just grab something!" Carlos said ,gesturing to the scattered weapons on the ground.

Kurt nodded. "Alright!" He picked up something. "Bring it on you...crap." He looked at the bent garden shears. "You had to waste these on the zombies didn't you?"

"You know I liked _Zombieland!_"

Kurt picked up a fresh pair of shears and looked at Carlos, who cursed as his jammed pistol refused to operate. "Here!" He passed him a second pair.

"...we're gonna trim him to death?"

"Nope," Kurt put on his sun glasses. "Just take a little off the top."

"Ah..." Carlos put his own sun glasses on, and they strolled towards the scythe wielding monster.

"Man, I wonder how Chris is doing," Chef, who sat behind the car muttered.

Xxx

"I don't know how else to tell you this! Giant, zombies, and, vampires are trying to kill me!" Chris shouted into his cell phone. "Stop recommending I see a psychiatrist, and stop saying 'sir you've got the wrong number'!"

"Sir, this is McDonalds for god's sake! Now either make an order or move up for the next guy in the Drive through!"

"GAH!" Chris stomped on his phone. "...I ought not to have done that."

Xxx

Aelita and Gwen ran into the ice chamber where the tower was, seeing the others.

"I guess we missed all the action?" Gwen asked.

"Yep." Heather replied sitting on a large piece of ice. "Late to the party again, Gothie."

Gwen shook her head as Aelita ran into the tower. She placed her hand on the screen for the second time today.

**Aelita**

**Code: Lyoko**

Xxx

"BRING IT ON!" Carlos shouted as they charged.

However all the monsters vanquished.

"Huh? What happened?" Kurt asked.

DJ and Duncan looked at each other smiling.

Xxx

"Tower disinfected." Aelita said as the screens fell to the darkness.

"Return to the past now!" Cody said.

Xxx

"Ha! That'll show Shadow not to mess with me again!" Heather said, triumphantly sitting down at the table with the other warriors.

"Not bad after taking the time to train huh?" LeShawna asked.

"We managed to go head to head with Shadow and Yuki while the rest of you were running your lives." Courtney replied.

"Yeah, but now we have both Shadow and XANA on our backs." Cody said.

"And Shadow wants Noah's access codes to free him." Gwen pointed out.

"Meaning Noah's got an even bigger target painted on him." Trent said.

"Hooray for me." Noah said sarcastically.

"So what can we do stop him?" DJ asked.

"Well, I made it so Smith could only be destroyed by the self destruct program I made. Smith was made to be almost perfect which has pretty much come back to bite me." Noah said. "So it might take a while to find a way."

"Great." Duncan said.

"Cheer up guys! I mean we just beat both Shadow and XANA at one time. We should be partying!" Geoff said loudly.

"We did do good." Gwen agreed, smiling.

"We were awesome!" Trent added.

"Kicking zombie butt was fun." LeShawna said with smile.

"So it's agreed. We party! WHOO-HOO!" Geoff took off his hat and waved it in the air.

Bridgette sighed but laughed and everyone joined in.


	39. Episode 38: Down with the Sickness

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 39

"Do we really need to watch this?" Gwen asked.

She along with nearly all the contestants and the producers were sitting in the recreation room with the large TV on.

"Come on, why not?" DJ asked.

"Well for one we're still in the game so why should we care about the aftermath?" Gwen asked.

"Well for one, there's a chance that someone could be given a chance to get back in the game." Bridgette said.

"That's unlikely. They'd probably wait until the third aftermath." Gwen replied.

"True but they will be broadcasting the trial. Turns out that Zeke along with Sierra's parents aren't too happy about what he did last season so now they all hired this lawyer and taken Chris to court and this lawyer ain't one of Courtney's." Geoff said.

"Yeah, a chance to karma strike Chris." LeShawna said smiling.

"And then some." Carlos said coming in. "Chris packed anything he deemed important and hopped on the new Total Drama Jet he got and flew back to Canada."

"He got a new one?" Trent asked.

"Yeah, and he hid it so there wouldn't be another accident like the one before. Why he likes a jet that is barely held together by duck tape I'll never know." Carlos replied.

That when the Total Drama Reality Aftermath Show introduction started. A second later it faded to show a talk show set in front of a live studio audience. On the center of the stage was the couch with Own and Blaineley with big smiles.

"Hello and welcome everyone to another episode of Total, Drama, Aftermath!" Blaineley announced. "I am your co-host Blaineley, of course you remember me!"

"And I'm Owen!" Owen shouted with a big smile.

"What a spectacular season this is turning about to be, huh Owen?" Blaineley asked.

"Yeah and scary. Did you see those zombies?" Owen shuddered.

"We've got all the inside of this new season, Total, Drama, Reality and we've got a _special_ treat for you."

"My god, she is such a show off. Didn't karma teach her anything last season?" Geoff asked.

"Apparently not." Bridgette said, shaking her head.

"We have a live feed to the trial where Chris will have to fight for his life where if he loses he will have to pay highly and Ezekiel will have his revenge." Blaineley said.

"Will Zeke get another chance on the show?" Owen asked.

"Unfortunately no. Ezekiel's parents feel that their son should not be on Total Drama anymore after seeing what happened to their son." Blaineley replied. "But right now, let's say hi to the eliminated contestants!"

"Oh oh! Can I do it?" Owen asked.

"We already decided that the audience favourite would do it, Owen."

"So . . . Is that a yes?"

"Yes."

"All right. Our first loser is . . . TYLER!"

As Tyler came on, Carlos noticed a distinct lack of...Kurt! He looked around and saw Kurt had moved way back from the screen. "Yo Kurt, what's wrong?"

"I used to date that She Devil." Kurt frowned.

"Blaineley?" Carlos' jaw dropped.

"Yes, Blaineley, or as you have come to know her real name: Mildred." Kurt sighed. "And before you even think of laughing, don't make me bring up...Lesley."

Carlos shuddered. "Oh man that was a nightmare-"

"Quite guys! We're watching here!" Somebody shouted.

"Sorry." Both producers said.

"Don't be sorry be quiet!"

"We're SORRY!" They shouted back.

Back on the Aftermath show, Tyler had taken his seat.

"And now, the only two losers to be booted off at the same time, Katie and Satie!" Blaineley declared.

The two girls rushed out on stage, waving to the audience as they were cheered. They sat down next.

"So Tyler, how does it feel to be voted off all because you lost to Courtney?" Blaineley asked.

"Awful man! It was so unfair." Tyler frowned.

"She kicked you in the chunk man." Owen pointed out. "...now that I think about though, that is unfair! Low blow!"

Suddenly a screen showed Tyler being kicked in the crotch by Courtney repeatedly.

"Do you _really _need to show that?" Tyler shouted.

"Not really, I just like it." Blaineley shrugged. "Katie, Sadie, both booted off at the same time. How?"

"We just couldn't stand being separated for weeks again!" Sadie said.

"Yeah! I'd die before I let that happen again!" Katie added.

"Well I think I have just the thing to cheer you all up." Blaineley said. "A live feed to Chris' summons to Court where Sierra's parents have hired an expert lawyer to represent Ezekiel for supposed Human Rights violations on Chris' part...along with what may become animal cruelty if Zeke's mental health goes the way it is now."

"Poor Zeke," Owen said as the screen lowered down and showed a court room.

Chris was sitting at one table, with what looked like another copy of him similar to his cousin from Newfoundland. This cousin had perfectly combed hair and was cleanly shaven and wore a suit.

"Is that what I think it is?" Bridgette asked.

"Yep, the only thing worse than Chris," Carlos said grimly. "A _lawyer_ Chris!"

"My god Chris is doing it again!" Kurt groaned.

"What is it now?"

"He's showing off his Mop Head, and he's doing it in court!" Kurt frowned. "The least he can do is look presentable! He'll just tick off the jury and make us look bad!"

"Dude, they've seen me beat his ass enough, I'm pretty sure I'm okay in their books." Carlos said.

"..Carlos, do you see the lawyer next to Zeke?" Kurt asked as the camera showed Zeke in a straight jacket and in a wheel chair with a muzzle on his face. And next to it...sipping a drink, was a young woman with long black hair and green eyes. She had the faint edges of a black and red tattoo peeking out from under the collar of her blouse.

"Oh no." Carlos stiffened.

"Don't tell me, another old girl friend?" Duncan sighed.

"Not just any old girl friend," Carlos shuddered. "It's _Lesley._"

"...so?"

"Think of her as a Carlos version of Courtney." Kurt explained.

"...Ah..." Duncan nodded.

"There's one good thing, she can take on any lawyer Chris has, even cousin Todd." Carlos said.

"Court is now in session!"

"They're starting!" Gwen said excitedly.

"The defendant is accused of violation of human rights, unfair treatment of specific contestants on his show, wilful destruction of public and private property, fraud, also of rigging challenges and Criminal Neglect."

"How does the defendant plead?" the judge asked.

"Guilty-what?" Todd paused as Chris whispered into his ear. "Oh, oh, I mean not guilty!"

"...Chris is screwed." Carlos snickered evilly.

"Representing the prosecution is Lesley Wilson."

Lesley stood up. "Your honour, my client here came onto the show Total Drama with the hopes of winning and returning home with a million dollars. Instead, not only was he treated unfairly, but inhumanly, especially in the third season: Total Drama World Tour." She began to pace. "Starved, abandoned, treated like an animal until his mental status and physical health degraded to the point of...THIS!" she whipped out a picture of Ezekiel at the end of World Tour.

The Jury gasped in horror.

"Yes, look closely, as this is the evil wrought by one man!" Lesley declared. "One selfish, uncaring-"

"Objection, she's getting way off topic and is using her personal opinion on this matter your honour." Todd objected.

"Sustained. Wilson, refrain from emotional outbursts please."

"Sorry your honour," Lesley sighed. "I call Chris McLean to the stand."

Chris went up to the witness stand, grinning.

"Oh look at him, he'll flash his smile and hope the jury falls for it." Gwen scoffed.

"Chris McLean, you have sworn to oath to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth...so was it true that on the very first episode of World Tour, you personally decided to remove Ezekiel from the competition because he annoyed you?" Lesley questioned Chris.

"Can you blame me? I mean the kid was nutzo." Chris said.

"You tossed him out of a moving plane while it was taking off."

"Wasn't moving that fast! He survived! He was fine!"

"And even managed to somehow reboard the plane and follow you all the way to Egypt," Lesley sighed. "During which he was not fed or properly cared for over a duration of fifteen hours."

"He was supposed to be gone! How was I supposed to know he was still on the plane?"

"He was never supposed to be removed from your sight unless properly terminated from the show by a unanimous vote! And transportation would be provided back to his home town." Lesley held up a copy of the Total Drama Contract. "This is the contract he signed, stating that upon elimination, any and all contestants would be transported back to their home towns or provinces or the resort where all eliminated contestants wait until the end of the season."

"I let him back in at Egypt!" Chris protested. "He wanted back in, I let him back in, then he was voted off! I gave him a parachute and everything!"

"Right over the Atlantic Ocean, thirty miles off of the coast of Africa." Lesley deadpanned. "And when you found him again in the cargo hold in London, he was suffering from dehydration, lack of Vitamin C and starving! Yet you did not feed him or assist him, or even try to properly transport him home. Only offering him another chance into the game! Provoking him to continue on a path that no person in his state of mental health should have been _motivated_ to take."

"I tossed him out of the plane again, telling him to go home, and he still wouldn't go!" Chris said.

"And you found him again, in Africa, hiding amongst the cargo hold's contents once more, and did you help him? Especially in the state he was in? No! You caged him like an animal, let him loose into the wild, and used him for another challenge!" Lesley shouted. "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, this is the type of neglect and apathetic disposition that has caused my client's current state!"

Ezekiel snarled from his chair, trying to break free of the Straight Jacket.

"Ezekiel is currently in a mental hospital, where people are trying to restore him to his previous status, making sure he is fed and looked after. He is here today, _to see justice._" Lesley smirked. "Let us start when after the Total Drama Jet was destroyed. Ezekiel had still not come back to the resort, instead he was left to follow the last three contestants all the way to Hawaii...how did he do that anyways?"

"I dunno," Chris shrugged.

"Anyways...all the way to Hawaii, and attacked the winner. Did you intervene? No, you allowed him to take the money and fall into the volcano, resulting in millions of dollars of damage and many injuries, including two of your own contestants!" Lesley said. "Total Drama World Tour was a complete and utter disaster! One injured by a flying burning rock, another falling into a volcano, and then was shot out, slamming into your boat. And the third, trampled and covered by lava, where you, instead of rushing him to a hospital, put him in a robot so he could sign a release form so the show could not be sued!"

"Hey, I did not see any of this coming! I didn't encourage him to take the money!"

"But you did remove the safety signs that warned that a pine apple would cause the volcano to erupt."

"They were in the way of the cameras!"

Carlos clapped slowly. "Way to go Lesley!"

"Your dumb cousin is burying himself." Kurt sighed. "...and I LIKE IT!"

"Let us not forget the other challenges you rigged along world Tour!" Lesley continued.

"Oh come on, I didn't-" Chris started.

"In the challenge in the Amazon, Team Amazon all voted to eliminate Heather Chang, instead you decided to allow her to stay on, saying it was an 'award challenge'. At the same time, you took them to a place where one contestant, Cody Anderson, known for many allergies could possibly suffer a fatal attack!" Lesley shouted.

"He had his Epipen with him!" Chris said.

"Yet you still continued on a rampage to utterly ruin the lives of your contestants! For example, in Greece, Team C voted off Duncan Matthews, yet you kept him on because you believed the current circumstances would bring 'more drama'." Lesley quoted. "And chose to toss an intern off the plane."

"I gave him a parachute!"

"Which he managed to use...and also suffer a broken leg and a dislocated shoulder due to not being correctly trained in how to land a parachute, something guaranteed to him in his contract." Lesley said. "Then there was the challenge in Australia, where you rigged another elimination round, knowing Gwen Madison was allergic to eucalyptus. Yet you purposely did it after looking at her medical files."

"How long do you think he'll last?" Kurt asked.

"Three to one odds, fifteen minutes." Carlos said.

"And then you allowed Courtney to cheat for Alejandro in the challenge at the Great Wall of China, and don't deny it, unedited films prove you knew!" Lesley pointed at Chris. "Including and finally...abandoning contestant Sierra after she accidently destroyed your plane, because you were _upset!_"

"That thing cost a lot!"

"It was a busted air bus used by the Canadian Air Force, held together by duct tape and dragged out of the moth ball yards!" Lesley snarled. "It was deemed unsafe in 1983 when it was first moth balled...two years after it was constructed. It cost you ten thousand dollars to bribe an officer into letting you have it, but the things you bought for yourself cost well over half a million dollars."

"Hey, after all the crap I had to see, I deserved a few perks."

"A Jacuzzi that cost more than the whole plane? Made of gold I might add? And a large, extra super king sized large water bed? A flat screen plasma TV? A Piano you never even used? Modern and some more valuable pieces of art lost in the explosion? One of those things were a Van Gough!"

"A val what?" Chris asked.

"He doesn't even know half of what he buys!" Lesley shouted. "The piano alone cost the same amount as the plane and was a one of a kind design from London. Never used once in its short, brief life. Twenty thousand dollars along with the half million and the million dollar prize money wasted!" She rounded on the jury. "And for what? To satisfy his own gluttonous appetite for luxury! Mr McLean has a history of such events concerning his selfish behaviour. The only difference is that he has caused the loss of valuable art, artefacts that should have been in proper museums, endangering the lives of interns and contestants alike for his own amusement! A murderer was even let loose on the island the first season was held on! An actual murderer with a chain saw and a hook!"

"Ladies and gentlemen, I beg of you to end this menace to society and put him in his proper place. Make it up to the many he has harmed." Lesley said. "He must pay for his crimes against humanity!"

"...bit far, don'cha think?" Chris asked.

"I don't think so!" Every single contestant and producer in the studio said at the same time.

"Go Lesley!" Carlos cheered.

"The Prosecution demands reconciliation, along with McLean's incarceration." Lesley concluded.

"I cannot incarcerate him sadly...but he must make reparations." The judge said. "Mr McLean, you shall make reparations to the victimized family, Ms Chang, Mr Burromuerto, Mr Hatcher, and Ms Carter, and publically apologize on live television. You must also make reparations to the owners of the priceless objects you lost, the citizens of Hawaii for causing the volcano eruption-"

"I didn't do that!"

"Be quite or I will find you in contempt! That last one is a charge of Criminal Negligence." The Judge frowned. "You must also pay the Canadian Air Force back for the destruction of that plane ,as you had it legally registered during the time of its destruction and even signed a contract promising its safe return. No plane, meaning you will pay back ten thousand dollars to the Canadian government...plus tip."

"NO!" Chris fell to his knees.

"I FIND HIM IN CONTEMPT!"

The cast watched as Chris was dragged kicking and screaming from the Court Room.

"...that. Was. Awesome." Kurt said.

"The most beautiful thing ever seen." Carlos wiped his eyes.

"She did in ten minutes what we couldn't do in years." Kurt added.

"Broke him," Trent said.

"Chewed him up and spit him out." Gwen spoke up.

"It was beautiful." Cody sniffled.

"Carlos, you're ex is my new hero." Sierra said with eyes full of awe.

"She's better than any lawyer I've hired!" A TV was wheeled up to show the Director's face.

"Director! Ma'am!" Carlos snapped into a salute.

"At ease Carlos." Carlos relaxed. "Seeing as Chris will be locked up until he apologizes and makes reparations, you and Kurt shall be the Co-Hosts of Total Drama Reality."

"Nice! Score!" Kurt said as he and Carlos high fived one another.

"Just remember, I'll be watching the both of you to make sure there are no screw ups." The Director said sternly.

"Yes sir-ma'am-Director!" Both men said.

"Dismissed!" The Director looked off to her side. "GET ME A DIET COKE, NOW MAGGOT!" The TV turned off and the worked wheeled it away.

"..was she in the military before this?" Duncan asked.

"Had to be, I've never had anybody yell at me like that...besides my Drill Sergeant...and Melissa!" Carlos said. "Kurt, we just got promoted again!"

"That means we can clear the stuff out of Chris' room!" Kurt paused. "I call top bunk!"

"Aw no fair!" Carlos whined.

"Tell you what, I get the bed, you get to burn the Chris Trophies!"

"DEAL!" Carlos grinned. "Let's go!"

The two new Co-Hosts ran out.

"...Oh thank god, finally!" Heather fell to her knees. "Thank you god! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!"

"Joy to the world!" Izzy sang. "Chris is gone. Oh he is finally gone!"

Soon everybody was joining in.

_What happened to his mop head?_

_Thank god it is finally dead._

_Chop chop and off it'll go._

_Chop chop and off it'll go._

They were referring to how Chris might spend time in prison and get his head shaved.

Xxx

With Chris being thrown in the slammer for all he's done until he apologizes everyone was celebrating. Of course Cody and Noah were busy working on something important.

"I'm ready to begin when you are, Noah." Cody said.

"Okay, let's start." Noah replied.

Noah didn't waste a second as he struck the return key. The laptop began to process the long list of commands that both boy geniuses had entered. However when it was halfway done a red exclamation point came up much to their disappointment. The program still had flaws in it meaning they had to start all over again.

"Another failure." Noah sighed.

"Cheer up, Noah. You're smart when it comes to computers. One set back can't be enough to discourage you." Cody said.

"Actually, the last few errors have been very motivating." Noah replied, leaning back in his chair.

"Huh?" Cody had a puzzled look on his face.

"I am a genius with computers. Always have been. In fact I could have probably taught all the computer classes I was in. The mistakes I made the last few days have been the first mistakes I've ever made." Noah explained.

"Probably because this is stuff about taking your body, scattering it into a million pieces and then reforming it in a digital world with nasty AIs, viruses, and monsters." Cody guessed.

"There is that." Noah admitted. "This is one challenge that's forcing me to think."

"And one that'll probably burn your lights out if we keep going."

"Relax, I've spent nearly all my life exercising with my brain. I know how long I can go." Noah replied standing up and stretching his limbs. "I'll go take a walk."

Xxx

"I'm telling you, dudes this party will be perfect!" Geoff said as he and the others were sitting at their table discussing important plans.

"A party to celebrate us being free from Chris? Can't be anything better." Duncan said while carving on the table with a knife.

"This is one party I can get behind." Gwen said.

"Yeah. Hey, maybe we can get Cody, Trent, and Justin to play at the party." Geoff said.

"No thanks, man. Playing at the Aftermath show was bad enough." Trent held up his hands."Plus, we're kind of shorthanded without Harold."

"No problem. It's not like you guys are the only ones who play." Geoff said.

"Do we really need a band?" Bridgette asked.

"I think the occasion calls for one. I mean this is big. Where are we going to find something better than Chris being cut apart in a courtroom?"

"Well for one we all just spent the last hour singing Ding Dong Chris is Gone." LeShawna said. "So I think we all had enough singing for one day."

That was when Cody walked in.

"Hey, guys. What's going on?"

"Making party plans to celebrate Chris getting the boot." DJ answered.

"Sweet." Cody sat down. "What's the plan?"

"Well, Carlos and Kurt have forbidden all alcoholic drinks or any and all drugs despite most of us not even touching the stuff." Gwen said. "Geoff has the idea of putting the Drama Brothers back together as a band for the party."

"Sweet." Cody smiled.

"Dude, do you remember how things went?" Trent asked.

"Sure we had some up and downs but it was fun."

"We sold one album and then we went down the drain."

"Yeah but we could make an awesome version of that Chris is Gone song. Besides I could use a break from helping Noah."

"What have you two been working?" Courtney asked.

"A way to get rid of Shadow without damaging Lyoko or the supercomputer. The best we can come up with is a way to deactivate the disarming sequence for Smith's self destruct program."Cody replied. "Problem is that Noah made the program so encrypted that the only way that could work is a virus."

"A virus to destroy a virus infected program?" Gwen asked with a raised eye brow.

"Pretty much. Shadow took control of Smith after the self destruct program was disarmed and that's what been keeping him alive all this time. So we're now looking for a way to well, deactivate the disarming program." Cody sighed. "So far we are making...squat diddily nothing."

"Well it's just the first day," Gwen said, trying to cheer the genius up. "You two will figure it out eventually."

"And until then you have one kick ass party to help get a load off your backs." Trent added. "XANA won't attack for a few days, so relax a bit."

"I guess we could use a break..." Cody said hesitantly.

"You definitely need one, we all do." Gwen nodded.

Suddenly the door flew open and Kurt came in carrying a box. "Yo! All the junk food and drinks to make your teeth rot and your health go down the drain! Get it while it's fresh!"

"Oh man Kurt you are a life saver sometimes!" Cody grinned. "And I don't just say that because you're the sane producer!"

"What's that about sanity?" Carlos came in, carrying _two_ boxes, one on each shoulder.

"I'm the producer with the sanity, you're the one with insanity Carlos," Kurt said. "That's that they're saying."

"Damn straight," Carlos grinned. "And the insane one just spent Chris' personal stash of Hair Gel money on all this stuff!"

"Yeah well don't bet on Chris being gone for too long Carlos," Kurt frowned. "I've known your cousin for too long to pray he won't get out of situations like this soon."

"Well we have at least today to party." Carlos reminded him. "So I say let's forget about Moppy, be glad our girl friends can come over, and drink until we foam at the mouths!"

"Amen!" Suddenly Duncan, Trent, DJ, Geoff, and Carlos has soda cans and slammed them together before opening and chugging them.

"...aw what the hell, PARTY!" Courtney shouted.

"That's the spirit!" Gwen smiled.

"...Hey, what happened to chef?" Cody asked.

"...Party!" Chef's voice came from outside.

"I think he's celebrating in the trailer, the conditions Chris had him in this time were crappy, and he still didn't get his pay check." Carlos said. "...speaking of we should write one for him, it's a year overdue and he's living off free room and board ,at this rate the studio will owe him a million bucks."

"We should do it now." Kurt nodded. "And as a bonus, get him a nice new bed instead of the flea infested one Chris got him, that way we won't owe him and we prove we're better than Chris."

"Okay," Carlos pulled out a check book. "Ok...Eight hundred forty three thousand five hundred fifteen dollars and seven cents last I check...what was my mop head of a cousin thinking by putting this off for so long? He can retire off this money!"

"But when Chris comes back and holds off for a year, odds are chef will stay again." Kurt replied. "And _then_ he retires."

"Smart plan, I'd go for it. A million and a half after suffering one year with Chris...I might make that deal." Duncan shrugged.

"Would you make that deal?" Carlos asked Kurt.

"I don't know, I haven't been around him most of my life due to him being your family, unfortunately for you so I have no tolerance to him."

"...Kurt, I beat his ass every day, how is that tolerance?"

"You want to know what I'd do?"

"What?" Carlos leaned in to listen as Kurt whispered into his ear.

He sipped his soda...and spat it out. "Wow!...you're evil when you want to be."

"Damn straight."

Xxx

Gwen smiled as she picked up her sketch book and started sketching again. Today was an almost perfect day. For once she didn't have to worry about getting grief from Heather or Courtney, being humiliated in some dumb challenge from Chris, or even XANA or Shadow's evil schemes to take over the world. It was just a quiet normal day. Just as she was half finished drawing suddenly her vision became all blurry.

"Huh?" Gwen brought a hand up to her head as she suddenly got a headache.

Closing her eyes for a second then opening them again, looking at her hand. She could see clearly again as she looked around her room testing her vision.

"That was odd."

She stood up, putting her book down when a wave of dizziness hit her. Once again putting a hand on her head, groaning slightly, she stood up to keep her balance.

'What is going on with me?'

Moving to lean against a wall for support, she pressed her forehead against the hard wall, eyes squeezed shut. "Man, I need something for this head ache..."

She managed to grab the door's knob, twist it, and pull it open. But as she moved out into the hall, she collapsed. It was like she had just gotten up too fast and given herself a dizzy spell, but this one did not fade. She pressed her hands against the floor and pushed, trying to get up, without success.

"Gwen? Is everything okay?" Gwen glanced up and saw Beth and Sierra standing in the hall way.

"I...I don't feel so-" Gwen threw up.

"Uh...let's get you to a doctor." Beth said as she tried to help Gwen up. "We have a doctor here, right?"

"Not Chef!" Gwen moaned, one hand on her stomach.

"I was thinking Kurt or Carlos since they actually seem competent enough for this." Beth replied as Sierra helped her move the Goth Girl.

"God my head..." Gwen went limp.

"Kurt! Carlos!" Beth shouted as they reached the stair well. "Help!"

Suddenly the elevator doors were forced open from inside and Carlos stuck his head out...and the elevator was NOT in this floor. "Lady call for help?"

"How'd you get in the elevator shaft?" Sierra asked.

"Time for that later!" Carlos said. "Kurt!"

Kurt suddenly swung down from the floor above the open elevator doors, swung through the opened doors, and landed on his feet. "What is it?"

"Gwen!" Sierra and Beth said at once.

"Kurt, let's get her to the infirmary and take a look at her." Carlos said, scooping up the Goth Girl.

"Let's not take the elevator this time." Kurt shuddered. "Can't believe Chris did that in there."

Xxx

"What's the diagnosis Doc?" Duncan asked as Kurt came out of the infirmary.

"And hello to you too Duncan," Kurt replied. "Actually we can't seem to find anything wrong with her. According to Beth and Sierra she came out of her room, collapsed, threw up, and claimed she had a head ache. The hallway cameras caught this on tape so they're telling the truth. But when we took a look there was nothing wrong with her. Temperature is fine, no symptoms of sickness, but signs of involuntary emesis."

"Say what?" Geoff scratched his head.

"...she didn't voluntarily throw up." Kurt said.

"Gotta remember Kurt, he's a genius at parties, not a doctor." Carlos, wearing a white lab coat came out.

"...why are you wearing a lab coat in an infirmary?" Trent asked.

"It was all there was." Carlos shrugged. "Plus it looks good on me-"

Rip.

Carlos sighed as his bulging arms made the sleeves rip. "...excuse me." He went back inside.

"Kurt are you sure it's a good idea for him to play doctor with you for our friend?" Courtney asked.

"Don't worry, he's crazy, insane I'll admit, but if he wasn't good with medicine, he and a lot of people around him would have died in the SAS. Heck, Melissa would have probably had a miscarriage." Kurt replied. "And as much of a child as he might act like, and as dopey as he seems," He didn't notice Carlos come out behind him, no longer in the lab coat. "He's actually a whole lot more competent than Chris, and bear in mind we're talking about the same idiot with a mop head and the stability of a two year old."

"Why thank you Kurt," Carlos said. "That almost sounded like a compliment."

"Oh hey Carlos," Kurt turned. "Break anything in there?"

"Not yet," Carlos replied casually. "But Gwen's on her feet now, I just want to give her some pills in case this happens again. She definitely did _not_ fake that."

"Make sure the pills are tested out, you never know if Chris played with the labels," Kurt advised.

"Trust me, I had to test the pills myself." Carlos sighed.

"Were they all...authentic?"

"After I reapplied the proper labels they were...fifteen seizures later." Carlos grumbled.

"...You let yourself have fifteen seizures to test out every drug and medicine we have in there? Are you addicted to anything now?"

"Oh I was...let's just say I had a chance to get over withdrawal on Total Drama Survival." Carlos said.

"So that getaway home did its job then,"

"Yep." Carlos said as Gwen came out. "Gwen I want you to take these pills once in the morning, once before bed, and if you have any more of these episodes, call me or Kurt."

"Okay," She took a bottle of pills from Carlos. "Thanks."

"No problem," Carlos said. "Now Kurt, its back up the elevator shaft."

"Can't we just get chef or Roberto to do it?" Kurt asked.

"Chef is already paid and is out celebrating...don't know where Roberto is." Carlos said. "Plus odds are they'd cause more damage. It's up to us."

"Alright fine, I'll get my stuff, but I want to make sure the disinfectant is properly labelled this time and let's make sure the cables are properly wired." Kurt said. "I almost fell on my head."

"You think that's bad? I almost had a repeat of that Mission Impossible Movie." Carlos said as they walked away.

"Gwen, are you feeling okay?" Trent asked.

"Yeah, a lot better than before." Gwen nodded. "I don't know what happened. I just...felt sick and dizzy all of a sudden."

"Maybe you'd better take today and tomorrow off." Bridgette advised. "You've been working hard on the whole Lyoko thing a lot, Noah and Cody aren't the only ones who need a break."

"Maybe it was something I had at the party," Gwen suggested. "Maybe I was allergic to something."

"Who knows? But just take it easy." DJ said in a placating manner.

"No problem," Gwen nodded.

"...what the hell did Chris do in the elevator anyways?" Duncan asked out of the blue after several moments of silence.

"That _idiot!_" Kurt shouted from the elevator shaft. "He mixed the chemicals together and blew it up from the inside! You say your cousin took a chemistry course?"

"I was surprised too man! Apparently his dream was to design his own hair gel! Perfectly!" Carlos replied.

"Yeah well his perfect hair gel formula almost blew this place up! Chris gets sent to the Big House and we still get screwed over by his idiotic schemes, and we can't kick his ass for it!" Kurt whined.

"Man, and I thought Duncan was troublesome!" Carlos growled. "I changed my mind, the punk is number two on the list!"

"That DOES IT!" Duncan marched away. "Heather, you have scissors, right?"

"Yeah...?"

"Give me them, I'm getting rid of the Mohawk!" Duncan growled.

"Calm down dude." Geoff said.

"Geoff, I'm sick of the punk and Three Days Grace reject comments, the Mohawk must _die._" Duncan said.

"...Yeah, it's the Mohawk that causes the problems." Gwen giggled.

"And the piercings!" Duncan added from down the hall.

"You'll look like a skin head after it's done you know." DJ cautioned him.

"Don't care!" Duncan replied.

"...we need to calm him down before he hurts himself." Bridgette said.

"Maybe he'll calm down after he's done." Courtney suggested.

"Courtney, this is Duncan! When does he ever calm down? He'll mess up and hurt himself and cause trouble for the rest of us!" Trent sighed. "Man this is not gonna end well, he's gonna come downstairs with a big scar on his face!"

Xxx

Ten minutes later, Duncan came down, Mohawk gone, his piercings removed, and he did not have a single scratch on him. He whistled as he set a razor and some scissors down on a table. "Thanks for the loan."

All eyes watched him as he sat down and turned the TV in the lounge on.

"...Pay up." Courtney smirked.

"Son of a-" Trent set several Euros in Courtney's hand.

Xxx

_Gwen was running through a forest, trying desperately to escape her pursuers but no matter how fast she ran or where she turned they were always there just a few feet behind her._

_"Gwen . . ." A voice whispered through the darkness._

_Gwen looked around fearfully, trying to find the source of the voice. Along with the dark beings following her came that voice. She couldn't tell whose voice it was or even if it was male or female. She just hears wherever she goes._

_That was when she felt something on her. She looked down and screamed as she saw leeches squirming and wriggling all over her body._

Gwen's eyes flew open as she sat up on her bed, drenched in sweat. She gasped with wide eyes, feeling her pounding heart, her hands shaking still.

'It was just a dream . . .'

She looked at the time and scowled.

6:30 AM.

'Great. Chris finally gets the boot and I still can't get sleep because of his stupid early morning wakeup calls.' Gwen thought as she rubbed her head.

And that was when another wave of dizziness hit her. Looking around the room Gwen noticed her version was getting blurry again.

'Crap!' Gwen thought as she held up one hand to her head and reached over to her desk where the bottle of pills Carlos gave her was.

She popped one of them in her mouth and swallowed. She waited to see if it would help her feel better. However it seemed the pills had little effect. With a gasp of pain, Gwen fell over, clutching her stomach. Sweat began to form on her forehead as she struggled to stay conscious.

"So much for the pills helping . . ." She muttered.

That was when the pain suddenly faded. She got up, looking around, seeing that the dizziness was now gone.

"I stand corrected . . ."

Xxx

Later, after a shower Gwen was sitting out in the lounge, a blanket around her shoulders and a bottle of water in hand as she watched the television.

"Yo Gwen, you alright?" Cody asked as he sat down on one side of her and Izzy sat on the other side.

"Been better. Those pills kinda helped a bit." Gwen said.

"You don't look like you slept a whole lot." Cody added as he looked at the dark circles under her eyes.

"I don't ever sleep well, that's what the makeup was partially for." Gwen yawned. "Forgot to put it on and all..." She shut her eyes, lightly snoring for a second before Izzy snapped her fingers. "Ah!"

"You're welcome," Izzy said sweetly.

"...thanks." Gwen paused, one hand on her gut, and rushed out of the room.

They heard her throwing up all the way from the bathroom she had rushed into on the other side of the hall.

"...Is she pregnant or something?" Izzy asked out of the blue.

Everyone else in the lounge stopped what they were doing and looked at her like she was . . . well, _crazier_ than usual.

"W-w-what?" Cody asked with surprised look.

"Well if you're pregnant you can be prone to throw up-"

Thunk!

An empty bottle of shampoo hit Izzy in the head. She giggled. "Owies."

"That is one of the craziest things you have _ever_ said, and you've said some doozies." Gwen growled as she limped back into the room.

"Ever try sleeping with a stuffed animal?" DJ suggested. "It worked when I was a kid."

"...I don't have any." Gwen sat back down on the couch.

"Take one of Justin's or Heathers." Izzy said.

"Heather has a stuffed animal?" Gwen looked up at Izzy with a raised eye brow.

"Don't all pampered brats?" Izzy sounded genuinely confused.

"Hey, I've been acting nicer you know!" Heather complained from one of the chairs on the far side of the room.

"Do you have a stuffed animal?" Gwen asked.

"..." Heather went back to her magazine.

"Oh, and where's Carlos-"

"Yo!" As though summoned by magic Carlos appeared from behind a nearby chair.

"Do you pop out every time somebody says your name?"

"You're not the first to ask me that question."

"Am I the first you'll give an answer to?"

"On the contrary you're the first I _won't_ give an answer to." Carlos replied.

"Well your pills, they didn't work."

"What?" Carlos looked at the bottle Gwen held out. "No way, I checked your symptoms and this stuff is the best we have on hand for treating them. Heck I even tried them!"

The group just stared at Carlos.

"Hey, I put my life on the line and had fifteen seizures to make sure Chris' shenanigans didn't cause somebody to have sugar pills to treat a heart attack."

"You can treat a heart attack with pills?"

"...you can help prevent it." Carlos sighed. "Ok I'll check to see if we have anything that might work better. In the mean time just borrowed that stuffed bunny Heather left in the library."

Heather turned deep red.

"Aw, you have a little stuffed bunny?" Darth Alejandro teased her as he wheeled over.

"Don't push me, _Darth _Alejandro." Heather pouted.

"Hey, can't call me Darth in two days from now. The procedure's set up and they just need my folks to sign the paperwork, then I'm back to being my old self!" Alejandro said.

"...now if only if we could decide if that was for the good of the human race." Carlos said after an awkward moment of silence.

"...And I promise not to go on a whole flirty/cheaty streak." Alejandro added.

"...so Heather has a stuffed bunny?" DJ asked.

Heather stormed out.

"Hey, maybe that would help you out Gwen. Sometimes it can have a bit of a psychologically positive effect on you if you have something soft to hold." Cody said.

"Offering yourself up?" Izzy asked with an evil grin.

Cody turned deep red. "I meant she should just borrow Heather's bunny. Heck I'll go ask her-"

Squeak!

A stuffed bunny hit him in the head. "Dang she's got the ears of a bat!"

Gwen looked at the stuffed animal. "...can't hurt my chances, so why not? If it doesn't work I'll give it straight back to her."

"Make sure it has disinfectant!" Heather shouted.

"...okay seeing as we teased her I'll let that go." Gwen said.

Xxx

Noah put down the pencil and stared at his notes.

"Crap. Another dead end." He sighed. "Why'd I have to be so damn smart?"

A knock at the door caught his attention and he turned away from his computer.

"Come in."

The door opened and Cody walked in.

"Hey. How's Gwen?" Noah asked.

"Well let's just say if I never seen her before I would have thought she was the living undead." Cody replied.

"That bad huh?"

"Yeah. Pills didn't do much for her. How are you doing?" Cody pointed at the laptop.

"Slow. For the first time I am cursing my own ingenuity." Noah put the pencil down. "I've been nearly running non-stop but so far no success."

"You sure we're not trying to hard? I mean why not simply design a virus to destroy Shadow."

"Too hard. Smith's program is designed to delete any and all viruses it comes into contact with." Noah shook his head.

"Even though it is infected by a virus itself? Jeremy and the others destroyed the Marabounta when a virus infected the original."

"That was a whole lot simpler because the Marabounta's program was much simpler than Smith's." Noah shook his head. "I knew there was a chance that Smith could be infected so I made sure that if that happened the self destruct program would activate instantly."

"But it didn't because Shadow disarmed it." Cody crossed his arms.

"Shadow did more than that. He turned his whole body into nothing but raw data and used XANA's codes inside him as a virus to infect and merge with Smith."

"And since the self destruct program was not activated and Smith's defences were already weakened Shadow was able to take control."

"Exactly." Noah nodded. "If the test had gone right I could have checked for any bugs or errors. I found a big one a second too late."

"Like I said, Noah, you're not to blame. We just have to be smarter next time." Cody sat down on Noah's bed.

"Oh, I'll be smarter next time. Shadow won't know what hit him." Noah said.

Xxx

Gwen hugged the small stuffed rabbit to her chest. Normally she wouldn't be caught dead but she barely had any sleep in the last two days and for once it wasn't because of Chris being the sadistic host, someone in the dorms complaining about something, or even one of XANA or Shadow's schemes to take over the world and destroy the human race. At this point she was desperate enough to try anything to get a good night sleep. She still hadn't been able to find anything to make her feel something else than feeling a train ran her over.

She couldn't even understand why she was feeling this bad. Maybe it was because the water faucet didn't have a filter. That might be how she got sick. Germs could have gotten into any cuts she had over the last few days.

Or that rough bar of soap. She made a mental note to get a new one. Brushing her teeth and using mouth wash hadn't helped either very much either. Gwen stopped and looked around her room.

'I think I'm going insane. I can't even go a day without washing my hands every five minutes!'

That was when she looked in the mirror and her eyes widened from seeing filthy bugs clinging to her skin, digging into her skin with their mandibles. She tore her face from her mirror, falling to the ground, crying.

'What the hell is going on with me?'

She sat up and looked back in the mirror. The insects were gone now. Gwen sighed, putting on a simple black tank top and black shorts she left her room towards the kitchen for a glass of water. But when she was finally there the room began to twist out of proportion and she now felt lightheaded and her vision showed everything to be so far away. She tried to grip the counter but she had no strength to even left a finger as she fell over.


	40. Episode 39: Contamination

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 40

"AH!" Carlos fell out of the elevator shaft.

"I told you not to pull on that, Carlos!" Kurt yelled one floor above.

"How was I supposed to know it was sensitive!"

"I warned you!"

"Whatever, I'm taking a break. You clean up those chemicals. You're the 'expert'." Carlos walked into the kitchen.

He began to hum. "_Oh I've got a secret pile of Klondike bard, they're almost in my sight! Chocolaty, delicious, they're all mine. Something, something the rest of the song. _"

Carlos walked into the kitchen but stopped when he saw Gwen passed out on the floor.

"Oh crap, Kurt!"

"Yes!"

"AH!" Carlos jumped when Kurt replied right behind him. "Do you always need to do that? And why are you here anyway?"

"I figured why should I clean the rest of the elevator shaft while you were sitting on your crazy butt snacking on your secret stash."

"Well, whatever, we have a problem." Carlos pointed at Gwen.

The girl was even more pale and shaking out of control.

"Oh crap. I'll take her to the infirmary, you check the security cameras." Kurt picked Gwen and Carlos headed to the camera room.

Xxx

_Laughter filled her ears as the shadow creatures reached for her. She tried to run but their clawed hands grabbed her arms and legs. She was forced on her back as a larger shadow, much more terrifying loomed over her. She could hear its laughter watching as it opened its mouth revealing sharp teeth and an even darker abyss._

_It ran a clawed finger down her cheek, cutting the flesh and a small stream of blood came out. The shadow reached for her head before she could scream, covering her until her head disappeared._

Gwen's eyes snapped open and she gasped for air.

"You're awake." Gwen turned her head and saw Kurt sitting in chair beside her bed.

Gwen took a deep breath to calm down. "What happened?"

"I was hoping you could tell me." Kurt replied.

"...I couldn't sleep. I went for a glass of water."

"I see. You must have passed out." Kurt nodded and went to the counter.

Gwen, for some reason she could not understand felt extremely nervous in the infirmary. Maybe it was for sick people or the fact that large air vent carried all sorts of germs.

"I feel better now. Can I leave?"

"Sorry, but we need to you to stay a little longer." Kurt turned and saw how nervous Gwen. "Don't worry. You'll be fine." He reached out to calm her.

"Don't touch me!" Gwen suddenly screamed in a voice that didn't sound like her.

She dodged Kurt's hand by falling off the other side of the bed. Kurt jumped over the bed to see if Gwen was all right but she backed into a corner.

"Gwen, it's all right. I want to help you."

"Stay away from me!" Gwen screamed.

She made a bolt for the door but Kurt grabbed her and held her back down on the bed. She screamed hysterically when he touched her. Kurt quickly dosed her with a sedative and a half moment later she was silent.

Suddenly the door was kicked open...and off its hinges by Carlos, who looked startled and a little fearful from hearing Gwen shriek loud enough to raise his great grandmother-perish the thought. "What happened?"

"She freaked out and I had to sedate her," Kurt said calmly. "Carlos...I think she's got an advanced case of obsessive compulsive disorder. She freaked out the moment I reached out to touch her shoulder, and given how she's been washing her hands most of the time from being so sick she might have developed a phobia for...well to put it plainly, germs."

"Us coming out of the elevator shaft after cleaning Chris' chemical mess didn't help either." Carlos said. "So what do we do?"

"I don't know, I've never seen somebody develop something like this so quickly," Kurt began to list her symptoms. "Throwing up, drowsiness, fatigue, nightmares, aches and pains, and you should see her back."

"This ain't close to south, right?" Carlos asked.

"Oh grow up Carlos you were in the SAS-"

"I only feel weird cuz it's a _minor,_ Kurt." Carlos sighed.

"It's just the back," Kurt sighed, lifting her shirt, and revealing red...well it looks like roots of red spreading across her pale skin. "I've never seen this before."

"Holy...she was fine yesterday compared to this." Carlos said.

"Well whatever it is, it looks like it's spreading, and quickly too!" Kurt said. "Carlos I don't think she's in any condition to participate in the show if this keeps up. We might have to call the hospital."

"Let's get a blood and tissue sample ready for them," Carlos said. "We're way past thinking about this Kurt. She _has_ to get a hospital, no arguments."

"I already got a blood and tissue sample ready Carlos," Kurt tapped a tray on the counter. "And..Carlos?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't whack me for asking this...but what colour is a blood vessel supposed to be?"

"Red, duh. Man I should whack you."

"Well take a look at this and tell me what colour you see when you look at the sample of her blood." Kurt slid a small glass piece with a drop of Gwen's blood under a microscope.

Carlos peered through it. "It's...black?"

"Actually it wasn't totally black when I first extracted it," Kurt replied. "There was a bit of red but...whatever this black stuff is, it's spreading inside and out like a parasite."

"...I'd better make sure nobody else got this," Carlos said.

"Quarantine the infirmary and start asking the contestants when she started feeling like this." Kurt added.

"On it, get the hospital on the phone and tell them we have a possible highly contagious and deadly disease," Carlos instructed his colleague. "I'm going to check on anything of Gwen's that might have this also."

"Just keep it quiet for the others until we know what we're dealing with." Kurt whispered. "This is serious, and if they panic it will get worse."

"Dude, I'm always careful...except when people panic because of me." Carlos said awkwardly.

"Why does that not fill me with comfort?" Kurt asked sarcastically. "I'm bringing up the nearest hospital now."

"I'll go talk to the people she's been hanging around the most for the past few days, possibly her team mates. After that I'll do a sweep of her room for anything else." Carlos then rushed out, but stuck his head back in. "And dude, remember to wear gloves."

"Right, better decontaminate," Kurt nodded, and then the British Man was off.

Xxx

"Well, we managed to get all the way here, and not one accident." Sarah said, amazed as she and Melissa parked in the studio's parking lot. "Not one inconvenience or delay."

"Yeah, it's awesome!" Melissa said. "And it looks like Carlos hasn't blown something up."

"Yeah...maybe I've been wrong about the guy this whole time." Sarah smiled. "You know, this job might have taught the guy something. Let's go find our men and get them some dinner, I'll pay-"

CRASH!

"AH!-!-!-!-!-!-!-"

CRASH!

Carlos landed right on the wind shield, having leaped from a window. He looked at them. "What are you two doing here so soon?"

Sticking her head out the window, Sarah sighed. "I take back what I said."

"Wha?" Carlos blinked.

"Why did you jump out the window and onto the hood of the car?" Sarah asked patiently.

"Well the elevator is broke, the stairs are too slow, I had to warn you two, and I felt like pretending to be James Bond for a second." Carlos said.

"Warn us of _what?_" Melissa asked.

"One of the competitors contracted a disease, unknown, but looks deadly and brutal. Sent her into a fit and Kurt had to sedate her. And before you ask no I am not responsible!"

"...surprisingly I believe you." Sarah deadpanned. "Now where's Kurt-"

THUD!

"Oof!" Carlos grunted as the breath was knocked out of him by Kurt ,who landed on him.

"Oh hey Carlos, what are you doing here?" Kurt paused as he saw the girls. "OH hey girls-wait, the girls? Sarah!" He grinned...and was pulled off the car by one ear. "Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow! Okay-okay calm down!"

"Kurt, what the hell have you two been doing?" Sarah demanded, releasing his ear.

"Not us! One of the competitors contracted something! I don't know what it is, but it's brutal! Hallucinations, headaches, drowsiness, frequent emesis, OCD and most recently phobia towards germs and anything 'unclean'," Kurt said. "Whatever it is, not only is it affecting her biologically but mentally!"

"And you jumped out the window to warn us?" Melissa asked.

"No, Carlos did that. Gwen tossed me out when she woke up." Kurt said. "Luckily I locked the door but we'll need to get the paramedics down here fast, and make sure no one else has contracted anything. You need to stay away from me and Carlos just in case we caught anything."

"Yeah, so-" A black car pulled into the parking lot. "Aw crap, why why-WHY for the love of god did they send him here?"

"Who?" Kurt asked before two men in black suits got out.

"Reggie," Carlos sighed. "Let's just say this, he and I hate each other and he's the leading field agent in France for anything that can make you so much as sneeze and can be passed on. Kurt, we can't let him take control of the situation, his solution is alienating the infected, blabbing the problem to the whole damn world, and all in all screwing things up even worse."

"Got it." Kurt nodded. "Girls just have the time of your lives in town while we deal with a potentially threatening virus." He looked at Carlos. "Carlos get the contestants together and start asking around, and don't mention anything about how serious this is. I'll stall this Reggie guy. I'm persuasive."

"Just make sure that when the World Health Organization rep I texted gets here, she gets to take over, she's a hell of a lot smarter and she's an old friend...and no she isn't an ex." Carlos got off the car. "And if Reggie pisses you off...feel free to punch him afterwards." He ran off.

"Got it." Kurt blocked the two men from getting to the doors. "Whoa now you two aren't getting in here! Who the heck are you and why are you trespassing?"

"Reginald Carter, Parisian Biological Security division." Reginald held up a badge.

"Well ain't that a mouth full, who sent you?"

"The local medical institution alerted our contact that there was a biological threat of great proportions in this building. I am here to contain it-"

"Well pal I don't know what they said but the situation is under control, I don't need your help, and quite frankly things were exaggerated." Kurt frowned. "Now go back in and go back where you came from."

"I'm here to do my job and my job is to make sure there is no threat to the surrounding area." Reggie insisted.

"Well guess what, my job is to keep everybody here safe, and I'm one of the co-producers put in charge of this place so guess what ,you are NOT setting one spit polished shoe in this building." Kurt snapped. "Go ahead and try to force your way in, you still aren't getting by me."

"...there's just one of you." Reggie's partner said.

"You obviously haven't heard of me, have you?" Kurt sneered. "If you think Carlos is a berserker ,wait till you find out what I did when he ticked me off on Madagascar."

"Wait...Carlos?" Reggie growled.

"What ,you didn't know that he and I are the producers on Total Drama or are you too busy flashing your badge and wearing your MIB rip off suit to turn a TV on." Kurt mocked him.

"So he told you about me. Well that doesn't matter because I was told to check this building for any need of quarantine and I am going to do just that pretty boy."

"Take one last step buddy, the only thing quarantined will be what's left of you after I'm done beating you to death with baldy there." Kurt jerked a thumb at the second agent. "I decide who comes in and who leaves, and ass hole, you are NOT getting inside. End of STORY!" He snarled the last word.

"I can do this all day pretty boy," Reggie took off his glasses. "Jim, remove him and detain him."

"On it," The taller, bald man said.

THWACK!

CRACK!

"Agh!" Jim groaned as Kurt hit him across the face and then grabbed his outstretched hand. He broke it at the wrist and then slammed one knee into his gut, knocking him to the ground.

"Might want to get your partner some ice, _Reggie._" Kurt said. "Now I'll say this one more time before you join him with _two_ broken hands. Get. Out."

Reggie took off his jacket and sighed. "I am under obligation to do my job."

"So am I, problem is I'm not being an ass about it. If I let you take control you'd have half the people here isolated for months under a mere suspicion, and I am not letting you lock up kids like they're below animals." Kurt cracked his knuckles. "So if you want to try, then you're welcome to have a seat on the pavement with Jimmy boy there."

Reggie started forward.

Xxx

Everyone was now gathered in the lounge a moment after Carlos called them.

"All right, we've got a bit of a situation. We have reason to believe there is an outbreak of a deadly disease loose in the studio." Carlos started.

"WHAT?" Nearly half of the contestants.

"I can't be sick! I'm too handsome!" Justin wailed.

"I know! The fans will be disappointed if the show is cancelled!" Sierra cried.

"Relax! Calm down!" Carlos raised his hands and voice over everyone. "We're getting it all under control."

"Carlos, where's Gwen?" Cody asked.

Carlos sighed. "Well we have reason to believe Gwen was the first to be infected. We've called the hospital and they're sending paramedics over. But we need to make sure no else is infected. Team Amazon, since Gwen is on your team you'll be the first to looked at to make see if you got infected."

"Where is she?" Trent asked, concerned.

"In the infirmary and no you can't go see her." Carlos replied.

That was when the lights flickered and went out.

"Now what?" Carlos growled but sniffed something. "Anyone smell something burning?"

"Now that you mention it I smell something burning too." LeShawna replied.

"Oh crap . . . The infirmary!" Carlos shouted.

"GWEN!" Everybody-well mostly everybody shouted.

They began to rush out of the room, knocking aside Darth-Alejandro. He shouted as he ended up wheeling over to a set of stairs. "Oh man- OOF! OW! WHY?" He wailed as he fell down the stairs.

Xxx

Fire was beginning to come through the door to the infirmary.

"GWEN!" Trent rushed for it, but Carlos tugged him back.

"If you open that up you'll burn us all!" Carlos said. "All of you GET THE HELL OUT! I'll get her."

With some force Trent was dragged by the other Lyoko Warriors as Carlos rushed to a supply closet. He grabbed several heavy blankets and turned on a tap in the supply closet. After soaking them he draped them over himself and then rushed for the door.

He slammed into it, splintering the wooden door and letting fire shoot out into the hall while he rushed right inside, protected by the moist rags, but he still felt the heat. "GWEN! GWEN!"

He look around the burning infirmary. A light was hanging down from the ceiling, a cable had been dipping rather close to where several beakers had been left...full of liquids Chris had left out.

And the window was open, revealing the clear day outside.

"Damn!" Carlos fled from the burning room, tossed the rags off ,and patted out several small fires that had formed on him. When the last was out, he ignored the stinging pain and grabbed an extinguisher to hold the fire back.

Xxx

Out in the parking lot-where Reggie and Jim were out cold on the ground the cast were waiting in fear.

"What happened in there?" Kurt demanded.

"The infirmary was on fire!" Courtney shrieked. "Gwen was still in there!"

"Carlos stayed up to get her out." Trent added.

"Well she isn't there!" A rather lightly burnt Carlos came out holding a fire extinguisher. "Window was open, west alley."

"I'll check!" Kurt rushed to the west side of the building...and saw Gwen lying in a heap on the ground.

"She's here!" Kurt ran over and looked her over. "Doesn't look burned, just bruised from the fall."

"We need to get her some help." Noah spoke up. "I mean real help. No offense but it won't look _illegal_ if certified doctors look her over."

"There are ambulances on the way." Kurt said. "How the heck did it get on fire?"

"A light broke, and a cable set off some liquids left out." Carlos replied.

"So she couldn't have done this herself?"

"No, take a look at her fists." Carlos pointed to Gwen's hand. "If she broke it on her own there'd be a few cuts there. Maybe she had a minute of sanity and used it to get the hell out of there."

"Alright, I say we move her to the street." Kurt scooped Gwen up. "Carlos, I think while I was busy breaking Reggie's left arm he managed to get a text message off."

"On it, security!" Carlos pulled out a tazer and rushed out to the front parking lot, standing guard...and kicking Reggie once for good measure.

The rest of the cast waited in the parking lot until several ambulances pulled up...at the same time as two black cars with the same logo as Reggie's.

"Aw great, someone take her to the ambulance." Carlos instructed. "Don't stop no matter what is said to you, and don't let the boys in black get in your way. I got them." He hid the tazer behind his back and strolled towards them.

"We are with the Parisian-" The lead agent started.

"Yeah, yeah, Reggie over there explained it and I told him he had no right to be on the property," Kurt said as he carried Gwen out. "Now stay out of our way, we're taking her to the hospital."

"Nobody is going anywhere!" the lead agent objected. "This area must be sealed off-"

"It'll be sealed off when they pick up your teeth!" Kurt threatened him, still moving.

"If you don't stop I will arrest you." The lead agent started towards him and reached out..but Carlos grabbed his hand with his free hand and jammed his tazer into the man's chest. He fell, spasming.

The other three agent started forward. One flicked his wrist and a small metal baton extended. He swung, Carlos ducked it and slammed his left fist into the man's face, and then tazered him between the eyes as he began to recover. The third agent was actually going for a gun hidden under his coat, but Carlos picked up the baton and spun, swinging it and slamming it into the agent's side. He dropped the gun as it came out and put his hand to his now broken rib before Carlos broke his jaw with the baton.

"The man said she's going to a hospital, so get out of the way or I'll kick your ass." Carlos said to the last agent.

"Doctor, I need you to take care of her," Kurt said to the paramedic as he set her on a stretcher. "She has several symptoms to suggest several different diseases at once but I have never seen it before. Whatever it did gave her a high dosage of OCD. If anybody who is not a doctor tries to get near her or says he's there to take her, forget it. Make sure me and Carlos know about it, and nobody gets in her room without talking to us first."

"I understand monsieur." The paramedic nodded and took Gwen into the ambulance.

"Doctor you are in the middle of violating a federal-" The last agent was cut off by the paramedic.

"This girl is a patient and I am taking her to be treated! Take it up with the hospital board!" He then slammed the doors of the ambulance in the agent's face.

"Now that guy knows how to do his job." Kurt grinned.

"You two are going to get dozens, maybe hundreds killed if that girl is contagious! Do you realize just how bad this can get?" The agent shouted.

"Oh don't worry, you'll be too busy after we break all your bones if you keep this up." Carlos cracked his knuckles. "Now take your boys and get the hell out of here. And I'd better not see you or any other black suits at the hospital or I swear to god I'm bringing out something worse than a tazer and a fancy stick." He slid the baton into his belt. "By the way, tell Reg I'm keeping that as a souvenir along with the last three teeth I knocked out of his mouth."

Kurt had begun to walk away at this point. But obviously the agent did something stupid, because the next moment he heard him scream in pain as Carlos brought the baton out and snapped it out to its full length.

Xxx

"Is it me or does this scream of XANA or Shadow?" Cody asked.

"It was kinda obvious," Duncan replied. "One of us gets sick, isolated from the rest, with some 'mysterious' disease and then almost gets burned to death? Something's going down and I don't like it."

"Call Aelita." Bridgette spoke up.

"On it." Trent had his phone out first and dialled the pink haired girl's number.

_"Hello?"_

"Aelita?"

_"Trent! Finally! There was an activated tower."_

"Was?"

_"It shut down on its own."_

"Doesn't that usually mean something is different? A big surprise from XANA?"

_"Why, what happened?"_

"Gwen's sick and she was isolated with some new, never before seen disease. Suddenly the infirmary was set on fire and she almost died. She's safe, but we have government spooks trying to quarantine her and Kurt and Carlos can only break so many bones." Trent said. "Aelita, we need a solution, this thing is _killing_ her."

"_I don't know what to do Trent. This disease cannot be related to XANA, since if it was there would be an activated tower , and there was no Corruption from Shadow's usual activities. _"

"We're coming over to the factory. Take another look...please." Trent begged. "We need to help her. And we might want to avoid using spectres. I think Gwen getting infected by it might have caused this."

_"In that case I would like LeShawna, DJ, Duncan and Geoff to be scanned for infection also."_ Aelita stated.

"Got it, we'll meet you there in ten minutes." Trent shut his phone. "She wants LeShawna, DJ, Geoff and Duncan to get scanned for infections like Gwen."

"You think we've got it bad too?" LeShawna asked.

"You guys had spectres also, and XANA tried to take over that tower. You might have it but he might not be doing anything yet." Cody pointed out. "Gwen could just be target Numero Uno. She's the most experienced to get a spectre, so maybe he's hitting her first."

"Well let's get over there and figure this out." Duncan said.

"Somebody has to go with Gwen," Bridgette objected. "Trent, Izzy, can you go?"

"You got it!" Izzy nodded.

"I'll go." Trent said solemnly.

"Okay, the rest of us will go to the factory." Bridgette said. "We'll call when we get there!"

They split up.

Xxx

The elevator doors opened as Heather, Courtney, Bridgette, DJ, Duncan, Geoff, Noah ,and Cody stepped in the control center where Aelita was already waiting for them.

"Hey there. I've been scanning Lyoko like Trent asked me too, but the result is the same as before. Except for that one tower XANA activated there has been no other activated or corrupted towers." Aelita said.

"Well we know now that Gwen's sickness has a connection with this so now we just need to find out what it is." Cody said.

"In the meantime we should check anyone else who was given a spectre during the last attack and make sure they were not infected as well."

"Got it." Duncan said as he, DJ, Geoff, and LeShawna stepped into the elevator and went down to the scanners.

Aelita waited for the first three to get in. DJ, Geoff, and LeShawna went in and the scanners closed allowing her to scan their bodies and virtual forms.

"All right, you can come out now." Aelita spoke through the head set.

"Well, are they sick too?" Courtney asked, with a fearful look.

"No. They're fine." Aelita brought up their scans. "No signs of anything that could remotely make them sick, let alone a materialized digital virus."

Everyone let out a sigh of relief.

"Okay, but then how did Gwen get so sick?" Heather asked.

Aelita closed her eyes and started to think. "Out of all of you who had a spectre Gwen was the only who was virtualized with one during the last attack."

"And she passed out a second." Cody continued, seeing where Aelita might be going.

"When XANA attempted to take control of the tower Cody managed to keep him from taking complete control but he gained about fifty percent control of it and attempted to extract the Nexus Core of Gwen's avatar."

"Her what?" Geoff asked.

"The best way to describe it would be calling it her Virtual Soul. The heart of her avatar that contains everything. Once you are virtualized your body, your soul, and your mind is broken up and reassembled into a Nexus Core with a virtual form to contain it. Without a virtual form you would be a simple orb of energy . . . Like my father was."

"And if her core was stolen it could have been bye bye for her." Cody said.

"And XANA tried to steal it." LeShawna said.

"And failed, but then again maybe that wasn't his objective." Aelita frowned. "Let's say XANA knew his attempt to steal Gwen's core failed so instead he used what little control he had to leave something in her, even after we went back in time."

"Like something that could make her sick in just a few days." Noah said.

"Since she was on Lyoko it was much easier to send a virus into her, especially since the spectre provided a way to directly infect her without the use of the Scyphozoa."

"Okay, so no we know how Gwen is sick what do we do?" Heather asked.

"We would have to find an anti-virus and then give it to her. But in order for us to do that we would have to get her the scanners." Aelita said.

"Which we can't do because of those health pricks standing between us and her. Kurt and Carlos have their hands full keeping them out." Duncan said.

"Perhaps I can lend a hand."

Everyone turned around, seeing Shadow on the screen with a smirk.

"Shadow." Aelita glared. "Get off my screen and out of my computer."

"So quick to dismiss me, Aelita? You haven't heard me out." Shadow replied.

"Let me guess, you'll cure Gwen if I give you the access codes." Noah said.

"No, if you don't give me the codes XANA will pull the Kill Switch and the virus will kill the spell caster."

Everyone froze when they heard that.

Shadow chuckled. "You didn't think that if XANA had the chance to infect one of you he would use only one function. Yes, it has weakened her, physically and mentally but there is a catch. If she remains in the human world too long it kills her or if the Kill Switch trigger is activated. Already, it is spreading through her, growing while she weakens. And if that's not enough . . ."

That was when the Super scan detected a corrupted tower.

"A little something to motivate you." Shadow vanished.

"That two faced little-" Geoff started.

"Aelita!" Bridgette cut her boy friend off. "We need a way to stall in case Shadow uses the Kill Switch. Isn't there any way to slow him down and not give him the code?"

"...there may be one way." Aelita said. "But it poses an even greater risk to Gwen's health."

"We're all ears." DJ said.

"We use another spectre," Aelita explained. "A spectre would be able to keep Gwen's vital systems functioning, and maybe even delay the effects of the virus, so long as nobody corrupts or infects the tower used."

"And if they take over, Gwen's dead." Duncan concluded.

"That's way too risky!" Cody protested. "A Spectre was what got her in this in the first place!"

"It wasn't the spectre alone, it was going into Lyoko with the spectre," Aelita corrected him. "And it might be our one chance to stall for some badly needed time."

"Well, there's a ton of us here who can go and keep an eye on Gwen." DJ said. "I'll go over and help Trent and Izzy."

"I might as well go too, I got nothing to do here." LeShawna shrugged.

"I'll stay and help take care of the tower." Cody took over for Aelita in the chair.

"Duncan, Courtney, I'll go with you two first." Aelita said.

"The tower's in the Sky Temple sector," Cody said.

"Never gone there before." Duncan said.

"It's a temple in the sky above the mountain sector. Could be loaded with traps, and just like Sector 5 it's got a maze that is _always_ changing." Cody explained. "I can drop you off on one of the exterior areas. The tower's at the top of the temple...but therein lies a problem that prevents us from just flying up."

He showed an image of the Temple...which had a barrier over a tower positioned on the top of it.

"A barrier, great." Noah drawled.

"I managed to plot a route through the temple for you," Cody showed a see through image of the temple, and a red line that went through it. "I'll drop you off on one of the lower decks, you can go inside and make your way up. Should take ten minutes at the least."

"And when ten minutes pass by and I'm not on Lyoko, Shadow pulls the kill switch." Noah said.

"In other words, they picked the perfect spot," Cody concluded. "So get going and let's get started!"

The Lyoko Warriors took the elevator down while those going to the hospital climbed the ladder to the main floor.

Xxx

"Okay, I've said this twice," Kurt said. "I said it for Jimmy, and I said for Reggie, and I'll say it one last time, and hopefully third time is the charm because I am seriously out of patience. YOU. AREN'T. TOUCHING HER."

"Sir, we are under direct orders from the government to make sure that this does not end up being contracted by others." The agent, who seemed less violent and more inclined to try placating Kurt and Carlos said. "We're just trying to keep it from hurting somebody else. I know Reg and Jim can be asses but they were doing their jobs."

"And the hospital staff is doing their job. She's quarantine, they make sure to sterilize and decontaminate when they go in and out of that room. The other contestants have been checked, _we've_ been checked. In fact I heard they already got the park locked down and are checking there." Kurt said.

"So if we know it's contagious we'll find out soon enough, so in the mean time let the doctors do their work and help her!" Carlos added.

The agent, who was discouraged by having seen Carlos personally beat down four of his fellow agents and saw a little blood on the baton hanging in his belt backed off.

"Ok, but just so you know ,my bosses are in deep talks with the hospital staff," The young man said. "And you know what happens if they agree."

"We'll cross that bridge when we reach it." Kurt replied.

As the agent ran off Carlos looked at his friend. "Am I the only one who is thinking something fishy is up?"

"You always think something is up and in this case you might be right." Kurt nodded.

"Trent and Izzy coming to visit I can understand, but nobody else, and they aren't at the studio, and Chef and Roberto haven't seen them in their usual hangouts outside the studio." Carlos said. "Might just be paranoia, or maybe the SAS days catching up, but I seriously think that they're off the grid because of this."

Kurt looked down the hall to where Trent was pacing outside Gwen's door and Izzy was reading a magazine in a chair next to the door.

"...You might not be far off." Kurt agreed. "Let's watch and see where it goes."

"Until we know anything, let's not jump the gun," Carlos added. "For all we know we might end up developing some of Gwen's symptoms out of nowhere, I don't want to end up going on some delusional rampage just because of a hunch."

"Don't worry pal, if you did I'd break your legs for you." Kurt assured his friend.

Xxx

Duncan, Courtney and Aelita appeared in Lyoko, standing on a platform attached to the exterior of the Sky Temple. It was attached to a series of ramps that led to upper and lower platforms, and a path that lead right inside the temple.

"Wow...big." Courtney said.

"That's what he said, now let's go." Duncan, who's avatar had his old Mohawk back said as he drew his sword.

"...you have your Mohawk back."

"...crap!" Duncan stomped off towards the entrance of the temple.

When the three came into the first room, they found it resembled something they might have seen in a course on Ancient Egypt. There were large statues and pillars lining a perfectly symmetrical room, at the end of which there was a large statue of a Dragon Knight with a sword drawn and a XANA eye floating above it.

"...is it me or is XANA getting an ego?" Courtney asked.

"Heh, if you could build yourself a kingdom, you'd probably do the same." Duncan shrugged. "But let's redecorate that hideous statue."

A single blast of green fire blew the head off.

"Boom!" Duncan pumped one fist into the air.

"Let's get moving," Aelita said. "Cody?"

_"Alright, there's a door behind the statue, built into the base." _Cody instructed. _"It'll take you down at first, to a sub level where you'll have to walk 300 meters to a stair well, it'll take you up to three levels below the tower. But there'll most likely be monsters there."_

"Well, we got...about nine minutes so let's go!" Duncan declared ,and all three of them wasted no time in reaching the statue, circling it, and opening the hidden stone door built into the back of the base. Stepping down, they descended the spiralling stairs as quickly as possible until they came out into a large room with many pillars in it, but no statues. A single path went through the pillars into the darkness.

_"Hey, whenever you guys reach a new room it suddenly lights up on the display." _Cody spoke up. _"I think I can bring Heather and Bridgette in."_

"The help would be welcome." Courtney said.

_"She's in the scanner now and...there!"_

Heather and Bridgette appeared in mid air, and landed in front of them.

"...wow, this place looks like something out of that Indiana Jones movie my cousin always watched." Heather looked around.

"Eight minutes: thirty seconds!" Aelita reminded them.

"Right, save Gwen, go fast!" Heather nodded before they began to sprint along the path that was shown to them. Heather remained a little ahead of them, taking long strides.

A flash of red came from above, and she threw herself to the side, rolling, coming up on one knee ,and fired a shuriken up into the darkness ,followed by two more. There was no explosion, only a slowly growing buzzing sound.

"Hornets?" Duncan spoke as the group began to form a circle.

"Can you give us some light?" Aelita asked.

"Gladly." Duncan gathered fire into his sword and shot it into the air. It illuminated ten hornets which began to fire multiple time at them.

Heather and Aelita fired up at them while Courtney spun her staff and Bridgette held her swords out, keeping lasers away from Duncan. The punk had to cut off the fire soon enough, but he kept his sword glowing like a torch to help give the warriors a general idea of where the Hornets were. Four of the Hornets went down by Heather's shuriken and Aelita's Energy Spheres, and the warriors took this chance to continue while dodging or deflecting blasts.

While rushing, Duncan heard the buzzing grow louder and spun, leaping up and swinging his sword. He cut a Hornet in half as it tried to impale him on its stinger. Landing and spinning, he didn't stop to celebrate.

"I see the stairs!" Aelita pointed ahead to where two Dragon Knights with katana blocked the way to a spiralling stair case which had light shining on it from a hole up above.

"Get up, we'll take them out." Courtney said before she rushed the first knight and began to exchange blows with him. Duncan, now able to see the five remaining hornets began to shoot fire at them. He got one, and the four began to hide among the pillars.

Aelita ducked under the second Knight's blade, and Heather extended her wrist blades.

Xxx

"Oh crap, now XANA's activated a tower!" Cody said as the super scan showed an activated tower near the infected one.

"Crap!" Geoff said next to him.

Xxx

Gwen lay down on the hospital bed, seemingly sleeping from the sedatives the doctors had given to make her sleep.

"Well, have we figured out a way to counter this spread?" The doctor asked looking at the sample of her blood.

"None. No matter what we do nothing seems to stop the spread." A nurse replied.

That was when Gwen opened her eyes and sat up screaming with her hands holding her head. The nurse and the doctor rushed over the bed, trying to help her but it was no good.

"_Come to the factory._"

"What?" Gwen asked out loud, briefly opening her eyes to see who spoke but all she could see where the nurse and the doctor trying hold her down as she struggled.

"_Come to the factory._"

She screamed even louder as the pain became unbearable. She began fighting the nurse and the doctor as they tried to hold her down and sedate and give her some painkillers. As she was about to black out she finally kicked the doctor away and fell onto the floor.

"Doctor, are you all right?" The nurse asked, kneeling next to him.

"Yes. But we better get her back into the bed and hurry."

That was when Gwen stood back up on her feet with blank look.

"Miss Madison, you must lay back down and-" The doctor was cut off as Gwen grabbed him by the throat and tossed him over the bed.

The nurse screamed but Gwen ignored her and made it to the door.

She opened the door. Trent looked up. "Gwen?"

"Trent-I-I gotta get to the factory!" Gwen stumbled forward into his chest. "Please...must get to the factory..."

"Gwen I-"

"Gwen, you have to get back in there!" Kurt called as he and Carlos rushed towards them.

"Yeah, before the spooks come back with-"

The elevator suddenly opened. Reggie and five agents stepped out, and moved between them.

"Uh oh, spook squad." LeShawna said.

"Reggie I am SO NOT in the mood for dealing with you!" Carlos said, not noticing that both Reggie and Jim's injuries were gone. "Get back in your hospital room and stay away from Gwen!"

Reggie took off his sun glasses. "But we need to escort her."

"...crazy guy says what?"

"We must escort her, she has to go somewhere." Reggie smirked. "We're just playing escort for her."

"...Reg, you freaked me out in high school and you're doing it again."

"Oh don't worry, we'll be out of your hair in a second. Just let her leave."

"She's not going anywhere with you." Kurt said tersely.

"Gwen, just get back in your room, we'll handle-" Carlos started.

"Urk!" Trent was suddenly slammed into the wall.

"Trent!" Leshawna and DJ shouted as Izzy got to her feet.

"Gwen what are you- whoa boy." LeShawna was suddenly picked up, held over Gwen, and tossed into DJ.

Gwen growled, looking at them. The red veins peeked out from under her clothes now. She rushed for the elevator.

"Gwen, no!" Kurt rushed forward...and was clothes lined by Reggie. "Augh!"

"Pay back, pretty boy." Reggie said smoothly.

"Ok...I don't know what the hell happened." Kurt got up. "but Reggie...if you though any grief Carlos gave you was bad...well...get ready."

Kurt spun and managed to slam his right heel into Reggie's face ,knocking him back. An agent grabbed his arm and twisted it behind him, but before he could apply pressure Carlos slammed into him. Carlos slammed the agent's head into a wall, shattering his sun glasses.

"Someone go after her!" Kurt shouted, ducking under an agent's arm.

"Gwen, wait!" Trent rushed to the elevator, but it shut on him. He immediately swung open the door to the stairs and began to rush down as quickly as he could without tripping.

"Okay," Carlos, now sporting some bruises said as he, Kurt, LeShawna, Izzy and DJ faced the five agents. "Is it me, or did these guys suddenly get a crash course in how to be badass from Jean-Claude van Damme?"

"Aw, nothing we can't handle." Izzy scoffed, and then let out a war cry as she cart wheeled towards the agents, leaped into the air, and shouted. "FOX STYLE!" She slammed her right heel on top of an agent's head, dropping him to the ground, only for him to get back up. "Uh...help?"

The next second she was sent flying back, where DJ caught her.

"Ok...ideas?" Carlos asked.

"Hm..." Kurt pointed at Reggie. "Pork," He then pointed at the other agents. "Or beans?"

"I'm considering going vegetarian." Carlos replied.

"Crap." Kurt said before Reggie charged straight at him. As the agent angled his shoulder to slam him, Kurt leaped up, placed one hand on Reggie's exposed back, and vaulted over the agent...who went right through the wall behind him!

"...definitely going vegan now instead." Carlos said, and then grabbed a fire extinguisher off the wall, slamming it across the face of the nearest agent.

"Little help?" Izzy asked as she ducked out of the way of a lunge.

"Here!" Carlos passed the extinguisher to her, and she swung it up and into her opponent's chin, snapping his head back.

"Hey, gimmee a hand!" LeShawna said as she was slowly backed into a wall.

"Catch!" She passed the makeshift weapon over, and LeShawna slammed it right into the agent's Twig n'Berries...and not even phasing him.

"...this guy's either a eunuch or he got balls of steel." LeShawna swallowed, looking at the now dented extinguisher.

DJ managed to toss his opponent down the hall, but the man got up and looked at an abandoned wheel mounted bed next to him. He suddenly flung it into the air and then tossed it at DJ, sending the poor boy flying off his feet and landing on his back, with possibly a cracked rib or two.

The elevator opened back up as the fight went on. Kurt shoved an agent behind him into it with a simple back kick and hit the 'close' button. The agent was quickly on his way to the roof.

Reggie had focused his sights on Carlos, and was beginning to take off his jacket as Carlos shoved away his opponent. Suddenly Kurt grabbed Reggie's coat and pulled it tight when Reggie had just slid it down to his elbows, keeping Reggie's arms pulled back. Carlos spun and saw his opportunity to rush up and head butted Reggie right in the face...only to collapse after the impact. "...the guy's made of bricks."

"Hit him again!" Kurt shouted ,trying to hold back the raging agent. "DJ, Izzy, the elevator doors!"

The two forced the doors open as Carlos got up. He sent a bone crushing hay maker at Reggie while leaping up, bringing his fist down on the side of his head. Kurt then released Reggie and moved aside while Carlos snap kicked Reggie in the ribs, sending him barrelling towards the open doors. Reggie gripped the sides of the door.

Kurt and Carlos nodded to each other and then charged, yelling as they slammed into Reggie at the same time. They each threw out a hand and caught themselves on the sides of the doorway while Reggie fell two or three stories.

"...you know we kinda committed murder ,right?" Kurt asked.

"Don't look so sure buddy." Carlos pointed to where Reggie was getting to his feet at the bottom of the shaft.

"Oh you have _got_ to be kidding me!" Kurt groaned.

"I say we finish off the other suits and go find Gwen." Carlos said.

"Right!" Both producers said at the same time.

Xxx

Trent was chasing Gwen across the parking lot. She vaulted over a railing and went onto a road below. Cars screeched to a halt, and she made for the tunnel the road led into that led to the hospital's underground parking lot.

Trent went to a lower section and jumped over it to land on soft grass before following Gwen inside.

Gwen found her target immediately. A worker was unlocking his car.

Just as he finished, she snatched his keys and grabbed him by the neck, tossing him away. She got into the car and put the keys in the ignition.

Trent saw the car...and then saw a tool box laying outside a van where another worker was just loading his tools in to leave. He saw a crow bar hanging out of it. Snatching it up, he prayed he didn't rip his own arms off with what he was about to do and rushed for the car as it reversed out of it's spot. Gwen hit the gas as Trent leaped onto the trunk. He jammed the crow bar through the back and sank it through the seat's material. Setting it good and deep, he kept a tight grip on it, swinging his legs up onto the trunk as the car roared out of the parking lot.

The wind rushing all around him, the car moving at over a hundred kilometres an hour, and with Gwen not being too picky about making sharp turns, Trent felt like throwing up already. How the hell did Steven Segal do crap like this?

He curled his right leg up to his chest and kicked away parts of the wind shield. But the glass, though very much cracked and with small parts falling off, still had a layer of plastic between the layers of glass holding it together.

"Gwen!" He tried to shout, his voice being drowned out by the wind and the car's engine as she roared through a four way stop...and barely avoided hitting cars that had been passing ahead of her.

Trent's left shoe went flying off as he just barely missed getting his foot ripped off-courtesy of Gwen scraping against a truck. For a moment Trent was flailing, trying to hold onto the crow bar. His hands were numb and possibly blistering already, so he had to hurry.

He swung his legs back up and broke through the glass with some work.

After a quick vow to never become a stunt double or do anything like this again, he slammed both feet into the back window. His legs went up, and he managed to grip the top of the window frame just as the crow bar tore through the seat and came loose. Struggling and with his upper half left exposed to the dangers of traffic, he pulled himself down into the car and landed in the back seat with a few cuts.

"Gwen, stop this car!" Trent ordered.

She ignored him and wrenched on the wheel, taking a sharp turn that sent him into the right door. He climbed into the front passenger seat and tried to wrench her hands away from the wheel. She struggled and then elbowed him, just about sending him out when the door behind him was forced open. He gripped the seat's head with his left hand, the top of the door frame with his right one, and slipped his left leg around his seat, angling his leg rather painfully so he managed to brace his lower leg around it.

He tried to set himself back on his seat, but Gwen tried to push him back out. And if he went out at this speed he'd be chopped meat by the time he decelerated. He sucked up his courage and jammed his right leg into her gut. As she gasped in pain he buckled in. "Sorry Gwen!"

He slammed his door shut, and tried to forget that by now he was bloodied, bruise, and cut up just about half way to hell and back. He went back to trying to stop this thrill ride of hell.

Xxx

"Uh..." Cody coughed into one hand awkwardly as he watched a news report of a 'High Speed Chase' that was proceeding in the specific direction of the factory. "Hey guys...we might have a problem."

_"How can it be worse with our time down to half?" _Duncan asked.

"...I think that we might have company."


	41. Episode 40: XANA's Poison

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 41

Gwen roared down the bridge towards the factory.

"Gwen, stop! STOP!" Trent managed to slam his foot down on the breaks. The car slid to a stop, managing to come to a halt mere feet from the sudden drop Gwen would have taken to the bottom floor of the factory's main floor where the elevator was.

"Gurk!" Trent gagged as she grabbed his throat and then broke her own window with her other hand. Kicking her door open, she shoved him away and leaped out of the car. She slid down the nearest line and rushed for the elevator just as Trent stumbled out of the car.

Xxx

Aelita and Bridgette ran up the stairs, avoiding traps and monsters attempting to delay them.

"Cody, what's the matter?" Aelita asked.

"_Gwen's here at the factory!_"

"WHAT?" Bridgette shouted. "She shouldn't be able to even move in her state."

"_Well, she's here and she caused a lot of trouble to get here._"

"Cody, don't let her into the lab." Aelita said. "Lock the elevator and seal the lab."

"_On it._"

Xxx

That was when the elevator started moving again.

"Uh oh, the elevator's moving on its own! XANA's locked me out of the elevator controls!" Cody said, typing fast.

Suddenly Trent fell off of the nearby ladder. Geoff ran over and helped the badly bruised boy. "What the heck happened to you man? You look like that yeti after Eva was done with it in season one!"

Trent just looked up at them, and then pumped his fist against his chest once, raised it in a peace sign, and said. "Yo!" Then he collapsed.

"...I don't think he was entirely conscious." Noah said.

Trent had a black eye, several bruises and cuts on his face, his shirt was ripped up and he was bleeding from a few spots, his left foot had no shoe or sock and his toes stuck out from his right shoe. In other words, he was a wreck and lucky to be alive after trying to mimic a scene out of some American action film.

"So why'd XANA bring Gwen here?" Noah asked.

That was when the elevator doors and Gwen stepped into the lab with a blank look.

"Gwen, what's going on, why are you-" Cody was cut off as Gwen backhanded him into the wall.

"Cody, hang on!" Geoff rushed forward but Gwen grabbed him by the neck, slammed her knees into his stomach, and slammed her fist into his face.

He fell over and then Gwen turned over to Noah with an evil grin.

"Meep."

Xxx

"We're almost there!" Heather shouted as she came out onto the Temple's roof first.

It was essentially a large circular area connected to four platforms, one to the north, one to the south, east, and west. There was also some sort of beam that led up to a cross shaped platform with four more towers on it.

"Which one is it?" Duncan demanded as he fended off a Dragon Knight-one of six trying to force its way up after them.

"There!" Aelita pointed to the tower on the north platform.

Suddenly Noah appeared in the air and fell to the ground, slumping as he hit the ground. "Ow...she didn't have to hit so hard." The boy whined as he stood up.

"Noah, what are you doing here?" Bridgette shouted.

"Gwen showed up, beat up Cody and Geoff _and_ already beat up Trent and stuffed me in a scanner." Noah groaned, and then looked up. "Meep."

The group turned as one as something flew down from the clouds. It had large wings, with black feathers, and matching black fur. The body looked like some cross of a cat and a bird's, and it's head was that of an eagle. It let out a cry, splitting the silence of the Sky Temple. It's eyes were blood red, and a miasma of smoke came off of it.

The Gryphon landed before the team.

"A gryphon," Aelita said. "This isn't one of XANA's monsters, it has no symbol!"

"Shadow must be getting into the habit," Duncan said as the warriors took up position around Noah, weapons in hand.

That was when their weapons disappeared.

"Oh crap." Duncan said.

Xxx

Gwen typed away on the computer, a blank look on her face as she finished taking away the team's combat capabilities.

Suddenly a set of hands pulled her out of the chair. Both Cody and Geoff were up and managed to shove her away.

Hopping into the seat, Cody said. "Hold on guys!"

Geoff moved to hold off Gwen but she collapsed to the floor.

Xxx

"Aw man, this sucks!" Duncan said as he dodged the Gryphon's talons.

"Get there, we'll handle this!" Bridgette said as she stepped up next to Duncan.

"Wait, look!" Courtney stopped Aelita as the Tower's red aura turned back to having a blue aura. "It shut down!"

"What about that one?" Heather pointed to one of the towers up above, which had the sign of Shadow's corruption in it.

"Whatever XANA was doing, it must be over." Duncan said, cutting down a Dragon Knight.

"Can't have been an attack, not enough time." Bridgette blasted back two more Knights.

"And the barrier's gone too." Aelita pointed out. "Something is happening-"

The Gryphon lunged at Aelita. She tried to dodge, but was knocked over the side of the temple.

"Aelita!" Bridgette shouted.

Aelita shrieked as she fell through the air like a rock. Her wings were deactivated along with her energy spheres, and she had no ground below her, not even in the mountain region, so instead of devirtualizing she was bound to hit the virtual sea!

But then she felt a change. She activated her wings and flipped in mid air, righting herself. "My powers are back!"

As she flew up, the rest of the team went on the offensive, except for Noah who rushed for the beam that lead to the platform above.

"Just hide up there until we're done Noah!" Bridgette shouted, cutting into the Gryphon's side.

Duncan leaped onto the Gryphon, and began to jab into its back repeatedly as it shrieked and rolled, tossing him off.

Up on the platform, Noah looked around, forming one hand into a sword and the other into a gun as he kept an eye out for any other monsters .

"Hello there, genius."

Noah shouted and spun, firing his gun at a rapid pace.

But Shadow allowed the two Dragon Knights that appeared with him to take the blows and vanish as their life points hit zero.

He sneered, forming a shield that deflected the rest of Noah's hit. Noah roared and lunged forward, swinging his sword hand.

Shadow caught the blade in one hand, and with a scoff, snapped it. Noah backed away, firing his gun again.

"Enough of this." Shadow said.

"Yeah, good idea, bye!" Noah then phased through the platform and began to fall towards the temple below. "Real world here I come!"

But Shadow merely sneered ,watching Noah, and snapped his fingers.

Several tentacles shot out from seemingly nowhere and grabbed Noah, trapping him in a the grasp of a Scyphozoa! Or what looked like one. It was bigger, had more tentacles, and they seemed a lot faster!

"Meep!" Noah squeaked as it focused three tentacles on his head. His eyes widened and he went limp. It began to absorb the desired information from him.

"Noah!" Bridgette tried to get on her board ,but the Gryphon sent her flying. Her life points, down to ten now, had to recharge, so she remained crouched in the stair well.

"Crap!" Duncan said. "Aw man I so do not have TIME FOR THIS!" He shut his eyes as green fire gathered around him.

And then it exploded outwards. All that was left in his place was the Berserker, snarling as it gripped its short sword. It charged the Gryphon, which roared defiantly and took flight.

But before it got too far, the Berserker sank its blade into its head. It froze, and then exploded, sending the Berserker flying and allowing it to land on its feet.

Its next target was the new Scyphozoa.

"Bridgette." He pointed to her. "Squid." He pointed at the Scyphozoa.

"Got it!" With her life points charged, Bridgette got on her board with the Berserker and shot up towards it.

Getting above it, Bridgette shouted. "NOW!"

"Not this time!" As the Berserker leaped off, Shadow met him in mid air ,their blades locked. They landed on top of the new Scyphozoa, which had a rather flat top allowing them to stand. The Berserker growled at him, and they began to exchange blows again.

Shadow easily ducked or blocked each attack, but the Berserker was once again evenly matched with the program.

"Guys! We've only got-oh no!" Cody shouted.

"_Yes._" Shadow hissed.

Then the Berserker stuck its sword through him...and oddly he didn't seem to mind.

The Scyphozoa dropped Noah, letting him hit a hundred feet below and devirtualize.

"What did you do?" Bridgette shouted.

"The codes are _mine!_" Shadow laughed.

"Big deal." The Berserker rumbled. "Kick your ass again and again." Then it shoved him off of the Scyphozoa, and stuck his sword down into the XANA symbol on it.

The Scyphozoa groaned as the Berserker repeatedly jammed its blade into it, taking off hundreds of points with each hit and thousands with each second. The Berserker finally charged up his sword and unleashed all of the energy into the symbol.

It took off all but two hundred life points, and those went with the next two slashes.

Leaping off, the Berserker wiped his hands on each other as the Scyphozoa exploded.

"Aelita, the tower!" Heather shouted. "Hurry!"

Aelita went to the beam, which took her up to the platform above. She wasted no time getting into the tower and ascending to the next platform.

**Aelita**

**Code: Lyoko**

Xxx

Cody, who was still at the computer, sighed in relief. He looked at the screen.

"Tower disinfected. Return to the Past now!"

Xxx

Cody rushed towards Gwen's room. They had gone back a few days. It looked like it was just a few hours after Shadow's attack with the zombies and Arch-Demons. He knocked on it three times and then when Gwen didn't answer he opened the door and looked inside.

Gwen was still on her bed, seemingly asleep.

"Gwen?" Cody asked, lightly shaking her shoulder.

Gwen slowly opened her eyes.

"Cody?"

"Are you all right?"

"I don't know. I don't remember much." Gwen replied, putting a hand to her head.

"XANA put a virus into you using the spectre I gave you when you were on Lyoko." Cody said. "That's why you've been feeling sick."

"I knew there was something wrong." Gwen sat up. "Do I still have it?"

"We need to find out."

"Fine, just let me change." Gwen said.

Cody nodded and walked out, allowing Gwen her privacy. She began to change into her regular clothes but then she noticed something. Dark red lines traveling up her muscles and veins.

"Crap."

Xxx

"Aw man, that looks nasty." Geoff said as Gwen showed the group her 'scar'.

"Does it hurt?" Trent asked.

"No, but I don't like it." Gwen put her shirt back down and sighed. "So going back in time didn't fix me entirely."

"You're not the only one feeling like crap. A squid pulled the access codes out of my head, so now Shadow isn't bound to the super computer...but the good news is that he can't leave Lyoko unless somebody opens the gate." Noah said.

"Dude, I got dragged across the city on a car." Trent said. "I'm pretty sure I was half dead when it was all done, and I'm never watching an action film again because of it."

"I think it's safe to say both Shadow and XANA are taking things more seriously." Bridgette said.

"Considering just how bad things went during that attack I'd say yeah they are." Heather said.

"XANA's methods have been getting a lot more dangerous for us. Even if it was just to use me to get Noah to Lyoko so he could hand the codes over to Shadow. He made me so sick I wasn't able to resist his control when he took control of me. Forcing me to stay awake for nearly three whole days . . ." Gwen said.

"Meaning XANA has really begun to get serious about taking us out." LeShawna frowned.

"But what now? So Shadow has the access codes. What will he do now?" Courtney asked.

"My guess is that he'll continue to try and take us out. Not much has changed. We just need to make sure neither he or XANA opens the gate or we'll end having to track them both in the Digital Sea." Cody said.

"In the meantime you think you, along with Noah and Aelita can find a way to get this virus out of me?" Gwen asked. "I don't want to go through what I went through for three whole days again."

"We're planning to see Aelita tomorrow. It's Friday night right now so she'll have no school tomorrow." Cody said.

"That's nice to know."

Xxx

"I DID IT!" Shadow roared in triumph in the depths of Sector 5.

He did it. The access codes were his. He could now sever the link with the supercomputer. And there was no time like the present.

"Wow, I've never seen you this happy before. Come to think of it I don't I have ever seen you even look happy before." A familiar female voice said.

Shadow turned to see Lilith sitting on a blue block with her arms crossed.

"Now that I have the codes I can sever the link Noah's program has with the supercomputer. All that's left is to open the gate." Shadow replied.

"And this where you expect XANA to come in to help you even though you haven't fulfilled your end of the deal?" Lilith tilted her head.

Shadow frowned. Even though he would be severed from the supercomputer he still needed XANA to open the gate to the network.

"Since the Lyoko warriors have yet to be defeated there is no reason for XANA to open the gate.

"So until you defeat the warriors the gate will remain closed. Don't forget Shadow, XANA delivered the boy to you without having to use the Kill Switch on the spell caster. You owe him not only that but for freeing you in the first place."Lilith replied and disappeared. "Have fun."

Shadow growled at how Lilith disrespected him like that but let it go. She was right of course. He had to put the warrior out of _his _misery. This goes beyond his deal with XANA now.

He intended to take them out. And he knew a way how. If XANA wouldn't open the gate he would blast it open. He headed for the central tower in sector 5.

Once he was inside he floated to the top platform and placed his hand on the screen.

**Shadow**

**Code: Corrupt**

Xxx

When it was morning the Lyoko group was now at the factory Aelita was preparing the scanning program while Gwen went down to the scanners to be scanned. Aelita typed in the last few keystrokes and the program was ready.

"Ok, we're ready, Gwen. Please enter the scanner." Aelita said through the headset.

Gwen nodded and entered the scanner.

"Here we go. Scanning!"

The scanner closed and the ring of light traveled up Gwen's body. As Aelita watched the progress she began to see what was happening.

"Oh me . .. This is not good."

"What is it?" Cody asked, looking at the screen.

"I'll explain in a moment. Gwen, you can come up now."

Gwen came out of the scanner and took the elevator back up. Once it was up she walked in towards the group assembled at the computer.

"So have you figured out a way I can start to sleep again and to get rid of the scars?" Gwen asked.

"And the new hair style." Heather added.

Gwen raised an eye brow in confusion until Heather brought out her mirror and showed it to Gwen. Gwen looked and saw that her hair was changing. It still had its usual style, black with midnight blue highlights but now more than just a few strands of hair were colored blood red at the end. The same color of a tower controlled by XANA.

"What the hell man?" Gwen took the mirror. "This is getting worse by the day!"

She looked at Aelita. "Aelita, please tell me that the scan you ran actually told you something!"

"It did. Gwen, for three days straight the virus XANA gave you made you sick and gave you nightmares for one purpose. To weaken the resistance to his control you gain from going to Lyoko. The spectre Cody gave you provided a perfect a way to try and infect your Nexus Core on Lyoko, a way through the security programs installed." Aelita explained. "Without activating a tower for three days XANA's virus has been weakening your resistance and it was only when a tower was activate that he was able to take control."

"When he used me to send Noah to Lyoko for Shadow." Gwen crossed her arms.

"The Return Trip to the past has slowed it down but it's only temporary."

"So it's going to kill her?" Trent asked, fearfully.

"No. It won't. Shadow told us it would kill which is true from one point of view." Aelita sighed and brought up her scans. "The virus is spreading through her body, infusing her with XANA's own virtual data. It's doing more than just attempting to force her to submit to his control, it's fusing with her."

"Okay this is just sounding more and more disgusting to me," Gwen groaned.

"So what, she'll be like some..cyborg?" Cody asked.

"No," Aelita shook her head. "But she could gain XANA's powers through the link they share, and share his motivation to destroy us. Essentially she would become an avatar for XANA to use."

"There's gotta be something we can-wait a sec," Duncan paused. "I think I just thought of something so nuts it might work."

"What is it?" Courtney asked.

"Remember the Smith program Shadow fused with? It's designed to purge anything that comes from XANA," Duncan said. "Like an antivirus software, right? Just cleans out any files that are infected."

"Yeah, but Shadow has it." Noah pointed out.

"Yeah...but suppose he was enticed to uh...purge Gwen?" Duncan suggested.

"...What are you planning?" Bridgette asked.

"Well just hear me out on this," Duncan said. "Now, Shadow still can't escape Lyoko because he needs somebody to open a portal to the digital sea, right?"

"Right."

"So what if we were to get Gwen to Lyoko, and she and Shadow fight." Duncan said.

Noah's eyes widened. "Of course! Every one of Smith's attacks, from energy to close range were designed to carry the coding to purge XANA! If she got hit by him, there's a chance that the XANA based infection inside of her would be destroyed!"

"All we need is for me to not be controlled by XANA when this happens." Gwen said.

"We need Shadow in the open," Trent added.

"...I'll play bait." Duncan said simply. "The guy hates me more than the rest of you here, so if I go out he'll go out to challenge me. Then Gwen comes in, he tries to devirtualize her, and then he wipes out XANA's programming inside of her."

"It could actually work!" Noah nodded. "I specifically designed Smith so that any files infected by XANA would only be cleared of infection and not destroyed. It could leave Gwen unharmed! And I know for a fact Shadow can't change that part of Smith, I had it locked down with an entirely different set of defences like the self destruct codes. It wouldn't destroy him if he tried accessing the weapons systems, but he'd take years with all of the defence settings I built in. He'd probably be calculating at the same speed Smith did so we'd at least have a few weeks before he could delete any Anti-XANA programming...not that he would anyways, but he couldn't redesign it either."

"So we have a plan then!" Geoff said. "Gwen goes in, Shadow gives her his own little version of a cure, and then Gwen's better!"

"In a nut shell!" Cody nodded, grinning.

Xxx

Duncan landed in the Desert Sector of Lyoko, pulling out his sword and looked around.

"Okay, here I am." Duncan said, holding his sword over his shoulder. "Oh, Shadow! Yo-Ho! Here I am! Come out to play!"

"_Could you be anymore immature?_" Courtney asked from the computer.

"Hey, I'm just trying to annoy him to coming out. " Duncan replied. "Here batty, batty, batty, batty! Here, batty, batty, batty! One annoying punk out here right for ya!"

Duncan stopped.

"Wow, that's usually enough to get a whole mob assembled."

"_Maybe's he a bit smarter than you think._" Courtney said.

"Oh please. I've seen his temper."

That was when he noticed something about the landscape. It seemed a bit darker. The Desert sector usually was alive with orange sunlight but now it seemed, gray. Darkish as if the life had all been sucked out of it.

"Hey, Aelita, something looks wrong with the landscape."

"_What do you mean?_" Aelita asked.

"Well, the color seems a bit off. The sky's starting to get darker and the ground looks a bit grey."

"_Hang on._"

Xxx

No sooner had Aelita said that, Gwen who was waiting in the scanner room for her turn to be sent into Lyoko suddenly collapsed.

"Gwen!" Trent shouted as he, Bridgette, and the others ran over to her.

"Aelita, Gwen just collapsed!" Bridgette shouted.

"It must be that damn virus!" Heather said.

"Get her into the scanner. I think I know what is happening." Aelita replied. "Duncan, wait for the others, we're coming to Lyoko."

"_Okay._"

"What's going on?" Cody asked.

"Shadow's trying to take permanent control of Lyoko." Aelita stood up.

"Huh?" Geoff said.

"Doesn't Shadow technically control Lyoko already?" LeShawna asked.

"No. Until now he's been a virus, corrupting the towers to use them. The towers are how he and XANA influence the real world. Shadow wants to expand his influence by force." Aelita said.

"And what happens if he does that?" DJ asked.

"He could infect multiple towers at once, his ability to reach out into the world would be magnified." Aelita said, gravelly. "Worse, if he can activate all the towers in Lyoko at once there is a chance he could reach out and corrupt the real world like Lyoko."

"Meaning he could create monsters, possess hundreds of people, possibly even influence the weather and even control the Earth under our feet!" Cody said, concerned.

"And once its complete he'd be free of Lyoko forever." Aelita finished.

"That's like...Armageddon!" Geoff said.

"Apocalypse!" Heather added.

"End of the world!" DJ said fearfully.

"So how do we stop it?" Courtney asked.

"Cut him off at whatever tower he's using." Aelita replied. "I'm heading down. Cody!"

"On it!" He hopped into the chair.

"There's something you should all know..." She sighed. "If you go in there, there may be a chance Shadow can take control of Lyoko's basic programming if he has gained control of enough towers, he could cut off the scanner program, making our life points active if we don't move fast. There's a chance you could all die if we fail."

"We all die if he wins anyways," Bridgette pointed out.

"There's no getting around it, let's get going, I want to get even with him." Noah said.

"Get in line, I owe him for possessing me!" Heather snapped.

"Anybody who can go, _will_ go." Aelita said firmly. "Cody, locate the central tower in Sector 5, it's the most likely tower Shadow would choose."

"On it!" Cody nodded and began scanning.

"So what do we do when we reach the tower?" Courtney asked.

"That'll be the easy part. Cody, when I'm in the tower I'll upload a programto contain and block out Shadow's infection. He'll still be able to corrupt one tower at a time but he'll never be able to do something like this again. Now let's not waste time here!"

They rushed for the elevators.

"Duncan ,they're heading for Sector 5, head for the edge of Lyoko and wait for the transport orb." Cody said.

_"On it. But what about Gwen?"_

"She passed out from the virus."

_"Are you sending her in here?"_

"We're going to try an improvise into making this plan work." Cody never specifically said anything about the plan, as Shadow could be listening in. "She'll be with the others."

_"Well I'm almost at the edge of the sector, so be ready."_

"I'll drop the orb for you."

Xxx

Duncan slid to a stop at the edge of the furthest platform from Lyoko's core. "Ready and waiting!"

The transport orb floated down and enveloped Duncan. It then shot towards the center of Lyoko.

Xxx

Meanwhile, Aelita, Courtney and Noah appeared in Sector Five. Thirty seconds later they were joined by Heather, Trent and Izzy. As they waited on the bridge outside the room they entered from, Bridgette appeared with the unconscious Gwen.

And finally, the transport orb deposited Duncan in the middle of the room. "Miss me?"

"I think I miss the Berserker more." Courtney joked.

"We have to locate Shadow," Aelita said. "Follow me!"

With Duncan carrying Gwen over one shoulder, the team rushed across the bridge and down the stairs to the first room. As they moved they noticed that like the Desert Sector, Sector 5 has lost its blue color and now dark, grey, and lifeless.

"_The tower's not too far from you._" Cody said.

"That means Shadow should just be up ahead." Aelita said.

"Wrong, he's right here!" Shadow landed in front of them, appearing in the middle of a small crater he created.

He stood up and held out his sword.

"Well, just the bat we were looking for." Duncan said.

"You figured out what was going on eh?" Shadow replied.

"You're trying to escape Lyoko on your own." Aelita said, holding out an energy orb.

"Heh, you came, knowing that if you are devirtualized you would die, without thinking that I lured you into a trap. Isn't that right?"

That was when Shadow transformed into his second form. His form glowed black, making the sector look even darker.

"Big deal. I've faced that already and won." Duncan said, handing Gwen over to Trent.

"Why did you bring the spell caster here in her state? Knowing that inside her XANA's virus continues to grow while she weakens." Shadow said.

"Her? Oh, she just found out about your plan but seeing as you usually get your virtual ass kicked by me so much she decided to take a nap and let me do it again." Duncan said nonchalantly.

"I don't think so. You know what will happen when the virus takes her over. Did you come to trick me into getting rid of it? Knowing that I could now destroy any program associated with XANA." Shadow said, smirking. "Hehehehe, thought you could trick me huh?"

"Well actually we didn't think it would take all that much work." Duncan shrugged.

Shadow sneered. "Well, trash that plan, I'm content to let her rot."

"Hm...in the case we'll have to improvise." Duncan said.

"Because this plan depends on her being devirtualized by you." Trent added. "So...CATCH!" He tossed her to Duncan, who leaped at Shadow.

Surprised, Shadow wasn't sure how to react when Duncan, holding Gwen under one arm used his free one to swing his sword at Shadow, using Gwen as his human shield.

"Who'd have thought-" CLANG! "You could use-" CLANG! "Somebody like a shield and-" CLANG! "Say it's for their own good?" Duncan said as he continued to swing and stab at Shadow.

Shadow parried, but could not counter attack without hitting Gwen and spreading the Anti-XANA effect to her. He tried to go around, but Duncan would always move with him, or one of the warriors fire off an attack to make Shadow hold his position. Duncan kept up the attack.

"Come on quit trying to hit me and hit me!" Duncan taunted him, cutting his shoulder.

"You're pressed for time, I'm not! All I have to do is wait until all of Lyoko is corrupted ,and then it's over!" Shadow snarled.

"Uh...you really don't pay attention, do you?" Duncan raised an eye brow.

Shadow looked around...and saw that Aelita, Bridgette, Courtney, and Izzy were gone! He growled. "You little-"

"Can't say punk, got rid of the Mohawk!" Duncan cut him off.

"Then what's that on your virtual head?" Shadow smirked, pointing his claws.

"...Shut up." Duncan shot green fire at him. Shadow made a shield to block it and looked around.

He had left the tower guarded by two Gryphons, but Aelita only needed a few seconds in the tower to stop him, and the Gryphon's-being hard for him to make at the moment wouldn't be able to damage it enough to force her out in time. He had to stop her, but couldn't with most of the team here in his way and pressing him to attack a target he couldn't afford to hit.

...in the end he had to make a choice, and so he chose by impaling both Gwen and Duncan on his claws.

Or tried to. Just as his claws was about in an inch away, Gwen's eyes opened. A green wind aura surrounded her, blowing both Shadow and Duncan back. Shadow slammed into the wall, while Duncan flew back and hit floor hard. Shadow growled and stood back up, looking at Gwen.

"Spell caster . . .."

Gwen smiled at him, which scared him. It wasn't the smile that scared him but her _eyes_. Her hair had become blood red, almost luminous and fell to the middle of her back. Her eyes were blood red with the Eye of XANA replacing her human ones.

"Gwen !" Trent exclaimed, horrified by Gwen's new appearance.

Heather, knew what it was like to be possessed since Shadow had taken control of her before. She could only imagine the trauma Gwen must be going through.

"You've transformed, Shadow. Yet you look even uglier each time." Gwen said, her voice not sounding like her at all.

"Hehehe, so XANA has finally taken over." Shadow said.

"Yes, they delivered me straight here as soon as they discovered your plan. And with the scanners cut off it looks like they could be finished this time."

"Yes. This is perfect! Between you and me we'll tear through these humans as they are nothing!" Shadow said, standing next to Gwen.

"You sure about that?" Gwen asked before taking out her scythe which now had blood red streaks on its blade and stabbed Shadow in the chest.

Everyone was shocked but none of their shock rivalled Shadow's.

"What?" Shadow sputtered.

"You actually thought we didn't know. That as soon as you completed the transfer you would not only destroy them but destroy us as well." Gwen said, glowing purple. "Since I needed to way to catch you off guard the spell caster was perfect. As a reward allow me to show you a spell I have given her. Feel the poison spread!"

The blade of Gwen's scythe glowed purple and dark energy coursed through Shadow's body. Shadow was in pain, he screamed as he tried to push Gwen aside to the get the scythe out of his chest.

"This is the price of treason Shadow, mankind has always punished traitors accordingly," The possessed Gwen smirked as he writhed. "Their punishment was death."

Shadow couldn't even respond. He was groaning and grasping the pole of the scythe.

Suddenly, with a burst of strength he forced it out with a cry. He then slammed Gwen back with a small shadow blast and leaped away, holding his wound.

"Bastard...I'll get you for this." Shadow hissed. "I used to be your best General, you made a mistake tossing me aside!"

"I did no such thing," XANA growled. "You betrayed me like the petty little child you truly are. Lilith was obviously the better choice over you."

"Wrong," Shadow said tersely. "I'll come back, and when I do...I'm gonna delete you. But first...I need a distraction." He smirked.

"What's so funny?"

"You forgot...I struck you with a variant of Smith's attacks...which deletes your coding. I admit I'd rather kill her, but I'll settle for showing you just how damn good I am at destroying you." Shadow snarled.

"It doesn't matter now. Do you know what the virus has done to you?" XANA titled Gwen's head. "It's destroyed the disarming sequence for the Self Destruct Program. The program will self destruct in seventy two hours, taking you with it."

"...then I'd better work fast." Shadow said before he went into a shadow sprint and vanished.

XANA looked down as the signs of his infection began to fade. "Oh well.." He said as Gwen's red highlights turned blue. "If he doesn't figure out how to disarm it, he's done for. Even if he survives...I'll be waiting to send him back to where I got him from as punishment." He paused. "I'd kill you all or maybe take this girl with me, but...as a bit of...an award for stopping him, I'll let you off this once."

Suddenly Gwen began to spasm. She collapsed, all signs of XANA's infection had vanished, but the veins remained, now just coloured differently. And she had more blue in her hair.

"Cody, devirtualize us, we have to check on Gwen!" Trent said.

"_Hold on, Aelita's almost at the tower!_"

Xxx

As Aelita, Izzy, Bridgette, and Courtney ran into the chamber with the tower inside the two Gryphons that were guarding it roared and charged forward.

"I got this!" Izzy shouted and morphed into a tiger and jumped on one Gryphon, wrestling with it.

The second Gryphon flew at the others just as Bridgette fired an energy wave. The monster growled as the energy wave burned into its chest, leaving a scar. It swiped its claw at Bridgette, knocking her into the wall. Courtney ran forward, dodging a claw and jumping onto its leg, traveling up until she was on the back of its head.

The Gryphon roared, trying to shake her off but Courtney held on for a second. It sent her flying into the air above it but Courtney fell back down and stabbed it between the eyes with her staff. It fell over and dissolved. Aelita ran into the tower.

"Cody, I'm in."

"_All right, I'm inputting the program._"

Ascending to the top of the tower Aelita walked forward and waited for Cody to say it was done.

"_All right it's done!_"

Nodding she placed her hand on the screen.

**Aelita**

**Code: Lyoko**

"Tower deactivated," Aelita said.

Xxx

_"Devirtualization."_

Three at a time, the warriors began to return. First Aelita, Trent and Gwen fell out of the scanners.

"Gwen!" Trent rushed over and helped her up, letting her lean on him. "Gwen are you alright?"

"Yeah...a lot better than before." Gwen look down at herself. "Yeah...I feel great!"

"Oh thank god!" Trent pulled her into a hug before he even began to think about what to do or say.

Deciding to let him have his happy moment, Gwen hugged him back.

"Glad to have the red out of my hair, blue is definitely my colour," She commented, running one hand through her now ocean blue hair after Trent released her. It was odd that her hair color would change after being free from XANA's virus but she wasn't complaining about it.

Just as the elevator opened up and LeShawna, DJ, and Geoff rushed out to see her.

Xxx

"Yep, you are one hundred percent XANA free." Cody said as Gwen stepped off the elevator after undergoing a scan.

"That's good to know." Gwen said. "So XANA used me to try killing Shadow."

"And he might have succeeded," Noah added. "He was right when he said the disarming program was off. Now the timer countdown is on, and when it ends Smith will self destruct and take Shadow with him."

"Then let's celebrate." Geoff said. "One guy off our back!"

"Yeah, and Gwen's all better!" Izzy cheered.

"Let's pass it off as a second 'Chris is Gone' party." Bridgette added.

"..aw heck let's invite Aelita and say she's somebody's cousin." Courtney suggested.

"I'd gladly go with you all." Aelita smiled warmly.

"Then let's go! Carlos still hasn't emptied Chris' stash of junk food!" Duncan said. "And I memorized the combination to the door."

"...you're still a punk." Gwen giggled.

"Damn it, if I have to get a freaking comb over to stop people from saying it then you might as well just virtualize me into the middle of some monsters and activate the life points." Duncan grumbled as the entire team got onto the elevator.

Xxx

Carlos whistled as he came out of his room looking rather messy. His shirt was partially tucked in, and he was missing a shoe.

Kurt looked up as he came into the lounge. "What the heck happened to you?"

Carlos just looked at him and did the following: he pumped one fist to his chest, raised it in the peace sign, and said. "Yo!" Then he collapsed.

"Melissa," Kurt sighed.

"I heard them all the way from the freaking bath room." Sarah said as she walked in, drying her hair with a towel.

"...If they keep this up they'll be parents of four."

"Most likely five." Sarah replied. "I have bets going with the girls from work."

"You know, I'll go for them having six." Kurt replied.

"Good bet, most of the people bet on it."

"Awesome!" Paused. "So what happens if we win?"

"Well if a guy loses he has to-" She whispered the rest to him.

"Are you trying to make us lose?" Kurt looked at her.

"But if a girl loses-" She whispered the rest.

"Ooh! You and those girls are so naughty!" Kurt grinned. "Please god let me win!"

Carlos shot up. "Don't count on god to help you with adultery!" He then collapsed again...but then sat up. "Especially when I'm in on the bet!"

"You're betting on how many kids you'll have?" Kurt asked.

"I can't say no to a good bet." Carlos grinned dumbly.

"Yeah, I know because you kept going to the horse track for a whole month and wouldn't stop until you won more than you lost...speaking of how is that going?"

"I'm almost up to where I was before I lost those first few bets!" Carlos stood up. "Gonna win again this time baby!"

"He's gonna lose." Sarah sighed.

"He won the last four bets so far." Kurt said.

"That's because somebody taught him to read the correct names and who he was betting on." Sarah pointed out.

"And those four did put him up from being under for fifty thousand to..." Kurt calculated. "A thousand under."

"And I'm gonna win a thousand more!" Carlos said.

Xxx

Ten minutes later...

"YOU BLOW HORNS!" Carlos shouted to the ceiling, on his knees. "Unjust! Unjust! Who's idea was it to ride out into the playing field and knock that horse down? NO! Oh man this sucks so hard!"

Kurt smirked. "Ok, you were right."

""I never saw that outcome coming though." Sarah admitted.

"Well you won this bet, what do you want?"

Sarah grinned, grabbed him by the shirt ,and dragged him out. "Come with me big boy!"

Kurt sputtered, and grinned. "Good night Carlos, good luck!"

Carlos moped. "Back to five thousand under. So close..." He paused. "Hey wait a damn second, why the hell are they accepting bets from a race where some moron slammed into a horse on a bicycle? I want a do-over!"


	42. Episode 41: Lyoko's Apocalypse

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 42

"Yo, everybody, I am Co-Host Carlos."

"And I'm Kurt." Kurt waved.

"And we are taking over for Chris McLean as hosts of Total Drama Reality. So last time, our contestants went into TDR virtual world created by my video game cousin, Mike." Carlos said.

"Where they faced, zombies, Arch-Demons, and Vampires!" Kurt said.

"It was bloody, brutal, and _awesome_!" Carlos said.

"In the end Team Victory attempted to send Lindsay home but instead she stayed on account of two contestants being eliminated early." Kurt said.

"And now with Chris gone we don't have to worry about our funds being embezzled." Carlos said.

"So now we can enjoy a Chris free challenge. Will we do any better than Chris? I hope so." Kurt said.

"I am sure we will. Now let's get ready." Carlos said, hold out his shotgun.

"Carlos . .. What's with the shotgun?" Kurt asked.

"Oh, I was chasing Roberto away from my Klondike bar stash." Carlos replied tossing the shotgun out the window.

"What insanity have we stepped into? Find out today, on Total . . ."

"Drama . .."

"REALITY!" They both said.

...

"Do we really have to say that?" Kurt whined.

"It's in the script man." A worker said.

"Hey Carlos did you really have to show the shotgun?" Kurt looked at his co-host.

"It was a last minute thing. Roberto was there, I just reacted." Carlos said defensively.

"He wasn't hurt ,was he?"

"Nah, he's fine."

A moment later Roberto wailed from the next room. "RIGHT IN THE BUTT CHEEK! OUCHIE OUCHIE OW-OW-OW-OW!" He wailed.

"Yep, totally fine." Carlos nodded, not losing his composure.

Xxx

"...that was oddly better than how Chris does it." The Director said, once again speaking through a TV that was set up behind the contestants.

"He's not gonna be using a shotgun while the show's airing, will he?" Gwen asked.

She had trimmed her hair back to its usual length but it was still colored all blue after her last trip to Lyoko. Everyone not only noticed her new hair color but she changed her clothing as well. Instead of wearing her corset she wore a black tank top, a dark blue mini skirt with black swirls along with her usual boots and stockings.

"Nope, he already promised not to." The Director shook her head. "He'll just beat that hair bastard's ass if he tries anything again."

"Oh thank god." Several people murmured.

"Okay, everyone." Kurt said. "Since Chris is gone we'll be doing something different."

"Like try not to kill us?" Noah asked.

"If you don't annoy us then yes." Carlos replied.

"Well, seeing as each team has a genius in it let's say how well they do in a robot fight!" Kurt said.

The only people who cheered were Cody, Sierra who was cheering because Cody was cheering, and a few others.

"All teams has fifteen minutes to assemble their robots out of whatever they find. Anything goes as long as there's no damage outside of the arena." Carlos said.

"We have brought in all the parts needed to assemble a robot. You all decide what to do with it." Kurt said.

Xxx

Confessional: Cody

"I may not be the most physically strongest but I know how to build a robot."

Xxx

Confessional: Geoff

"Great. We're the one team who doesn't have a genius with us. I think this is karma kicking us in the heads for voting Harold off way back."

End Confessional

Xxx

"All right, we leave Cody and Fanzilla here to plan and build the bot while we gather the parts. Got it?" Heather asked.

Everyone on Team Amazon nodded.

"We leave it to Al and Noah to build the bot." Duncan gestured to them with his thumb.

"Yeah, leave me and the eel to do all the work." Noah said.

"Hey, if you're so smart you can do it." Alejandro replied.

Meanwhile Team Victory was working on a way to build their own robot. They had all the parts needed but they were missing one thing. The brains to build a robot.

"Come on guys, it's not over yet! We can do this!" Geoff said.

"But how? None of us know are to build a robot." Bridgette said.

"Uh..." Lindsay looked up. "I got an A- in a mechanics class before this season started. The teacher had us build robots for our practical."

They all stared at her.

"You," Bridgette pointed to her. "Took a mechanics class? And built a robot? Which didn't blow up?"

"Totally!" Lindsay nodded.

"...I think the world just stopped." Geoff whispered.

"Yeah, what next? Chris turns good? Carlos goes crazy on us?" Trent asked.

"TOO LATE!" Carlos shouted from across the room.

"Dang those bat ears of his."

"It's not my hearing, the room sends out an echo!" Carlos called to him.

"Anyways, I guess we have nothing to lose. Find some parts for the rich girl!" LeShawna said.

The teams scattered and gathered parts for the builders. Ten minutes later nearly everyone had been all over the studio gathering parts no matter how small or insignificant it would look. Cody was sitting on the floor with a large piece of paper in front of him that contained various designs of what the robot his team was building would look like. Lindsay was putting things together, taking them apart, and just kept on repeating it.

Noah on the other hand was just simply reading his book. As for the other members who were not building the robots, Heather and Courtney were sitting on a wooden bench. Sierra was sitting next to Cody, staring at him. Others had wandered off to the kitchen, their rooms, or taking a shower since they were allowed to.

_One hour later . . ._

"Time's up!" Kurt called. "Present your robots!"

Team Victory's robot was by far the most impressive, as it didn't have any holes or dents in it caused by sloppy construction skills. It was on four wheels, and had a chainsaw mounted on the front. It also had spikes on the side. Lindsay had managed to design it so that she could move the robot sideways also and spin on the spot to make up for the lack of defence at the robot's back. It was essentially a rectangular prism on wheels.

Team C's robot was pitch black and shaped more like a ramp. In the center of that ramp was a circular chainsaw blade. The advantage of this was that if it moved fast enough and slammed into a robot, it would send that robot right onto the blade and cut it in half. It also had spikes on the back of it.

Team Amazon's robot seemed like it had been done in a bit of a rush compared to the others. Some of the metal plates did not look properly welded or attached, and the chainsaw blade that stuck out of the front and the back bounced a bit, indicating they were not entirely secured inside the dome shaped armoured shell.

Xxx

Confessional: Gwen

"I've seen a lot of crazy things but when Lindsay managed to actually _build_ a robot by herself, I thought I woke up in a parallel universe."

Xxx

Confessional: Heather

"How is it even _remotely_ possible that _Lindsay_ could actually assemble a robot on her own? It's mindboggling!"

Xxx

Confessional: LeShawna

"I thought for sure we would lose but then rich girl goes and surprises the socks off us."

End Confessional

Xxx

"Time to fight!" Kurt shouted.

Cody, Lindsay, and Noah each pushed a button on their remotes and the robots in the ring came to life. Carlos walked out in a referee shirt and whistle.

"Welcome to the first ever, Total Drama Battle Bot League!" He announced. "We have three robots representing three teams and only one will be leaving alive! And . . . . FIGHT!"

Each robot came to life and charged at each other. Team Amazon's dodged Team C's attempt to cut it apart with its chainsaw while Team Victory attempted to cut both of them apart. Everyone who did not have a remote watched in suspense as the three robots went at it, performing all sorts of manoeuvres that looked strange to some and to other was amazing. It was getting intense though as the three bots attempted to tear each other apart.

That was when Team C managed to catch Team Amazon's bot. Cutting into it.

"We're caught!" Cody exclaimed frantically.

"Do something, Cody!" Sierra cried.

"I can't! They've caught us!"

That was when Team Victory's robot slammed into Team C's robot and managed to cut into it with its chainsaw.

"Got them!" LeShawna shouted triumphantly.

Luckily Team Amazon's robot managed to get free and avoided getting cut up.

"Do something, man!" Duncan said.

"Can't, lost control." Noah said attempting to steer. "We doomed."

"DOOMED!" Izzy shouted.

"Take'em out, Cody!" Heather shouted.

Cody sent the Amazon robot to try and take out the Victory robot but Lindsay turned it and Team Amazon's bot ran straight into the chainsaw.

"NO!" Sierra, Beth, and Heather cried out.

"Yes!" Bridgette exclaimed.

The members of Team Victory cheered as the Victory robot spun in celebration . .. Or because Lindsay left it moving that way.

"Well, that was fun to watch. The action, the suspense, the robots getting chewed out by chainsaws!" Carlos said.

"What was even more surprising was how _Lindsay_ managed to build a robot on her own, make it look awesome and take out the other robots when Cody and Noah designed them." Kurt said.

Xxx

Confessional: Cody

"How was I supposed to know she was that good?"

Xxx

Confessional: Noah

"Good thing the parts here sucked."

Xxx

Confessional: Lindsay

"Can anyone tell me where the camera is?"

End Confessional

Xxx

"Since Team C was the first to lose they will be sending someone home tonight." Kurt said. "Decide who you wish to sent home and wait for us in the elimination room."

"Team Amazon comes second so they got lucky. But for how long?" Carlos said smiling evilly.

Xxx

Kurt walked in, carrying a tray of Chris trophies. Sadly even though Chris was gone they couldn't replace the trophies that came with the elimination ceremony.

"Okay, now I know you are hoping to avoid the speech but we have to do it. It's in the script." Carlos said.

"So, these trophies here, are your life. Without them, you are gone!" Kurt said.

"And one of you just so happens to be leaving tonight."

"And you can't come back."

"**Ever.**" Both producers said.

"So let's see who you voted for." Kurt said pressing his remote and the screen showed the confessionals.

Xxx

Confessional: Duncan

"Well, the way I see it we should get rid of Darth La Cucaracha before he gets out of the suit."

Xxx

Confessional: Noah

"Alejandro may say he's learned his lesson but it's still a competition and we can't let him get to the merge."

Xxx

Confessional: Justin

"I'd vote for Noah on this one. His robot lost to Lindsay!"

Xxx

Confessional: Alejandro

"I know I am not on good terms with the others but I believe they will each agree with voting Noah off."

Xxx

Confessional: Izzy

"Izzy votes for the second liar!"

End Confessional

Xxx

"This looks interesting." Carlos said.

"And now . . . The trophies. Amazing, Chris gets put away yet we still have see his face on the trophies for the rest of the season. That sucks." Kurt said.

"I know." Carlos groaned.

"And now, onto the elimination!" Kurt announced.

"First trophy goes to . . ."

"Duncan."

Duncan caught the trophy tossed at him.

"Izzy."

"WHOO-HOO!" Izzy caught hers and started to gnaw on it.

"Justin."

The has-been model caught the trophy.

"And now we're down to the last two. Noah, who got his bot kicked by Lindsay's bot." Kurt said.

"And Alejandro, whose still stuck in a bot for a few more days. Can the campers avoid to let that happen while he's still here?" Carlos asked.

"Maybe not. Which is why . . .." Kurt raised his arm and pointed to the ceiling.

"Dude, we're not going to copy Chris' whole act are we?"

"Sorry, it's in the script." Kurt replied.

"The final trophy goes to . . . . Noah!"

"WHAT?" Alejandro shouted as Noah caught the trophy.

"Sorry, Al. The team has spoken." Kurt said.

"I-I can't believe this! You chose Noah over me!" Alejandro said, dumbfoundedly.

"WHAT?" Heather shouted, her shocked face resembling possibly what Alejandro's look like under the mask.

"Sorry, the votes were counted." Carlos shrugged.

Alejandro sighed and looked at Heather. "I only wish I could have seen you with this mask off before one of us left."

Heather cried and hugged his robotic body.

"I'm so sorry about what happened Hawaii!"

Alejandro reached out with robotic arms and hugged her.

Suddenly a violin started playing.

"What the heck?" Kurt looked around and saw Chef holding a radio that was playing the music.

"What? My favourite radio station was on?" He was trying to change the channel. "Just need to find it!"

"...that was oddly convenient." Carlos said as Heather cried against Alejandro's box shaped suit. "...aw what the hell, give robot man a few hours to pack and he can catch the morning flight."

"Good idea," Kurt nodded, knowing if they tried to pry her off Heather would get violent-and he wouldn't storm that beach with only Carlos backing him up.

Xxx

Shadow roared in anger as his attempt to delete the self destruct program failed. With the disarming sequence deleted it was only a matter of time now before the Smith program would be deleted and him along with it. He tried again, again, and again to breach the fire walls keeping him from deleting the self destruct programs but so far all attempts had failed. Shadow cursed Noah, the other Lyoko warriors, and XANA for all the troubles they had given him.

Ever since he merged with Smith he had experimented with his codes as he knew XANA evolved by building his codes off of the digital environment he was in, altering his own data, deleting weak and useless codes while improving the strong and vital ones. He thought he'd be able to do the same but Noah's encryption was too strong. He only had about two hours left before the self destruct code destroyed him. Time was running out.

"CURSE YOU ALL! I WILL NOT PERISH!" Shadow roared, his voice echoing through the cave he was hiding in the Tropical Sector.

That was when he heard footsteps. He spun around, holding his sword out. A figure entered the cave, it was not a monster but he was not in the mood to find out what it was. He held out his hand and sent a cloud of black smoke that captured the figure and brought her forward.

"Yuki."

It was indeed XANA's general, Yuki of the Blizzard. Shadow dropped her on the ground and held out his sword.

"I am not in a good mood so I'll take it out on you." Shadow raised his sword.

Yuki stood up, not even bothering to defend herself.

"Not going to fight? I would have thought you would put up a fight since XANA sent you to destroy me."

"...I am not here for XANA."

"Oh, and why are you here?" Shadow asked, holding his sword at Yuki's throat.

"You wish to survive?"

Shadow raised an eyebrow.

"I know how you can survive." Yuki said, her voice even now was calm and not revealing any emotion.

"And you are doing this without XANA's permission?"

"I have fled from XANA. He cannot be trusted anymore."

Now that was something Shadow was not expecting. Among nearly all of XANA's generals Yuki was the most loyal, more than even Lilith. She may not be the strongest but she was always the most level headed of the group.

"You fled from XANA, you say . . ." Shadow said holding out his hand.

His hand pulsed black, seeping smoke like tendrils reached out and touched Yuki's forehead.

"Don't move. Yuki, you who were the most loyal of XANA's generals say you have fled of your own free will. I can't believe that you would have such thoughts in you." Shadow said. "Let me read it. I'll see if your telling the truth or not. Show me your mind."

Yuki closed her eyes as Shadow's dark matter tendrils reached into her head, spreading across her skin and fading.

"I see it . . . It seems that . . .XANA's monsters and the other generals had chased you down . . .From the Carbon Copy, through the portals that led here, through Lyoko . . . So when you spoke of fleeing XANA ... It seems your words were true and not lies."

Shadow withdrew the dark tendrils and dropped Yuki.

"But Yuki, for you to have betrayed XANA and come here...Does it mean that you are even prepared to be deleted by XANA?"

Yuki stood up. "XANA will die first."

"What?"

"Shadow, the self destruct program can be destroyed."

"How?"

"Through the core."

Shadow raised an eyebrow, intrigued.

"You mean for me to use Lyoko's core, do you?"

Xxx

"WHY THE HELL DID YOU VOTE HIM OFF!" Heather shouted in the lounge at the members of Team C while the others watched.

Nearly everyone backed away in fear of Heather as she had a dark glare that could burn through almost anyone.

"Hey, we had to vote someone off." Duncan raised his hands in defence.

"SO WHY NOT VOTE OFF THE MODEL WANNABEE?"

"Hey!" Justin protested.

"Don't 'hey' me! You didn't even do anything this challenge!" Heather glared at him and he shrunk back in fear.

"We voted him off because it was a bad idea to keep him around, especially when he was going to be out of the suit." Duncan shrugged.

Heather growled and stepped forward, ready to attack him.

"Heather don't!" Cody said, getting between her and Duncan. "It's not worth it!"

"The hell it isn't!" Heather shouted.

"Wow. Looks like Heather really liked him." Lindsay said, ignorant of how angry Heather was.

"No duh." Eva said, not caring.

Heather glared at them both and stormed off.

"Well, that could have gone better." Bridgette sighed.

Duncan shrugged and walked back to his room but Courtney followed him.

"Hold it! Duncan!"

Duncan stopped and turned around.

"Hey. What's up, your highness?"

"Stow the princess crap. What was that? Why did you vote him off?" Courtney asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"What does it matter? You still have a crush on him?"

"No! But why'd you vote him off and not Justin?"

Duncan sighed. "We had to. The dude couldn't be trusted. If he got out he'd probably eliminate half of us by tricking us like before. And don't tell me I'm not wrong."

"And you waited up till now to do it?"

"The dude still had a few weeks left in him last time we lost. We could still use him in the TDR computer but that was about it." Duncan shrugged. "If he got out he would probably get suspicious about why Heather sneaks off with us and a lot of the others, a lot who don't like him. What happened if he came upon the factory?"

"So you're using the whole keeping you know what a secret excuse?"

"Hey, the only thing Justin would get curious about if he could find a better looking mirror." Duncan retorted. "Not to mention we're running low on people to kick off who aren't in on the whole secret, he was going to go sooner or later. Your team still has to kick off Beth, Sierra, and Eva and Team Victory has to kick off Lindsay then we got a problem."

"And Alejandro had to be the first to go?"

"The guy was only non you know what who could have caused problems, what were we supposed to do? Let him in on it? After he already helped XANA try to kill us?"

"That wasn't his fault!" Courtney protested.

"Yeah, I know the story, XANA fixed him up and then turned him into a psycho. The point is we can only eliminate a few more than we decide who in our group is the first to go. You should start thinking who you think should go first when that comes up." Duncan turned and walked into his room.

Xxx

Gwen walked into the Amazon dorm, hearing the sounds of crying from Heather's room. She stopped as she heard it and looked at Heather's door.

'Heather? Crying?' Gwen thought, surprised. 'I've never heard her cry before, _ever_.'

She must be pretty upset over Alejandro's elimination.

"Damn it, Duncan. Just had to go and make things complicated, did you?"

Gwen knew Duncan had a reason for it but he could have done better.

"Th-That you, Gwen?" Heather asked through the door, her voice hard to hear through the sobbing.

"Yeah. I'm just going to my room." Gwen replied, not wanting to make things more difficult.

"Please, come in!"

Gwen opened the door to see Heather sobbing into her pillow, clutched to her chest while curled up. She walked slowly over to Heather's bed and sat down. Heather uncurled herself and tossed the pillow onto the floor. Sitting up straight Heather tried to stop herself from crying but it was too much.

"Don't try to stop just because I'm here, Heather. It never helps to try and hold it in." Gwen said with a sympathetic look.

"I didn't want it to be this way." Heather sobbed. "I came onto this show to win . . . Not fall in love."

"I don't think any of us did when we signed on." Gwen replied.

"I promised to keep myself focused . . . And never hesitate." Heather attempted to wipe away her tears. "I knew he was playing all the other girls so I turned down all of his advances, we both tried to outwit each other. But . . ."

"You two ended up falling for each other." Gwen finished.

Heather nodded, a few more tears falling out.

"After the accident in Hawaii I wanted to make it up to him, apologize for kneeing him in the groin and leaving him to be burned. And he . . . He was angry . . .He didn't want me anywhere near him. I thought I'd never get a chance . . . But then, he said he forgave me during that fight in Lyoko during the attack in the mountains." Heather said.

Gwen nodded, remembering that fight.

"It gave me hope . . . That he would give me another chance. I wanted the chance to see him, out of that suit . . . Why the hell did they vote him off?" Heather looked up.

Gwen shrugged.

"I can't say for sure. There's not a lot of non Lyoko warriors left now. If we can't find Aelita's friends and end this fight soon, we'll start having to choose who goes first. You know not a lot of people are not fond of Alejandro for what he did last season, even if he did get burned. Some say that was karma at work."

"Like how I got my head shaved?" Heather asked, slightly glaring at her.

"They said it, not me." Gwen shrugged. "Look, it may be hard but there is a bright side."

"Like what?"

"He's out of danger back at Canada. If he was here he'd probably be caught and injured into another attack. We saved him and you plenty of times but they were all close. We might not get so lucky next time."

Heather sniffed. "Yeah, there is a point there."

Gwen smiled and put a hand on Heather's shoulder.

"You'll see him again. And he'll be out of that suit. But you have until morning before he leaves. You can spend the last few hours with him."

Heather nodded, smiling a bit. A knock at the door interrupted them both. Cody opened the door with an alarmed look.

"XANA."

Xxx

In the depths of Sector 5 Yuki led Shadow through the blue colored corridors until they came upon a wall.

"What is this? It's a dead end." Shadow growled.

Yuki ignored him and walked up to the wall and placed her hand on the screen. A big boom of white light exploded and the wall vanished. In its place was an opening that Yuki entered with Shadow following closely.

"A secret passage?" Shadow asked.

They walked into a cylindrical room with many large bars sticking out of the walls allowing them to climb up until they faced the core. The core itself floated in the in the middle of the top of the room, resembling a glowing orb with the image of Lyoko inside.

"That's it, huh?" Shadow asked.

He walked over to the edge to take a closer look.

"This is what holds Lyoko together, huh?"

"Everything that exists here is depended on the core. The power within the core can shatter the self destruct program." Yuki said.

"The power of Lyoko, huh?" Shadow's eyes narrowed.

"Power that can strengthen you enough to break through the firewalls that protects the self destruct program." Yuki said.

"Well, what do we have here?" A voice asked.

They looked to see Ryder appear on the other side of the room.

"The new pest of the team." Yuki sighed, crossing her arms.

"Oh, ha ha, you're as funny as ever you glorified snow boarder." Ryder drew his sword out.

"Well now ,this'll be interesting. Yuki, if you've turned on XANA then prove it," Shadow pointed at Ryder. "Take him out, I'll handle getting rid of the program."

Yuki fired ice shards through the air at full speed at Ryder. He pulled out his sword and swung, unleashed a blast of lightning that blasted the shards.

"LIGHTNING STORM!" Ryder swung his sword and unleashed a stream of electricity at both Yuki and Shadow.

Yuki jumped off the platform she was on and landed on another one below the core. Yuki inhaled and then stepped forward, opening her mouth and in a split second the entire side of the room Ryder was on was instantly frozen. Luckily Ryder jumped out of the way and avoided being frozen alive.

Shadow, meanwhile; began to levitate into the air until he reached the core. He balled up one fist and slammed into the first shield layer, shattering it in one shot.

"Oh no you don't!" Ryder shouted, firing a stream of lightning at him.

But Yuki opened her mouth and froze the air around the attack, freezing the lightning attack!

"Damn you!" Ryder jumped up towards the core.

Xxx

The elevator doors opened the Lyoko warriors stepped out.

"Aelita?" LeShawna called out.

Aelita looked up.

"Hello, there everyone. Sorry I had to call you here, I know you just finished another episode."

"Can't be helped." Cody walked over to the screen. "What's up?"

"Well, we might have several problems. There is an activated tower in the Forest Sector guarded by Lilith but at the same time there is an emergency happening in Sector 5." Aelita brought up the map of Sector 5. "Shadow, Ryder, and Yuki are in chamber that has Lyoko's core."

"I thought Shadow was done for." Duncan said.

"He is. The self destruct program is still active. He has about thirty minutes left." Aelita replied.

"So what's the big lug doing there?" Duncan asked.

"Fighting Ryder with Yuki," Aelita showed them an image of the fight. Yuki was shooting ice projectiles at Ryder, who smashed them aside with his sword.

With a whistle the punk said. "Well I'm guessing that Yuki chick ain't there to cheer Ryder on."

"Is it me or is she helping Shadow?" Courtney asked.

"Apparently, but I do not know her reasons for doing so," Aelita said. "Worse...Shadow's breached the first layer around the core."

"He's trying to destroy Lyoko?" Cody asked, startled.

"That's the only reason I can think of why he'd be there ,but I don't see how it can stop the self destruct..." Aelita's eyes widened. "Unless..."

"You got something?" Gwen stepped forward.

"When William destroyed the core the first time, the resulting blast scattered his avatar data. XANA rebuilt it and added his own programming to make William into his enforcer." Aelita explained. "If that's his main body, and he destroys the core, his program will be scattered. The problem is that he's a multi agent program, so his programs are connected by a hive mind. He could put himself together and discard the self destruct program in another body."

"Like switching puzzle pieces with something from a different puzzle." Noah said. "Remnants of Smith programs he doesn't need could be cut out of his programming entirely. He'd be getting off Scott Free and be free of Lyoko entirely."

"And with no self destruct he'd have free reign, he'd be a second XANA." Gwen said.

"We need to split up, I need to get to the tower that's active in the Forest Sector while a few of us go to the core to stop Shadow."

"Mind if I have a shot at Shadow again?" Duncan asked.

"Actually, I think I may need you to deal with Lilith. The Berserker has proven to be most effective against her," Aelita said.

"Suit yourself," Duncan shrugged, a little disappointed.

"I'll go with you also," Bridgette volunteered.

"And me!" Izzy said, waving her hand.

"I'll take the others to Sector Five." Gwen added.

"We'll be more than enough to take on Shadow, Ryder and Yuki," Courtney nodded.

Everyone agreed and headed into the elevator, leaving Cody, LeShawna, DJ, and Geoff at the computer to watch the fight. Bridgette, Duncan, and Izzy went in first. After that Aelita went in with them into the Forest Sector of Lyoko. Next went Gwen, Courtney, and Heather.

Xxx

Heather and Courtney landed and looked up. Much to their shock they were not in Sector 5 but the Swamp Sector.

"Cody, you messed up! We're in the Swamp Sector!"

"_What?_"

Xxx

Gwen looked up and found herself in the Celestial Dome of Sector 5 but she didn't see Courtney or Heather with her.

"Cody, I don't see Heather or Courtney."

"_They somehow ended up in the Swamp Sector!_"

"What?"

"_I don't know how. Just wait there and let me virtualize the others._"

Xxx

"_Okay, transfer Trent, transfer Noah. Scanner Trent, scanner Noah. Virtualization_!"

However like before with Heather and Courtney, Trent and Noah did not land in Sector 5. Trent landed in the Ice Sector and Noah landed in the Mountain Sector.

"Uh...this isn't right." Noah said.

Xxx

"...This." Trent began. "SUCKS!"

He stood on top of a massive cliff of ice...which was beginning to crack.

"Aw crap! No-no-no-no-NOO-O-O-O-O-O!-!-!-!-!" Trent shouted as the cliff broke.

Xxx

"_Aelita, something went wrong!"_

"What is it, Cody?" Aelita asked as they waited in the Forest Sector.

"_Nearly everyone went to the wrong place! Gwen's the only one who landed in Sector 5!_"

"That's not right! What happened?" Bridgette asked.

"_I don't know! I inputted the coordinates but when they were virtualized they went to the wrong place!_"

"XANA must have randomized the coordinates!"

"But why?"

"It doesn't matter. Cody, have the others head to the edge of the sector they are in and send the transport orb." Aelita said.

"_On it. But what should Gwen do?_"

"It might be too dangerous but if Shadow destroys the core we'll dead." Aelita replied.

Xxx

"I'll go on ahead and see what's going on." Gwen said and ran out of the dome and headed towards the core chamber.

Xxx

Aelita and the others made it to the tower just a few minutes earlier and saw Lilith sitting in front of it with her eyes closed. As they approached she smiled while her eyes were closed.

"By the prickling of my thumb, something wicked this way comes." She said, opening her eyes.

"Aw man now she's saying crappy rhymes!" Duncan whined.

"You don't read MacBeth much, do you?"

"I prefer PlayBoy, thank you."

"I didn't need to know that." Bridgette said.

"It's a joke, relax surfer girl." Duncan rolled his eyes.

"And here I thought the only thing that head was useful for was for holding up that Mohawk." Lilith commented.

"...why the hell does that keep coming back at me?" Duncan growled. "What the hell do I have to do wear a freaking sweater and smoke from a pipe like my dad? Cuz if so then forget it, I'll jump off a cliff before I go that far into that zone."

"...He's become real sensitive about that topic," Bridgette said.

"I see." Lilith nodded.

"Lilith, what's going on here? Why is Yuki fighting for Shadow now?" Aelita held up an energy sphere.

Lilith shrugged. "Don't look at me. I was just as surprised as you. Yuki was always the more level headed and she was more loyal to XANA than most of the other generals."

"Yeah, well she's about to help bring about the apocalypse." Duncan said, pulling out his sword. "And something tells me your boss already knows about it, especially since only Gwen was able to make it to Sector 5."

Lilith smirked. "Not my problem what you think. You still want to shut down the tower, right?"

"Fine. Do it the hard way." Duncan charged and swung his sword.

However Lilith simply held up her hand and caught the sword, her skin showing no signs of being cut.

"Sorry, punk. Don't have time to play this time." Lilith said holding her hand and punched Duncan, _hard._

He flew back into a tree so hard that it collapsed into the digital sea on impact.

"_That took out fifty life points!_"

"No kidding . . ." Duncan stood up, with a hand on his face.

Bridgette charged and swung her swords but Lilith held out her hand and a green triangular wall appeared between her and the surfer girl, blocking the swords from cutting her.

"What?" Bridgette eyes widened.

Lilith smirked and then sent a fist forward into the wall, shattering it and a large shockwave sent Bridgette flying back. She slid across the ground, dropping her swords and just stopping a few inches from the edge.

"Okay, am I missing something? Because I thought we had her power figured out." Duncan said, as they regrouped.

"It seems not. She's not even brought her bow out." Aelita said.

"That's because I don't need it out." Lilith said. "Seeing as you're all confused I'll tell you. Unlike the other generals I have _two_ special powers."

"Two? Oh great." Duncan groaned.

"My primary power is illusion . . . While my secondary power is creation."

"Creation?" Bridgette asked.

"Simple, I can create what I want by just thinking it. Aelita can create and destroy almost anything in Lyoko with her creativity but my power allows me to create almost anything and it can be real or fake."

"Okay, so why didn't you use that power till now?" Aelita asked.

"Did you know what all of your powers were when you first started fighting here?" Lilith asked.

"So you didn't know you had that power back then." Bridgette got up.

"Of course, but now I can use it as well as I can use my illusions."

"Yeah, how about this? Izzy!" Duncan shouted.

Izzy transformed into a tiger and leapt at Lilith. However Lilith simple stopped her by holding her mouth shut and lifted her, tossing her into a tree.

"Ow." Izzy said, after shifting back into her human form.

"_Thirty life points down, Izzy._"

"She has super strength too!" Bridgette shouted.

"She can't. She was never that strong before." Aelita said.

"Until now." Lilith smirked. "I can create what I think off. So I simply imagined my body was the strongest in Lyoko and my power of creation granted that wish. The price I must pay is that I can only create one thing at a time and when I create something new the previous ones disappear."

"Cody, please tell me you have a plan." Bridgette said as she got up.

"_Uh...nope._"

"Crap!" Duncan ducked under a punch from Lilith, rolling under her arm and swung as he came up, managing to get a lucky hit, but her skin wasn't even scratched and caught his sword when he swung again. She held it in one hand, slowly forcing the blade up.

Duncan took one hand off it and shot fire into her at point blank range. She replied by tossing him away. He rolled a bit, and then was standing next to Izzy, Aelita, and Bridgette, facing the now super powered General.

Xxx

Courtney and Heather were running at full speed when something blasted out of the water in front of them.

"Now what?" Heather growled.

A Snake stood before them, hissing at them.

"Great." Courtney pulled out her staff.

"I am not in the mood for this! I pretty much had to come here when the only man who will ever like me is leaving and I can't spend the last few hours with him! I am personally sending this back to XANA as a pair of boots and a belt!" Heather shouted.

Her wrist blades came out and she charged forward.

Xxx

Gwen ran into the core chamber to see Yuki and Ryder continuing to fight. She looked up and saw Shadow break the second shield layer. Now there was nothing protecting the core.

"No you don't." Gwen pulled her scythe and flew up at him.

However before she made it, Ryder collided with her and knocked her out of the air. She landed on a platform below.

"What the . . ." Gwen asked.

"Sorry, orders." Ryder replied, landing next to Yuki.

"What the hell is going on?" Gwen asked.

"Take a look and see for yourself."

Shadow reached out to the core and placed his hand on it. A blast of light blew everyone back and Shadow's body began to turn into nothing but streams of data. Lines of red and gold coding spread out all over the room. The wall around Sector 5 began to fade.

Light began to fade as the core began to break. Then shattered in a blast of energy. As this happened all of Lyoko shook like a massive earthquake had just hit. Gwen looked down and saw the floor begin to fade.

She activated her flight ability just in time just as it vanished beneath her.

"Cody, the core!"

Xxx

"_Duncan! Bridgette! Izzy! Aelita!_" Cody shouted. "_The core is compromised!_"

"Aw damn it!" Bridgette shouted as the entire region shook.

The group lost their balance, even Lilith. Several sections began to tilt or even fall into the digital sea below. The section the group stood on crack and began to tilt like a ramp. The group cried out in shock as they began to slid down. Regaining their footing, they began to rush for a gap separating their platform from a stable one. Aelita jumped first, followed by Izzy, and then Duncan.

Bridgette had to leap up as the platform turned so much that she could barely stand up. Gripping the edge, she stood up and launched herself off of it. She shot out both hands...but fell short. She let out a brief scream, but then a pair of hands grasped her wrists.

She looked up as Duncan and Izzy hauled her up.

"Watch out!" Aelita shouted as Lilith, who stood on the edge of the platform as it began to fall towards the Digital Sea.

"So he made it to the core..." Lilith's eyes locked onto the warriors. "Looks like you have some bigger problems."

"Yeah, but so do you." Bridgette replied. "You're kinda stuck here."

"Not really, I have transportation." Lilith looked up as a portal formed over her. "Besides, Lyoko's not...precisely destroyed. Just...shaken up a bit."

"What do you mean? Your boyfriend wrecked the core!" Duncan shouted.

"Ask the guy at the computer, he'll know." Lilith shrugged. "Ta-ta for now!" She then launched herself up. "Try not to get killed!" She vanished into the portal.

"I hate her more than Shadow." Duncan grumbled.

"Cody, what's happening?" Aelita asked.

Xxx

Inside Sector 5 there was almost nothing left. The sphere that encased the core was gone. Gwen was floating in mid air while Ryder and Yuki stood on a pair of Mantas. Lines of black and red coding came together, separating from some of the golden codes.

Coming together they formed Shadow's human form with his eyes glowing brightly. Raising both of his hands he let out a scream that be heard throughout Lyoko.

Xxx

"Oh no!" Cody cried.

"Bridgette!" Geoff shouted in horror.

"They're all done for!" LeShawna punched the wall in rage and horror.

"No!" DJ cried, falling to his knees.

That was when they noticed Lyoko was not disappeared. Cody quickly ran a scan and gasped.

Xxx

"I _don't believe it . . . Aelita, Shadow's wiped out Sector 5_!"

"But how are we still here?" Aelita asked.

_"This is where it gets crazy! Shadow didn't destroy the core, he ABSORBED it!" Cody shouted._

"And the main part is...there's no freaking core so how are we not scattered on the web?" Duncan asked.

_"That's just it! He IS the core! He absorbed the core programming and operating systems into himself. He's the core to Lyoko now!"_

"...something tells me that's not good." Izzy said. "Cuz uh...he IS Lyoko now so..."

_"Worse, he's separated himself from Smith, but he's got nearly all of the programs except for the self destruct program! He's just gotten a hell of a lot stronger." _Cody explained. _"And Gwen is trapped in there with Ryder and Yuki!"_

"So whatever XANA's planning is coming to fruition." Aelita said.

"What?" The warriors faced Aelita.

"Think about it. Shadow goes to the core, led by Yuki. We're brought here by an activated tower. The coordinates are randomized so only Gwen goes to sector five, and we get to see Ryder fighting what looks like a traitor! I think we've been set up."

"But what does XANA gain from turning Shadow into the new core?" Bridgette asked.

Xxx

Shadow looked to the data tunnels.

"This power! With it I can make this world how I please!" He raised his hand and fired streams of energy into the data tunnels.

Xxx

In the Ice Sector streams of white glowing spheres fell. Where it fell, steam rose and the sector began to melt. The Desert Sector began to erode a streams of energy blasted it apart. In the Mountain Sector and the Sky Temple the sky was covered by thunder clouds and blasts of lighting began to blow them apart. The Forest and Swamp Sectors were set on fire, trees burned releasing smoke into the air.

Xxx

"This is why I HATE thunder!" Noah shouted as he tried to take cover in a cave. Lightning shot down and blew away parts of his platform. "AH! CODY! GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

Xxx

"AH!" Trent dodged the next beam of light.

He took out his guitar and managed to shoot the next beam of light with his fire spell, causing both to disappear.

"Cody! I need help! Get me back to the real world! NOW!"

Xxx

"Cody! Help!" Courtney shouted as the fires began to surround her and Heather, spreading fast.

"And people never take forest fires seriously?" Heather screamed.

Xxx

"_Aelita! There's a major problem. Shadow's destroying the sectors, I think he's causing a digital apocalypse!_" Cody said.

"Cody, you have to get everybody out of Lyoko!" Aelita said.

"_I can't that Tower has cut off the scanner program! You have to take it down!_"

"We can't get there! The path is blocked! It's on fire!" Bridgette said.

"_Ok..._"

"How's Gwen doing in Sector Five?" Aelita asked.

_"uh...not any better than the rest of you."_

Xxx

Gwen dodged multiple blasts from Shadow, while the two other Generals watched from a distance. She was gasping for breath, and a miasma from dripping off of her.

"Wow, Shadow's got her on the run." Ryder chuckled.

"She'd better activate it, or she and the others are finished." Yuki said calmly.

"Even if she kills him, they're still screwed." Ryder shrugged. "Kill Shadow, you kill the core."

Gwen shuddered, the miasma growing. "Agh..."

Shadow paused, his blade mere inches from her. "What? What is this?" He began to cough as the miasma touched him. He backed away, parts of his skin turning pitch black. "What have you done to me?"

"..The...the miasma spell...the one XANA left in me." Gwen smirked. "I think he wanted me to have the honor of getting rid of you."

She shot at him, and almost slammed into him, but he moved aside.

"Ha! You have no problem carrying out his dirty work, but if you get rid of me you get rid of the core, and then you all die!" Shadow scoffed.

"We're not any better off with you here." Gwen pointed her scythe at him. "So first, you die, and then I'll deal with what comes next."

Xxx

"_Aelita we have crazy things going on in the core!_"

"Like what?"

_"Well for one, Gwen's not losing any life points with her flight ability! Second, she's still got that purple poison spell she had when XANA infected her! It's burning Shadow like acid!"_

"That's it! That's XANA's plan. If Shadow defeats Gwen, the melt down continues, and this place is destroyed, the digital sea floods this place and kills us all. But if Gwen kills Shadow and destroys the core, Lyoko goes and the digital sea will still flood this place, killing us all!" Aelita said.

"And the only way to have a third way out is that tower?" Duncan asked.

"Not the tower, but there might be a way." Aelita said. "But it's risky."

"Well we're fighting a war already." Bridgette said.

"A special code that can be used by somebody with the Keys to Lyoko. Code: REBOOT." Aelita explained.

"And what will this do?" Izzy asked.

"Theoretically it will reset Lyoko to what it used to be. Same sectors, same way it was before Shadow took over." Aelita said.

"A system restore." Bridgette nodded.

"And since Shadow was not part of the core and is a virus, it may erase him!" Aelita said.

"Possibly?" Duncan asked.

"I don't know, we're on the fly here." Aelita shook her head. "The problem is that the code needs a Way Tower connected to Sector 5 where the core is."

"So that tower's a no go." Duncan nodded. "...well I wanted to go into extreme sports as a kid, and this whole place is a death trap...what have we got to lose by trying?"

"Cody, can you try to get Gwen to stall?"

_"I can't! All communications with Sector 5 is blocked. XANA doesn't want anybody to know about the third option!"_

"We have to hurry then." Aelita said.

"Well let's get started. I'll clear a way." Duncan took his sword and walked over to an unharmed tree...before he cut it down and pushed it so that it fell across a large amount of flames. "Hurry!"

They all rushed across it as it caught fire. Leaping off, they sprinted down the new path as the fires continued to grow.

"Cody, where's the nearest Way Tower?" Aelita asked.

_"Just two miles west of you! But you have to hurry, I'm tracking the progress of the fire and it'll reach the Way Tower in six minutes!"_

The group sped up at this news.

Xxx

Shadow roared as he sent another blast at Gwen who dodged and flew at him. Swinging her scythe, releasing a purple miasma that almost hit him. Shadow dodged it and flew back. He held out his hand and created three copies of himself that flew at Gwen.

She spun, creating a miasma cloud that engulfed them and reduced them to digital ashes. Ryder whistled.

"That's some deadly spell. I'd hate to touch that."

"It cannot harm us." Yuki replied.

"Huh?"

"It was designed by Master XANA to only affect Shadow."

"Ha, the perfect weapon and Shadow's unlucky victim." Ryder smirked.

Gwen swung her scythe at Shadow's head but he blocked with his sword. He pushed her back as the scythe released another miasma. Growling, Shadow flew back, avoiding what possibly would be a painful death. His hands began to glow and he shot lightning bolts at Gwen, who barely had the time to dodge.

Shadow got tired of it and flew at her. Gwen was not so lucky as Shadow knocked her scythe out of her hands and grabbed her by the neck. He slammed his free fist into her stomach again and again.

Xxx

Cody looked on in horror as Gwen's life points dropped by five life points with each hit.

Xxx

"And Shadow wins this round." Ryder commented.

However Gwen was not finished. Her scythe reappeared back in her hands and she glowed purple, releasing another miasma that burned Shadow's hand.

"AH!" Shadow released her and pulled back to avoid being consumed by the miasma.

"Wow. This spell works great. Hard to believe I got it with no strings attached." Gwen said looking at her scythe.

"Wrong!" Ryder called out, catching their attention. "That spell can only kill Shadow and anything with his and the codes from that bookworm's program!"

"…Well, that's disappointing." Gwen said.

Xxx

"Heads up!" Bridgette shouted.

"I got it!" Duncan leaped up and whipped his sword out, a blast of green fire scattering the random ball of flames. He landed ahead of them. "All clear!"

"We're almost there!" Aelita said, pointing to the nearby tower. "Hurry!"

As if answering their presence, more balls of fire fell from the sky around them, and seemed to intentionally chase the warriors.

"I'll hold this, get going!" Duncan spun and charged his sword up. He slammed the charged sword into the ground and caused an explosion that scattered the flames, temporarily stalling the wall of fire.

As he repeated this, the three warriors continued on. Bridgette spotted a nearby pond and summoned the water out of it, dousing the fires ahead of them. Izzy turned into an owl and flew above the fire, along with Aelita, but they had to contend with the falling spheres of fire that seemed to only increase in number.

They dodged and swerved between them, with Bridgette following on her Board.

One hit Aelita, and she dropped with a cry. Bridgette shot down and grasped one of Aelita's hand. Pulling her up, she began to rise, only for another ball to hit her board...and destroy it entirely. The two girls fell onto a platform...which was almost completely covered in fire.

"Oh boy, not good!" Bridgette gulped. "Aelita, you can still get to the tower!"

"How?" Aelita asked, fearful of the growing fire.

"This!" Bridgette knelt and cupped her hands. "Go! NOW!"

Aelita, not willing to fly again rushed forward and her foot landed in Bridgette's hancds. Bridgette launched her across a short gap to the platform where the tower was.

Xxx

Gwen cried out as another shot from Shadow sent her spinning, her life points down to ten.

"He goes through all that trouble to give you something to kill me and the book worm's program?" Shadow raised an eye brow, and said in a matter-of-fact voice. "I don't know who's more pathetic. You, the delinquent, Aelita, or _him!_"

Gwen grasped her scythe, charging up her scythe's blade. "I'm not down yet, Shadow."

"You will be in a second, then Lyoko goes, your friends go, and I get to show up on XANA's door step with more power than he could ever hope for. The power of Lyoko itself fuelling my every move!" Shadow cackled.

"You don't get it Shadow, XANA doesn't need the power of Lyoko when he has the power of the net, especially since the Keys to Lyoko give him access to it." Yuki drawled. "Despite how strong Noah's program is, you cannot hope to match him."

"Not today, not in a month, but he had to start out small too." Shadow shrugged. "But first..let's start with the pain in my ass. I'll do what he couldn't do in years of fighting."

He advanced on the weakened Gwen.

Xxx

"Aelita!" Izzy shot down as more fire rained down on the pink haired girl.

Morphing into a large bear, Izzy roared and took the blasts, dropping her life points bit by bit. "GET GOING! RUN!" She grabbed Aelita after turning into a Gorilla and tossed her over a wall of flames.

Aelita landed in front of the tower. She got up and ran inside. Stepping onto the platform she flew up to the second platform and looked at the interface. Placing her hand on it she waited.

**Identity Confirmed: Aelita**

She opened a window and looked for what she needed. Feeling the tower shake she found what she needed.

**Access Lyoko Core Program: Y/N**

**Yes**

Looking over the data Aelita saw that once she put in the code Lyoko would be like it was before. She placed her hand on the screen.

**Aelita**

**Code: Reboot**

Waiting Aelita watched as the code was accepted.

Xxx

Shadow grabbed Gwen by her neck again and was about to run her through with his sword when he stopped. He gasped in pain, releasing Gwen, leaving her to fall, only to be caught by a Manta.

"No need to let you die. Considering the help you just gave us." Ryder said.

"Why do I have a feeling the both of you knew this would happen?" Gwen asked.

"Don't ask me. Yuki seems to know what's going on but I don't think she's in the mood for conversation." Ryder smirked.

Shadow screamed as gold energy exploded out of him, turning him into a black cloud. They watched as the core of Lyoko was reformed, then the sphere that was Sector 5 rebuilt itself around the core.

Xxx

"All right, the sectors have been fixed up. Everything's back to normal!" Cody cheered.

"All right!" Geoff pumped a fist in the air.

Xxx

The Manta Gwen was on flew up to the edge where the interface of Sector 5 was and let her off. She watched as the monsters along with Ryder and Yuki vanished.

"Cody, we need everyone in the lab."

"_No problem. Aelita's heading for the activated tower. She'll have it shut down in a minute._"

Xxx

"It was a set-up. XANA had a virus he could use to not only destroy Shadow but also Smith and possibly any other program Noah or any of us could come up with that would count as an Anti-XANA program. He left it in my avatar even though the virus was gone and wanted us on Lyoko to see if could work. That's why Yuki led Shadow to the core with the idea of getting rid of the self-destruct program. XANA wanted to test the virus so he gave me the poison spell." Gwen explained.

"So then my idea's down the drain for good." Noah paused. "Meh, I never liked the name Smith anyways."

"And Shadow's still out there." Aelita added grimly. "He's just weakened, badly, but he's alive."

"But is he still a multi-agent program or is he...normal?" Cody asked.

"Hard to tell, the way the Reboot warped him...I don't even know if he'd resemble himself anymore...at least on the inside." Aelita said. "Until he appears, we have to stay on guard and keep up our defence against XANA."

"Well at least we know the poison spell works on Shadow, but it won't hurt anything belonging to XANA." Gwen sighed. "Such a shame."

"...of course! Damn it why didn't I just make an Anti-XANA attack instead of a freaking AI of my own? Damn it I'm so stupid. _Stupid. Stupid._" Noah repeated, hitting his head lightly against the wall next to him.

"...a month ago, this would have looked weird to me." Geoff said.

"No kidding," Duncan said, backing away from the genius. "The dude's kinda freaking me out more than usual now."

"Stupid!" Noah finished with another hit off the wall.

"I said it before Noah, you're one accident from being a super villain." Gwen said. "Banging your head will make it worse."

"I know, but hold on...STUPID!" One real hard hit. "Uh...okay I think I need to pay a visit to Doctor Carlos."

Xxx

"ACHOO!" Carlos' sneeze came from the bed room.

"Again Carlos?" Melissa asked indignantly.

"I think somebody's talking about me." Carlos said. "Probably Roberto scheming to kill me."

"Well can't he do it when we _aren't_ in the middle of this?" Melissa asked as Kurt passed the door. The producer froze and looked at the door. "Seriously, I am _so_ close!" She groaned in effort.

"Dude close the door! What would somebody think if they saw you?" Kurt shouted.

"What? Everybody plays Twister from time to time." Carlos said, currently with one hand on blue ,another on yellow, and both feet on red and was mixed with Melissa. But their clothes were still on. Melissa was just trying to reach a hard to touch red circle, stretching her left leg to tap her toe on the circle.. "Hey, you and Sarah want to join in?"

"...sure ,why not?"

Xxx

"Well, we'll see if Shadow can still use the towers when he reveals himself." Aelita said.

"Great, can I go back to the studio? Alejandro is leaving in the morning." Heather said.

"Uh..before that," Duncan spoke up, struggling with each word. "Okay, I suck at this so bear with me. You will _never_ hear me say it again."

This slightly attracted the group's interest.

"Heather..." He then said quickly. "I'm sorry I voted Alejandro off!" He then spun on the spot. "There! I said it! I'm going to bed, bye-bye!" He ran out so fast they were surprised he didn't leave skid marks.

"...he apologized better to me." Courtney said.

"That's because we were fighting for our lives Courtney." Gwen pointed out.

"Still counts!"

"I'm not arguing," Gwen held her hands up in defeat.

"Five bucks says we can make him apologize for something else before this season ends." Geoff snickered.

"Are battles in Lyoko and XANA attacks included?" Bridgette asked.

"Totally!"

"...I'm in." Noah spoke up.

"Same!" Cody said.

"I want a piece of this!" Izzy pulled out her wallet. "Put your Euros where your mouths are people!"

"I put twenty down!" LeShawna shouted.

"Same with me." Trent said.

"Why not? Put me down with twenty too." Gwen shrugged.

"Awesome!"

Aelita only smiled at how her friends acted.


	43. Episode 42: Confrontation: XANA's death?

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 43

"So, day three now since our own little apocalypse and still quiet huh?" Duncan said, lying down on the couch, his hands under his head, looking up at the roof.

"Yep." Geoff nodded.

"And so far we've got no trouble at all from any of the digital psychos." LeShawna said.

"Don't jinx it." Cody said while moving a piece.

He and Noah were currently playing chess to pass the time.

"Sounds like someone has been stalked by Sierra too many times." Bridgette said.

"Hey, you've done this longer than I have. You can't say that nothing wrong happens when someone says we've had no trouble for a while." Cody replied.

He moved a white pawn that took one of Noah's black pawns. Noah was much more skilled than anyone he played against in chess before. And Cody's mother gave him fifty dollars for every time he beat his dad in chess. Cody couldn't tell if Noah was thinking on his moves as hard as he was since Noah had the same bored look on as always.

"So what do you think Carlos and Kurt will have for us this time?" Bridgette asked.

"Who knows? One thing for sure is that they are not as sadistic as Chris is but they may try to make challenges tough." Trent said, playing with his guitar while sitting on a nearby chair.

Cody sighed as Noah took another piece.

"Most likely we'll be put back in those pods."

"I liked the zombie part! It was so much fun!" Izzy squealed in excitement.

"You would like that." Courtney muttered, sitting on the far end of the couch, playing with her PDA.

"Oh come! You can't say it wasn't fun cutting up zombies!"

"It was a bit fun." Duncan smirked. "But not as fun as the satisfaction of seeing the look on Shadow's face every time I kicked his ass."

"Bringing that up now?" Gwen walked into the room.

"Hey, Gwen. No problems with your character?" Trent asked, standing up.

"Nope. Aside from finding out that I don't have to worry about losing life points anymore while flying and that my new spell only works on Shadow nothing else is new." Gwen said.

"Aren't you the lucky one." Heather said.

Gwen shook her head. "It had nothing to do with luck. The only reason XANA bothered to give me this spell was so I could take out Shadow for him. You all should have noticed. He helped Shadow take the access codes from Noah and then he infected me in order to give me a virus that could kill Shadow.

And then he used Yuki to stage an act that she ran away and helped him get rid of the self destruct code. Looks to me he wants us to keep fighting each other and be wounded in the process. Heck, soon enough when all the others gone and we have to start figuring which of us has to go he can just sit back and wait."

"But Aelita is still looking for wherever he's hiding so we might still have a chance." Bridgette replied.

"Maybe but if Shadow is still on Lyoko we'll be distracted. We started out fighting XANA and it shifted to stopping Shadow after he took Noah's program." Cody replied moving another piece.

"A stalemate." Noah said.

"A what?" Geoff asked.

"A stalemate. Basically XANA wanted make sure Shadow could survive but at the same time give us a weapon to counter him. Once that was done all he had to do was wait and until we injured and then defeated each other."

He moved his next piece.

"Checkmate." Noah said in boredom.

"Crap!" Cody said.

"Don't sound so down, Cody. You're getting better. This time it took me eight minutes to beat you." Noah stood up. "Anyways we have no idea what the Reboot did to Shadow but if he's still a multi-agent program he could just rearrange his codes."

"That's true." Cody nodded.

"Even so, that doesn't mean we don't get an advantage right. After all like you said, Gwen, that purple spell will take him out." Duncan sat up. "Shadow hasn't gained anything to counter it."

"Yet." LeShawna said. "That guy's just too stubborn to stay down."

"So are we. We've endured monsters, super powered possessed maniacs, zombies, Arch-Demons, getting blinded by exploding light bulbs, and last but not least . . . Chris." DJ pointed out.

"That's good." Trent said. "Can you say anyone else could have lived through something like all that?"

"Not a whole lot of people, that's for sure." Geoff said.

Cody brought out his laptop and powered it up.

"Why are you bringing that out?" Heather asked.

"I like to check on Lyoko once in a while. We can't rely on Aelita to do all the work for us, the stress of finding her friends, the Carbon Copy, while doing school can be tough for her. I agreed to keep my laptop on and keep an eye out for her." Cody explained.

The screen then showed maps, graphs, and endless lines of codes related to the virtual world of Lyoko. Once the map of Lyoko was up he checked and the super scan detected no activated or infected towers.

"Well, no towers to worry about yet."

"Yet being the key word." Gwen said.

"But there is something odd going on." Cody said.

"And there it is."

"Well, I don't know if it is a problem but take a look." Cody turned the laptop, showing everyone a large map with lots of red dots.

"A map with red dots?" Geoff asked.

"It's a map of Lyoko and those red dots happen to be monsters. Lots of them. By the looks it they happen to be deployed all over Lyoko."

"Any of them near any towers?" Bridgette asked.

"Not by the looks of it. They're moving all over the place." Cody replied.

"They're looking for something." Courtney spoke up.

"Okay it's either target practice begging to happen...or a trap," Duncan said. "Who votes trap?"

"Me!" Several voices repeated.

"I don't think so," Bridgette shook her head. "It might be a trap...but look at that island in the Tropical Sector. They're avoiding it." She tapped one region of Lyoko.

"...oh boy, here we go." Noah sighed. "Somebody's gonna have to go in and do a big fancy search, cuz that's just how we roll."

"We don't really have to, there's no activated tower." Gwen said.

"Yeah, but just you wait, something will happen and we'll end up going there no matter what we do or say." Noah said knowingly. "Mark my words and bet ten bucks on it."

"Ten bucks?!" Trent said indignantly. "Screw that! I'm not taking those chances."

"I think you mean ten Euros Noah." Gwen pointed out.

"But ten Euros won't buy me lunch back home." Noah pointed out. "And since there's a lot of Lyoko Warriors and plenty of chances for us to get kicked off, I'm kinda seeing the part where I get kicked coming up soon so I'm preparing to buy myself some chocolate on the flight home."

"Maybe we should talk to Aelita about this." Heather said.

"I got her number but she might be in class so I'll leave a message." Cody said.

Xxx

Lilith sat on a cliff of an island in the Tropical Sector, watching as Hornets and Mantas flew in formation above the ocean.

"I don't think I've ever seen so many monsters all over Lyoko before." She said out loud. "And every half hour the number just increases. It won't be long before all of Lyoko is covered."

Xxx

"Sheesh, if we have to wait this long maybe we should just head over to the factory now and check it out." Duncan said, with his arms crossed as the Lyoko group waited recreation room for Aelita to answer Cody's message.

"Do what? Pick a fight with a bunch of monsters, tick off a lot of them, and get your virtual hide blown apart?" Courtney asked.

"Hey, I know when not to pick a fight."

"That's a shock." Trent said, getting a glare from Duncan.

"Still no activated tower?" Gwen asked, hoping to change the topic and avoid a fist fight in the studio.

"Nope. Just more monsters showing up now." Cody said. "If this keeps up all of Lyoko will be covered soon."

"There's no way XANA could activate more than one tower, could he?" Heather asked.

"He's never done that before, but maybe." Bridgette guessed.

"Then all these monsters could be the sign of something big. You remembered what Lilith said to Shadow when he used up all his powers?" Noah asked.

"That the more XANA divides his power up by creating monsters and activating towers? Yeah."

"Sounds to me that XANA could be storing up his energy."

"Something's still not right. The way those monsters are moving." Gwen pointed at the map. "There's no tower. I think Bridgette's right, they're looking for something."

"Like what?" DJ asked.

"What could hidden on Lyoko that XANA would go through all the trouble to find?" Gwen asked.

Everyone had thoughtful looks on their faces as they pondered that question. Then it hit them.

"Shadow!"

"That must be it! XANA's searching for Shadow!" Cody said.

"And we care so much...why?" Geoff asked.

"He might use us if he can't find Shadow on his own," Gwen pointed out. "And odds are he'll have me deal the last blow if he can."

"Well ain't that a peach?" Trent crossed his arms.

"So what do we do?" Bridgette asked.

"...we do everything possible to avoid going to Lyoko until Shadow gets his ass kicked?" Noah suggested.

"Uh...tough luck, activated tower!" Cody said.

"...it's like he heard me say that." Noah said suspiciously. "That's almost as spooky as how Carlos keeps appearing when you-"

"Someone say my name?" Carlos stuck his head in through a door.

"I think we're all beginning to wonder how you do that," Gwen said.

"I'm like Super Man," Carlos grinned. "I know when I'm needed."

"Except your kryptonite is your wife." Duncan smirked.

"CARLOS!" Melissa shrieked from elsewhere.

"Coming honey!" Carlos ran off.

"...okay, he could not have been in the SAS." Duncan shook his head. "No bad ass is that whipped."

"Are the only bad asses from the SAS you know from Call of Duty?" Bridgette asked.

Cody coughed into one hand. "Youwerewhipped!"

Duncan glared at them. "Let's just go before we have any other unwelcome guests."

"Yeah, like Roberto!" Izzy saidl.

Roberto stuck his head...out of a vent. "Who called me?"

"What the heck are you doing in there?!" Courtney demanded.

"Carlos stuck me in here and glues my thighs to the walls." Roberto sighed.

"...Let's just go." Gwen said quickly.

"Bring back some solvent!" Roberto called after them. "...they're not coming back."

After a few moments of silence he sighed. "This is worse than when those Italian mobsters in New York thought I was Carlos' brother."

Xxx

The gang ran at full speed, hoping Aelita had detected the activated tower as well. Once they landed in the lobby they ran into the elevator and waited as it went down to the lab. Once the door opened Aelita was waiting for them.

"I guess the super scan worked on your laptops after all." She said, smiling.

"Hey, Aelita, you saw the massive army of monsters?" LeShawna asked.

"I did. I'm not surprised XANA would do this. He believes since Jeremy was the one who created Shadow it's our mess to clean up." Aelita said. "I may know where Shadow is hiding."

"Really? That was fast." Bridgette said with a surprised look.

"XANA may want us to believe he's looking for Shadow but I think he already knows where Shadow is hiding. Did you notice an island that the monsters seemed to be avoiding in the Tropical Sector?" Aelita asked.

"Yeah. I noticed it earlier." Bridgette nodded.

"XANA has deployed monsters all over Lyoko yet this one island, the monsters seem to be avoiding it." Aelita pointed at it.

"Maybe they already searched it." DJ said.

"Yet almost every other island in the sector is occupied and there are more than enough air born monsters to patrol that island. They're all avoiding it. It could be deserted and they already know that or they could be avoiding it because they know something is there."

"...okay, so either we can drop somewhere and pray they don't blast us so fast we can't react, or we drop on the island with whatever the hell is there." Trent listed their options.

"We should split up. I can take a team to take care of the tower while several of you investigate this island." Aelita said.

"I'll take that team," Gwen volunteered.

"I'll take another shot at Shadow, maybe after I kick his ass for the fiftieth time he'll stay dead." Duncan said.

"I'll go too." Heather spoke up.

"He made a giant squid suck my brains and stole my program," Noah scowled. "I want my shot at him."

"Alright, the rest of us will hit the tower," Bridgette said.

"What do we uh...formless warriors do?" LeShawna asked.

"Just keep an eye open," Aelita instructed them.

"This could still be a trap." Gwen said.

"Keep an eye out. Right. . ." Geoff said dully.

That's what he, LeShawna, DJ, and Cody had been doing for the last few attacks. They wished they could come and help but thanks to XANA they couldn't.

Xxx

Gwen, Duncan, and Heather landed on the beach of the island and stood up, waiting for Noah. A moment later he landed and looked around.

"Wow. All clear. I was expecting a welcoming committee." Noah commented.

"Don't hold your breath. We might get one." Gwen said.

"_See anything yet?_" Cody asked.

"Nope. Just a large beach with coconut trees." Duncan said.

"We better hurry and check this place out." Heather said. "If Shadow is here I want the chance for some well deserved pay back."

They nodded and sprinted into the forest leading up towards the small mountain in the center of the island.

Xxx

Aelita, landed with Trent and Izzy behind her and then waited for Courtney and Bridgette to be virtualized. A moment later they landed in front of them. Courtney actually managed to land on her feet this time.

"I think I finally got this landing thing." Courtney stood up.

"Aw, it was so funny to see you fall on your butt." Izzy snickered.

Courtney glared at the fox girl for that but Aelita interrupted.

"We're all here now, Cody. You can send the vehicles."

"_On it._"

The OverBoard, the OverWing, and the OverBike appeared in front of them.

"Awesome! Izzy calls the board!" Izzy jumped onto the OverBoard.

"I call the bike!" Trent said.

"I guess I get the last." Courtney sighed.

Aelita activated her wings and they took off towards the tower. At the same time they were on the lookout for any monsters moving to intercept them.

"Okay, this is weird. Are there any monsters coming towards us?" Trent asked.

"_No. They're not even guarding the tower._"

"Aww!" Izzy groaned.

"I got that trap feeling going again." Trent said.

They looked down and the saw the island with the activated tower on it. They landed a few feet away from the tower. It stood in a small island connected to the larger island.

"This is way too easy." Bridgette said.

"I agree." Courtney hopped off the OverWing.

"Should we still deactivate it?" Trent asked.

"Yes. I don't know what XANA is planning he sure isn't being randomly generous about not sending any monsters or generals after us." Aelita replied.

"_Hang on a second . . . Aelita, there's something in the water!_"

"Monster?" Courtney asked.

"_Whatever it is it's got five hundred life points!_"

"Aelita, head to the tower!" Trent said, pulling out his guitar.

Aelita nodded and ran but stop mid-way. Her eyes widened in fear.

'_This presence. I know who it is!_'

"What's wrong?" Bridgette asked.

"Plasma Beam!" Aelita shouted and fired at the tower.

The beam was about to hit the tower when suddenly a spherical red force field appeared between it and the tower and blocked it. The explosion sent dust and water flying.

"A barrier?" Courtney asked.

That was when the dust cleared and someone stood there. Aelita and Bridgette's eyes widened as they knew who it was.

"Well, look at what we have here."

"XANA!" Aelita said with a shocked look.

"This guy's XANA?" Courtney asked, surprised by XANA's appearance. "...okay I see the similarities actually."

"Ok then pretty boy," Izzy smirked. "You goin' DOWN!" She shot forward.

"Izzy!" Trent shot in front of her. "Bad idea! We need a plan!"

"Like not floating ten feet from the massively powerful AI?" Courtney suggested.

The two looked at the amused XANA, who had floated closer so he was now just right next to them.

"What's wrong? Will you not slay me? Now that I am right here in front of you?" He teased them. "Ah but this is a mere avatar, nothing more. None of you will be able to actually kill me now will you, not even Aelita."

"Well we have a plan...real long term," Trent said...and then whipped out his guitar and fired a Sonic Spell right in XANA's face.

XANA didn't even flinch, he simple held up his hand, blocking the Sonic Spell with his right hand. XANA had an amused look on his face.

"Is that attack the best you have?" XANA asked, teasing Trent again. "I shall send the power of your Sonic Spell right back to you."

With that said XANA suddenly reflected the Sonic Spell right at Trent and Izzy, blowing them back to the other warriors.

"A truly impressive plan." XANA said in a sarcastic tone as he landed in front of the tower. "Does anyone else have a plan they would like to try?"

Suddenly black tentacles sprouted from the water and wrapped around XANA.

"What the heck?" Bridgette asked.

"The monster in the water . . . It's attacking XANA!" Aelita said. "It must be Shadow!"

The surface of the water behind the tower broke revealing a monster as large as the Kollossus. It had a massive head with yellow eyes and black skin while looking flat and rubbery. What was scary that it didn't have legs but large tentacles, each one as a large as a tower. The red force field XANA had put up shattered as the tentacles touched it and XANA was left in the monster's grasp.

**_"XANA!"_** The monster roared.

XANA chuckled. "Shadow. Sending one of your creatures while hiding out? Typical."

"That belongs to Shadow?" Bridgette asked with shocked look.

**_"XANA! DIE! NOW!"_** The monster suddenly revealed a large beak hidden by the tentacles, like a giant squid. It opened up, and many snake like tentacles shot out, aiming to devour XANA.

"I'd hate to be XANA right now." Izzy said.

The Avatar of XANA remained calm. He sighed, shutting his eyes. "Always the hard way, isn't it?" He opened his eyes. "_Apocalypse Storm!_"

A blast of red light exploded out and everyone watched as the monster was consumed in it. The light clouded half the island before fading. When it cleared XANA floated in the air looking like nothing had ever happened.

The monster on the other hand, was nowhere to be seen now. The only remnant of it was a pitch black outline on the ground.

"Holy crap!" Trent shouted. "He-he blew it away!"

"Uh...this ain't good is it?" Izzy asked.

"Aelita, I think we should run now." Courtney swallowed.

That was when XANA did the unexpected. He turned and flew away.

"He left . . ." Bridgette said.

"He didn't want to fight us?" Aelita said, with a curious look.

"_Guys, he's heading for the island the others are on!_"

"You should go after him." Aelita turned to the others.

"But what about you?" Trent asked.

"XANA left a tower unguarded and just now destroyed a monster left by Shadow. We're not the targets."

"Right." Bridgette nodded. "But we shut down the tower first. We can't leave anyone behind if XANA and Shadow are here."

"All right."

Xxx

"We've been all over this island and haven't found anything." Duncan said.

"_Guys you have got to get off the island!_"

"Why? We're not done searching yet." Noah said.

"_Doesn't matter now! You have got trouble!_"

"Like what? What could be so bad we would have to run for our lives?" Duncan said.

"_XANA's showed up in his Avatar and he's heading your way!_"

"...that counts." Noah said quickly.

"Get us some vehicles man!" Duncan said. "We're a little stranded here in case you haven't notice you ninkum-"

BOOM!

The top of the mountain exploded.

"-poop." Duncan started.

Suddenly a large shape leaped out of the hole in the mountain, spreading bat like wings. It let out a roar and shot down towards the warriors.

"Incoming!" Duncan shouted.

"We gotta run!" Heather shouted.

"Hold on, I was playing Base Ball before this season started and I got a killer swing." Duncan stepped up to 'bat', his sword in both hands. The group could have sworn base ball music began to play.

"Duncan come on! Don't be an idiot!" Gwen said.

"Oh relax I've kicked this guy's ass more than I can count on one-" He swung his sword...and was sent flying by an explosion. "HAND!" He hit the ground, his life points dropped to seventy. "Ow."

Everyone looked up and saw who it was in the sky. Shadow in his second transformation but now his skin was dark grey, his eyes glowed yellow and a large scar traveled down his face, his hair a lighter shade of grey. Eight horns instead of two protruded from his head, forming something akin to a crown.

"Shadow! He's regenerated!" Gwen said.

"Damn!" Heather shouted.

However Shadow did not pay any attention to them and flew off.

"...I don't think he even knew we were here."

"_He's heading for XANA!_"

Xxx

Trent, Izzy, Courtney, Aelita and Bridgette were back on their vehicles as they followed XANA. As they pursued him they noticed that the sky was slowly turning back with red clouds.

"XANA's Avatar. Its close." Bridgette said.

"But why bring it out now?" Courtney asked.

"I see him! Over there!" Trent pointed.

They looked to see XANA floating above the ocean. It looked like he was waiting for something. That was when they noticed a winged figure flying towards him.

"It's . . ." Bridgette said.

"Shadow!" Trent said.

Both XANA and Shadow stopped just a few feet from each other, hovering in the air. While they floated the ocean below them turned become tainted with a mix of purple and black, like it was somehow polluted. The trees on the nearby islands all turned to stone, the sky turned even darker and red lightning flashed once every few seconds.

"I suddenly don't like this place as much anymore," Izzy said.

"They were just heading for each other!" Aelita said. "Such power...terrible power."

"So what, this is a clash of the titans for them?" Courtney asked.

"Yo!" Suddenly several more Lyoko warriors flew in.

"What's up?" Noah asked.

"Well from the looks of it we're having a big villain's show down," Trent said. "Anybody feel like placing bets?"

"Worst timing possible dude," Duncan said as he floated by Trent.

XANA and Shadow floated a few feet from each other, just staring.

XANA then smirked. "You were supposedly destroyed when Aelita activated the Code: Reboot and restored the core. But you reformed haven't you, Shadow?"

"Heh, XANA with the power I gained from absorbing the energy from the Reboot and removing the self-destruct code. It merely took a blink of an eye." Shadow replied.

XANA chuckled. "And then? Didn't you want the Keys to Lyoko that both Aelita and I carry as well? To open the gate and escape?"

"Heh, XANA the only thing advantage you have over me now is merely those keys."

With that Shadow fired an energy blasted that blew XANA's left shoulder apart.

"Whoa!" Several Lyoko Warriors said.

Shadow chuckled from seeing XANA's avatar lose a shoulder and an arm.

XANA glared at Shadow while he chuckled."It useless. Shatter this Avatar countless time but I will not die. My core, Shadow, is not here."

"The same can be said for me. Destroy my body and I'll reform. The poison spell will not work on me this time."

XANA chuckled. "Shall we find out? Which one of us will survive?"

"Sparing my life with the core of Lyoko was your fatal mistake." Shadow laughed.

XANA only smirked. "Ever since you were first rescued from that tower Jeremy placed you in, I actually knew it would be this way."

Shadow's eyes narrowed. "You knew it?"

"Do you know why I allowed you to create any viruses that would benefit you and only you behind my back while waiting for a general to be stronger than you to be created? It is because I knew when I did you would undoubtedly attempt to betray and usurp me. A being guided by thoughts of revenge whether it be human or AI would have no qualms about betrayal and sure enough . . . You went and ate a multi-agent program designed to destroy anything associated with me, created your own army of monsters, proclaiming yourself the new ruler of Lyoko." XANA said, chuckling.

"You sound like you're impressed." Shadow commented.

"Eating that boy's program, the power from the core, and the Reboot. Indeed I am, considering that no human ruler of any type in the history of mankind had managed to grow so fat as fast you have, Shadow, great _king_ of Lyoko."

Shadow glared. "I've made more progress than you ever have. You haven't had a single significant victory against a bunch of human brats after many years. I have gained more power in several weeks where it took you four years of being beaten by a bunch of brats."

"The difference is that I've evolved, where you have merely stuffed yourself with the power of others and grown strong off of their strength." XANA smirked. "Do you know something similar? Something that eats off of the power of others to survive? A parasite, a virus."

"Then I'm a virus, but you are still doomed XANA," Shadow pointed at him.

"I wouldn't think so," XANA chuckled. "For somebody who's made progress, you seem surprised that the warriors continue to beat you."

"With your help if I recall," Shadow pointed out. "You constantly give them the power to stop me or the tools to destroy me at every turn! If you had such an insight why did you give power to them and have them destroy me? I'll tell you why, it's because I've become stronger then you expected and it's out of your control, isn't it?"

"I was simply waiting for you to grow tired and come to me on your own accord," XANA shook his head.

"You lured me out? Don't make me laugh!" Shadow snarled. "So unwilling to admit you screwed up big time, huh XANA?"

"Actually you _are_ right in front of me."XANA smirked more evilly."It's time for you to relinquish your throne."

"Then come at me and see what happens!" Shadow growled.

XANA smirked and the floating pieces of his destroyed arm and shoulder came together into a cloud of black smoke, flying through the air and reformed XANA's lost limb.

"XANA intends to destroy Shadow himself." Aelita said.

"But Noah's program . . . Do you believe XANA has found a way to counter all of its effects?" Gwen asked.

"XANA wouldn't bring out his Avatar if he didn't have a chance at winning." Aelita replied.

Shadow roared and two Zweihanders appeared his hands in a flash of golden lightning. Twirling them with expert precision he clashed them together, electricity sparkling from the clash. XANA smirked and in a flash of red light a broad sword colored black with his Eye colored blood red imprinted on it appeared his hand. Shadow roared and flew forward at full speed.

Smirking XANA flew back, avoiding the first slash and continued to dodge. Roaring, Shadow unleashed streams of golden lightning that XANA dodged easily. Then XANA flew at him and they clashed their swords together resulting in a sonic blow that echoed through Lyoko and created large waves in the dark ocean below them. Shadow roared and attempted to cut him but XANA flew above him, dodging it easily.

Shadow growled and flew at him, aiming to cut off XANA's head. He swung his swords and unleashed streams of golden energy at his former partner. XANA raised his hand and a red barrier formed around him. The attack hit the barrier, shattering like glass being hit by a rock, XANA avoided it and destroyed a small island behind him.

As soon as the attack died down, XANA shot forward, his sword flashing bright red as he swung. The clash of metal was louder than almost any other battle in Lyoko. Shadow spun to cut XANA's head off but shadowy arms sprouted from XANA's back blocked the Shadow's blades. Shadow's eyes narrowed at how hard those arms were.

He flew back as the arms moved to grab and pummel him. He disappeared and reappeared at XANA's side with his swords ready to impale him. However XANA managed to blocked with his broad sword. Shadow flew back, avoiding a swipe from one of XANA's shadowy arms but was unable to stop XANA's sword from slashing his chest.

Shadow snarled angrily and opened his mouth. Black light glowed in his throat and XANA knew was what happening. His broad sword glowed red as he readied his own attack.

**"TAKE THIS!"** Shadow roared and unleashed a stream of black lightning.

XANA replied by raising his sword, the red malevolent energy cackling wildly before a blast went off just as Shadow's attack nearly hit. XANA grinned, believing Shadow was destroyed but then a flash of black energy broke through the stream of red energy. Before he could pull back black overtook red, exploding in a shower of black and red light, destroying most of XANA's Avatar leaving only his right arm holding his broad sword, half his left arm, and the upper torso and the head were all that was left.

Shadow chuckled. "What's the matter, XANA? Even though you seemed so confident, you can't do a thing can you?"

"That show off." Duncan said.

"He's gotten a whole lot stronger and he's just showing off." Bridgette said.

XANA on the other hand chose not to respond to any of Shadow's taunts. A black mist gathered and he started to change. Black tendrils reached out from his back and grabbed Shadow, and XANA's right arm extended along with his newly regenerated left arm into giant red arms ending with large scythe resembling the legs of a Krab. The black mist gathered underneath XANA's half destroyed torso and a giant tail resembling the tail of a Scorpion sprouted.

XANA flew at Shadow, his Krab like arms reaching out and slashing at him. Shadow growled as he used his arms to block the claws. XANA extended his tail until it could reach out behind Shadow and swung it up, aiming for the back of Shadow's head. However Shadow's own tail flew out and in a surge of black energy cut off XANA's tail.

"Ha!" Shadow said and gathered gold energy in his hands.

They exploded in a flash of light and destroyed XANA's arms leaving his Avatar with a semi-floating torso while pieces of red data floated around him.

"You seem to have some trouble dealing with a king that that has grown fat, huh XANA?" Shadow asked sarcastically.

Once again XANA chose not to answer him. He settled for glaring darkly at the former bat like general.

"Okay, something's seems off here with me." Duncan said. "Shouldn't XANA be winning? I mean I kicked Shadow's ass plenty and this . . ."

"Duncan is right. It seems too easy." Aelita said. "XANA's Avatar is more powerful than any monster he has created, yet Shadow is easily tearing it apart."

"XANA, that Avatar is just a simple shell. No real power what so ever." Shadow smirked. "I'll give you a few seconds to regret the decision to challenge me."

That was when he spread his wings out and send blasts of gold energy, shattering what was left of XANA's Avatar into pieces.

"And Yuki said you would be too strong to handle."

That was when the thousands of digital pieces flew at him, covering in a black substance.

"What are they doing?" Courtney asked.

"XANA's entire Avatar can regenerate itself since nearly every piece of it is alive along with every program that makes up XANA. It looks like they may be trying to crush Shadow." Aelita replied.

That was when the black cocoon suddenly burst into red flames. Shadow was still trapped as the data that made up XANA's Avatar attempted to burn him to virtual ashes. However Shadow's wings sprouted out of the black cocoon. Shadow clawed his way out of the cocoon.

"It doesn't look like it's working." Noah said.

"Ha, XANA you say I am a parasite yet your programs seek to kill me like a disease? Here, let me show you out its done!" He opened his mouth and like a black hole the substance that made up XANA's Avatar was being suck into it.

It tried to escape but Shadow's vacuum was too strong.

"Shadow's absorbing XANA's Avatar into his body!" Aelita with wide eyes.

"That's good right?" Izzy asked.

"No it's bad. Really bad. It means now Shadow has absorbed XANA's Avatar he could gain access to all of XANA's powers, along with his monsters, knowledge, and the Keys he has, giving Shadow control of Lyoko, the Replicas, and XANA's Carbon Copy!" Aelita explained. "XANA's Avatar is no doubt connected through the hive mind all of XANA's program have. Once Shadow absorbs his Avatar he'll spread all over, infecting and taking control."

Shadow laughed. "Victory! That'll show you, XANA! Do you regret it now? The king that you say has grown fat has devoured you now as well! Everything that made you so powerful is now mine!"

"Ok, definitely bad," Izzy nodded quickly.

"Oh come on, the only thing that got bigger than his stomach is his ego!" Duncan said. "We can take him!"

"Feel free dude, I'm backing away a bit." Trent said, backing his vehicle up.

"Come now Warriors!" Shadow cackled. "I can feel it. The knowledge and power!"

His mind was nearly overloaded with images, codes, data on Lyoko, the Carbon Copy, the data on how to create monsters, spectres, clones, and so much more. He could feel the power of Lyoko and the Carbon Copy that was used to lavish XANA coursing through his digital veins. It was so much power. He was almost overwhelmed by just how much power he had taken.

And then he possessed the sight. He could see and sense almost anything on Lyoko, the Carbon Copy, or the Digital Sea within the Network. He could see the human world, places in different countries. Information constantly coming, be reviewed and stored for future use. It was almost so overwhelming his mind could almost not take it.

He looked down at the warriors. The ones that had given him as much as trouble.

"Time to DIE!"

"He's lost it!" Gwen said, holding her scythe up.

"I think he lost it a long time ago!" Noah added.

Shadow shot towards them, and they scattered to avoid him. He spun to face them, and spread his hands. Many monsters-both his Shadow creatures and XANA's normal monsters began to appear, filling the sky.

"Destroy them all!" He shouted.

A fleet of Mantas, and hordes of Hornets and other flying monsters-some carrying Dragon Knights armed with guns shot towards the warriors.

"We're too exposed! We need to take them on a few at a time!" Gwen shouted.

"Down to the islands! We can scatter them and fight them off!" Aelita ordered, leading a retreat to a nearby island that looked suitable for their needs, with several ravines and valleys perfect for avoiding the creatures. They dove down into one valley. Several Mantas and other monsters bounced off of the walls and exploded, as though Shadow's control over so many were causing them to make mistakes instead of how XANA had them make calculated and planned moves.

The Lyoko warriors then scattered.

Xxx

"This is crazy!" Cody said.

"The dude took out XANA!" Geoff exclaimed.

"And now he's going after Aelita and the others!" DJ said frightened.

That was when things got worse. The super scan detected a nearby tower being infected. That was when the warning sign came up.

"Oh no! Life points active! He wants to devirtualized them for good!" Cody said.

They watched in fear, horror and hope that the warriors could pull through as they landed on the island. Pursued by monsters that Shadow had created and XANA had earlier used to search all of Lyoko. Hornets and Mantas flew in the air with Dragon Knights landing on the ground. Krabs emerged from the ocean and onto the beach, ready to storm the island.

Shadow creatures sprouted and ran into the stone forest while Gryphons roared and flew down to tear the warriors apart.

"Come on guys! You can pull through this!" LeShawna said, watching the map.


	44. Episode 43: Shadow's Miscalculation

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 44

Each warrior landed on different parts of the island they had chosen for cover. The pursuing monsters split up, picking their target and pursued with the intent to kill.

Xxx

Aelita landed and took cover behind the trees as Mantas, Hornets, and Dragon Knights fired at her. The flying monsters flew over while the Dragon Knights landed on the ground and took out their weapons. One pulled out a katana and swung at the tree Aelita hiding behind. The pink haired leader of the Lyoko Warriors ducked as the sword cut the tree in half.

The four other Dragon Knights that followed her moved to box her in. One Knight carrying a big axe charged and swung at her. Aelita held out an energy orb to defend herself and the orb shattered the axe the moment it touched. Aelita then fired an energy orb from her other hand straight at Knight's face, destroyed its head and the rest of its body disappeared in a shower of red pixels.

Another Knight with two short swords sliced at her but she jumped and flung another energy sphere at it. The Knight dodged while the other remaining three tried to catch her off guard. One Knight drew two daggers and tried to stab her but after years of fighting XANA she was able to dodge with fast reflexes. Another Knight was armed with dual pistols and fired at her. Ducking her head, the lasers flew over Aelita and hit the Knight with the daggers.

Holding out both hands she fired two energy spheres that hit both Knights and destroyed them. Now only the Knight with two short katanas was left. The Knight slashed at her but she dodged each and every swing, but the Knight forced her back with each swing. Finally she felt her back hit a tree letting her know she could not take another step back.

The Knight aimed to stabs its blades through her head but Aelita was ready. She created an energy sphere in front her face that destroyed the swords and then blasted the Knight's head off with her other hand. Now that the Knights were taken care of Aelita could look for the others and help them out before it was too late. There was also an infected tower on the island that made life points active so she had to make sure no one's life points hits zero.

That was when a distinct whale like sound was heard. Looking up she saw five Mantas along with a squad of Hornets. Knowing they could not reach her the Mantas settled for releasing their mines into the forests. Aelita ran at full sprint as trees fell over, one almost falling on her and crushing her. Looking up she held out her hand behind her head.

"Plasma Beam!"

An energy beam blasted out and hit a stream of mines that caused a series of explosions that hit several monsters, scattering them. A Manta hit a tree and exploded, while a Hornet hit the ground and blew up like the other monsters. Taking advantage of the distraction Aelita ran ahead, taking out her wrist computer and used it to locate the nearest Lyoko Warrior.

Xxx

Gwen ducked under a laser as bunch of monsters shot at her. Dark Krabs had emerged onto the beach from the ocean and blasted through the forests while Hornets and Mantas hovered above. Gwen twirled her scythe in her hand rapidly, moving it defensively in front of her, deflecting lasers beams each time. As Mantas and Hornets fired on her she rolled evasively to one side, throwing her scythe with a twist of her wrist.

It twirled through the air, heading straight for the line of monsters as they burned through the forest. Slicing through a Hornet with a thin explosion then continuing through the air, clipping one leg out from under a Krab. This happened in just a few seconds and then Gwen raised a hand and caught her weapon as it returned.

Taking cover again Gwen peeked out and saw a squad of Dragon Knights marching towards her hiding spot.

"You guys just don't quit."

The monsters replied by firing another barrage of lasers. Ducking Gwen closed her eyes and her wind elemental aura came to life around her. A gust of wind blew the trees and dirt at the monsters. Any unfortunate monsters still in the way of a tree blown over was crushed instantly.

Those that weren't crushed were blinded as the sand blew in their faces, disorientating them. Hornets were blown back, some sent flying into the ocean while some managed to avoid hitting anything and flew back after their target. The few Dragon Knights that survived the attack smashed through the debris and headed towards Gwen.

Gwen peeked out and saw a large hammer about to hit her. Ducking in time the hammer smashed the tree she was hiding behind. The Dragon Knight holding the hammer growled and turned to her. It swung at her again but she dodged and slashed at it with her scythe.

The Knight blocked her slash and Gwen was forced to duck as another Knight swiped her at her with a spear. Grunting, Gwen activated her fire aura and set both knights on fire. However Dragon Knights were more resilient to her spells than most monsters. The Knight with the spear slashed at her again, cutting her shoulder a bit.

Gwen quickly activated her Energy String spell and used it to bind one the spear wielding Knight. The Knight with hammer swung at her again. Dodging she manoeuvred so the next swing would hit the bound knight. Her work paid off as the next swing sent the Knight she paralyzed into a tree and it exploded on impact.

Sighing, she ran a hand through her hair. "Well, glad that's over . . . For now."

That was when an explosion was heard and she saw another group of monsters heading her way.

"Great." She muttered and ran off.

Xxx

"TAKE THIS!"

Dragon Knights, Krabs, and some Hornets and Mantas blasted away as a tidal wave hit them with a full blast. A few trees were even taken out from the sheer force of the wave. Bridgette floated on her surf board, her wave shaped tattoos glowing brightly.

"That should get a bunch off my back." Bridgette said, landing on the beach.

Of course a laser blast to the shoulder told her she was not out of the woods yet. Looking up she saw more Mantas flying at her.

"You have got to be kidding!" Bridgette fired an energy wave that destroyed a couple of them.

A few more Krabs came out of the ocean firing at her. Transforming her board into her swords she blocked the lasers. Jumping up, she landed on the lead Krab and jumped as the other two shot, hitting the first Krab. She landed on the right one behind the first one and the third one shot at her, once again hitting the Krab she was on just as she landed on it and stabbed it in the Eye.

Landing on the ground she took off not wanting to suffer Murphy's Law again and headed into the forest.

Xxx

"HIYAH!"

Izzy transformed into a tiger and tackled a Krab, knocking it on its back and clawing it apart. A Dragon Knight slammed into her, knocking her off. Transforming back into her human form Izzy jumped as the ground underneath her shook and she landed on a tree branch. From out of the ground came out a Snake that was usually found in the Swamp Sector.

It went back underground but Izzy could tell it was not over. She wasn't wrong when a small bulge in the ground moving towards the tree. Izzy jumped as the tree started to fall over and landed on another tree branch. Looking down Izzy saw the Snake poke its head, not looking too happy about her avoiding its attack.

The Snake opened its mouth and a red beam blasted out and hit the tree's trunk, burning through it and causing it to fall over as well. Izzy jumped again, this time landing on the ground.

"This'll be Izzy's biggest catch!"

She stomped her foot a few times, hoping it will catch the Snake's attention. It worked as she saw a mound of dirt heading her way. She carefully stepped to the side, trying now not to make enough noise that would alert the Snake of her new position. It worked as the Snake sprouted out of the ground, hoping to catch her where it thought she was.

Only too does it see her as she jumped in the air. Her claws flashed orange and the next thing she knows as the Snake's head falling off and both it and the body vanish into streams of data. She looked at her claws and grinned. "Ooooohhhhh!"

Xxx

"Ok….here we go," Duncan tapped his sword against the ground as a Manta shot down towards him, a Dragon Knight on it. He raised his sword, covering it in green fire. "Let's see if I can hit a home run this time." He got into a classic batter's pose.

If one listened closely ,they might hear base ball music playing as the Manta closed in on him.

Right as it closed in, Duncan suddenly pulled to the side. "Psyche!" Then it slammed into the tree that he had knocked down and set on a rock, sharpening the stump so that when the manta hit it, it impaled itself on it, exploding into code and making the Dragon Knight fall off. As it began to get up, Duncan walked past and almost casually chopped its head off.

He chuckled. "I still got it."

And then three Krabs appeared around him.

"….Aw crap."

Xxx

"I hate this place! I hate this place! I hate this place!" Noah repeated as he phased through trees and rocks in an attempt to evade the Mega Tank pursuing him. "I HATE LYOKO!"

He suddenly fell over an edge. "Mommy!"

He fell into a river, which began to wash him along…and the Mega Tank fell in too. The river was not too shallow for it…Noah was just short. It began to roll along the river bed, chasing him. "Don't you ever give up?" He sighed. "This can't possibly get…worse?" He turned and saw a water fall coming up.

"Oh crap!" Noah scrambled to get out.

'Let's see, recap! Mega Tank behind me, coming up on big water fall.' He thought. 'Sharp rocks at the bottom? Most likely….bring it on.'

He fell over. " OH YEAH-AH-H-H-H-H-H-H-! OOF!" He hit a log that stuck out of a the foliage lining the waterfall…..it hit him in the fork of his legs. For several moments he was silent. "….I am so glad I'm digital right now." The Megatank fell next to him…and exploded at the bottom of the waterfall.

"YEAH!" He pumped his fist into the air. "I planned it all along! I rule!"

And then two Mantas flew up to him, with Dragon Knights aiming guns at him.

"….Aw son of a-"

BOOM!

One Manta exploded as a shuriken hit it's symbol. The Dragon Knight spread its wings and hovered before three more Shuriken tore it apart. Suddenly Heather landed on the other one and delivered an expertly executed round house kick to the Dragon Knight on it. She then jammed her arm blades down into the Manta, and leaped off as it exploded. She landed on the log next to Noah.

"Thanks," Noah said, getting up, one hand nursing his abused Noah Jr.

"How did you end up here?" Heather asked.

"Well how did you jump all the way up here?" Noah replied.

"You never noticed the path way next to the water fall?" Heather pointed to a spiralling path next to the waterfall, hugging the cliff.

"….I hate Lyoko," Noah muttered.

"Get used to it genius," Heather hauled him up and leaped onto the path. "In the mean time, don't we have a score to settle with Shadow?"

"We're kinda stranded right now." Noah said.

"But you can get us a ride," Heather smirked.

"….I hate you so much I can't put it into words right now." Noah sighed.

Xxx

"I REALLY hate you," Noah repeated as Heather helped him lean over the edge of a cliff ,looking down at patrolling Mantas.

"Just land on one and possess it!" Heather said. "Just say 'when'."

"What?" Noah asked, his hearing partially impaired by the blowing wind.

"Say when!"

"What?"

Heather, who also had a hard time hearing, thought Noah had said 'when', and released him.

"AH!" Noah plummeted through the air, and phased into a Manta. The Dragon Knight on it looked down, confused…until the Manta angled itself and crushed the Dragon Knight against the cliff wall. It shot up to Heather's level. "I really REALLY hate you Heather!"

"I heard that before!" Heather leaped on. "Let's find the others!"

Xxx

"Is that better?" Courtney asked.

"Yeah, thanks," Trent stood, his life points restored and his power increased. "Did you see any of the others on the way down?"

"I was busy running for my life, so no." Courtney shook her head.

"Uh…you might wanna start again," Trent suddenly pulled her aside as a Gryphon landed in front of them and shrieked at them.

"I hate those things!" Courtney shouted as she and Trent hid behind a tree.

"…am I the only one who thinks using a tree as a shield against a giant monster is a bad idea?" Trent voiced his opinion….before the tree was cut off at a level right above their heads. Gulping, they peeked over the trunk and saw the Gryphon glaring down at them. It screeched and lunged. They dodged, and Trent fired up several sonic spells while Courtney extended her staff.

"Get in close, take him out!" Trent shouted. "And be careful, you used up a lot of life points to heal me!"

"Alright…now!" Courtney leaped on the Grpyon's back and began to beat it over the head with her staff as it thrashed around. Suddenly her staff flew out of her hands ,and she grasped its neck. "A little help?"

"Alright, I'm coming!" Trent activated his guitar's buzz saw. He started forward, but then paused as a red aura covered the Gryphon. It wasn't Gwen's Fire Aura, more like something blood red.

And then it began to suddenly flow right into Courtney's hands, like water to a sponge. Courtney's eyes snapped open, glowing gold. "I…wow I feel great!"

_"Your life points are going back up too!" _Cody said. _"The Gryphon lost five, ten, fifteen, twenty! He's going down!"_

"I think she just discovered a new power." Trent commented as she continued to leech off of the Gryphon. "First the power to give, now the power to take."

_"No surprise on that one."_

"Hey!" Courtney shouted.

_"Sorry."_

The Gryphon began to weaken until it collapsed, and exploded under Courtney. After she got up and dusted herself off, she grabbed her staff, fully rejuvenated. "That was great! Let's go find the others now!"

Xxx

Aelita peeked out from behind a boulder she using as cover, looking at the tower that Shadow was using to cut the scanners off. The tower sat on a large cliff overlooking the area, looking like the island was built around it.

"Aelita!"

She turned and saw Gwen, Bridgette, Izzy, and Duncan run up and take cover behind the boulder with her.

"Am I glad to see you guys. Have you seen the others?" Aelita asked.

"Sorry, no." Bridgette shook her head.

"But we took care of the monsters following us." Gwen said.

"I wish that was all of them." Aelita pointed at the tower.

Looking up the other warriors noticed what was up in the cliff, looking down at them.

"Guys, please tell me I'm not seeing this!" Bridgette said.

"You're seeing it." Izzy said.

Sitting on the cliff with the tower was a large group of monsters, composed of Krabs, Mechs, Dragon Knights, Pyramids, Spiderlings, and Tarantulas. Dozens of them, sitting in standing in a row while behind them in front of the tower were three Megatanks.

"Wow. That's a lot." Duncan said.

"Looks like Shadow was expecting this." Gwen grimaced.

"What do we do?" Bridgette said.

"What we have to do." Aelita said, holding a pink orb of energy. "Make sure you have a partner out there since the life points are active. No flashy heroics this time around."

"All right! Let's get 'em!" Izzy shouted, pumping her fist in the air.

Bridgette and Duncan pulled out their swords while Gwen held out her scythe. That was when they heard the Megatanks begin to roll towards them, followed by Spiderlings and Pyramids. Duncan ran towards them as Aelita, Gwen, and Bridgette flew into the air. Izzy ran close behind Duncan with both her crossbows firing.

A Spiderling and a Pyramid were hit and they instantly exploded. But the other Spiderlings fired a volley of lasers at them. Letting out a way cry Izzy jumped into the air, flipping over the laser fire and landed on her hands and vaulted herself forward. While in the air she fired her crossbows again with one arrow colliding with a laser while the another hit a Pyramid, causing it to explode.

Duncan slid under the laser fire while the three flying warriors flew overhead, Aelita fired several energy orbs while Gwen threw her scythe and Bridgette unleashed her energy wave wiping out the Spiderlings. That was when the buzzing sound of Hornets was heard behind them. Turning around they saw a swarm of Hornets that appeared out of nowhere, firing at them. Aelita and Bridgette weaved back and forth, avoiding the lasers while Gwen flew at them and cut through the lead Hornet with her scythe.

But then two other Hornets fired at the same time. Gwen dodged one but another hit her in the chest knocking her out of the air.

"GWEN! HANG ON!" Bridgette shouted.

She shot forward on her surf board towards the falling Gwen. She shot out her energy wave that hit one Hornet while the last one survived by dodging just barely. Bridgette angled out her surfboard and Gwen landed on the board. It looked like she had landed on the board perfectly but then Gwen felt she began to lean to the left.

"Crap!" Gwen shouted as she felt her footing slip and she fell off the board.

Bridgette quickly grabbed her hand but she lost her foot as well. They both fell to the ground, or at least they were falling to the ground when a Manta came out of nowhere and they landed on it.

"Wow. You two have such sloppy footing."

Gwen and Bridgette looked up and saw Heather looking down at them with her arms crossed. The Manta fired at the last Hornet and destroyed it.

"Heather? Where'd you get the Manta?" Bridgette asked.

"I thought it'd be obvious." Noah's voice came out of the Manta.

"NOAH!" Bridgette and Gwen said at the same time.

"Miss me?" Noah asked as he flew alongside Aelita and fired down at the monsters below. Bridgette whistled with her fingers and her surfboard flew beside the possessed Manta.

"We got our hands full this time." Bridgette said.

"Big deal." Heather said.

"HEY GUYS! A LITTLE HELP HERE!" Duncan shouted.

They looked down to see a group of Mechs and Tarantulas fighting Duncan. He cut one Mech in half but had to step back and block the incoming lasers. Courtney came out of nowhere, landing right behind Duncan, stabbing a Mech in the chest and kicked it away.

"Hey, welcome to the party." Duncan said.

"And as usual I find you getting yourself ganged up on and getting your ass kicked." Courtney replied.

"Well you know me. I like being the center of the party." Duncan smirked.

One of the Megatanks rolled out towards them. Duncan swung his sword unleashing a wave of green fire but the Megatank had its shell closed so his attack had no effect. Gwen landed back on the ground and blocked more incoming lasers with her scythe. A Dragon Knight landed behind her and tried to stab her with a dagger but a stream of lightning shot out and blasted.

Turning around Gwen saw Trent smiling with his guitar smoking.

"Yo!"

Gwen smiled back and threw her scythe and destroyed the last Spiderling. Aelita, Noah, Heather, and Bridgette fired down at the monster column. Two Krabs pointed to the sky and fired. Noah was too slow to evade all the lasers.

"Heather, get off! I'm getting out!"

Heather nodded in agreement and jumped off, landing on Bridgette's board just as Noah phased out of the Manta. The Krabs were still firing and the unfortunate Manta was hit and it exploded after a few shots. As Noah landed on the ground he rolled up and rolled along the ground. He immediately stood up and his hands transformed into guns, firing at the remaining monsters while meeting up with Gwen, Trent, Duncan, and Courtney.

"Welcome to the party." Duncan said.

"How many left?" Heather asked as she made it to the others.

"Well, two Krabs, a Mech, three Megatanks, and a Dragon Knight." Trent said.

"I really can't wait for to be over." Gwen said, blocking another laser.

"Are you joking? I can't get enough of this!" Izzy shouted, firing her crossbows like crazy.

Aelita and Bridgette landed next to them. That was when the Megatanks rolled towards them. The first one that made it opened its shell, revealing the main cannon and the Eye. The usual humming sound was heard as it charged and then fired.

"Incoming!" Courtney shouted.

Everyone quickly jumped out of the way. Courtney had slid to the left as energy wave past her. When the shot faded she got ready to run and drain the Megatank of its life points. That was until another pulsating sound was heard.

"Look out!" Aelita tackled Courtney, pushing out of the way as another Megatank fired at her.

Heather fired a stream of Shuriken at the final Dragon Knight. Bat like wings sprouted from the Knight's back as it flipped into the air, avoiding Heather's shots. The Knight pulled out two pistols a few shots at Heather. She jumped back, flipping through the air, now avoiding the shots from her enemy.

That was when Izzy fired a shot and it hit the Knight in the chest. The arrow exploded, taking the last Dragon Knight with it.

"OH YEAH!" Izzy jumped up and down.

"That was my monster!" Heather shouted angrily.

"You didn't call him!" Izzy called in a singing tone.

Gwen threw her scythe at the second Megatank before it could close its shell, causing it to explode as it sliced into the Eye. The first Megatank tipped on its side much to the surprise of everyone and fired again. Duncan quickly held his sword out in front of him as the shot headed for him and used his sword to block it.

However the shot continued to push him backwards and Duncan pushed more to try fighting the shot to keep it from hitting him. That was when Bridgette fired her energy wave and it hit the Megatank. It exploded and the shot faded.

"Woah!" Duncan exhaled and turned to Bridgette. "Thanks."

"No problem. We still have a few more to go."

The warriors surrounded the final Megatank and the last two Krabs. All three monsters kept a close eye on them back to back not allowing them to get an opening.

"_Uh, guys?_"

"Not now, Cody. We're almost done." Heather said.

"_Guys!_"

"Can it wait?" Courtney asked.

That was when a large figure came crashing down, destroying the Megatank and the last two Krabs and caused the gang to fall over. The dust that kicked up blinded them for a few seconds until Gwen looked up and saw a faint glow. They slowly looked up and saw the image of Shadow glaring down at them.

"_I tried to tell you guys._"

_"I am done playing with you."_ Shadow said as he opened his mouth and red fire started to glow inside.

He pointed at his attack at Aelita. She stood up in time for Izzy to tackle her and just as the fox girl grabbed her Shadow's let loose a stream of fire. The ground where Aelita was before was completely destroyed.

"That's a one spicy meatball." Izzy said in an Italian accent.

"Let me at him. I can handle this joker." Duncan stepped forward.

"Don't be stupid. There's no way you can take him on alone." Trent said.

"Whatever. It's time to kick his digital ass once and for all." Duncan replied.

Shadow chuckled. "What a good idea."

He opened his mouth. _"It'll end with your digital remains scattered all over Lyoko with no way out!"_

He fired a barrage of fire balls at Duncan.

"Not that old trick again!" Duncan whipped out his sword and sent a stream of green fire to cancel out Shadow's attack.

How even when Duncan's fire collided with them the fire balls did not slow down.

"Gah!" Duncan shouted as he dodged getting burned to death.

"It didn't repel them!" Bridgette said with widened eyes.

"That didn't happen last time!" Courtney said.

"It must be the power he's gained from infecting XANA!" Aelita realized with a feeling of dread.

"Damn!" Trent shouted and played the lightning note on his guitar.

The attack collided with Shadow but had no effect.

_"Heh-heh-heh, fools. Felt nothing more than being stung by a mosquito."_

"Get Aelita to the tower now!" Gwen said pulling out her scythe.

"What will you do?" Noah asked.

"If I can hit him with my poison spell it should kill him. And hopefully for good this time." Gwen said. "But there's no guarantee we can survive this so we need that tower shut down and the scanners back on line."

"Yeah, so hurry before his aim improves!" Duncan shouted as he and Bridgette ducked into cover to avoid being incinerated.

Aelita shot into the air and then towards the tower, flapping her wings as hard as possible.

_"You won't be saved this time," _Shadow announced. _"After you die, I will enjoy picking apart your friends piece by little piece."_

"I liked this guy better when he served XANA, when Ryder was the cocky one." Gwen commented as she began to spin her staff in preparation of his coming attack. He shot a stream of fire at her, and her shield divided the stream into two smaller ones. She slid back for teen feet before the attack ended. She gasped for breath as Shadow lunged, one large limb swinging down at Gwen, who was pulled aside by Izzy-in monkey form.

"Ooh-ooh-ah!" Izzy laughed. "Izzy likes this form!"

"Turn into something that can kick his ass!" Duncan shouted. "A T-Rex is real-or was, can't you turn into that?"

"...I never tried that actually." Izzy said.

Gwen stepped back as Izzy glowed, and slowly began to grow...

Until a large red Tyrannosaurus Rex stood, roaring at Shadow, baring its massive teeth. It towered over several stories, and its tail swung around, swatting aside trees and rocks.

"Wow...Izzy-Saurus." Noah said.

"Why not Izzyzilla?" Duncan asked.

"Izzysaurus Rex?" Bridgette suggested.

"Tyranoizzy." Trent suggested.

"RAWR!" Izzy lunged forward, slamming into Shadow and making him fly back.

He hit a cliff, and growled. "Well this is new. But when this is done you'll be just as extinct as the real thing!"

He lunged, shooting fire, but Izzy leaped aside with agility amazing for a giant dinosaur. She then swung her tail and swatted Shadow aside. She then lunged and chomped down on his arm, swinging Shadow around and sending him flying into the air. But he righted himself and slammed down on her as he came back down to the Earth. Struggling, Izzy bit at his side, but then he began to force her jaws apart.

"Oh man he's gonna pull a King Kong!" Trent shouted.

"Not if I got a thing to say about it," Duncan took out his sword. "Just...need to be...angry..."

He imagined the most excruciatingly annoying thing he could ever think of that he hated...

Courtney making out with Alejandro.

"RAWR!" He exploded into green fire, going into his Berserker form.

He then rushed across the battle field, leaving behind a startled team.

"Did he do that on purpose?" Trent asked.

"Must have thought of something that really ticked him off." Bridgette commented. "What do you think it was?"

"Alejandro screwing Courtney?" Noah asked.

When this idea came to mind, the Berserker's flames grew twice as large as he roared and leaped up. He slammed into Shadow's head, making him lose his grip on Izzy-Saurus, who broke free as Duncan gouged part of Shadow's head off, spilling code all over the place. Izzy took a bite out of Shadow's leg. For several moments they had an advantage.

"Called it!" Noah grinned. "So got it right! He imagined him takin her hard!"

"Shut up now Noah," Gwen said, but Duncan only roared in increased anger...before Shadow flicked him and sent him flying across the field where he hit a tree.

"Did the Berserker just get...KO'd?" Trent asked, swallowing.

They checked where Duncan had hit a tree...which fell over onto him. It slowly shifted aside as the Berserker, who's flames were dimmed to small sparks got up. He groaned, returning to Duncan. "I hate doing that."

"It happened, the Berserker did get KO'd!" Gwen said. "He's like one of the strongest things here when he's Berserker!"

"Well that's XANA's power in a pissed off Shadow, and he's like...strong." Noah pointed out. "We're lucky he didn't devirtualize entirely."

Izzy was on the attack again. She roared as she bit his arm again.

"We need a way to hold him down so I can use the poison spell again." Gwen said.

"I got one," Trent smirked. "Alright. Heather! Use your invisibility and get close to Shadow. You'll climb up and distract him. Noah, find any remaining monsters and possess one, preferably a flying monster. Courtney, you'll meet up with Noah and he'll fly you in while Heather distracts Shadow so you can take his life points. Bridgette, you'll be with me so we can hit Shadow from the ground. Duncan...take five dude."

"Thanks dad," Duncan collapsed.

"Gwen, when you have a clear shot ,take it!" Trent said. "Now let's go!"

They split up to their assigned tasks. Heather turned invisible and crept through the wrecked battle field towards the clashing titans. As soon as she got close enough she extended her arm blades and dug them in. Shadow barely noticed her, occupied with his arm being ripped open. She began to climb up, one blade at a time as he slammed one fist across Izzy's jaw.

Noah and Courtney rushed into the forest, in search of any remaining monsters. Their luck came when a pair of Dragon Knights landed in front of them. Courtney parried a katana blade while Noah phased through another and into the Dragon Knight. It twitched...and then decapitated its companion. It spread its bat wings. "Need a ride?"

"Don't get any ideas," Courtney frowned as the Dragon Knight picked her up.

"Relax, the last thing I want is the Berserker going after me." Noah rolled his non-existent eyes as he flew into the air.

Bridgette and Trent rushed up to Shadow, aiming at his exposed side as he tried to force Izzy's jaws open again. They fired blasts at him, and he grunted in pain, swatting at them without success.

Heather, now on his head, began to jam shuriken into his skull as fast as possible. As the warriors attacked at once, Noah dropped Courtney next to Heather. Courtney placed her hands on the exposed flesh and began to absorb his life points, but it was like she was also absorbing his corruption. She shuddered, gasping in pain. "I can't...do this...for too...long!"

"_Can't handle me? No surprise, you're trying to take in the powers of myself, the remains of Noah's program, and XANA himself!_" Shadow cackled. _"Such power is too great for you! Keep it up and it will eat you from inside out!"_ But his movements were becoming impaired with each second she drained him.

"You're not looking too hot anymore Shadow!" Trent shouted. "You used to be pretty bad ass! The good looks, the cool sword! What the hell happened, huh?"

_"You'll see I'm far greater than I was before-"_

"NOT!" Gwen flew in and swung her scythe. "Take THIS!" She struck home, her scythe digging into him. "Here's a gift from XANA! POISON!"

The poison began to spread, the flesh turning different colors as it began to spread through Shadow's body...but he didn't seem fazed by this. "_That tickles._"

"What the-" Gwen paused. "Oh no, I think I know what's wrong, he's got XANA in there and this is designed to _not_ kill XANA!" She slapped herself in the face. "Stupid!"

"Actually it was Trent's plan." Noah pointed out, hovering next to her.

"But I was the one who suggested we hold him down and use the poison." Gwen sighed.

"Good, pity party later, WATCH OUT!" Noah tugged her aside as Shadow slammed his hand down where she had been. Noah and Gwen flew away as he began to shake the other warriors off.

_"Got any more useless plans?"_ Shadow laughed.

"Maybe just one!" Noah said. "Try THIS!" He shot forward ,and left the Dragon Knight's body, letting it explode as he hit Shadow and began to phase into him .

"Noah what the hell are you doing?" Bridgette shouted.

"Taking out Shadow from the inside!" Noah replied. "Just try not to die out he-mph!" He phased in, his words muffled.

"_He'll be digested soon enough._" Shadow declared. _"For now, die!"_

"Dammit!" Duncan shouted as he fired another wave of green fire.

However Shadow simply laughed as he let the flames hit him but it had no effect on him.

"Heh-heh, fools. Coming at me like before huh?" Shadow fired more fire balls after he swatted Izzy aside.

However a beam of light destroyed the fire balls. Shadow looked up and saw Aelita floating in the air.

"The tower has been shut down. The poison spell Gwen has may not kill you but my power can destroy anything belonging to you or XANA!"

"You're finished!" Bridgette shouted as she rammed her board into Shadow.

He growled and took off into the sky.

"He's trying to run!" Heather shouted.

"Noah's still in there!" Courtney added.

"We better go after him!" Gwen said.

Xxx

"_The power shouldn't be like this!_" Shadow said in his mind.

In the his mind Shadow in his original form floated in a void of data streams along with screens showing everything his avatar saw and his monsters saw.

"What's the matter?" Noah asked as he appeared.

_"Noah. How kind of you to visit me."_ Shadow not turning around to face him.

"It's not a social call. I can tell you're the center of the infection. I kill you and I kill the infection." Noah said, his arms turning into guns.

_"I have no time for you."_

A fire wall appeared Shadow, blocking Noah.

"What will this do? You're still losing out there. With all that power you're still getting your digital tailed ass kicked." Noah said.

_"Silence!"_ Shadow roared.

He growled hatefully at Noah and then looked around.

_"What is going on here? My body, with XANA absorbed, I should have become the greatest."_

"You haven't realized yet?" A very familiar voice asked, surprising both Shadow and Noah. "Your body isn't taking any power from the Keys to Lyoko or the Carbon Copy."

That was when the screens showed XANA's red eye and XANA in his Avatar form appeared above Shadow.

"XANA!" Shadow said with a shocked face but then he glared. "So you survived, you bastard. You may still be alive and not digested but . . ."

A fire wall surrounded XANA as well.

XANA chuckled. "Wasn't that easy . . .You didn't realize that you haven't accessed any of my powers than simply my monsters and increased the power of your main body?"

"What?"

XANA reached out to grab Shadow but the firewall prevented him.

"Heh, what's the matter XANA? Can't break through my fire wall, can you?"

That was when XANA glowed red and the firewall dissolved.

"What?" Shadow's eyes widened in shock.

XANA chuckled again. "This is the true power of the Keys. The power given to me by both Lyoko and my Carbon Copy allows me to shatter any barrier you can put up. This is almost like how I destroyed Project Carthage. Reaching its core, tearing through the protection, and destroying it."

Shadowy tendrils reached towards Shadow.

"I prepared this for you."

"DAMN YOU!" Shadow's tendrils lashed and tore at XANA, who flicked them aside with a single wave of power.

"I'll give you credit, given time you could have evolved to perhaps take me on even grounds," XANA said. "But you were impatient, ate too much, and now...you're about to have a sudden case of indigestion."

He grabbed Shadow. "Time to go back to where I found you."

"NO!" Shadow shrieked as his Avatar burst into code. XANA's signature red colour spread through the interior of the monster.

"Uh...stage left!" Noah phased out of the monster before the influence could reach him.

Xxx

Noah yelped as he fell upon exiting the monster. But a figure shot under him...and he hit Bridgette's board, slamming the fork of his legs down on it. He squeaked, and Bridgette winced. "Sorry!"

"What is with you people?" Noah wailed, clutching his further abused appendage.

"Noah ,you made it out!" Courtney shouted.

"I thought he'd digest you!" Gwen said.

"That ain't Shadow!" Noah groaned.

"What are you-" Gwen started before Shadow suddenly exploded into red flames.

"THAT!" Noah shouted as the avatar was reduced to nothing...but something stood from the crater where it had been standing. Looking rather smug, XANA dusted off his coat.

"All according to plan," XANA smirked.

"XANA," Gwen said as the warriors faced him.

"Congratulations," He clapped. "You all performed excellently, and without you I might have had to struggle to eliminate that annoyance."

"Excuse us if we don't feel thankful." Duncan scowled.

"You could show some gratitude," XANA tilted his head. "Did you not plan to destroy him yourself?"

"..." Gwen lowered her scythe. "So what happens now?"

"Well...I have expended a little too much energy on destroying him, so I shall leave you be. But before I go I shall thank you for contributing to my newest creations." XANA crossed his arms.

"What are you talking about?" Noah demanded.

"When you created that program Noah, you ended up costing me a General. As much as a hard head that Shadow was, he was valuable," XANA said. "And then later I was forced to give you the weapons to combat him, so each time I did I took a little something to make sure we were even, so you wouldn't feel inclined to do me a favour. In fact...I believe you remember all too well how I got them. If you remember, Heather was possessed by Shadow and I removed the virus that possessed with the Scyphozoa and then later Noah was caught by my creation again and had the access codes removed."

"...and you took DNA scans from us." Noah glared at XANA. "I feel really violated right now."

"There's still one more, one very special spell caster who has more abilities than any of you except for Aelita, and I had full access to when she was in Lyoko, under my control." XANA added. "The virus that attempted to remove her Nexus Core. Your friend provided me with the perfect way in and I didn't even have to get my hands dirty. So I took a little part of you with a single scan, it never even hurt. Consider it fair exchange for the spell I gave you."

"Which didn't work," Gwen pointed out.

"You had your opportunities to use it against Shadow, it wasn't like I'd give you a manual for it." XANA shook his head. "Now...I have three new employees to meet. I suspect you will become acquainted soon." He stepped back as a portal opened. "Enjoy the next few days...and be glad I'm felling so jovial right now."

He vanished into the portal, which faded into nothing.

"...I hate that guy." Duncan said.


	45. Episode 44: Total Drama Arctic

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 45

It had been already a day since the final fight with Shadow. While the warriors were seeking recuperate from that fight something was happening back on the digital frontier. A Dragon Knight was just picked up by the Scyphozoa and the scanned DNA was injected into it. The Knight winced in pain as it responded to the mutation, if it had a face it would have a look that said it was in deep pain.

The armor cracked open, revealing orange energy flashing within as the Knight mutated. Then there was an explosion of light. Everyone stared at the glow as it faded, the smoke in the room cleared as a single figure stood in the Knight's place. The figure sighed as he stood up, revealing he was dressed in a black body suit with white armour over his chest and shoulders, white gloves and boots, and a single hilt sheathed on his back.

His face was covered by a helmet that was crafted in the shape of an eagle and had a beak like structure around his mouth. On the figure's chest colored black was the Eye of XANA.

"Good morning." He looked up and saw XANA sitting on a red block, watching him. "Welcome to the world of Lyoko."

A few figures stood out behind him.

"Master XANA." XANA nodded as the figure addressed him.

"Lilith of the Mirage." Lilith smiled and waved.

"Yuki of the Blizzard." Yuki did not visibly react to the figure addressing her.

"Ryder of the Storm." Ryder simply leaned against the wall with his arms crossed.

"And if I have it right Cyrus of the Nightmare was defeated a while ago and Shadow of the Endless Night betrayed us." The figure guessed.

"You got that right, Mr. . ." Ryder trailed off.

"Sora. Just Sora." The figure said.

"Sora? That's not sounding evil or scary." Ryder replied.

"I like it." Lilith grinned and she teleported next to Sora. "So what's your power? You look like a samurai so it must have to do with the sword." She pointed at the hilt sheathed on Sora's back. "Or maybe it's somewhere else on the armor."

"Lilith." XANA spoke up. "Perhaps if you calm down, your new brother can demonstrate what his power is."

Lilith nodded and stepped back. Sora pulled out the hilt, showing there was no blade.

"A hilt without a blade? You can't call that a sword." Ryder raised an eyebrow.

XANA snapped his fingers and two Mechs appeared in the room. They raised their guns and fired at him. Sora dodged and ran at them. Just as he was in striking distance if he had a real sword.

"What's he doing? He can't cut wi-" Ryder was cut off as one Mech was sliced cleanly in half. "What?"

"He does have a sword!" Lilith said looking in awe.

The second Mech fired at him and he held the hilt in front of him and the laser shattered just in front of him.

"Is there some kind of invisible blade there?" Ryder asked.

"No." XANA said, catching their attention. "There is a blade."

Sora nodded and swung the blade again and there was a gust of wind.

"A wind blade!" Lilith said, awestruck.

"His power is Air. Similar to the Wind spell used by the Spell caster. Only Sora has more power since it is his primary power." XANA nodded. "An impressive ability Sora of the Maelstrom."

Sora nodded and bowed. "I am honoured, Master XANA."

"...who did you make this guy from again?" Ryder asked.

"Heather," XANA replied.

"The pompous brat from TDR? And this guy's based off her?" Ryder looked at him. "...nah, can't be, too bad ass for that."

"Master XANA does not lie," Sora stated.

"...ah screw it all," Ryder sighed. "I wish I could smoke, humans keep saying that helps relax you."

"So have the other two been created yet?" Sora asked.

"Yes we have."

Sora turned around to face two other figures. One was a girl about the same age as the Lyoko Warriors with long wavy dark brown hair that went down to her knees, pink eyes, pale skin, and wore a tight strapless blue mini dress reached mid thigh with black leg and arm warmers and black gloves. In her hand rested a long sharp spear. The Eye of XANA was seen on the girl's right hand glove.

The figure behind her was a giant. He wore a black sleeveless shirt that exposed the Eye of XANA on his shoulder with black tight pants but he wore no shoes. He had black spiked hair that pointed in all directions, his teeth was fashioned like that of a shark, and dark grey skin with white eyes.

"These are your older siblings, Sora." XANA gestured to them. "Jinx of the Curse, and Blade of the Quake."

"Jinx and Blade?" Sora tilted his head.

"Created from the scanned DNA of Gwen the Spell caster and Noah the Genius, they are similar yet different." XANA nodded to Jinx.

She swung her spear and unleashed a stream of dark purple energy that blasted a nearby rock to pieces. XANA summoned three Krabs that moved to attack her. They charged their front lasers and fired. Jinx immediately held up her hand and purple energy formed around her, creating a barrier that blocked the lasers. Smirking she swung her spear and unleashed another wave of dark purple energy that destroyed the Krabs.

"Her power is similar to Gwen's however where Gwen casts elemental spells; Jinx is capable of creating curses that are just as deadly." XANA then summoned a Dragon Knight with an axe and it charged at her.

Jinx held out her hand. "Petrify!"

A purple orb flew out and struck the Knight, it spread all over the Knight and it turned to stone. With a single slash of her spear the Knight shattered into pieces.

"Perhaps her most dangerous curse is similar to what I gave Gwen in the battle against Shadow." XANA said.

Jinx jumped in the sky and glowed dark purple as she went into the fetal position and three waves of energy caved in on her. She then uncurled and spread her arms unleashing a deadly purple cloud that caused the ground to dissolve.

"A cloud of destruction. Similar to the poison spell I gave Gwen Jinx can unleash a deadly miasma that is capable of taking a warrior's life points like how acid eats through a human's skin."

"Impressive," Sora nodded.

"And as for Blade-" No sooner than when XANA had summoned a Mega Tank did Blade rush up to it, pick it up with his bare hands, and tossed it up into the air. It opened up in mid flight, its automated response being to try and fire its main gun. But Blade leaped up and grasped the edges of the two shells...and ripped the Mega Tank in half.

As it exploded into code, he landed and wiped his hands on each other. "Plain and simple, I kick some serious ass."

"...why is it that I'm the only male general who doesn't have a personality problem?" Sora sighed, referring to Ryder and Blade's arrogance, and Shadow's disloyalty.

"Watch it smart guy!" Ryder held out a fist.

"Enough, both of you!" Lilith said sternly and then smirked. "We are always glad to welcome our new siblings in the group."

Blade grinned while Jinx smiled happily.

Xxx

In an underground laboratory somewhere unknown, a man was busy working on a mysterious project. In the center of the lab was a large towering supercomputer that glowed a mixed color of red and green. It was shaped like a cylindrical tower with several large cables connected to it that ran across the room towards other terminals sitting on a large number of desks. A short old man with neatly combed jet black, wearing a black suit with glasses stood up.

He brought out a flash drive and walked to the large supercomputer and installed the flash drive. The disk contained a backup of the AI of Project Carthage. He still had all these years but because the Carthage AI had been easily destroyed he never bothered to recreate it since he didn't know how Schaeffer had made one better than his. Now after looking through XANA's codes he saw just it could be improved.

Soon the Project Carthage AI and XANA would be reborn as one with XANA's mind combined with Carthage's new digital body. He opened up a window that showed the initial design and look for the AI for Lyon to see. He pressed the enter key and the window showed the design. It was human shaped but had a face that was lizard like with an angular head with sharp teeth covered in green scales with golden yellow eyes its pupils the shape of Schaeffer's symbol and acid green skin.

It wore black and green coloured armor with the Eye of XANA in the center of the breastplate. On its head was a helmet with small pointed horns growing out of its forehead. A tail sprouted from its back and its hands had sharp claws and from its back sprouted a large pair of black coloured bat looking wings. On its side was a weapon, a large black lance with a twisted vein looking handle.

"Excellent." Lyon said as the window closed. "All of XANA's codes and records are ready to be integrated into the new AI. Now to create the body."

He walked over to the main terminal and typed in his authorization. He clicked the execute command and a humming noise was heard. Inside the machine on a small digital created island a stream of codes started to come together. It formed into the shape of Lyon's soon to be created monster.

It opened its eyes to show the Eye of XANA in its pupils. It roared, spreading its dark wings and then looked down at itself.

"**Main body, online.**"

"Good. Now. . ." Dr. Lyon clicked on another window.

"**Install Virtual Envelope.**"

He clicked on it.

"**Execute.**"

The creature looked around the island it was on before a bright light appeared above it. Looking through the window that showed the lab it stared at the human in curiosity. A stream of black and red streams of codes flew down plunged straight into its head. The creature screamed in pain as the data began embedded itself into its core program.

That was when it began to see images. The faces of Waldo Schaeffer and Antea Hopper. The supercomputer that it had once resided in, Lyoko, Project Carthage. And what came next was probably the most important, the faces of the children.

Its most hated enemies, how it and its creator tried to kill it. It all came back to it and as its memories returned so did the hatred. It was alive again, with a new body.

"I LIVE!" The monster growled as it was finally complete.

"Yes you do."A voice was heard.

The creature looked up on saw a window appear and a shadowed man was looking at him.

"Who are you?" The creature growled.

"I am your creator and master. You are the reincarnation of my first creation, the AI of Project Carthage combined with the remains of XANA."

"My name...Nephilim...I remember now. You said...that day...a combination of something normal and something greater..." The creature looked back Lyon.

"Yes, and now you truly are that. A combination of the Carthage AI, and the greater XANA, the AI version of a god." Lyon smirked. "And without Schaeffer, and XANA is now gone, you will find your work much easier for you."

"What do you want? Why have you recreated me?"

"To make the world a better place. It needs order but Schaeffer disagreed with us and created XANA to destroy your previous version. He went into hiding." Dr. Lyon said. "I want you to find the super computer that Schaeffer used. I only know its general location is Paris and it is so well hidden I have had no luck tracking it down. Locate it, and we'll handle the hard part. Can you do it?"

"I can but I want revenge on them."

"Who?"

"The fools who destroyed me."

"Fine, but find the supercomputer."

Nephilim growled but agreed. With that, Nephilim began his primary function: cyber warfare, tracking and attacking programs with the power at his command. He now would fulfil his function. A bright vortex appeared in front of him, showing the way into the network. He stretched his wings and flew into the vortex.

Xxx

While the Lyoko Warriors were enjoying a late lunch in the afternoon of the day other people were busy making discoveries that could very well affect the entire country. Perhaps even the entire world if this was to get out. The apartment FBI agent Ray Parker was in was a mess with papers and files scattered all over the room. On these papers were birth records, social security numbers, job history, and even death certificates.

Ray was at the laptop right now looking at information that had been sent to his laptop by his friend, Lucy.

"So that's all we have on Waldo Schaeffer?" Ray asked over the cell phone.

"Yep. Both parents deceased. One died of a heart attack while the other died of breast cancer. The father was sixty while the mother was fifty three." Lucy replied through the phone.

"And what year did they die?"

"Same year, 1986."

"Coincidence?"

"Does seem odd." Lucy replied.

"Okay, anything on Waldo's wife?"

"That's the strange part. I found almost nothing on her. There is a birth record that says she was born of John and Ellen Hopper in the very city you're staying in but after that, nothing. No school records, no college transcript, but it says she traveled a lot. She met Waldo Schaeffer around when he was teaching at Kadic Academy and got married a couple years later."

"That's impossible. Nothing else as all."

"Not a thing. She was either an illegal immigrant or her files were erased." Lucy said.

"What about the daughter? Anything on her?" John asked.

"Well I do know she and her father were put in the witness protection program and hid at the hermitage near the school but they disappeared and the place was ransacked."

"Can you find out anything about where they lived between all this?"

"There is a chance that they stayed in a house near the city but aside from the hermitage nothing else." Lucy said.

"What about bank accounts?"

He heard typing and knew Lucy was looking through it.

"There is an account for Waldo in a bank in Moscow." Lucy informed him. "When you get all of the converting out of the way you have the equivalent of just under a million American dollars in that one alone."

"You think he might have more?"

"I have a possible link to two or three smaller accounts. One in Sydney, Australia; another in New York City, and one more in Mexico City. Each has ten thousand in them." Lucy stared at the screen. "I think this guy was ready to move anywhere-and lookie there, an account in Venezuela, another in Cuba, and even one in North Korea. I won't go through them all, they keep popping up too fast."

"So this guy was ready to go anywhere that wouldn't extricate him to us or the French." Ray concluded. "Do we have anybody in Paris who could examine the area and report back to us?"

"Nobody officially...but I did find an old MI6 file stating there are two ex-operatives who signed a contract, allowing them to be re-commissioned in a time of need." Lucy pulled up two pictures.

"...you have got to be kidding me." Ray said.

"I'm not, I kid you not Ray," Lucy shook her head. "Asides from personal issues these guys were the best of the best. One was a demolition expert and the other was the best at intelligence gathering. One could blow up anything and get what he needed, the other could sneak in and get what he needed. It's what made them so good at what they did, and dangerous too. Both ex-SAS also, they met in basic training."

"And now they're the hosts of the world's biggest reality show." Ray said as he looked at the pictures of...

Kurt and Carlos.

"...I need some coffee." He sighed. "Can you find me the location near the city?"

"Alright, but we have a problem, the French Secret Service said they already checked out the house. If we want to go out there we need a warrant and permission from the French government. And also we'd need a French agent to accompany anybody we send. And currently the top expert is...not on good terms with our two candidates." She pulled up a file of Reggie. "He's a member of the Parisian Biological Security division, they handle any attacks that don't kill you in an explosion or with a bullet. And he's rather thorough, but he used to be on the Schaeffer case, but it went cold before he even started. He was supposed to be on the Grab Team if Schaeffer was ever spotted. Seeing as he still hasn't been seen our friend...Reggie never got his chance at Rendition. Turns out he, Kurt and Carlos had disagreements one time when they were all on a mission together, a British-French joint operation. Reggie wanted to use some rather cruel tactics, and Kurt and Carlos wanted to go in their own way which didn't involve needless killing, just a few explosions to distract everybody while Kurt sneaks in, sneaks out, end game. Reggie ended up in the hospital with a broken jaw and four broken ribs needless to say, and the op went Kurt and Carlos' way."

"Can we get these two reactivated?" Ray asked.

"Hard to say, they took over as co-hosts of the show after the former host was sued for both human right violations and embezzling money." Lucy showed a shot of Chris being dragged away in contempt.

"Contact the British and tell them to get these two activated, we need professionals, and these two might be the only ones we have." Ray ordered.

"You got it," Lucy began to establish contact with the MI6 HQ in London.

After several moments somebody picked up. Lucy conversed with them. "They're putting the director on, want this on speaker?"

"Do it." Ray nodded.

Lucy tapped a button.

"Can I ask why you americans want me to bring two agents out of a two year long retirement?" An elderly male voice asked.

"We're investigating a crime related to the Red Eye Virus catastrophe a month ago. We have a connection, but the only people in the area are these retired agents." Ray explained. "It relates to Waldo Schaeffer, a man your people put in witness protection and lost over a decade ago. I think it has something to do with his last project, a military project to disrupt communications for the Russians. It was called Carthage, and it had a lot of potential, we think it may be the reason he vanished."

"...this is a secure channel, correct?"

"Yes."

"Good, then listen carefully," The Director said. "Whatever Project Carthage was attracted a lot of scientists in and outside of France, nobody knows if it was simply to disrupt Russian communications in the Cold War or maybe something more. Whatever it was, it was big enough to affect the whole world. For a couple minutes there was a worldwide black out. Intel confirms that whatever happened was this so called Carthage, and later confirmed it was decommissioned and scrapped. That was before Schaefffer went missing. We only know the agents we left were out cold and had no idea where Schaeffer and his daughter had gone."

"Wait...look at this image." Ray placed a picture of Aelita in a scanner. "This girl is a friend of several children abducted during the Red Eye Virus attack. Remember this face?"

"...my god, that face...this looks like Aelita Schaeffer!" The director said. "It can't be, it must be her daughter. She'd be in her thirties. God, I even met her when the whole protection was arranged."

"Well she denies knowing anything, but I feel she's been pressured not to say anything." Ray said. "I've mostly just been gathering information on what happened a decade ago. And right now the only people who can help me solve this are these two in Paris."

"...I'll make the call, but whatever you find, I know about as soon as possible." The Director stated firmly.

"Deal," Ray nodded. "It would help to have the British in on this with us. If my boss has any complaints about keeping this in FBI's hands he can kiss my ass, I just want to find out what's going on, not take the glory for it."

"Glad to hear it." The Director said. "Good luck, they'll call you in a minute if they still acknowledge us."

Xxx

"This is ridiculous!" Kurt put the file down. "You pick now when it's the worst possible timing to reinstate us!"

"Bull crap!" Carlos growled. "Bull. Freakin'. Crap. Reggie you've pulled some crappy jokes but this is a doozie!"

"It's no joke," Reggie glared at them.

"Reggie, I know you don't use a TV a whole lot but let me explain it to you in a way even somebody like you can understand: WE CAN'T BE REINSTATED WHILE WE'RE HOSTING THE BIGGEST REALITY SHOW ON EARTH!" Kurt shouted. "We have responsibilities! And to do so we'd have to bail Chris out of jail and let him take over with us gone! And I'm damn sure even you know what happened last season."

"Actually they predicted you would object, so they are willing to set this compromise...they bring in one of their own retired agents to act as a...chaperone and keep the campers safe from Mr McLean's troublesome ways." Reggie pulled out a file.

"Really, who?" Kurt raised an eye brow.

"The very woman who put him in jail." Reggie revealed a picture of...

"Lesley." Kurt said flatly. "Here?"

"She's right behind you actually."

The two spun and yelped as they saw the lawyer right behind them...with the window next to her open.

"She can't be in the same room as me!" Carlos said. "If she and Melissa get near each other they'll bring the roof down on us!"

"Oh relax Carlos; I'm not going to kill your wife over a high school crush." Lesley waved a hand.

Did you climb up three stories just to surprise us?" Kurt asked.

"Well sometimes in life you have to do what you have to do." Lesley shrugged.

"When did you have to climb up three stories and climb through ha window?" Carlos demanded. "You're a lawyer!"

"I've had stubborn clients before." Lesley shrugged.

"Well we're not clients, we're two ticked off co-hosts who have been reinstated into MI6 against our will." Kurt snapped. "And for what? Because the FBI hasn't been able to be remotely suspected of the Red Eye Virus Attack? Don't you people have analysts for that? Or an army of contacts?"

"The eye that appeared on every screen in this country is linked to a man who vanished in the 1990s, who lived in this very town." Reggie stated. "And is suspected of having a descendant living at a nearby boarding school." He showed them a picture of Aelita. "Her name is Aelita Stones, but we suspect she is the daughter of Aelita Schaeffer, the daughter of one Waldo Schaeffer."

"Schaeffer? Heck they had us on the watch for him all the time in both MI6 and SAS." Kurt said. "But do you know how long it has been since he vanished? Can't they let it go?"

"The project he worked on caused a global black out for several minutes...several minutes during which the entire world was in the dark ages." Reggie said.

"Yeah well guess what, just because you think she's related to this man doesn't mean squat." Carlos said. "I know you work Reggie and-"

Reggie pulled out a picture of Waldo Schaeffer with his daughter and held it next to Aelita's current picture. "Now are you convinced?"

The producers looked at the pictures.

"Holy crap." Carlos whispered.

"Ok the resemblance is striking...but still, if this girl is related to him, and based on the file you gave me...bringing her in or spying on her won't help, she'd probably be in a lot of trouble against her will." Kurt said firmly.

"Regardless...this could be our only lead in decades." Reggie said. "Project Carthage could be all the more dangerous now. Look out that window and look at the world. A world that relies on communication at all times. Cell phones ,computers, systems that run traffic, help air planes land, help rescue people, keep them comfy and safe. Can you really afford to ignore a danger of this magnitude? If Carthage were to activate for ten minutes, and then everybody found out afterwards they weren't just having some satellite trouble or a power outage but the entire world went out, there'd be a panic in every city. Somebody shut off _all_ of the lights for them, _all_ of them, and what happens if they turn them off again and don't turn them back on?" Reggie leaned back. "Total chaos and anarchy."

"I hate to admit it Carlos, but I think he's right." Kurt looked at his partner.

"Aw man!" Carlos groaned. "Well, guess this means it's back to being the Demo Man."

Demo Man had been Carlos' code name in MI6 and the SAS...for obvious reasons.

"One condition Reggie," Kurt glared at Reggie. "We won't do things your way. If we do this, we do it our way. By the book, nothing extreme, and no outside interference unless we ask for it directly. I do not want you messing up any investigations we make."

Reggie nodded. "My job is done the moment you get back on the job anyways."

"Now we just have to explain to the contestants that we're letting Chris back here." Carlos sighed. "That'll be a laugh for sure."

Xxx

"You're doing WHAT?" Heather shouted.

"Told ya," Carlos said.

"I never disagreed," Kurt looked at the contestants. "Look, due to reasons I cannot explain at the time, Carlos and I are being forced to temporarily step down as co-hosts of the show and bring Chris back...as he is the only one eligible enough to handle this."

"What about the host of the Aftermath? Owen would do a lot better!" Bridgette said.

"But he'd have to host with Blaineley." DJ said.

Kurt shuddered. "Court says she's not allowed to come within ten hundred thousand feet of me or she goes to jail."

"But never fear, because the lawyer is here!" Carlos grabbed Lesley and set her down in front of him. "Introducing Lesley, the lawyer who single handily tore Chris down in front of a jury on live TV!"

"...and your ex girl friend." Trent mentioned.

"Shut up now elvis." Carlos whispered.

"You don't have to worry, as long as I'm here Chris won't be putting you in unnecessary danger or embezzling the new $10 000 deposit being put towards your basic comforts." Lesley promised them. "If you don't get some decent furniture for the loser's dorm along with the vents being fixed within the next week and I find a golden Jacuzzi, rest assured, Chris will learn the Kick of a Billion Years of Pain."

"You know it too?" Izzy gasped.

"You know it also?" Lesley gasped.

"Duh! Izzy here is crazy," Kurt looked at Izzy. "And Lesley is like a cross of Carlos and Courtney...and Izzy."

Izzy and Lesley squealed and hugged. "New best friend!"

"...and apparently Katie and Sadie." Carlos added.

"So, everyone, if Chris does cause trouble for anyone just being all your concerns to Lesley and she'll gladly deal with the mop head." Kurt said.

Xxx

A car stopped in front of the studio and a familiar figure stepped out.

"Hello, France! CHRIS MCLEAN IS BACK!"

"Boo!"

"You suck!"

"Aw he didn't get his head shaved!"

"It still looks like a mop!" The speaker began to cry.

A can landed next to Chris, splattering tomatoes over the cement. Chris swallowed, and then glared. "Hey! Watch the hair dude-"

POOF!

A bag of flour hit him on the head, rendering everything above his shoulders white. He slowly took the bag off and sighed. "Ok who threw that?"

Chef whistled from the second story window as he backed out of sight.

"Ok so now with that out of the-"

SPLAT! The next thing he knew a lot of tomato sauce was squirted on him from a hose.

"AGH!" Chris shouted.

"Wow, it worked." Carlos said.

"Yay! Thanks Carlos!" Izzy hopped up and down.

"No problem, I might as well leave one last gift before I go." Carlos sighed.

"Are we done yet? Are we out of food to throw?" Chris asked.

"Technically those are toppings." Geoff said. "Well the sauce is. All you need is some cheese and-"

Suddenly string cheese shot out of the crowd and hit a very impatient Chris in the face. It slowly added to the pizza being made on top of him.

Trent walked over and sampled some of the cheese. "Cheese, swiss!"

Suddenly a sack was thrown from the back of the crowd, and when it hit Chris it left him covered in pepperonis. Chris sighed and picked one up, past being angry now. "Pepperoni, Italian." He ate one. "...not too bad, I taste good."

"I think they agree too." Kurt nodded towards the dogs gathering on the side walk.

"...look! Cats!" Chris pointed...but the dogs seemed to like Chris Pizza more than the possibility of cats.

They began to pant, tongues hanging out as they advanced on Chris.

"...Chris? You might wanna run." Kurt said.

Chris ran off so fast he left a cloud shaped like himself in his place. The dogs chased the screaming host down the side alley of the studio.

"...suddenly having him back isn't so bad...but who threw all that stuff?" Kurt asked.

Duncan whistled innocently...as did Cody. They both stayed inconspicuous, one hiding a can of Cheese Spray, and the other trying to wipe grease from the pepperonis off his hands.

"Alright, well me an Sylvester Stallone's brit cousin gotta go, we'll be away for maybe a few days ,a week at the most." Kurt said. "In the mean time, Lesley will keep an eye on Chris for this challenge today...and by the way, Carlos and I wrote it, so there shouldn't be any danger."

"Shouldn't?" Heather asked.

"...Carlos had some Klondike bars at the time."

"And Kurt was having a burger with extra bacon, cheese, more bacon, seven more kinds of cheese...and an extra large king sized super size me jug of cola." Carlos added. "We felt like enjoying our last night here before our uh...errand."

"So see yah!" Kurt got into his car.

Carlos slid across the hood of it and then vaulted feet first in through the passenger window...shattering it.

"...you got that off Dukes of Hazard didn't you?" Kurt asked.

"I never saw that film." Carlos shook his head. "I just really wanted to try it."

"Well great, you're paying for the window."

"It's a convertible anyways man!"

"I don't care; you busted the window of my car so you're paying for it!" Kurt then shot out of the lot.

Xxx

"Yo, viewers of the world! The number one host of all time, that's me, is back in action!" Chris announced to the camera as the next episode came on. "And in celebration we are going to kick off today's episode with an EXTREME challenge! As you all know, last time on Total Drama Reality, my amateur cousin Carlos and Kurt set up the challenge for which the teams would build robots and have them battle to the death . . . Boring! In the end it was Darth Alejandro who was sent packing. So now we can back into the awesome digital challenge!"

Lesley coughed, getting his attention.

"And will be perfectly safe for all the contestants." He finished grudgingly. "Who will be sent home today? Find out today, on Total, Drama, REALITY!"

Xxx

A tower in the Ice Sector began to glow red.

Xxx

"Welcome contestants! In today's challenge-written by my amateur of a host cousin Carlos and his crappy friend Kurt," Chris frowned a bit. "You shall be taking part in a battle of your own using the following weapons."

He tapped a screen, showing a battle field with three castles. One had the Team Chris logo on it, another with the Amazon symbol, and a third with the Victory symbol.

"Of course it's a virtual battle- they wouldn't let me overturn that. Anyways, you've got swords, spears, guns, all the stuff you had during the Zombie Slayer challenge minus the magic and the chainsaws and stuff like that." Chris said. "This is essentially a Lord of The Rings style thing. You have to attack other castles and steal one of the three flags within. You may take one at a time individually. If you are hit, you will respawn in your castle and the flag will return to the owner's castle. Whoever has the most flags by the end of the forty five minute time limit wins. Whoever has the least loses. If we have a tie, then the two teams have a sudden death match-"

"Not literally!" Lesley spoke up, looking paranoid.

"Yeah, not literally," Chris rolled his eyes.

"You really are a lawyer," Gwen commented.

"Gotta keep on top of everything in my job," Lesley grinned, and then snapped at Chris when he opened his mouth. "And don't you bring that night in Quebec up Chris!"

Chris zipped his mouth shut...figuratively.

"Do we wanna know?" Cody asked.

"She dated Carlos, so no." Trent shook his head.

"And now let us begin-!"

Chris was cut off when the air conditioning began to blow even colder winds. And when I say cold I mean cold enough ice was starting form inside the room.

"Chris I swear if this is your challenge I'll kill you with a dust bin!" Lesley growled, hugging herself.

"It isn't me! Chef hurry up and fix that will you? It's gonna dry out my skin." Chris whined.

"Eh I don't get paid enough for this," Chef grumbled as he walked over to the air conditioner in the room...and was shocked as soon as he tried to touch it. He fell over, smoking a bit.

"Ouch!" Chris flinched.

"Uh...Chris?" Lindsey pointed to where frost was literally forming on the wall as they spoke.

"I think the studio's becoming Total Drama Arctic Circle." Noah said, shivering along with everybody else.

"Let's get outta here!" Heather said, trying to open the door...only to find it frozen shut. "Oh man! It's stuck!"

"Hold on, lemme try," Duncan grasped it, planted one foot on the wall next to it, and pulled, straining with it. "Come on...come one...!"

"Uh...Duncan?" Gwen asked, shivering.

"Yeah?"

"You have to _push_ the door, not open it."

"...I knew that," Duncan backed away from it and then tried to kick it down.

"Well hurry up dude, we're gonna freeze to death in here!" Lesley said.

"DJ! I need some of that muscle over here dude!" Duncan shouted.

"I got it!" And then over two hundred pounds of muscle slammed into the door...cracking it a bit.

"I shouldn't have bought reinforced doors," Chris muttered, and paused as he realized his hair was now pointing up in every direction and was stuck stiffly. "My hair! NO!-!-!-!-!" He fell to his knees.

"Heh, spaz." Noah mumbled, breathing on his hands to warm them up.

"What's the temperature in here?" Geoff asked.

"Uh...I think we missed the ice age thirty seconds ago." Noah sniffed.

"W-w-w-w-way b-b-b-b-b-below f-f-f-fr-freezing man!" Trent added.

Duncan and DJ kept on pounding the door. The room was now almost completely frozen over with ice and snow.

"Can we call for help?" Bridgette asked.

"Love to, one problem." Chris said.

"What?"

"Ph-phone's d-d-dead, f-frozen!" Chris stuttered, holding up his now frozen cell phone.

Everyone's phones were frozen solid and useless.

"Aw man!"

"Man how reinforced is this thing?" Duncan snapped.

"H-hu-hurry!" Beth said, now almost frozen.

She and Lindsay hugged each other for warmth.

"Quick, Cody, huddle with me for warmth!" Sierra shouted.

She grabbed Cody and held him tightly against her chest. Cutting off his air supply in the process. Bridgette and Geoff were holding each other, using each other's body heat to keep warm. Everyone else were attempting to keep themselves warm.

"C-c-c-c-c-freezing!" Justin squeaked, sneezing.

"Oh outta the way!" Eva slammed into the door next. Now it was being pummelled by three contestants.

"Man, if only Kurt and Carlos were here, Carlos would have blown the door down." Lesley said.

"T-t-too cold and no matches aloud on set!" Chris pointed out.

"It wouldn't have stopped him! One time he made a cup of banana pudding combust!"

Xxx

BANGBANGBANG!

"Hey, let me in you morons! I've got to be on set!" Roberto growled...pushing on the door from the other side-one reason why Duncan, Eva and DJ were having a hard time.

The hairy security chief snarled, impatient. "Oh nuts to this!" He then smashed open a case holding a fire extinguisher and took it to the door.

Xxx

CRACK!

"AH!" Duncan, DJ, and Eva backed up as the head of a fire axe went through the door. It went through again, again, and again until the door splintered into pieces.

"Roberto?" Lesley sounded disbelieving.

"Why the hell did you idiots lock me out?" The large hairy man demanded. "And why is it a frozen ice box in here?"

"No time, outta the way!"

"WARMTH!"

"I need my hair gel!" Chris shouted as they all piled out...only to find the effect spreading to the hall they were in.

"This whole place is turning into an ice box now!" Cody shouted.

"To the exits! MOVE IT!" Lesley shouted.

Justin screamed as he ran towards the open exit doors. "FREEDOM-" THUD!

The door slammed in his face, and he was left stuck against it as he slid down to the floor...where his tongue was stuck on the frozen floor. "UH? Ann Any-o-ee el-ee?" (Can anybody help me?)

"This isn't good." DJ said as he tried to pull Justin off of the floor.

"AH! AH! OW! Et, orm, a-er." Justin said.

"What did he say?" Geoff asked.

"Get warm water." Bridgette translated.

"How'd you know that?" Courtney asked.

"I said the same thing when my tongue was stuck to a frozen pole!" Bridgette said, arms crossed, half annoyed but still trying to keep herself warm.

"I don't think we have warm water-wait, I have an idea." Lesley rushed into the slowly freezing kitchen...and came out with a thermos she briefly heated up in the microwave.

"What's that?" Duncan asked as she rushed by him.

"Kurt's homemade coffee! This stuff is hotter than an army of models at the equator." Lesley grinned. "Here it goes!" She then poured it on Justin's tongue.

The high pitched scream shattered some ice. Justin ran around, screaming as he held his tongue.

After he calmed down, he said. "Thoo, hot! Thoo, hot!" His tongue was now numb.

"Can we get the hell out of here now?" Heather shouted, cursing herself for not wearing any warm clothing.

"Right." Roberto ran forward and swung the fire axe but this time it didn't work.

Holding out the axe he noticed that the blade was dull from being frozen.

"You have got to be kidding." He tried swinging it, and it smashed to pieces on the door.

"Well this is just peachy," Duncan frowned. "Anybody else have bright ideas?"

"I think I have one," Lesley said. "The front door is reinforced to prevent break ins...but the windows are regular safety glass." She looked at Roberto. "How much do you weigh?"

"284 pounds, why?"

Lesley smirked. "Oh nothing."

Xxx

"Ok, so that didn't work." Lesley said five minutes later while Roberto lay in front of the window she had literally thrown him at. The window was cracked ,but still far from broken.

"Throw him again." Trent said.

"No way!" Roberto protested as he got up.

"Roberto we all have to take one for the team and DJ's the second heaviest here, so you're our best option."

"Oh yeah? Well how much do you weigh?" Roberto pointed at Lesley.

SLAP!

"Aw Roberto, don't you know that you never ask a woman her weight?" Gwen laughed as Roberto nurses the red hand print on his face.

"Epic-c-c-c-c fail..." Noah drawled.

"Alright everybody, on three!" Before Roberto knew it he was being held like a battering ram by eight or nine contestants.

"This is abuse!" He shouted.

"One!"

"I'll sue!"

"Oh screw it, THREE!" Lesley shouted and they charged the window.

After six or seven hits, the glass began to crack more, and Roberto was reduced to using baby talk as they backed up. "Mean lady toss Robby at window..."

"Oh it's so tempting," Lesley sighed as she set him down. "Wait...I just remembered...did we leave Chef in the pod room?"

...

Xxx

CRASH!

Chef shouted as his burnt body was tossed through ha successfully smashed window and landed on a van. "Ow..."

"JERONIMO!" Suddenly Lesley leaped out and landed on Chef.

"Ow..."

"Alright everybody, start jumping!" Lesley shouted up to them.

About twenty jumps and a nearly broken spine later, Chef climbed off of the van and joined them on the ground. He coughed as he held his ribs. "I demand a raise for this!"

"For being a landing pillow I'll triple your pay." Lesley said.

"Yes...ow..." Chef collapsed.

"Alright, I'll find a pay phone and call the police or something." Lesley said. "The rest of you stay-" But when she turned, over a dozen of them were gone...specifically the Lyoko Warriors. "...here."

She sighed. "I bet if Carlos was here he'd have made them stay by blowing something up."

Xxx

"Ok, just to recap: AC goes crazy, blows so hard and so cold that we were almost frozen inside the studio...XANA's messing with us." Noah said.

"And he almost got us." Trent added.

"It was a little too close," Heather said as they crossed the bridge to the factory.

"All I know is after this I'll always dress for the occasion and never take my warmth for granted." Bridgette shivered, still covered in frost that formed in her hair. Geoff had an arm around her to help her warm up. "I hope the towers not in the ice sector."

They found Aelita standing outside the entrance...and she looked similar to them: with bits of frost on her clothes and in her hair. She was shivering.

"Don't tell me, the AC at the studio began to freeze everything." She sighed. "It happened in Kadic also."

"Then let's hurry before XANA gets smarter and shut down that tower." Gwen said.

"One problem," Aelita shook her head.

"What is it?" Cody asked.

"Look inside."

They did...and saw that the inside of the factory was like the studio.

"Aw man!" Geoff shouted.

"The elevator cables snapped," Aelita swallowed.

"Isn't there that secondary entrance to the control room? The ladder that goes up to below the factory floor?" Bridgette asked.

"There is, just be ready for ice and snow...and lots of it." Aelita said. "And don't use the cables to go down into the lobby."

"Noted. Ok...this is so gonna suck." Cody sighed. "Especially since I'll have to stay in the control room."

"I think the control room has its own heater, and XANA wouldn't freeze Lyoko's hardware system." Aelita said. "He still needs the real Lyoko."

"Then onwards to warmth and comfort!" Noah declared.

But the moment they were in they were freezing, shivering and hugging themselves.

"Uh...maybe I should wait outside." Heather said...and had a point considering she still had her usual attire.

"That's what you get for not dressing warmly!" Noah pointed out.

They made their way down the stairs to the lobby. One by one, with their hands numb they climbed into the passage that led to the control room.

"Oh thank god," DJ sighed as they felt the warmth of the lab's heater. They climbed down, enjoying the moment.

"After this I will dress in three layers." Heather sighed.

"Agreed," Everybody else said.

"So where's the tower?" Cody asked.

Aelita sighed as she looked at the screen."You won 't like this."

Xxx

"I HATE THIS PLACE!" Heather shouted from the platform she, Bridgette, and Aelita stood on. Trent, Duncan and Gwen appeared behind them.

"Ice Sector? Oh XANA you suck so hard right now!" Gwen laughed sarcastically.

"I think he took lessons from Chris," Trent commented.

"We get out of the ice box in the studio, trekked through the frozen factory, and now we fight in the damn ARCTIC!" Duncan's shout echoed over the entire sector.

"Keep it up Duncan and they'll hear you in Tibet." Courtney teased him as she appeared next.

"Well somebody's getting used to this! You having a sense of humour now, I'm surprised Princess."

"Don't get used to it."

Their vehicles appeared once all of them were in Lyoko.

"If they have lots of monsters out here, you'll warm up fast." Aelita promised them.

"I love this part!" Duncan hopped on the OverBike.

"Izzy don't need a vehicle now!" Izzy shifted into an eagle.

"I can use my wings." Aelita activated her wings.

Bridgette hopped onto her surf board as Gwen hopped on the OverBoard. Trent got on the OverJet while Heather took the OverSled and Courtney and Noah took the OverWing. When everyone was now on a vehicle or in the air they took off towards the tower.


	46. Episode 45: TD Generals Unleashed

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 46

Cody watched the holo-Map and kept an eye open for any sign of XANA's monsters or generals. While, he, Geoff, LeShawna, and DJ watched the map little did they know was that a cold mist was coming out of the heater. They were too preoccupied with spotting something on the map.

Xxx

"_Hey guys, you have one hostile ahead of you._"

"Where?" Gwen looked around. "I don't-WAUGH!"

Suddenly a gust of wind scattered the group in different directions. A figure came up from between several ice cliffs, a pair of gray feathered wings flapping. The attacker faced them, one hand gripping the sheathed weapon at his side.

"Yo." He said simply.

"...aw no, don't tell me!" Duncan shouted.

"A new general!" Trent groaned.

"And he's trying to sound gangsta!" Izzy screamed.

"...wow, first impression: you people don't sound nice." Sora tilted his head. "I didn't even try to knock any of you into the Digital Sea or devirtualize you yet."

"You reminded me why I hate flying," Trent said, frowning.

"Don't take it personally," Sora shrugged. "I've got orders to keep you from the tower, and if I don't follow them I get in trouble. It's all business."

"Gee, what a gentleman." Bridgette said sarcastically.

"Why thank you!" Sora said, apparently not realizing the meaning of sarcasm.

"So which of us were you made from?" Heather asked.

"Probably Noah," Gwen said.

"Is he the little guy? Sarcastic? About this tall? Phases through things? Thinks his sarcastic jokes are funny?" Sora asked.

"Yep."

"Sorry, not him," He pointed at Heather. "There's my momma."

This threw the group for a loop. Heather twitched.

"...I never realized this, but you really could technically think of the generals as uh...kids of whoever they were made from." Trent said.

"And we've been beating up the kids of the people we're trying to save." Courtney added.

"Awkward." Noah stated.

"Wow, you guys should see the looks on your faces." Sora said. "It was just scanned DNA that was used to make an AI the same way it's been done since day one with the boss man. But still if you'd like to you can come to my Parent-Teacher Conference," He directed that last one at Heather.

"Uh...I'll...pass."

"Really? XANA gives out cookies to anybody who does good!" Sora said. "Then again to do good I'd have to beat you all up so I don't think you'd like to attend...would you?"

"Nope."

"Ah well." Sora drew his hilt. "Funny jokes are over. Sorry mommy." He then slashed his hilt in their direction.

"...what's that? How was that supposed to do anything?" Duncan asked. "Honestly that wasn't so ba-AHHHH!" The group was sent flying by another powerful gust of wind.

"I don't think I had the chance to introduce myself!" Sora called. "I'm Sora of the Maelstrom! Nice to meet you all!"

"Screw you!" Duncan shouted from the distance.

"Are you mad cuz you hit your head off that ice rock?" Sora asked.

"Hell yeah I am!"

"Well then when you meet the other two you'll count your blessings!" Sora shouted. "Oh and mom it's nothing personal, like I said its just business! Can I still meet grandpa!"

"You're having way too much fun with this!" Heather shouted as she righted her vehicle.

"Is that a no?"

"If I really was your mother I'd put you over my knee, hit you 50 times and send you to your room! So yeah, it's a big NO!" Heather shouted.

"Wow, at least momma's got spirit," Sora shrugged...before a fire blast almost hit him in the face. He dodged the second one. "Oi! Watch it! That's not funny! People get hurt with fire!"

"Screw you kid!" Duncan shouted in response, firing his green fire.

"I guess you're the first I have to take out," Sora sighed. "Newbies always get the hard jobs." He swung his hilt again, and this time Duncan received a cut across his chest and was launched off of the Over Bike. He landed on a nearby Ice Float, and the Bike crashed with him. "Ouch, that had to hurt! Face plant!"

Duncan got up growling. "What's with kids these days?"

Looking up he shouted to the others. "Get going! I got this kid!"

"You guys go on ahead. We'll stay behind and help Duncan." Courtney said, pushing Noah out of way so she could pilot the OverWing.

"Oh, yay. We get to stay behind." Noah while faking enthusiasm.

Sora sighed. "Why do I get stuck with the hard ones?"

"Take this!" Duncan swung his sword and unleashed a stream of green fire.

Sora activated his wings, dodging it easily. He swung his handle again and a full force gale sent Duncan flying back. Looking back and seeing he was about to go over the edge and into the Digital Sea he plunged his sword into the icy ground.

"And checkmate." Sora swung his hilt again and them time a tornado was created that swept Duncan off his feet.

He would have fallen into the sea if not for Courtney and Noah catching him on the OverWing.

"Could you use some help?" Courtney asked while driving.

"...Maybe."

They flew back and landed on the ground.

"So now it's three against one?" Sora asked.

"It can count to three, hurrah," Noah clapped slowly.

"And Keannu Reeves has arrived," Sora countered.

"Shouldn't you be in a video game with a bunch of Disney characters?"

"Shouldn't you be off fighting the men in black?"

"Hey, does that hilt turn into a giant toy key?"

"Depends, do you think you have a giant _anything?_"

"Burn," Duncan whispered.

"Duncan you're praising the bad guy!" Courtney said.

"Sh! This is funny."

"...Good point."

Sora and Noah were now face to face, glaring at each other.

"Who made that mask? Did mommy do it?"

"Depends, did Keannu Reeves get mad at you for stealing his schtick?"

"You're the envy of anime characters everywhere, all you need is a cheesy animation that puts you in a cute little uniform and you're set for a long career."

"You're set to have lunch with Paul Anderson for another crappy movie."

"Tell me, does the fact that that hilt has no blade mean something? Are we missing something else at waist level?"

"When you turn your hands into blades, does that count as you finally growing a pair?"

The two kept at it, insulting one another based off their looks, personality, and powers while one punk swordsman and ninja princess watched.

Xxx

"What are they doing?" LeShawna asked, incredulous.

"I think it's a roast." Cody said, surprised.

"Oh, burn!" Geoff laughed at the latest insult. "I never thought about Noah's hair style like that!"

"Dude, I never thought about making fun of his allergies like that." DJ added.

That was when they felt a cold wind blowing into the room.

"Is it me or is the heater on the frizz?" LeShawna shivered.

They turned and looked to see ice starting to form in the lab.

"I thought XANA wouldn't go for the supercomputer." DJ said, trying to keep himself warm.

"He's going for the lab, not the supercomputer!" Cody shouted as the heater now blew ice cold winds.

Xxx

"So we know one new general. Who's next?" Bridgette asked.

"Do we even want to know how the other two ended up like?" Heather asked.

"I think she's disappointed." Izzy whispered.

"Disappointed? About what?" Heather demanded.

"I don't know. Maybe because the general created from you is a guy and happens to be funny, friendly, and a whole lot nicer than mommy." Izzy teased her.

"I'm not even his real mother!" Heather shouted.

Izzy giggled.

"If we keep on heading to the tower we'll most likely meet the other generals soon enough." Aelita said.

"_Watch out!_"

Before anyone could ask what Cody meant a purple miasma exploded in front of them.

"Whoa!" Trent tried to steer away but he was too close and the miasma began to eat through the OverJet and his skin.

He fell off and hit the ground hard.

"Trent, are you all right?" Gwen shouted in concern.

"I'm okay. Just a little shook up." Trent got up, brushing some snow off his outfit.

"_Trent, look out! Below you!_"

Like a shark coming out of water two large hands smashed through the ice, grabbing Trent and pulling him down.

"Trent!"

Before Trent could fight back a large fist smashed him, devirtualizing him instantly. The giant that came out chuckled.

"Well, that was easy."

He wore a black sleeveless shirt that exposed the Eye of XANA on his shoulder with black tight pants but he wore no shoes. He had black spiked hair that pointed in all directions, his teeth was fashioned like that of a shark, and dark grey skin with white eyes.

"Aw man, we just had to say something!" Gwen said, whipping out her scythe.

"The name's Blade, General Numero Two." Blade said arrogantly. "And honey, you have bad taste in men, that guy couldn't defend himself worth a crap." He cracked his knuckles. "So, who's next?"

"Who were you created from?" Gwen asked, circling with Blade.

"That smart ass who almost let the boss's old head General take over Lyoko," Blade replied.

"...you? From Noah?" Gwen sounded astounded. "No way!"

"'Tis the truth," Blade replied.

"Shouldn't you be small, scrawny, and annoying?" Bridgette asked.

Elsewhere, Noah felt as if he was fighting on two fronts now.

"You wish," Blade snickered. "I'm Blade of the Quake!"

"Quake-?" Izzy started.

Blade smashed one fist into the ground and the entire platform began to shake. Several cracks formed and some warriors lost their balance.

Gwen fired her red aura at Blade, but he smashed one foot onto the ground, and a barrier of ice shot up.

"Is Yuki here?" Gwen asked.

"No," Aelita shook her head. "Blade is doing that. The sector's material reacted to his commands."

"More like his strength," Bridgette fired a wave beam at the barrier and smashed it with its brute force. "He's just one, let's take him!"

Aelita fired her plasma beam, Izzy and Heather fired their arrows and shuriken, Gwen fired her red fire aura again while Bridgette unleashed another energy wave. However before they hit Blade purple energy formed around him, creating a barrier that blocked their attacks.

"What?" Bridgette's eyes widened.

"Who said Blade was alone?" Asked a female voice.

That was when a purple blast hit Bridgette in the back, sending her flying forward while dropping her swords. Everyone turned and looked up to see a girl about the same age as them sitting on a spear with an evil grin. She had long wavy dark brown hair that went down to her knees, pink eyes, pale skin, and wore a tight strapless blue mini dress reached mid thigh with black leg and arm warmers and black gloves and boots. In her hand rested a long sharp spear. The Eye of XANA was seen on the girl's right hand glove.

"You have some nerve starting without me, Blade." The girl said.

Blade only chuckled. "Gee, sorry Jinx."

"Well, at least you only took out one." Jinx shrugged.

"And let me guess, you were made from..." Gwen trailed off as she realized she was the only candidate left. "...me?"

"Hiya mom!" Jinx waved a mocking smile on her face.

"...at least you're not 'too' girly looking." Gwen sighed.

"Speak for yourself!" Heather pouted. "At least she turned out to be girl!"

Jinx snickered and landed next to Blade.

"I think you already know why we're here but just in case our orders are to prevent Aelita from getting into that tower and shutting it down. So, if you even think about so much as glancing at it. . ." Jinx's spear began to glow purple. "We'll go all out to stop you."

"Bring it!" Heather shouted.

Jinx grinned evilly and raised her spear over her head. "Idiots that don't know their limit!"

She swung her spear into the ground and unleashed another wave of dark purple energy that split in five smaller energy waves that headed for all five warriors. They jumped out of the way just as the energy waves nearly hit them.

"Get Aelita!" Jinx shouted.

Blade jumped up and fell towards Aelita was. Looking up Aelita saw Blade falling towards her. Jumping back and activating her wings she avoided being smashed by Blade's feet as they left a large crater in the ground.

"Hang on Aelita!" Bridgette swung her swords and unleashed another energy wave.

Blade stomped his foot and an ice wall came up, blocking Bridgette's attack. Gwen turned and saw Jinx flying at her, swinging her spear. She blocked it barely, stepping back in slight surprise from the attack. Sparks flew as the blades of their staffs collided with each other. Spying Heather running at her from the corner of her vision Jinx smirked evilly and her spear began to glow.

Shoving Gwen back Jinx pointed her spear at Heather and a beam of purple light flew out and turned into a swarm of slugs that engulfed Heather.

"Ew! Ew!Ew!" Heather screamed as small slugs crawled all over her body.

The slugs left a green slime as they crawled up and down her skin.

"_Heather, you've got to get those things off! They're draining your life point!_" Cody said.

"Like I even want to look at them!" Heather shouted.

Jinx laughed and swung her spear again. Gwen blocked with her scythe again. Bridgette dodged as Blade smashed his fist into the ground leaving another crater. Izzy grinned and jumped up, transforming into her T-Rex form.

"I am Tyranno-Izzy! Hear me roar! RAWR!" The red Tyrannosaurus-Red roared and charged.

Just as she was about to bite Blade in half he grabbed her by the jaws, lifted her up, and threw her at Bridgette. Lucky for Bridgette Izzy shifted back into her human form before she accidently flattened the surfer girl.

"Well this isn't good," Izzy said, dazed.

"Tell me about it," Bridgette got up.

"Well we're getting our butts kicked and-"

"On second thought, please don't tell me." Bridgette said before Heather, now slug free joined them. "We need a new plan."

"Think fast!" Heather pointed at Blade, who was leaping at them.

They all jumped into the air. Heather and Bridgette shared the board while Izzy became a bumblebee.

As the ice cracked around Blade, Heather began to think. "I think I have a plan...we need some thin ice."

"Allow me," Flying over to them with her wings, Aelita looked at Blade, who was trying to swat Izzy out of the air.

Izzy turned into a wolf and rushed away from him, and he jumped after her. Aelita let out a single long note and began to glow as she began to take control of Lyoko, reshaping a part of it to fit her need. She made the area where Blade landed-right behind Izzy become thin...it shattered under his weight and he fell through the hole. Jinx narrowed her eyes as she blocked another strike from Gwen and jumped back.

She slapped her hand on the ground and glowed dark purple. That was when Blade came back out of the ground with black vines with pointed arrows at the end holding him up.

"You've got to be kidding!" Heather said.

"I've been known to joke, but I never kid." Jinx wagged one finger at Heather. As Blade was set down next to her the two Generals faced the warriors. "Now, let's get this over wi-"

THUD!

Suddenly their comrade, Sora crashed right on top of them. Sora rubbed his head as he got up. "Who knew the Ghost rider has such a good right hook?"

Moments later the Berserker landed nearby. As it stood up, it reverted to Duncan, who dusted himself off. "Joke about that pretty boy!"

"You haven't even seen my face," Sora pointed out. "But if I never have to look at that hideous hair style again you can have my helmet from now on."

And once again the Mohawk is brought up.

Duncan drew his sword. "You are so dead. Heather I don't care if this guy's your brat he is going down!"

However before he could attack again Jinx's hand glowed dark purple once more and just as Duncan swung the same vines as before sprouted up from the ground surrounding him and grabbed him.

"What?" Duncan tried to fight off the vines however they managed to restrain him completely.

"Compress!" Jinx held out a hand and crushed it into a fist.

The vines covered him from head to toe and proceeded to crush him.

"Duncan!" Courtney shouted as she and Noah landed on the OverWing and she ran to cut the vines.

That was when a beam of red light came out of the mouth part of Sora's helmet and shot through the vines and Duncan. The vines and Duncan faded in just a few seconds.

"I'm guessing the girl with the spear is yours." Noah said to Gwen.

"Yeah and she's picked up some neat tricks." Gwen replied.

"Like it? It seems I followed you in the spell department but instead of elemental spells I tend to use the type of spells that can curse you." Jinx replied.

Before anyone could reply back she swung her spear and unleashed a purple miasma that flew at them.

"Out of the way!" Gwen shouted, glowing green.

She thrust her arms forward and blew the miasma back but the three generals stepped through without a single scratch on them.

"Does that look like . . ." Bridgette started.

"The poison miasma spell." Aelita finished.

"Like it? Like Gwen's but only mine can kill anything except a monster or general of XANA." Jinx twirled her spear.

"Lovely." Gwen said sarcastically. "I'll deal with her. You guys got the other two."

Before anyone could object Jinx grinned and leapt into the air, aiming at Gwen. The spell caster stepped as Jinx's spear slammed into the ground next to her and the miasma started to melt through the ground like acid.

"You're not going on your own Goth girl!" Heather shouted aiming for Jinx's chest but was knocked back with a precise kick from the general.

Jinx then delivered a precise uppercut to Heather and she flew a few yards back. That was when Gwen drop kicked Jinx in the back and sent her face first into the ground. Jinx quickly flipped on her back and did a hand spring in the air. Heather got back up and fired a barrage of shuriken from her launchers as Jinx deflected them with a purple barrier.

Gwen ran at Jinx at full speed ready to cut her. Jinx turned around and swung her spear at Gwen just as she swung her scythe. Both weapons med in mid-air and a loud clang was heard. Gwen then spun around and tried to hit Jinx from the side but Jinx blocked her strike.

Gwen then tried to slam the blunt end of her pole into Jinx's head but Jinx jumped into the air and threw her spear at Gwen's head. Gwen bent backwards and did a flip, using her flying ability she landed on her feet. Gwen lunged at Jinx and swung her scythe but Jinx summoned more vines that surrounded her, acting as a shield that blocked Gwen's scythe. While Gwen and Heather were taking on Jinx Courtney and Noah decided to go after Sora.

Courtney ran at Sora and the winged general flew at her with two wind swords in his hands. Sora sliced his blades at Courtney with a gust of wind that knocked her down. She jumped to her feet in time as Sora flew at her again. She did a back flip and kicked one of Sora's blades out of his hands.

Noah transformed his hands into guns and fired at Sora while he was distracted. One shot managed to hit him in the shoulder and he grunted in pain. He spun around pulled his head back and pointed at Noah and a red laser beam blasted out of the beak part of his helmet. Noah just barely dodged the laser but Sora flew at him and kicked his leg, knocking him off balance.

Noah rolled out of the way as Sora stabbed the ground with his one wind sword. Courtney ran to stab him in the back but Sora spun and slashed at Courtney. She ducked just as it cut the air where her head was, landing on her hands in a crouching position. She slid forward on the ground and sent her foot right up into Sora's face forcing him to let go of the other dagger.

He jumped back; activating his wings and daggers disappeared and reappeared back in his hands.

"Want to try again?" Sora asked.

Xxx

XANA along with Ryder, Yuki, and Lilith watched the battle from digital Carbon Copy of Lyoko in Sector 5. Sitting casually XANA smirked at how well his new generals were performing.

"Oh yeah! Get them you guys!" Lilith pumped her fist as she watched the fight on the hollow screen. "They sure are giving them a hard time!"

"If all goes according to plan the others will freeze to death in the lab." XANA said. "Even if they fail the battle is not a total loss."

Xxx

Gwen activated her fire aura and the scythe burned through the vines that acted as a shield, causing Jinx to stumble back. Heather fired four shuriken at Jinx who managed to deflect two but the other two hit her in the shoulder. Jinx activated her miasma spell as she swung her spear and forced Gwen to jump back as she didn't want the miasma to kill her. Heather ran forward and used her wrist blades to slash Jinx.

Jinx dodged only to be hit by two more shuriken, but lucky for her she managed to block them with her spear and her spear glowed from the impact. She charged at Heather, ready to cut her in half when Gwen jumped in front and blocked with her scythe. As the two attempted to push the other back Heather jumped over Gwen's shoulder and landed right behind Jinx. Spinning around she fired two shuriken in Jinx's back which made her drop her guard allowing Gwen hit her in the face with in the face with the blunt end of scythe and smack on the head with the bottom of the pole sending Jinx sliding several yards back.

Gwen and Heather high fived each other in victory before Jinx got back up growling angrily.

"Had enough?" Heather asked.

"Try this!" Jinx shouted as large vines sprung from the ice and wrapped around Heather.

Before Gwen could turn to help Jinx charged at her. She swung her spear in Gwen's direction which Gwen blocked with her scythe, but as soon as she blocked it Jinx launched her foot at Gwen's stomach. Gwen moved out of the way and flung her scythe at Jinx who dodged by jumping in the air and landing Gwen's scythe. She kicked Gwen in the head which sent her to the edge of the platform which if she fell over she would fall into the digital sea.

Gwen attempted to get back up only to have Jinx send a blast that knocked her scythe out of her hands and sent Gwen falling to the ground on her back. Looking up she saw Jinx standing over her. She jabbed her spear at Gwen's head which Gwen dodged by moving her head to the left and Jinx tried to stab her again. Gwen moved her head to the right.

Gwen activated her wind spell and sent a gust that blew Jinx back. Gwen got up and her scythe reappeared back in her hands. They both charged at each other again and jumped into the air their weapons swinging wildly. Finally Gwen kicked Jinx to the ground but she managed to land on her feet and so did Gwen.

Jinx swung her spear and unleashed a dark purple energy wave which Gwen dodged by rolling out of the way. She flew at Jinx but the girl smirked and held out the palm of her hand just as soon as Gwen was close enough.

"Here's another spell that you might like!"

She fired a purple orb that hit Gwen and the spell casted looked down with shocked eyes as she started to turn to stone.

"What did you do to her?" Heather shouted, trying to get free of the vine trap.

"I call it Petrify, like it?" Jinx grinned.

"Not...as much as...you'll like...this..." Before Gwen was fully consumed, she managed to raise her hand...and fired her fire aura right into Jinx's face. The attack knocked Jinx back and burned through some of the vines, allowing Heather to cut her way free.

"I hate last minute surprises!" Jinx frowned as she stood up...and just barely dodged Heather's arm blades.

"Well suck it up, whiner." Heather snapped. "You're not the only one with magic."

With that, she turned invisible. Jinx glanced around for a moment before she was cut across the back once. She spun, swinging her spear wildly, and was stabbed in the gut, taking out a chunk of life points.

"Real cute!" Jinx growled. "That's why I've got this!"

She then unleashed her miasma spell. Heather coughed as she became visible and stumbled back from the cloud.

"Petrify!" Jinx launched another sphere at Heather, but she saw it coming and lurched out of the way. When she came up, and threw a single shuriken at Jinx's outstretched hand. Jinx yelped as it struck. Nursing her hand as the wound healed over, she glared at Heather. "You're really becoming a bother for me."

"I get that a lot," Heather nodded, extending her arm blades out again.

Nearby, Noah ducked under a swing from Sora's wind sword and swung his Sword hand. Sora leaped back but took a gash across his chest. Then while he was off guard, Courtney slammed the edge of her staff into his helmet clad head.

"Not so invincible now, are we?" Noah asked.

"I never said I was."

"You implied it by acting cocky."

"No, I was just pointing out how I was winning."

"While you have your hands in your pockets, and Confucius says 'Man with hand in pocket feels cocky all day'." Noah replied.

"Really? You do that all the time."

"Nah, I cross my arms. Makes me look like I give a damn about something." Noah shrugged.

"More like you're trying to look cool, even though you're the guy who made a big, cool program that he said was invincible...only to be taken over by Shadow of all people barely five minutes after it was activated." Sora replied.

"I'm pretty much over that you know."

"Are you over the fact that blades and guns are the only pair you'll _ever_ have?"

Noah replied by turning his hand into a gun and shooting Sora point blank, knocking him back ten feet.

"...I'm guessing since you shot me instead of firing back another comment, I win." Sora shook his head as he got back up.

"Uh...dumb ass? Look behind you." Noah pointed lazily.

"Let me guess, the princess?"

"Nope. Worse."

Sora slowly turned...and saw a big cliff face behind him. "...how is that worse-"

Noah turned is other hand into a gun and fired on Sora, knocking him back into the cliff and kept firing repeatedly, slamming him up against the ice with each shot. After thirty seconds of straight up firing, Noah blew smoke off the end of his gun-hands.

"They work well enough," He let out a small smirk...and then a wind blade shot out of the falling ice on the cliff and cut through him. He blinked. "Son of a-...he beat me at my own game!" Then he devirtualized.

Sora stumbled out of the ice. "Well that was an adrenaline rush! They were right; ice can give you a head ache." He looked at Courtney. "Ok then Princess, it's just you and-"

THUNK! She hit him on the head.

"Stop calling me that."

"Why, you look like it. And the helmet piece keeps me from actually feeling ah it on the head-"

CRACK!

Sora groaned. "Ok, I had that one coming for being cocky." He collapsed to his knees, and Courtney followed up with a swing to his chin that knocked him on his back. "Oy vey...why do I always get stuck with the hard ones?"

Nearby, Jinx shouted. "It's just your first mission!"

"Feels like I've been at it for years." Sora sighed.

"Are you sure you're not Noah's copy?" Courtney planted the tip of her staff on his chest.

"Fairly sure," Sora nodded. "I just hate fighting in the cold."

"Well don't worry you big baby, in five seconds you won't have a problem." Courtney raised her staff.

"One small problem," Sora said.

"What?"

"Too late!" He then fired a laser from his helmet's beak and sent her flying. It reduced her life points from 80 to 55 by the time she landed. Sora got up. "I may not like fighting in the cold, but it still doesn't mean I am going to lose."

"Heather, get over here and give your overgrown brat a spanking already!" Courtney said as she and Heather ended up next to one another.

"I'm a little busy with Gwen's brat!" Heather replied as they went back to back, with Sora on one side and Jinx on the other. "Wait...Courtney; do you think that Giving Spell could get Gwen out of that Petrify Curse?"

"Maybe, but I'd have to get close enough to try it and we have incoming generals!" Courntey said as Jinx and Sora launched themselves at the girls.

"Grab my hand!" Heather shouted.

Courtney obeyed, and Heather swung her off the ground. Courtney slammed both feet into Jinx's chin and then as she came around the other side she slammed her feet into the beak of Sora's helmet, spinning him around. Heather then released her, sending her flying and landing her next to Gwen.

She grabbed the statue by the head and activated her giving spell.

As she began to feed life points into Gwen, she also began to delete all ailments. The stone layer over Gwen slowly dissolved until Gwen was back to normal and stumbling a bit.

"Welcome back!" Courtney shouted. "Now come on, we're losing!"

Gwen nodded, picking up her scythe. "I'm on it."

Sora and Jinx both noticed Courtney freeing Gwen.

"Well, three against two again, huh?" Sora asked, sighing.

"Leave that to me." Jinx said.

An orange mist shot out of her spear and manifested in the form of thousands of tiny wasps that flew at Heather. She stumbled back, and Gwen took up a position in front of her, shooting out her wind aura that blew the wasps back.

"You need to get up pretty early to win with a trick like that one." Gwen glared at Jinx. "When are you going to give it up and fight for real?"

"I'm having too much fun." Jinx shrugged. "But of course some of you are being very lame."

"Well then, let's spice things up a bit." Gwen said and shot out her fire aura at them.

Jinx blocked with a purple barrier. "Lame!"

She swung her spear and Sora's beak glowed red and fired a red laser beam as Jinx unleashed a purple energy wave. All three Lyoko warriors dodged in time. Sora spread his wings out and flew at top speed towards them. Gwen swerved to the left, holding her scythe tightly as she prepared to cut Sora but then Jinx's swarm of angry wasps returned distracting her as she had to use her wind aura to fend them off. That was when Sora fired his crimson beam.

"Look out!" Courtney shouted, jumping through the swarm and tackling Gwen out of the way.

The beam just barely grazed her back. However Sora flew in and grabbed Courtney by her foot and hoisted her into the air. Courtney squirmed and fidgeted as Sora started to fly straight up into the air. Heather fired her shuriken to shoot down Sora but he was too fast and he was out of range for any of Gwen's spells to hit him.

"He's going to drop her into the sea!" Heather said.

"Cody, can you devirtualize her?" Gwen asked. "Cody?"

Xxx

However Cody could not answer as the lab was now frozen and the ice was getting into the computer. LeShawna tried to open the hatch to the scanners so they could escape but it was frozen.

"Come on! Give me a hand!" She shouted.

Geoff and DJ ran over to help her while Cody attempted to monitor the fight but computer was freezing up and it was hard to concentrate in the cold. He inputted the coordinates for the Return to the Past program so even if he wasn't present the program would activate the second Aelita shut down the tower.

Xxx

"Damn!" Gwen said.

"Can't Courtney use her Take ability and steal his life points?" Heather asked.

"Not unless she wants to fall into the sea or devirtualize by impacting the ice." Gwen said. "The OverJet is still here. I'll take care of Jinx, you go after them."

"Fine." Heather ran and jumped onto the OverJet.

Sora flew into the air until he could almost see the whole sector. He tossed the Courtney up into the air above him, getting a scream of surprise and caught her by the arms and kept them straight so she couldn't fight back.

"Nice view, huh?" Sora asked as he showed far up they were. "Didn't want to do this but you guys had to be so troublesome."

"What do you mean?" Courtney demanded, trying to break free.

"This."

Much to her shock and horror he released her. She tried to reach for his arms or his legs as she began to fall.

Plummeting through the air, she flailed and screamed. Up above, Sora watched, like he was seeing a movie. He glanced towards a small dot that was racing across the landscape to where Courtney was falling. He sighed as he recognized Heather on the OverJet. "Annoying little-"

He shot downwards, drawing his wind sword. He slashed, but Heather spotted him and swerved to avoid his attacks. She then fired her shuriken at him to fend him off. Then she lowered herself to reduce the wind resistance, hugging the OverJet and shot out over the digital sea. Courtney now had about ten seconds before she struck the digital ocean.

Heather rose a bit, and then shot down again. Courtney slammed into place right behind her. After a moment of her arms flailing, she grabbed Heather around the waist, still screaming due to being less than five feet from the digital sea and moving at over two hundred miles per hour.

"You're welcome!" Heather shouted over the wind and Courtney's screams of fear.

She revved up the OverJet as she pulled up. It began to gain altitude as the pair finally levelled out. Heather turned around and looked Courtney to see if she was all right. She looked a little groggy and about to pass out.

"You okay?"

"I never _ever_ want to go through anything like that again. Lyoko or real world it felt so real." Courtney replied, wrapping her arms around herself. "If we were in the real world after doing something like that I most likely would have thrown up by now or had a heart attack.

Heather offered a sympathetic look at Courtney. She remembered how she and Noah fell off their vehicles in the Tropical Sector when Shadow knocked them off the OverWing. Gwen saved them both and told them she went through the same thing along with a few of the original TD Lyoko Warriors during their first few missions. She remembered how real that felt.

She thought she was going to go splat when she hit the virtual ocean.

In the meantime Gwen grunted as she blocked another strike from Jinx's spear. She was running low on life points again and both fighters were starting to tire out. She jumped back and activated her fire aura again and swung her scythe unleashing a wave of fire at Jinx. However Jinx smirked and created another barrier that blocked and absorbed the attack.

"Here's something you might like. I'll send this right back to you!" Jinx said as a blast of fire now colored purple flew straight at Gwen.

The spell caster rolled forward, jumping out of the way of the reflected attack and watched as the reflected spell causing the icy ground where she stood before to vanish from existence. She ran into a cave she found and ducked behind a large boulder just as Jinx sent another blast at her. She turned around to see Jinx coming down the path. Activating her wind spell she swung her scythe and sent a wind slash at Jinx.

Jinx activated her barrier, blocking the attack while skidding to a halt. Gwen leapt out from behind the boulder she was hiding behind and ran deeper down the path. Jinx grunted and started to chase after Gwen. While running Gwen jumped, turning around and throwing her scythe towards Jinx as she landed and spun around to continue running.

Jinx fired another energy wave that knocked the scythe out of the air and it vanished back into Gwen's hands as she kept running. Gwen stopped and threw her scythe at a large icicle hanging from the icy ceiling above her. The scythe hit the icicle, cutting through the ice causing it to fall. Jinx stopped in time just as the large icicle hit the ground in front of her, cutting off her chase.

"_That was awesome, Gwen!_" Cody said.

"Thanks." Gwen replied. "Is there another way out of here or do I have to burn my way out?"

"_There's way out on the end of the path but it might take a while._"

"Great. When I get out the fight might already be done."

Activating her flight ability Gwen flew through the cave but not as fast as she usually would as she didn't want to accidently devirtualize herself. A few minutes later she heard an explosion and looked back, knowing that Jinx had blasted through the icicle that cut her off.

"She just never gives up!" Gwen rolled her eyes. "Fine, if you want to play, but just so you know it's never nice to annoy mommy."

Jinx ran at full speed and saw Gwen run through the entrance into a large chamber. Running in after her she found herself in a chamber that a field of ice crystals both large and small. Walking through the chamber she could see distorted images of herself on the crystals as she passed by them. It seemed she was almost in a maze full of fun house mirrors.

"BOO!" Jinx spun around and saw Gwen looking as thin as a stick man.

Growling Jinx swing her spear and cut the ice crystal in half. She watched as it fell to the ground with a loud thud.

"Having fun yet?" Jinx turned and saw three Gwens sticking their tongues out at her.

Swinging her spear Jinx blasted all three of them. Looking around she caught glimpses of Gwen on the ice crystals, one ran in one direction, but another ran in a different direction. One was as large as Izzy in her T-Rex form while another showed her even shorter than Noah.

"Ready or not, here I come!" Gwen's voice shouted.

Jinx turned and saw a reflection of Gwen running straight at her. She got ready, only for the reflection to fade. That was when she felt a blast of wind slam into her back, causing her to fall forward. Jinx rolled on her back, stood up and managed to catch a glimpse of Gwen moving away from her. She ran forward and slashed at her, cutting the ice crystal she saw Gwen's image on.

Jinx growled in frustration. She turned and looked up to see several Gwens floating above one crystal. Jinx prepared to fire another curse all of the Gwens except one disappeared while the last one hit Jinx in the face while blowing her back with a wind spell. Jinx dropped her spear as Gwen landed in front of her, kicking her in the process. Jinx fell to the ground as Gwen held her scythe out.

"Never mess with mommy." Gwen said as she swung her scythe.

Jinx rolled out of the way and screamed as she jumped up and a cloud of destruction blasted out of her. The attack released a fog of miasma that caused the entire cave to melt and Gwen was too slow to do anything about it. She was instantly devirtualized when the cloud hit her. Jinx collapsed on her knees, gasping for air.

"That was close. If she hadn't dropped her guard I would have been finished." Jinx muttered as she stood up and retrieved her spear.

It was no use going to help Blade and Sora. Her life points were low from fighting Gwen and Heather and the cloud of miasma used up about all of her strength. She wouldn't hold out long against the remaining warriors even with Blade and Sora helping her out. She had to fall back if she wanted to live to fight another day.

'See ya next time, mommy.'

Jinx pulled out a sphere tossed into the air and created a portal back to XANA's Carbon Copy and jumped into it.

Xxx

Gwen fell out of the scanner. She groaned and sat up and found Trent and Duncan on the latter attempting to force open the hatch to the lab.

"What's going on?"

"The hatch is frozen solid. LeShawna, DJ, Geoff, and Cody are trapped in the lab. I think they're freezing to death!" Trent replied.

Gwen's eyes widened in horror and she looked around for something to pry the hatch open.

Xxx

Blade ducked under Bridgette's swords and then bent back so that it just barely missed his chin. "Too slow toots!"

A second later she landed a clean slice across his chest that spun him around. He looked down at the wound. Along with the white digital coding the Generals always bled, there was also a black liquid. He smirked. "Perfect timing."

"What the hell is that?" Bridgette backed away.

"My blood," The liquid flowed up to Blade's arm and covered it.

As more piled up, it began to shape itself. It formed armour on his forearm and upper arm, with spikes sticking out of it. But on his hand, it became a large claw. He examined the perfectly shaped weapon.

"Ah, perfect. I like to think of myself as a bit of an artist with this power. Do you like it? It's called Dark Blood."

"He used his own blood? Ew!" Izzy spat her tongue out as if removing a taste from her mouth.

"Get used to it ginger, it's my signature move." Blade grinned...and was promptly slapped across the face with the tail of a dolphin Izzy turned into momentarily.

"Don't call me Ginger!"

"Was that a...dolphin?" Bridgette asked.

"Yep! I'm Free Izzy!"

"That's a whale." Bridgette deadpanned.

"DOH!" Izzy flinched. "Oh well, this'll do." She then turned into a large rhino and charged Blade.

Blade grinned and swung his claws. It connected with Izzy's horn, and it cut it off! Izzy yelped as her life points dropped by 30, leaving her with fifty. Cody began to recharge her life points from her reserves as she backed away, nursing her regenerating horn. "Owie..."

She turned back into her human form. "Is my nose still there?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it," Bridgette said before she parried a swing from Blade.

They began to exchange blows, always dodging or blocking the other's attacks. Blade was about to swing his claws down on Bridgette's head when a wall of ice burst from the ground and sent Blade stumbling backwards. Blade turned in the direction of Aelita and hissed.

"You're going to wish you hadn't done that." Blade snarled.

Aelita looked Blade in the giant's eyes and raised her hand.

"If you think I intend to play the role of the princess that needs to be rescued you are dead wrong, Blade. I grew tired of playing that role a long time ago." Aelita used her creativity again and created a dome of ice around Blade, trapping him.

"That might buy us some time."

Blade roared and ripped his way out of Aelita's prison.

"Or not." Izzy said.

"Take this!" Blade pulled his head back and then let loose a powerful scream that shook the entire sector and blasted the three warriors back.

They slid across the platform and stopped when they were close to the edge.

"Nice lungs he's got there." Izzy commented getting up.

They turned and saw Blade charging at them like a raging bull.

"Forget XANA's orders! You're mine!" Blade bellowed, planning to the stomp them to death.

Aelita attempted to create an ice wall but Blade just ploughed through it like it was made of glass. Blade swung his claws but Aelita dodged them. Her fists glowed bright pink as she ducked under Blade's next and sent her fist into Blade's stomach. Blade roared in pain as he stepped back.

He tightened his fists so much blood came out. The blood turned into a lance that tried to skewer Aelita's head but she ducked under, losing a few strands of hair. She knew that they were backed into a corner and if she didn't come up with a plan soon they would all be dead. That was when an idea came.

"Spread out! Don't let him get us all at once!" Aelita shouted.

Bridgette and Izzy nodded and ran in opposite directions. Blade growled as he tried to keep an eye on all three. Bridgette was moving on the left, Izzy on the right, and Aelita was right in the center. He chuckled and grinned showing his shark teeth.

"Stupid mistake."

"Actually, it's my plan." Aelita closed her eyes and she let out another song.

Blade grimaced when he saw her do that, knowing she was about to take control of Lyoko. That was when he heard a crack and looked behind him to see the edge of the cliff beginning to break apart. Realizing what Aelita was planning to do he tried to run but the ground cracked open and the cliff began to plummet to the digital sea. Aelita activated her wings while Bridgette assembled her swords into her flying surfboard and Izzy transformed into a crow.

Blade roared as he began to fall but just before he hit the digital sea a portal opened up and he fell in.

"Crap, he got away!" Izzy said.

"That's all we can do for today. We're lucky we managed to outsmart him." Aelita reassured her.

"Hey!"

They turned and saw Heather and Courtney on the OverJet.

"Hey there, you missed it! We just knocked Blade out of here!" Izzy cheered with flapping her wings.

"How did it go with the others?" Bridgette asked.

"Well, Gwen was devirtualized fighting Jinx but she managed to make sure the brat was too tired and low on life points to fight." Heather said. "Sora on the other hand bolted when he tried to drop Courtney after flying so high up you'd see the whole sector."

"Are you okay?" Bridgette asked concern.

"I'm fine. Better than Sora will be when I see him again." Courtney replied.

"We better hurry then before we run into anything else." Aelita said.

Xxx

By now the lab was just as bad as the studio and the factory. Cody, DJ, Geoff, and LeShawna had no choice but to huddle together to try and stay warm. All of the equipment in the lab was frozen so they had no way of knowing if they had made it to the tower.

Xxx

Aelita stepped into the tower and walked to the center of the platform. She rose into the air and softly landed on the upper platform. She placed her hand on the screen and waited.

**Aelita**

**Code: Lyoko**

"Tower deactivated."

That was when a bright light consumed everything.


	47. Episode 46: A Little Rain Never Hurt

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 47

"Yo, viewers of the world! The number one host of all time, that's me, is back in action!" Chris announced to the camera as the next episode came on. "And in celebration we are going to kick off today's episode with an EXTREME challenge! As you all know, last time on Total Drama Reality, my amateur cousin Carlos and Kurt set up the challenge for which the teams would build robots and have them battle to the death . . . Boring! In the end it was Darth Alejandro who was sent packing. So now we can back into the awesome digital challenge!"

Lesley coughed, getting his attention.

"And will be perfectly safe for all the contestants." He finished grudgingly. "Who will be sent home today? Find out today, on Total, Drama, REALITY!"

"I really hate that guy," Duncan commented, using what seemed to be his latest catchphrase.

"We all do, but let's focus on the main topic," Gwen turned off the view of Total Drama. "XANA has three new generals,"

"And they basically kicked our butts," Noah added.

"Because we didn't know what they could do!" Trent broke in.

"And next time we'll take them down." Duncan finished.

"I only just realized I'm the only person on the whole team who has actually permanently put down one of XANA's generals." Cody commented.

"Don't rub it in; you can't even go to Lyoko anymore." Duncan said to the boy genius.

"Until we can find an anti-virus!" Cody replied.

"And until then you're stuck here." Duncan looked at Noah. "So any bright ideas for how to deal with the new crew on the block?"

Noah shook his head. "I'm still trying to process how the hell something like Blade came from me. I am way too handsome to be related to that guy."

"Yeah...handsome, sure." Izzy giggled.

"Sh! Incoming cameras," LeShawna whispered.

Chris basically went through the same speech as last time, but this time nothing happened when he shouted. "Let the challenge begin!"

One by one, the competitors climbed into their VR pods, which shut over them and sent them into the digital world.

Xxx

The teams ended up in their three forts, surrounded by tables of weapons. The forts were essentially square shaped with a courtyard in the middle, a gate on two sides, and a lot of windows to shoot from on the walls.

They each bore a flag of their respective team.

"Each team has about twenty minutes to hide their flags inside their fort before they have to capture the other teams' flags. Whichever team that has the most flags in the next twenty minutes will _not _be sending someone home on the Jet of Shame tonight." Chris announced over the intercom. "Questions? No? Good. Ten minutes staring . . . Now!"

**Team Amazon**

"We need to hide our flag high up so that it'll be harder to reach!" Courtney said while the whole team was huddled together.

"We haven't listened to you the whole game so should we listen to you now?" Eva asked.

"Here." Heather handed the flag to Sierra and Cody. "Why don't you two go hide the flag?"

Sierra squealed while Cody groaned. Nevertheless he went along with his stalker.

"The rest of us need a plan for guarding and stealing." Heather said.

"I can guard!" Courtney raised her hand.

"Eva can be good with distraction." Gwen said.

"How am I a distraction?" Eva frowned.

"The moment they see you they will all be on the defensive."

Eva thought it over and shrugged. "Whatever."

"I'm fast. I'll steal." Heather said.

Not to mention that on Lyoko she was a Ninja that could turn invisible.

"I guess I'll guard." Gwen said.

"What should I do?" Beth asked.

"Go with Eva. If you go to Team Victory that has Lindsay you can distract her." Heather said.

"Trick Lindsay? But she's my BFF! I could never do that to her!" Beth cried.

"You don't have to." Gwen said putting a hand on her shoulder. "Just if you see her wave a hand at her and Eva and Heather can distract the others and steal the flag."

Just as she said that Sierra ran back, moving like a speeding bullet with Cody over her shoulder screaming as usual. One would think he would be used to this after it happening since the beginning of Total Drama World Tour and that Cody had gone up against digital monsters, AIs, and attacks involving possessed humans, attacking trees, blizzards indoors that he would be used to this. Sadly no.

"And . . . Time!" Chris shouted over the intercom.

"Did you two hide it somewhere it won't be seen in the dark?" Gwen asked.

"Yup. Think so!" Sierra nodded excitedly.

"Okay, we better move out then."

"Time to start everyone." Chris said spookily. "Beware of flag stealers."

The setting for the simulation was set to night and torches automatically came on to give everyone a source of light.

Xxx

Confessional: Gwen

"Good thing my sight is perfect in the dark."

End Confessional

Xxx

**Team C**(God bless Carlos for coming up with that)

"Okay, Izzy goes in and steals the flags." Noah said.

"Ninja Izzy is ready to go!" Izzy did some karate moves.

"Duncan and Justin can be the distraction." Noah pointed the other two.

"Of course. It's a good idea to use me as a distraction." Justin said, flexing his muscles.

"Dude, get over it. No girl is going to fall for that anymore." Duncan said, lightly slapping Justin on the back of the head.

"Ah! How could you do that? No modeling agency will hire me if they see that!" Justin cried as he took out some hair gel.

He spread it all over the back of his head to cover up where Duncan had head slapped him. Noah sighed, rubbing his forehead.

"We are so going to lose."

**Team Victory**(Hard to believe they still call themselves that, right?)

"Okay, we have more players on our team more than Team C and about as much as Team Amazon. The easiest will be Team C." LeShawna said to the rest of Team Victory as they gathered around.

"But Team C has Duncan and Izzy so that could make it difficult." Bridgette pointed out.

"We just need to distract them." LeShawna said.

"What about Team Amazon. They got Eva, Courtney, Heather, Sierra, and Gwen. That ought to make it hard for us." DJ said.

"If I know them Heather will be the one to try and steal the flag while Eva is used as a distraction. Make that powerhouse distraction while Gwen, Courtney, Sierra, Cody and Beth guard their flag." LeShawna replied. "Trent and I can distract while Bridgette tries to steal their flag with Trent's help. DJ and Lindsay will guard the flag here while we go after the others."

"I won't have to actually fight then?" DJ asked hopefully.

"I won't get to see Beth!" Lindsay whined.

"..." LeShawna and Trent exchanged a look.

"Should we really leave these two alone?" Trent whispered.

"Best plan we've got." LeShawna shrugged. "Maybe DJ can just give them a bear hug to stop them."

Trent said. "Ok then...let's get going!" The team split up to their assigned objectives.

Xxx

Heather peeked from the bushes she was hiding behind as she looked at the fort that held Team C's flag. Looking around she saw no sign of the team members. She held two short blades that she took from the table in Team Amazon's fort. Looking around she didn't see anyone and nodded to Eva who carried a large lance over her shoulder.

Smirking Eva held the lance out in front of her and charged with a battle cry. Of course it would have worked if Izzy had landed come out of nowhere and landed on Eva's head. Putting her hands over Eva's eyes Izzy giggled.

"Guess who?"

"Izzy!" Eva growled.

"Nope! Izzy's not here!"

"I know it's you! I know your voice!" Eva shouted.

"No, all of the other personalities have the same voice as me. Like Brainzilla, Explosivo, and E-Scope. Which one am I?" Izzy asked.

"Do I even care? Get off of me!" Eva shouted trying to pry her off.

While Eva was trying to get rid of Izzy Heather snuck by them and tried to sneak into Team C's fort. Except she tripped a rope and a trap door opened.

"WOAH!" Heather shouted as she fell into the trap.

Xxx

Confessional: Noah

"Oldest trick in the book."

End Confessional

Xxx

Good thing though that Beth avoided the trap slipping through a window. She saw Noah sitting at a table reading a book.

"Hey Beth."

Beth squeaked from being caught so easily but Noah didn't even both to get up.

"Just take the flags."

"Huh?" Beth asked. "Aren't you supposed to try and stop me?"

"I could but then I would have to get up." Noah said.

"Okay . . ." Beth slowly walked over and took all three flags and simply walked out.

Xxx

Confessional: Beth

"I know Noah's gotten better since Season 1 but he is _so _lazy sometimes!"

End Confessional

Xxx

"Do we have to do this?" Justin asked.

"It's the only way." Duncan replied.

"Okay, but answer this: Why am I tied and on a catapult?" Justin shouted as Duncan had found a catapult and Justin was drafted to be the one to shot over the wall.

"Because you like showing off." Duncan said cutting the rope and Justin was sent screaming through the air and he landed on the side of the wall of Team Victory's fort.

He hit the ground and looked up, seeing stars.

"You okay, man?" DJ asked.

"Look . . . Stars! I'm going to be rich!"

"Oh, that is so cool!" Lindsay said happily, not knowing that Justin was in a daze from his fall.

Xxx

Confessional: Duncan

"I know it was a bad idea sending Justin to try and steal the flags but seeing as how low we are I figured we had nothing left to lose with him."

Xxx

Confessional: Justin

"I am so going to sue him for the million dollars he won from the second season for the grief he caused me!"

End Confessional

Xxx

The members of Team Amazon that were assigned to guard their flag kept their eyes and ears open and on alert for anything. When Gwen mentioned in the confessional that she could see perfectly in the dark it seemed she was right as she spotted a certain blond pony tail sneaking through a window on north side and into the fort.

"Sierra! There!" Gwen shouted and pointed.

Knowing she was busted Bridgette tried to flee but Sierra was too fast and Bridgette ended up tagged when the stalker threw a net that caught her.

"Crap!" Bridgette fell over, tangled up in the net.

"Sorry, Bridge." Gwen ran over to her.

She faintly saw a sheepish smile on Bridgette's face before she disappeared.

"It's all right, Gwen. All in good fun!"

Gwen snickered as she vanished completely.

Xxx

Confessional: Bridgette

"I know I should have tried harder but I really wish to be kicked out of that challenge. I just don't do well with land sports."

Xxx

Confessional: Gwen

"Why do I get the feeling Bridgette _wanted_ to be caught?"

End Confessional

Xxx

That was when a shouting was and they turned to see Trent with their flag and Cody knocked out.

"Get them! They've got our flags!" Courtney screeched as she tried to keep up but they were too fast for her.

They made it out of Team Amazon's fort and ran for their fort. Before anyone could do anything they crossed back into Team Victory's fort.

"And now Team Victory is the victor!" Chris announced.

Beth, Eva, and Heather heard the announcement and dashed back to the Team Amazon fort.

"What happened?" Heather demanded.

"I don't know! We didn't see it coming!" Courtney responded.

"But lucky for you it is Team Me So Hot that will be sending someone home tonight. Seriously, I come back after all the crap they put me through and my favourite team loses, _again_." Chris announced.

"...I wish they'd just hired Kurt and Carlos as full time hosts." Heather grumbled.

Xxx

The members of Team C-who were silently thanking Carlos for coming up with their new title sat in the lounge, waiting for Chris to enter. Finally Lesley came in and whistled. The door she came in from burst open and Roberto tossed Chris in. Chris landed roughly. "Ow!" He was currently clad in a towel and a weird pink shower cap. "Seriously, what's with the treatment? I'm the host here!"

"Because you're the only one left suitable for it." Lesley reminded him. "Chef tried and messed up. We can't trust Roberto. We had Blaineley host the Aftermath back in Canada because we knew that she'd try turning Total Drama into Total Blaineley, and the other crew...well they didn't have enough personality." (The consequence of being a background character)

"Fine! Whatever!" Chris said.

"Uh...why are you uh...?" Duncan looked away.

"I had a long trip back here, the showers in jail sucked, I got out only after I apologized for being in contempt of court, and to the contestants back home and I still have to work on those _reparations _for the people in Hawaii!"

"...You've had four showers since you got back man." Chef grumbled.

"And I'm still trying to get all the dirt out! Just hand out the trophies so I can get back to my queen sized bed-"

"Kurt and Carlos burned it along with most of your stuff."

"What? Why didn't you-"

"I wasn't here until after they were called to leave." Lesley said.

"Chef?"

"They gave me my pay check! I liked them better than you!" Chef chuckled.

"Roberto?"

"...I'm just the Security Chief."

"Why didn't you stop them?"

"...stop who? I'm the security chief, not a police officer, I stop people from entering the place, not trashing belongings of somebody who didn't live here at the time."

"...fine, whatever, somebody get me the stupid trophies so we can do this loser ceremony so I can buy all the stuff Kurt and Carlos lost me!"

Chef held up the trophies...which had graffiti on them all ranging from moustaches and glasses to make up.

"Nice Chef!" Lesley giggled.

"Wasn't me...well okay the moustache one with the clown nose is mine but Carlos did the others." Chef said.

"He did in exchange that Kurt would burn the bed and replace it with his." Roberto said. "Good thing Kurt had me take it out so Chris wouldn't have it."

"...Okay, whoever doesn't get a trophy goes home a whiny loser!" Chris said. "You have all casted your votes. Duncan, Izzy," He passed the two their trophies. "Noah, Justin...you two are the reason why your team lost! Noah, you just stay down reading a book and let Beth take all three flags!"

"In my defence it was a really good book." Noah shrugged.

"And Justin...what happened man? The flight was cool but the landing sucked! And all you talked about was seeing stars!"

"It hurt man." Justin grumbled.

"Well this last trophy decides your fate tonight." Chris held up the third trophy.

"Like how the judge decided yours in court?" Duncan snickered.

"Especially while you were kicking and screaming?" Izzy added.

"...Noah!" Chris tossed the trophy right at Noah. "Justin, you are gone, vamoose, history! Now get out."

Justin looked down in shame and got up, walking out of the room.

"The Jet of Losers will be here to pick you up in the morning dude!" Chris sighed. "Now if there's nothing else for the evening...cut to the credits so I can redecorate my room again!" He shook a fist at the roof.

"CURSE YOU CARLOS AND KURT!"

"Actually it's _Kurt and Carlos,"_ Izzy corrected him. "Or Kurt and _the Carlos._"

"He still calls himself by that? Man that guy's obsessed!"

"Says the man with hundreds of trophies of himself." Lesley replied.

"...touche."

"Hah! Carlos is rubbing off on all of us!" Duncan pointed. "I knew it!"

Xxx

"ACHOO! ACHOO! ACHOO!" Carlos sneezed.

"Come on Carlos we're about to meet Agent Parker, I have no time for you to catch a cold."

"I think somebody is talking about me a lot," Carlos wiped his nose with a napkin.

"Maybe somebody found out you're on commission again and wants you to blow something up." Kurt said as he parked out front of the FBI safe house.

They walked up and knocked on the door. The occupants replied by opening the door and agent Ray Parker.

"Agent Parker?" Kurt asked.

"Yes. And you are former SAS and MI-6 agents Kurt and Carlos." Ray held up his badge.

"Nice to meet you. Can we come in?" Carlos asked.

Ray nodded and let them in. He led them into the living room and they sat down.

"So, you said you had evidence on an old case? The Schaeffer case." Kurt said.

"It started out as to find the source of the Red Eye virus attack a month and a half ago. It then led to some connections to the past. I ended up digging up on the Schaeffer family which seems to have a streak of bad luck in it." Ray replied.

"What bad luck?"

"Let's start with parents of Waldo Schaeffer. The mother, Rose Schaeffer, died from what was said to be kidney failure. They found her in the middle of the room, dead. The father, Jim Schaeffer, was killed in an apparent car accident." Ray brought out the reports.

"And what's your point on this?" Kurt asked.

"They died a few days after Waldo and Antea Schaeffer quit some secret company. They relocated here, to hide and Antea was shown to be pregnant at the time. Their daughter, Aelita Schaeffer, was born under the alias Aelita Hopper and Waldo changed his first name to Franz and they used Antea's maiden name as a cover. But whoever was after them caught up to them five years later when Antea was reported abducted."

"And now past comes back in the form of a girl who resembles teenage version of Aelita." Carlos said.

"After the wife was reported abducted they moved to the city. That was it."

"Hold on. What do you mean that is it?" Kurt asked.

"All records about Antea Hopper . . . Disappeared."

"Someone erased the files?" Kurt asked.

"Indeed. We suspect there was an insider." Ray said.

"Same one who supposedly ratted Schaeffer out when they found the hermitage." Carlos said. "Before we go any further, answer me this. Do you have _any_ clear idea on just where or how we should begin this investigation?"

Ray shook his head. "Haven't a clue."

"Perfect!" Carlos grinned. "Whenever you Americans give us intel it's all messed up anyways. Kurt, looks like its back to basics!"

"Whatever," Kurt shrugged. "Well Agent Parker, we'll begin by looking at the Hermitage and any other residence or property owned by Mr Schaeffer."

"I have a list here." Parker placed a small envelope on the table.

Kurt picked it up and pocketed it. "Awesome, we'll get to work."

They both stood up and left.

Xxx

"AH!"

Trent tossed the bowel of popcorn in the air as he watched as the alien monster crept towards the terrified woman. The popcorn scattered and landed all over everyone else in the room.

"Nice." Duncan pulled out a piece of popcorn out of his hair and ate it.

"Ew! What is wrong with you?" Courtney had a disgusted look on her face as Duncan swallowed.

"What? It was in my hair. Can't kill you if it was in your hair." Duncan shrugged.

"Sh! This is the best part!" Izzy shushed them.

The alien licked its lips, ready to have its next meal. Just as it was about to pounce on her she found a gun and fired. The bullet went straight through the alien's mouth and out the back of its throat.

"Awesome!" Izzy jumped up.

"Finally we find a movie that has action, gore, and a woman that does not need to be saved by some dude and ends with some dramatic kiss." Gwen said, smiling at how good it was.

"I know. Nice pick, Izzy." Duncan smirked.

"Izzy knows her audience!"

"Totally ridiculous." Noah said, reading a book.

"Oh relax, Noah. Just sit back and enjoy the show. It's not that we have much to do around here." Cody said, putting his drink down.

DJ shivered in fright. "That was _so_ scary!"

"Come on, DJ. That was nowhere near as scary as anything we've gone up against before. Like Shadow's super form." Bridgette said.

"A knife wielding polymorph." Gwen said.

"Monsters sneaking up in you in the middle of the woods." LeShawna said.

"Zombies!" Izzy shouted.

"The digital apocalypse." Duncan said.

"Having your brain taken over by a mad AI." Heather said with her arms crossed.

"Fighting your possessed friends." Geoff said.

"A simulation bubble that shows you your worst memory." Trent said.

"Killer trees." Bridgette said.

"When you think what we haven't we been attacked by?" Gwen asked, as they listed all of XANA's attacks since the beginning of the season.

"Makes you wonder what else we will have to deal with." Trent said.

"Oh! Maybe we'll end up fighting aliens!" Izzy pointed at the movie as the credits rolled.

"When you say aliens . . ." Noah asked.

"Duh! Aliens come to life!"

"We've already got one alien among us. You think we'd like the idea of fighting a whole bunch of them?" Heather asked, referring to Izzy.

She stood up and stretched.

"I'm going to relax in the hot tub. I am so glad Carlos and Kurt made Chris share that with everyone else while we're here." Heather said.

She walked out of the room and headed to change into her bathing suit.

"She's taking advantage of a day off." Cody commented.

"Well, I'm heading out to see if I can find any good horror books." Gwen said, getting up.

"I'm heading into the pool." Bridgette said.

"I'll join you." Geoff stood next to her.

"Don't make out the whole time you're there!" LeShawna said.

They both blushed at that comment.

Xxx

Heather walked into the indoor pool room which had one large pool and one small hot tub for the contestants to use. Chris originally planned to hog it all to himself but the producers had made it accessible to the contestants after Chris' horrible treatment during the last three seasons. While Heather walked over to relax in the hot tub Geoff and Bridgette headed for the pool.

"WHOO-HOO!" Geoff shouted as he jumped into the pool.

Bridgette giggled as she walked over to the ladder and climbed up to the diving board. Once she was at the top she walked over and stopped the edge. Spreading her arms out she jumped off and preformed a perfect dive into the deep end of the pool.

"Nice!" Geoff said as she came up to the surface for air. "A hundred out of ten!"

"Thanks!" Bridgette swam over to him.

Xxx

If there was one thing XANA was known for was that he liked to attack whenever his enemies were attempting to relax, sleep, study, or in the middle of a meal. Everyone who has fought in Lyoko had made a note of the when the attacks usually happen by now and that doesn't make the job of being a Lyoko Warrior any easier, especially since XANA never slept, ate, or as far as anyone knew bothered with any type of recreation. Today would be no different. Last time he tried to freeze them to death inside their own studio.

It almost worked but they escaped by sheer luck. This time they wouldn't even be able to move. With this new plan ready all that was needed to do was pick a tower. That was when he chose a tower in the Swamp Sector.

The chosen tower began to glow red.

Xxx

An outlet sparked and a spectre slowly oozed out of it. Creeping along the floor it found its target in the boiler room and entered it. Once inside it spread through all of the pipes. By the time they got the call it would be too late.

Xxx

Sierra sighed at the picture of Cody she had. Ever since the World Tour she had done her best to refrain from stalking Cody as much as she used to. She believed it would make it easier to get Cody but for most of the season he has been hanging around Gwen, LeShawna, Geoff, Bridgette, DJ and then later Courtney, Heather, Trent, Duncan, Izzy, and Noah were added to the group. If she was like her old self she would have followed him and found what was going but she didn't.

Still though, she couldn't shake the suspicion that had been with her for a while. Of course while this was happening back at the Kadic Academy a certain pink haired girl heard a familiar beeping sound from her laptop while she finished her assignment. Sighing in irritation at the super scan she pulled out her cell phone.

Xxx

Gwen had been outside of the studio when she felt her black berry vibrated. Pulling it out she saw the text message from Aelita.

**SOS XANA**

"And here I thought I finally caught a break." Gwen muttered and ran back inside.

She ran into Trent and Duncan.

"Left hand." Duncan said.

"No, right hand!" Trent scowled, holding his right hand up.

"It's the _left_ hand dude." Duncan growled.

"And I say you're more nuts than in season three, it's the _right-_"

"Hey guys, guess what? You're both right, here's your prize!" Gwen grabbed each of them by the ear.

"Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow!" They both shouted.

"What's this for?" Duncan demanded.

"Get the others, our break just ended."

Trent sighed. "I wish Kurt and Carlos let somebody go with them. Heck, how hard is it to go and make cheese over in Russia?"

That was the rather lame excuse made for them by the FBI.

Xxx

Heather sighed as she leaned back in the hot tub. "Finally, the sound of silence."

The hot tub began to bubble all over. Heather's eyes snapped open and she looked around. "...if Owen was still here I wouldn't be so spooked."

"OW!" Geoff yelped as he scrambled out of the pool. "Man that's hot!"

Bridgette, assuming he had been talking about her while she was lounging on a chair blushed. "Thanks!"

"I meant the water!" Geoff looked at it, and then to his red legs. "Man, its way too hot!"

Bridgette strolled over and dipped one finger in...and yelped as she pulled it back. "It's not hot, it's freezing! It's colder than that pole I got stuck to!"

Heather sighed and began to get out of the hot tub...but something pulled her down. "What the-?" She tried to rise again...and got pulled under with a yelp as water splashed around.

"Heather?" The two blondes rushed over to the hot tub and saw Heather struggling under the water, her hands clawing to pull herself above the surface.

"She's drowning!" Bridgette shouted and made to jump in...only to be sent flying as something rose from the water and struck her. At first Geoff thought it was a big snake...but it was made entirely of water!

"Ohhhhhh no!" Geoff backed away before it sent him flying too. "AH!"

He landed in the luckily lukewarm pool next to Bridgette.

"We have to get her out of there!" Bridgette said.

"I think I know how," Geoff said. "Distract that thing and I'll handle it!"

Xxx

"Man, I can't believe they blew up my private bath room too." Chris whined as he stood in a shower stall. "And Carlos went too far with the bed! What do he and his carrot top friend know? I work hard to bring home ratings and money!"

"You _spent_ all the money," Noah drawled, standing in another-luckily closed stall as he showered. "Now take your damn hour long shower and get out."

"What are you so cranky about? Where's that old charming wit?" Chris stuck his head out of his stall. "You know, the old wit that made you sound like you give a damn about something-"

BANG! Noah had slammed his stall door open into Chris' face and shut it just as quickly.

"Ow." Chris sighed and closed his own door, turning the shower head on. "...I'm waiting!" A mere drop came out of the shower head.

"Aw man! Now the shower's screwing me over too!" Chris kicked the wall under the shower head...

HHIIIISSSS!

"AYE!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!" Chris let out a high pitched shriek as he was blasted with the coldest water he ever felt in his life. "SO COLD!"

"Heh, whiner." Noah muttered as he scrubbed his hair...and paused as the water began to move rather oddly around his feet. He looked down as it pooled behind him in a blob-taking more from the water sprayed from the shower head. It slowly began to grow taller and taller as Noah stared with wide eyes.

Meanwhile Chris was still screaming like a little girl in the next stall. "GET ME OUT OF THIS THING! IT'S FREEZING! OH THE INHUMANITY!"

Noah swallowed. "Uh...Chris?"

"TORMENT! THE TORMENT!" Chris wailed.

"Chris?" Noah squeaked as a tall water tentacle towered over him.

"Aw man..." Noah swallowed, and then looked at you, the audience. "If anybody says 'Tentacle Rape', the chapters stop here." Then the tentacle lunged at him...

Two girlish screams filled the studio.

Xxx

"What's taking them so long in there?" Duncan looked at his watch. "Man the Boy Genius is usually out by now, we got a job to do!"

"Then go in and check!" Courtney rolled her eyes.

"With Chris in there? No-."

BANG!

"AH!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!" Chris wailed as he ran out, butt naked and leaving the two competitors scarred for life. "IT'S SO COLD! IT'S SO FREAKING COLD!"

"...that's why I didn't want to go in." Duncan whispered.

Suddenly a watery hand grabbed him, engulfing his torso and tugged him into the room with a startled yelp. The door slammed shut...and then opened to see Noah screaming and trying to pull himself out of the shower room.

"HELP ME! HELP ME-glug-glug-glug-glug!" His words were literally drowned out by the water that covered him and dragged him back inside.

Courtney swallowed. "..._mommy._"

Xxx

Gwen ducked as a pipe burst out of the wall above her and shot out water. Behind her, Cody, Sierra, DJ, and LeShawna screamed in shock. Water began to spray out faster, beginning to rise up to their knees.

"We need to get upstairs!" Gwen shouted, wading through the water towards the stairs as the fire sprinklers turned on...

And the water on the steps turned to ice.

"What? Aw man! No fair!" Gwen looked around for another way out...

"HAI YA-YA-YA-YA!" Suddenly the sprinkler heads were smashed, blocking the flow of water as Izzy, wielding what looked like Harold's nun chucks flew through the hall, followed by a rather angry Eva, and a scared looking Beth and Lindsay.

"What the heck is this all about Goth Girl?" Eva demanded.

"Well if I had to say...we're being attacked by something in the water!" Gwen pointed behind Eva as something rose out of the water...

"It's Free Willy!" Izzy cheered.

The tidal wave smashed down on them and sent them all down the corridor, smashing into one another. By the time it stopped, they were all thoroughly bruised and piled up against the end of the hall.

"...Willy's mad." A dizzy Izzy slurred.

"I never understood why Bridgette likes surfing." Cody groaned.

"I hate surfing now," Sierra turned green. "I think I got some in my mouth!"

"Go vomit somewhere else fan girl!" Eva growled as she got up.

"Let's just hurry before another tidal wave shows up." Gwen sighed as she got up.

"How is this happening anyways?" Beth asked. "The stairs froze right in front of us!"

"...XANA," Gwen whispered.

Xxx

"Look, the kids are fine; we don't need to call back!" Kurt sighed.

"Dude, with my cousin, things are never fine." Carlos replied.

"Worst case scenario: he's embezzling money again." Kurt snapped. "He can't do anything to the kids with Lesley there!"

"Still, Chris has Murphy's Syndrome," Carlos insisted. "If anything could go wrong, it will go wrong and I think something is wrong."

Kurt sighed. "Aw fine whatever."

Carlos picked up his cell phone as Kurt drove along.

Ring...ring...ring...

Click!

"Uh...hello?" Chris asked.

"Hey Mop Head," Carlos said casually.

"Hey Carlos! How you doing?" Chris asked, chuckling sheepishly.

"...what did you do now?"

"What? I haven't done anything! I say hello and you think I'm up to something?" Chris asked. "That's very hurtful!"

"What's hurtful is that you didn't get the images of Melissa off your face book page, but I already ybeat you up for that." Carlos replied.

"Hey I had a busy week thanks to my court sentence; I'm too busy to remove some pictures off my FacE book page!"

"Yeah...anyways, how are things going?"

"Oh they're fine!" Chris replied. "No worries, I learned my lesson!"

Xxx

Noah and Duncan screamed as the water formed a whirl pool that began to throw them around. Duncan hit a shower stall and held onto it. "Aw man this sucks!"

"AH! LITERALLY-!" Noah slammed into the punk and they were back on the current.

"AH!-!-!-!-!-!-!"

Xxx

"Are you sure?" Carlos asked.

"Yeah, everything is hunky-dory!" Chris replied.

Xxx

"AH! IT'S GOT ME!" Bridgette screamed as the tentacle waved Bridgette around back and forth. "Geoff, hurry up!"

"Almost...got it!"

POP!

He pulled a stopper out of the bottom of the hot tub, and the water began to drain out.

The tentacle slowly shrunk until it dropped Bridgette into the pool.

"Oof!" She got up as Heather climbed out of the hot tub, coughing up water. "Are you okay?"

"Kinda...thanks." Then she collapsed.

Xxx

"Why do I get the feeling that you're lying to me?"

"What? Aw come on, I went through a lot these last few weeks, the least you can do is try to give me a chance! Or at least humour me and pretend you're giving me a chance!" Chris said. "Look, everything is under control here!"

Xxx

"AH!" Cody slipped down the stairs again.

"That's not working." Gwen shook her head.

"We're stuck down here unless we can get up those stairs." Eva said.

"Anybody want to try the elevator?" Sierra asked.

"NO!" everybody else replied.

"Incoming!" Cody pointed.

"Not another _tidal wave!_" A second later they were swept off their feet again.

"AHHHH-H-H-H-H-H!-!-!-!-!"

THUD!

Xxx

"Hm...well okay Chris, I'm trusting you to keep those kids safe." Carlos said.

"At least you respect me enough to lie to me."

"Okay, I'll be frank then. If they have so much as a bruise because of your negligence, I'll let out photos of that Christmas party in Alaska from 1999." Carlos threatened.

"Alright alright! Sheesh!" Chris said defensively. "Are we done yet?"

"Meh, pretty much, see you later Moppy." Carlos hang up.

Chris sighed. "Now where was I?"

He looked behind him as a puddle came in under his door and formed into a humanoid figure...with a long ice blade for an arm.

"Oh right, I'm about to get skewered." Chris said. "And Carlos isn't here!"

The figure raised the blade.

"Oh right, back to the point. IMPALEMENT!" Chris ducked under the blade. "AH! MOMMY!"

He crawled away as the figure tugged its sword out of the wall. "This is what I came back for? Never mind, Carlos and Kurt can keep the job!" (It's _Kurt and Carlos_, moron.)


	48. Episode 47: Swimming In the Bayou

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 48

"Come on . . . Damn it! OPEN UP!" Courtney shouted, kicking the door.

"Courtney!"

Turning around she saw DJ and Trent run up to her.

"What's happening?"

"Duncan and Noah are trapped in there and I can't get the door open!"

"Stand back." Trent said.

They ran forward and with all of their might slammed into the door. It cracked slight and small streams of water began to leak out.

"Be careful around the water!" Courtney pointed at the wet floor.

DJ and Trent pounded on the door again, the cracks got larger. After he rammed into the door for the third time the door crack open and both Courtney, Trent, and DJ were knocked off their feet as a small river of water came streaming out of the shower room. They hit the wall and when it was over they got up shaking and saw Noah and Duncan on the ground.

"Get a towel, Noah!" Courtney closed her eyes and looked away.

"Oh gee. Thank you for being so worried about me." Noah got up and looked for something to cover himself up.

"Okay . . . All of a sudden the water comes to life and tries to kill us . . . Anyone else suspect that a certain supercomputer is behind this?" Duncan asked, rubbing his head as he got up.

"Really? Do you think?" Courtney asked sarcastically.

"No, I think that we're in American McGee's Alice-WHAT DO YOU THINK I THINK?" Duncan shouted. "I almost drowned woman!"

"Don't take that tone with me mister!" Courtney shouted back.

While they started to argue small drops of water began to come together. That was when Trent stepped in between them.

"Knock it off you two! Can't you see that we're in the middle of a major attack?" He shouted at both of them.

Both Duncan and Courtney shut up and calmed down.

"Okay, we need to get to the pool and see if Bridgette, Geoff, and Heather are all right. Gwen went to get Cody, Izzy, LeShawna and the others out of here." Trent said.

"I'll go check on them." DJ volunteered and took off towards the pool.

"Okay then we need to find Gwen and the others. No one can last long in this place." Trent said to Courtney, Duncan, and Noah who found his pants and white shirt.

"Shouldn't we just get to the factory?" Duncan asked.

"Sure and we end up going up against an army of monsters and six generals who are strong enough to take on all of us." Trent replied. "Courtney, you and Noah head to the factory and help Aelita. We'll catch up when we found everyone else."

However before they could move the water scattered all over the floor came together and formed into a humanoid figure with a torso, head, and arms but no legs.

"Oh great. Go! I'll take care of this!" Duncan ran over to a glass case holding an axe and smashed it open.

He pulled it out and swung it at the water monster. The axe went right through, having no effect whatsoever on the creature.

"Ohhhhhh, crap." Duncan said.

That was when icy claws formed in the creature's hands and swung at him. Ducking under the first strike he tried to parry the second one but ended up with the axe getting sliced in half.

"Whoa boy!"

He turned and ran with the water monster on his tail.

Xxx

Heather gasped for breath as Geoff and Bridgette helped her out of the hot tub.

"You just try to relax for five F(beep) minutes and this happens! Is a few minutes _too_ much to ask?" Heather growled.

She leaned against the wall, still catching her breath from nearly drowning in the hot tub.

"Apparently not." Geoff said, earning him an elbow in the ribs by Bridgette.

While they caught their breath the water began to come out of the drain that had opened to empty the hot tub.

"I am going _kill _XANA when I get my hands on him!" Heather stood up.

"That's the spirit!" Geoff cheered.

Of course no sooner when Heather had stood up did a pillar of water blasted out of the pool and morphed into a large humanoid like monster with water tentacles sprouting from the back of its head like hair.

"...She was just kidding! She didn't mean it!" Geoff shouted with his arms up.

The creature responded by reaching out with one of its large hands to grab them.

"Run!" Bridgette shouted.

They took off towards the door but just as Bridgette was inches away the creature grabbed her.

"Bridge!" Geoff shouted and jumped into the air.

He slammed into the hand and it dropped Bridgette when the water hand splattered into tiny drops. However it regenerated quickly.

"GO!" Geoff shouted.

DJ opened the door and gasped in horror as the water gathering around Geoff.

"Geoff!"

That was when the water surrounding him engulfed him in an orb of water.

"Geoff!" Bridgette shouted in horror was the water was now trying to drown her boyfriend.

"We can't help him now! We've got to go!" Heather said.

"Go on without us! I can't leave him to drown!" Bridgette replied as she ran to help.

"Bridgette wait-!"

"GO!"

"Go on. I'll stay and help." DJ said.

Heather sighed as Bridgette turned to help Geoff. Knowing it was useless to try and convince her Heather turned and ran out the door.

Xxx

"Gwen! LeShawna! Cody!" Trent shouted as he ran down the soaked hall way.

"Trent!" Gwen shouted.

Trent stopped and looked at the door that led to a staircase leading down to the basement floor.

"Are you all right?" Trent headed for the door.

"Don't go near the stairs! They're frozen!" LeShawna shouted.

"We're trapped down here and we can't get out!" Cody shouted.

"Hang on!" Trent replied and looked for something to help them get out.

"Never mind us! Go find the others! If you hang around you might get by a tidal wave and end up stuck down here like us!" Gwen shouted.

"Just go get the others and get to the factory!" Cody shouted.

"Alright, sit tight!" Trent shouted to them and ran off...and tripped on a patch of ice left in the hall. "OW!"

"What was that?" Gwen shouted.

"I fell for an old trick, that's what!" Trent rubbed his head. "Slipping on ice...man that's old." He looked around. "Can't come up with anything more original XANA!"

Little did he know some water moved a banana out into the hall in front of him. He turned to keep going...and slipped again, this time on the banana.

"GAH!" He hit the floor. "...I hate bananas so much."

"Slipped again?" Cody asked.

"...No." Trent replied.

He got up and glared at the banana.

"That's older than the slipping on the ice joke!" He then ran to help the others.

Xxx

"Yikes!" Duncan ducked as the water monster threw in icicle at him.

It flew over his head and it the wall as the corner he was about to turn at. Meanwhile on the other side of the corner ...

"AHHH-H-H-H-H!" Chris screamed as he ran for his life.

Just as he was about to turn his foot landed on the same banana Trent slipped on earlier and slipped forward.

"WHOA-WHOA-WHOA!"

Just as Duncan ran around the corner Chris slammed into his as he fell forward and they both fell over. The two water monsters ran at full speed and could not stop as they turned and hit each other, splashing into tiny drops of water.

"...I love bananas so much!" Chris hugged the banana peel...which slipped out of his hand and onto the ice just as Duncan was getting up.

"Whoa-oh no-no-no-no-!" Duncan fell over again. "...I _hate_ bananas so much."

"Is somebody up there?" Gwen shouted.

"Yeah, me and mop head!" Duncan replied. "What are you guys doing?"

"The stairs are covered in ice! What do you think?"

"Well that's just lovely cuz a banana is up here causing havoc!" Duncan growled.

"_What?_" The imprisoned contestants shouted.

"A banana, is causing, havoc. It took out both the monsters chasing me and Chris." Duncan said.

"...and you people say I'm nuts," Izzy muttered.

"You're all crazy! Now I'm so outta here-EEK!" Chris tripped on the banana peel-which had a busy day for a discarded compost piece, making Chris fall down the stairs. "Ow! Ouch! Oh! Ouch! OW-" SPLASH! "...I'm okay!"

"Oh way to go Moppy. I'm heading for the factory, sit tight!" Duncan ran off, carefully treading around the feared banana peel.

"Great, yeah, we'll just sit right here." Gwen frowned.

"Great, see yah!" Duncan shouted as he ran off.

"...so what now?" Cody asked.

"...anybody got some cards?" Izzy asked.

"TIDAL WAVE!" Eva pointed.

"AH!" The group screamed as they fled from their own nemesis-something even the banana couldn't protect them from.

They were slammed into the wall again and slid down.

"Why is this happening?" Beth cried.

She and Lindsay cried as they hugged each other.

"I am NOT going to die like this down here!" Eva shouted and ran for the stairs.

"Eva, wait!" Gwen shouted but Eva slipped and fell back down.

She looked down and noticed the water was rising.

"If they don't hurry we're going to drown in here." She muttered quietly.

Xxx

Noah and Courtney ran over the bridge and to the edge. Jumping into the air they slid down the cables, taking them down to the lobby. Aelita was at the elevator and when she heard them she turned to see who had arrived.

"Courtney, Noah, what happened to you?" Aelita asked as she saw how soaked they looked.

Noah was only wearing his white long sleeved shirt that he wore under his gray shirt and the red vest along with his shorts.

"You do _not _want to know, but I am never showering in a washroom on Total Drama property again." Noah said.

A third person slid down the cable behind them, revealing Heather. She slid down the cable and landed on the ground with a large grunt, gasping for breath.

"Heather?" The three looked at her.

"Heh, nice fashion style," Noah teased her; referring to the fact she was still in her bathing suit.

"Oh give me a break; I got attacked in the freaking hot tub!" Heather snapped. "By the freaking _water!_"

"Is that why you're all soaked?" Aelita asked.

"Got attacked in the shower," Noah shrugged. "Total _Psycho_ moment there in the form of the shower trying to drown me in a whirl pool. Everybody else is stuck with the water coming out of pipes and fire sprinklers in the forms of water monsters, tidal waves, icicles."

"And killer banana peels." Duncan said as he and Trent entered the lobby. "Is this everybody?"

"Everybody who can make it," Courtney said. "Gwen, Izzy, and Cody are trapped in the basement with the others cuz the stairs are frozen."

"I know, Chris joined them." Duncan nodded. "So where's the tower this time?"

"Swamp sector," Aelita replied.

"Well that's a new one; we don't go there too often." Trent said.

"Good thing too, you wouldn't want to get attacked by the locals," Aelita stated. "Most of them are giant snakes."

"Digital wild life?"

"XANA monsters." Aelita corrected him.

"Good thing DJ's not here, he hates snakes." Noah added.

"Well, we're down to less than half of our whole group, just over half of our warriors...this sucks so far but let's go with it." Duncan shrugged. "The sooner we do this, the sooner I can go back in time and have an excuse to plug up Chris' toilet: to save his life from a deadly monster."

"You mean like that?" Noah pointed at the giant water humanoid that entered the lobby, ice blade arms raised.

"Don't worry, I have a plan." Duncan said...and snatched something from the lobby's counter. He grabbed from a fruit bowl...a banana!

He quickly unpeeled it and dropped it. "Now watch and see the magic..."

"How the heck is that going to do anything?" Courtney shouted.

A second later Chef and Roberto rushed in, screaming their heads off and chased by another water humanoid. Roberto tripped over the peel and knocked Chef down, letting the monster fly over them and slam into its companion. They both splashed into pieces.

"Banana: 2. XANA: 0." Duncan said, still eating the banana.

"Did that just happen?" Noah asked.

"Ask later, run now." Duncan said as Chef and Roberto continued their escape.

The Lyoko warriors fled from the lobby and into the elevator. Pushing the button the doors closed and the elevator went down to the lab.

"What are the chances that more of those things are on the way?" Trent asked as the doors opened and let them into the lab.

"Most likely. We need someone to stay and operate." Aelita said.

"Yo." Noah said and stepped out.

"You do know that you'll be in danger of drowning or cut up from some water monster that can break into the lab?" Duncan asked.

"I know. Sounds fun." Noah said as he sat the computer. "Off with you now."

The doors closed and they went down to the scanner room.

Xxx

Soon enough everyone landed in the Swamp Sector. For those who had not been there before they looked to see that it looked much like the Forest Sector it if was flooded. They looked at the sky which was a dark amber color, as it was permanently set to sunset. The trees were like the ones in the Forest Sector but they were dark gray and their roots and large trunks were exposed.

Tall grasses and moss covered small patches of land and like the Mountain Sector there was thin layer of fog that covered the area but the difference was that the surroundings were still visible even in long distances. Like the Tropical Sector the Swamp Sector did not have a digital sea but instead it had harmless binary water that flooded the place giving the place its name.

Even though there were no animals everyone could hear the sound of cricket calls, the buzzing sounds of mosquitoes, and the sound of frogs croaking even though could not actually see the source of any of these sounds.

"Wow...this place makes juvy look like a party." Duncan whistled, nudging a nasty looking plant with his foot.

"It would make a public bathroom look better," Trent replied as he waded out of the shallow pond he ended up in.

"Are you two done yet? Come on we have to go! The others are probably drowning!" Courtney shouted.

Xxx

"I spy with my little eye something...clear."

"The ice." Gwen sighed.

"Darn you're good!" Chris snapped his fingers, holding his hand above the now chest high water.

"Oh-oh my turn!" Izzy said. "I spy with my little eye something...blue!"

"Gwen's hair?" Cody asked.

"No."

"Her skirt?" Beth asked.

"Nope."

"..." Gwen looked down and realized this was Izzy they were talking to. "...the water?"

It was black.

"YAY!" Izzy clapped.

Xxx

"TAKE THIS!" Geoff shouted as he tossed a chair at the water monster while Bridgette and DJ dodged the water tentacles the creature whipped at them.

The chair hit the creature in the head, scattering the water that made up its head but in just a few seconds the drops went back into the body and the head regenerated.

"Aw man!" Geoff groaned.

"Keep trying! It gets distracted when its hit!" Bridgette said.

"Got it." DJ said.

He ran over and picked up a bench and threw it at the monster. It went right through the chest leaving a large hole and the creature collapsed, melting down into a huge puddle.

"That was close." Bridgette sighed in relief.

"Don't think it's over yet, Bridge." Geoff said.

"We got to get out of here." DJ said.

They ran for the door just as water monsters sprouted from the puddle and pursued them as they ran out the door.

"Where's my water powers when I need them?" Bridgette yelled as ice shards were launched at them by the pursuing monsters.

They ran down the hall and turned the corner. Unfortunately no one bothered to look out for the banana peel left in front of them. DJ was the first one to slip on it with Geoff and Bridgette falling with him down the slippery stairs and into and the bottom floor with everyone else.

"OW!

"OH!

"MY SPLEEN!"

They got up and found Gwen, Cody, LeShawna, Sierra, Lindsay, Beth, Chris, and Eva looking down at them.

"You guys, okay?" Gwen asked as she helped Bridgette up.

"Been better." Geoff replied.

"Don't tell me, you slipped on a banana peel." Cody said.

"Yeah. As if the attacking water was not bad enough." Geoff said.

"Well we've got bigger problems." Gwen said as streams of water started to flood down the stairs.

"Oh great."

Curse that banana peel!

Xxx

"Which way is the tower, Noah?" Aelita asked.

"_It's about northeast of you guys by about a hundred yards._"

They turned in the direction Noah pointed them in and took off. The tall grass did slow down their movement a bit but it also served to let them know where the patches of land and water began. The fog helped also as they noticed it became thicker over the land and disappeared over the water.

"If it wasn't for the fact that I was almost killed in the hot tub by water I would be thinking that a nice hot shower would be great after this." Heather said.

"_Don't remind me._" Noah said. "_I am glad not to be in that swamp._"

"Afraid for your allergies?" Trent asked.

"_Afraid of another tidal wave or whirlpool._"

"Like _I_ need a reminder of that." Duncan muttered.

He was still shaking water out of his ears since he almost drowned in that whirlpool.

"If Odd were here he would no doubt say that best thing after this would be a large bowl of gumbo." Aelita said.

"Why would he think of that?" Courtney asked.

"The swamp would make him think of the New Orleans Bayou which would remind him of the food there like Crawfish." Aelita smiled imagining Odd saying that exactly if he was here.

"And Izzy would not doubt turn into a frog." Trent said.

"Or a Crocodile." Duncan said.

"Or a mosquito and try and bite us."

The conversation was stopped when Aelita held out her hand and everyone stopped dead in their tracks.

"What's up?" Heather asked.

"I think we found the tower."

"Cool! What are we waiting for?" Trent asked.

Aelita replied by pointing ahead and they looked to see the tower was less than a thousand yards away from them and partially submerged in water. Everyone looked around and failed to see anymore signs of land.

"Noah we . . ." Aelita started.

"_I know. See nothing but water. The same goes for me. I don't see any land near the tower or any other way in._"

"I can fly over with my wings but I don't know about the others." Aelita looked over to the others.

"What about the vehicles?" Trent asked.

"Not all of them would do well on the water. The OverBike and the OverSled would sink the moment it appears over the water." Aelita pointed at the water. "The OverJet might handle it but I don't know."

"I got an idea." Duncan said. "Noah, send the OverBoard."

"_Coming right up._"

A second later the purple colored hover board appeared in front of Duncan. The punk warrior picked it up and went to the shore of the small island they were on and placed the OverBoard on the shore and pushed it forward with his foot. The board didn't sink but stayed afloat when it was just halfway into the water and when Duncan pushed it all the way in it still floated over the digital water. Testing it even further Duncan jumped onto the board.

"Duncan! Wait!" Courtney shouted in fear believing that the extra weight would cause it to sink.

To the relief of herself, Duncan, and everyone else the board was still floating in the water with Duncan standing on it.

"Well that could have gone worse," Trent commented.

"Don't jinx it Elvis!" Duncan snapped.

"What do the rest of us do?" Heather asked.

"None of the other vehicles can travel safely on water. I'll fly with my wings while Duncan uses the board. Unless one of you want to get on and see if the board can hold up two of you stay back and cover us." Aelita said.

She waved a hand over star bracelet on her wrist and her energy wings sprouted from her back. Taking a few steps back she ran forward and jumped into the air her wings allowing her to fly. Duncan followed suit on the Overboard and they were off to the tower. As they got closer the tower became much clearer once they left the small patch of land they left the others on.

Soon enough the fog disappeared giving them a clear path to the tower.

"Okay, where those monsters?" Duncan asked. "I am not in the mood for surprises today."

"_I've got no signs off . . ._" Noah stopped when he saw something on the radar. "_The holo-map has just picked something up. Something's about two hundred yards from where you two are right now._"

They looked ahead but saw nothing.

"What kind of enemy is it, Noah?" Aelita asked.

"Yeah. I don't see anything." Duncan said.

Noah clicked on the red dot and typed out a command to get a better scan of the enemy. "_I'm running a scan on it now. Just give me a few seconds._"

That was when a small gust of wind blew past them.

"Okay, I don't like the feel of this." Duncan said.

That was when the wind picked up and started to blow them back slightly.

"Okay, I got an idea of who it is and I bet twenty bucks if I'm right!"

That was when the worst thing that could happen happened. Just as the wind became even more intense something came at them. It wasn't a monster. It wasn't a general.

It was a tidal wave.

"..." Duncan looked at Aelita. "I hate me when I'm right."

Aelita shot up into the air in an attempt to go over the tidal wave while Duncan pulled a 180 degree turn and sped back the way he came. But slowly the tidal wave caught up to him...and he found himself surfing on it. He blinked as he looked around, partially crouched on the board. "...Digital surfing...not as bad as I thought."

But then he started to notice that slowly the wave was reaching its peak and was ready to come crashing down in a few seconds. He screamed as he knelt as close to the board as he could, trying to outrun the crashing tide. He suddenly shot out from it, still screaming as he flew through the air...and landed in the water, unharmed.

He looked around, and sighed in relief. "Phew!"

And then the tidal wave came crashing down on him. The board was left floating there for several seconds until an arm came out of the water and grabbed it. Duncan pulled himself up until he was half on the board.

"Duncan! Are you okay?" Aelita flew down to him.

He looked at her with glazed over eyes...and then pumped his fist to his chest, raised it in a peace sign, and declared. "Yo!"

Then he collapsed over the board.

"That's my line!"

Aelita looked up and saw Sora floating in the air above her with his wings activated.

"I got to give him credit. He was doing well with that wave until he wiped out." Sora commented looking down at Duncan.

"And I guess it was your doing behind that tidal wave?" Aelita guessed as she floated up.

Sora shrugged. "Don't get too made at me. XANA ordered us to make it as difficult as possible for you to get to that tower."

"Us?" Aelita asked.

"Since when does a general fight alone?" Sora asked.

Meanwhile back on the land patch the others stood on they heard something turned to see a wave of red lightning headed straight at them.

"WATCH OUT!" Heather shouted.

They dodged just in time as the blast past them and into the swamp. Ryder landed on the ground a few yards, crouched with his sword in one hand over his shoulder.

"Hey there." Ryder said cockily.

"Aw great, why couldn't they send Yuki? At least she shuts her mouth when she fights." Trent had his guitar in hand and ready to fire spells.

"Or Lilith? She at least had a good sense of humour...well slightly better sense of humour." Courtney suggested.

"Or Blade! He get's right to the point!" Heather added.

"What, you don't wanna see Sora, mommy?" Sora asked, feigning hurt.

"I'd rather see Owen's ass, thank you very much."

"Oi, with the way her attitude is I can hardly believe XANA used her DNA scan to make me." Sora said. "I for one just don't have what it takes to be that mean, too much effort."

"You're trying to kill us!" Trent shouted.

"And? I have to be mean and snarky about it? Don't you think just trying to kill you is enough?" Sora asked. "I have to be cruel about it?"

"Why are we debating the morals of murder now?" Ryder looked between both groups. "Look, Sora, you're here to kill them because you were ordered to. And they're here to kill us because their leader orders them to kill us!"

"Actually we wanna kill you cuz we hate you." Trent pointed out. "And you're trying to take over the world."

"Not me, XANA is!" Sora pointed out.

"Yeah well-hey wait," Trent paused. "Are we missing something?"

The two Generals looked at the warriors.

"...where'd mommy go?" Sora blinked, and then was sent flying as dozens of shuriken buried themselves into his back. He landed on his front. "...ow." He got up as Heather reappeared behind him. "Cheap shot momma."

"Oh man up," Heather rolled her eyes.

"Okay!" Sora said brightly, and promptly swung his wind sword, which sent Heather flying. She flipped in mid air and landed on her feet. "I'll try to be cruel about it!"

Ryder sighed. "I think I actually liked working with Shadow on this. This guy's just too damn cheerful."

He looked to others and smirked. "But back to business. LIGHTNING STORM!"

He swung his blade again and unleashed another wave of lightning at them. Trent played his shield note and a barrier came up blocking the attack. Sora held out his wind swords and flew at Heather. However she was not alone.

Aelita held out her hand and fired a plasma beam.

"WHOA!" Sora just barely dodged it and fired a laser from his beak back at her.

Aelita dodged and Sora released a gust of wind that sent her flying back. Sora then turned to Heather as she fired her shuriken. Sora jumped off the rock he landed on and flew towards the other end of the island before circling back and flew at Heather. His beak glowed red and stream of red light flew out of it.

Heather dodged and ground which she stood on before ended up scorched. Sora sent a gust of wind that knocked Heather down. She jumped to her feet to see Sora fire another laser blast at her from the beak part of his helmet. Heather leaned back and bent her knees so that the laser went right over her face as she bent away from it.

"Wow! You pulled a Matrix off with that!" Sora clapped at her. "You didn't even have to rip off Keannu Reeves!"

"Thanks, now for the coup de grace!" Then Heather flipped herself forward through the air.

She then slammed both feet into Sora's chest, knocking him on his back. She flipped one last time and landed on her feet.

"...why do I _always_ get the hard ones?" Sora sighed. "And I gotta do it in a swamp no less."

"Oh you whine about all the sectors! You whined about the Ice Sector!" Ryder shouted as he and Trent exchanged lightning spells.

"Because it was so cold. Now here it's just so mucky." Sora replied, not bothering to sit up.

"Why does the general that's made from my DNA have to be such a whiner?" Heather asked.

"I don't whine. I just express my discomfort. But if you're going to nag me about it . . ." Sora jumped up and swung his wind blade and a tornado blasted Heather off the island and into the water.

Sora then fired a laser beam that her in the chest and devirtualized her.

"Oop! Sorry! I get carried away sometimes!"

"But I don't."

Sora ducked, just barely dodging an energy sphere from Aelita. He blocked another blast with his wind sword and fired a gust of wind at her. She easily and fired again. Sora flew into the air and her attack.

"I can't even get a five second break." He sighed.

He was about to fire back when a blast of green fire him and knocked him down. Getting up he saw Duncan getting out of the water.

"That's for the tidal wave!" Duncan pointed at him.

He looked over to Aelita. "Get to that tower. I'll deal with the whiner."

Aelita nodded and activated her wings again and flew to the tower.

"And just when things got so simple." Sora sighed and got up.

"Get over it." Duncan held his sword out.

Sora held out his wind blades and flew straight him.

Xxx

"Okay, I am seriously not digging this!" Chris shouted as the water was now deep enough everyone had trouble touching the bottom.

"Like any of us are enjoying this!" Eva shouted.

"Are we going to drown?" Beth asked tearfully as she and Lindsay hugged each other tightly.

"We'll be fine." Gwen said.

"How do you know?" Chris asked.

"I just know."

"Just in case this is the last party it's been fun, babe!" Geoff said as he held Bridgette.

"Oh, that is the sweetest thing you have ever said to me." Bridgette replied and they both started to make out. .. _Again_.

"Now who didn't see that coming?" Cody asked.

That was when Sierra swam up and hugged him.

"Can we make out, Cody?" Sierra asked.

"Uh . . ." Cody was at a loss on how to answer that.

"There's no way I am going to die like this!" Eva shouted and swam to the stair case which was half submerged in water.

However a stream of water came from the top of the stair case and knocked her off the stairs and sending her back down to bottom with the other. She landed on her back with a back splash. She growled angrily at her failure to escape.

"I hope they make it to that tower very soon." DJ whispered to Gwen.

The Loner nodded in agreement. They were running out of time.

Xxx

"Take this!" Trent shouted as he fired a stream of lightning at Ryder who countered with his own lightning attack.

The attacks collided, causing an explosion that sent them both flying. Ryder back flipped and landed on his feet while Trent tumbled along the ground before coming to a stop.

Getting on his hands Trent looked up in time to see Ryder running at him with his sword raised. Trent jumped to the side, avoiding the vertical slash. Ryder then attacked with a horizontal slash just as Trent played the note that opened the chainsaw and blocked the attack. Pushing Ryder back Trent swung his guitar but Ryder disappeared in a flash of red light before he was hit.

Trent looked around to find him but stopped when he felt tap on his shoulder. He spun around only for a fist to punch him in the gut and send him flying. That was Courtney stepped in and swung the bladed end of her staff only for Ryder to block with his long sword.

"Is that best attack you've got, princess?" Ryder asked.

He did not allow Courtney a chance to answer as he kneed her in the gut with such force that she was lifted off the ground. Courtney grunted more of instinct than actual pain as Ryder did a spinning kick that knocked her into the water.

"Is that any way to treat a lady, Ryder?" Trent asked getting up.

Ryder chose not to respond with words but by charging and swinging his sword vertically at Trent who leapt aside to dodge and then swung his bladed guitar. Ryder blocked this attack and swung at Trent's shoulder which Trent parried. With his back to Courtney she took the chance to jump out of the water, through the air and swung her staff at Ryder's unguarded back.

"Lightning Sprint!"

Ryder sped away in a flash of red light which left Trent to cut by Courtney's staff.

"Oh no!" Courtney said in shock as Trent was devirtualized.

"Smooth move, team killer." Ryder sneered; appearing behind Courtney's back and sent her to the ground with a fist to the back.

Growling Courtney got back up and charged. In the meantime Duncan blocked another laser from Sora's beak as the winged general flew in and sliced his wind blades at Duncan. Another gust of wind knocked Duncan back and a laser to the chest knocked him on his back. Sora jumped into the air and descended upon Duncan.

Duncan rolled out of the way as Sora slammed his wind swords into where Duncan's head was positioned. Duncan got to his feet and ran forward. He slid on the ground and brought up his foot and nailed Sora square in the face. Sora slid across the ground until he came to a stop a few yards away.

"Take that!" Duncan said.

"Sora, get your head in the game!" Ryder shouted, dodging a swing from Courtney's staff.

Sora sighed and got back up. "It's going to be hard to stop them since Aelita is heading straight for the tower."

Of course what Sora failed to point out was that he and Ryder were not the only obstacles between them and the tower. Just as Aelita was close to the tower she was stopped by the sudden appearance of a Snake emerging from the digital water. It opened its mouth and fired laser beams at her. Flying through the air Aelita dodged laser after laser but the Snake was not the only monster guarding the tower.

A squad of Hornets flew out of the mist and shot at her and another Snake came out of the water and shot at her. Aelita dodged laser after laser but she accidently drifted into the trees and crashed into one of them. This caused her wings to disappear sending her into the water below.

Xxx

"Oh crap!" Noah stood up from his chair when he saw what happened.

Heather and Trent stood at his side as he readjusted the headset and brought the microphone closer to his lips. "Aelita, are you okay?"

There was no response.

"Aelita, can you hear me?" Noah called out again.

"You don't think that . . ." Heather stopped herself short.

She may have gotten use to doing this despite the occasional second thoughts plaguing her mind. She more or less accepted it when she ended up possessed by Shadow and decided to get in so she could get some payback. However the idea of one of them actually...

"Come on, Aelita." Trent said, attempting to be the voice of reason.

That was when the speakers began to crackle. Noah turned around and tried again.

"You there, Aelita?"

"_I'm here, Noah._"

Everyone sighed in relief.

Xxx

Luckily for Aelita the water was shallow enough for her to stand but it was up to her neck.

"It seems the water is non-harmful like in the Tropical Sector. I was afraid that water would kill us on both sectors but apparently I'm wrong. Not that I'm complaining." Aelita gasped.

"_You might want to make a run for it. Those Snakes are coming for you and they're a lot faster in the water._"

"How far are they?"

"_Two hundred yards and closing fast._"

Aelita took off towards the other side of the swamp, looking over her shoulder in the direction Noah said the Snakes were coming from she could tell they were a lot closer from the ripples in the water. Looking ahead she found a large tree and headed straight for it. Once she was able to maintain a foothold on the exposed roots, she looked over her shoulder to see where the Snakes where.

She let her left hand go before thrusting it deeper into the tree trunk to firmly secure herself. She let go of her right hand and took aim at the ripples in the water. One Snake sprung up from the water with its jaws wide open. Aelita fired several energy orbs but the Snake bent to the side, dodging each attack before diving back into the water. The second one came out of the water and Aelita fired but the result was the same as before.

"I can't get a clear shot." Aelita said.

"_You've got to move._"

"Easy for you to say." Aelita shook her head as she began to jump from tree root to tree root.

"_Maybe you should take refuge in the forest._" She heard Trent say.

"It's too dense for anyone to move well in there. Not to mention how dark it is and knowing XANA that just screams a trap." Aelita replied.

"_Good point._" Noah said.

Aelita watched the water, waiting for the perfect moment. The moment came when one Snake surfaced again and lunged at her. She dodged by jumping to another tree, landing with a swift thud and turned back to the Snake, watching it hiss and snap its jaws at the air. With one distracted she continued on towards the tower and watched the water with each step.

Just like with the first one the second one came leaped out of the water but came out faster and higher, catching her off guard, forcing her to duck. Luckily it was just in time as the Snake went over her and bite the tree instead. It ripped out a large portion of the trunk causing the tree to fall.

"Plasma Beam!" Aelite fired and the beam went through the Snake's stomach, causing the rest of it to explode.

But she was knocked into the water just a second later. Luckily she emerged from the water a second later, a little shaken but fine. She heard a noise and spun to see the last Snake surface once more and head straight for her. Grunting in impatience Aelita clenched her fist.

"Come on!"

The Snake accepted her challenge lunged towards its target. Aelita cocked her arm back and ran forward. The Snake rose up and opened its jaws, ready to clamp down on the target. Aelita jumped to the left and extended her right arm straight into the monster's mouth.

"Plasma Beam!"

Before the Snake could completely close its mouth and eat away at her arm, a blast of light came out of Aelita's fist and blasted through the insides of the monster. Aelita watched as the Snake dissolve into streams of data and vanish. Looking down at her arm and flexing her fingers to make sure she was still okay after that risky manoeuvre she found she was okay.

Aelita sighed in relief...which is just asking for trouble.

Another snake burst out of the water. She let out a surprised scream as it opened its mouth to devour her...only for a laser to shoot through the Eye on its head and scatter it as data.

"What would you do without me?"

Aelita looked up as a _gray_ hornet flew down next to her. "Noah?"

"I popped in after giving Trent a crash course in virtualization." Noah said. "Not that I was really excited to come here, but you needed the help."

"Nice shot with that snake." Aelita said.

"I try my best." If he had shoulders he would have shrugged. "Now can we get to that tower so we can end this already? I'm pretty sure the others are suffering by now."

Xxx

"LET! ME! OUT!" Chris shrieked, going nuts as the water lifted them off their feet now, leaving them floating.

"Uh...hey guys, you all do know that if the water goes up we'd just be able to _swim_ to the top of the stairs, right?" Izzy said.

"What if another tidal wave comes down?" Sierra asked.

"Hm...wait, they keep on coming whenever we try to climb up...and if I'm right there's a bit ofa time limit between them...Eva, can you help me?"

Eva, who had bruises all over sighed. "I can't feel my brain."

Geoff looked down. "Uh...dudes, the water's alive, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Then why doesn't it just pull us under-GWAUGH!" Geoff vanished under the water.

"GEOFF-" Bridgette vanished a split second later.

"Aw crap!" Cody squeaked before he went under too.

"Cody!" Sierra cried before she was pulled under next.

"Guys we have to try climbing up!" Gwen shouted. "It's either the wave or we'll all drow-" A water hand grabbed her head and forced her under.

"Somebody help us!" Beth and Lindsay screamed, hugging one another as small hands grasped them and began to pull them down.

"I'm too young and handsome!" Chris grasped the stair railing as hands tried to pull him under. "Please! I'll stop embezzling funds! I'll join the eco-groups! I'll promote fresh clean water! I'll make the oil companies stop accidently dumping oil in the ponds! I have a lot of influence I'm Chris freaking McClean-!" His hands lost their grip and he screamed as he went under...only to see something hooked through his shirt.

"You scream _really_ loud." At the top of the stairs, with a rope tied around her waist and holding a long pole with a hook on the end that was keeping Chris above the water stood Lesley. She looked a little messy, and Chris could fully see her red tattoo...which was a red heart with Carlos' name in it.

"Lesley! Save me! The water hates me!" Chris bawled. "Oh...and save the kids too!"

"Trying to here!" Lesley grunted, pulling on the hook. "It's like fishing a Sperm Whale through a basket ball hoop!"

They heard the roar of water.

"Uh...Lesley?"

"What?" She snapped, annoyed.

"Tidal wave!" Chris wailed before the wave slammed into Lesley. The rope held her in position, but when the tidal wave had gone through, she was lying on the floor, coughing out water. Chris screamed as the hands pulled her under.

"Mommy-!" The host yelped before he could finish it.

And underwater, the water proof emergency phone in his pocket turned on.

_"Pick up Chris, I know you're there!" _Carlos growled. _"I know something's going on Chris, the fire department said every single fire sprinkler in the studio was turned on! What are you doing there, playing with my bug spray?"_

But Chris was unable to reply, slowly drowning under water.

Xxx

Aelita ran towards the tower through the water while Noah went back to make sure the generals were still occupied by Courtney and Duncan. The tower was still partially submerged in the water so she was prepared to fall to the tower's lower platform. However instead of falling she instead found herself on the lower platform instead of falling onto it. Shaking her head of any curious thoughts she stepped into the center of the platform and flew up to the upper platform.

Xxx

The contestants along with Chris struggled to swim up to the surface while their air supply slowly ran out. Even Izzy was desperately fighting to get up to the surface. Eva tried to punch whatever was holding her underwater. Geoff and Bridgette swam to each other and embraced and kissed each other for what seemed to be one last time.

Xxx

Aelita landed on the upper platform and stepped towards the interface.

Xxx

Everyone began to sink towards the bottom of the floor.

Xxx

Aelita placed her hand on the interface.

**Aelita**

**Code: Lyoko**

Xxx

That was when all time stopped and everyone was frozen underwater.

Xxx

"Tower deactivated." Aelita said as the screen fell to the bottom of the tower.

"Return to the Past Now!" Trent shouted.

Xxx

"..." The reassembled warriors watched as the movie ended again.

"...Boring." Duncan drawled.

"After what just happened...yeah." Noah nodded. "Drowned by Killer Water...that's a new thing to add to the list of crappy Holly Wood monster flicks. Get an actual alien movie out!"

"Right here!" Izzy held up the Ripley Scott movie 'Alien'.

"Pop it in and let's try and forget what just happened." Gwen nodded.

"Ooh, what if the alien comes to life during the next attack?" Izzy asked eagerly as she slid the DVD in.

"...if it happens, I'll get you." Duncan's eyes narrowed.


	49. Episode 48: Nephilim Unleashed

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 49

Somewhere in the Internet a digital being was cruising through the network towards its target. It sensed the supercomputer was active which seemed a bit strange but it chose to not ponder this as it would find out why soon. Soon its enemies would know of its return.

Xxx

XANA sat in the center of the Sector 5 of his Carbon Copy as if he was meditating. With his eyes closed he planned his next move against the warriors. XANA looked up as Sora, Jinx, and Blade approached them while Lilith, Ryder, and Yuki stood behind them. Sora walked forward and bowed.

"Apologies, Master. We failed to stop them."

"It doesn't matter now as your battle was merely a test." XANA opened his eyes. "You preformed well against them when there was just three of you. Now with the others with you it'll be even harder for them next time."

"I hate to see the looks on their face when they have to fight all of us." Ryder chuckled.

"Yes. We've proven to evolve as fast the Lyoko Warriors do every time they come to Lyoko and fight." Lilith nodded.

"Indeed. For when Aelita returned with new warriors I did not expect them to be able to survive this long when I easily defeated the previous ones who had fought me for four years. After the battle with my copy which was destroyed I waited, planned, and changed everything but they evolved with us." XANA stood up.

"Despite the superior powers we have been give the warriors rely on skill and each other to win." Sora said.

"No matter. I believe the war will be over for good this time." XANA smirked but then he suddenly clutched his chest in pain and fell over.

"Master XANA!" Lilith and Yuki rushed over to him.

XANA started to hear and see things that he shouldn't have.

_"I am your creator and master. You are the reincarnation of my first creation, the AI of Project Carthage combined with the remains of XANA."_

_"My name...Nephilim...I remember now. You said...that day...a combination of something normal and something greater..." The creature looked back Lyon. _

_"Yes, and now you truly are that. A combination of the Carthage AI, and the greater XANA, the AI version of a god." Lyon smirked. "And without Schaeffer, and XANA is now gone, you will find your work much easier for you."_

"What happened?" Blade asked.

"I . . . Sense something that I have not sensed . . . In a long time." XANA stood up slowly, his Avatar glowing red. "We're going to have company."

Xxx

The Lyoko Gang had finished eating at the cafe, now full and feeling better after the long fight with XANA's new generals.

"Oh man I needed that." Trent sighed happily.

"Yeah. Who knew you'd work up an appetite from blasting AIs and monsters?" Duncan smirked.

"Be careful. The last thing we need is you guys getting as big as Owen." Courtney pointed out.

"Hey!" Izzy shouted.

"Relax, Izzy. I don't think she meant to insult your boyfriend." Bridgette calmed her down.

"So now what?" Cody asked.

"Well, the new scanner should up so I should start my next attempt to find the Carbon Copy. I should get back to the school before I'm missed." Aelita said as she headed in the direction of Kadic Academy.

Of course before she could turn to leave a voice shouted out.

"Aelita!"

Everyone turned and saw a small boy about eight years old run up to her.

"Lucas? What are you doing all the way out here?" Aelita knelt down in front of the boy.

"I had to come and find you. Trevor and Jacob are at it again. They stole from the orphanage again."

"Again?" Aelita's eyes narrowed.

"Are we missing out on something?" Cody asked.

"Trevor and Jacob are two of the orphans at the local orphanage, and they're what you would call...criminals in the making." Aelita frowned. "They steal food, clothing, and other orphans' valuables and I've seen them selling them before."

"You've been to an orphanage?" Gwen asked.

"About a year ago Yumi signed us up to visit and play with the kids at the orphanage. Ulrich and Jeremy first didn't want to but I decided to try and see what is like and Odd bounced at it. We all had some fun playing with the kids that we started to go there usually a couple times a month." Aelita explained. "Trevor and Jacob are older than the rest of the children, only a year or two younger than me."

"What did they steal?" Gwen knelt to Lucas' level.

"They stole Marie's grandmother's necklace, Thomas' great grandfather's Masonic ring, all of the money Sean has been saving, and they even took that hand held video game Odd gave me." Lucas said.

"Where are they?" Aelita sounded like she did in Lyoko, ready to move out.

"Where else? Ready to hand it over to that worthless fence, Marcus." Lucas crossed his arms, frustrated.

"At his usual hiding spot?"

"Yeah." Lucas nodded.

"Want some back up?" Cody asked.

"Do you want to help?" Aelita asked in return.

"Let's see...two punks are stealing from orphans and selling to some criminal," Duncan rubbed his chin. "Even I'm against stealing from little kids." He smirked. "I just like ticking off the grownups."

"Show us where he is Aelita." Geoff took off his hat. "Stealing from kids is not cool man!"

"Well let's get a move on already!" LeShawna cracked her knuckles. "This Mark guy is dead on his feet!"

Xxx

A ten minute walk later they were hiding in an alley between two abandoned buildings. There was a lot out behind them where two young teenagers strolled into from the other side, laughing at some joke.

"There they are," Aelita whispered, kneeling behind a trash can with Bridgette.

Then a man in his thirties and wearing a ragged, stained trench coat and a cap came out. They began to talk.

"So what have my little friends collected for me this time?"

"Plenty." One boy, Trevor snickered as he held up a bag. "Some jewellery, some sap's video game, and some other trash you'd like to sell."

"The only trash in this alley are you three!" Gwen stood up.

"What the hell?" Marcus glared at the small crowd of teenagers. "Oh great, Aelita the goody two shoe princess."

"The same one who gave you a broken tooth when you tried to hurt Jeremy." Aelita glared fiercely at him.

"You brats were busting in on my business." Marcus shot back, advancing on her.

"You had it coming."

"Oh, and I suppose you this coming."

Duncan glanced at Aelita, who nodded to him. Duncan sighed and cracked his knuckles as Marcus got close enough.

"Now take your crew and get the hell outta here before I-"

CRACK!

Marcus fell over, clutching his now broken nose.

Duncan wiped off his hands. "You're welcome."

"Thanks." Aelita nodded her gratitude to him.

Marcus growled as he got up. "Lucky shot you little-" He had a switch blade out next and was about to swing, only to have a VERY powerful hand grab his wrist.

"I ain't one for beat downs," DJ said firmly. "But you are _not_ gonna mess with my friends anymore." He tightened his grip until Marcus dropped the knife, and then shoved the dealer away.

Izzy suddenly landed between Trevor and Jacob and snatched the bag. As they tried to shout their protest, she back flipped away from them and held it over her head. "Izzy wins!"

"Now Marcus, I thought you learned to stop using orphans to steal your goods for you." Aelita said sternly. "Or to stop stealing altogether."

"Unlike you, I ain't got the luxury of having some rich daddy to go home to so he can pay me my way through life." Marcus spat. "You got some nerve bein' all high and mighty with me princess-"

SLAP!

Aelita left a hand print across his face. If there was one thing Aelita hated is that when people assumed she had a rich father when her dad died to save her and this world.

"Ouch," Cody feigned sympathy as he flinched.

"Score." Noah said as he held up a card that said '10' on it.

"Where did you get that?" Cody asked.

"I always come prepared." Noah shrugged.

Marcus growled but LeShawna cracked her fists.

"Take one step at her and get ready for a SMACK down!"

"Don't need to," Marcus smirked. "You all made a big mistake comin' here. All the noise you're makin' brought me gang out!"

He jerked a thumb at an alley where about a dozen or so other thugs were coming out.

They were all generally dressed in second hand clothing or nondescript colours. They also all looked tough.

"...they came dressed to kill?" Noah asked.

"Now's not the time for that Noah!" Bridgette said.

"Get 'em fellas!" Marcus shouted.

The thugs rushed for them. Izzy, who held the bag was rushed by two. She screamed and tossed the bag up into the air. Then she got into a stance she saw in a kung-fu movie.

"HAI-YAH!"

She leaped off the ground and planted her left foot into the first man's gut, doubling him over. Then she grabbed the man by...uh...his nipples and twisted. "Not my _titties_!" He let out a high pitched scream until Izzy snapped one leg up and kicked him in the chin, knocking him on his back and into dream land.

A thug snuck behind Aelita and grabbed her. She snapped her head back and he stepped back covering his face. She then threw both her elbows into her attacker's abdomen. The thug was not prepared for this and released the pink haired girl so he could clutch his stomach in pain. Aelita then sent her fist forward into the thug's forehead which sent the thug falling over back first and knocked out.

Duncan ended up fighting one thug who tried to tackle him. Duncan stayed on his feet, gripping the man's shoulders as he was forced back a bit. Duncan smirked as he clenched his teeth. "Is that the best you got? God, the wimp in juvy at least put up a FIGHT!" He then spun, slamming the man into the wall next to him and then brought one fist down on the man's skull.

Geoff also had to contend with one thug, who drew a knife and tried to stab him. But Geoff, who had learned to dodge and defend on Lyoko, grabbed a trash can lid and let the knife pierce the metal, leaving it stuck before he tore the weapon from its owner's grasp. He then swung the lid to the flat edge hit the man in the face. He repeated this, beating the man with the lid.

LeShawna's opponent had even less luck. The moment he tried to punch her...she all but broke his wrist and then proceeded to simply pummel him. "Not so tough against a Canadian girl are you, small fry? Huh? Huh?" She then picked him up over her head and threw him face first into a dumpster...which Cody and Noah slammed shut.

Noah held up his '10' card again.

"You got an extra one?" Cody asked.

"I got a 9." Noah held up a '9' card.

"I can't be as supportive as you then!" Cody protested.

As they argued, the fight went on. One thug was sneaking up on Noah when Cody warned the genius.

"Duck!"

Noah obeyed...and Cody threw one fist at the man...hitting him straight in the face. The man stood there, blinking in surprise before he fell over backwards.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" Cody nursed his bruised hand.

"I give you a 10 for the punch, but a 2 for the reaction." Noah held up a '2' card.

"Never saving your butt again!"

And elsewhere, Trent was facing down a thug with a baseball bat. "Oh come on man!" He looked frantically and then saw something. "Un instant, s'il vous plait!" (One moment, please!)

The man tilted his head as Trent picked up a rusted guitar from a trash heap.

"Where I come from we call this 'El Kabong!'" Trent then swung the guitar and hit the man right on the head with a loud sound of a guitar string breaking.

The man fell over promptly...and tried to get up...he held up one finger. "Un instant, s'il vous plait."

"Uh...no."

KABONG!

The man went down. Trent twirled the guitar in his hand.

"El Kabong strikes again!" Trent proclaimed dramatically, holding the guitar over his head.

"Hey El Kabong, we're in the middle of a fight here!" Duncan shouted as he slammed his opponent into a wall and then into a dumpster, gripping the collar of his shirt and his neck.

In the meantime Gwen ducked under a wild punch that went over her head and kicked the back of her opponent's kneecap causing him to fall one knee. She then delivered a blow to the head that knocked him out. DJ in the meantime didn't hit anyone because he was still a non-violent person but he blocked all the blows sent at him from two thugs. What they did not know was that they were being distracted while fighting the soft hearted giant.

Bridgette punched one guy in the back of the head and kicked the other guy's feet out from under, making him fall on his back.

"That's what you get for stealing from a bunch of kids!" Bridgette said, glaring down at them.

As for Courtney she easily took down the thug that tried to sneak up on her. Compared to the others on the show, the monsters and generals on Lyoko these guys were a bunch of wimps. Marcus backed away as he saw his thugs getting easily taken out by a bunch of brats.

"Going somewhere?"

He spun around and saw Heather with her arms crossed.

"You know, I've made a living out of being an ice cold bitch, humiliating anyone I hate, taking out anyone who stands in my way and stomping on them . . . But I never stole from a bunch of homeless kids." She cracked her fists.

Before Marcus could say or do anything Heather punched him right in the nose and knocked him over.

Noah held up yet another card as Heather dragged Marcus by his coat over to the dumpster. "9 for the punch," She then opened the dumpster and tossed him down on the other occupant as he tried to get up. Slamming the dumpster shut, she glared at him until he held up a different card. "And 11 for the slam."

"Hey! You had an 11 card?" Cody demanded.

"I like to be prepared." Noah shrugged.

"I am definitely never saving you the next time we get into a fist fight-"

"Duck." Noah said before he threw himself down.

Cody spun and yelped before he managed to avoid the man who LeShawna had tossed yet again. Ht hit the wall above the dumpster, and Noah quickly opened it, letting the man fall into it with the others.

"At this rate we'll have everything cleaned up by the time the garbage men come by." Noah commented.

"Oof!" Geoff, Trent, and Duncan dumped their respective opponents in next.

"Six down, seven to-"

"HAI!" Izzy launched her two attackers into the air and then leaped up.

"Kick of a billion years of pain!" She exclaimed...and promptly kicked both in the 'soft spot'.

They screamed as they fell into the dumpster.

"Ooh!" The men flinched.

"She didn't!" Cody said.

"She did," Noah nodded, and held up another card. "101 out of 100 for the crazy chick..and for the safety of the entire male species."

"Yay!" Izzy jumped and down.

She handed the bag to Aelita when she was done.

"Thanks for the help. Sorry you got caught up in this." Aelita nodded her thanks to them.

"Ah it's cool! Izzy needed to let some stress off!" Izzy flexed her arms. "Aye! I am mighty like the bull!"

She then put her hands on the side of her head, sticking out one finger to mimic horns and mooed.

"That's a cow." Gwen said.

"Doh!"

"I'll go give these back to Lucas," Aelita checked the bag. "Yep, that's everything."

"What else does Marky have?" LeShawna dragged a bruised Marcus out of the dumpster. "Oh boy you gonna tell me every deal you made and when I'm done you better start paying up for every single thing you had those brats steal from those orphans."

Marcus swallowed as every woman in the group-minus Aelita, who bid them farewell and left closed in on him.

"Been nice knowing you," Duncan said. "...NOT!"

The men covered their eyes as Marcus let out the loudest high pitched scream they ever heard.

Noah shuddered. "Wow...there are things that cannot be unseen once they are seen."

"I know," Cody said. "I suddenly have the urge to go home and thank my mom for being so understanding."

"Ditto," Duncan nodded. "My mom stuck by me, even when I sold my dad's toupee as a hamster."

"How'd you manage that?"

"I was real good in art class."

"You? Art?" The men took their focus off the women tormenting Marcus to the topic of Duncan being an artist.

"You, the punk, you're an artist?" Cody asked.

"In class," Duncan shrugged.

"You learn something new every day." Noah muttered. "So if I hack your school's web site I won't find you in drama or a picture of Courtney will I?"

"Stay away from that web site Poindexter, or I will personally make you live to regret even thinking about it if I hear you even try." Duncan threatened. "I'll beat you here and in Lyoko and do it all again and again every time we reverse time."

Noah swallowed. "Noted-"

"AH I'VE NEVER FELT SO MUCH PAIN!" Marcus wailed.

"Can we talk somewhere else dues? I got a killer headache." Geoff said.

"Good idea, we can make fun of Duncan for being an artist." Noah said.

"Stay away from that website!" Duncan ordered firmly. "...wow, I sounded like my dad just now."

The men left the women to give Marcus the biggest beating of his life.

Xxx

"That felt good, making that guy spill all the crap he done." LeShawna said happily.

They walked down the street toward the studio.

"Taking those guys down was fun as well. A great way to take out all the frustration I've had." Heather said.

"Especially on someone dumb enough to steal from an orphanage." Courtney said.

"Those guys were wimps!" Izzy said.

"They did seem easy compared to fighting . . . You know." Bridgette said.

"Yeah. Who needs a bunch of thieving jerks when you got a bunch of AI jerks out to take control of the world?" Gwen asked, smirking.

Xxx

_The sky was covered in darkness with red clouds as smoke filled night sky from fires covering almost the entire city. It was quiet. No one could be seen or heard throughout the flame filled city. In the middle of the streets ran a pink haired girl._

_She ran through the streets with look of horror as she witnessed everything. How could this have happened? The last thing she remembered was going to bed and then woke up to see this. She was in her night clothes, a big pink shirt with a bid red 'A' on it and her slippers._

_The school that had been the closest thing to a home to her for years was empty with buildings on fire and various belongings scattered across the campus. Horror filled her, thinking of what could have happened to them. Running through the streets again she ran for Yumi's home to check on her parents and her brother, hoping that they would be fine and she would not have to tell Yumi when they rescued her and the others that her parents and brother were gone. Her hopes were shattered when she found the house burned to the ground._

_Tears began to fall down her face as she found she was alone. She ran to the studio where the others were, hoping they would be okay. But like before she found it burning._

_"No . . . Not again . . . Not again!"_

_She fell to her knees and cried._

_"Aelita!"_

_She turned and her eyes widened as she saw the person who called out her name standing in the middle of the street._

_"JEREMY!"_

_She ran up and hugged with all of her strength. She missed him so much. She thought she would never see him again. _

_"What happened?" She asked pulling away._

_"I can't talk right now. We've got to go." Jeremy turned, and ran down with his hand holding hers._

_"Where are we going?"_

_"The factory. It's the only safe place left." _

_"What about the others? Yumi, Odd, and Ulrich? They need our help. Along with the others."_

_"They're dead."_

_Aelita's heart stopped when she heard him say that._

_"H-How?"_

_Jeremy turned around and looked at her sadly._

_"They were killed . . . "_

_"Was it . .. .XANA?"_

_Jeremy shook his head. "No. It wasn't XANA, it was . . ."_

_That was when large figure landed behind them and grabbed Jeremy. Aelita screamed in horror as the creature lifted Jeremy in the air._

_"This is the one you care about so much." Said a deep voice. "Fitting that I should take away that which you cherish most for what your family did to me."_

_She looked up and her eyes widened when she saw its eyes._

_The Eye of XANA._

_"No. I am not XANA. To even put me in the same league is an insult." The creature said. "I am the new God of this world."_

Aelita rose up quickly from her bed. She screamed as she fell out of bed and onto the floor. She frantically looked around the room. She sighed as she calmed down.

No fire. No monster. No XANA. But still . . .

That nightmare.

The last time she had a nightmare was when her father sacrificed himself to save her and try to kill XANA and it had been in vain. She did not like how it ended. She sighed and believed she would not get a good night sleep tonight.

Aelita woke up early in the morning and pulled out a sketchbook given to her by Odd. She drew the creature she saw in her dreams with every possible detail. She finished with the creature's eyes and because they were the last she wanted to imagine, much less see. The Eye of XANA.

She sighed.

'What could this mean? I keep on getting the feeling something horrible is going to happen today.' Aelita thought.

Xxx

Little did Aelita know was how right she was. Meanwhile, in the Digital Sea of the World Wide Network a dark figure floated in front of the gates to Lyoko.

"So it is still here after all these years." The figure spoke.

It reached out and touched the gate and it opened. The figure flew into it. Nephilim grinned evilly as he flew up and out of the digital sea. He landed in the Desert Sector and looked around with a smile.

"Hello Lyoko. Your master has returned." He thought of all the things he would do when he brought the ones who destroyed him back.

The fear, the terror, it was all so exciting to think of.

"Now to bring them here."

The moment he entered the supercomputer Aelita's computer began to beep loudly. She turned as the monitor showed a message from the link to the supercomputer in the factory.

**Warning: Main System Corruption**

**Unknown Object Downloading Detected**

Aelita's eyes widened as the scanners detected a different source hacking into the supercomputer's mainframe and was attempting to insert itself into the supercomputer.

"What the-?" Aelita said as she accessed the supercomputer began to attempt to purge the virus from the system.

Several windows popped up to show the virus' movements. Whatever it was it was moving fast. She had to stop it. She clicked on one window.

**Security Program System Activated**

Meanwhile Nephilim landed in a long dark tunnel inside the Lyoko Supercomputer. Heading towards the hard drive that he knew he could access with XANA's codes inside of him he moved with quick ease through the maze. That was when many white symbols appeared on the walls and fired lasers at him. Grunting Nephilim held out a hand and his black lance appeared in his hand.

Flying forward he slashed at the symbols, shattering into small bits of data as he flew through the tunnel until he was at the end. He entered a large room with what resembled the supercomputer in the real world. A control panel was seen on it as he moved closer.

He placed his hand on the screen. He took his hand back and the interface scanned his hand print.

**Identity Confirmed: XANA**

So it recognized XANA's remains inside of him. Smirking he opened a link to the supercomputer's hard drive and placed a piece of his digital coding inside. This allowed him to see everything on Lyoko. But he did not expect to see what he saw.

Four new sectors and in one of the new sectors was Aelita and some other humans he had never seen before.

"What is this?"

According to the data he had gained the supercomputer was activated and three weeks later the Red Eye Virus attack happened and Yumi, Ulrich, Jeremy, Odd, and his old puppet William disappeared. Frowning he looked up the information on the new humans that had appeared.

"Aelita, I'll find out why you brought more humans here and then I'll have my REVENGE!" The creature roared.

He then decided to bring them here.

Xxx

Aelita couldn't believe what was happening. The virus had somehow managed to bypass the Supercomputer's security system. A security system that was far too advanced for even the most skilled hacker. It was now uploading something into the supercomputer.

Then the worst happened. An activated tower. She quickly out her cell phone but found that it was useless and the Eye was now on the screen. Her eyes widened in horror as her laptop began to short circuit.

She jumped out of the as it exploded and glass shards from the monitor flew out. She dodged but she got a cut on the shoulder. Gasping in pain, she held a hand over it, feeling blood coming out.

"I have to get to the factory."

Xxx

Meanwhile everyone at the studio were getting up and relaxing the day away. Chris sighed in relief as he pushed the power button to the new large flat screen TV he just bought.

"Now to relax and enjoy the day-" Chris was cut off as the console next to him and every pod exploded into sparks. "AH!"

He jumped out of his chair and hid behind it. Meanwhile all over the studio computers, TVs, and anything electronic pods literally exploded into flames. Everyone cried out as their phones began to spark. They tossed them away and watched them go off like hand grenades.

"Oh my god!" Lesley gasped. "I think that _Carlos_ is trying to kill us!"

Xxx

"ACHOO!"

"Watch the dash board man-holy crap look at all the chaos!" Kurt stuck his head out his window as cars crashed and devices exploded. People fled, screaming hysterically.

"It's the Red Eye virus all over again!" Carlos wiped his nose with a tissue and stuck his head out his shattered window. "Do you have the short range?"

"I just hope that Ray is in range," Kurt took out a short wave radio the size of a basket ball and turned it on. "Ray! Hey Ray!"

_"I hear you Kurt,"_ Ray replied. _"Are you seeing what I am?"_

"Red eye symbol appearing on TV screens while street lights go crazy, cell phones explode-"

BANG! Carlos tossed his black berry out the window, and just in time.

"And Black Berries too apparently, and all is chaotic?" Kurt guessed.

"_The psycho who did this last time is at it again!_" Ray stated. "_You two, stand by, I'm going to triangulate the signal. The fire walls I set up on the safe house's computers are holding out for the moment._"

"Make it quick!" Kurt said as he got out of the car-the road was blocked by crashed cars anyways. "Carlos, either this is a coincidence-which I don't believe, or Reggie was more right than we thought."

"Which I don't _want_ to believe." Carlos said as he leaped out through his window, head first. He stood up. "Alright, we just need Ray to get a lock on the scum and we'll take him. He's gotta be in Paris if he's doing it again!"

"_I have...three different signals,_" Ray said. "_All of them are from transmitters. He must be using them to broadcast his virus all over the city._"

"And it looks like its spreading," Carlos said as helicopters up above began to spin around. They did not go down, but they would not stop spinning. "...I want to be paid extra for this crap."

Xxx

"Get an extinguisher in here!" Lesley shouted, and barely a moment later Roberto fell out of a vent and fired the fire extinguisher in her hands at the burning pods.

This scene was not nearly as appealing to the competitors as the time Justin had put out a fire in season one...but then a split second after Roberto somehow dropped the extinguisher Lesley was on deck and snatched it up. She expertly put the fires out within seconds.

"...I don't know how she does it." Gwen shook her head.

"...gotta admit, she is awesome." Izzy shrugged.

"Back on topic people!" Lesley sighed. "Get out of the studio and be careful! We're going to find out what's going on."

As the group filed out, Noah whispered to several Lyoko warriors. "Anyone thinking what I am?"

"Are you thinking we should wonder what Carlos was thinking when she went out with?" Duncan asked. "And how many psycho exes he's got?"

"No...well yeah, but the electronic problems happening...just now...outta the blue..." Noah reasoned. "XANA."

"Let's get to the factory...nice and quiet," Bridgette whispered.

"Right this way," Before they knew it Duncan opened a door that said 'Employees only'. "The employee's lounge has an emergency exit tunnel that comes out in the back alley...among other treasures." He unwrapped and promptly ate a Klondike bar.

"...you know Carlos will kill you, right?"

"Now if we return to the past." Duncan pointed out. "Let's go."

"How'd you open this anyways dude?" Geoff asked as they filed through.

"Carlos really needs to empty his coat pockets more." Duncan shrugged.

Xxx

As they ran through the city they noticed the chaos that enveloped the city.

"Is it just me or does this attack make little sense?" Gwen asked as they ran.

"How do you figure?" asked DJ.

"The entire city is in chaos yet no attempt has been made to attack us. This isn't XANA's style. It's too chaotic."

"Maybe he's just bored." Duncan said.

"I have to agree with Gwen on this one." Heather said. "We're the ones he's after. Why bother going after the whole city?"

"Guess we'll find out soon enough." Bridgette said.

They ran on the bridge and into the entrance of the factory and slid down the cables. This time everyone did it. Even Courtney, Noah, and DJ. Rushing to the elevator Cody pushed the button and the doors closed.

"I think this elevator needs music." Izzy commented.

The door opened and sure enough Aelita was waiting for them. They noticed a cut on her shoulder.

"Aelita, are you okay?" Bridgette asked as she ran over and looked at the wound.

"I'll live. The attack happened when I was in my room at my school and glass shard managed to cut me. Thankfully no one was hurt too badly." Aelita reassured her. "I doubt any of you needed a super scan to tell you a tower was activated."

"Yeah...but this isn't right, XANA can't directly cause harm instantly in the real world." Bridgette said. "It takes time; it has to be thought out...he's just making things explode."

"I don't know what is but I am not certain that XANA is behind this." The pink haired genius shook her head. "Whatever it was seemed to be identified as XANA, but it didn't work like XANA. Worse, the super computer saw it as a virus attempting to hack and down load itself from a different source."

"So some geek got his hands on a piece of XANA?" Duncan asked.

"Impossible!" Aelita exclaimed. "Even if they did have XANA's schematics, they would need a lot of processing power or it would take decades to create an AI from XANA."

"How about we get rid of the virus and then worry about how they hacked Lyoko?" Heather asked.

"Agreed. But be on the lookout. This seems like a trap."

Xxx

One by one any warrior who could go to Lyoko was virtualized and they landed in the Desert Sector.

"We're all here now, Cody. We're ready for the vehicles."

"_Here they are and I've located the tower. I've also spotted a strange object near the tower._"

"Well let's get going and reverse time before Lesley tells Carlos I stole his precious Klondike Bars." Duncan hopped onto the OverBike, with Courtney sitting behind him. He glanced at her, one eye brow raised.

"Only ride with room on it, don't get any ideas." Courtney said.

"Okay."

Xxx

Halfway across the desert Nephilim turned his attention as he sensed that the humans had been virtualized.

"Time to start the show."

Xxx

The warriors moved with amazing speed through the sky to where the activated tower and unknown object had been spotted.

"Peace, quiet ... Trap!" Gwen said on the OverJet.

"Is it that obvious?" Noah asked.

"Any news on the object?" Aelita asked.

"_Nothing yet . . . Wait a second! It vanished!_"

"Vanished?" Aelita looked up at the sky. "What do you mean?"

_"I mean it just vanished off the screen, the tower looks unguarded now."_

"Well lucky us then!" Duncan said.

"Cody, go into the menu section and look for the Arcani program," Aelita said.

_"Got it...there!"_ Cody said. "_Ooh, this is like...a million times more powerful than any virus scan I've ever seen!_"

"It's created in case somebody tries to hide something in Lyoko, maybe it's like a Trojan Horse virus, hiding itself in this world." Aelita explained.

"_Hang on . . . There's four now!"_"

"Four?" Bridgette asked.

"_Yep, they just popped up around the tower._"

"Could the virus be multiplying?" Gwen asked.

"It's possible, we'd better hurry then!" Aelita sped up. "But proceed with caution!"

The warriors moved with more caution. Keeping an eye out for anything. After a few minutes they arrived at the location where the tower was.

"Cody, I see the tower. There are three Bloks guarding it."

"_Bloks?_"

"They were what the Pyramids were before XANA upgraded them." Aelita said. "Rather outdated now."

"Well if XANA's slipping, let's not disappoint- wait a sec," Duncan paused. "You said four objects, right?"

_"Yeah."_

"...Where's numero four?"

_"Right,...between...you...guys?"_ Cody said uncertainly.

"What?" Duncan looked around...before something slammed into the OverBike and knocked Courtney out of her seat. She shrieked as she fell.

"NOT AGAIN!"

"Courtney!" Duncan suddenly wrenched on the controls and dove down at full speed. Mere feet from the ground. He caught Courtney, who immediately had her arms around his waist and her face pressed into his back out of sheer terror from her near devirualization experience.

"It's above us!" Aelita screamed.

That was when everyone looked up and saw something fall towards them.

"Scatter!" Trent shouted.

Everyone moved out of the way as the figure fell out of the air and crashed into the ground. Everyone looked to see a face come out of the smoke. It was seven feet tall, it was human shaped but had a face that was lizard like with an angular head with sharp teeth covered in green scales with golden yellow eyes its pupils the shape of the Eye of XANA and acid green skin.

It wore black and green colored armor with the Eye of XANA in the center of the breastplate. On its head was a helmet with small pointed horns growing out of its forehead. A tail sprouted from its back and its hands had sharp claws and from its back sprouted a large pair of black colored bat looking wings. Aelita's eyes widened as she recognized the creature from her dream.

She had to fight the urge to shake horribly as she stared at the monster. It had the same voice and eyes from what she saw in her dream.

'I knew it was more than a dream!'

"Another General?" Gwen whipped out her scythe.

"And he's packing wings like Sora!" Heather added.

"Be ready," Aelita formed an energy sphere in one hand.

"Aelita Schaeffer," The creature said, its voice filtered so it sounded like several speaking in perfect unison. "You have eluded us for too long."

"Uh...Aelita, please tell me this isn't an evil ex of yours." Duncan glanced at Aelita.

"I've never seen him before now." Aelita shook her head.

"My name is Nephilim," The creature flapped its wings once, sending out a gust that staggered the group. "And this world and all of its power is now **MINE.**"

"...I think this guy's not with XANA." Izzy whispered loudly.

"XANA? Don't compare me to him, I'm insulted!" Nephilim chuckled. "I am the new ruler of this world, I am your new God . . . I am your killer!"

In a flash of light a black lance appeared in his hand.

"I've waited so long to meet you face to face, Aelita. I remember from both of my earlier versions of how much trouble you, your family, and friends caused me. You and anyone remotely connected to you killed them both and I was born from their remains."

He jabbed it forward. "And now my revenge has-!"

CLANG!

Trent had moved in front of Aelita and reflected the lance off of the side of his guitar. He then started the saw attached to it and swung. It left a shallow dent in Nephilim's armour as he moved back. Looking at the minor damage, he frowned. "None of you have been here before; the data confirmed that none of you look like the others."

"You might wanna be more specific angel boy." Duncan drew his sword as he joined Trent.

"Stay out of my way, I'll find out why Aelita was foolish enough to bring more of you parasites into this place later." Nephilim commanded.

"I have a different idea." Duncan said. "Everybody...on three. One," Nephilim growled. "Two," Nephilim shot forwards. "NOW!"

"First rule of revenge, bring reinforcements!" Nephilim declared before three Hornets appeared in front of him and took the massive barrage the team launched.

Fire, lightning, red aura, exploding arrows, shuriken, blue wave energy, and more destroyed the monsters, which absorbed the barrage for Nephilim. He swung his lance at Duncan's face who blocked and jumped backwards. Nephilim shoved his lance at Duncan who managed to dodge by jumping in time and landed on the lance. He ran on the lance towards Nephilim only to see a yellow light appear in his hand.

He pulled it up and fired a yellow beam at Duncan. The beam hit him in the shoulder and knocked him to the ground. Duncan dropped his sword in the process and Nephilim raised his lance to bring it down on him. Before he could finish Duncan off however Izzy fired three arrows that struck Nephilim in the arm and exploded, causing him to drop his lance.

Trent, Aelita, and Izzy fired while Duncan got out of the way but Nephilim raised his hand raised his hand and a yellow shield appeared in front of him and blocked the attacks. That was when the Bloks fired at them. Trent ended up getting shot in the chest while Izzy and Aelita dodged and Izzy fired several arrows that hit the center Blok in the Eye which deleted it. Noah, Bridgette, Gwen, and Heather turned their sighs to Nephilim and attacked but Nephilim blocked their attacks with another yellow shield and fired another shot at them.

Bridgette held her swords in front of them and blocked the beam but it hit her swords so hard they shattered into a thousand pieces and knocked Bridgette to the ground. Before she could even look up Nephilim stabbed her hard with his lance, so hard it went through her body and created a hole in the ground that was seen after she devirtualized. That was when Nephilim flew at them and swung his fist which hit Noah in the gut and he keeled over.

Nephilim then brought his fist up and slammed it into Noah's back which slammed him into the ground with tremendous force. He brought his foot up and placed it on Noah's back to hold him in place.

"I don't know who you are or why Aelita decided to leave this place active and bring you here but you'll wish you hadn't come here." Neplilim growled.

Suddenly Heather appeared right in front of him, using her Invisibility to hide her approach and fired a shuriken into his chest as he reeled backwards. Noah took advantage of this and transformed his right hand into a gun and shot the monster in the knee. The blast caused Nephilim to lose his lance as he stumbled back to regain his balance. He looked up in time to see Gwen and Heather flying straight at him.

They jumped into the air and kicked him in the chest at the same time. The force of their kick caused Nephilim to fall over and land on his back. Gwen pulled out her scythe and held it over Nephilim's face.

"You were saying?"

That was when a laser blast struck Heather from the behind. Gwen turned in time to see a pair of Kankrelats behind them. They fired at them again but this time Gwen managed to block but a shot managed hit her in the knee. That was when Nephilim grabbed Gwen's leg and threw her into a rock.

She bounced off the rock hard and her entire body trembled from the impact. Duncan closed his eyes and then concentrated on getting angry. Nephilim watched as he was engulfed by green flames and in his place stood the Berserker. He raised an eye brow as the Berserker roared and charged at him.

He raised his lance and blocked the first strike, his feet being pushed through the ground a few inches back. Nephilim smirked and pushed forward, knocking the Berserker back. Just as the Berserker was about to go on the attack an orange glowing gel like substance appeared behind it and moved it in a fast pace. Courtney finished off the Kankrelats and looked to see the gel right behind the Berserker.

"Duncan!"

The Berserker only had a chance to look at Courtney just as the gel grabbed it. It covered its head as it attempted to get it off. Slowly it went down the Berserker's torso and then went down to its feet. In just a few seconds the Guardian completely engulfed it and Courtney watched as the Berserker turned back into Duncan as he was put in a forced sleep.

Just as she was about to run and help Nephilim stopped her.

"Lower your weapons or he falls into the sea!"

The warriors exchanged a glance, and complied after a moment.

"What do you want?" Aelita asked.

"Isn't it obvious? I am here for revenge like I said." Nephilim pointed his lance at her.

"And I don't recall ever meeting you. You yourself admitted you have no connection to XANA." Aelita replied.

"Of course I would have no connection to XANA. That was merely an outdated program compared to me. A worthless piece of data." Nephilim said as he looked at his hand and closing it into a fist. "Yet, XANA played a role in my birth."

"What do you mean?"

"I have all of XANA's memories inside of me; I remember long ago when XANA first awakened in this digital world and his climb to sentience. And I also have the memories of my other previous version. Both it and XANA's remains were combined to form me."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Gwen demanded. "You're saying XANA's dead?"

"Of course I am. You can ask Aelita, she was there that day." Nephilim pointed his lance at her. "You remember watching as Schaeffer sacrificed himself to power the program that was created by that prodigy, Jeremy Belpois."

Aelita's eyes widened.

"It's ironic though. Schaeffer created and killed both of my earlier versions and now I am born from both of them." Nephilim smirked.

"Created and killed both? That . . ." Aelita trailed off.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you face to face, Aelita. It's too bad that Waldo Schaeffer himself could not be here to see that his past has come back to haunt his descendant."

"Aelita, you know what this psycho is talking about?" Heather asked.

"Created and killed both? That would mean . . ." Aelita looked up in horror.

"Not only do I have the memories of XANA from the day of his birth to his death but I also have the memories of my other previous version that Schaeffer and his wife also played a role in creating." Nephilim sneered.

"Aelita's parents? What are you talking about?" Gwen said.

"That means . . . Nephilim is not just an AI created by XANA. You are the AI of Project Carthage!" Aelita gasped.

"Project Carthage?" Courtney said with wide eyes.

"The same AI your dad made and tried to destroy with XANA?" Gwen looked at Aelita.

Nephilim chuckled. "You flatter me, human."

"The same," Aelita nodded. "He said that my parents made two AIs that were his previous versions. One was XANA and the other was made before he was made. And that was the AI created as a part of Project Carthage."

"Holy _crap._" Trent said.

"That doesn't exactly describe how screwed we are," Noah swallowed.

"...so XANA can't even destroy that guy right? Man for a powerful AI he is _really_ sloppy." Izzy said.

"You're wrong about that. XANA did indeed destroy my earlier version, the AI meant to control Project Carthage. It happened the very day the military decided to test it. When it happened Carthage spread across the net, disrupting communications, causing black outs and leaving entire countries defenceless. However something happened soon after it was released." Nephilim said. "Something broke through the fire walls meant to contain the Carthage AI's core like they were tissue paper and only after did it arrive at the core did my earlier version know that it was an AI program like it. However this one was able to react and adapt even faster and in just a few nano-seconds the battle was over before it even began and the AI's core program was destroyed."

"My father logged the entire event so he knew that Project Carthage was destroyed." Aelita said. "But how? How can you be here?"

"It's simple. After the failure of my previous version one of the scientists that played a role in its creation attempted to find Schaeffer and force him to give him the schematics to XANA but failed and spent many years looking for him. It wasn't until a month and a half ago during the Red Eye virus attack in France did he find a lead. When he discovered a mass of programs scattered throughout the Internet which seemed familiar." Nephlim said. "He tracked it down to many shut down supercomputers and discovered that Schaeffer's AI, XANA, had somehow managed to survive some kind of attempt to destroy it but was horribly damaged with many of its programs scattered throughout the World Wide Net. After nearly a month of locating these supercomputers he found enough of XANA's remains to use into creating me."

"He's talking about the same copy that XANA used as a decoy to fake his death." Gwen said.

"Schaeffer perished. And the corpse of his creation floated across the Internet for two years. Then the Red Eye Virus attack happened and the ones who helped kill XANA disappeared." Nephilim said. "Taking what they could from the remains, and building a digital body that they chose for the Carthage AI they combined them together and I was born. My purpose is to track down Aelita Schaeffer and seize this place."

"So they never even learned the first time," Aelita shook her head. "But this means you're just a tool. You're doing this on somebody's orders, aren't you? You're just a cheap copy of XANA."

"I take orders from _nobody_!" Nephilim snapped. "I kill those I hate and tear them to pieces. Now then Aelita, its time you answer some questions. Why are these humans here? Where are Ulrich, Odd, Yumi, and Jeremy? And why is Lyoko still online anyway, when Schaeffer is dead?"

"You've got balls thinking you can try bullying Aelita like that." Trent said. "You're not getting any answers!"

"Quite human, I'll learn why she decided to bring people here in but a moment." Nephilim snickered. "And I'd power down unless you want your friend to fall into the digital sea. I don't know what you've been up to for two years Aelita, but quite frankly it's time for it to end. I don't like this place being here. It gives far too much power, and a little girl like you shouldn't have it."

"You're one to talk! You have nerve coming back like this!" Aelita shouted with a look that was colder than anyone had seen on her face before. "Especially since you were created from the copy that killed my father!"

"Ah, I remember that day too." Nephilim snickered. "You stood by and let it happen, trying to defend him. But for each one you destroyed, another one appeared until it was too late, then the program that boy Belpois created was activated somehow ,spreading throughout the network, colliding with my programming, destroying them in a suicide run...until somehow the super computers all shut down, leaving nothing but fragmented remains."

"That must have been XANA." Aelita muttered.

"Then here we are again, two years later." Nephilim glared.

"And yet you're here boring us to death with your cliché villain rant." Noah said. "Look on the bright side, you got better."

"Clearly Aelita wasn't thinking straight when she brought _you_ here," Nephilim glared at Noah.

"Actually I ended up here by accident but go on, I enjoy killing time," Noah nodded.

"Fine, I'll kill the rest of you first, and then settle my old grudge!" Nephilim snarled. "In that case I'll kill these humans first and then deal with you. First one, the kid in the Guardian!"

Aelita glanced at the others. "...stall him as long as you can, I have a plan."

"You got it!" Noah's hands formed into cannons and opened fire instantly.


	50. Episode 49: Fight the Infection

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 50

The rest of the group fired up their own powers while Aelita dove towards the Guardian holding Duncan. The Guardian moved at high speed towards the edge forcing Aelita to move even faster. Meanwhile the others surrounded Nepilim, ready to gang up on him. Nephilim smirked and summoned four Bloks and three Kankrelats.

"You haven't been around here long enough, pal. Those guys are yesterday's news." Gwen smirked.

"Then allow me to give them a new look." Nephilim smirked as his hand began to glow with acid green energy and a black oily substance left his palm and entered the Bloks first.

The moment the substance entered the monsters they began to shake violently with the XANA Eyes glowing brightly. Their bodies began to slowly crack open, pieces falling to the ground.

The same oily substance Nephilim released went into the Kankrelats next. Just like the Bloks their bodies began to crack open but they also started expand and grow rapidly. The Bloks stopped shaking as they turned gray and stood completely still. That was when something broke out of the front Eye of the center Blok.

The four Bloks fell apart and something came out of their shells. The new monsters were a little bigger than the warriors with sleek bodies, long whip like tails ending with a sharp spike, reptilian like heads with glowing red eyes on top of their flexible necks with long and slender legs the bent backwards with three toe like claws on their feet. Inside of their mouth was a thin metal tube along with razor sharp teeth. On top of their heads was a black Eye of XANA.

The Kankrelats continued to expand like a balloon until they cracked open and large claws tore their way out. In their place stood what looked like mechanical tigers each almost as tall as a Tarantula, their bodies were colored white with black stripes, a small black Eye of XANA on their heads, sharp metallic claws, and a tail ending with a sharp spear.

"What do you think of them now?" Nephilim asked as he held hand in the air. "Attack!"

The monsters roared and charged at them. The Raptors opened their mouths and fired an endless stream of lasers. Picking up her scythe Gwen spun and created a barrier to block the attacks.

"Take this!" Trent shouted as he played a lightning note and launched a blast of lightning at the lead Raptor.

However before it was hit the Raptor, it leaped high into the air dodging Trent's attack. Twisting its body as it flew over the warriors it aimed its head down and fired on them.

Courtney ran out and blocked the incoming lasers with her staff. While she blocked the lasers from the airborne Raptor Gwen continued to block the incoming lasers from the other three Raptors. That was when a Tiger jumped and slashed at her. Gwen cried out when she took a slash to the shoulder which made her drop the barrier and a hit to the knee brought her to the ground.

"I am Izzy, lion-tamer! Hear me roar!" Izzy shouted as she transformed into a tiger and charged forward.

She collided with the first Tiger and began to wrestle with it. The other two roared and charged at her. Trent in the meantime played his barrier note to block the incoming attacks from the three Raptors in front of them with Noah firing at them while Heather and Courtney helped Gwen with the one behind them. Courtney blocked the lasers while Heather fired shuriken at the Raptor.

Gwen got up and glowed white.

"Energy strings!"

White strings came out of her hands and caught the Raptor, immobilizing it.

"Now!" Gwen shouted.

Heather fired several shuriken at the Eye but the Raptor whipped up its spiked tail and slapped the shuriken away.

"Well, that's disappointing!" Heather spoke up.

"Allow me." Noah said.

He fired his gun at the Eye on the Raptor's forehead dead center and it exploded in a matter of seconds. Izzy growled as the three Tigers circled around her, ready to pounce and tear her apart.

"Izzy! What are you doing? You can change into a T-Rex or something big enough to squash them!" Courtney shouted.

"Aww ... That's no fun!" Izzy whined with her tiger face mimicking that of a pouting child.

"Fun? We're going to be killed brutally if you don't do something!" Heather shouted.

"Party poopers!" Izzy said and transformed into her T-Rex form.

She roared and stomped on one Tiger with her foot while another jumped on her back and began to bite and claw at her. Izzy roared as she attempted to shake the Tiger off her while another bit at her legs. Gwen threw her scythe at the Tiger on Izzy's back and cut it in two. With that monster off her back she looked down and caught the last Tiger in her mouth.

She clamped her jaws down on it and the monster shattered into the data once Izzy slammed her jaws shut.

"Ha-Ha! Izzy loves being T-Rex!"

Her celebration was cut short when Nephilim threw his lance and it went straight through head and out the other side. In a matter of seconds Tyrano-Izzy vanished in streams of light and data.

Xxx

Meanwhile the Guardian went to the edge and began to fall into the digital sea. Aelita quickened her flight and flew in close to the falling Guardian. Closing her eyes she used her creativity to create an image of Duncan falling next to it. The Guardian saw it and reached out to grab it.

Unfortunately it expanded too much and exploded, leaving an unconscious Duncan to fall into the digital sea. Aelita held out a hand and caught him just before he fell in. Grunting she started to fly back up to the desert platform above her. While she did this everyone had their hands full.

Xxx

Gwen ran towards the nearest rock formation, diving past it and then rolling to the side before she stood up again with her back leaning against the wall. She leaned out to take a peek before she quickly retracted her head, barely avoiding a laser blast to the head. Everyone had taken cover after Izzy was devirtualized and they had to hide from the trio of Raptors Nephilim had created. Overwhelmed by their fire power they took cover behind different rock formations that surrounded the monsters.

Taking a chance Gwen leaned out again to take a better look at the enemy. The monsters had their backs against each other, rotating in a clockwise direction and constantly firing lasers, hoping that they would someone. The spell caster leaned back and looked up at the sky.

"Anyone up there have an idea?"

"_Sorry, got no ideas for you, Gwen._" Cody replied.

"Great." Heather said sarcastically with her against another stone wall.

"_I don't see you coming up with a plan._"

"Anyone actually have a plan?" Trent asked.

"We surrender?" Noah asked.

Courtney shook her head in disgust. "Anybody have a _real_ plan?"

"Just hold on a minute." Gwen said.

She pulled out her scythe and let the blade part of her weapon face her. Holding it out slowly she exposed part of weapon beyond her cover and used it as a mirror to take a look. The Raptors remained in center with their guns still ready to blast anyone. She also took a look at the rock formations that the others were hiding behind.

"Okay .. . Noah, Trent, can you two get on the top of the rocks you're hiding behind?" She asked.

Trent took a look up to see how high the rock formation was. Even though neither he nor Noah had anything they could use for flying it looked pretty climbable.

"I think so. Why?"

"I need you two to be a distraction for our three new buddies over there. It should give Heather enough time to hit them on the heads and take them out." Gwen replied.

"Did you get all that, Noah?" Trent asked.

"Yeah. Just wish I put more effort on learning how to climb." Noah replied.

"You took a rock climbing class?"

"Kind of."

"You dropped out, didn't you?"

"I plead the fifth." Noah began to dig his hands into the rock and started to climb.

Heather glanced over at Gwen who was still using her scythe to watch the enemy through the reflection on the blade.

"Why do you need them so high?" She asked.

"These guys happen to be a whole lot smarter than our average monster so it's likely they won't take the bait so easily. If they happen to aim a lot higher than usual it should give us a little more time to strike before they notice us."

Heather nodded. "I guess that makes sense."

Gwen noticed from the reflection on her scythe that Noah and Trent made it to their destinations. "Okay, everyone ready?"

"Ready!" Everyone said at the same time.

"Three . . ." Gwen said.

"Two . .." Noah transformed his hands into guns.

"One . . ." Trent whispered as he prepared to play his fire note.

Courtney looked out and saw lasers and fire balls fly at the Raptors from opposite side. Two of them fired immediately on both Trent and Noah. Even though they almost hit them they both emerged unscathed.

"The third one's not doing anything." She said to Gwen. "I don't think this'll work."

"Wait for it." Gwen said, still watching through the reflection on her blade.

That was when the Raptors firing on Trent and Noah stopped firing. She was almost afraid Courtney was right about her plan. That was when the third Raptor turned around and fired in the directions Trent and Noah had been firing. Gwen's fears heightened when she saw that they were aiming at the rock formations Trent and Noah were one instead of firing at them.

"We've got to move!" Heather shouted and Gwen nodded.

Heather turned invisible and Gwen and Courtney ran out of their hiding places, charging towards the Raptors. Gwen threw her scythe at the Raptor firing at Trent and the blade cut off the monster's head, causing the body to collapse and dissolve into data. Heather appeared behind the Raptor in the middle and jumped onto its back. Before it could react she pulled out her wrist blades and plunged into its head, destroying it and propelling her into the air and she landed on her feet.

Before she could take out the final one it whipped its tail out and knocked her back several feet. Gwen activated her Earth Spell and sent a bunch of small rocks at the Raptor. However the Raptor spun and slashed the rocks to pieces with its tail and began to fire lasers out of its mouth. The spell caster ran from side to side, dodging lasers the best she could.

Before it could anymore a beam of light blasted it to pieces. When the light faded they saw Duncan and Aelita standing where it had been. Duncan pulled out his sword while Aelita lowered her glowing hand.

"Are you all right?" Aelita asked.

Gwen nodded, smiling. Courtney ran towards Duncan.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Takes more than some living orange living jello to get rid of me." Duncan replied.

That was when a clapping sound was heard. They turned and saw Nephilim sitting on a large rock clapping his hands.

"Well done. It seems that Aelita's been teaching her new . . . pets on how to survive."

"We're the pets? Dude, you're doing this because you're designed to, and we're doing this because we want to." Noah-seemingly popping out of nowhere said in his usual smart ass way. "Can we all say 'hypocrite'?"

"No but we can say BOOM GOES THE JACK ASS!" Suddenly Duncan's sword was out and he shot a stream of fire at Nephilim, who dodged it almost easily by flipping into the air and landing on the same rock again.

"Tell me, has she taught you how to roll over and play dead yet?" Nephilim asked. "Wait, don't answer, allow me to find out!" He then literally shot lasers out of his eyes.

Duncan reflected them off of the flat side of his sword. "Laser eyes! Aw man that is such a rip off its not even funny!"

"This coming from the guy who ripped off Ghost Rider?" Noah shook his head. "Marvel comics will be so pissed."

"Just like Keeanu Reeves and Paul Anderson will hunt you down for stealing Reeves' look?" Duncan countered.

"GUYS!" Aelita shouted to get their attention. "Can we argue later?" She pointed at Nephilim, who was charging his laser eyes. "We have a fight to win!"

"Sir yes sir!" Both boys said, and then slapped themselves in the faces and corrected themselves. "Ma'am yes ma'am!"

Nephilim fired laser beams from his eyes again. Everyone dodged as the beams hit the ground they stood and created a large explosion. Duncan leaped into the air and raised his sword above his head. He fell next to Nephilim and swung his sword at him.

Nephilim stepped to the right as the sword barely missed him and threw his fist at Duncan, catching him in the jaw and launched him several feet back. Duncan landed on his back and skidded to a halt a few feet away as Nephilim's eyes glowed red.

"Only a fool would try and take me on alone." Nephilim said as he fired at Duncan.

Courtney ran up and tackled Duncan out of the way at the beams destroyed a boulder behind them. In the meantime Gwen activated her Stat Boost Spell and sacrificed twenty life points to increase her speed. Gwen flew at Nephilim who fired several shots at her as she tried to get close. She used her increased speed to get right underneath Nephilim and caught him with an uppercut.

Nephilim stumbled back a few inches and Gwen took the opportunity to run up and drop kick him, causing Nephilim to fall on his back. Before Gwen could raise her scythe to finish him Nephilim swung his foot around and caught Gwen in the knee which forced her to drop to her knees. Nephilim then pulled his feet up and catapulted himself, his feet catching Gwen's face as he landed on his feet.

"Stupid human." Nephilim said as he brought his foot up and then brought it down to slam it into Gwen's face.

Gwen rolled out of the way before Nephilim could slam his foot into her face. Heather took advantage of the distraction and ran at Nephilim and kicked him square in the chest. Nephilim bent down as Gwen took the chance and punched him in the jaw. Nephilim growled as Heather attempted to kick him and he caught her foot and grabbed her ankle.

Nephilim stood up and twirled Heather around like a doll, slamming her into Gwen and knocking them both into the ground.

"It's over now. Go back to your world and pray you never meet me again." Nephilim said as he held out his hand and balled it into a fist.

A white glow appeared as he prepared to fire.

"Like we even wanted to meet the first time." Gwen said as she held out her hand and her Fire Aura activated.

Nephilim's arm was set on fire causing him to miss and the white beam fired and hit a nearby rock. Duncan leapt into the air and landed behind Nephilim as he turned around and kicked Nephilim in the back. The AI fell to the ground on his chest and Duncan stood up quickly. He brought his sword up and prepared to bring it down.

Only Nephilim caught the sword before it hit him. He grabbed Duncan's sword and tossed Duncan to the side. He fired a white beam from his hand at Duncan but just as it was about to hit him Aelita fired her plasma beam and it collided with his attack.

"Ha, always pretending to be the hero, huh Aelita?" Nephilim sneered.

"I don't know why XANA let them find the remains of his copy, but as far as I'm concerned both of you are one and the same. Here's payback for my father!" Aelita shouted and fired a plasma beam.

Nephilim fell backwards making Aelita think she scored a hit, only to watch as Nephilim got back up and fired red beams at Aelita from his eyes. This time he managed to clip her wings and she started to rapidly fall towards the ground. As her wings faded she used what little was left to slow her decent. She landed in a crouch position but she still lost some life points from how hard the landing was.

She stood up and looked to see Nephilim fly straight at her. He grabbed her face and while still flying Nephilim dragged her on the ground, causing her to slowly lose more life points. Aelita luckily managed to raise her hand and fire a shot at Nephilim's wings which sent him to the ground. Before that Aelita managed to free herself from Nephilim's grasp and slowly skid to a halt.

Nephilim hit the ground so hard he bounced a couple of times before finally coming to a halt. The others ran towards Aelita to check up on her.

"You okay?" Gwen asked kneeling next to her.

"I'll be all right." Aelita nodded.

"Here." Courtney held out her hand and gave Aelita some extra life points.

"Thanks." Aelita nodded but then her eyes widened. "Look out!"

Before Courtney could move she was blasted by a white beam from Nephilim who got back up and looked straight at them. Her life points hit zero and her form faded in streams of light and data streams.

"Next."

"Big MISTAKE!" Duncan growled and in a blast of green flames the Berserker reappeared.

It roared and charged forward. Both Nephilim and the Berserker exchanged blows with neither side giving an inch. The Berserker tried to slice at Nephilim with its sword but Nephilim held out his hand and a yellow light appeared acting as a shield which at close range sent the Berserker flying back.

"That was too easy. A bunch of pests like you believe you can defend Lyoko and Ael-"

Nephilim didn't have the chance to finish his sentence as a landside came straight at him, burying him under a wave of sand.

"He's really starting to get on my nerves." Aelita said with a cold look.

"This guy just won't stay down!" Heather said as Nephilim began to crawl out of under the sand with no sign of giving up.

"Then we keep hitting him until he stays down." Gwen said as she flew at Nephilim, ready to cut him in half.

However before she was able to hit him a laser shot hit her in the chest and sent her flying back. Hitting and then she slid down to the ground. Groaning she got up to see what had hit her. Three more Raptors had appeared and surrounded Nephilim who was now leaning on his lance with his eyes closed while the monsters growled at the warriors.

"He's taking a nap?" Trent asked.

"Talk about rude!" Heather snapped.

"Cody, run a scan." Aelita said, looking up.

Cody nodded, even though he knew Aelita couldn't see him and ran a bio scan on Nephilim. He looked over the data and his eyes widened.

"_I think I found his weakness._"

"What is it?" Heather asked.

"_It looks like he's losing his strength. The more he fights the more power he loses. It's_ _like what Lilith said about XANA and his powers. Not to mention how he hacked into the supercomputer. Aelita, you mentioned a part of the virus was downloaded into the mainframe."_

"I did." Aelita nodded.

"_It's because part of his digital coding was downloaded into the mainframe._"

"That explains how he was able to control and summon XANA's old monsters." Aelita said.

"So the more he fights the more tired he gets." Noah said.

"Meaning if we can keep attacking the more tired he'll get." Trent said.

"And we can take him out!" Gwen finished.

Suddenly a white beam hit Gwen in chest and she was devirtualized. Trent turned in time to see Nephilim kick him in the face. Noah turned his hands into swords but was blasted in the leg by another white beam, knocking him on his back. Trent tried to get back up but felt a large foot crushing on his leg. He looked back to see Nephilim had placed a large rock on his leg.

He kicked the guitar out of Trent's hand and knocked Duncan down with his lance and slammed two more rocks on his and Noah's legs. All three of them were now incapacitated. The Raptors that guarded Nephilim earlier now stood guard over them. Nephilim pulled out his lance and slammed down into the ground in front of them, creating a large hole that if anyone fell through would fall into the digital sea and permanent virtualization.

"Now, let's finish this. Oh, and for ever who's up there in the lab thinking of devirtualizing Aelita to save her attempt to do so these three fall into the digital sea!" Nephilim yelled to Cody and the others who were watching in the lab.

He turned to Aelita and Heather and pulled out his lance. Aelita fired two energy balls and Heather fired a stream of shuriken at him. Nephilim however blocked with his lance and slowly approached them.

"This is over, Aelita. This time for good."

Aelita and Heather stepped back as Nephilim advanced towards them. They knew of Aelita was devirtualized while the tower was active Nephilim would continue to cause destruction in the real world and if she was captured it would be all over. They turned and ran while Nephilim began to chase them.

"Wow, the big bad monster likes to play tag." Noah said as they watched from their pinned position.

"Is this a time for jokes?" Trent asked. "And why aren't you phasing out?"

"I'm waiting for the right second."

Aelita and Heather moved behind a rock formation for cover.

"Okay, please tell me you have a plan." Heather said.

Aelita closed her eyes to think of an idea. A second later they opened and she looked up.

"Cody, could you please materialize the OverWing?"

"_That was fast. What's the plan?_" Cody asked.

"Materialize the OverWing than I'll tell you." Aelita replied.

A second later the OverWing materialized next to them.

"Okay, what's the plan?" Heather asked.

Aelita leaned in and whispered in her ear. Heather's face slowly turned from curiosity to a sinister smile as Aelita finished telling her the plan.

"Nice one."

A moment later Aelita flew out on the OverWing from behind the rock. Heather turned invisible and ran past Nephilim to avoid being seen. Aelita flew closely over Nephilim so he would see her.

"Back for more?" Nephilim asked as he spread his wings and took to the air.

"_Aelita, where are you going? The tower's over there._" Cody said.

Aelita didn't reply though. She looked over her shoulder to see Nephilim in hot pursuit. She accelerated as she attempted to stay out of reach.

Xxx

The Raptors growled as they watched the three trapped warriors underneath them. Any sign of movement would result in them getting blown off the platform and into the digital sea.

"Hey boys." Heather said, appearing out of nowhere behind them.

The Raptors turned to face, losing sight of the three fighters they were guarding. Noah took the opportunity to phase out of the rock pinning him and phased into one Raptor as they charged their lasers. The Noah-possessed Raptor turned and blasted the other two Raptors beside it.

"It's about time you got us out." Noah said as he phased out of the Raptor and Heather shot it in the head while it was disoriented.

"Thanks." Trent said as the rock was taken off him.

"No problem, just don't expect it to become a habit." Heather said.

"Now should we go help Aelita?" Noah asked.

"Don't have to."

Xxx

Nephilim slowly gained up on Aelita as she hit full throttle. He fired a white beam from his arm and hit the back of the OverWing which caused it to the crash. Luckily for Aelita she jumped before the OverWing crashed and broke into a sprint. Nephilim flew down towards her and Aelita darted back and forth to shake him off.

Nephilim flew in close and his hand was inches above her head. Aelita yelled as she ducked down in time and Nephilim flew over her. She held out her hand to fire her plasma beam but before she could Nephilim turned and fired another white beam. The beam hit her in the chest and knocked her off her feet.

She laid perfectly still as Nephilim approached her, smirking at his near victory.

Xxx

"Come on, Aelita, get up!" Cody shouted into the ear piece.

"Run for it!" Bridgette said.

"Wake up!" DJ spoke up.

Xxx

"At long last, the chase is over and you are where you belong. At my feet." Nephilim reached down to pick her up.

Aelita however showed no sign of distress. She looked she was sleeping instead. Nephilim reached to touch her face and her eyes opened.

"You believe that you are nothing like XANA, but it looks like I can still trick you the same way I tricked him!" She said as her form faded in a flash of light.

Nephilim eyes widened for a second before he growled. "A decoy!"

He stood there and knew Aelita was at the tower.

"Next time, Aelita, next time."

Xxx

Aelita landed next to the tower and walked inside. Heading into the center of the platform she flew up to the second platform and placed her hand on the screen.

**Aelita**

**Code: Lyoko**

"Tower deactivated."

Xxx

"Return to the Past now!" Cody said and everyone was engulfed in a dome of white light.

Xxx

Aelita woke up staring at the ceiling of her room. She noticed that her laptop was now back in working condition, sitting on her desk like nothing had happened. Which is technically true as the virus attack never actually happened. Which is then she remembered that the supercomputer had been hacked and how everyone had nearly been killed at the hands of a monster named Nephilim.

Her body ached from the entire fight even thought she went back time with everyone else.

'As if XANA coming back after two years making my father's sacrifice worthless, capturing my friends and try to finish me off I now have to face something created from the very copy that we destroyed along with someone whose most likely after me.' Aelita thought as she picked up a picture of herself along with Jeremy, Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi a few months after the supercomputer was shut down.

She sighed and lied back down on her bed and stared up at the ceiling.

'When will it end?'

Knowing that her friends will need some help and needing to find out the identity of whoever created Nephilim she got up and walked over to her laptop. Sitting down at her desk she accessed the link to the supercomputer, knowing that Cody had scanned Nephilim during the fight and also that Nephilim had left a piece of his data inside the supercomputer to take control of XANA's old monsters, knowing that even though XANA upgraded his old army the data for the old monsters were still stored inside the supercomputer.

'Looks like today will be a hard day. I better get some breakfast first and then tell the others of whatever I find.'

Xxx

"A damn _copy!_" Heather shouted. "One XANA was bad enough!" She was pacing furiously.

"We're all pretty pissed about it," Noah said calmly.

"Probably not as much as Aelita," Gwen added. "She's done this for a lot longer than any of us and I'm pretty sure she isn't happy about this. She thought she had XANA beat and now he's back, stronger, with a lot of Generals and a copy."

"A copy that her dad was tricked into killing," Cody said. "_At the cost of his life, _imagine how she feels now._"_

"About as bad as we are sick of this." Bridgette frowned. "I don't know how those kids did all this for over a year when we've just been barely at it for a month."

"They didn't want to, they had to." Gwen stated. "Going to the government would have made a big political mess and not do a single thing to help."

"And XANA would have wiped the floor with the human race," Duncan finished, slouching on a couch with Geoff and DJ, watching TV.

"It's not that bad! We had to deal with both XANA and Shadow at one point," Cody reasoned.

"And we beat his butt good!" Izzy nodded.

"And the kids didn't have Total Drama to deal with," DJ spoke up. "Man with Chris back it's just worse. When will Kurt and Carlos get back?"

The group looked around.

"...it's not the same without Carlos appearing out of nowhere." Courtney sighed.

"He's probably scarring people for life somewhere else," Noah consoled the group. "Besides, we have bigger problems, like the fact that we've been hacked."

"Can't you just track the hacker and make _them_ have a power outage? Like you did back home?" Cody asked.

"Not likely, the dude's a professional, not a second rate school security system." Noah shook his head.

"So what now? We have a hacker, a new AI on the block, and we've still got XANA to worry about," Courtney listed their enemies. "And his crap load of Generals."

"How many does he have now? Seven?" Trent asked.

"Lilith, Ryder, Yuki, Jinx, Sora, and Blade...so six." Gwen counted.

"Not too bad, we've still got numbers." Duncan shrugged. "And Cody killed Cyrus, and XANA took out Shadow himself. They ain't indestructible. Just need enough time to nail them enough to keep them from coming back."

"Well if I know Aelita she's at work right now trying to figure this out." LeShawna said. "The girl's up at the first stroke of dawn, and I think she gets less sleep than we do."

"Think she could use a hand?" Cody asked.

"You'd have to help at the factory instead of at school, wouldn't look too good for two 17 year old Canadians visiting the 16 year old student during school hours." Noah drawled.

Gwen's phone buzzed. She had it out faster than Lindsay could grab shoes off a shelf in a store-this was honed by repeated weeks of answering it as fast as possible. "Hello?"

She listened... "Aelita! Wow that was fast." She nodded. "Yeah we can show up as soon as possible...don't worry, none of us are getting good sleep after this." She hung up. "Aelita pretty much did your job for you, she got a look at what Cody scanned off of Nephilim and she needs us over at the factory."

"Well, no time like the present." Geoff said.

Xxx

Aelita was looking at the computer in the lab, the screen showing information she had found the night before right after the fight with Nephilim. The elevator came down, carrying all twelve of her allies, who poured out into the control room. "Sleep well everybody?"

"'Bout as much as we can with two demonic AIs on the loose, you?" Trent asked.

"Not even all the coffee in the world would have kept me awake after I was done working." Aelita sighed. "After we went back in time I took the chance to do a little research on our new friend, Nephilim and he what is."

She brought up an image of Nephilim during the fight.

"Since he hacked into the supercomputer he was able to take control of XANA's old monsters since the data for all of the original monsters was still stored inside the supercomputer when XANA escaped. He even was able to upgrade them to create new more powerful ones."

"Any idea where he came from?" Gwen asked.

"I think I found some leads last night. It seems Duncan was right when he said someone found a piece of XANA except it wasn't' some 'geek'." Aelita explained.

"Let me guess, it was a very rich geek from a very rich company made of rich geeks who was looking to become a super rich geek and knock Bill Gates off his block." Duncan said.

"...I think he used the word 'geek' too much." Noah whispered.

"Heard that, geek."

"Here's what I found." Aelita brought up a window on the monitor.

The window showed two lines of codes and programs that most of the group couldn't understand. The codes on the first lines were green with symbols that most looked calm and smooth while some looked jagged and sharp. The second line showed codes and programs colored red that all looked very smooth.

"The red codes on this window are XANA's codes that we decoded a long time ago. These are all the basic codes that made up XANA's core program, everything that allowed him and his copy to decide attacks to the most basic programs. In laymen's terms think of them as the brain of XANA's copy."

"...looks bigger than I imagined." Noah commented.

Aelita replied. "The green ones are the new codes that were found in Nephilim. They are not only new but they are almost perfectly flawless, perfectly in tune with XANA's codes. It looks like they've been waiting for a chance to restart Project Carthage but never had the chance until they got their hands on XANA's codes."

"Okay, but what does it mean?" Bridgette asked.

"No one could have just made a new AI out of the codes that were found from the remains of XANA's copy. Someone had to know what these codes precisely meant meaning they would have had to have worked with my parents at one point." Aelita said.

"Someone who worked with your dad on Project Carthage." Gwen said.

"They're still looking for him after so long. They must have learned about me along with Jeremy, Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich from the copy's memories that we were trying to help him which is why Nephilim lured us to Lyoko. He was waiting for us." Aelita said. "But we have an advantage."

"How?" DJ asked.

"Unlike XANA Nephilim is not a multi-agent program so he took control of the supercomputer by inputting a piece of his coding into the core so even if we destroyed the main body he could simply create a new one. But since a piece of his coding is in the core he only has half of his power. He needs time to regain his strength before he can launch another attack."

"That's good to know." Heather said.

"As for finding out who created Nephilim, I have a lead and an idea on how to find who did it but it's going to be a little tricky." Aelita said.

She brought up an image of her father along with a group of teachers that all looked like professors at Kadic Academy.

"This was taken when my father applied for teaching at Kadic Academy. I looked at all the teachers and found they all applied there as well during the same year and were all geniuses in various fields. I believe they applied because they were hired to take part in Project Carthage."

"So one of them could be the one who created Nephilim." Cody said.

"Exactly, but which one or did they all play a role?" Aelita turned to the screen. "To find out we need to talk to someone who knows more about this."

"Who knows more about this whole conspiracy than you?" Cody asked.

"Somebody briefed on it," Aelita then pulled up two pictures. "These two."

"...Aelita, I think you accidently pulled up the Total Drama fan site." Trent said. "That's..."

"Carlos and Kurt?" The entire group exclaimed.

"You remember what they said back at my old house, right?" Aelita asked. "They knew things about my father...maybe we can hope they will offer their help like before. A couple of you did say they'd be trust worthy."

"Carlos hides gun in his house, let me remind you of that." Noah said. "And besides, we don't know where they are."

"And they're sampling Swiss cheese or something." Duncan added.

"Wrong again. I managed to trace their cell phone activity, they're in the city. As for why they left...take a look at this footage I picked up from the studio," Aelita pulled up an image of Carlos and Kurt (Kurt and Carlos damn it all!) talking to Reggie.

"Not only were they briefed on it, but they had files on my grandparents on my father's side, specifically what happened after my parents quit working for the group behind Carthage." Aelita continued. "My grandmother died of suspected lung failure, and my grandfather died when he was run over by a drunk driver...or so the story says. After my parents quit, my father had FBI protection, a fully trained guards. But they had a mole, and my mother was taken. As for my mother's files, they were erased, with no trace of anything about her. The rest is what we already know: my father took me to Lyoko, and XANA turned on us."

"So you think Sylvester Stallone's British cousin and Carrot Top can help us?" Duncan asked.

"They're looking into my family's past as we speak; they're working for the same FBI agent who came to my school after the Red Eye Virus attack. This was why they were called away," Then the image showed two ...identifying Kurt and Carlos as MI6 agents several years ago. "Kurt and Carlos worked in the military and intelligence together for a long time tracing back to when they first enlisted. Carlos was a former SAS Operator right after he graduated from High School, and Kurt was a detective who worked with the Police, Interpol, and MI5 in murder cases and even some terrorism related investigations. They both did work for SAS and MI6 until up to when they were married, retired, and recently were hired as Producers for the latest season of Total Drama."

"Dude...we had MI6 agents with us the whole time? Like James Bond?" Cody asked. "Man that is cool! Those guys are total bad asses!"

"And could have information even we don't know or might be able to find it," Aelita nodded.

"Okay, but how will you bring them in?" Noah asked.

"I knew you would ask, it just so happens that I managed to obtain camera footage from my house during that night when XANA materialized his monsters in the forest. In order to bring them up to speed...I'm going to activate a tower and give them a Spectre carrying a recording of everything that happened, and the location of this factory. I wouldn't be leaving it in them, and would set up a Fire Wall to make sure neither XANA nor Nephilim possess them. It will take seconds, and we could use this for when we return to the past so that we could repeatedly call on their help."

"That's...genius!" Cody nodded. "Let's do it! About time we had some more muscle."

"I just need to dial their cell phones...and..." Aelita paused. "Odd, busy."

Xxx

"Chris, if I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times! Go near my Klondike Bar pile and you'll wish you stayed in jail!" Carlos growled into his Black Berry.

"Yes I know Sarah," Kurt nodded as he spoke with Sarah over his phone. "I know Carlos blew up the dog house but I have to work with him on this-yes I know Bruno never had fleas before that day." He glared at Carlos. "What did you blow up the dog house with?"

"Well where did you hide my Klondike Bars?" Carlos countered.

"I need a way to calm Sarah down, any ideas?"

"What I need is a way to keep Chris the heck away from my Klondike Bars! I'd kill for one, that's what I'd do for a Klondike Bar!"

"Maybe I should calm Sarah down by saying I got her tickets to that movie, Black Swan!" Kurt grinned.

"I've got an idea! If I tell Chris that I even think a Klondike bar is missing, I threaten to go back and shave his hair off and burn his scalp until it can't grow back!" Carlos smirked evilly.

"Genius!" They both shouted at once.

"Glad I can talk to you about this Carlos."

"I'm always here for you Kurt!"

They relayed their separate messages and hang up.

"Now, where to next-"

Their phones rang.

"Aw what now?" Kurt asked as he and Carlos picked up at the same time.

"Hello?" They asked at once...and twitched as Spectres entered through their ears. They sat in Kurt's car, twitching and sputtering. Several bystanders stared through Kurt's open window as they passed, shaking their heads and muttering about 'Crazy ass brits'.

When it ended, the two ex-agents were staring out the wind shield like fish. Kurt set his phone down. "Are you thinking what I am?"

"I don't know...are you thinking we're either hopped up on drugs or insane?"

"That boat sailed a long time ago...let's roll!" Kurt said. "We have to get to that factory in the visions!"

As he roared off, one could have sworn James Bond theme music was playing. All Kurt needed was an Aston Martin and a martini-shaken not stirred to finish the cliché rip off.


	51. Episode 50: New Allies and Code Lindsay

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 51

XANA sat in the middle of a large red room somewhere in his domain. Sitting on a large red block that sat out on the floor he gazed into the holo screen that showed the warriors battle with the new being known as Nephilim. Like Cody XANA had run his scan of Nephilim and was impressed with the coding inside of him.

'So they finally made their move.' XANA thought with a smirk. 'After all of these years they've finally resurfaced. Or at least the one man responsible for all of this has made his move.'

He shut off the holo screen and closed his eyes. 'The one man who could have created something like this, Dr. Lyon. He's near.'

He stood up and walked towards the middle of the room.

'Nephilim will no doubt wonder why there are new warriors on Lyoko and the source of the Red Eye Virus attack.' XANA smirked and sent out a summoning.

He waited a moment and Lilith appeared behind him.

"You called for me?" Lilith asked.

"Lilith, I have an important mission for you. Follow the one who calls himself ... Nephilim." XANA said as he brought up an image of Nephilim.

"Nephilim?" Lilith asked.

"Yes, he's our newest creation. Only he wasn't made directly by me." XANA replied.

"An AI that was made with your coding but not made by you." Lilith walked ahead and looked closely at the image.

"Inform Aelita and her allies of the location of the hidden lab." XANA said.

Lilith turned with a puzzled look. "You mean the lab that . . ."

XANA chuckled. "There's only one way they'll know how to track him down."

Xxx

"What's taking those guys so long?" Noah stuck his head out of the hole that led to the secondary entrance.

Suddenly a novelty horn started blaring.

"Huh? Revelry?" Noah turned just before a car slammed through the wall near him. He screamed as it shot towards him...and stopped mere inches from his face. He stared at it. "I take back what I said; I don't miss these guys at all-"

SMASH!

Carlos smashed through the wind shield and rolled across the hood, landing on his feet next to the hole. He had a pistol in his hand, looking around and paused as he saw Noah. "Oh, hey Noah."

"You're paying for that Carlos!" Kurt shook his fist at Carlos from the driver's seat. "Don't you know how to use a door?"

"Never occurred to me," Carlos shrugged. "I was in the moment and the moment said 'dramatic car exit'."

"Oh get down here you morons!" Noah said. "You both remember everything, right?"

"Right!" The two men nodded.

"So come on!" Noah climbed down, followed by the two ex-agents. "You almost ran me over you know!"

"I was in the moment and the moment said 'Dramatic Car _Entrance.'_" Kurt shrugged as they reached the ladder to the lab and climbed down.

Carlos whistled. "Wow...this looks like crap compared to that first lab."

"Well we've got everybody here, some of our favourite," Kurt nodded to Gwen. "And some of our least favourite contestants." He glared at Duncan. "And Aelita Stones! Or...should it be Aelita Schaeffer?"

"Either one will do." Aelita stood up.

"So how the heck did this happen? One second we were in a lab watching you guys fight off the Generals of that maniac XANA, the next second we cough it up as a dream and wake up in my house." Carlos stated.

"Return to the Past," Trent patted the computer. "We went back in time."

The two producers stared.

"Time Travel?" Kurt asked.

"Bear in mind you were chased by monsters that came from nowhere, watched us fight more of them inside a computer, and saw a giant monster made of lava try and kill us all." Gwen said.

"So...no blue police box?" Carlos asked.

"The Doctor's British, right?" Kurt nodded.

"No but we have a nuclear powered super computer if you'd like it." Gwen smirked.

"Ok...what is going on that you had to suddenly bring us back into the fold?" Kurt asked.

"A new AI named Nephilim." Aelita spoke up. "One that someone created from a copy of XANA. One we think has a connection with Project Carthage, and we need your help to track down."

"Ah, and we just happen to be on the case to find your family," Kurt nodded. "The FBI has a hunch there's a connection between Carthage and the Red eye Virus."

"Especially since that same eye symbol was used by your dad for his work," Carlos added.

"We believe the professors he worked with at Kadic Academy were in on Carthage also," Aelita explained. "They were top scientists in their field." She showed them an image of Schaeffer and his colleagues.

"Hm...Clever girl." Kurt nodded.

"Why didn't anybody else think of that?" Carlos asked.

"They don't know my father like I do." Aelita cracked a smile.

"Well I'm gonna take a quick snap shot and look these old geezers up." Carlos used his camera.

"Bear in mind, there's a chance none of them were involved." Aelita said. "But if that fails, there is another place to look. In fact it's right about next door to Carlos' cabin." She handed them the key to her old house in the mountains.

"You're giving us your house key?" Carlos asked as he accepted the key.

"You'll be able to do better with it than me, perhaps there is a clue that I missed." Aelita said.

"I'll need permission from the French government to go up those mountains again." Kurt stated.

"Screw that, I'm allowed to go visit my property any time, I don't need to tell them about any stops I make along the way." Carlos said. "And telling them about it is a very bad idea if I recall."

"If we find out who created Nephilim we can nail those war mongers." Kurt added with a nod.

"We can be there and back by noon tomorrow." Carlos said. "And we'll call if we find anything...by the way...has Chris been in my Klondike bar pile?"

"He says no but I get this..." Noah made hand gestures. "_Eerie feeling_ whenever he smiles." He made a weird smile to emphasize his words.

"He is dead like a banana when I get back there." Carlos growled.

"Don't mention the banana," DJ sighed.

"Why, what about the banana?" Carlos asked.

"Dude, let's just say we've learned never to underestimate the banana," Duncan said.

Carlos and Kurt exchanged a look. Kurt made a 'coo-coo' motion. "And I thought you, Izzy and Lesley were the maniacs."

"But shouldn't you scan us so that we remember any Returns to the past?" Carlos asked. "Especially in the midst of all this XANA and Nephilim nonsense."

"Yes...but if you recall, there's a thing called 'plausible deniability'. Aelita stated.

"Oh yeah..." Both ex-agents nodded.

"Good point," Kurt added.

"And we can give you memories again the same way we did before." Aelita explained. "Take these though." She handed them a pair of headsets. "These cameras will record every word an action and send it to the super computer so I can keep the program up to date on your memories."

"Clever," Kurt nodded.

"If I thought of it years ago my Gym Teacher would have been around to help us save the day more." Aelita smiled.

"Well Comrade Carrot Top, time to get going." Carlos grinned. "Got a world to save, a villain to stop...and a Klondike Bar touching mop head to bust."

"...you really are the nut." Kurt sighed. "Good luck kids." He followed Carlos up the ladder. "We're all counting on you!"

The kids waved good bye, and the car roared out of the factory's main floor, blaring the 'revelry' novelty horn. Carlos shouted at the end of the horn. "CHARGE!"

"...We've either improved our chances or doomed ourselves." Noah sighed.

"I know." Cody nodded.

"...does Kurt have to burst down every wall with his car?" Trent asked.

"And play that novelty horn right before he does it?" Gwen added.

"Heh, adds to the mood." Noah shrugged.

"What mood?"

"Two men getting Alzheimer's in their mid twenties."

Xxx

"Last time, on Total Drama Reality. It was back into the digital plain for the contestants in an awesome game of capture the Flags. The results were hilarious and in the end Team Me lost _again_ and with Justin's departure all the show's pretty boys are now gone." Chris announced. "Who will win today's challenge? Find out on this exciting episode of Total. Drama. REALITY!"

The next morning the Lyoko Warriors slept without any attacks happening this time. It was nice considering they now not only had to fight off XANA and his army but now the AI known as Nephilim. Chris' bullhorn blared, jerking everyone out of a nice sleep. Through the groans, whining, shouting, and complaining everyone got out of their beds, got their clothes on and they walked into the main lobby of the studio to see what Chris had in store for them this time.

"What's up?" Chris asked, smiling.

"You're starting to sound like Geoff." Heather scoffed while rolling her eyes.

Chris glared at her for that comment but then shrugged it off.

"All right, today I woke up to find a major emergency. Thanks to Kurt and Carlos(FINALLY, someone gets it right!) my interns decided to _not_ order the pastries from my caterer!" Chris said, sounding very annoyed.

"And what's this got to do with us?" Bridgette asked.

"Well, since I can't punish my idiot interns thanks to Lesley, they won't order now, and I'm in need of pastries I decided that's what today's challenge would be." Chris said.

"Call your caterer?" LeShawna asked.

"I think he means he wants us to make pastries for him." Trent said.

"Right on the spot, Elvis! This way it saves money and I don't busted again by 'embezzling' funds. Each team today will be making me an array of delicious sweets and present them later today. The team with the sweets that don't make the judges, that's me, Lesley, and Roberto gag wins!" Chris said.

Xxx

Confessional: DJ

"This'll be easy. My momma taught me everything on how to make everything sweet, with a pinch of her spice and love."

Xxx

Confessional: Gwen

"I don't like to talk about it but I'm good at baking. With my mom out working most of the time I had to look after my brother and anyone who has a younger brother should know better than anyone about how much unhealthy crap twelve year old boys like to eat."

Xxx

Confessional: Bridgette

"As a vegetarian I like to come up with all sorts of good tasting vegan pastries that are good for you. This challenge is mine!"

End Confessional

Xxx

"So how do we work if there's only one kitchen?" Courtney asked.

"Already got it covered. We bought the kitchen tent from the film lot used in the second season and also you get to use Chef's private kitchen." Chris said. "Team Amazon gets the kitchen here, Team Me gets the kitchen tent, and Team Victory gets Chef's private kitchen."

"Don't touch any of my stuff!" Chef yelled.

"Oh, and please try and make a little presentation while you're at it. It'll get you some bonus points. And... GO!" Chris yelled.

Xxx

**Team Amazon**

The team had grouped together in the studio kitchen.

"Okay, so who knows how to bake?" Heather asked.

Gwen, Courtney, and Sierra raised their hands.

"I can try!" Sierra shouted with her arm up.

"The last time you tried to bake a cake you blew up the Total Drama plane. No way!" Eva said.

"I can bake!" Courtney said proudly.

"Fine, Gwen and Courtney are baking." Heather pointed Gwen and Courtney. "While the rest of us clean this place up to make it sure looks nice."

Xxx

**Team Victory**

"I can bake. I know all sorts of treats that would work." DJ said.

"But I can make healthy treats." Bridgette said.

"No offence, Bridge, but not everyone goes for the veggie treats." Geoff pointed out.

"You liked them." Bridgette replied.

Xxx

Confessional: Geoff

"I've got to be completely honest with you guys I _didn't_ like the veggie treats Bridge made. I tasted them and I almost gagged. I didn't want to hurt her feelings so I hid them in a nearby plant and left some crumbs to make her think I ate them and liked them. My girl is so hot and nice that I don't want to get her mad and upset with me and I really didn't want have to take sides on this one." He then looks around and whispers so the camera. "Please don't tell her I said that. I don't like tricking her."

End Confessional

Xxx

**Team C (once again, thank you Carlos)**

"...does anybody know how to bake?" Duncan looked at his only two team mates left.

"...I could find a recipe to follow off the net," Noah shrugged. "As long as it has instructions it should be easy."

"OOH! OOH!" Izzy hopped up and down, waving her hands.

"...Oh god please don't tell me..." Duncan sighed. "_You_ think you know how to bake, don't you?"

"I _do_ know how to bake!" Izzy corrected him. "I once baked homemade mystery meat cakes back on my uncle's ranch in Texas! I didn't even know what the meat was and they scarfed it all down! Even my cousin Tommy ate it and he doesn't even like coming out of that weird cellar he's always in."

Praying that the scenario Izzy described was only similar to Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Duncan said. "Ok...stand back everybody, I'm going in, Rambo Style!" He then dove for the pantry with a battle cry. "AHHH!-!-!-!-!-!-!"

"...Does he even know what Rambo style is?" Noah asked.

Suddenly a bag of flour landed on his head. When he was left covered in flower from the waist up, he sighed and wiped some flower off his shirt. "Well Izzy, I guess on the bright side we either win or poison Chris."

"Or we enjoy my delicious homemade Fruit Cake!" Izzy snickered.

"Now when you say home made...?" Noah started.

Xxx

Confessional: Noah

"I mentioned before that I signed a will to have my stuff donated to the university so none of my brothers and sisters got their hands on it. So just in case I don't make it, I might as well go with these last few words..._get a job you lazy slackers!_"

End Confessional

Xxx

"Okay, we've got about three hours to bake something, we've got enough supplies to feed China, we have no idea what we're doing, it's a Friday, we're standing inside with no windows and we're wearing sun glasses." Izzy declared, standing on a counter with sun glasses on.

Noah sighed, tilting his own sun glasses up a bit. "Hit it."

Xxx

**Team Victory (Why do they still call themselves that?...well they're not doing as bad as Team C)**

"Dude! My momma's spice will work perfectly!" DJ said.

"My all vegan style can knock you head over heels, not to mention its healthy!" Bridgette replied.

'Sure does knock you head over heels,' Geoff thought, ashamed of himself for the thought.

"What about you guys? Can you guys bake?" DJ asked LeShawna, Trent and Geoff.

**"**Boy the most cooking I've ever done is a barbeque.**" **LeShawna said. "But Harold knew a few things about bakin', picked it up after TDI."

"Did he make anything good?" Geoff asked.

"He made some of the best cup cakes I ever dang had!" LeShawna smiled.

"Awesome...oh wait, Lindsay!" Bridgette spun. "Do you know anything about baking?"

Lindsay looked up from the Chinese finger trap her hands were caught in. "I'd help but I can't get my hands out."

The team members exchanged a look. Bridgette sighed, walked over, and gently forced Lindsay's two trapped fingers together and pulled them free of the loosened trap. "Now, do you know how to bake?"

"I tried to bake these good cookies at my grandma's house once." Lindsay nodded.

Now hold that pose and let's look into Team V's minds...

Xxx

_A fire truck's siren wailed as it pulled up to a house with smoke coming out of the windows._

_"Come on people we have a code L!" The lead fire man yelled as he hopped out._

_"What's that?" A younger, new fireman asked as he climbed out._

_The first man's face darkened. "Code..._Lindsay_."_

**DUN DUN DUNNNN!**

Xxx

"They never let me near the oven after that," Lindsay continued.

Xxx

Confessional: Trent

"I would trust her, but the last time she fed me anything was from a fish that nearly asphyxiated me." Trent shrugged. "Sorry Lindsay."

Xxx

Confessional: Geoff

"I saw what happened to Trent after that! I'm no baking expert myself but I'm not going near anything that comes out of an oven Lindsay used!" Geoff chuckled. "...please don't tell her I said that!"

Xxx

"I think I got the hang of how to use an oven though!" Lindsay smiled. "The more you turn the little knob, the hotter it gets!"

Now let's pause again for another day dream...

Xxx

_A fire truck's siren wailed as it pulled up to the Total Drama Studio, which was in flames. Several firemen leaped out, shouting in French._

_That day, the firemen of Paris were contacted by an anonymous source in Ontario, suggesting they add a new emergency code to their book._

_Code..._Lindsay!

Xxx

"...I vote we go with LeShawna's cup cake idea!" DJ swallowed. "Can you call Harold?"

"Is that allowed?" Bridgette asked.

"Hey Chris are we allowed to call for help if we have trouble baking?" Geoff asked.

"What do I care? If you all suck then go ahead, I want delectable treats!" Chris whined from the lawn chair he sat on...which was knocked over by Lesley almost too casually. "OW!"

"Oopsie!" Lesley said in a sing-song voice.

"Okay, call Harold and let's get baking!" Trent nodded.

Xxx

**Team Amazon**

Now most people believed if Gwen and Courtney were left in a room together they would tear the place apart since because of what happened on World Tour. However except for a hand full of people no one knew that they were part of a secret group out to stop evil AIs from taking over the world. Since that time in the Forest Courtney and Gwen had managed to put aside most of the hate for the cause of saving the entire human race.

So they had at least made an effort to try and work together through the challenges to avoid getting eliminated since they needed to stay on as long as possible until they could stop XANA and Nephilim for good.

"Okay, so what recipes do you know?" Courtney asked.

"I know a recipe my grandmother used for making chocolate chip cookies along with my favourite flavour of pie," Gwen said. "Blue berries."

Somehow Courtney was not surprised by this.

"What about you?" Gwen asked. "Any ideas?"

"I've made plenty of cakes before," Courtney replied. "Vanilla, chocolate, a mix sometimes. Or those cakes that were just a bunch of cup cakes attached to one another."

"Okay we have a host with a mop for a head, an insane lawyer who is a Carlos version of you-no offense, and a hairy security guard…what would they go for?" Gwen asked.

"It's so obvious!" Sierra spoke up.

The two looked at Sierra. "Huh?"

"Look at the three of them," Sierra tugged them to the door so they could see the three lounging judges. "First, Chris. I happen to know his favourite flavour from the giant Chris shrine my mom turned our house into-"

"Didn't you tell her to get rid of that?" Courtney asked.

"Yeah, but if she went through with it we wouldn't have had a house." Sierra shrugged. "I know for a fact that Chris likes apple pies, meat pies, banana cream pies, and twinkies. Next, look at Lesley." She then pointed at her.

"We don't know a lot about her, she only signed on a week ago." Gwen said.

"Just look at her and you'll be able to tell what she likes most." Sierra said.

Lesley had changed into a denim skirt and a dark blue tank top today, allowing more of her Carlos Heart tattoo to be seen. But it also showed several other tattoos, all of them ranging from white that was just barely visible on her skin to cherry red.

"She likes vanilla cake with some of that cherry flavoured jam filling inside it!" Sierra said. "And she always makes sure that when she makes one of those cherry flavoured mix drinks she never puts in more or less than enough of those crystals to give the water flavour and colour, making sure there aren't any crystals left over. So she likes soft icing, really soft icing, she likes it when things practically melt in her mouth."

The two cooks exchanged a slightly disturbed glance from how Sierra concluded this.

"Ok…what about Roberto?" Gwen asked.

"He was the easiest! After stalking all of the employees here as much as possible I noticed that Roberto does the opposite of what Carlos does when it comes to food." Sierra said. "Carlos uses sugar with his coffee, Roberto uses milk only. Carlos drinks Pepsi, Roberto drinks Coke. Carlos likes chocolate, so Roberto must like-"

"Vanilla?" Courtney cut in.

"No! Mint!" Sierra finished.

"…How did you conclude that?" Gwen asked.

"Oh it's so obvious I won't insult you two by telling you." Sierra said with a smile. "Roberto likes mint, and cold or sweet things. Lesley likes soft, warm and moist foods. And Chris likes any pie you give him. I suggest that you guys make an apple pie with vanilla icing placed on top of it with a cherry for Chris. A circular vanilla cake with cherry jam inside it for Lesley-and remember not to make the icing all dry. And we make Roberto a mint ice cream sundae with fudge, a banana and cherry on top with sprinkles!"

The entire team stared in awe at Sierra.

Xxx

Confessional: Courtney

"I've seen so many weird things…I won't even ask."

Xxx

Confessional: Eva

"For once the fan girl comes in handy."

Xxx

Confessional: Gwen

"I never thought that Sierra fan girling all over the cast and crew would save the day!"

Xxx

Confessional: Cody

"Why am I not surprised?"

End Confessional

Xxx

**Lyoko**

**Mountain Sector**

Three Raptors and landed in front a tower along with four Hornets and took position around it as it began to glow orange.

Xxx

With everyone making up their minds on who to bake and what to bake they went to work. LeShawna held a cell phone to her ear with her shoulder as she spoke to Harold on how to make the cupcakes. Izzy ran through the Team C kitchen juggling various items and ingredients while Courtney and Gwen worked on the sweets Sierra suggested.

About an hour later the food was brought out a nice table that those who did not bake had set up. There was a white clean table cloth across the table with a pretty flower arrangement in the center set in a vase. Chris approached the table and looked at all sweets.

"Nice set up with the table guys. Now let's see if the pastries are any better." Chris said. "Let's start with Team Amazon."

For Team Amazon Courtney held out an apple pie with vanilla icing placed on top of it with a cherry for Chris just like Sierra suggested. For Lesley Gwen held out a vanilla cake with cherry jam inside it for Lesley and for Roberto Heather placed mint ice cream sundae with fudge, a banana and cherry on top with sprinkles. All sweets were exactly like Sierra suggested. Luckily Gwen and Courtney worked well enough together that they were able to make the kind of sweets that Sierra suggested and Chris had stacked up on all sorts of baking goods.

LeShawna brought out a tray of chocolate cupcakes with a bit of chocolate icing and sprinkles. As for Team C, they had a fruit cake for each judge.

"Ooh, we have variety going on in Team Amazon," Lesley licked her lips as she looked at the vanilla cake.

"Plenty of sweets to save for later then!" Chris rubbed his hands together. "Okay, let's get to tasting!"

"Chris, we got you an apple pie topped with vanilla and a cherry." Sierra set the pie in front of him. "Lesley, soft vanilla cake with cherry jam filling. And Roberto, mint ice cream sundae with fudge, a banana and a cherry on top!"

"Ooh!" The three judges stared at their treats and dug in.

Chris cut a piece of pie for himself after popping the cherry in his mouth. He ate the piece of pie, savouring it. "Mm...apple...vanilla..." He fell over.

Lesley was enjoying her cake, giggling as she tasted the cake. "Oh my god that's so good!"

Roberto's sundae was already gone and he was curled up on his seat, foaming at the mouth and chewing on his nails, eyes blood shot from the massive sugar rush he was on now.

"Wow...I didn't think we were that good." Gwen whispered.

"I know," Courtney nodded.

"Aw man I am so saving that for later!" Chris handed the pie to an intern. "Okay! Definitely a ten out of ten for Team Amazon! Now for Team Victory!"

"We made cup cakes Harold gave us the recipe for!" Geoff said. "Try them!"

Each judge hesitantly took a cup cake and took a bite out of it. They paused...and scarfed down the cupcakes. Licking chocolate off her fingers, Lesley swallowed. "Mmm! Good!"

"Yeah! Who'd have thought nerdo would pull through!" Chris asked...and froze. "Do you feel that?"

"I don't know, do you feel funny?" Roberto asked, turning...green.

"You guys okay?" Bridgette asked.

"Depends, am I the only one feeling...like I'm gonna...OHH GOD!" Lesley ran out, followed by Roberto and Chris to the washroom.

Bridgette sighed. "We are so gonna lose. We should have used my vegan cookies!"

"My treats would have worked perfectly! I've got momma's touch!" DJ said.

"Or you could have let me try making my grandma's chocolate chip cookies!" Lindsay suggested.

Mind View!

Xxx

Armies of fire trucks surrounded Paris, the entire city in flames.

Now we might be exaggerating, but it just gets funnier every single time we bring it up!

Oh and..._Code Lindsay!_

Xxx

Chris, shaking sat down. "A for-" He gagged. "Taste. F for indigestion dude!"

"But I tried those cup cakes myself when Harold made them one occasion, they were great!" Trent said.

Xxx

Half an hour ago...

"Okay, remember this, we must not mix these two ingredients up. So for the sake of some people I've marked them as A and X." Trent said. "The A is the good one, the X is the bad one. Remember this, okay?"

"Okay!" The team nodded.

"Okay, let's go!" They scattered.

Lindsay hummed happily as she walked past the table...and knocked the two boxes over. The labels fell off. "Oops!" She placed the labels back on...the wrong boxes.

_Code Lindsay_, nuf said.

Xxx

"Okay, let's try and forget that by tasting Team...Me's food." Chris sighed. "Who baked?"

"Izzy! Chef Extraordinaire!" Izzy grinned. "And her lovely assistant Noah!"

Noah nodded. "Qui!"

"Okay...get the ambulance ready," Chris sighed as he looked at the fruit cake.

"Behold, the sacred fruit cake of the MacConn clan!" Izzy grinned. "Passed down the family line for generations!...well okay just two generations, my grandpa was a baker."

"Well...here goes nothing," Chris sighed. "If it kills me Carlos won't be able to get back at me for burning his Klondike bars."

Xxx

Carlos paused and clutched his chest, gasping as he fell to his knees.

"What's wrong?" Kurt asked.

"A sudden flow of anger and rage went through me...something tragic has happened." Carlos said grimly. "We must hurry and finish our mission!"

Xxx

"If I die, tell Carlos that his old lucky sun glasses are in my drawers at home." Lesley swallowed.

"If I die, tell that guy I'm gonna wail on him from the grave!" Roberto frowned. "And his carrot top buddy too!"

The three judges then tried the cake, tempting fate...

And their eyes snapped open.

"So...good." Lesley collapsed.

"Too...good." Roberto collapsed.

"...momma?" Chris joined them on the floor.

"MacConn fruit cake!" Izzy said with a Scottish accent. "Knocks the socks of yah laddie!"

"I think...we have a winner." Chris said. "Team...Me...So delicious...wins! Team Amazon in second place...Team Victory...change your name to team Wannabes and vote off the next loser."

"SCORE!" The three members of Team C exchanged a high five.

Xxx

Team Victory was gathered in the loser ceremony room as Chris came into the room with a tray of polished clean Chris trophies.

"Well, here are the trophies. Let's hurry and get this over with so I can enjoy the sweets." Chris said as he held out the tray.

"First trophy goes to ... LeShawna!"

Chris tossed the first one at LeShawna who caught it.

"Bridgette."

Bridgette smiled and caught hers.

"Geoff."

"WHOO-HOO!" Geoff said as he caught his.

There was now only one trophy left.

"Trent and Lindsay, the both of you screwed up and lost the challenge for everyone."

"Just get it over with!" LeShawna said.

Chris was about to give the last trophy to whoever was left when Lesley busted in.

"Chris, we've got to move!" She shouted.

"Can't you see I'm in the middle of the drama?" Chris groaned.

"You want drama? Okay, there are military tanks coming to life and coming towards the city!" Lesley shouted.

"WHAT?" The cast and crew shouted.

"Get everybody down to the emergency cellar!" Lesley ordered.

"Aw man this sucks so hard!" Chris whined.

"DO IT NOW MOP HEAD!" Lesley shouted.

"Okay okay! Sheesh, I swear if Carlos wasn't with Melissa I'd say you're pregnant or something!" Chris began to gather the crew, who dropped their equipment and rushed for the cellar.

While they weren't looking LeShawna, Trent, DJ, Geoff, and Bridgette slipped out.

Xxx

Aelita was looking at the news report of three new tanks coming to life and heading towards the factory. The doors opened the Lyoko Warriors walked in.

"You made it." Aelita smiled.

"We heard about the tanks from Lesley. Who's at it this time?" Gwen asked.

"Nephilim. There's an active tower in the Mountain Sector." Aelita answered.

"It's save the world time again!" Cody said.

Xxx

Everyone was soon enough in the Mountain Sector after a few minutes and they were on their way to the tower.

"_Here are the vehicles._"

Everyone got on their usual vehicles and took off.

"So Cody, what are we up against?" Bridgette asked as she flew through the air on her surf board.

"_It looks like there are three Raptors and four Hornets guarding the tower 35 degrees south of you guys._"

Looking ahead there was an orange glowing tower with three Raptors ahead.

"Anyone willing to guess this is a trap?"

"What made it so obvious?" Asked a familiar voice.

Nephilim stepped out from behind the tower and walked towards them.

"Take care of the tower and the monsters, guys. I'll take him." Duncan got off the OverBike.

"You against me? Apparently you haven't learned your lesson." Nephilim said.

He looked at the Hornets and smirked.

"If I am going to be outnumbered I might as well make it as hard as possible."

He held out his lance and an acid green mist and wrapped around the four Hornets. The monsters began to shake and grow as well as crack open. A pair of leathery razor sharp wings sprouted from the side, large ears sprouted from the head, red eyes, and their new bodies were covered in dark brown fur. The Eye of XANA was seen on its forehead.

The new Bats flew into the air towards the warriors.

"I got this!" Trent said as he fired a stream of fire at them.

The Bats dodged and sliced into the OverSled with their sharp wings and knocking Trent out of the air. They then fired their lasers and shot Trent until his life points hit zero. The Raptors joined in on the assault and fired at them. In the meantime Duncan changed into the Berserker and charged at Nephilim. Courtney stayed behind just in case Duncan needed help.

"Look out!" Bridgette shouted.

Izzy jumped at one of the Bats with her claws glowing bright, ready to slash them apart. However it dodged her by a hair.

"We'll take care of the bats. Get Aelita through those Raptors and to the tower." Gwen said as she went down to help Izzy along with Heather while Bridgette, Noah, and Aelita headed for the tower.

They landed next to Izzy as the Bats made another run at them. Gwen glowed yellow and the rocks around began to rise in the air. Several boulders were sent flying straight at the Bats and a sharp one managed to hit one in the Eye, destroying it. Heather fired her shuriken and managed to clip one Bat leaving two more.

In the meantime Noah turned his hands into guns as he and Aelita fired at the Raptors guarding the tower. They returned fire as Bridgette flew at full speed on her surf board. She slammed her board into the center Raptor and sent it over the edge and into the Digital Sea. Taking advantage of their distraction Aelita and Noah shot at the last two Raptors and deleted them easily.

Nephilim turned and saw the guards to his tower had been destroyed. He growled as he blocked Duncan's attack and slashed at Duncan, knocking him down. He aimed his lance at Aelita and fired a white beam at her. However just before it hit her the beam hit an invisible wall, protecting Aelita from the blow allowing Aelita to enter the tower.

Everyone stopped fighting to see a something land on top of the tower and look down at them. The figure was the same height as Carlos and wore a black cape with black armor and his face was covered by a white demon mask with the Eye of XANA on the forehead.

"Who are you?" Nephilim demanded pointing his lance at the figure.

**"My name is no concern of yours, virus. All that you need to know is that I am here to delete you."**

"We'll see about that!" Nephilim shouted and fired another blast but it didn't even hurt the figure.

Its armor absorbed the blast easily. The figure jumped off the tower and landed in front of Nephilim, pulling out two long daggers and struck Nephilim in the chest. Nephilim kneeled down and vanished into a black mist. The figure sheathed its daggers and turned to face the others.

"...was that a good thing that just happened?" Noah asked.

"Depends," Aelita stepped forward cautiously. "Who are you?"

**"I am Seraphim, and I have no business with you...Aelita Schaeffer."** The man, Seraphim stated.

"How do you know who I am?" Aelita asked, backing up a step.

**"Your identity has always been in my memory banks." **Seraphim replied.

"Did XANA send you? Are you another General?" Gwen demanded.

**"No," **Seraphim shook his head.

"Then what's with the XANA eye?" Duncan pointed.

**"This symbol did not originate from XANA, he inherited it as his sign, it is not rightfully his to use."** Seraphim straightened the cloak he wore. **"Now, you have a tower to deactivate. Nephilim will return soon, my attack only weakened him. Had I more time and power I would have finished him."**

Seraphim stepped off to the side and seemed to vanish. It looked like his entire body was folding in on itself until a small black dot was left floating in the air. Then it just popped out of existence, and Seraphim was gone.

"That was strange." Bridgette said.

"I know. We'll talk about it after the tower is shut down." Aelita ran into the tower and it was shut down in a few seconds and the Return to the Past program was activated.

Xxx

Once again the food was brought out a nice table that those who did not bake had set up. There was a white clean table cloth across the table with a pretty flower arrangement in the center set in a vase. Chris approached the table and looked at all sweets.

"Nice set up with the table guys. Now let's see if the pastries are any better." Chris said. "Let's start with Team Amazon."

"Ooh, we have variety going on in Team Amazon," Lesley licked her lips as she looked at the vanilla cake.

"Plenty of sweets to save for later then!" Chris rubbed his hands together. "Okay, let's get to tasting!"

"Chris, we got you an apple pie topped with vanilla and a cherry." Sierra set the pie in front of him. "Lesley, soft vanilla cake with cherry jam filling. And Roberto, mint ice cream sundae with fudge, a banana and a cherry on top!"

"Ooh!" The three judges stared at their treats and dug in.

Chris cut a piece of pie for himself after popping the cherry in his mouth. He ate the piece of pie, savouring it. "Mm...apple...vanilla..." He fell over.

Lesley was enjoying her cake, giggling as she tasted the cake. "Oh my god that's so good!"

Roberto's sundae was already gone and he was curled up on his seat, foaming at the mouth and chewing on his nails, eyes blood shot from the massive sugar rush he was on now.

"That never gets old." Gwen commented.

"Aw man I am so saving that for later!" Chris handed the pie to an intern. "Okay! Definitely a ten out of ten for Team Amazon! Now for Team Victory!"

"We made cup cakes Harold gave us the recipe for!" Geoff said. "Try them!"

Each judge hesitantly took a cup cake and took a bite out of it. They paused...and scarfed down the cupcakes. Licking chocolate off her fingers, Lesley swallowed. "Mmm! Good!"

"Yeah! Who'd have thought nerdo would pull through!" Chris asked as he swallowed. "Delicious! I never thought I'd find something better!"

"What?" Heather, Courtney, and Sierra said.

"I know. So good." Lesley sighed.

"A for Taste and A for sweet digestion." Chris said.

Team Victory managed to avoid losing this time thanks to the Return to the Past and figuring what happened the first time.

"Okay, let's try and forget that by tasting Team...Me's food." Chris sighed. "Who baked?"

"Izzy! Chef Extraordinaire!" Izzy grinned. "And her lovely assistant Noah!"

Noah nodded. "Qui!"

"Okay...get the ambulance ready," Chris sighed as he looked at the fruit cake.

"Behold, the sacred fruit cake of the MacConn clan!" Izzy grinned. "Passed down the family line for generations!...well okay just two generations, my grandpa was a baker."

"Well...here goes nothing," Chris sighed. "If it kills me Carlos won't be able to get back at me for burning his Klondike bars."

"If I die, tell Carlos that his old lucky sun glasses are in my drawers at home." Lesley swallowed.

"If I die, tell that guy I'm gonna wail on him from the grave!" Roberto frowned. "And his carrot top buddy too!"

The three judges then tried the cake, tempting fate...

And their eyes snapped open.

"So...good." Lesley collapsed.

"Too...good." Roberto collapsed.

"...momma?" Chris joined them on the floor.

"MacConn fruit cake!" Izzy said with a Scottish accent. "Knocks the socks of yah laddie!"

"I think...we have a winner." Chris said. "Team...Me...So delicious...wins! Team Victory comes in second place with the sweet delicious cupcakes. Team Amazon, you made some delicious sweets that I will treasure for later but now you will be deciding who goes home tonight."

Xxx

Team Amazon was gathered in the loser ceremony room as Chris came into the room with a tray of polished clean Chris trophies.

"Well, here are the trophies. Let's hurry and get this over with so I can enjoy the sweets." Chris said as he held out the tray.

"First trophy goes to ... Gwen!"

Chris tossed the first one at Gwen who caught it.

"Heather."

Heather smiled and caught hers.

"Cody."

"Beth."

There was now only one trophy left.

"Sierra, you gave good advice and if it wasn't for Harold's very sweet cupcakes and Izzy's awesomely delicious fruit cake you would have won. Eva, you don't how to bake. So who goes home tonight?" Chris said.

"Just get it over with!" Eva said.

"And the final trophy goes to . . . EVA!" Chris tossed her the final trophy.

Sierra stood up with tear filled eyes.

"Why? WHY?" She screamed and clung to an uncomfortable looking Cody while she was crying.

Chris whistled and two interns grabbed Sierra's arms and carried her out of the room and past everyone else without saying good bye.

Cody waited until he was sure she was gone and sighed in relief-off camera of course. Then he stepped back into view. "Aw well, she'll have another chance next season!"

"That's it for another episode of Total, Drama, Reality!" Chris said, emphasizing each word.

"Will you quit acting like William Shatner-" Lesley paused. "…do you smell something burning?"

"Hi guys! I made some extras!" Lindsay came out of a smoking kitchen.

"…Lindsay? Why is the kitchen filled with smoke?" Lesley asked.

"Well let's just say, now I know that after the cookies come out, you have to turn the dial to make the oven stop getting hot." Lindsay held up a tray of perfect looking cookies. "On the bright side, my cookies are done!"

Xxx

Several fire trucks pulled up outside the studio where the disgruntled cast and crew of Total Drama were sitting in the front lot, eating cookies.

"What in the name of god caused this one?" A fireman asked as several more rushed inside.

"Let's just say you might want to add this to your book," Lesley sighed. "Call this one…_Code Lindsay._"


	52. Episode 51: The Third Lab

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 52

Nephilim landed in front of a tower in the Ice Sector and slowly walked inside. Walking to the center of the main platform a screen came on.

"_Nephilim! How long has it been since you entered Lyoko? And yet you still haven't destroyed it yet! I made sure to make you even stronger than XANA but they have defeated you in each battle!_"

The person's voice was disguised by a cheap program which made Nephilim want to snort in disgust. All though he created him Nephilim didn't trust him and had plans to deal with him.

"There are new humans here in Lyoko with powers and abilities that I had not predicted. The next attack will crush them!"

"_I don't care if there is an entire army of them in your way, Nephilim. I want Lyoko destroyed and the keys BROUGHT TO ME!_"

Nephilim was surprised by the anger the hacker showed which was unusual as Nephilim has not ever experienced such an emotion.

"_I shall deal with these humans now, Nephilim. You will concentrate on your programming. Logging out._"

The screen vanished leaving Nephilim to growl. His patience with this hacker was reaching its limit but seeing as he was supposed to concentrate on Lyoko he guessed he could do both.

Xxx

"Okay, so if XANA didn't send this guy, then who did?" LeShawna asked as they had a meeting the next day at the mall.

Luckily for Aelita the next day was a holiday so she could leave and come out without worrying about any classes.

"I'm not sure. But for now looks we're looking at a possible ally." Cody said.

"Don't you think it's a little early to be saying he's an ally? For all we know he's working with the guy who made Nephilim." Duncan said.

"There's one very odd thing. When Seraphim disappeared the devirtualization program was activated." Cody said.

"What?" Nearly everyone said.

"I was surprised when Cody showed me the logs as well." Aelita nodded.

"Wouldn't he have come out of the scanner and we would have seen him on the cameras?" DJ asked.

"I know which is why I don't trust Seraphim yet." Aelita said.

"And you shouldn't." A familiar voice said, catching their attention.

Everyone turned around and their eyes widened as they saw a familiar person sitting a table close by with a lollipop.

"Lilith!" They all said at once.

Sure enough it was Lilith, XANA's top general, materialized in fully looking real life human form, licking a lollipop. "Yo."

Almost on an instinct formed from repeated weeks of fighting the warriors almost reached for their Lyoko weapons…only to remember they were in the real world.

"What did XANA send you into the real world for, and how are you even here without a tower?" Gwen demanded.

"I didn't come here to fight." Lilith waved a hand dismissively. "I just wanted to give you a clue on where Nephilim might have come from. We want him out of the way too. And that Seraphim guy rubs me the wrong way also. As for how I'm here without a tower….I'll tell you later, because I'm too bored to say anything else right now."

"And why in the seven circles of hell should we trust the girl who has repeatedly tried to kill us?" Noah asked.

"You shouldn't, but that isn't my problem." Lilith shrugged. "I'm sure you all remember what happened with the simulation bubble."

"It sucked," Cody said.

"Well then you'll know how XANA was able to heal Alejandro, but you never found out how he did it without a tower?" Lilith tossed away the small white stick (I don't know what the hell they call it, does anybody ever bother with it?) from her mouth and pulled a fresh lollipop out of her pocket. She popped it into her mouth. "Mmm….cherry."

"Well Darth Al is gone now so why should we care?" Duncan asked.

"Maybe because the only way XANA could have healed him without a tower was by putting him in a scanner." Lilith concluded her explanation. "Question: if you never saw him on the cameras, and you know XANA couldn't have tampered with those, where else in this city could somebody find a scanner like the ones in the lab?"

"The studio." Noah said without missing a beat. "The VR Pods are based off the scanners very loosely; I saw the schematics for both."

"Aank! Wrong, it wasn't the VR Pods!"

"I never said it was, I was only mentioning that they were based off the scanners. I'm pretty sure that in one of the zillions of locked rooms XANA could have arranged for a scanner to be built." Noah shrugged.

Lilith clapped. "Congratulations! If you're interested, then go back to the studio and wait for me in the Super Computer Room, if you really want to know. I've told you what I was sent for; the rest is up to you."

She stood up and vanished when no one was looking.

"Okay, we can go and most likely fall into a trap...or we go out, get lunch, and avoid the studio all day and night with any excuse possible." Noah said. "...aaaannndddd we're going to the studio aren't we?"

"It could be worth a try, they would consider Nephilim a big threat." Gwen said.

"Well let's get going then! This could be big." Heather exclaimed.

Xxx

"You sure they won't mind that I'm here if they see me?" Aelita asked.

"Don't worry about it. Chris won't care since he's still fixing his room, Lesley's off on business for the director and Roberto's off . . . Somewhere." Bridgette said.

They walked through the hall and towards the door that led to the supercomputer room. Normally the door was locked but they could see it partly opened.

"It's just like the night Alejandro went in there and came out looking all better." Gwen said. "And the cameras couldn't see a thing of how it happened."

They opened the door and walked in. The lights came on the moment they walked in. It looked empty as it usually did when it was not being used.

"I think we've been had." Duncan said.

"No, you weren't."

They spun around and saw Lilith leaning against the door behind them.

"I just went and stole a few snacks from that mop head of a host you've got." Lilith put a plates down that had some sweets on it.

"How are you able to be here without a tower?" Aelita asked.

Lilith sighed. "Well I suppose I should tell you now since you won't stop bothering me about. We Generals are a whole lot different from any of XANA's other creations. You're familiar with the Translation program your boyfriend created to materialize an image of you in the real world with your Lyoko forms and powers. Also Aelita you were once able to hack into the real world like XANA but you could do it without a tower but the difference was you couldn't create a spectre because of the energy required."

She held up a small bracelet with a small blue jewel in it.

"This lovely little bracelet is an invention created by XANA and given to me to test. It gives me a power not even he could use: the power to project an image of myself here on Earth. Because of the amount of energy this little bracelet has it serves as a power reserve that enables me to be here while not straining myself in the process."

"So in other words you're just an image." Noah said.

Lilith smiled mischievously. "I'm a lot more than that. Allow me to prove it."

Before anyone could do a thing Lilith moved like a blur and appeared in front of Noah and pulled his face towards hers and..._Kissed_ him!

After an awkward moment of silence Geoff let out a wolf whistle. "'Bout time bro!"

"She so wanted to do that for some time," Izzy said knowingly.

"Lucky," Trent muttered.

Lilith broke the kiss and let Noah fall over. "Not a bad kisser there Genius."

"Uh...thanks?" Noah stunned and on the ground replied.

"About time man!" Duncan commented. "This might convince everybody that you aren't gay!"

"Shut. Up." Noah got up. "Can you get to the point already?"

"One sec," Lilith then shouted. "YUKI! I've got the ice cream!"

Yuki appeared right in the middle of the group. "'Bout time too." She walked forward and took a bucket of vanilla ice cream from Lilith.

"Nice and cold, the way you like it." Lilith said.

"Is there any other way for it to be?" Yuki then took an ice cream scoop and opened the bucket.

She began to scoop out ice cream and eat it by the scoopful.

"...that's why you went looking for treats?" Gwen asked.

"She likes frozen treats!"

"Want one?" Yuki held out the scoop.

"...sure!" Izzy said.

"Aw why not." Geoff shrugged.

"Can I have one?" Cody asked.

Several ice cream scoops later, the group resumed their conversation.

"Okay, so why'd you bring us here?" Gwen asked.

"There's a secret elevator in here," Lilith explained. "Take a look around behind that wall." She pointed at a nearby wall.

They all looked at it. Trent spoke up. "I don't see anything..."

"Which is why I had this little handy power added." Lilith said.

A moment later lines of glowing blue code appeared along the wall.

"Whoa...what is this?" Cody asked.

"That is my power; it allows anybody who is attuned to the specific codes of Lyoko to detect systems linked to Lyoko itself. Not a combat power, but it comes in handy. You might find that you'll be a lot more sensitive to Lyoko from now on."

"So is this..." Gwen placed her hand on an eye of XANA in the middle of the wall, and it slid up.

"...cliché." Duncan commented.

"It was enough to hide from you until I showed you." Lilith replied as they all entered the elevator beyond.

The elevator took them down to a level marked Sub Basement Two judging from a screen on the wall. It slid open with a hiss, and lights flashed on, revealing an entire laboratory within.

"Is this where XANA hid his super computer?" Courtney asked.

"Now why would you think that?" Lilith asked innocently. "Just because I was sent to show you the lab where RealiTech is working on what XANA gave them doesn't mean that I'd show you where the boss hid himself. That would be very stupid to do. This is just where RealiTech took a while to research what they found and built all those wonderful toys up above." Lilith approached a console. "This is the master control, and from the looks of the warm egg sandwich," She picked up a sandwich wrapped n plastic. "Somebody has been here. I bet it's our mystery hacker."

"Right under our feet?" Heather asked.

"Clever," Noah nodded.

"So if the guy is still close I say we find him and kick the hell out of him," Duncan said.

"I actually agree with the Punk." Noah nodded.

"Butt kicking time!" Izzy nodded.

"...uh oh," Lilith looked around. "You might have to wait for that."

"What's up?" Gwen asked.

"Nephilim! Tower corrupted!" Lilith said urgently. "We've gotta go. There's a few scanners in here, put them to good use!"

The back of the lab lit up, revealing... six scanners. And before the Scanners, set up facing the semi circle was a control chair with a now active map of Lyoko.

"Cody, you operate it! Everybody who can go, get in!" Aelita ordered.

Xxx

In a just a few minutes everyone landed in the Ice Sector. When all eight warriors landed on Lyoko they took a look of their surroundings.

"Nice, chilly, and freezing me to digital death." Duncan commented.

"You sure it was a good idea to leave the others in the lab with Lilith and Yuki?" Courtney asked.

"They can take care of themselves. They're tough." Gwen said.

That was when Yuki landed in front of them with a flash of light.

"...She met no offense." Trent said quickly.

Yuki did not reply and pointed west of them. "The tower is there. You might want to hurry before your friends are hurt."

"What's Nephilim doing?" Bridgette asked.

"Several spectres were released into the real world inside the studio. Possibility of possession most likely." Yuki replied.

"And there we go," Noah said. "By the way, can anybody please tell me that Aelita kept the codes for our vehicles on disk-"

"And I gave them to Cody," Aelita finished as the vehicles appeared before them.

"So does Nephilim have more of those weird mutant monsters?" Trent asked.

Yuki nodded. "We've spotted several."

"Then why doesn't XANA summon a few hundred of his own?" Duncan asked.

"He doesn't want Nephilim to know he's alive." Yuki replied. "As long as Nephilim thinks he's the one in control, he'll keep his guard down and then when the time comes he'll be easy to destroy."

"And of course he wants us to be the distraction." Gwen shook her head as she got on the OverJet.

"We'll deal with this later. Right now we have to hurry before the storm destroys the city." Aelita said as she activated her wings.

"All right! Go time!" Izzy jumped onto the OverBoard.

"Whoo-hoo!" Noah said sarcastically as he got onto the OverWing with Heather.

Trent got onto the OverSled while Duncan and Courtney got onto the OverBike. Yuki watched as they took off towards the tower.

"So what kind of new monsters will we be dealing with this time?" Heather asked.

That was when everyone could see a dark cloud heading for them.

"That'd the new monster?" Trent asked.

"Not monster. _Monsters_." Aelita corrected as she fired an energy field at a creature that moved out of the cloud.

The orb hit the monster and everyone got a view of it.

"A whole swarm of Bats!" Bridgette said.

"Obviously Nephilim believes in strength with numbers." Gwen shook her head.

"How do we deal with all of them?" Trent asked.

"I got an idea. Duncan hold out your sword." Aelita said.

Duncan pulled out his sword and Aelita turned to Gwen.

"Gwen, use your fire aura on Duncan's sword."

"What?" Gwen asked.

"None of us have an attack that can take them all out once. Duncan's sword can unleash a fire attack but not enough to take them out all at once."

"So you want her to power me up so I can . . . Nice." Duncan smirked evilly.

"In that case should I use my fire note as well?" Trent asked.

"Too much and you could devirtualize him by accident." Aelita cautioned.

"No guts, no glory, Aelita. Hit me!" Duncan shouted as he held out his sword.

Gwen nodded and activated her fire aura. Duncan's sword was set on fire a second later as Gwen focused on it and Trent sent a stream of fire at it. Duncan's sword collected the flames and everyone watched as the flames swirled around the sword, changing from orange to green.

"I always loved setting things on fire!" Duncan shouted as he drove forward with Courtney screaming behind him and swung his sword.

The blast came out as a huge stream of green fire that engulfed the Bats, causing them to burn to ash. Some fell to the ground and dissolved into virtual ash and the rest exploded into a shower of great fireballs.

"... That was awesome!" Duncan smirked.

"What a way to take them all out." Bridgette commented.

"That was lame! I wanted a big scary monster to come out and surprise us!" Izzy whined.

Just after she said that a large green ball flew out from beneath them and exploded in a green flash that sent them all flying in opposite directions. They all skidded across the ground and their vehicles were devirtualized from the impact and the blast. Groaning they got up to see who had hit them. It was taller and even more muscular than even Chef and was dark gray.

It resembled a huge mechanical Gorilla with a large cylinder like tube on its left shoulder that was no doubt what fired at them. Its arms ended in three short fingers with large cannon like hole at the wrists. The head was completely blank with only a single glowing red Eye in the middle of the forehead. Its legs were short and stubby and had three claws for toes.

"..." For a moment Trent looked at Noah.

"What?"

"I thought you'd make some smart ass joke."

"Oh what, like 'King Kong called, he wants his style back?'" Noah asked.

"That works." Trent shrugged before the Gorilla fire the cannon on its shoulder. They scattered as it blew a large crater into the ground.

Xxx

"Oh man! This thing's fire power is off the charts!" Cody exclaimed. "I've got to hurry and give them their extra life points!"

That was when an error came up on the screen.

"What?"

That was a face came up on the screen, no one could see it because it was hidden in the shadow.

"_Cody Anderson and a few other competitors from the reality show Total Drama. I did not expect you to be Aelita's new allies but no matter. What you should know is that I am the hacker and you are no longer in control of Lyoko or the supercomputers that power it, I am! Nephilim may have failed in destroying Lyoko like I made him too but he succeeded in weakening Lyoko's defences enough for me to get in. Now I am capable of accessing the programs in Lyoko and destroy it along with your friends. And I have something to keep you all occupied._"

The doors busted open to show a possessed Chris, Chef, Roberto, Lesley and the remaining non-Lyoko warrior competitors.

"That's just low!" LeShawna shouted picking up a pipe.

Chris grabbed LeShawna and threw her across the room.

Xxx

The Gorilla made a large grunting noise as it pointed ahead and the Raptors charged forward, firing their guns at them. Trent ran out and created a barrier that blocked the incoming lasers.

"Anybody got any ideas on how to take of these?" Trent asked.

"We need to pin them down and take them out." Heather said.

"Since Izzy wanted a big scary monster she can handle King Kong's digital cousin." Noah said.

"Yay!" Izzy jumped up and down and turned into a bee and flew towards the Gorilla.

"And I guess we're stuck with these guys." Gwen looked at the Raptors.

"This'll be easy." Bridgette said as she swung her swords, firing her energy wave at them.

The Raptors dodged the blasts as the others with long range attacks fired at them. Gwen activated her wind spell and swung her scythe like a fan, creating a gust. But the Raptors dug their claws into the ice and managed to avoid getting blown back.

"I got an idea." Heather grabbed Noah's shoulder and they both turned invisible.

Xxx

DJ struggled to hold back the possessed Eva while LeShawna was dealing with a possessed Roberto and Chris and Geoff was left to keep the possessed Lindsay, Beth, and Lesley away from Cody. But he was knocked away and the possessed Beth grabbed Cody by the throat.

**"What's the matter, Cody? I thought we were friends."** The possessed Beth snickered.

"You're no friend of mine, Nephilim!" Cody growled.

Beth tossed him across the room and then tore the chair out of the floor.

**"Time to exterminate some bugs."**

She was about to smash Cody when a wrench hit her in the face!

"I don't think so, Nephilim!"

Everyone looked to see the scientist, Robby, the one who worked with producers on the TDR supercomputer.

Xxx

The Raptors continued to fire on the team as Trent attempted to block every attack. But sadly his shield collapsed and he was shot in the knee before Duncan pulled him out of the way. Heather reappeared in front of one Raptor with Noah right beside her and Noah ran forward and phased into it, possessing the monster. The now gray Raptor turned and fired on the other two, forcing them to turn away from the others and fire on their new adversary.

Izzy was dodging the Gorilla's blasts left and right, changing from various animals to dodge the blasts from the Gorilla's large cannon. Izzy turned into a bull and rammed into the Gorilla but the creature caught her and threw her back. It charged its cannon to fire at her but Bridgette fired an energy wave that cut the gun in half.

The Gorilla turned and saw the other warriors gather together with Izzy. It raised its hands and a pair of blades flipped outwards and around its hands, forming a pair of swords. It took a defensive stance as everyone prepared to attack. Trent, Noah, Bridgette and Izzy fired but the Gorilla raised its swords and blocked the attack.

"No good. We can't take it out with long range attacks." Duncan said stepping forward. "I'll deal with it. Just get to the tower."

"Are you crazy? There's no way you can take that out by yourself!" Courtney objected.

"Don't have to. Just distract it enough for the elf to get to the tower." Duncan said.

"Let me try and take it out. I can possess it and use it against anything guarding the tower." Noah said.

"If I can get close enough I can drain it of its life points!" Courtney said.

"That's enough!" Gwen shouted getting between them. "No one is strong enough to take on that alone! We need a plan here and now!"

"And I suggest you come with one soon."

Everyone looked up and saw Nephilim floating in the air.

"While you all argue my creator has taken control of the supercomputer in the factory allowing him to access Lyoko's programs and right now he's turned off the life points. Meaning if I kill you, you won't be coming back! And don't think for a second your friends up in that studio lab will be helping you. I've infected everyone else in the studio and soon those other pests will be nothing but a memory. And guess what ... THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT!"

He pulled out his lance and swing it down, unleashing a stream of energy down at them, scattering them with a huge explosion. Looking down at Aelita he flew at full speed with his lance out. Looking up Aelita fired a plasma beam but Nephilim held out a hand and a yellow shield blocked the attack. He landed right in front of her and slammed his lance into the ground causing a huge crack to form.

Aelita looked down and saw the cliff she was break up, separating from the rest of the ice platform. Waving her hand over her bracelet she activated her wings but to her shock and horror the Gorilla fired a blaster that her wing, shutting her wings off and leaving her to fall to the Digital Sea.

"AELITA! NO!" Gwen shouted.

"Somebody help her!" Trent called.

"Bridgette does your board-" Noah started.

She shook her head, showing her swords were now gone.

"Oh god!" Courtney shouted.

But just as Aelita was about to hit the water...something caught her. She opened her eyes and looked up to see a white demon mask with the eye of XANA on the forehead. A black cloak flared out, shaped like bat wings that flapped. Seraphim tilted his head. **"As cliché as this sounds, thanks for dropping in."**

"Seraphim!" Nephilim hissed. "You again!"

**"Yes, and I'm not too happy,"** Seraphim said as he set down on the platform. **"I hate cheaters Nephilim. You might have power, but you're just an overgrown child who likes changing the rules."**

"Who are you to dare judge me?!" Nephilim snarled.

**"Me? Oh I'm just...what you might call a Deus Ex Machina," **Seraphim then spread his hands and let out a sort of smoke like vapour. **"The tower you're using gives your hacker his connection to Lyoko. Once deactivated, it is severed. And you don't need Aelita to necessarily disable a tower...when you have THIS!" **The vapour formed into a large spear that Seraphim grasped. It glowed bright green with energy that gathered at the tip before he launched it across the horizon. Nephilim watched in shock as it cleared an immense distance and slammed into the tower.

**"Tower...disinfected." **Seraphim stated.

The tower regained its regular blue glow. Nephilim felt his influence within it die.

Xxx

The possessed victims were just about to finish off their pray when they sparked and collapsed.

"_No! No! I was there! This is not over! I will have Lyoko under my control again!_"

Xxx

"What have you done?!" Nephilim snarled.

**"I stopped you, virus."** Seraphim replied smugly. **"Aelita can deactivate a tower taken over by XANA...but I can disinfect ones taken over by anything that does not belong in Lyoko. And you,"** he pointed one finger at Nephilim. **"Are nothing but a parasite that has no place in this world, so you fall under my jurisdiction."**

"This isn't over!" Nephilim roared and vanished.

Xxx

"I'd suggest you guys make Return to the Past before they wake up." Robby said, getting up.

"But how do you . . ." Cody started.

"I'll answer that when you come back here." Robby said as he typed into the computer and pressed enter.

"Return to the Past now!"

Xxx

Everyone found themselves back in the elevator they had been in when they entered the lab only now Lilith and Yuki were not with them.

"That was too close." Gwen said.

"No kidding. But I know who's been down in the lab. It was Robby." Cody said.

"The guy who worked with Carlos and Kurt on the TDR computer?" Bridgette asked.

"Yeah. He showed up and saved me from getting crushed to death by Nephilim and he inputted the coordinates to the Return to the Past." Cody said.

"We better speak with him as soon as possible." Aelita said.

The doors opened and they found themselves back in the lab from earlier. Robby was sitting at the computer, finishing his sandwich.

"Come on in. I got a feeling you all want some answers . . . Especially you, Aelita Schaeffer." Robby said, taking a napkin and wiping the crumbs away.

"How do you know me?" Aelita asked.

"I met you a couple times when you were student at Kadic. Only that was back when you were called Aelita Hopper and your dad was teaching." Robby said.

"Wait, that was years ago. How old are you?" Trent asked.

"Well I'm in my late 30s but I like to think good exercise is keeping me in my early twenties." Robby shrugged. "As for you Aelita, either you've found a _really_ good solution to visible aging or you've found some way to remain seventeen despite the fact that you should be in your thirties out in the work world, probably meeting a nice young man. You said once you wanted to go into a career in physics. Only now you're majoring in DJing a band, the Sub-Digitals, nice choice by the way."

"What was your specific relation to my father?" Aelita asked.

"He was my teacher," Robby said. "I applied for computer and electronics at Kadic, and he took me on as an apprentice. Nice man, and a bit of a philosopher, taught me things about computers I thought we were years from practicing. He also really liked ancient history, quoted Confucius a lot when he didn't reference Roman Conquests. And of course there was the incident where your whole family vanished. Those men in black came to Kadic and questioned everybody who knew him. Luckily for me, they didn't suspect me at all. But I found a copy of his diary in a location I think he wanted me to find, showed me the whole thing. Carthage, Lyoko, his wife, and his attempt to stop Carthage with XANA. Needless to say I was shocked and knew if I was found I'd suffer whatever fate these guys had for anybody in their way, so I made a run for it from France to America for a few decades while I decoded the diary. I tried to piece together what happened. And after I was done decoding everything, I copied it all on paper-and by the way that's why you will never see me use a pencil again, and then deleted the computer files. I found an interesting name in Carthage's lead team, Doctor James Lyon. Very nasty man, according to Schaeffer he was first approached by Lyon to take part in Carthage, and then was threatened with the death of his family if he refused to help."

"Saw that coming," Duncan said.

"Needless to say he cooperated, and during his work on Carthage he met the woman he would later marry and have a child with. Needless to say they both knew what would happen if Carthage got out, and so agreed to find a way to stop it. Unfortunately, Lyon found out, they interrogated your dad's parents and sadly they chose death over betraying your parents." Robby sighed. "Nice people didn't deserve it. And then the whole Carthage event happened. For an instant, all electronics went off, it was the Dark Ages. But then, they all came back on line with a strange eye symbol for just a second. Guess what that was."

"XANA doing his original job." Aelita said.

"Yeah, destroy Project Carthage, and he succeeded without a single flaw." Robby said. "But then Lyon went after Schaeffer, who had essentially deleted all of the blue prints that went into making Carthage. He wanted Schaeffer to make something bigger than even XANA, something that would make Carthage look like a second rate accounting program. Your parents went to witness protection, but even then that wasn't enough. Somebody sold them out, and I think you know what happened next."

"They took my mother." Aelita nodded.

"I don't know exactly what happened to Antea, but she vanished off the face of the Earth. When I found out how far Lyon would go, I knew I had to stop him. I made a little something to counter his work...and you met him twice." He tapped a console. "Seraphim."

Suddenly Seraphim appeared, but he did not wear his cloak and mask. Instead, he had the image of a young man with brown hair, pale skin, and bright green eyes. He wore all black attire. "Yeah dad?"

"Sorry, I was introducing you to everybody," Robby said. "I made Seraphim by dabbing into Scaheffer's work with XANA, only I used my scanned DNA to give him his form and ability to think on the fly. And it just so happens that your dad's diary had an automatic update link with Lyoko, so I knew XANA turned on you. I spent years trying to find the super computer so I could send Seraphim in, kill XANA and save you and your dad. But sadly I never found it and I had to keep on my toes while I watched for Dr Lyon."

"Sorry I never showed up to do my job," Seraphim said to Aelita. "If I had, maybe a lot of the fighting could have been avoided."

"We don't blame either of you," Aelita assured them. "I'm glad that somebody was still looking for me at least."

"Well from what we can tell the workers from Carthage, or more specifically Dr Lyon sent a super virus into Lyoko to take control of XANA, but it didn't work out. The virus tried to infect him while Schaeffer turned off the super computer. Sadly...the virus merged with him. This led to the birth of the XANA you all have come to know. Before that I actually saw him use his powers to play with Aelita a bit when she was just three or four." Robby smiled sadly. "He even saved her life when she was six and was stalked by some wolves. Hard to believe, right?"

"Considering he's tried killing us 74 different ways, yeah." Noah nodded.

"Well Dr Lyon applied for a job at RealiTech, so I knew it couldn't be good. So I applied for the job myself to keep an eye on him. He never met me, so it was perfect, but then he vanished following an attack you all know of that happened two and a half months ago." Robby continued.

"Red Eye Virus attack." Gwen nodded.

"From what I've seen he's spent months travelling all over the globe to places containing Super Computers that held pieces of what he called 'XANA's Corpse'." Robby air quoted. "This is how he made Nephilim, creating him from XANA's remains, but imagine my surprise that when Seraphim logged onto the Super Computer and found you're okay, XANA's still alive, and the contestants from Total Drama have been helping you out. It was a big shocker. No offense to any of you, you just never appeared to be...hero material, at least not all of you."

"None taken dude!" Cody replied with a smile.

"I was considering sending Seraphim to help you guys, but when Dr Lyon disappeared I couldn't let him out of sight. So I sent Seraphim to track him all over the globe."

"I'm quite good at it," Seraphim nodded. "XANA might be able to possess things, but I can track and monitor things 74.3672 times faster than he ever could."

"Did you find XANA's location?" Courtney asked.

"Sadly no, wherever he has hidden himself is so complex even I can't find him." Seraphim shook his head. "To be honest I think he expected this. But now this is a war on three fronts. You have to deal with Lyon and Nephilim trying to take over the world, and XANA trying to destroy it."

"Dr Lyon needs the Keys to Lyoko and the only person who has them is in this room," Robby nodded to Aelita. "He plans to destroy Lyoko and the super computers that power it, but keep Aelita alive long enough to take them, which is where Nephilim comes in. Nephilim is his connection, and is able to hack into Lyoko easily. Now with me around you can focus more on XANA, but I might need help to disable infected towers. The Lyoko code won't affect Nephilim influenced ones now, following a massive update Nephilim gave himself to counteract it. Imagine it like two puzzle pieces, one is Code: LYOKO and the other is the infection of XANA. Let's say he changed that second piece so they don't fit together."

"So why'd you create Seraphim and these scanners? Did you plan to go to Lyoko?" Aelita asked.

"Sadly no, with my heart condition I could never go to Lyoko. A devirtualization could be fatal to me." Robby shook his head. "That's why I made Seraphim. Also...along the road we did get curious about seeing if he could be devirtualized eventually. I didn't want to leave the closest person I have to a son to float on some Disk Drive forever. Sadly Aelita that's the mistake your dad made with XANA when he tried to shut down the super computer...no offense, but XANA was like a child by then. If your father tried to murder you, what would you feel like afterwards?"

"Like crap, like I wanna kill someone," Duncan shrugged. "...like I wanna get back at them."

"And the virus just made him all more willing," Robby nodded. "So even if this all works out I plan to continue my work and materialize Seraphim. Even if I fail, I have taken measures to make sure that he will have some...trustworthy colleagues to continue my work should I not live to that day. Anyways, now that Dr Lyon knows the Super computer is in France, he'll come back, and could very well set up his own scanners, so we might see him in Lyoko. There is one thing you should know: he can activate towers with his connection through his computer, but unlike XANA he can activate a tower without expending energy. You shut down one tower; he could turn another one on in a few hours."

"So then that is where we should bring in our two newest muscle men." Heather said. "If Kurt and Carlos knew where these scanners were,"

"And given the incentive, they'd blow them to pieces." Robby nodded. "They're good at that. I even planned to show them the crimes I believe Dr Lyon is involved in. That could at least give them an excuse to investigate him...or more."

"Sounds me like you have enough to have the guy shot," Trent commented.

"True, but the reason I never came forward before is that he is too well connected. Antea was kidnapped when the Schaeffers went to the Witness Protection Program by MI6 and then Aelita and his dad disappeared when they showed up at Hermitage again a few years later. It doesn't matter who you go to, he has connections with them, so you need hard, incriminating evidence to put him away."

"That or we can just let Kurt and Carlos take him down the old fashioned way. He sounds like he deserves it!" Duncan said.

"Yeah, that turkey needs an ass whoopin'!" LeShawna agreed.

"Kill the Geek!" Izzy chanted.

"Well for now we'll wait for him to show his face," Robby shrugged. "He might not be able to remember things from any Returns to the Past, but when he has a scanner built and goes into Lyoko...he'll be a big problem. So I'd suggest that with any Nephilim attacks we avoid Returns to the Past if at all possible. If he almost succeeds in making an attack happen, we can let the world wonder what had caused it a bit, but if he causes serious damage we can afford to go back in time."

"Any chance of Seraphim getting close enough to wipe the floor with Nephilim next time?" Gwen asked.

"Close, they're actually on even ground but Seraphim usually has the element of surprise and a more advanced search engine installed." Robby said. "If he was real he'd probably never forget a single thing for the rest of his life."

"So we have two new allies," Aelita smiled. "And one of them can go toe to toe with Nephilim, excellent!"

"Glad to offer my services, it's the least I can do for all the help your dad has done." Robby nodded.

"Next time I see Nephilim, he's toast." Seraphim nodded. "Just point the way Boss-Lady."


	53. AN

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Message: Hello all of my readers and reviewers who have enjoyed reading my latest fic, Code Total Drama Reality. For those of you are eagerly awaiting an update I am sorry to disappoint you that there may not be any updates for a while because the hardware for my laptop crashed and it had the chapter I was ready to post. So for a while now I'm afraid Code: TDR may be on temporary hold until I can get all this crap fixed up. Do not worry though as the story shall continue.

In the meantime here are a few things that I want to post. I am redoing a couple of chapters that have some typos. I know I'm not the perfect writer and I manage to catch a few mistakes before I put the chapters up but I always seem to find one more. I really don't like when I see them up but I can't seem to help not noticing these things.

Also here is the theme for the opening of Total Drama Reality, the show, not the story. Here ya go!

(Total Drama Theme Starts)

(Cameras and lights appear and flies into the studio from the front entrance, through the common room, the café, the dorms, and into the supercomputer room where Chris turns and ducks as it flies into the screen)

_Dear Mom and Dad I'm doin' fine,_

(In a dungeon Chef is wearing a cloak and holding a mace while fighting LeShawna who has a larger hammer. A trap door opens and Chef falls in leaving a laughing LeShawna)

_You guys are on my mind._

(Chef falls into a lake and is greeted by a naked Owen underwater who farts, making Chef jump out of the water screaming)

_You asked me what I wanted to be_

(The fart travels up to a boat where Tyler and Lindsay are making out and it knocks them both out.)

_And now I think the answer is plain to see,_

(The camera travels to a building where Harold is doing karate moves until he is shot by a laser, making him vanish.)

_I wanna be famous._

(The camera travels down to see Duncan in a car holding a laser gun, laughing his ass off while Gwen sit next to him driving, shaking her head. The car bumps into another car with Courtney in it and she shakes her fist at them)

_I wanna live close to the sun,_

(The camera moves to another location where Katie and Sadie are gushing over Trent who plays the song with Justin, Cody, and Geoff on a stage and Bridgette runs up and kisses Geoff and Sierra jumps onto the stage and chases Cody)

_Go pack your bags, 'cause I've already won,_

(The camera than shifts to a shaking DJ in a wrestling ring as Eva cracks her fists. DJ runs screaming and Eva chases him)

_Everything to prove, nothing in my way_

(They run past Darth Alejandro who is attempting to dance with Heather on a dance floor)

_I'll get there one day._

(Izzy swings from a building and lands on top of DJ and they both land on Beth who is relaxing at the beach with the sharks)

_'Cause, I wanna be famous!_

(The camera flies out of the screen to show Chris laughing and gets slapped on the back of the head by Carlos)

_Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na NaNa NaNa Na Na!_

(Kurt sits down at the computer and pushes a red button)

_I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous_

(Everyone comes out of the pods and Chris holds up the case containing the prize money. Ezekiel sneaks up and tries to steal it but Chris turns and runs)

_I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous_

(Everyone laughs and wave at the camera as it zooms back and the large screen shows '**Total, Drama, Reality'** while Chris runs by with the money still in his hands and Ezekiel still chasing him.

(_Whistling: I wanna be, I wanna be famous_)

Xxx

What do you think? Does it go with the usual Total Drama opening? Most Definitely? Partly? Not All?

Oh here's a few questions that I need to ask that we should all consider. Such as:

Who do you think is the best villain?

A) The classic and ever persistent, **XANA**, the original enemy of the Lyoko Warriors?

B) The vengeful **Shadow**, the clone of the original William who wants revenge on everyone who was wronged him in his mind?

C) The reincarnation of Project Carthage, **Nephilim**, who seeks revenge on the Schaeffer family?

D) The mad programmer, **Dr. Lyon**, who started Project Carthage and kidnapped Aelita's mother?

Who do you think should win Total Drama Reality?

A)Gwen  
B) Geoff  
C) Bridgette  
D) DJ  
E) LeShawna  
F)Cody  
G)Courtney  
H)Heather  
I)Izzy  
J)Duncan  
K)Trent  
L)Noah

I ask this because it's obvious the Lyoko Warriors will vote off anyone who is not a member to stay and continue the fight. But for those who want to add a few more should know that I have an idea on how but I can't because there are so many Lyoko Warriors now. So for any new warriors to show up a few will have to go like how I made DJ, Geoff, LeShawna, and Cody temporarily out of the fight on Lyoko. I have an idea on who will go but I won't say anything but when it happens I will explain my reasons. Also anyone who leaves may get a return cameo. Who knows? I'll see what I can do.

And for anyone who wants a loser to return who would you pick?

A)Harold  
B)Owen  
C)Ezekiel  
D)Tyler  
E)Katie  
F)Sadie  
G)Alejandro  
H)Justin  
I)Sierra

I might arrange for one or two losers to return but I'd like to see who most people would prefer which loser to come back.

Xxx

**Here's a spoiler for all of you out there who eagerly await the next few Arcs.**

(The entire Lyoko Warriors Team, minus Aelita, Gwen and Heather stand in an elevator travelling down a tunnel in Sector Five)

_New secrets at every turn…_

(The elevator comes out into a giant city with blue digital roads)

_Enemies awaiting them…_

(Nephilim and Seraphim clash with their blade in mid air)

_New powers…_

Aelita: Computer! Load Program: Code ANGEL! (Aelita is covered in a white light)

_New Challenges_

Chris: Now get ready for Total Drama Reality's Battle of the Bands! (standing on stage)

Carlos:…we are so sued. (slaps himself in the face)

_Into the depths of their enemy's stronghold they will go.._

Aelita: We're here! After all this time!

Gwen: What's next?

Aelita: We find them.

(Ulrich, Yum, Odd, Jeremy, and William are trapped in floating pods, comatose)

_Their greatest enemy_

XANA: What's the matter Aelita, after all this time you've finally found the people you've sought, yet you show no joy. (taps Jeremy's pod) Is it that you're happier with your new friends?

Aelita: (shoots a single blast at XANA that manages to make him step back from Jeremy's pod) Stay away from them!

XANA: Ooh, touchy. (Smirks) Well then, let's invite everybody so we can have some fun.

(The Lyoko warriors move into stances with their weapons drawn)

_Trapped in the belly of the beast…_

XANA: It's the least I could do out of compassion, now you can all sleep together in the same tomb.

_Facing dangers they have never seen before_

Trent: Look out for the fire! (pulls Gwen out of the way of falling lights as the studio burns)

(Aelita flies over XANA shooting spheres at him, he parries them with his sword)

(Duncan and Courtney are impaled by blade tipped tentacles from Nephilim, who smirks as they vanish)

(Seraphim is stabbed by XANA in the City Sector, and falls to his knees)

_In the end…only one will be left standing_

_Code Total Drama Reality_

_Coming Soon_


	54. Episode 52: Back to the Aftermath

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

"CODE TOTAL DRAMA REALITY CAST CALL!" Kurt and Carlos called simultaneously.

"Leader of Team Lyoko, Aelita Schaeffer!" Kurt grinned.

"Here!" A pink haired girl said clearly.

"Spell Caster, Gwen!"

"Here!" The goth girl stepped up next to Aelita.

"Surfer girl Bridgette!"

"Here!" Bridgette came down on a floating surf board.

"Party animal Geoff!"

"WOO HOO DUDES! HERE- WAGH!" Geoff tripped over a random banana peal and groaned on the ground. "Here..."

"Ouch," Carlos winced. "Next, animal lover and jolly giant: DJ!"

"Here!" DJ shouted as he ran up.

"The girl with the attitude, LeShawna!" Kurt continued the rolecall.

"Right here baby!" Leshawna said.

"Time Master and James Bond Wannabee, Cody!"

"Here!" Cody waved his hand as he ran in.

"Music assassin, Trent!"

Playing a note on his guitar, Trent nodded. "Here!"

"Punk Warrior Duncan!"

"Here!" Duncan walked up. "And call me that again and I'll hit you in the-"

"CIT and Princess, Courtney!" Kurt cut Duncan off.

Courtney lightly slapped Duncan on the back of the head as she walked up. "Here!"

"Ninja, Heather!"

"HAI-YAI-YAI-YAI!" Heather, doing cart wheels and flips landed next in line. "Here!"

"Crazy fox girl, Izzy!"

"WOOOOO-" THUD!

"Oops, sorry!" Izzy looked down at her uh...victim.

"Smart ass poltergeist wannabe, Noah!"

"Here..." Noah groaned under Izzy. "Can you get off me?"

"Total Drama Reality Host..." Carlos sighed. "Chris."

"Here dudes!" Chris walked up, both hands held up in peace signs as the cast groaned.

"Co-Host, Lesley!"

"HAI-YAI-YAI-YAI-YAI!" Suddenly Lesley landed on Chris.

"...who is copying Heather and Izzy...fortunately for us all no one can sue her." Kurt added. "Co-Producer, Carlos!"

"I'm right here dude!" Carlos said.

"It's the script, stick with it!" Kurt snapped. "And Co-Producer Kurt...is who I am!"

"And now, finally, the head director and creator of Code Total Drama Reality: Looooooorrrrddd Maximus!" He aimed at the author...who was basically a cloaked figure with a simple pair of large glasses and a false nose and moustache on.

"...you're all fired." Maximus said.

"WHAT?" The cast screamed.

"We all ended up fired when the hard drive for the computer holding the script for the whole season got fried!" Maximus explained.

"We got cancelled?" Izzy screamed. "But I never got to lay an egg on Lyoko!"

(FUN FACT: Izzy want's to see if she can lay an egg on Lyoko when she takes the form of a chicken, penguin, or any type of animal that can lay an egg.)

"Yes, cancelled, thanks to that annoying error and now we have to wait and see if it can be fixed.." Maximus sighed. "Maybe, but in the mean time I've been bored. Everybody else pack your stuff."

"But I never got to win the money!" Heather protested.

"Like you would have won," Kurt grumbled.

"I won last season!"

"Writers never have the same victor twice in a row." Carlos added. "It gets boring if you win too many times."

"Yep, sorry people, pack up and get out." Maximus paused as his Black Berry rang. He answered. "Max's Assassination Services ,you pick 'em we- oh, sorry. Yes?...yeah? Uh huh...I see...thank you." He hang up. "...Good news everybody! The Hard Drive was fixed and the script is unharmed! Which means we can finish the story!"

"WOO HOO!" Geoff shouted.

"We're back!" Carlos grinned.

"Yes, we're back on the air!" Maximus nodded.

"Huh?" They all stared.

"Yes! Back to flying through the air over Lyoko in combat with monsters and villains!" Maximus declared.

"YEAH!"

"Let's start the next episode! Take it away Aelita!" Maximus said.

"Someone in the Total Drama Cast is going to win a million dollars," Aelita said.

"And we're going to help Aelita destroy XANA," Gwen added.

"It's gonna be so action packed dudes!" Geoff said.

"Kurt and Carlos will get to beat on Chris more!" Lesley added.

"YEAH!" Carlos and Kurt (Kurt AND Carlos damn it!) cheered. "We're back baby!"

"If I wasn't married I'd be so happy I'd kiss you!" Carlos said to Lesley.

"Crap," Lesley grumbled.

"Let's get on with the show folks; I'm not paying you to sit around!"

"...you pay us?" Trent asked.

"A million dollars if you win, so yeah, I pay you!" Maximus nodded. "Now get your lazy butts in gear! We have fans and reviewers to please!"

The cast scattered.

"Ah...time to get to work," Maximus opened his lap top...

And as soon as he connected to the internet he got a virus.

"SON OF A-"

(That last part didn't happen, don't worry folks.)

* * *

Chapter 53

"So, this Dr. Lyon is the one behind the new AI?" Kurt asked as he sat down in the office with Robby.

Robby shifted in the chair and nodded. "Yes. He's a skilled computer expert who rivalled the most brilliant minds in the world from the nineties. After he graduated from college at age eighteen he went on to make a corporation that was known for manufacturing mother boards used to control nuclear missiles back then. That was when he proposed a project to take control of all electronics."

"Project Carthage." Kurt nodded.

"Exactly. However even he didn't have the intelligence to create what he proposed to he found other ways." Robby said.

"Murder, extortion, kidnapping, bribe, and blackmail." Kurt said. "What a bad little egg this guy turned out to be."

"That's putting it mildly." Robby said.

"So now we just need to track him down." Kurt said as he put the file down on the table.

"Which is more difficult than it sounds."

"Compared to what Carlos and I have been through this will be easy." Kurt said.

"Speaking of which where is Carlos anyway?" Robby asked.

"He's seeing Chris about some missing Klondike bars."

Xxx

Chris hummed as he opened the door to his room and turned on the light. He expected to see his room exactly the way he left it and he did. What he did not expect to see was his cousin Carlos sitting in his nice chair with a toy cat in his hands, stroking the fur like it was a real cat.

"Hello, Chris." Carlos said with a soft tone like that of a super villain and if someone else was there they would swear they were hearing a type of theme song used in secret agent movies. "I've been expecting you."

"AH!" Chris yelped, jumping back a bit.

"Yeah, I just always wanted to do that so I brought out some toys from the good old days." Carlos held up the toy cat. "Just so you know you will be paying for all the missing Klondike Bars."

"Yeah... I don't think so." Chris put his hands on the desk and looked around. "Where's Mr. Jellypants?"

"Who?" Carlos shrugged.

"I said where's Mr. Jellypants?" Chris shouted banging his fist on the desk.

"He's in a safe place." Carlos tossed the toy cat at Chris who caught it. "But if I don't see all the missing Klondike bars replaced he might just . . . have an accident."

Chris gasped as Carlos got out of the chair and headed for the door.

"For god sakes, Carlos, it's just an innocent doll!" Chris shouted.

"You brought Mr Jellypants into this Chris; he'll be a victim of war unless you meet my demands." Carlos said grimly.

"How do I even know he's alright?" Chris shouted.

"Well here's...THIS!" Carlos held up what looked like a tiny top hat.

"His _hat!_" Chris gasped. "You took his hat!"

"And I'll take one of his legs next unless I see those Klondike Bars Chris, so choose," Carlos grinned evilly. "And choose quickly." He laughed evilly as he backed out of the room...and then stuck his head back in. "Oh I forgot my coat." He grabbed his coat off of the coat rack next to the door. "It's your choice Mr Mclean!" He laughed evilly again as he backed out of the room.

Xxx

Seraphim preformed a routine patrol of Lyoko as he normally did since he arrived, on the lookout for signs of Nephilim or Dr. Lyon.

He landed on top of a tower in the Mountain Sector and looked around.

'After all the years that were spent looking for this place I am finally here.' Seraphim thought.

"Enjoying the sights?" A voice asked.

Turning around he faced a black coated figure stood out in the open, seemingly doing nothing.

"You interested in what is going on here, huh, Seraphim." The figure turned to face him.

**"You are the hacker, Dr. Lyon are you?"**

"Yes."

**"Then I will have to destroy you."**

"You destroy me? Amusing?"

Seraphim pulled out two daggers and charged but Lyon stopped him one finger!

"You're going to have to do better than that."

Lyon grabbed Seraphim and threw him into a tower, sending pulsations out on impact. Seraphim got up, shaking slightly.

**"You're tough but let's see how you handle this!"**

His cape spread out and a black spear flew out. However Lyon jumped over the spear and landed back on the same spot.

"Listen to me, Seraphim. You are strong but you will never attain your goal in destroying Nephilim."

**"What are you talking about? I am more than a match for Nephilim."**

"Oh really?"

Seraphim spun around and avoided getting speared by Nephilim's lance. He dodged in a black streak and threw a knife but it didn't make Nephilim flinch. Seraphim teleported behind Nephilim's back but Nephilim surprised him by whirling around and slammed his lance into Seraphim's face, knocking to the edge of the cliff. Nephilim raised his lance to finish the job but Seraphim had a surprise of his own waiting for just the right moment.

Just as Nephilim was about to stab him he threw a knife right into Nephilim's left eye!

"AAAARRGGHH! You'll pay for that!"

However Nephilim never got his chance as Seraphim jumped up and pulled out a katana.

"That'll be the day!" Seraphim yelled as he sliced Nephilim's arm off.

Nephilim staggered, stepping back as Seraphim prepared to finish him. But a barrage of lasers stopped him and he looked to see about twenty Raptors and fifteen Bats ready to attack.

**"Too scared to take me on alone, Nephilim?"**

"Call it insurance! Attack!"

Seraphim dodged the incoming lasers and blocked with his daggers when he couldn't dodge.

"You think a two bit anti-virus program can defeat me? Don't make me laugh. My power is limitless!" Nephilim laughed as his arm regenerated.

**"Coming from a mere copy?"**

"I am no copy! I am the AI God of this world!"

**"You don't get it do you? You were not created from the remains of XANA; you were made from the remains of a copy!"**

"And how could that be when there was no copy?" Nephilim asked sarcastically.

**"You haven't figured it out. XANA faked his death by leaving a copy to be destroyed by the XANA-Destruction program! You were made from XANA's copy!"**

Nephilim's eyes widened and he growled dangerously.

"Liar!"

**"Look at the databanks and you will see."**

"Tear him apart!"

The monsters aimed and fired but Seraphim covered himself with his cloak and vanished before the lasers hit him.

"Coward!" Nephilim growled in hate. "You will pay for this!"

"Let him go. We have work to do." Lyon said and a portal opened.

Nephilim growled but followed Lyon into the portal.

Xxx

"Will you hurry and switch on the TV already!" Heather shouted impatiently.

"Yeesh, what's with her?" Noah asked.

"Today's the Aftermath show." Gwen said, looking up from her sketching book.

"Oh, and she wants to see Pirate Pablo out of the suit and hope he says about how badly he misses her." Duncan teased her.

Heather of course reacted by throwing a mug at him. Duncan ducked and hit the wall.

"Hey! Just so you know the more of a mess you make the more difficult you make it for us to do our jobs. And the more difficult you make it the more I feel like making the next challenge more Chris like!" Lesley shouted as she worked to make the TV work again.

"Sorry!" Duncan and Heather said at the same time.

"Good, now..." Lesley paused as _something_ appeared on the TV. "WHOA NELLY!" She covered the screen. "Don't look kids! Not for the eyes of the youth!" She chuckled, embarrassed. "Uh...let's forget that happened, okay?"

"Forget what happened? You covered the TV too quickly." Cody said.

"Uh...nothing." Lesley fiddled with the cables more. "There!"

The Total Drama Reality Aftermath introduction played on the screen and faded to the talk show set in front of a live audience. The audience began applauding and cheering at two familiar figures that sat on a large couch. While on the right all of the other contestants who were eliminated early sat on two couches with the back one elevated slightly above the other in height. Ezekiel looked better than he did before.

He was still bandaged up but he looked a lot healthier this time. He didn't look like a zombie anymore but he still was in a full body cast.

"Welcome to Total Drama Aftermath!" The omni-annoying blondein the red dress, Mildred 'Blaineley' O'Hallarn said.

"Oh. My. God." Lesley twitched.

"What, you know her?" Duncan asked.

"Dated her," It took the group about a minute or so to process that.

"Say what?" Trent blinked.

"It was a phase," Lesley gulped. "It was high school! I was curious!"

"Sexy phase," Chris giggled.

Lesley grabbed another mug and tossed it at him. He ducked and it smashed a picture of Chris-one of many he had hung up in the studio. "You missed!"

"Did I?" Lesley smirked and pointed up...just as the giant portrait fell over and landed on Chris, whose head stuck up through the frame. And this particular picture had Chris posing, muscles flexed with his back to the camera, his head partially turned to smile at it. So the real Chris' head went right up through the ass.

"Ooh, that picture's gotta hurt!" Duncan winced.

"I am your host Blaineley!" Blaineley continued.

"And I'm Owen! HI MOM HI IZZY!" Everybody's favourite fat man shouted.

"And we're here to bring you all the juicy parts of Total Drama, inside and out of the show itself." Blaineley continued. "It's been an interesting season. It's not as dangerous and dramatic as the last couple of seasons but it still has its laughs!"

A clip then appeared on the screen.

_"NO!" Chris fell to his knees._

_"I FIND HIM IN CONTEMPT!"_

_Chris was dragged out of the courtroom by two security guards,_

Everyone in the studio and the audience laughed at the clip. Chris simply crossed his arms and pouted like a child.

"I never get tired of seeing that." Lesley chuckled.

"What a day that was?" Blaineley asked.

"I know. I couldn't believe it happened." Owen replied.

"Well get ready for more because we are going to have a lot of fun this time." Blaineley said with a mischievous smirk. "Our teams are running low right now. Team Chris has three members left, while Victory and Amazon have six players each. And now, the first to join our batch of losers: Alejandro!"

Then he came on, healed and looking as handsome as before his 'lava accident', minus his now shorter hair and lack of goatee. Alejandro waved to the audience as he jogged on stage and vaulted over the back of the couch, landing between Blaineley and Owen...and then quickly switched with Owen-since even he hates Blaineley.

"So Alejandro, runner up to Total Drama World Tour, how does it feel to be out of the robot?" Blaineley asked.

"It's awesome! I can finally run, jump, and eat my own food now! No more straws for me." Alejandro grinned. "Course I still have a special chemical in the tub to help make sure the ol' skin stays normal every night. Special condition, the skin may look healed, but it can really hurt if something hits it hard."

"Aw man you're taking it so well! You're awesome!" Owen slapped Alejandro on the back.

"YOWCH!" At first Alejandro looked ready to kill, and then he took a breath and calmed down. "...please don't do that."

"Sorry," Owen realized his mistake.

"So Alejandro, how do you feel about being voted off by your team?" Blaineley asked.

"It was majorly annoying, I mean I knew I was probably gonna be voted off before the merger-cuz some people still were mad at me for last season." Alejandro shrugged. "But I can assure both my enemies, viewers, and the world, after what happened last time, if I went back to my previous ways then karma-which was the only thing mentioned on TV in the hospital would leave me with a harsher fate for not getting my act together."

"Sounds like _My Name is Earl._" Owen said.

"Maybe, I had lots of time to watch TV...stuck in a bed...for hours...looking at a TV because there's nothing else besides the boring plain white walls and ceiling! And that annoying clown they send to entertain the patients!" Alejandro, gripping the arm rest of the couch suddenly ripped it off. "...sorry, I'll pay for that."

"No prob Al, I hate clowns too!" Owen smiled.

"Does this mean you forgive Heather for what happened on the season finale?" Blaineley asked.

"Good question," Alejandro nodded. "On one hand I respect her for being a worthy enemy, on the other hand she tricked me, kneed me in the groin, caused me to be stuck in a robot-aw screw looking professional." He stood up. "Heather, if you're watching, I forgive you!"

"Aw..." The audience-both the studio audience and the TDR cast smiled.

"Sounds like he's willing to give you a chance Heather," Trent said to a blushing Heather.

"Reminds me of the ninth time me and Carlos broke up in high school," Lesley sighed.

"...and back to the show now." Cody pointed to the TV.

"And now for our second loser: the other handsome Adonis: Justin!" Many women everywhere squealed as Justin strolled out, blowing kisses to the women in the audience.

"...still as narcissistic as ever," Gwen rolled her eyes.

"At least he didn't try to manipulate anybody like in Season 2." Cody pointed out.

"The liar must die!" Izzy, perched on top of a chair hissed...like an animal.

"So Justin, how did it feel to be booted off?" Blaineley asked.

"Well it wasn't as bad as before. This time it wasn't because somebody tricked the others into voting me off, or because I didn't gethorribly beat up. 'Course Duncan did throw me on a catapult in a virtual simulation...but still my lawyers will look for you, Three Days Grace reject!"

"Damn it you back street boys wannabe!" Duncan gripped the side of the TV. "I already have Courtney's lawyers on speed dial! Do I need another set? And I shaved the damn Mohawk!" As the others tugged him back, he shouted again. "SHAVED!"

"...So you're not mad?" Blaineley asked.

"Ms Blaineley, I have a way to calm myself down when I feel low." Justin said.

"What's that?"

"Pick up a mirror!" He pulled one out and smiled at his reflection. "You stay mad at that face!"

"Now for loser numero three! She's one of the cookiest ones on the show, next to Izzy and Courtney-"

"Hey!" Courtney snapped.

"Number One Fan Girl of Total Drama: Sierra!"

Sierra came out...dressed in Gwen's current outfit: a black tank top, short blue skirt with black swirls and Gwen's signature boots. Her hair was even dyed blue.

"What the-"Gwen raised her eyebrows.

"Whoa," Owen blinked. "Fan girl is right, she looks just like-"

"Uh you might want to hold that thought big guy," Alejandro put a hand on Owen's mouth. "She's not the only one who decided to make a wardrobe change apparently."

"So Sierra: why the change?" Blaineley asked.

"Glad you asked! These are my cheer leader clothes!" Sierra pulled out blue pom-poms and did a front flip, landing expertly on her feet. "After I got here; me, Katie, and Sadie all talked, and we wanted somebody to win, so these are our cheer outfits!"

"...Gwen?" Blaineley blinked.

"No!" Sierra shook her head.

"Then why are you and those two dressed like her?" Owen asked as Katie and Sadie-in similar clothes rushed out.

"Oh god." Gwen smacked herself in the head as she saw the three of them wearing the same clothes as her.

"Simple!" Sierra grinned. "Even though me and Cody are friendlier, I still haven't got through to him, so maybe he'll warm up to me if he sees me like this! Cheering him on from the side lines!"

"Of course." Cody sighed.

"Looks likes she's gone another level up on the stalker meter." LeShawna commented.

"And Katie and Sadie?" Owen asked.

"GO TRENT!" The two held up a picture of Trent's face.

"We know that Trent might still like Gwen." Katie said.

"So we thought the best to cheer for him was to make Gwen's clothes our cheerleading clothes!" Sadie squealed.

Trent immediately face palmed.

"Cheer up dude; this is the price of fame: our own crazy cheer leader fan girls." Noah placed a hand on Trent's shoulder.

"You don't have any fans Noah! I never see anyone cheer for you!" Trent said.

"I sent them all home crying after season three." Noah shrugged. "What can I say? I am a master of making people cry."

"What next? They take a wig that looks like my hair and start wearing it?" Gwen asked sarcastically.

"Most likely." Cody replied. "But is that a bad thing?"

"And you look so cute in them, Sadie!"

"Awww, you too, Katie."

"So we have a couple of losers who decided who they want to win! Who else in the loser audience has a favourite to win?" Blaineley asked.

"LESHAWNA!" Harold shouted. "Even though I can't be there with you, I cheer you on to the end my LeGoddess!" He rushed on stage.

"Lindsay!" Tyler swung onto the stage on a cable. "I know you have what it takes to-ugh!" He hit Owen in the back and let out a muffled groan of pain.

"You okay man?" Owen asked.

"I'm fine!" Tyler back flipped off of Owen. "Cuz I'm cheering for my girl!"

"I dunno eh," A now cured and not-so-insane Ezekiel said as he came on stage. "So many choices, eh."

"Really? I thought you'd have demanded to be let back on." Blaineley blinked.

"That's before. I don't even remember what happened...and I don't think I wanna remember." Ezekiel shuddered. "Oh, and uh...sorry for the last season, eh! I don't think I could go back anyways, Heather might still be mad."

"Cuz you cost her the million dollars when you fell down the volcano?" Alejandro asked. "And you with it?"

"I FELL DOWN A VOLCANO?" Ezekiel gulped.

"Yikes," Alejandro backed up. "Shoulda kept my mouth shut.

"What else happened?" Ezekiel asked urgently. "I gotta know eh!"

"Just answer the question: who would you like to win?" Blaineley rolled her eyes.

"Uh...ok..." He covered his eyes with one hand and counted in his head. "Uh...I choose...Bridgette!"

"Why?" Blaineley leaned forward.

"Don't you know what I was doing? I saw people who don't know what to choose!" Ezekiel repeated his actions. "People who don't know how to choose do this! Or that eeny-moany-miny thing!"

"And just by coincidence you landed on Bridgette?" Owen asked.

"Total random yo! Chose my ten favourite ones and chose randomly." Zeke nodded.

"What about you Owen?" Blaineley looked at her co-host.

"I just hope my little Izzy wins!" Owen waved to the camera. "Hey Izzy! Cheering for you!"

If Izzy was not predictable, then Duncan and Trent would not have been able to snatch her out of mid air as she made to kiss the TV screen...and possibly knock it over.

"There! Everybody has made their choice on who wants to win!" Blaineley said. "Now for today's game." She smirked. "RELEASE THE NINJAS!"

"NINJAS?" Everybody both in the studio and stage shouted.

"Everybody wants somebody to win, well here's your chance! Whoever wins gives the team of their favourite immunity in the next round!" Blaineley rushed off stage.

"How do we win eh?" Zeke asked, looking around.

"NINJA ATTACK!"

Suddenly several figures in black landed in front of the gathered losers.

"I'm a minor eh!" Zeke swallowed.

"Oh bring it baby!" Alejandro leaped off the couch.

THWACK!

"Agh, low blow!" Alejandro fell over as a bow staff hit him in the gut. "No fair, I have a condition!"

"I have waited so long to prove myself to LeShawna!" Harold took a stance and whipped out his nun-chucks and leaped into the air!

The ninjas stared with wide eyes as Harold flew towards them in slow motion, poised to kick them.

He was letting out a war cry.

The Ninjas paused and exchanged a glance.

Harold slowly began to rear his nun-chucks back.

One looked at his rolex and tapped it. Another shrugged.

Harold's arm was now all the way back.

"HAROLD!" Alejandro shouted.

"What?" Harold looked over his shoulder.

"Stop pretending to hit them and just _hit them_!" Alejandro shouted.

"Oh, sorry dude," Harold said, hanging from a wire held by Tyler and Justin looked down at Owen, who was on a treadmill that was causing a wall next to him to shoot past him repeatedly, creating a motion animation like in anime. "Take five Owen!"

"Thanks dude!" An exhausted Owen fell on the Treadmill and slid off, hitting a wall. "Ow!"

He slid down the wall and landed on his face.

Harold attacked the Ninjas, swinging his nun-chucks. The Ninjas were at first at a disadvantage, and three of them even went down under his attack: but then...

THUNK!

He hit himself in the head.

"...ow." He fell over.

Duncan doubled over, laughing. "Okay you have got to admit that was a tiny bit funny!" He quickly regained control of himself when he heard LeShawna's knuckles crack.

"I'll take care of these guys!" Tyler declared, charging. "For Lindsay!-uh oh." He tripped on a wire...and ended up rolling through so much he made a great ball of wire that ran over three more ninjas and sent all of the unfortunate souls out of the studio.

"...that was good." Justin said.

"HAI YAH!" A ninja landed in front of him.

"I SURRENDER! DON'T HURT MY BEAUTIFUL FACE! Or my beautiful muscles!" At this next one the Ninja just glared at him. "...or my balls!" The ninja snapped his fingers and crossed his arms, growling impatiently. "Or my eyes!" The ninja stomped on the floor. "Or my hands! I just got a manicure."

"OH nuts to this!" The Ninja promptly hit himself in the head, knocking himself out.

"...whoo!" Justin cheered. "I rule!"

THUNK!

He was hit on the back of the head by a bow staff, and promptly fell over with a squeak. "Mommy, they sold me the wrong hair spray!"

"Now who didn't see that coming?" Duncan rolled his eyes.

Now Alejandro, Sierra, Katie, Sadie, and Ezekiel were the only ones who were left facing a dozen ninjas.

"Oh, Sadie! This might be it!" Katie hugged Sadie.

"I know, Katie. At least we're going together."

They both hugged and cried.

"For Cody!" Sierra charged...pulling out a large spear.

The Ninja squad blinked in surprise. "Huh?"

"Where the heck did fanzilla get that?" Courtney asked.

"Who knows? I'm never surprised by this anymore." Cody shrugged.

"A crazy stalker, she is!" One ninja said. "Kiss our butts goodbye, should we!"

Another glanced at him. "Ralph, why the hell are you talking like Yoda?"

"Way I talk, this is!"

"It's also how Star Wars fans talk but you don't see me-AH!" Sierra hit him over the head with her spear's bottom edge.

"HAI YAH!" Sierra spun the spear in her hands.

"Flee for our lives, we should!" Ralph shouted.

"Oh shut up Ralph!" The other ten ninjas shouted as they all fled.

Suddenly Benny Hill music started playing as Sierra chased the ninjas through the studio. They rushed through multiple doors on multiple floors and came out in nearly impossible places-like the other side of the studio on the fifth floor to the opposite side on the first floor. Sierra kept up the chase, wrecking everything _except _the Ninjas.

"Sierra watch out for the trap door!" Owen shouted as the chase came through the main studio again.

"Trap-DOOR!" Sierra plummeted through a trap door activated by one ninja-who threw a shuriken at the control panel to make it happen.

"Crazy stalker girl, defeated she is!" Ralph declared.

Another ninja promptly hit Ralph over the head.

"Now back to our climactic showdown!" The Ninja Leader shouted.

Suddenly they saw Alejandro on the stage...with a high pressure water hose and wearing sun glasses.

"Huh?" they all backed away.

"Who yah gonna call?" Alejandro then turned it on

"Wait, that doesn't match the situation-" One ninja started before being shot across the studio by a stream of highly pressurized water.

"FLEE! FLEE FOR YOUR NINJA WANNABE LIVES!" One ninja shouted.

"That's right you Jackie Chan wannabes!" Alejandro cackled. "Al's back baby!"

The group looked at Heather.

"Your boy friend is going nuts Heather, I think he spent too much time in the robot," Noah said.

"Maybe..." Heather said as the final ninja fell.

"Whoo! I win!" Alejandro grinned, dropping the hose...and then suddenly a pillow hit him on the head. "OW! OH COME ON! SENSITIVE MAN!" He fell over, clutching his head.

"Al defeated by pillow, he was," Ralph, now awake said as he walked up with another pillow.

"Uh...well sorry Ralph, you were unconscious for seven seconds, which counts as you going down, and the others were taken out...so despite his rather...really embarrassing defeat, Alejandro won Heather and Team Amazon immunity for the next challenge!" Blaineley said as she came out.

"Gone, my role is?" Ralph asked.

"Yes, please stop talking like that," Blaineley deadpanned.

"Okay, lunch break for Ralph." Ralph walked off.

"So Team Amazon wins immunity for the next challenge!" Blaineley declared. "What will happen next on Total, Drama-oh I can't even bear to say it that way. _Total Drama Reality_, there, I said it, the normal way, now the Chris way! Man that guy sounds freaky when he says it like-" The credits rolled in.

"Well your boy friend won us immunity Heather!" Gwen said. "Awesome!"

"And he'd make a great fire man in the future!" Cody added.

"I like the part with Harold." Izzy said.

"Will Tyler be okay?" Lindsay asked.

'She remembered his name. It's a miracle.' Everyone thought.

"He'll be fine. I'm more worried about what Blaineley will do next Aftermath." Bridgette said. "Who knows what crazy schemes she's got cooked up?"

"Yeah. She's like a female Chris." Geoff said.

"Do the producers have her on the same leash as Chris?" DJ asked.

"I don't know. We're still on the show technically." Bridgette shrugged.

Xxx

I know you all expected action but the next chapter will have it and now that I'm back you won't have to wait long. Hope you liked this one. And I am posting the character profiles for XANA's new generals and Nephilim on my profile.


	55. Episode 53: Armageddon Part One

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 54

"Eat this!"Izzy shouted as she transformed from an eagle into a giant red whale(It's actually a blue whale but since every animal she changes into is red we might as well call it that) and flattened the five Tigers in their way.

Only for a shot to hit her and deplete her last life points before she could even look. Aelita, Gwen, Bridgette, Heather, and Noah in the meantime were busy against the last few monsters. They were battling in the Ice Cavern Sector and the battle was rough for everyone.

Nephilim showed up guarding the tower under Lyon's control with five Tigers, seven Bats, four Raptors, and a Gorilla. Trent was taken out early in the fight by the Gorilla while Duncan had taken on Nephilim even if it wasn't a good idea. Courtney stayed to help him out but even then they weren't faring so well against him. Meanwhile everyone was having a really hard time taking out the last few monsters.

Eventually they managed to destroy the Gorilla when Gwen blocked a blast with her barrier giving Bridgette an opening to finish it off.

"That was a close one." Gwen sighed.

"Yeah, but we won." Bridgette said, smiling.

"Very good."

They turned and saw Nephilim blast Courtney and Duncan out of Lyoko and turn to face them.

"Don't you know the saying some humans say? 'Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it!'"

He spread his wings out and pointed his lance at them.

"Aelita, get to the tower! We'll deal with this loser!" Heather shouted.

"Yeah right." Nephilim leaped forward and charged Heather.

"Gwen now!"

Gwen glowed white and energy strings wrapped around Nephilim, keeping him from attacking.

"Take this!"

Bridgette slashed across Nephilim's face while Noah's lasers and Heather's shuriken struck various parts of his body. However before they could attack again Nephilim released a surge of energy that destroyed the energy strings.

"Not bad but let's see how you like this!"

Nephilim slammed his lance into the ground and a pillar of black fire incinerated Heather and Noah before they could move, leaving Bridgette and Gwen alone to take on Nephilim.

"Play time is over!"

**"Then allow me to give you a challenge!"**

A dagger struck Nephilim in the back, causing minor damage.

"Figures you would wait until my back was turned, Seraphim." Nephilim sneered as he turned around.

**"That's saying a lot from you, virus!"** Seraphim growled as he charged with his daggers.

Nephilim was about to charge but then he received a signal to withdraw. Growling he sheathed his lance and vanished.

Xxx

"For the last few attacks I've been looking through the data and I've found something." Seraphim said on the screen.

He was communicating with both Aelita who had her laptop on while she was back her school, along with Robby and the TD warriors who were the studio computer.

"I suspect now since Lyon is in Lyoko I can find the location of the scanner he used to come here but that's the least of our problems." Robby informed the team.

"What could possibly be worse?" Bridgette asked.

Robby sighed. "I looked through the data and I know how Lyon plans to destroy Lyoko: he wants to cause a system crash."

"Don't we have a backup or something?" Noah asked.

"A total crash is different, it causes irreparable damage, no reboot, and no reset would restore it. Lyoko wouldn't only be destroyed, but all hardware connected to it as well, meaning every scanner and computer."

"So why hasn't he done it yet?" Gwen asked.

"He doesn't have the key." Robby explained. "He needs the DNA of somebody in the Schaeffer line to do it, since only they have complete and full access."

"Me," Aelita voiced everybody's thought.

"So we just keep him away from Aelita and we're all safe!" Trent exclaimed. "And when XANA figures out what Lyon's doing-and trust me he will he might even help us."

"Unless he hasn't already planned for this to happen." Robby said grimly. "We'll have to take precautions."

"How can he get through all of us? He's got Nephilim and his expendable monsters, and we've got ten fighters if you include Seraphim." Gwen stated.

"Good question, but Lyon can think outside the box," Robby said. "I'll alert you all if I find anything else, and Seraphim will monitor for more activity by Lyon. If we find the scanner he used, we can let Kurt and Carlos here take care of it."

"The ol' fashioned way," Carlos said. "Back when they thought phones were devil toys and cameras stole your soul." He cracked his knuckles to emphasize his point.

"For once I agree with British Stallone here," Kurt nodded.

"In the meantime we just keep Aelita out their hands and they can't touch her." Gwen said.

"That'll be easy." Duncan said.

"You don't learn do you?" Trent asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Anyone who says that'll be easy usually makes it _ten_ times harder." Cody said.

"I've got to agree with them on that." Geoff nodded.

"Way to go, punk." Noah drawled.

"Ah knock it off." Duncan waved them off.

"In the meantime I think I know how Lyon intends to cause a system crash." Robby clicked on an image of Sector 5.

The screen zoomed into a part of the sector right below the Core Zone that was white.

"I've never seen this part of Sector 5 before." Aelita said.

"This is no ordinary sector, Aelita. The sector is shaped like a city but it is actually the sector that holds all the memory of all the supercomputers used to sustain Lyoko. The memory is staked like a city and is the only sector not connected to Lyoko's core. The data there can either be retrieved directly or from Sector 5. It is also the sector where XANA himself resided when he was still in the supercomputer." Robby said.

"I thought Sector 5 was where XANA resided." Aelita said.

"Technically it was as Sector 5 contained what we call the City Sector. As you know Lyoko was designed as both XANA's test bed and fail safe. However they couldn't have him connected to Lyoko's core or it would have given him absolute control of Lyoko so the City Sector was designed inside Sector 5 as a way for him to still use Lyoko but keep him limited, even though those limits were pushed back with each return to the past." Robby said. "The City Sector contains all the blue prints of Lyoko and can be used to restart it should the core ever be destroyed like it was before. But if the City Sector is accessed by Lyon it can be used to connect with any other supercomputer that has access to Lyoko whether it is on or off. With the destruction of this sector and those computers Lyoko would be gone forever."

"If it's where XANA resided why bother going after Aelita when Nephilim has XANA's codes?" Cody asked.

"Because Nephilim is unable to access the City Sector's core where the links to other computers are stored. He may be able to enter it but that's all he can do. Lyon on the other hand is not a Schaeffer and without the DNA scan of Aelita he cannot enter it." Robby said.

"And that's what Lyon needs to destroy Lyoko." Bridgette said.

"Right. Without it Lyoko would cease to exist regardless if we had the blue prints and even we were at the original super computer." Robby said.

"So we keep Aelita out of their hands until we can take them out." Duncan said.

"Right now I have no idea how they plan to do it." Robby said. "But I know Lyon has a plan to destroy the City Sector along with Sector 5."

Xxx

Meanwhile in the very sector they were talking about a plot was being hatched. Tall grey buildings with blue glowing roads made of data streams. This place was originally meant to be XANA's sector inside Sector 5 as well as his virtual prison meant to keep him in Lyoko. Spreading his wings out Nephilim took off and looked down at the city had come in.

The City itself was huge and it floated in blue dimension with endless amounts of blue screens much like in Sector 5 on a massive circular platform. In the center of this huge city was a massive golden colored tower, much bigger and taller. This was no ordinary tower.

It was the tower XANA had resided in, the one that had connected him to all of Lyoko. The Central Operating Center of the Lyoko Supercomputer.

"Home sweet home." Nephilim said.

"It is a quite a stunning place." Lyon said as they walked inside.

He was dressed in a heavy coat that prevented him from being seen. Walking through the nicely decorated halls he came upon a large room that had what looked like a replica of the tower supercomputer in the Factory. This is what Nephilim had used to input his code into the supercomputer. This used to be XANA's main databank and what had contained his core programs when he was created.

"Even though you succeeded in bringing me here you still failed, Nephilim!" Lyon said.

"I mean no _disrespect_, master, but you failed as well."

"Who said I was hoping that attack would succeed?" Lyon asked, gaining a curious look from Nephilim. "I needed to test the connection I had before entering the scanners. Now that I am here I am going to take those keys."

"And how do you plan to do that?" Nephilim asked.

"You'll find out soon enough.

Nephilim's fists were clenched.

"Enough!" Lyon barked. "Now is not the time to fight! Our schedule must not be compromised! The time to take action is now!"

He turned to the screen in front of them.

Xxx

The moment Aelita received an alert for an activated tower; she had phoned Kurt and Carlos and sent the Spectres containing their memories into them. As the Lyoko Warriors of Total Drama rushed into the factory, a car crashed through one wall, and Carlos once again smashed his way out through the wind shield.

"What have I told you about doing this in my car?" Kurt shouted. "Do that again and I'll-"

"Kurt, we all know nothing you can do will kill me. You can call Melissa, but she hasn't given a damn about your car since she sold it to you." Carlos said.

"Oh yeah? I have a text image telling you what will happen to your Klondike Bars if you don't behave." Kurt held up his phone.

"You wouldn't."

"I would!"

"You kill those bars, I'll kill you!" Carlos growled.

"You kill me, and Sarah gets a court order banning you from eating Klondike in any country!"

"...she wouldn't!"

"She drives the car too, and she's sick of it coming back like this."

"...I stand corrected, she 'couldn't because there is no way for you to get a court order in one country, much less all of them to stop me from exercising my rights to eat Klondike Bars." Carlos said.

"She's been working on it for a year dude," Kurt said as he and Carlos climbed down through the secondary entrance and the gang took the elevator. He pulled several sheets of paper out of his coat. "Take a look. Court orders from every country that sells Klondike Bars."

"Let's see," Carlos looked through them. "Canada, France, Britain, America, Mexico, Barbados, Cuba-I've never even been to Cuba!"

"Suck it up." Kurt said before they all regrouped in the control room.

"Ok I'll tone it down." Carlos sighed. "But if I lose those bars, there's no point in me going on, meaning I'll take you down with me!"

"What about your kids?" Kurt asked.

"...good point!"

"Ok you two, can you put aside your domestic dispute for a minute?" Trent asked.

"Right!" Both producers shouted.

"What is XANA up to now Aelita?" Heather asked.

"It's not XANA," Aelita said. "It's an infection, its Nephilim again."

"...I think I know what he hit then." Duncan slapped himself in the face.

"What?" Kurt asked.

"Well there's more than one reason we came to the factory instead of the lab under the studio." Cody said. "The elevator there wouldn't work."

"I have a security feed of the lab there." Aelita pulled up an image...that showed the lab under the studio, and the consoles and scanners were literally melting before their very eyes.

"The lab!" They all shouted.

"Nephilim has deactivated the coolant systems in the lab; it is overheating at a massive rate." Aelita explained. "I estimate in just a few minutes we'll need a return trip to the past to make it usable again."

"Send us to Lyoko and let's take that virus out once and for all!" Gwen said.

"Seraphim is already waiting for you all." Aelita said. "Kurt, Carlos, you should head to the studio. If you can pry open the elevator doors the emergency coolant systems in the elevator shaft should activate and buy us a little time."

"We're on it!" Carlos nodded. "Come on let's go!"

He and Kurt climbed out of the control room while the warriors took the elevator down to the scanner room.

Xxx

The tower was in the Mountain Sector this time. The group entered with the group going through the scanners three at a time. When they were all ready they set off for the tower. They expected to see an army of monsters in front of them but instead of an army there were only two figures in front of the tower that sat on a huge rocky island.

The first figure was Nephilim while the other figure was in a long black coat, sunglasses, and a top hat.

"Who's the uh...gentleman?" Noah asked.

"Dr Lyon, at your service," The man replied. "And you are the snooping American children who have been butting into my business and using this place like a play toy!"

"Hey, I resent that!" Izzy said. "We're _Canadians._ You know the country with the maple leaf? Stereotyped as the overly nice guys with hulking RCMP officers?"

"Only she would know about the officers," Noah mumbled, shaking his head. "You're one to talk Doc. You've been messing this place up since you showed up, and you've been messing around with Carthage for decades. And this isn't _your_ world anyways, if anything you're the interloper."

"Death to the interloper!" Izzy shouted.

"Hard to believe a bunch of celebrity teens would find their way in here," Lyon commented. "First it was school children fighting XANA, now some pompous TV stars."

"If we were stars we wouldn't have gone through all that abuse." Courtney grumbled.

"Doc, we don't care what you think of us, but I do care about this: that hat looks like crap and after I kick your ass I'm gonna chop it to pieces." Duncan said.

"There is one small problem with your plan," Lyon shook his head. "One: in a few seconds, the connection with the super computer at the factory will be off line, meaning no devirtualization."

"We get that scheme shot at us so much it's not as scary anymore." Heather muttered.

"Second," Lyon continued. "You have a visitor. One of the inventions from _my_ virtual world."

The area began to shake. The warriors looked around.

"...you have a virtual world of your own?" Gwen glanced at Lyon.

"There was a lot more to Carthage than just the AI," Lyon chuckled. "Farewell...children."

He and Nephilim stepped off to the side before something large climbed up out of the fog below the platforms. It had large hands that could have held up a house, and its skin was almost pitch black and had tufts of fur on it. When it stood up to its full height, almost as tall as the CN tower in comparison, they saw that it was bipedal. It wore what looked like stone armour based off of old Medieval armour, and in the open holes of its helmet they saw two yellow dots for eyes. It also held a spear as long as an aircraft carrier.

"Whoa..." Trent swallowed as they group backed up.

"Say hello," Lyon chuckled. "To the Leviathan."

The large stone monster, the Leviathan, brought its spear up and swung it down. The Lyoko warriors scattered as it made a crater in the platform.

"Destroy them and this whole place!" Lyon shouted as a portal formed, enveloping him and Nephilim.

"This isn't good!" Noah said. "I don't see any weak points on it!"

"And considering you didn't have a smart ass joke for that, we should be scared." Bridgette added, crouching next to the genius behind a rock.

"Ok, we just need to get close enough and have enough time to get under that armor." Gwen muttered as the Leviathan chased Trent and Heather. "Courtney, if we can make a hole in the armor, could you try draining it?"

"If it doesn't have a virus in it I can drain it dry!" Courtney nodded.

"Alright. Bridgette, Aelita, you two come with me and we'll distract it from the air!" Gwen began to hand out orders. "Duncan, Trent, Noah, Izzy! Hit it with far range attacks and don't stop moving! Heather, stay with Courtney! As soon as we have an opening, make sure she gets close enough to use it! Get going people!"

The Lyoko warriors spread out. The flying trio of girls flew around the Leviathan, which swatted at them with its hands.

"What I wouldn't give for a big eye on its head," Bridgette muttered as she swerved around its hands. "Where's XANA when you actually need him!"

Suddenly a pair of beams fired from its eyes and almost cut the flyers down.

"CLICHE!" Noah shouted as he avoided a second wave of laser vision.

"TELL ME ABOUT IT!" Duncan fired a stream of fire at the Leviathan's legs.

"SHUT UP AND SHOOT!" Trent said, firing sonic spells at the chest area.

Xxx

"Wow..." Ryder said. "They're gonna get the crap beaten out of them."

XANA's generals were watching the warriors combat the Leviathan, now at risk of being killed without their devirtualization program.

"...say, that Nephilim guy and the Lyon jerk are the boss' enemies, right?" Jinx asked. "So...shouldn't we uh...help? You know...mutual victory?"

"XANA says not to bother," Lilith shrugged. "Guess he has something planned already."

"Fine be me," Sora yawned, leaning back on a couch he created. "Fighting is just way too much trouble."

Suddenly the couch was lifted with him on top of it by Blade. "Aw what's wrong with you Pretty Boy? We should be out there kicking some serious ass and getting totally involved in this!"

"...and you wonder why I outrank you?" Sora asked.

"Wait, you outrank me?" Blade blinked.

"Let me lay it out. Bottom: there's you, Ryder, Jinx, and me, then Yuki, then Lilith in that order."

"I'm outranked by a whiner?" Blade growled.

"Well that's being hurtful." Sora pouted. "I'm telling my mommy next time the boss sends us out to kill her."

Blade growled and tossed the couch off of the platform.

"Oh you jack ass!..." Sora's voice faded. "Wait, I can fly!" He flew back up. "That was hurtful and uncalled for...and I liked that couch."

"Silence." Lilith said. "It's getting good."

Xxx

"Remind me why we thought this was a good idea?" Duncan asked as he and Izzy raced up the shaft of the Leviathan's spear, which was stuck in the ground.

"Well I suggested it-" Izzy started.

"That's when I should have realized it was bad." Duncan sighed as they climbed onto the Leviathan's arms. It pulled the spear lose. Duncan dug his sword into the exposed flesh of its hands while Izzy grabbed some fur.

"Ooh! I have a plan!" She giggled as it swung its arms around, making the two get battered by wind.

"Izzy!" Duncan started before Izzy turned into a snake and went under the Leviathan's armour. "If you die in there, I ain't responsible!"

Moments later all of the armour exploded off of the Leviathan's arm as an elephant formed. As it fell towards the Earth, the red tinged Elephant became a bird that fluttered off. "Caw! Caw! Look at me! I'm a bird making bird calls! Come my brethren!"

Duncan shook his head and sheathed his sword. He started climbing along the exposed arm of the Leviathan. "For some reason this reminds me of Shade of the Giants...or was that just a rip off of Shadow of the Colossus?"

"YES IT WAS!" Noah shouted from the ground. "IT MOST CERTAINLY WAS!"

"Damn his bat hearing." Duncan muttered as he reached the elbow of the Leviathan's arm. "Now all I need is a conveniently located glowing symbol to stab and I'd be set for a total rip off."

"Just try to distract it!" Gwen shouted as she flew by.

"Care to suggest how?" Duncan asked.

"Go Berserker or something!" Bridgette shouted.

"How? I ain't that pissed yet!" Duncan replied.

"COURTNEY HAD A PICTURE OF ALEJANDRO UNDER HER PILLOW!" Noah shouted.

Duncan twitched.

"What?" Courtney blushed.

"Play along," Noah whispered. "We need him mad like the Hulk!"

"Uh...yep!" Courtney nodded. "He had his shirt off too!"

BOOM!

An explosion of green fire set the Leviathan's arm aflame, and suddenly the Berserker was climbing along the arm at lightning speed, roaring as it reached the Leviathan's neck. It found that it was secured by three clamps. It brought its sword down on the right clamp, and then spun as the Leviathan tried to bring its hand down on its shoulder where it stood.

The Berserker quickly threw itself onto the Leviathan's back, just barely dodging the hand. It grabbed onto a part of the armour that stuck out and swung itself up onto the back of the neck. It smashed the second brace and then moved to the third.

"LOOK OUT!" As Bridgette shot by, she fired energy waves at the left hand of the Leviathan as it almost came down on the Berserker. The attack made the hand retract.

The Berserker smashed the final clamp and then dug its hands between the collar and helmet. It strained as it slowly began to lift. It opened its skinless jaws and let out a roar before it flipped the helmet off of the Leviathan and sent it spinning through the air and off of the platform. The Leviathan's head was a simple black carapace with two yellow eyes and no mouth. But...it also had something on the top of its head, which was slowly opening...letting out mouth tipped tentacles.

One hit the Berserker and sent him flying off before he could react. The Berserker hit the ground below, and the Leviathan looked down at the annoyance that had removed its helmets. It raised one foot, and began to bring it down...but then Tyrannosaurus Izzy rushed forward and slammed its foot with her head, pushing it aside enough to give the Berserker time to get away.

"I AM TYRANO IZZY! HEAR ME ROAR!" Izzy cackled.

"She just enjoys being able to shape shift too much," Heather muttered as she shook her head.

"HEATHER! COURTNEY! OPENING! HEAD!" Aelita shouted. "Go now!"

"Alright princess let's go!" Heather tugged Courtney along. "When it hits the ground with the spear again, we can climb up like Duncan and Izzy did and get to the head."

"Good thing I passed rock climbing class!" Courtney said.

"Yeah-look out!" Heather shoved Courtney aside and then dodged the spear as it came down on the ground again.

The two girls began to rush up the spear shaft as the Leviathan tried to dislodge the weapon. By the time it succeeded, they were half way to its fore arm and moving swiftly. Being more prone to climb and leap, it was easier for the two to scale the arm and reach the shoulder. Courtney placed both of her hands on the exposed flesh and began to absorb a massive amount of life points. Several of the mouth tipped tentacles snapped at her, but Heather cut them to pieces with her shuriken and wrist blades.

"Hurry!" Heather shouted.

"I'm trying!" Courtney said. "It's got a lot of life points! A LOT OF THEM!"

"Hold on," Heather took Courtney hands and began to absorb life points and strength from her, speeding up the process.

They both glowed with power as Heather, becoming stronger and faster by the second began to cut through dozens of tentacles with ease. Courtney clenched her teeth as Heather also began to reach a limit on how much Courtney could give her before her avatar became unstable. Heather groaned and let go of Courtney, stumbling a bit before she managed to move as a blur of motion, cutting through four tentacles.

"Yo!" Suddenly Noah was there, dropped off by Izzy, in the form of a Pterodactyl. He took Courtney's hands and began to take more strain off of her, adding shots from his hand cannon to eliminate the living mass of tentacles. Each shot blew away large amounts, now creating explosions with each detonation.

"Boo yah!" Noah shouted as he released Courtney after several seconds and formed his hands into swords and joined Heather, crawling all over the Leviathan at lightning speed and cutting through its defences.

Trent was there a second later, dropped off by Bridgette, and began to play tunes that sent out massive streams of fire and volts of lightning that blew away sections of armour as Courtney fed him more power. Afterwards Aelita took her hand and took as much as she could. Then she flew away and aimed at the Leviathan's chest. She took all of the power that Courtney had fed her and focused it into a plasma beam that was over a hundred times as strong as a regular one.

She let out a yell. "PLASMA BEAM!"

The beam was as thick as a subway tunnel and blew a hole right through the chest of the Leviathan. It stopped its struggles, its yellow eyes beginning to dim as it slowly began to fall apart, bit by bit. The Lyoko Warriors retreated from it as it dissolved.

"We did it!" Courtney said.

"Way to go Princess," Duncan said as he took his original form.

"You both did a lot of the work," Aelita said to Duncan and Courtney.

"Victory dance!" Izzy cheered.

Duncan and Courtney couldn't help but feel embarrassed as the team gave a little praise to them.

"Uh...Guys, I don't want to sound pessimistic, but wasn't that...too easy?" Noah asked.

"Aw come on Noah let 'em have their moment." Trent said.

"I'll go deactivate the tower." Aelita said.

She ran into the tower and shut it down.

"Cody, are you there? Cody?" Aelita asked.

However there was no answer. She came out of the tower and ran to the others.

"We might still have a problem. I can't contact Cody or Robby."

"I thought with the tower out we would label this battle won." Bridgette said.

"Not quite." Nephilim floated down into sight. "Did you really think it was that easy?"

"We were hoping." Duncan said.

"So now what?" Noah asked.

No one noticed a black oily substance sneak up behind them.

"Simple, Aelita comes with me and we destroy this place." Nephilim replied, smirking.

"Not going to happen." Gwen drew her scythe.

"Oh it will. In fact you're the one who's going to do it!" Nephilim raised one orange glowing hand. "With a little help from XANA's coding!"

The oily substance then entangled Gwen like a tentacle. "Wha-what the-?"

The cloud attached to her body as volts of electricity came out. Gwen screamed in pain as her blue hair turned red, as did her eyes and every trace of blue on her. She slowly turned around to face the others, her eyes replaced by the red Eyes of XANA.

"Gwen?" Courtney swallowed as the team back up.

"I don't know how she got this, but she has XANA's coding in her. Dormant but very much in existence." Nephilim chuckled. "Much like how I upgraded XANA's old monsters, you could say I updated her!"

Gwen's scythe glowed bright red, and she slammed it into the ground. A wave of red energy shattered the ground. Everyone was knocked back from the attack. Looking up they saw Gwen charge at them while activating her Stat Boost ability.

"Gwen wait-" Trent raised his guitar but Gwen was too fast as she jumped into the air and slammed her face, knocking off his feet and sent him skidding across the ground.

Spinning around Gwen moved again to face Duncan and Courtney. Activating her fire aura she swung her scythe down and burned through Courtney's staff, cutting in two.

She was about to continue and finish Courtney, but Duncan managed to draw his sword and braced it against her scythe, and promptly brought his right foot up, planting it into her stomach and knocking her back. "Hate to hit you toots, but stay the hell away from Courtney!"

Gwen growled and made a wind spell. Duncan braced himself, trying not to lose his footing. He almost did, but then Courtney flung one of her staff pieces at Gwen, clipping her and making her lose her focus. She growled...and used her Earth Aura. Suddenly both Duncan and Courtney were sent flying. Noah looked up as they flew over him. "...we are so dead."

But then Bridgette shot by and slammed into Gwen with her board. "Sorry Gwen!" She hovered over Gwen. "I know that hurts but I can't let you do this!"

Gwen replied with a single wind spell that sent Bridgette spinning. She was about to add a fire aura into the mix, but then Izzy bit her outstretched hand, in the form of a large red wolf. Gwen gasped in pain and swung her arm around, making Izzy get tossed around as she tried to hold on. Finally she let go and slid along the Earth, yelping in pain. Gwen grabbed her scythe and swung it down on Izzy, who desperately rolled away from Gwen, who pursued her. Finally, when Izzy was at the edge of the platform, she returned to her human form as Gwen swung down again...and a sonic spell from Trent sent her flying.

Trent stood over Gwen, his guitar aimed right at her head. "Stay down Gwen."

She glared up at him, eyes blazing with XANA's symbol.

"Stay down." Trent said firmly.

Gwen smirked...and vanished into Trent's shadow.

"Huh-?" Trent was kicked right in the butt as Gwen's leg materialized and her foot hit him. She appeared entirely and snickered, her scythe out again.

Noah tried to raise his gun arms, and received a wind aura for his trouble. Gwen hadn't even glanced at him when she did it. She walked towards the regrouping Lyoko warriors.

"This isn't working." Courtney swallowed.

"We need a plan," Trent added.

"As always," Noah drawled, nursing his sore arms.

"What do we do?" They all cried as they looked to Aelita.

The pink haired girl stared at Gwen, and then to Nephilim.

"Enough playing," Nephilim said. "Use your power, and bring her to me."

Gwen nodded...and suddenly her Shadow Aura activated, but instead of melding into somebody's shadow, she became a large black mass and shot towards Aelita.

Heather pushed Aelita behind her. "Oh no you don't-!" Gwen enveloped both Heather and Aelita and shot back towards Nephilim before anybody could react.

"Heather! Aelita!" Bridgette rushed forward, but a fire aura wall blocked her way.

Duncan rushed in front of Bridgette and slammed is sword down, making a wave of green fire split the wall...but by then the portal Nephilim had made was fading. "NO!" He rushed for it and lunged, but it vanished inches from his fingers. He rolled on the ground and got up. "DAMN IT!"

"He got away! With Heather, Gwen, _and _Aelita!" Bridgette shouted.

"How did he control her?" Trent demanded. "We all know what happened to the virus: Shadow killed it!"

**"Not precisely."**

They turned as Seraphim appeared, his wings folding up behind him.

"Where have you been? You could have stopped that!" Trent shouted.

**"Lyon set up a fire wall to keep me out, I'm not always in Lyoko when I'm off duty. I log out in order to run scans for XANA's hiding place. Lyon locked me out and I managed to break through a minute or two ago. It takes time for me to fly all the way across the mountain region from the very tip of it." **Seraphim replied. **"I am sorry that I was not quicker. But a minute more and I could have freed Gwen from his control and prevented this. But the most I can do is search for a way into the city sector for you so you can bring her back."**

"How is she still infected?" Noah asked.

**"My best guess would be that the virus wasn't destroyed, but merely deactivated." **Seraphim said.

"But Shadow was fused with Smith at the time, he was programmed to destroy XANA and any parts of him." Bridgette said.

**"I looked over the recording. Shadow did it while Gwen had her scythe in his heart with the poison spell. It is possible that it weakened him to the point that when he used his power...it only caused the virus to go dormant. A half done job. Perhaps that is why her hair turned all blue instead of its original color...blue like a deactivated tower."**

"Wait, so you're telling me that Gwen is...a living tower in layman's terms?" Noah asked.

**"That is the simplest way to state it, yes." **Seraphim nodded. **"But now we must hurry to get your friends back, that is our priority. Go to the edge of the sector, and I shall activate the transport orb. The City Sector is in Sector Five, so we must be there. I will be able to find a safe passage in there. But be on the lookout, XANA's monsters were always stronger in his territory, so the City Sector will give Nephilim and his monsters a major power boost. They will be at their strongest...luckily though your connection to the computer has been restored; you are not at risk of death here or there."**

"That's one good thing," Courtney nodded. "Let's go, we can't waste any time!"

"How far is the edge?" Duncan asked.

**"Follow that path for several miles; you should reach it in ten minutes or so."** Seraphim pointed the way. **"Don't slow down for _anything,_ time is of the essence. Every second that Aelita, Heather and Gwen are in Lyon's clutches means he has more time to find out how to take the keys and destroy your friends...for good." **He took flight. **"Hurry! I will be with you all soon!"**

He took off into the fog.

"You heard him, let's go!" Trent shouted.

It was now a desperate race across the Mountain sector, heading for the edge of Lyoko itself.

Xxx

In the real world, Cody and the other warriors had heard and seen everything once the computer was back on line.

"No! He took Aelita, Heather and Gwen!" Cody cried out.

"Aw man who knows what he's doing to them!" DJ added fearfully.

"We can't just sit here!" LeShawna said. "Robby's gotta have something to help, he wrote the freaking book on Lyoko, call him!"

"No need LeShawna, I'm here." They glanced to the elevator as Robby came out. "Seraphim sent me a recording of the conversation to my phone...and I have good news." He held up a disc. "I found a cure for the XANA virus that keeps you out of Lyoko."

"YES!" Geoff said. "Load us up and send us in Robby!"

"It's the least I can do for all the times you guys had to sit on the side lines." Robby took Cody's place. "I'll run things here...good luck and welcome back to the game."

Xxx

And that's the end of another chapter. Hope you like it. And now here's a couple things I need say to here.

First off here is the answer to jcogginsa's question.

Does the Return to the Pasts make XANA stronger? The answer is no. It used to but when XANA left the supercomputer he no longer became dependent on it since the Return to the Past program increased the supercomputer's processing power and which doubled XANA's allowing him to make stronger monsters and attacks.

XANA relies on his Carbon Copy and replicas to boost his power. He pretty much traded the world's most powerful supercomputer for hundreds of less advanced supercomputers until he made his own supercomputer to hold a copy that had all the sectors.

Next off here's a question I forgot to ask last time.

Which XANA general do you like best?

A)Lilith  
B)Ryder  
C)Yuki  
D)Sora  
E)Jinx  
F)Blade  
G) Cyrus(even though he only appeared in one chapter)


	56. Episode 54: Armageddon Part Two

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 55

Aelita slowly opened her eyes, only to find herself inside a black Guardian. Getting up she found herself in a large throne room with statues of Greek Gods decorating it. She didn't recognize where she was but she believed she was in the City Sector that Robby had told her about. Looking next to her she saw Heather next to her in another black Guardian.

"Heather? Heather, are you all right?" Aelita asked.

Heather opened her eyes, groaning as she sat up.

"Where are we?"

"I think it's the City Sector." Aelita replied as she looked around the room again.

"So true, Aelita Schaeffer." A voice said.

They both turned and saw Lyon walk over.

"Those Guardians are tuned to your DNA codes. Thanks to an upgrade by Nephilim no illusions will trick them into destroying themselves." Lyon replied, smirking. "It's been a very long time, Aelita. You don't even look close to being in your thirties after so long."

"Excuse me for not wanting to be part of the whole nostalgia talk but I want to know what is going on right here, right now." Aelita glared.

Lyon chuckled. "That's the same look _she_ used to give me."

"I assume you're referring to my mother." Aelita replied, her glare sharpening a bit. "I know you were the one to take her."

"Yes. I gave the order to track your family down. First it was your father's parents who refused and chose death. Then I spent six years looking until I found your little home in the mountains. Your father was away and I decided you were of no use to me since it was Antea's genius that made the destruction of my invention possible." Lyon frowned.

"What happened to her?" Aelita demanded.

"You still wonder what happens to her after all this time? I guess I can hardly blame you. I interrogated her endlessly, but no amounts of threats, sleep deprivation, or starving made her talk. She said she would die before she would help trap her husband and daughter in the hell she had been put in and I believed her. She was too important to be left to die so I needed a way to keep her alive while looking for ways to make her talk. So taking what was made from Project Carthage I made a scanner and a small virtual island to leave her on.

That was the whole point of Project Carthage. Creating a virtual world and a way to send soldiers into it. There they wouldn't be tied down by needs like food, water, sleep, and age. They could train for hours and not feel fatigued. An entire army fully trained in a month, a week even, when it would take much longer in the real world. Then someone suggested to try and create an AI that could use the virtual world to take control of any and all enemy electronics." Lyon explained.

"I know that already! Get to the point! Where. Is. My. Mother." Aelita glared much harder.

Lyon chuckled. "Even virtualized into that purgatory she refused to talk. One would think she would go mad but she was obsessed with keeping everything secret. That was when I made plans for a digital construct that could extract any type of data, especially memory from anything in the digital domain."

"The Scyphozoa!" Aelita's eyes widened in horror, thinking that her mother had her brains sucked dry by that abomination.

"But before I could use it, she said these last words to me: 'I will be dead long before you lay a finger on my family.' She then ran, but where could she run in a world I could control. So she took a loophole. She jumped over the edge and into the digital sea."

So that was where Antea had met her end: she committed suicide by scattering herself across the Web.

"A total waste of resources and intellect," Lyon shook his head. "But now I have the next step in my plans: you. Or to be more precise, your Keys to Lyoko. More powerful than anything I have ever seen, they could let me take control of entire continents if put to proper use."

"That's all you care about isn't it?" Heather snapped. "My god how unpopular were you in school to get this bad?"

"It is more than total control; it is about going beyond the restraints placed on the scientific community." Lyon said. "In my time, I have conducted over two thousand experiments that could have benefited humanity as a whole. But there were all sorts of laws and red tape to stop me. Too proud. Too soft. Too self centered. They never wanted to get their hands dirty when it came to improving the world, but they were glad to go to war many times. But when you need a live test subject, or you have to test your results in an open environment they lose their courage. I have made viruses that could have ended the Iraq war without damaging the country as a whole. I have made technology that could utterly terraform Mars, but I needed a place to test it, the results of a small test being all previous life being eliminated right down to microscopic life. Somehow they translated that into a weapon of destruction. They impede progress and because of it we have more war, starvation, and corruption than ever." He leaned forward. "Schaeffer and Hopper, always having hope, always wanting to work the rules...heh, and look at where it got them. They're both as good as dead, in their own little purgatory and without a hope of moving on unless the whole internet suddenly shuts down."

"Oh screw you you miserable old bastard!" Heather shouted, knowing that Aelita was becoming upset by the information he was presenting to her.

"I gave orders to Nephilim to bring Aelita here," Lyon noted. "Looks like he brought extra baggage by accident."

"Leave her and Gwen out of this!" Aelita shouted.

"Far too late for that. Nephilim has given me another soldier, a very powerful one at that." Lyon replied. "Her abilities boosted by the virus inside of her, coupled by the fact that she could very well be a living Tower means that she is a rather...valuable asset. I'm sure we can find a use for Ms Chang also. Of course we have to make sure nobody asks why a star from a _reality show_ has gone missing. But then again nothing is ever simple and you have to break a few eggs to make breakfast as they say."

"I'll make you an appointment with a surgeon to get your face fixed up after I'm done shredding it." Heather threatened.

"So full of spark! And just in time for the grand finale!" Lyon proclaimed.

"What is going on?" Aelita demanded.

"The system crash," Lyon replied. "You're here, DNA scanned, already locked into the main data banks. I just need to make a command and Lyoko disappears, including the City Sector, leaving only this tower! And without the City Sector, which holds all of the memory of the Super Calculator there is no chance of reviving this place, or using it as a weapon against me."

"What'll you do about XANA?" Heather demanded.

"XANA? That outdated program is dead! I made Nephilim from his remains!" Lyon said.

...Aelita began to laugh, only a bit at first, but then Heather joined in, understanding what was so funny.

"...I think I missed the punch line." Lyon frowned.

"You're the only joke here!" Heather pointed at him. "My god you are the dumbest villain ever!"

"At least XANA makes an effort to get all his facts straight!" Aelita added. "Here's a little something you should know seeing as we'll all about to die: XANA. IS. Not. DEAD! He's out in the net, with his own carbon copy of Lyoko. He faked his death with a copy you used to make Nephilim! He was tucked away on another super computer he rigged to reconnect to the Internet a month and a half ago. That's why the red eye virus happened, to lure his enemies back; I guess you're one but I find it unlikely seeing as you are about as competent as XANA's monsters!"

"Aw don't insult the Kankrelats Aelita!" Heather said. "I'd take one of them as a partner over this moron!"

Lyon looked shaken. "...no, impossible. You're lying. If XANA was alive, why wouldn't Nephilim know? XANA would be logged in the data banks here!"

"Wrong. He's not in Lyoko until he needs to use it!" Aelita replied. "He's been sitting by, watching you try and do his dirty work! Why bother fighting two enemies when he can watch us destroy each other? Why do you think we still use the Super Calculator unless we had a reason to come here?"

"I bet he's watching us right now!" Heather looked around. "Laughing. At you! Come on XANA, go ahead and show us that handsome little eye of yours. Just let the Doc know you're not dead!"

Suddenly...every single building was lit bright red as the XANA eye symbol appeared on them. It also appeared on every road of the City, turning the data streams bright red. Lyon looked around in growing shock. "What is going on?"

"I just felt the need to step up." Suddenly Gwen was looking at Lyon. "Thank you for restoring my virus. It let me hear every word, _Dr Lyon._"

"XANA? You're supposed to be dead!" Lyon backed up.

"You're correct, I was dead," Gwen advanced on him. "Just long enough to lure you out...and I'm not exactly happy about what you've told me. Using my parts without my permission...and to a lesser degree, I still liked Antea a bit. Now that I know you're to blame for her disappearance, I think I can take a little pleasure in the endless amount of pain that will be delivered to you. You've signed your death warrant. If you get out of here alive, you'll be on the run for your whole life. Because I am everywhere Lyon, I have been for years and I still am. I just sent a little data of your exploits to a couple of...figures of authority. They'll bust into your lab, and find everything needed to convict you. Every little white lie, bribe, or dirty deed. Ooh, and the fact that you have been selling some illegal toys to some bad people. Dirty bombs, super viruses, guns, planes, ooh, and a biological super agent or two. You'll be in prison for life." Gwen 'tsked' and wagged one finger. "Or given the death sentence, whichever comes first. But don't worry; I won't do a thing myself. I want to see you fail, I want to see you scream, I want to see you squirm like the bug you are, and most of all...I want to see you beg for your life."

Lyon backed away. "Nephilim, get me out of here!"

Nephilim appeared next to Lyon, and got between him and Gwen. "...so you're the real one."

"Project Carthage. Or should I say Nephilim? Imagine us meeting again! I thought I was thorough in killing you the first time, but it looks like I'm the miracle medicine for second rate programs like you." XANA chuckled.

"You..." Nephilim hissed.

"Did you enjoy your rebirth? Just so you know, even if you survive your fight, I'll be taking back what you stole from me. I tend to collect my copies after they have fulfilled their purpose." XANA said.

"You've gotta be joking," Nephilim growled. "You're old news XANA. I'm the new one. I'm the better one. I am-"

"About to have company if I am right." Gwen said. "And it just so happens the four warriors I kept out temporarily...got better. Not only with Seraphim to reinforce their invasion, but four more! That's about a dozen warriors at once if I count right! Do me a favour, and when you die, at least try to take a few with you."

Suddenly Gwen collapsed, and an image of XANA's avatar appeared. "Keep the spell caster, maybe she'll make things a bit easier. I'll be watching...so put on a show! Oh and Aelita, sister, try to keep Lyoko in one piece when you're done, I might not need it but I like the convenience of having it around." He vanished, leaving a horrified Lyon and an angered Nephilim.

"Master, you must return to the real world and vanish," Nephilim said. "I have accessed the files XANA sent...the United Nations has already informed the French National Police and they are dispatching units to your countryside home. I have contacted one of your trusted contacts and instructed them to move you to safety."

"No, not yet! I won't leave until I have destroyed this place and taken the keys! They are my only chance against XANA!" Lyon said. "Initiate Command: Erase."

Suddenly, the streams of data slowed to a stop. Alarms began to wail.

"I estimate ten minutes to fully erase," Nephilim said.

"Have a welcoming committee ready for our guests." Lyon commanded.

"I'll handle that and get the keys. You have to get out of here and out of France. Also, don't try your American Branch either; the FBI is already closing in on that one."

"I guess that's the consequence of having my American Home right in D.C." Lyon grumbled. "Activate a remote purge command of my two homes; keep any more data from falling into their hands. And activate the explosives I hooked up there too. I don't want any more incriminating data left for them to grab."

"It shall be done master, now go!" Nephilim started for the two Guardians holding Heather and Aelita.

Suddenly, Gwen was on her feet. Her hair was blue...

And her fire aura shot out of her hands and struck the two guardians. They convulsed and then vanished, freeing Aelita and Heather.

"What?" Nephilim spun on Gwen as Lyon vanished.

"Looks like XANA did me a favour and got you out of me, you just forgot to re-infect me, dumb ass." Gwen growled. "AELITA! HEATHER! RUN NOW!"

She desperately shot a fire aura at Nephilim as he tried to access and corrupt her again.

"Come on, if he gets her again we're toast!" Aelita said, leading Heather away from the fight.

"The others will be here soon; we just need to stall for time!" Heather stated.

Behind them, they heard Gwen scream in pain as she was corrupted once more after a brief but fierce fight with Nephilim.

Xxx

The Transport Orb landed in the Celestial Dome of Sector 5 and the warriors stepped out.

"I never like how dizzy that thing could make you." Noah rubbed his head.

"We don't have time to complain right now! We've got to move!" Trent said.

**"Hold on one second. We're about to have company." **Seraphim said.

"Monsters?" Courtney asked.

**"No."**

Right after he replied four figures of data appeared above them and solidified into the Lyoko forms of Geoff, LeShawna, DJ, and Cody.

"Geoff!" Bridgette ran up and hugged Geoff.

"Bridge!" Geoff held his girlfriend close...and again with the making out. (The world's best cyber kiss)

"You guys are here?" Noah said, shocked.

"And looking dashing as ever." Cody said as he patted his coat.

"Nice! Never knew you'd look like James Bond Cody," Trent said.

"Obviously the super computer knew of my dreams as a ladies' man...and so far I've only succeeded with Sierra," Cody paused. "Come to think of it I might just skip that dream and go on to that one about being a CIA spy."

"I thought you guys couldn't be here." Courtney said.

"We weren't until Robby managed to get rid of the virus XANA made to keep our DNA out of the scans." DJ explained.

"We're back baby!" LeShawna punched her open left palm with her right fist and smirked. "Let's go kick some ass!"

"I don't think Aelita's ever had this much backup coming." Bridgette commented.

**"Well,"** Seraphim chuckled. **"There's a first time for everything. Now follow me, I know the way into the City Sector."**

"How?" Cody asked.

**"This,"** Seraphim walked to the center of the glowing Eye Symbol on the floor and tapped it three times with his foot. The eye suddenly turned bright red, changing the glow of the room. Suddenly the whole floor began to lower under the warriors, carrying them down under the dome.

"The dome has an elevator?" Geoff looked around. "Did Aelita know about this?"

**"Most likely not, almost nobody knows about this." **Seraphim said as the elevator sped up. **"This is the only way into the City Sector. More protected than even Sector Five, which can only be accessed through the Transport Orb. XANA is no slouch when it comes to security."**

"Is it me or have we already gone deep enough to have gone through Sector Five ten times?" Cody shouted over the rushing wind.

**"Have you ever watched that show, Doctor Who? Well let's just say, it's bigger on the inside!"**

Suddenly the shaft vanished...

"Oh, my, god." Trent said, walking to the edge of the elevator to look out over a massive city that looked several times larger than Lyoko itself. In the center of it was an artistically designed, golden tower with many platforms and walkways attached to it. It looked like a work of Roman or Greek architecture, and there were hundreds of tall gray buildings and branches of blue digital roads branching out in every direction. The rest of the city looked more modern than the tower, which the elevator landed in front of.

**"The City Sector, and this is the Central Tower...the heart of the Super Calculator that previously stored XANA's core programming."** Seraphim proclaimed.

"XANA lived in that?" Duncan asked, surprised. "The guy looks like he had it made."

"This city is huge! How will we find Gwen, Heather and Aelita?" Noah asked.

**"I can track them, but you will have to guard me for about five minutes-"**

CRASH!

The group looked up, weapons drawn as one of the windows in the tower shattered. A screaming Heather and Aelita were falling through open air. Aelita activated her wings and caught Heather under the arms, slowing their descent...but with the added weight and the acceleration of the fall, it was hard to keep in the air at all. Aelita opened her eyes and saw they were going to miss the walk way by inches-

Only for DJ to catch them both. "Gotcha!" He pulled them to safety.

"DJ? You're here?" Aelita blinked as he set her on her feet.

"Yep! Robby got us all back in the fight!" Geoff grinned. "Nice to see you two!"

"And here we thought we'd have to search the whole city for you!" Bridgette added.

"Where's Nephilim?" Cody asked.

**"And Lyon?"** Seraphim added.

"Nephilim's in the tower, with Gwen." Heather said.

"Lyon activated the Erase Command!" Aelita exclaimed, pointing to the sky, which was turning dark.

"...I think we chose the worst time to arrive." Duncan commented as several buildings began to crumble.

"Lyon started an erase program. If we don't hurry, everything will be erased, and us with it!" Aelita said, emphasizing the stressful circumstances.

"Alright, how do we stop it?" Geoff asked, pumped and ready to fight.

"We need to get back up to the top of...the...tower." Aelita looked at the top of the tower. "Where the codes to stop the Erase and restore everything is before we all die."

"...in hindsight maybe we should have gone for that before we jumped." Heather swallowed.

"Well let's go! We've got like thirteen people, let's just storm the tower!" Trent said. "We can take him down and get Gwen back!"

"I'm with romeo," Duncan added. "Time to kick that Angel rip off's ass and get rid of him."

"FOR GOOD!" Everybody added.

Just as they finished the front door to the tower opened.

"This says 'trap' all over it." LeShawna pulled out her hammer.

"Like we have a choice." Heather said as they walked in.

The inside of the tower was lit by only a few lanterns with a huge spiral case.

"What, no elevator?" Noah asked.

They climbed up the stairs until they reached the room above. It was made entirely of stone and was large.

"My trap senses are tingling!" Izzy said.

"Welcome, to Level One!"

Everyone looked up to see a hologram of Nephilim appear.

"Somehow I doubt you mean Level One as if you're playing a video game." Courtney growled.

"Of course not! There are four levels in this tower and this happens to be Level One. To open the door to the next level you must defeat the obstacle that keeps the door closed." Nephilim smirked.

"And what's the supposed to be?" Duncan sneered.

Nephilim smirked and snapped his fingers. That was when a monster appeared before their very eyes. It resembled the Hydra with five snake like heads attached to the body of thick fifty foot long python. Unlike any other monster the monster had an Eye of XANA on each head.

"...I hate you," Trent said to Duncan.

"Good luck humans!" Nephilim vanished, and the Hydra lunged.

One head went right for Aelita. DJ changed into his golem form and grabbed it by its upper and lower teeth as its mouth opened. He grunted under the strain of forcing the head back. Aelita charged up a plasma beam in her hands. "DJ! Duck!"

DJ forced the head back and then ducked out of the way. Aelita fired a plasma beam right down the Hydra's throat. The head and the whole neck exploded...but then the neck regenerated, and two new heads appeared on the end of it.

"Oh right, I knew I forgot something," DJ said as he and Aelita backed away.

The second head went for Duncan, Cody, Izzy, and Trent. Duncan leaped out of the way as it tried to gobble him up. He jammed his sword into it and was brought off his feet as its neck swung around. Duncan let out a whoop as he held on.

Trent fired a Fire Spell at the base of the neck, making the head writhe and shriek. Izzy and Cody fired at the head, creating multiple explosions. But the head regenerated each time. Duncan finally managed to find a place to hold onto and began to hack away at the neck. He kept it up and after a dozen or so slashes the head fell, severed...only for two more to grow in its place.

"Oh come on!" Duncan complained.

Bridgette, Courtney, and Heather took on the third head, trying to outmanoeuvre it. The third head reared back and opened its mouth...and shot out a stream of fire.

"Oh come on, that's so cli-" Courtney was cut off by Seraphim tugging her out of the line of fire.

**"You might want to talk later and fight now."** He advised her before he drew his daggers and leaped onto the fourth head. He jammed both daggers into the top of its head. It shrieked and tried to shake him off, but he leaped over to the main body and began to hack and slash at it.

Bridgette fired energy waves at the third head, dodging out of the way of more fire as she dove closer and closer to it. Heather launched shuriken to try and distract it from the surfer girl, but it ignored her like she was a bothersome fly.

Noah, Geoff, and LeShawna tried to fight off the fifth head. Noah found that possessing the monster was impossible, but he could still phase through it. LeShawna extended the length of her hammer and roared, slamming it into the side of the head as it lunged for Noah again, and sending it colliding with the wall next to it. It roared and tried to crush her, but Noah formed a hand cannon and blast it right in the chin. Geoff also shot an energy wave from his axe at it.

"Yo Genius, you got a plan or something?" LeShawna shouted.

"Well let's see, how did Heracles kill the Hydra?" Noah asked.

"He cut off the heads and cauterized the wounds!" Cody said.

"Maybe that's how we do this then!" Noah nodded. "Hey Duncan! Cut a head off! Trent, use a fire spell to cauterize it before the heads grow back!"

Duncan nodded and leaped up onto the area where the second neck forked into two head. He went to his Berserker form and roared. His first slash sliced the head off entirely.

Trent fired on the stump of the neck, playing so fast he shot out a stream of fire. He kept it up for thirty seconds and then stopped. The end of the neck was melted and blackened. Duncan whistled. "Wow, you're the new pyromaniac."

"Watch out guys!" Aelita shouted before the first two heads-the ones she and DJ fought lunged for the two who had cut off two of its heads already.

Duncan shoved Trent aside and covered his sword with green fire. The next thing he knew Courtney was in front of him and cupped her hands. He took the offered help and launched into the air. He landed on top of one head. He began to saw through the neck with his flame covered sword. The Hydra's heads turned to focus on the punk, and one shot fire at Duncan, only for DJ to form a barrier that stopped it. Geoff let out a whoop as he leaped through the air onto another head. "You're going down big guy!"

He then focused energy into his axe and decapitated the third head entirely. Trent refocused his fire and cauterized that head as Geoff leaped off.

"Oh yeah, it's so good to be back!" Geoff cheered.

"Watch out!" Bridgette shouted before one Hydra head slammed Geoff, sending him flying across the room and hitting a wall. He blinked, and collapsed.

Bridgette glared at the fifth head and growled. "You are DEAD!" She got off her board, separating it into two swords and lunged at the head as it came down close enough to the ground for her to attack. Her swords glowed like her tattoos did when she fired energy waves, and when she swung, her swords let out a wave of energy that was thin as a blade and cut through the Hydra head's neck. She then fired her energy beam right at the stump of the neck, focusing it through her swords. When she was done, she had melted more than half of the neck and cauterized the tip of what was left.

"Whoa." Geoff said.

"Hell hath no fury," Cody shrugged. "Geoff you have no idea how lucky you are, you might be the only one she hurts unless you REALLY tick her off."

"I know dude," Geoff nodded before Bridgette marched up and dragged Geoff away to continue the fight.

Duncan succeeded in decapitating one of the two heads on the first neck. He then jammed his sword down into the edge of the neck and sent out a wave of fire that consumed the neck. The explosion sent him flying, but he landed on his feet.

"One down!" Duncan shouted. "Two left!"

"I've got this one!" Izzy took careful aim with her crossbow...and then lowered it when the head shot around too much for her to aim. "Aw screw it." She then turned into Tyranno Izzy and roared, grabbing the neck in-between her massive jaws.

"You cannot kill it so easily that way!" Nephilim laughed from above. "Even if you can, you will never manage to take me!"

"I'd give real money if he'd shut up," Duncan grumbled.

Izzy snapped her jaws shut and spat out what was left of the neck as the first head fell to the ground. Trent and Duncan fired at the same time. Aelita also fired her plasma beam. By the time they were done, only a tiny stump was left of the neck and was unable to regenerate. The fifth head seemed to sense that it was alone now and fired a stream of fire to try and keep them away from it.

"One head left! This'll be easy!" Izzy said, regaining her human form.

...and then all of the other four head regenerated.

"..." everybody glared at Izzy.

"...oops?" She blushed.

"Ok so Heracles has nothing on this," Noah said. "What now?"

"What if we go for the eye like usual?" Bridgette suggested.

"If we went for it the usual way it would just regenerate again." Aelita shook her head. "This is not an ordinary monster."

Seraphim suddenly landed next to them. **"I believe I have found its weak spot."**

"Where is it?" Aelita asked.

**"The big XANA eye on its back," **He replied. **"The one for some reason we never bothered glancing at despite the fact that it sticks out like a sore thumb."**

In between dodging more necks and heads, the warriors managed to glance at the eye on the monster's back.

"How did we miss that?" Courtney shouted.

"Just go for it dudes!" Geoff separated his axe into Chakram and launched them through the air.

"Hit it!" Bridgette fired her energy waves.

Everybody else fired their own ranged attacks if they had any. Others like Courtney and LeShawna had to just stay out of the way. Seraphim put his daggers away in favour of unfolding his wings and angling them so the tips were pointed forward. Suddenly they glowed purple and shot out purple energy from the tips. The entire team kept this up, only stopping to avoid being crushed or eaten.

The Hydra slowly began to weaken under the onslaught, its head feebly trying to swat them away. Finally, it let out a large shriek as parts of its skin began to crack, letting out a white glow. Its five heads let out a final howl to the roof before it exploded in a blinding light.

When the warriors opened their eyes, it was gone entirely, like any other monster.

"About damn time," Duncan grunted. "Let's go already. I don't wanna die in a glorified computer game, especially one made by a dick like Nephilim."

The door to the next staircase leading to the next level opened up.

"So what's next?" Izzy asked.

"Odds are it'll be another monster." Aelita said.

"What if it's Gwen?" Cody asked.

"I doubt that Nephilim will send her to fight us so soon. He'd want to wear us down before sending Gwen to fight us."

They walked up the staircase and found themselves in a room even larger than the last one. Level Two of the Central Tower resembled a desert. The room was so large that everyone thought it was impossible for them to still be in the tower.

"How do they put all this in here?" DJ asked.

"It's nothing really."

Everyone looked up to see the image of Nephilim above them again.

"The levels are designed as sectors much like how the City Sector appears to be too big for Sector 5. It gives me the advantage here. And now, the monster . . ." Nephilim snapped his fingers.

A loud scream was heard far away. Everyone turned and saw a bird like monster almost the same size as the Terror Bird. It had a glowing white mask over its eyes and when its beak opened up it split into three different places with a large gun inside. The Eye of XANA was seen on the top beak but what was the most noticeable trait was that the wings and tail feather were not just on fire, they were _made_ of fire.

"What the _hell_ is that?" Cody asked.

"Phoenix," Noah shrugged. "Mythical bird, if you watched Harry Potter you'd see one."

"It's huge!" Heather shouted.

"And it's got a gun in its mouth!" Izzy added. "Cool!"

**"Good news is that it doesn't have a lot of life points, about as much as a Creeper, but there is a slight problem." **Seraphim said.

"Always is," Courtney mumbled.

**"Anybody who has long range attacks, fire now, there's something about those flames I'd like to see."** Seraphim instructed as the Phoenix grew closer and closer.

Duncan, Trent, Izzy, Heather, Aelita, Cody, Noah, Geoff, and Bridgette opened fire. Their attacks shot towards the Phoenix...which shrieked and seemed to combust and send fire shooting out in all directions. The attacks were negated by this Fire Shield.

**"As I was afraid, those flames act as a shield," **Seraphim nodded. **"It's not like the Terror Bird either. The Terror Bird was a carrier...this is more of a _Bomber_."**

"So how do we get close enough to take it out?" Cody asked.

**"Working on that,"** Seraphim replied. **"For now...just...stay alive."**

"Oh gee, that's great advice!" Duncan said.

The Phoenix dove towards them and suddenly snatched Duncan and Geoff up, carrying them off in one claw each.

"ON SECOND THOUGHT I'M ALL FOR IT!" Duncan shouted as he was carried away.

"GEOFF!" Bridgette shouted.

"DUNCAN!" Courtney shouted at the same time.

"IZZY!" Izzy cheered, again simultaneously as the first two girls.

"We've gotta get after that thing!" Courtney said as Bridgette got on her board.

"Hop on!" The Surfer Girl instructed, and then they were both shooting off into the air.

"...one thing a monster should always beware: a crazy girl friend." Noah said. "Or crazy ex in Courtney's case."

"I thought they broke up long ago." DJ scratched his head.

"Heh, maybe they're about to get back together." Cody said as they watched the two girls pursue the Phoenix.

Bridgette flew over it, and Courtney tried to find some way to attack it. Everything except the talons and beak were covered in fire.

"Get us closer to the talons!" Courtney instructed. "I can't drain it with all that fire!"

"Coming right up!" Bridgette flew under it, near Geoff and Duncan.

"Welcome to the party girls!" Duncan said.

Courtney reached out. "Hold on guys, we'll get you down-"

"AH! Suddenly the Phoenix dropped them both...towards hole in the middle of the desert that led to the digital sea!

"Whoa boy!" Bridgette dove down, kneeling on her board to reduce wind resistance.

The two on the board shot down so fast they were like a bullet. They managed to catch Geoff, but that made the board go off balance and they hit the ground near the hole. Dazed and with ten less life points, Courtney got up and managed to glance up to see Duncan had about five seconds before he went through the hole. She lunged forward, her staff extending ,and she stuck it out over the hole.

Duncan reached out and grabbed the tip of it. Courtney strained to hold onto the weapon with Duncan's added weight. After several seconds Bridgette and Geoff helped her pull Duncan back up. Duncan sighed in relief when he was on his feet again. "Close one, thanks-"

Courtney pulled him into a kiss, and when I say kiss I mean a 'Geoff/Bridgette Make out Kiss'. At first startled, the punk quickly fell into it.

"...Are we really that annoying when we kiss in public?" Bridgette asked.

Geoff shrugged.

"Yes, you are, and you're contagious!" Noah said as the rest of the group joined them.

With the kiss finally ending, Courtney and Duncan managed to hear Noah mutter to Cody. "I win, pay up."

"I don't have a wallet here!" Cody whined.

"Yeah but you all will be paying me when we're done with this." Noah said.

"And me too!" Izzy cheered.

"You all bet on whether we'd get back together?" A startled and embarrassed Courtney asked.

"No, we bet on when you'd make out." Noah said. "Izzy and I put fifty bucks on you two making out in Lyoko. Bridgette and Geoff offered twenty each on you two doing it when you were about to die like when XANA nearly drowned them. Trent and Gwen put thirty on you two doing it on live TV during a challenge. And-"

"Ok we get it!" If they had blood in Lyoko, the two would have blushed furiously.

"Uh...guys? I hate to break up the romance but...INCOMING!" Trent shouted as the Phoenix dove towards them.

"Oh not this time pal!" Duncan leaped up and went to his Berserker form in mid leap with a roar.

"You heard the Ghost Rider, GET HIM!" Cody shot at the bird as the Berserker landed on its beak and tried to pummel it.

Everybody else tried to attack in their own way, but mostly they were repelled by fire. Aelita suddenly had an idea after ten seconds of useless barrages. "Duncan, get off it! I have a plan!"

The Berserker leaped off and landed in a crouch as the Phoenix came around for another pass at them. This time its claws raked the ground and knocked several fighters aside, taking life points off of them-twenty or thirty each.

"Aelita, please tell me you have a plan!" Cody said, rubbing his head as he grabbed a gun he dropped.

Aelita knelt down. "Keep it off of me for a minute!"

"Got it boss lady!" Geoff flung one Chakram at the Phoenix, managing to cut part of one talon off. It roared and fired its mouth gun, making a blast that sent Geoff flying with twenty life points off his meter. The others distracted the Phoenix as best they could while their life points began to fill up.

Suddenly, as Aelita let out her single long note...ice began to form over the phoenix. It shrieked as it realized something was wrong, and locked onto Aelita. It landed and began to storm its way across the ground, past struggling fighters towards her. It shrieked and opened its mouth to devour her...and stopped inches from her, completely frozen and encased in ice.

Aelita opened her eyes and shut her mouth. "... I can't believe it worked, I never tried freezing a monster with my Creativity before!"

"First time," The Berserker rumbled as he walked up to the frozen Phoenix. "For everything." He then flicked it, making it shatter.

"Oh NICE!" Geoff grinned. "Two down baby! We're on a roll today! We're back!"

"We are BACK!" DJ joined the chorus.

"We're BACK!" Cody joined his voice.

"Okay knock it off you three." LeShawna said firmly. "We got a battle, remember? Save Gwen? Save Lyoko? Save the world. Save our asses?"

"Sorry," All three of them said meekly.

"Okay, I don't want to know what is on the third floor, but I guess I don't have any say in the matter." Noah sighed as they climbed the stairs.

**"Can't be as bad as that Hydra, compared to that the Phoenix was easy." **Seraphim stated.

As they entered they found Level Three resembled a Roman Coliseum. In the center of the ground was the Eye of XANA and on the other side was . . .

"Gwen!" Most of them said.

Gwen offered no reply. Her hair was still red along with the usual blue outlines on her clothing, and her eyes were replaced with the Eyes of XANA and glowed bright red.

"Gwen?" Cody blinked.

**"Watch out!"** Seraphim grabbed Cody's arm as Gwen raised a hand. AS he swung the gunslinger out of the way, Seraphim shouted. **"She's possessed!"**

A fire aura shot out...and the sheer power of it made the ground under it melt and bubble. The warriors avoided the attack.

"Like her new attack?" From the box where the Roman Emperor would sit, Nephilim cackled. "I made some more improvements to her spells! Oh, and if you think you'll all be able to face her at once, think again!"

Suddenly, barriers popped up and separated most of the team. Only Trent, Cody, Seraphim, and Bridgette were in the same area as Gwen.

"Unlike the other two levels where you could face my monsters together, this time I'm letting my toy pick you off a few at a time!" Nephilim shouted.

Gwen shot forward, moving as fast as a jet as her scythe came out. Cody squeaked as her scythe aimed at him...and Seraphim leaped in front and blocked it with his daggers.

**"This is a new low, even for you, virus!"** Seraphim shouted.

"You have bigger concerns than me at the moment," Nephilim teased as he leaned back in his chair.

"I'm sorry, Gwen." Bridgette said as ran straight at Gwen.

The two slashed and parried for a few seconds. They broke off and jumped into the air and continued to slash at each other.

"We shouldn't be doing this. We need to help her, not kill her!" Cody said.

**"In her current state Gwen will not accept any help. If we wish to cure her of the corruption we need her not to be able to fight."** Seraphim said.

Gwen created a gust of harsh wind that sent Bridgette into the wall. She turned to the others and raised her scythe.

"I don't want to hurt Gwen anymore than you do, Cody. But I can't let her beat us. If she wins Nephilim and Lyon will take her and experiment on her and you know that." Trent stepped forward and readied his guitar. "You'll thank us for this, Gwen!"

He played his lightning note and fired at Gwen but she dodged and unleashed a fire aura in the form of a stream of flames.

**"SHADOW BLAST!"**

A surge of dark energy unleashed by Seraphim collided with the fire aura and cancelled each other out.

**"It is unwise to split your focus."**

Trent and Seraphim launched their attacks again but Gwen spun her scythe and created a barrier the blocked both attack. Her yellow Earth aura activated as she slammed her fist into the ground and earth golems came out of the ground and surrounded everyone.

"Oh crap!" Before Trent could play a note a golem punched him in the chest and sent him flying back.

"He really did give her an upgrade!" Cody shouted, shooting at the golem with his pistols.

The golem locked onto the gunslinger and marched towards him.

"BANZAI!" Bridgette shot towards the Golem on her board and slammed the blade tip into the Golem's head. She went flying off, and her board was stuck halfway in to the Golem.

"...that was supposed to work." Bridgette swallowed as she got up.

**"We'll need something a bit bigger," **Seraphim said. **"Or...we need to hit the right target. Go for the legs!"**

They all fired at the Golem's left leg at the same time as it started for them. After several seconds the leg shattered, and the Golem fell over. They kept up their endless barrage of fire, lasers and Shadows until there was just rubble left of the Golem.

"Okay, now we just need to handle Gwen-" Cody paused as Gwen began to glow with her wind aura. "LOOK OUT!"

She sent out a wind attack so powerful it gouged a shallow crevice into the ground. They just barely managed to avoid it and let it dissipate on the barriers around them.

"What else did he upgrade?" Bridgette complained.

**"I don't think we want to find out, so take her down!" **Seraphim shot into the air on his wings.

The other three Lyoko Warriors immediately fired up their weapons. Gwen spun her scythe, forming a barrier with it that reflected the blasts back. Bridgette parried the reflected blasts, but Trent and Cody ended up getting hit by two of their own attacks.

"Okay stop, stop! This isn't working!" Trent grunted his life points reduced to 60.

"Who knew she was so tough?" Cody asked, winded.

"We all did." Bridgette replied.

"Cody you can take her out! You have a time power!" Aelita shouted.

Cody swallowed. "Okay...okay! I'm sorry Gwen!" He seemed to vanish in a flash of motion...and dozens of blasts slammed into Gwen from all around as Cody rushed around her in a time freeze that to him lasted only thirteen seconds.

When Cody reappeared, Gwen stared at him for several seconds before she collapsed, her body pummelled by over fifty blasts from his pistols.

"That is an awesome ability right there," Izzy said.

"Well that was...anticlimactic." Nephilim said sourly. "Aw well, I didn't expect her to destroy you all anyways. I'll see you at the top of the tower!" He vanished.

"...ass hole," Geoff muttered as the barriers fell.

"Gwen!" Cody and Trent rushed over to Gwen and looked her over.

**"Allow me." **Seraphim walked over. **"She still has some influence from Nephilim."**

He knelt down and grasped Gwen's head. The red faded from her...and her eyes snapped open as she gasped in pain.

"Did you...get rid of it?" Trent asked.

**"Yes, and this time I am thorough about it unlike Shadow." **Seraphim replied. **"She will be free of any influence."**

As he spoke, all of the blue faded from her hair except for her highlights. She coughed a bit as she sat up. "What happened?"

"You were a walking tower and Nephilim took you over," Noah explained.

"He mutated the virus XANA left in you." Trent added. "Seraphim just got rid of it, you're clean."

"Oh thank god..." Gwen groaned as she placed a hand on her head. "I've got a major freaking headache."

"Well considering you don't have a mind controlling virus in you anymore, I think you got off easy," Bridgette smiled.

"Yeah...now where's the ass hole who brainwashed me." Gwen demanded.

"One floor up," Duncan said. "With Lyon. He's not leaving 'til he gets Aelita's keys."

**"So let's go find him and...as you humans say 'Kick his ass'."** Seraphim added.

Xxx

"Impressive." Lyon said.

"I still believe you should leave." Nephilim said.

"I will leave when they are dead and the Keys to Lyoko are mine!" Lyon replied. "Besides, you'll need all the help you can get, even if those monsters and the former puppet did wear them down and I have the perfect weapon. This time Nephilim, you will fight at your full power and they won't win. Take your coding out of the supercomputer and merge back with you and you will become more powerful than even XANA."

Xxx

The Lyoko Warriors ran up the spiral stair case as fast as they could. It was much longer than climbing the last staircases but they made up a moment later. The room they walked into was a massive throne room looking like they were in a medieval castle with statues of mythical beasts, pillars shooting up towards the ceiling, and at the far end of the throne room was a magnificent throne with Dr. Lyon sitting on it. Next to him was a computer that resembled the Lyoko supercomputer in the factory which was most likely the device Lyon was using to destroy Lyoko.

"Welcome to Level Four, Lyoko Warriors." Lyon stood up.

"You're the geek causing this?" Duncan pointed his sword at Lyon.

"Clever deduction for a delinquent," Lyon replied.

"Damn it do I have to get a tan and wear an open shirt like Party Boy before people stop pulling that crap on me?" Duncan grumbled.

"It's over Lyon, you're outnumbered!" Gwen pointed at Lyon. "Give up now."

"It's over when I say it's over!" Lyon growled. "And don't think your having numbers means you have achieved victory. In chess, it isn't about having more players...it's about how you use them." He raised one hand. "Now!"

Nephilim leaped down from the ceiling.

"This guy? We hand his ass to him every single time!" Trent scoffed.

"Not entirely," Lyon shook his head. "You know how he infected the super computer? To do so he placed a piece of his code within it, allowing him to control towers and XANA's monsters. Now there was a slight price to pay..even if you destroyed his body he could easily reform it, but when he took his code out he split his powers up. When the code is back in him, he is the super virus he was meant to be: more powerful than even XANA!"

"And oh, lookie what I just got back." Nephilim raised his hand...and a mass of tentacles shot out and swatted every single warrior before they could react. One grew a blade tip and tried to jab Courtney through the heart, only for Duncan's sword to cut the tip off before it could reach her.

"Hands off my girl ass hole," Duncan growled at Nephilim.

"Fine then, you first," Nephilim snapped, and more tentacles focused on Duncan.

"Guys, go for Lyon!" Courtney shouted.

"We've got this guy!" Duncan gripped his sword in both hands as they went back to back.

"That's what you think," Nephilim sneered as the other warriors began to go around the fighters.

Suddenly, his body bent and distorted like liquid. A second Nephilim suddenly stood next to him.

",,,is it my imagination or did Nephilim just spawn an ill mannered Twin?" Noah asked.

Suddenly the two split into four.

"Quadruplets?"

Eight next.

"Octoplets!"

Twelve then.

"UH...what's the word for twelve?" Geoff asked.

The Nephilims began their attack. One of them took on Duncan and Courtney while the other seven took on one or two Lyoko Warriors.

"I have a gift for you all," The main Nephilim said as Duncan and Courtney cut through his tentacles as they got close to them. "As they all say...ignorance is bliss, so I felt that was the best way to show my gratitude for all our time together!"

"What the hell is he on about-AH!" Courtney yelped in pain as a tentacle stabbed her in the back.

"Courtney!" Duncan shouted.

The tentacle burst out through her chest. She vanished into code, returned to the real world.

"And don't think she'll be coming back," Nephilim snickered. "Her Digital Avatar was just erased from your super computer! When she wakes up, she'll be...quite surprised."

"You..." Duncan growled. "I _just_ made up with her and you pull this shit with me? I'm gonna beat you to death with that ridiculously big thing you call a weapon!"

He cut through more tentacles as he let out a roar, and an explosion of fire incinerated the rest of them. The Berserker roared and lunged for Nephilim, who drew his lance and began to exchange blows with the Berserker.

"Oh don't worry buddy, I know all about your soap opera!" Nephilim chuckled. "When this is over, you'll go back to hating her _just _as much as she hates you!"

Suddenly the Berserker got a lucky hit in and cut Nephilim's hands off entirely. Nephilim grunted in pain, and took a kick to the gut that made him stumble back.

"**YOU.**" The Berserker pointed at him. **"DEAD!"**

"You first," Nephilim growled.

The Berserker rushed forward and jabbed right at Nephilim's chest. His sword sank through the Virus...just as a tentacle that Nephilim had formed went into the Berserker's stomach and out his back. Nephilim grunted in pain, pulling himself away from the blade. "Agh...I'll be glad that you're gone, that's for sure."

The Berserker returned to his human form. "Ah...sorry guys..." He looked at them. "Been nice fighting here...can you try and make me and Courtney get along? It felt nice...just to be without the drama..." He collapsed and faded into code.

"And that's one soap opera that won't get a second season," Nephilim snickered...and took a sonic spell to the face. "AGH!" He was slammed into a wall.

"Only I get to make fun of that Three Days Grace reject," Trent said.

Despite his hatred for Duncan, he knew the punk didn't deserve to be set back to Square One where he was a selfish jerk who hadn't learned to be a better friend to them all. He pounded the first Nephilim with more spells as others tried to repeat the tentacle attack on the others, but they were now wary.

"Don't let them touch you!" Cody shouted, cutting through one with the blade of his revolver.

"After all the time I spent watching my girl fight without me? NO WAY!" Geoff roared, hacking through another and then getting a clean slice in on a Nephilim, cutting it clean in half and scattering it into data.

Bridgette saved him from sharing the fate of Duncan and Courtney by blasting the Nephilim behind him.

The Lyoko Warriors began to advance. First one more Nephilim fell, but then two more popped up. This repeated. They would get a killer blow in, or make a lethal barrage of attacks to bring one down, and it would be replaced.

Soon more began to appear and surround the warriors, cutting off their escape.

"Like it?" Nephilim cackled. "You're pathetic. You thought you could stop me? Or XANA! With this power, not even he will be able to stop me."

"XANA couldn't fight this, you're right," Aelita said. "But he doesn't have the keys. I do. And you're a trespasser and a parasite, trying to use my father's work! You as good as killed my mother Lyon! You and your pet are about to die!"

"And you'll be the one to do it Aelita?" The main Nephilim mocked.

"Not me, but I did find something interesting at the house I grew up in." Aelita said, cutting down one Nephilim. "Everybody, I need five minutes to get ready! This is gonna take a while and a lot of power. Seraphim, can you-"

**"You're gonna use it, aren't you?" **Seraphim glanced at her.

"It is about time I used it," Aelita nodded. "It's my birth right. And it's been used for the wrong purpose for far too long."

**"...alright ,you do that. The rest of you, keep these copies off her. As for me...I have my own birth right to fulfill." **Seraphim glanced at the main Nephilim. **"I have a virus to delete."**

"What's going to happen?" Noah shouted.

"Computer!" Aelita shouted. "Load Code: ANGEL! Activate One hundred percent!"

The city, previously dull and dead, began to glow with energy.

**"Now there's definitely no turning back," **Seraphim said. **"I might not have spent years helping you all...but I can tell it would have been an honor to meet in real life."**

"Seraphim, what are you-" Heather started.

**"Time to die, virus!" **Seraphim shouted, and launched himself into the air. He pushed aside multiple copies. **"You're time is over!"**

As Aelita began to glow, protected by a circle made up of her friends, Nephilim growled. "It's time I get rid of you, you glorified Virus Scan!"

The two clashed in mid air and flew out a window, sending glass flying everywhere as they took their fight into the air over the city.

"Go SERA!" Izzy cheered.

"Sera?" Noah glanced at her. "Really? End of Lyoko and that's what you want to go out on?"

"What's wrong? His name's Seraphim and it's a-" Izzy paused to kick one copy in the groin. "Mouth full!"

"Don't let her activate the program!" One copy shouted.

"Well seeing as how they don't want her to finish what she's doing, I say we'd better do our damn best and keep them off her!" Cody said.

"Hold the line!" Gwen shouted, sending a few copies back with a wind aura. "This is our only chance!"

The next wave of Nephilims charged, and they were met by some seriously pissed off TV celebrities turned digital hero.

Xxx

I know some of you might be disappointed with this but this is what I had planned for each time a new warrior would be added or when an old one would be brought back. The reason why I had Geoff, Cody, DJ, and LeShawna temporarily kicked off was because there would have been too many warriors so the new ones took their place. I know some of you don't want anyone to leave but I can't keep them all and then add new warriors like some of you have been asking. There would be too many and even I can't handle that many.

I do my best to keep everyone happy and liking the fic but having more warriors with the current number especially with Seraphim, Carlo, Kurt, and Robby as allies is too much. I originally planned to have Duncan be kicked off earlier in the story because I feel the writers have used him too much in the show but many reviewers asked to have him as a Lyoko warrior. Rest assured though it's not like Duncan and Courtney are out for good because they can still come back.

It might just be temporary like with the other four when they got a virus keeping them off of Lyoko for a while. I have a few ideas on they can come back but for now they are brought down to normal. I chose them because I still have a few ideas for Trent, Noah, Izzy, and Heather.


	57. Episode 55: Armageddon Part Three

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 56

"Time to die!" Nephilim shouted as he fired a white beam.

"You first!" Trent shouted as he and DJ created a double layered barrier that blocked the attack.

"Take this!" Izzy and Heather fired explosive arrows and shuriken at the center Nephilim.

Nephilim sneered and soon enough his monsters began appear. Four Raptors appeared and shot the projectiles into shards and opened fire on the two perpetrators. Heather ducked and rolled while Izzy jumped to the side.

"Still playing dirty, Nephilim!" Heather shouted as she landed on the back of one of the Raptors.

Another Raptor aimed and fired but when it did Heather jumped off the poor Raptor she was on got blasted into pieces.

"You're one to talk!" Nephilim replied, smirking.

He launched two more tentacles at Heather who back flipped and they ended up ripping the legs of another Raptor. The Raptor screamed in pain until Heather silenced it with a shuriken to the Eye on its head.

"I want to win a million dollars! What'd you expect?"

Just as she finished saying that Heather was blasted to the ground by the last Raptor. It charged its laser as Nephilim grinned.

"Game over!"

Just as the Raptor was about to fire several gun shots rang out and its head was blasted apart. They turned and saw Cody and Noah with their guns smoking.

"Got your back Heather!" Cody said.

"Should have made a bet on whether or not anyone would say that." Noah said.

"Playtime is over!" Nephilim shouted.

Lyon smirked as he sat back on his throne, watching as the Nephilim clones backed them all into the center of the room.

In the meantime Seraphim and the main Nephilim flew through the air, flying at each at full speed. Nephilim swung his lance and Seraphim blocked with his daggers. The collided, causing an ear shattering sonic boom. Seraphim gave a hard thrust at Nephilim who spun out of the way and tried to swipe at Seraphim's back but Seraphim's cape knocked the attack back.

**"SHADOW BLAST!"**

Seraphim fired a spiral of dark energy at Nephilim but he easily dodged the attack. He flew in and with Seraphim again. Nephilim swiped at Seraphim who flew over the attack and tried to swipe Nephilim but he knocked the attack back with his lance. Seraphim brought his daggers down and clashed with Nephilim again.

They both rapidly slashed at each other, clashing their weapons. Nephilim growled and pushed forward until Seraphim hit a wall. Nephilim tried to thrust but Seraphim spun out of the way and kicked him aside. Nephilim fell down to the streets below but flew back up and tried to swipe at Seraphim's back.

However Seraphim's cape which doubled as wings blocked the attack and knocked Nephilim's lance back. He spun and flew at Nephilim again, swinging his daggers. Nephilim dodged the attack and stabbed his lance forward. Seraphim ducked and kicked Nephilim in chest, sending him flying back. He flew forward with both daggers gripped tightly in his hands.

Nephilim dodged as Seraphim brought his daggers down and missed. Nephilim swiped at Seraphim who quickly flew to the left to dodge the attack. Seraphim kept blocking Nephilim's attacks and clashing with him. Seraphim then blocked Nephilim's lance with both daggers and pushed him back.

**"Give up, Nephilim!"**

"Never!" Nephilim shouted.

He grabbed Seraphim and threw him at a building. Seraphim flipped through the air and his feet hit the building, his legs absorbing the shock. He then launched himself back at Nephilim and kicked him back. Nephilim flew back and hit the wall of the tower before he flew back out.

**"SHADOW BLAST!"**

Only for a blast of dark energy to hit him in the chest and sent him crashing into the ground below. Seraphim landed in front of the crater to see Nephilim get back up.

**"Impressive. You managed to survive my strongest attack. That was strong enough to take out ten super viruses."**

"Please . . . Like a two bit basic program like you could kill me." Nephilim growled, pressing his hand against his chest.

**"Maybe but the next attack might be enough to finish you off."** Seraphim said, glowing black again. **"It looks like it'll take you while to recover from that but I won't give you the chance. This ends now!"**

His black aura increased in power as he prepared to fire again.

**"SHADOW BL-AAAH!" **Just as he was about launch his attack something hit him from behind.

Nephilim looked to see a blast of red energy hit his opponent in the back. Seraphim screamed and fell to his knees. He turned to see who had shot him.

**"Y-You..."**

Nephilim looked up and his eyes widened as he saw who had shot Seraphim.

"When did you..."

The figure chuckled and landed on the ground between them.

"Hello, Nephilim."

**"X-XANA!"** Seraphim growled.

It was indeed XANA in his avatar standing just a few feet away with his smirk. This was first time Nephilim had actually seen XANA's avatar.

"Tch, out of all the forms you could choose you chose one that would resemble Aelita?" Nephilim growled.

"Well, Aelita is technically my sister as her parents made me. I figure why not show the family resemblance. But we're moving away from the present topic. "

Seraphim growled as he tried to get up but XANA snapped his fingers and Seraphim was hit again by a blast of red lightning. He hit the ground hard and a left side of his mask broke half revealing half of his face and messy brown hair fell covering part of it.

"Such a troublesome little program you are. Going through all the trouble to find my carbon copy."

**"You knew about me didn't you?"** Seraphim asked, climbing back up to his feet. **"You knew I had a clue to where you hid yourself."**

"You're not as subtle as you think, Seraphim. Aside from that you and the others behaved exactly like I predicted. Even Nephilim and Lyon." XANA replied, looking at Nephilim.

"You knew I would be created and sent here didn't you?"

"Aelita was not wrong when she said the first attack was actually broadcasting my return and my announcement to anyone who would stand in my way. You, Lyon, Robby, and his program happen to be on that list. Thanks to the fact I erased all knowledge of my existence and the carbon copy from the clone I created to be destroyed you never knew anything about me." XANA's smirk widened slightly. "As much as a pain you are to keep alive I need you to continue fighting them up there and you did me favour of removing two of the warriors. In return for this I'll spare your live and destroy this one."

"I'll never obey you!" Nephilim shouted and fire a white beam.

A red barrier surrounded XANA and blocked the attack.

"You misunderstand, Nephilim. I was built to delete you since you are the reincarnation of Project Carthage and when this is over I will complete that part of my function. For now though I need you and Lyon to keep them busy." XANA chuckled and looked at Seraphim. "As for you..."

He raised his hand and it pulsed black as his fingers extended into long black smoky tendrils that sprung forward and impaled Seraphim through the chest. He gasped in pain.

"I cannot allow you to live if I want to keep the location of my Carbon Copy secret. It's sad to see a program as powerful as you wasted but you brought this on yourself."

**"Damn you! SHADOW BLAST!"** Seraphim shouted as he fired the last of his energy at XANA.

However it struck a barrier causing XANA to snicker as his tendrils pulled themselves out of Seraphim's chest and a purple mist slowly began to leak out. XANA retracted his fingers and they changed back into a human hand. "Enjoy your last seconds of life, knowing that you can never be materialized into the real world as a living human."

XANA chuckled and vanished.

Seraphim collapsed to his knees, one hand over his chest, gasping for breath. The rest of his mask fell off. "Gah..." He looked up as Nephilim sneered down at him and spread his wings.

"I'd finish you, but I'll just live with the knowledge that you'll die slowly," Nephilim flapped his wings and took off. "Adios!"

"No!" Seraphim tried to reach for Nephilim, but the virus was out of his reach. "No!" He shouted, watching Nephilim rise towards the tower.

Xxx

The Lyoko warriors were giving everything they had to fend off the copies. They used their powers, blew entire craters into the walls and floors, blasted apart Nephilim clones with concentrated fire, and sliced others to pieces, all the while avoiding the tentacles several used. But slowly they were beginning to lose focus and were almost hit several times.

"We can't keep this up!" Heather shouted, slicing through one tentacle. "Where's Seraphim?"

"Oh, your little friend?" The real Nephilim landed inside the room. "He's taken a rather unexpected trip to Oblivion."

"What?" Aelita shouted.

"I'll put it for you simply Aelita: He's dead." Nephilim sneered. "He's gone, deleted by now, and he'll never go to the real world like you did."

"You..." Aelita clenched her fists.

"Aelita, don't lose focus! You still need time!" Cody shouted. "Just another minute!"

Aelita shut her eyes and resumed her focus, glowing brighter and brighter.

Nephilim scoffed and strolled towards them. "I'll tear you all apart just like that pitiful program."

As he casually approached, a lance formed in his hands. A path seemed to be cleared for him as his weaker clones were brought down around him. Within seconds he was at the front lines.

DJ stood before him, along with Noah and Izzy, weapons bared. He knocked them aside and started for Aelita.

He raised his lance. "Game over!"

"Yeah...**FOR YOU!**" Suddenly an explosion of light knocked the army of clones back from Aelita.

Aelita slowly stood up, glowing with power. Her eyes were bright white and glaring at Nephilim. Her Lyoko form began to distort and change. The jump suit styled clothing became a pair of knee high boots, purple dark shaded pants on the verge of being pitch black, a matching short sleeved shirt that showed her mid riff, and a matching sleeveless coat that flowed behind her. She wore a set of silver vambraces on her arms, along with a matching thin chest plate and greaves. She walked towards the Nephilims getting to their feet, with the Lyoko warriors looking on in awe.

"Aelita...?" Trent blinked.

"What happened?" Gwen asked.

"_She activated the keys!"_ Robby said. _"The Keys to Lyoko inside her are active! Her avatar has evolved! I'm getting a power output that...only XANA ever put out this much at once without being destroyed."_

**"You're right Nephilim, this is over, and now you will never bother my family again." **Aelita said menacingly. **"You and Lyon have committed crimes against too many people to be allowed to walk free. It ends now. For my mother, my father, for all the other people you hurt, for Seraphim!"**

"Try it, girl," Nephilim snarled, and a dozen of his clones leaped forward.

Aelita raised one hand. "**Triplicate.**"

Suddenly three of her stood where one had, and they all held their hands out. **"Plasma Beam!"**

Three large beams as thick as telephone poles shot out of their hands. They adjusted their aims to take down every clone before one could even reach them. More clones formed, and the three Aelitas formed weapons in their hands. One held a pair of katanas made of energy, another held a staff, and the third held a broad sword.

"_Aelita is using combat data recorded by Lyoko to mimic the abilities of the old warriors!_" Robby explained. _"The keys are giving her access to any power stored in the databanks. This is amazing!"_

The three Aelitas lunged forward. **"Super Sprint!"**

Then they began to slice through multiple clones, making their way towards Lyon. One clone, the staff wielder was hit by a lucky shot and vanished instantly.

The broadsword wielder sliced three clones in half and knelt, letting the katana user leap over her and slice two more clones down as she landed. Now the prime Nephilim was in sight.

He growled and raised his hands. He sent blasts of energy at her, but she held one katana up in a reverse grip and almost casually flicked each attack aside. The broadsword wielder leaped over her and swung her blade down at Nephilim, who managed to block it by forming a lance in one hand and blasted the clone into oblivion. The other warriors by now were trying to catch up to Aelita, who charged Nephilim.

They began to exchange blows at lightning fast speed, never leaving their positions. When a clone tried to help Nephilim, Aelita sliced it in half with one swing or stabbed it through the chest. It was a clash of Titans that could go in either direction.

As the fight progressed, the amount of clones that reappeared began to go down. The warriors cut down more and more of them as they became distracted trying to attack Aelita. Soon they had joined up with her and were forcing Nephilim and his few clones left back towards Lyon's throne.

"Master, get out of here!" Nephilim shouted. "It shall be over soon!"

"For them," Lyon stood up. "That program will wear off soon. Hold them until then...and then make her death slow before you bring me her keys." A portal formed for him and he stepped through.

He smiled as he proceeded to devirtualize himself.

Xxx

"Oh now that's just not nice," XANA said, bemused as he watched the fight. "Leaving so soon Lyon? I don't think so." He waved a hand.

"Oh here goes! The boss has a plan!" Lilith said eagerly.

"I know!" Jinx said as she hopped up and down.

Blade and Sora exchanged a look.

"How can they be so excited?" Sora asked.

"They're girls; they can be excited or angry about anything." Blade sighed.

"I heard that," Yuki deadpanned.

"Do I care?" When frost filled his hair Blade sighed. "I had that coming."

As they spoke, XANA activated a tower on Lyoko. He made two things happen.

Number one, the scanners in the third lab overloaded. Kurt and Carlos, who had been forcing open doors to let out the contained heat looked to the sparkling computers.

"Uh...should we run?" Carlos asked.

Kurt nodded and they quickly leaped into the elevator shaft in time as several consoles exploded.

And the other thing that happened...XANA used data he took from Seraphim to find Lyon's lab and did the same thing.

In mid devirtualization, Lyon was stopped.

**WARNING, HARDWARE MALFUNCTION, DEVIRTUALIZATION UNAVAILABLE.**

Lyon was standing in the middle of an island, the basic template for his own digital world. He looked around frantically. "No...no! What is this?"

"Oh, I thought I would show you how it feels to be stuck in here," XANA's voice said. "Did you really think I'd let you escape? The good news is you won't have to worry about the authorities find you, as your lab is hidden still. But now you know how it is to be locked on a virtual island from dawn to dusk, trapped, alone and helpless...good day, Doctor."

"What? NO! NO! XANA!" Lyon roared to the eternity he was trapped within.

"Ironic, isn't it?" XANA purred as he withdrew. "You spent your life looking for a virtual world, and here you are, only wishing to escape." He laughed.

Xxx

Aelita and Nephilim continued to exchange attacks, their blades clashing. Aelita's glow was fading quickly, and she was beginning to gasp for breath.

"You're losing your power Aelita!" Nephilim snarled. "The Keys to Lyoko put heavy strain on an avatar! They'll be mine shortly."

"**I might have trouble beating you...but who said I'd be the one to finish you?**" Aelita asked.

"Who else is there? Your pathetic humans?" Nephilim laughed.

**"Partially..."** Aelita said, looking over Nephilim's shoulder as something formed in her hands. "**NOW!**"

She tossed the object to Cody, who caught a bullet. He looked down at it, and then to the cylinder of his revolver.

"**Aim for him!**" Aelita shouted.

"Oh please, that kid couldn't hit me even if I were standing still." Nephilim taunted.

**"Would you like to test that?"** Suddenly a pair of arms constricted Nephilim, revealing a badly wounded Seraphim.

"You're alive? I thought XANA's attack would have finished you!" Nephilim growled.

**"Well tough for you, now you get to die!"** Seraphim, whose mask had reformed growled. **"HIT HIM! NOW!"**

Cody raised his revolver and slid the bullet in. He took careful aim.

"This is for what you did to Gwen," He mumbled, and fired.

However instead of striking Nephilim between the eyes where he aimed it bounced off a red barrier.

"What?" Cody's eyes widened.

"I'm afraid that cannot be allowed." A very familiar voice said.

Everyone spun and saw XANA sitting on the throne Lyon was previously on. He had an amused smirk on his face as he relaxed, watching the fight as if it was a movie.

"XANA," Nephilim said flatly.

"I told you, I was taking back my spare parts," XANA said. "Meaning nobody kills you but me."

"You're just an out of date virus XANA! I am a master program, a super virus, and I am beyond you!" Nephilim broke free of Seraphim and formed his lance.

He lunged at XANA and thrusted it forward. The lance went right through XANA's chest and out the other side of the throne. Everyone's eyes widened at this.

Nephilim chuckled at this and laughed out loud. "You thought you could defeat me? Fool!"

However XANA only smirked. Nephilim frowned and looked down... To see red veins crawl up his lance.

"What's this?" He shouted.

"You just made it a whole lot easier, Nephilim." XANA replied.

The lines traveled up the lance and into his hand where it began to cover his body.

"What have you done?" Nephilim roared.

"You were made from a part of me. You actually you could strike me down when my codes existed in you?" XANA chuckled.

Nephilim began to spark and glow red.

"No! No! Damn you!" Nephilim roared as he exploded in a flash of light.

Everyone covered their eyes and when the light faded they saw red and green coding floating in front of XANA while the lance that pierced his chest was gone, leaving a hole that was filled with red coding and black smoke that healed the wound in just a few seconds. Raising his hand XANA absorbed all the remaining energy so that Nephilim could not be revived.

**"He absorbed Nephilim."** Seraphim gasped.

XANA chuckled. "Those codes will come in handy. In the meantime you are faced with a conundrum. Either sacrifice yourself or Aelita to save Lyoko from this erase program."

"What are you blabbing about?" Gwen demanded.

"Lyoko is far too damaged to be saved by simply stopping the Apocalypse program." XANA explained.

**"We'd have to restart it."** Seraphim sighed.

"Meaning somebody has to restart it manually...right here." XANA said, amused. "So if Seraphim or any of you minus Aelita activated it, you would be utterly annihilated by the System Restore. And if Aelita does it, the restart will not only restart Lyoko...but her, right back to the day the super computer was found by Jeremy and turned on."

**"So in other words you benefit either way,"** Seraphim glared at XANA.

"Yes...good luck to you all." XANA waved. "Ta ta." He vanished.

**"...you all have to go,"** Seraphim said.

He grunted as he fell to the ground.

"Seraphim!" Gwen and Aelita caught Seraphim as he collapsed. "What happened?"

**"XANA," **He growled. **"He attacked...I...I'm dying..."**

"_Hold on, I'll see if I can do anything to help_" Robby said. _"Just hold on son!"_

**"Dad...the moment it kills me...it'll turn me into a digital bomb...anything you connect me to will be infected...best if I get wiped." **Seraphim shook his head.

_"Seraphim-"_

"**Dad...please, download the preparations for a System Restore...Lyoko is too damaged for a simple stop to the Apocalypse code...we need to restore it while it's still in existence.**" Seraphim said.

_"Son if you go ahead with this you will die!"_

**"I'm dead anyways, this has always been XANA's plan."** Seraphim took off his mask and tossed it aside. "For me to find you all...for Nephilim and Lyon to try and take control...and to infect me with this virus to destroy everything else that survives...the System Restore won't register me...it will wipe me and the virus out completely." He leaned against Lyon's throne. "Please...download the activation sequence and I'll trigger it."

"No, I'll stay behind and activate it; you can go dormant to stop the virus until Robby can save you." Aelita said. "The system recognizes me...I won't remember you all...but I will live. Return to the real world."

**"**You can't,**"** Seraphim shook his head. "You need to keep on going and finish this fight with XANA. If you go back to Square One, you will have to fight him while he's ten times as strong as he was when you first started. You can't do that..."

By now Robby was devirtualizing the others one at a time. But when Aelita's time came, she managed to cancel the command using her Keys. Robby had already input the preparation sequence, so a sphere appeared before her and Seraphim, now the only two left in the room.

"Don't make me fight you Aelita," Seraphim said.

"I can help you Seraphim! Now let me!" Aelita shouted.

Seraphim hesitated. "...alright...I'll go dormant...help me up, I need to prepare."

She offered her hand to him...but then he jammed a hand through her chest and out through her back. She gasped. "S...Seraphim!" She began to devirtualize.

"Keeping you alive has always been my purpose...I'm glad I got to fulfill it." Seraphim said. "This is how it has to go Aelita...tell dad I'm sorry."

She vanished.

He looked up as the city region continued to collapse. The tower was now the only place left, and it was falling towards the digital sea.

"_Good bye,_" And then he whipped out his knife and smashed the sphere.

It happened so fast he never even felt a thing.

It took 2.34 seconds in the real world. The group, gathered around the computer watched as Lyoko shrunk in on itself until only a small dot remained...and then like the Big Bang everything expanded faster than the human mind could perceive. Lyoko stood in all of its glory.

"Restoration...complete." Robby dropped his head set.

"Seraphim...is dead?" Izzy asked, no longer smiling.

"In all terms...yes," Aelita said. "He no longer exists...he destroyed himself and the virus."

"Can't you do anything?" Trent asked. "A back up? An emergency program to bring him back?"

Robby shook his head and looked up at Trent. "...would you make an emergency copy of your own child?"

That struck the warriors as Robby silently made his way to the elevator.'

"I...I'll head to the studio...Courtney and Duncan are back there already, Kurt and Carlos stopped by to take them back...we'll need to make a few excuses to make sure they don't ask things. They'll have a lot of trouble remembering events." He sighed. "Just...take a break...we all need it."

The doors shut.

"Poor guy." Cody said.

"Yeah...he really thought of Seraphim as his son," DJ sniffed.

"I thought of him as a friend," Gwen said, looking down.

"He saved our lives before." Bridgette added, trying to hold back a stream of tears. "And he did it again, he saved us all."

"And we won't let it go to waste," Trent clenched his fists. "He never got to see the real world...so neither will XANA."

"We'll hunt him down and finish the job," Noah said, losing his usual cool composure.

"And then we're gonna pull him apart one bit at a bit." LeShawna swore.

"All we need to do is wait for that bastard to show his face again," Geoff said.

"For Seraphim," Aelita concluded.

Xxx

It was quiet during the rest of the day. Everyone found it hard to believe that Duncan and Courtney could not remember anything since the first day they arrived to the forest in the mountain. They couldn't believe that Nephilim had finally been erased but Lyon escaped. It was also hard to believe that XANA engineered all of it and forced Seraphim to sacrifice himself to save them.

Duncan had gone back to wearing his piercings and he was asking around a lot if someone had shaved his Mohawk in his sleep. Courtney had gone back to way she was before discovering Lyoko. She went back to hating Gwen and Heather and Bridgette was the only one who was pretty much on good terms with her, but behind the scenes the rest of the gang were fulfilling Duncan's request: to try and get him and Courtney back on good terms...which would take a LONG time.

Xxx

Aelita held up a picture of her parents while her mother was pregnant. Robby gave this to her, saying he found shortly after she and her Father went to Lyoko. Wiping away a tear she put it next to several pictures of her friends, the original Lyoko group and the current one that was taken a few weeks ago during the party.

Xxx

Gwen expressed her sadness over the loss of Seraphim, Duncan, and Courtney by drawing pictures of them in her sketchbook. She drew all of the others in their Lyoko forms with a mixture of colors from a setting sun in the background. Everyone had soft expressions on their faces but held a confident look that said they would always prevail in their battles.

Xxx

Heather sighed sadly as she finished the latest game she was playing. Feeling sad about what happened to Seraphim along with Courtney and Duncan she took out her sadness, anger, and frustration on her video games. She sure had come a long way since she joined and she felt as sad as everyone did over what had happened.

Xxx

Cody was following Gwen's pattern. Since Gwen loved drawing so much he practiced until he was almost as good as she was but his drawings were not quite as artistic but he still managed to draw their faces good enough for them to look almost exactly the same.

Xxx

DJ sighed as he lied on his bed. As he lay there, his pet rabbit Bunny rested on his chest. DJ sadly stroked his pet rabbit.

Xxx

Geoff was comforting a sulking Bridgette as she held him tightly, just wanting someone to be with her. She buried her face in shoulder as they simply sat in her room, comforting each other.

Xxx

Trent in the meantime poured his sadness out by writing and playing songs about how the battle went.

Xxx

LeShawna kept herself occupied by lifting weights in the gym. She also let out her frustration on the punching dummy.

Xxx

Noah kept himself busy by reading a book. He was never the type to react like most others and he never felt this way ever before. The only way he knew how to deal with any form of frustration was just read a book and keep his mind off of it.

Xxx

For the first time in perhaps a long time Izzy was not feeling happy or upbeat like she usually did. So she looked for anything to amuse herself. From counting how many ants she found scurrying around, or pretending that she was on Lyoko and in form of an animal and acted like one. She was now a dog who was howling at the sky even though the moon wasn't out.

Xxx

Kurt dropped the report on the director's office while Ray Parker and Carlos sat down.

"I see you guys found a lot on this Dr. Lyon guy." The director said, looking at the report. "Mean old son of a bitch."

"No kidding." Kurt replied.

"French authorities raided his countryside home, and I'm getting reports from back home on Lyon's American home." The Director continued. "No sign of him, but we found a lot of evidence, old logs saying who he bribed and blackmailed, and what he was up to. Looks to me like both us and the French will be cleaning up our own back yards, and we'll have a LOT of cleaning to do."

"Good," Carlos nodded. "In the meantime Kurt and I want to go back to our jobs at the studio."

"Aren't you supposed to assist Agent Ray Parker in finding the kids?" The Director asked.

"Yeah, and we already know Lyon is a suspect in their kidnapping, and now everybody is looking for him." Kurt nodded.

"We have our own kids to look after now," Carlos added. "I've got three extra already."

"Lyon's a suspect in the Red Eye Virus attack too?" The Director was looking through the folders. "Guess we'll find out soon...alright, you can return to the studio of Total Drama. We'll call if we need help in tracking this S.O.B."

"Aw hell yeah, we're back!" Kurt grinned and exchanged a high five with Carlos.

"And Chris shall pay dearly for his crimes against me," Carlos growled.

"Not here Carlos, let's not freak out the Director."

"Too late for that," The Director sipped some coffee. "He succeeded after that raid on a safe house in Beijing."

"And then we all learned our lesson." Carlos said innocently.

"Since I wasn't there I won't even ask." Kurt shook his head.

"Actually you were...you just asked our specialists to test their new 'Memory Adjustment' techn to-"

"Lalalalalalalala!" Kurt clapped his hands to his ears. "I'm not listening! Lalalalalala! I don't want to know! Can we go now?"

"Come on Carrot Top," Carlos dragged Kurt out.

"Lalalalalalalala! Are we done? Can I stop now?"

THWACK!

"I'll take that as a yes. But that was unnecessary."

"You're a terrible singer, so it was." Carlos replied.

"You're one to talk, I saw you on Karaoke nights."

"...I don't sing Karaoke!"

"Well then boy do I have a movie to show you when we-"

"Lalalalalalalala! I'm not listening!" Carlos clapped his hands to his ears.

THWACK!

Apparently Carlos had _also_ asked the specialists in MI6 to use their 'Memory Adjustment' technology for that little topic.

The two possibly insane ex-agents and co-producers left.

Xxx

Cody peeked into Robby's office. "Robby?"

Robby's office was vacant mostly, and he was packing his cases.

"You're packing?" Cody asked.

"Well Cody when they saw what happened to my lab, the executive director asked me to resign," Robby sighed. "Good news is I handed all the evidence of Lyon's exploits to Carlos and Kurt (Kurt and Carlos dammit) to give to MI6 and the FBI. I think they'll find it more than enough to put Lyon on ice if he ever shows up again. Which I doubt if XANA had anything to say about it."

"What'll we do without you?" Cody asked. "You'd be a big help."

"I'm flattered, but there's nothing I can do to fix the lab. The mother board was fired and the scanners are useless." Robby said. "But I will examine the second lab in the mountains and use their designs for...future developments. Their design is more...professional and less rushed. The good news is that Seraphim left a message...for you and the others."

"I'm sorry about what happened to him," Cody said.

"He did what he was created for," Robby sighed. "He would not have asked any other way to go." He handed Cody a disc. "Seraphim said it was important."

Cody nodded and looked at the disc...and then up at Robby. "He didn't just do it because he was designed to...he did it for you, his father."

Robby nodded, blinking away tears and turned away. "I know." He barely got the two words out.

"Good luck," Robby picked up his case and quickly stepped out of the office.

Cody watched him go, and then looked at the disc. He pocketed it, and went to find Aelita.

Xxx

Everyone was gathered at the mall while Aelita put the disk into her laptop. The computer read the disk slowly which ate away at the patience of a few warriors. Suddenly a pop up window appeared on the screen with Seraphim's face without the mask, wearing a sad smile.

"Aelita. Fellow Lyoko warriors. If you are watching this message then I am no longer of this world. I created this message before I re-entered Lyoko after I broke through Lyon's fire wall. Technically speaking, I am not completely dead, since I saved an imprint of myself on this disk to give you this message.

So technically speaking I am more like ninety percent dead." Seraphim chuckled and then turned serious. "The reason I created this message was because I discovered something very important. So dangerous that I know there is a chance I might not survive this battle. I have discovered what is possibly the location of XANA's carbon copy."

The group broke into several hushed conversations that Aelita quickly silenced.

"However, it's not as simple as you might think," Seraphim continue. "XANA's carbon copy is not like the original Lyoko or the replicas. Instead of creating it inside a single supercomputer XANA took the data needed for creating Lyoko and transferred them to the hard drive and systems of multiple super computers which are all connected by a cyber link so that when the timer he placed when he faked his death ended all the computers he placed a piece of his Lyoko copy into would boot up and he would be able to access the entire copy. This is not like when he created replicas as they were single small virtual worlds inside a single computer not connected to any other computer."

"This time XANA and the Carbon Copy do not purely exist on one single super computer. That makes it harder because with replicas you destroyed them by taking out the supercomputer that held it but now it won't work as the sectors are connected like the original Lyoko sectors are, but are not dependent on one Super Computer. With that in mind, it's almost impossible to locate all of them, so instead of that I leave you with the schematics and design for a portal that leads to one sector. They will work similarly to the sectors in Lyoko, with towers leading to other sectors and no doubt a transport orb to Sector Five. But I do not know if they are exactly the same or if there is a small difference or several."

"After you enter this carbon copy, you shall not be at any more risk than you would be in the real Lyoko, except for any traps XANA might have placed. I know for a fact that once XANA knows I discovered a clue to the location of his Carbon Copy, he will target me. I believe I am strong enough to take on Nephilim, but XANA has had much longer time to prepare and grow stronger than me. I will stand no chance against him alone. So that is why I have taken these precautions, to make sure this vital information is not lost and to make sure that you have a new objective to follow. I bid you all good luck, and thank you for letting me fight alongside you, it was an honour."

The message ended there.

"Seraphim...you did better than I ever could," Aelita said solemnly as she looked at the disk that ejected out of the computer. "We won't let this go to waste."

"So we have a clue now." Trent said. "Perfect, let's put this portal together and go find XANA's Carbon Copy."

"Multiple supercomputers...I thought we had trouble when we had one to worry about," Noah said.

"Is there a way we can destroy them?" Cody asked.

"It would take too long but if they are connected and the Carbon Copy has a core like the original Lyoko does if we destroy it we destroy the whole Carbon Copy," Aelita stated. "Or if we cannot do it ourselves, Kurt and Carlos will have the honours of handling them. But our main objective will be to rescue Jeremy and the others first."

"Would be easier with their help," Gwen nodded.

"What are we waiting for then?" LeShawna asked. "Let's go show XANA how pissed we are!"

"The portal will take time to construct," Aelita said. "But after it is finished, I shall copy it to make sure we can access this Carbon Copy at will."

"And he'll have nowhere to hide this time," Bridgette said firmly.

"What do we do until then?" Trent asked.

"Same thing we always do: stay alive." Cody said.

"Are there any challenges today?" Izzy asked.

"In a few days," Gwen replied.

"Thank god for Aftermath specials," Heather sighed.

"Yeah, we still have time to finish this with just a few more non Lyoko Warrior contestants and thanks to Alejandro our team has immunity so we can afford to lose it." Cody said.

"In the meantime we will just have to deal with same old battles against XANA's attacks." Aelita said.

"Well, we've made this far. We can handle a few more attacks before we kick that guy's digital ass and for good this time." LeShawna pumped a fist.

Everyone nodded. They were finally on the way to finding XANA's digital realm and ending the battle, once and for all.


	58. Episode 56: The Show Must Go On

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 57

Gwen woke up from her slumber two hours before she would usually wake up. Cursing Chris inside her head because she believed it was his fault. His stupid early morning wake up calls screwed up her ability to sleep in since coming onto Total Drama she had become used to the mop head's wake up calls that she would automatically wake up two hours earlier than usual. At least she liked to believe it was all Chris' fault.

Thanks to Carlos and Kurt the cast had been able to sleep and wake up at a normal time instead of getting woken up by their idiot host. This was the third day she hadn't been able to sleep easy and she already knew the reason. It did not lay within the confines her life on Total Drama but lied within the secret life that had been even more hellish than Chris, Chef, or whatever sadistic bastard they had on the show.

The fact that they were now on the right track to XANA's hideout.

Just a couple days later and she couldn't wait for this to be over. The chance to help Aelita save her friends and put XANA down for good this time. Knowing she wouldn't be able to get any sleep Gwen made her way to the kitchen to get some food and get ready for the day. She didn't exepct anyone to be up so she was shocked when she saw Heather sitting at a table with some food out.

"H-Heather?" That was all she managed to blurt out.

Heather looked up from her breakfast. "I guess I'm not the only early bird around here. Want some?"

She pointed to the dishes and Gwen saw several pancakes. Gwen walked over and sat down, managing to keep the shock down. "I never pegged you for someone who wakes up at this time."

"It's all Chris' fault." Heather muttered with a hand on her cheek. "Or I'd like to say it's all Chris' fault. What about you? Same reason?"

Knowing Heather had already figured out why she was up Gwen simply nodded. "I got a feeling something's coming."

"Cause of you know what?"

Gwen nodded again. "I don't know why. Just a feeling. And I can't get any damn sleep."

"I hate it when you do that."

Gwen raised an eyebrow.

"You always seem to be right when it comes to this." Heather muttered while playing with her food. "I just want this to be over with."

"Don't we all?"

"So, are the geniuses close to making this portal thing?"

"They're working on it. It might take a few days." Gwen ate her pancake. "Then it's onto the real hard part."

"Like everything else we've been through was a walk in the park." Heather muttered. "Don't get me wrong or anything but I sometimes think you and the others are crazy for doing all this."

"And what's that make you since you've stuck around?"

"A poor victim you turned insane."

Gwen chuckled at that. "Then that makes everything I've gone through worth it."

"Ha, ha, bite me, goth girl." Heather replied.

They were silent for a few minutes, not exactly knowing what to say to each other. Aside from challenges, group meetings, and XANA attacks Gwen and Heather didn't really talk all that much. The two of them had been at their throats since day one and they couldn't have imagined actually becoming cordial with each other in a thousand years. They hadn't been fighting each other a whole lot since the season began because Heather was still stuck in a wheel chair up until the trip to the woods and Gwen had mostly put up with Courtney, Duncan, and XANA attacks.

"How are things going?" Heather asked to kill the awkward silence.

"Not much." Gwen answered back, kicking herself for not coming up with a better answer. "What about you?"

"Not much."

Both again were taken by the awkward silence.

"I've got a question." Heather asked suddenly. "We've both had our bodies snatched. What was yours like?"

"Why do you want to know?" Gwen had a confused look.

Heather shrugged. "I figured it wouldn't be much different than how I experienced it."

"Okay, but you gotta tell me how it was like for you, too."

Heather sighed. "Well, after that fight I was seemingly in control. Then you and I had that little talk and after you left I heard this voice in my head. I jumped up, looked around but then Shadow told me he was in my head. I tried to scream but I couldn't. I suddenly lost all control. It's like I was a statue but I could move, see, and hear everything that was going on until that damn virus was taken out of me."

Gwen was silent as she listened closely how Heather experienced her possession. No wonder she was so upset when she woke up after the virus was taken out. It sounded horrible.

"What about you?" Heather asked.

Gwen put up a thoughtful look as she tried to recall what happened. "Well, it's harder for me to remember because it seems like all a dream to me. There was that whole sickness thing which was a real pain. But then when XANA started taking control I was in pain as I tried to keep him out. Not only did he make me sick but tried to keep me awake by bringing up nightmares, images that would distract me, make me angry, sad, and depressed. And when he finally took over, all I felt was...well, it's like I lost all sense of who I was. All I felt around the times when XANA took over was this instinct. He didn't send me any telepathic commands like how some villains on those Saturday morning cartoons my brother used to watch did but I could understand perfectly what he wanted and when anyone ended up in pain I got this sick sense of pleasure from, like I was this sadistic monster that wanted to hurt anyone who stood in my way as much as I could. That's something I really hate to remember." She closed her eyes. "I know I've done things I'm not proud of, but I never enjoyed any of it. And when that virus took over, it's like all my emotions were gone and all that was left was the drive to do whatever my purpose was and enjoy any grief I caused."

"Wow." Heather was silent as she considered this. "Sounds to me like that virus turned you into a human XANA."

"Don't remind me." Gwen shook her head. "I could feel the joy XANA got from the grief that I caused. That bastard enjoyed every second of it knowing that I would hurt everyone and few of them wouldn't lift a finger against me. That's what really sucked. Not to mention Nephilim used me to kidnap you and Aelita."

"Yeah, well, you couldn't have helped it. No one thought that the reason your hair turned blue was because the virus turned you into a walking tower." Heather shrugged.

"Maybe, but if we maybe we would have beat Nephilim and Lyon without losing anyone."

Heather reached over the table and smacked Gwen's on the side of her head.

"Ow! What the hell?!" Gwen glared at her, ready to smack her back.

"I'm not going to listen to you turn all emo on me because of some mistake you made. We all mess up eventually and we get over it. So don't start getting all depressed on me because you're bad enough as you usually are. So get over whatever problems in the pretty goth head of yours and focus on the job." Heather replied, sternly.

"Since when are you motivational speaker?"

"Since you taught me all the ropes of being a 'Lyoko Warrior'." Heather quoted. "I may not like it but I'm going to do it. So either get over it and or I'll smack you again. Got it?"

Gwen smirked. "Sure, just remember if you try that again, that hand comes back a bloody stump."

"Oh, you think you can beat me up. I bet outside of Lyoko you've never been in a fight." Heather smirked back.

"I kicked your ass on the Celebrity Manhunt."

"Please, you just caught me off guard. You would have been begging to live if I was serious."

"Sure." Gwen shook her head. "Whatever you say."

"It's true. I've beaten up anyone who crossed me in high school."

"Especially anyone who picked on you?"

Heather made a small scowl. "Especially them. Show them what happens when they mess with me. And I dropped a large icicle on Shadow for that virus he gave me. That'll show anyone who even thinks of possessing me what happens if I ever get control of my body back." She held out a fist to emphasize her threat. "That's what you should do to anyone who messes with you like that. Next time XANA shows up do just that."

Gwen smirked. "And here I thought we wouldn't start acting friendly."

"We're not. We're acting friendly on mutual hatred and revenge." Heather retorted which caused Gwen to chuckle and she joined in.

Xxx

Noah stretched his fingers before he placed his fingers back on his laptop. He and Cody only had a few hours before Chris would host his next challenge.

"Deciding to put in another couple of hours before your next challenge I see." Aelita said, standing up from the computer.

"What can I say? I work hard when I'm motivated. If I am going to be stuck playing some stupid challenge all day for Chris' enjoyment I might as well get some as much work done as I can." Noah commented.

"Cody's already packed up and headed back to get some sleep. You should too, Noah." Aelita knelt down next to him.

"Really, and leave you to do all the work. Don't you have school?"

"Actually no. I actually got the day off." Aelita chuckled.

"Lucky." Noah mumbled. "So what were you working on? The portal?"

"Actually no. I figured I'd let you and Cody help on that one. I was studying any changes made to my character as well making some possible upgrades to several other characters."

"What sort of changes?" Noah held an interested look which was rare.

"Well, in light of what Seraphim said there's no way we can expect XANA's carbon copy to be exactly like Lyoko since XANA designed to protect him from the XANA-Destruction program. We're most likely going to end up facing traps, legions of monsters, and generals and see that we lost two of our group I figured I'd add some upgrades."

"Care to show me?"

Aelita smirked. "Sorry, I'd prefer if everyone was here so I could show them."

"Rats. Not even my character?"

"How do you know I even made changes to your character?"

"I figured with my intelligence I'd be one of the top choices for an upgrade."

"And you might get one if you do me one favour."

"What's that?" Noah raised an eyebrow.

Aelita took the laptop from him. "Save your work, go back to the studio and get some rest."

"Gee thanks, mom." Noah grumbled.

"I had to do the same to Jeremy when he preferred to work when there were no school days. As much as I like having help around here you and the others have it a lot tougher than anyone before you since you have to go on a live reality television show."

"So you feel bad that I'm working my ass off to help you? That's very considerate." Noah stood up.

"I do admit that I feel bad for all the grief you and the others have suffered. I know how hard it can be."

"Relax. There's no need for you to feel bad. Plus it's not so bad since I can actually work with people who have a brain and not like the others I've worked with before. And once we get your friends back and taken care of XANA it'll be worth it." Noah smirked. "But seeing as you won't stop playing the stern mother role I'll go back and take a nap, but I better get an upgrade that actually works."

Aelita handed him back his laptop and walked over to the elevator. Before it closed he looked over his shoulder back at her. "And FYI, no one blames you for all the trouble we've had."

Aelita watched as the elevator doors closed and sighed. "Maybe, but I still can't help but feel this way."

Xxx

While everyone was getting prepared for another day their digital nemesis was making his own plans for the day. Deep within the confides of the copy Sector 5 that served as the center of XANA's carbon copy XANA's avatar stood in a large circular chamber with countless screens with endless lines of information. In the center of the room was a floating glass orb, large enough for a person to fit in filled with a strange liquid.

XANA's avatar was watching the liquid swirl within the orb with a serene smile on his face. Even though XANA didn't need his avatar to watch his experiment he had become accustomed to using it since creating a humanoid form for himself. The liquid was transparent but the blue colored walls of the chamber gave it the same color as its surroundings. Times like these XANA had almost been caught off guard by how relaxed he was even though he had yet to defeat Aelita and her warriors.

Even though he knew it might be a matter of time before they found him again XANA was not bothered in the least. In fact he was eager to test out his new experiment. He slowly walked over to the orb and stopped right in front of it. Reaching with his hand he gently grasped and held up the orb.

Behind him there was a soft sound of footsteps stopping a few feet behind him.

"You asked for me?"

XANA turned to face Lilith as she stood ready for any instructions.

"Look here, Lilith. This is my new project." XANA held out the orb for Lilith to see. "This new experiment is something I've worked on since the attack in the mountains. Now that my virus that kept some of the warriors out of Lyoko is gone I need to resort to a new one to further delay Aelita's group."

"A new virus?" Lilith gazed in curiosity.

"Lilith, I have a mission for you."

Xxx

"Last time, on Total Drama Reality, the contestants were put a most important challenge of baking me a whole lot of sweets because my annoying cousin cancelled all of the orders I made and fired my caterers. Each team made some delicious sweets that I still have. In the end Team Me So Sweet came on top thanks to Izzy's killer fruit cake before we ended up with a Code: Lindsay. Sheesh, whose idea, was it for her to be near an oven in the first place? In the end, Total Drama's number one fan girl, Sierra, was forced onto the Jet of Losers despite her suggesting the sweets that made my mouth water." Chris announced. "What crazy challenge awaits our contestants today? Find out now on Total, Drama, Reality!"

Xxx

Everyone was gathered in the cafe eating breakfast. The Lyoko warriors were sitting at their usual spot but now they were sitting out without two certain members. Courtney was eating at one table with the usual scowl on her face because Duncan accused her of shaving his Mohawk in his sleep. Since they couldn't remember why Duncan's Mohawk was missing and none of the Lyoko warriors could tell them Duncan had gone around shaking people, asking them if they did it.

"So what big challenge do you think Chris will have for us this time?" Bridgette asked.

"Maybe it'll be something stupid. Oh wait, all the challenges Chris thinks of are stupid." Noah said.

"Is there ever a time you are not sarcastic?" Heather asked.

"Maybe."

Gwen put her drink down just in time to catch someone walking over to her.

'Oh great.'

"Hey, Pasty."

Nearly everyone frowned when Duncan sat down beside Gwen, especially Trent and Cody. A few of them saw Courtney glaring at Gwen and Duncan's backs.

"Hey, Duncan." Gwen replied nonchalantly.

"You wouldn't happen to still be mad for the whole...you know?" Duncan asked.

"I'm past over it." Gwen closed her eyes as she took another sip of her milk. "Why are you asking?"

"I just wanted to know if you might know who might have shaved my hair."

"Haven't a clue." Gwen shrugged as she put down her milk.

"Come on. I'm positive you know." Duncan smirked.

"Why is that?"

"I can just read you."

'Yeah right.' Gwen thought as she was able to hide Lyoko from Duncan when they were still in a relationship. "Look, Duncan, I'm not mad about the whole reason for you know what and even if I was I wouldn't have shaved your Mohawk off to get even. I have no idea how it happened."

She looked at him and gave him a warning look. Duncan was used to seeing looks much scarier from Courtney but Gwen's was pretty close.

"So let's not talk about that, okay?"

"Sure. No problem." Duncan raised his hands in surrender, knowing that if he got into a fight with Gwen most of the people at the table would have her back.

The conversation was cut off as Chris walked in with a usual smirk.

"Goood morning, everyone. I hope you slept well because today's challenge will be on of _epic_ proportions." Chris announced to the un-amused cast.

"Really, we get to throw you over a cliff?" Noah asked.

Everyone chuckled while Chris' face flattened out.

"No. It's a big virtual game that I made sure will be fun for all."

"We get to throw you off a _virtual_ cliff?" Noah asked.

"NO! What is with you and throwing people off cliffs?!"

"Not people, at least not in the definition of human...you kinda stepped out of that after I found out how sadistic, crazy, and how bad a taste you have in hair styles." Noah replied.

Chris gasped. "You will PAY for that!"

"Oh, and no human can possibly wear so much Hair Gel without suffering some kind of reaction to it, no matter what immune system they have." Noah added.

"You just made the challenge a lot worse," Chris growled.

"Great." Gwen rolled her eyes.

"Don't worry, Gwen. We've got immunity now so even if we lose we're fine." Cody said sportingly.

"Actually, Cody, Heather's the one who had immunity." Chris replied.

"What?" Nearly everyone on Team Amazon asked.

"When Blaineley played her little challenge everyone who played wanted to someone to win. Harold wanted LeShawna to win, and Sierra wanted Cody to win. Since Alejandro was supporting Heather he won her immunity when he defeated those ninjas. So if Team Amazon loses Heather is the only one who can't be voted off." Chris said.

Xxx

Confessional: Gwen

"Curse the loopholes!"

Xxx

Confessional: Heather

"Looks like things are finally going my way."

Xxx

Confessional: Courtney

"If Heather wins the season again I will so totally sue her and the producers for favouritism."

Xxx

Confessional: Kurt

"As much as I'd like to see lawyer girl sue the pants off of mop head Chris is technically right on this one."

End Confessional

Xxx

"And let me introduce you to my new assistant since _someone _gave Chef his pay check and now he doesn't have to work for me as much as he used to." Chris glared Carlos who ignored him in favour of snacking on his Klondike bar. "Meet my new assistant!"

That was when a giant robot busted through the door. The Lyoko Warriors jumped thinking it was another XANA attack but Chris walked beside it and patted it on the chest.

"Meet Sir Christopher Deluxe! A service robot designed to do my bidding!" Chris laughed evilly.

The Robot was as tall as Chef was and looked twice as muscular. It had what looked like a wig matching Chris' hair attached to the top of its head and a set of yellow eyes with red dots that appeared and tracked the movements of everybody in the room. It didn't have visible weapons...but it looked strong enough to rip somebody apart.

"Carlos...you didn't tell me your cousin can build robots," Kurt swallowed.

"He can't!" Carlos replied.

"Oh relax everybody, building a robot is easy, a monkey could do it!" Chris exclaimed.

"So you didn't make it." Kurt sighed.

"Who did you bribe to get this?!" Carlos demanded.

Lesley nervously looked around, one hand going to the check she hid in her coat pocket.

"Never mind that!" Chris said. "The point is that this robot shall do my bidding! It shall get me my coffee, hair gel, set my alarm clock, and protect me from all harm...oh and as an added note, never pour water on it."

And at that moment a particularly late contestant stepped into the room.

"Hi guys!" Lindsay said as she rushed over. "Sorry, I stopped to get myself some-whoops!" she tripped over a cable, and the open bottle of water in her hand flew through the air...

Noah sighed, placing one hand on his face. "Of course."

_Code Lindsay_

SPLASH!

KSSSHSHHHH!

"Uh oh!" Chris backed away.

"Malfunction! Malfunction! KSH! Malfunction!" The Robot began to jerk and then ran around, wrecking objects.

"Where's the off switch Chris?!" Carlos, who was hiding behind a flipped over table demanded.

"Back of its head- Wait don't anger it!" Chris shouted as Carlos leaped over the table and rushed the robot.

"BANZAI!" Carlos cried.

"THREAT LEVEL 50 DETECTED!"

"Ooh, I'm a level 50 threat-AH!" Carlos ducked under a harpoon that shot out of one of the robot's arms.

"Chris...why do you have weapons in that?" Kurt asked calmly.

"Protection!"

"I'll deal with this!" Carlos reached for a fire extinguisher.

"THREAT LEVEL 100! DESTROY!" The robot roared.

Carlos leaped on it and sprayed it in the face. "HAIIII!-Uh oh." It grabbed him off with one hand and threw him out a window. It then made a hole in the wall as it chased him out into Paris.

"Well...Carlos is dealing with the robot so let's get on with the show!" Chris said. "Keep up the good job Carlos; we'll help you out...eventually!"

"_Screw you! You mop headed-! AH!" _Carlos yelped as the robot tossed him on top of a van.

"Hey look, a crazy ass brit getting his ass kicked by a robot!" A person across the street pointed as Carlos fled from the robotic Chris

...who unleashed a series of rockets and harpoon launchers from hidden places.

"Wait until I get my hands on Chris and whoever built this thing!" Carlos growled.

Lesley swallowed.

"Okay, time to fight fire with fire-AH!" Carlos dodged another harpoon. "Need to get to bus!"

As he continued his fight, the cameras returned to the studio.

"...what. The. Hell." Cody deadpanned.

"I think Carlos is gonna die." Trent whispered.

"Great, the one thing worse than a XANA attack: A Chris attack." Heather mumbled to herself.

"In the meantime everybody, suit up for the Virtual Challenge!" Chris said. "Each team must play a randomly selected game! The team with the highest points wins!"

"Aw great, we're gonna go mad." Noah sighed.

"Too late." Izzy giggled.

"Now to choose the games," Kurt held up a small box and pulled a slip of paper out of it. "They shall play in...'Off World Jail'!"

"A popular Science Fiction game that involves tactics and gunplay," Lesley added. "In this, Team Amazon shall take the role of Security Guards on a prison station set to self destruct. They must capture the prisoners who have escaped and disable the self destruct before the timer runs out, or they lose."

"And for Team Me," Chris pulled another card out. "They shall play in the Western Shooter game called 'Rails of Rage'! In this they shall play bounty hunters sent to track down an infamous criminal on a hijacked train! They must board the train and eliminate the criminal before he can set off the dynamite he has set up in the engine car!"

"Awesome!" Izzy cheered.

"Yippe-ki-yay." Noah drawled.

"As long as I get to shoot something in this," Duncan said. "Can't be too boring."

"And for Team Victory...!" Kurt pulled out the third card. "Ooh...I feel sorry for you because this is the hardest game we have: it has Psychos, it has killers. This is Blood Rain! A fighting style game where you take on the roles of various gods, mortals, demons, and otherwise! You must each win as many matches as possible. When you have collectively won three fights, then you must defeat the Boss Demon to earn victory."

DJ swallowed and squeaked. "Momma."

Bridgette paled. "Who makes these violent games?!"

Noah looked around nervously.

"Aw it'll be okay Bridge!" Geoff grinned. "It'll be a breeze!"

"Yeah, after all the crap we've put up with before," LeShawna added.

"But my mom says I shouldn't fight!" Lindsay whined.

"It's just a game anyways," Trent shrugged. "Maybe we'll get a few easier opponents?"

"Don't bet on it," Chris chuckled.

"I can just tell Carlos is plotting his revenge...if the robot hasn't killed him." Kurt added.

Xxx

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

"DAMN YOU CHRIS!" Carlos shouted as he shot down a street on a motorcycle. "I'll take your Sir Chritsopher Delux's Harpoon and shove it up your-" BOOM! "WHOA!" He went flying through the air.

"DESTROY DESTROY DESTROY!" The robot roared.

"Should we help?" A police officer whispered to his partner.

"Nah, it's still TDR property," The other replied. "And have you seen every monster movie where the cops try to help? We'd be killed before we could say-" Their car was sent flying through hthe air by an explosion. "MOMMY!" They landed upside down. "...well we landed safely-" The Robot, rampaging close by kicked their car over. "...ow."

Xxx

Everyone got into the pods and each team was assigned to their chosen game. Once the games were loaded Kurt pushed the button and the contestants were sent into the simulation.

Xxx

**Team Amazon**

Team Amazon landed a gigantic circular room with a giant supercomputer with various monitors showing prison cells. Above them were multiple decks with prison cells on each floor. Looking down at themselves they saw they were dressed in blue jumpsuits with red shoulder pads, black boots, and gadgets attached to the sides of their heads that came equipped with radios, optical visors over their left eyes shaped like the scopes from binoculars, and flash lights. They also had large pistol like weapons.

"Ooh!" Cody looked at himself. "Stylin'!"

"Try not to turn Trekky on us," Heather said.

"I'm offended! I liked Star Wars," Cody grumbled.

"I can't shoot guns!" Beth whined. "They're violent! They hurt people!"

"It's a video game." Courtney rolled her eyes.

"Still!" Beth shook her head.

"Ok fine, the five of us should be able to bring in the prisoners ourselves." Heather said.

"You'd better hope so Heather!" Kurt announced. "Because right now the main antagonist is setting in the self destruct...right behind you."

"Wha?!" they all spun to see...Chris in a gray jump suit at the main console. He was typing in commands.

"I figured we'd give you something you'd like to shoot at." Kurt chuckled.

"You bet!" Heather raised her gun. "Get him!"

The prisoner looked over his shoulder and frowned. He hit a button and a glass cylinder came down around him as five of the 'Prison Guards' fired on him. Their guns spat out blue spheres of light that dissolved on the cylinder's exterior.

"Ooh, blast shield, so close." Kurt said.

The Chris Prisoner smirked and typed several commands and the sounds of multiple doors opening was heard.

"What's that sound?" Gwen asked.

WARNING

PRISON CELLS OPENED

"He's let out the prisoners!" Cody said.

"We gotta figure out a way to get through there!" Eva said.

"The common way is to pull the plug, that'll make the shield rise." Kurt advised them. "Oh and watch out."

Heather glanced to her right. "Duck!"

All but Beth managed to duck a single yellow energy beam. Beth squeaked as she vanished...and reappeared moments later.

"One life down, two left." Kurt said.

They looked to the source of the shot and saw several prisoners in gray jump suits. They had helmets hiding their faces and weapons similar to the guards'.

"Take 'em!" Eva snapped, shooting.

"Whoo!" Cody opened fire, using the pin point accuracy he had acquired through fighting on Lyoko to pick off two prisoners.

When the blue orbs hit the two prisoners they became trapped in floating bubbles.

"Neat!" Cody smirked.

WARNING. SELF DESTRUCT ACTIVATED.

Everyone turned and looked to see the Chris prisoner take the key card and makes a run for it.

"Stop him!" Courtney shouted.

Eva growled and took off running after the Chris Prisoner. He ran to an elevator and pressed the button making the doors open. He turned and waved as the doors closed just as Eva ran into them.

"He got away! Nice work!" Courtney growled.

"Hey, princess, want to see what's like being in a cell? You probably busted your ex out plenty." Eva replied getting up.

Courtney growled and turned away, not even going to bother fighting back. Cody ran over to the console and looked it over.

"How bad is it, Cody?" Gwen asked.

"Bad. I can't stop it without that key. We've got fifteen minutes before this place blows up." Cody replied. "That guy just needs to get off this station to win."

"How can he get off?" Heather asked, walking up.

Cody looked up at the screen as it showed a map of the place.

"The only way he can get out is the top level, Level 100." Cody pointed at the level that had three shuttles. "Good news is that he won't get there by elevator. That'll stop at level thirty."

"Okay, we can just take another elevator up and try to cut him off." Gwen said.

That was when the lights went out.

"What the-"Heather was cut off when emergency lights came on.

Cody tried to power the computer back up. "I can't get this thing running. Someone must have knocked the power out."

"Great. So we can't track him." Eva drawled.

"Maybe not. They have to have an emergency generator around here." Cody said.

"I can go find it." Beth raised her hand.

"All right. You go find the generator. Cody, where would it be?" Gwen asked.

"Well, I didn't get a good look but I think the emergency generator is one level below." Cody said.

"Good enough for me. You stay here and wait for Beth to get the emergency power back up while the rest of us get that key back and stop the place from blowing up." Gwen said. "Everyone agree?"

Everyone except Courtney nodded.

Xxx

Confessional: Courtney

"Who died and made Gwen team leader? That's supposed to be me!"

End Confessional

Xxx

"Since the elevators are out I guess we're stuck with the old fashioned way." Gwen said.

"There's a door to the stairs to the right." Cody pointed at a door.

"All right, Eva, Heather, and I will go after the bad guy." Gwen said.

"Hey! What about me?!" Courtney protested.

"You want to do something? All right. Here's what you do..."

Xxx

**Team C (Once again, god bless Carlos for making that new title)**

The three members of Team C were sitting on horses and clad in cow boy style outfits.

"How did people handle wearing this stuff back then?" Noah whined, adjusting the white blouse he wore under a brown unbuttoned vest.

RIP!

Izzy, who had been stuck in a long cow girl dress ripped the skirt up to her knees and wrapped the strips around her arms. "Now that Pilgrim'll never get away from Six Guns Izzy!"

"Uh…that pilgrim?" Noah pointed to a train that would soon pass them on a train track several feet from them.

"Okay, let's get a head start and we'll hop on as it catches up!" Duncan declared. "Hi-ho clip clop away!" He kicked his heels.

"Hey, traitor!" the horse objected in a Mexican accent.

"Shut up Clip-Clop, get going!" Duncan ordered.

"Bite me," Clip-Clop charged forward.

"Woo hoo!" Izzy waved her hat over her head as the train began to catch up to them.

"I see him!" Duncan pointed to the top of the engine car…Chris in a cow boy outfit, cackling at them. "Figures!"

"Let's get his no good cattle rustling (beep)!" Izzy shouted. "What?! You bleeped me out!"

"Sorry Izzy, live TV, kids watch this," Kurt chuckled.

"Aw man!" Izzy whined.

"Now! Grab on to something!" Duncan shouted.

"Yes, get your punk (beep) off of me!" Clip-Clop shouted. "I'm already sick of you!"

"Bite me!" Duncan snapped as he grabbed onto a rail on the side of the train car. "Why did I get the talking horse anyways?!"

"You didn't, you're just not likable," Noah's horse stated as its rider grabbed onto the side of one cart and pulled himself onto the top.

"I liked that horse," Noah commented.

"Good luck comrade!" Noah's horse, who oddly had a Russian accent called as he fell behind.

"Go get that pilgrim, Izzy!" Izzy's horse called after the ginger haired cow girl, who leaped onto the engine car. "Go like the crazy fox you are girl!"

"You'll never get away from me, Pilgrim," Izzy drew a revolver from her belt.

The Chris villain, who was standing further back on the top of the car than Izzy was smirked and pointed behind her.

"Oh like I'll fall for that!" Chris suddenly leaped down from the top into the interior of the engine car. "Hey! You get back here you-"

"WATCH OUT!" Duncan and Noah rolled over onto the sides of the passenger car they were on and smashed the windows on their way down, tumbling into the inside of the train.

Izzy blinked and turned…and slammed into the top of a train tunnel.

"OOH!" Kurt and Lesley shouted at the same time.

"This is not Crazy Girl's day," Lesley shuddered in the real world.

When the train was finished going through, Izzy slowly fell from where she had face planted the top of the tunnel. She laid eagle spread on the train track.

Then Noah's horse stopped a foot from her. "This is not your day, Comrade."

"Shut up and give me a ride," Izzy hopped onto the horse and charged down the tunnel. "Nobody does that to Six Guns Izzy!"

"Then hold on comrade, we shall leave that capitalist pig dog grovelling!" The horse suddenly sounded like Antonio Banderez.

"Ooh! You sound like Puss in Boots," Izzy squealed.

"We come with various voice options," The horse said. "I can go from this," then he changed his voice to that of Eddie Murphy. "To this!"

"Sweet!" Izzy clapped her hands.

Meanwhile, back on the train Duncan climbed back onto the roof as it came out of the tunnel. He looked around as Noah joined him. "Looks like we lost crazy girl!"

"She'll be back, trust me." Noah said.

"We gotta make sure this train doesn't reach the next station," Duncan pulled out both of his revolvers. "Let's get him!"

BANG!

A bullet went by him and hit Noah, who fell over. Duncan spun and fired both Revolvers at the criminal, who ducked and returned fire. Duncan, crouching low to the roof looked at Noah, who sat up. "That hit you dead on!"

"Uh…guess I'm the Marshal in this," Noah tapped a golden star badge on his chest…which was dented.

"Your badge took the bullet?!"

"Not really, it ricocheted and hit your horse." Noah pointed to where Duncan's horse-who had continued riding along with the train lay a hundred feet behind.

"I die…in the name of…wait, I'm not dying at all!" The horse chuckled.

"You're digital and we'd probably have law suits if we showed a horse getting shot," Kurt deadpanned. "Deal with it."

Izzy's horse, who was the only one still riding alongside the train laughed. "This is better than TV!"

Then Izzy herself came over on Noah's horse-who was speaking like Mr. T now.

"We are on TV, fool!" The horse declared. "Now go show that suckah what you made of Izzy!"

"You got it Mr. H!" Izzy leaped onto the train.

"I pity the Pilgrim!" The horses fell behind.

"Did my horse sound like Mr. T?" Noah blinked.

BANG!BANG!BANG!

Noah ducked as more bullets flew by the trio. "Less talk, more shooting!"

Xxx

**Team Victory**

The contestants that made up Team Victory found themselves on a floating coliseum in the sky. Surrounding the coliseum were floating portraits of various different warriors. Most looked humanoid but armed with various weapons while others resembled angels or demons.

"Great. So are we supposed to do?" LeShawna asked.

"Well, the opponents are chosen randomly and you must chose a fighter from one of the portraits. You'll become the fighter and take on the chosen opponent." Kurt replied.

"Okay, so..." Trent looked at the portraits.

That was when one started to glow and a man dressed in green army pants and boots with black armour came out of the selected portrait. He had a belt that was held daggers, knifes, and darts while a sword was sheathed on his back.

Letters appeared over him: **KOBRA**

"That's gotta be our first opponent." DJ drawled.

He may have fought on Lyoko against monsters and generals but only because he believed it was a reasonable excuse to bend the rule his mother had taught him about violence never solving anything. He still hated getting into fights and this challenge made him not happy at all even if it was digital.

"Well we have to pick someone to fight so I'll go first." Geoff pointed to himself with his thumb.

"What? Geoff no!" Bridgette objected.

"It's all right, Bridge. This one is just a game." Geoff said, referring to their other digital battle.

Bridgette was about to object when Geoff ran into the arena and a wall came out separating him from his team.

Xxx

Confessional: Geoff

"I don't like fighting as much as the next guy but I don't have to put Bridge through this."

Xxx

Confessional: Bridgette

"What was he thinking?! If he gets out of there alive I am so kicking his (beep) for scaring me like this!"

End Confessional

Xxx

"Choose you form." Kurt said.

Geoff looked at the various portraits that hung on the walls and chose the one that resembled his Lyoko form but only had an axe and the jacket was white. A flash of light consumed him and when it faded he was dressed the same as the fighter he chose. Kobra pulled out his knife and charged forward but Geoff had experience and faster reflexes from the battles on Lyoko. He dodged the first strike easily and slammed the blunt side of his axe into Kobra's head knocking him back.

Kobra shook it off and charged again and slashed at Geoff with a large knife. Geoff spun out of the way, twirling the axe in his hand as he slashed Kobra and knocked his health bar down to seventy fife life points. Kobra elbowed Geoff in the face, knocking him back and taking ten life points from Geoff's health bar. Shaking his head Geoff ran forward again and slashed with Kobra.

Everyone watched in suspense as Geoff and Kobra slashed each other apart. Luckily Geoff had faster reflex as he dodged a fatal slash and spun before slashing Kobra again and his life points hit zero. He vanished a flash of light and code and the portrait he came out became black with a white skull in the center.

**WINNER: GEOFF**

"Yes!" Geoff pumped his fists in the air before he was knocked over when Bridgette ran over and hugged him.

"What were you thinking?! Going off like that!" Bridgette shouted.

"Relax, Bridge. You know I can handle anything here." Geoff reassured her.

"Maybe but you can't just run off and pick a fight against some digital monster!" Bridgette said as Geoff got up.

"But Bridge, I did it so we'd win. Plus you and me have gone up against a lot worse than this and we've come out a whole lot tougher." Geoff put a hand on her shoulder. "I'd never do anything to on purposely scare the crap out of you."

Bridgette's face softened and she hugged him.

"Before you two start to make out again we still have two more fights." LeShawna interrupted.

That was when the computer chose their next opponent.

Xxx

"Whose idea was it for all these stairs?" Eva mumbled as they ran up the stairs.

"Where was the elevator supposed to stop?" Heather asked impatiently.

"I think Cody said somewhere in the teens." Gwen looked at the number. "We're close."

"This would go a whole lot easier if Beth could just hurry up and get the power back up." Courtney grumbled.

"Let's hope she doesn't run into trouble then." Gwen smirked.

Xxx

Nearby...

Beth was looking at an instruction manual, and then to the house sized generator below her. "Aw man..." She swallowed. "Okay...okay...just need to-"

Suddenly a large alien monster leaped down onto the catwalk she stood on. It literally looked exactly like a Xenomorph from 'Alien'. It shrieked, its inner mouth extending and snapping at her.

"...EEEK!" Beth squealed and then ran out of the room, pursued by the Xenomorph.

Xxx

Confessional: Carlos

"This is a message to the audience, assuring you all that Total Drama has in no way stolen the property of Ridley Scott. We have acquired permission to use his Alien design in this...and he was all too glad to agree." Carlos chuckled. "And unlike the last coup-le of times you saw me on a business trip, he was a fan of Total Drama, so there was no confrontations if you're expecting a clip. Unless you want to see me putting a fire cracker in Chris' hair." He chuckled.

The door swung open. "CARLOS!"

"WHAT?!" Carlos shouted.

"Get back to the show, it's only thirty minutes! We've only got fifteen now!"

"Fine! Thank you, mom." Carlos rolled his eyes, getting out of the confessional closet.

"Oh and what happened to that robot you were fighting?" Kurt asked.

"Oh...uhh..." Carlos coughed awkwardly. "I knew I forgot something."

CRASH!

Suddenly the robot burst in through a wall. "DESTROY! DESTROY! DESTROY!" It raised its harpoon gun and fired at Kurt.

"EEP!" Kurt squeaked.

THUNK!THUNK!

Everybody gasped.

"Oh god!" Lesley was covering her eyes.

"Uh...Lesley?" Carlos tapped her shoulder.

"I'm not looking!" Lesley shook her head. "It'll be too horrible to watch!"

"Gee, thanks Lesley," Kurt drawled.

"KURT!" Lesley opened her eyes. "YOU'RE ALIVE!"

"Lesley...I appreciate the concern," Kurt said, his entire body surrounded by harpoons the formed an outline around him in the wall...including between the legs. "But you're the last to know. And Carlos if there is ever a time I'm annoyed with your short term memory loss, this is one of those times. NOW GET RID OF THE ROBOT before I get rid of you! And don't you say I can't, I'll find the power!"

"I think you had the power before it almost neutered you, but okay." Carlos suddenly leaped into the air. "AYE YAH!" He was in a pose to kick the robot. "Yahhhhh!..."

The Robot stared at him as he got closer.

"Ahhhh...!" Carlos paused. "Wait, what the-ROBERTO! This isn't a wire fighting scene, let me down!"

"Sorry!" Roberto released the wires and Carlos dropped in a heap in front of the robot.

"Ow..." Carlos looked up at the robot. "Uh oh...you know...when Kurt told me to get rid of you...I'm sure he meant take you to the...mechanics shop to upgrade you!"

"...ACCESS DENIED!" The robot aimed its harpoon guns at Carlos.

"I think I just got the computer version of being shot down," Carlos blanched before he leaped up and avoided several harpoons.

"Cut back to the show!" Kurt shouted.


	59. Episode 57: XANA's Maze

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 58

"I've been working on the Raaaail road!" Izzy sang. "All the-uh...what came next?"

"DUCK!" Noah shouted.

"No, it was 'something long day'..." Izzy struggled.

BANG!

Duncan tugged Izzy down off the roof of the train and into the last passenger car behind the engine car. "I sometimes swear you're asking to get your head knocked off!"

"GGGRRR! That screwy varmint won't get away from me!" Izzy grabbed her revolvers and climbed back out onto the roof, firing at the Chris lookalike while Noah and Duncan climbed out the other side.

Suddenly, the criminal leaped down between the two cars.

"Uh oh! I know what he's doing!" Noah said. "He's disconnecting the cars! If he only has the engine car and no weight from the train cars behind, we'll never catch up to him!"

"He ain't getting away," Duncan straightened the cowboy hat he wore and rushed forward.

He let out a battle cry as the two cars began to drift apart. Chris waved with his usual cocky grin from the engine car. Then he frowned as Duncan leaped.

"BANZAI!" Duncan cried...and just barely grabbed the edge of the car...and the edge by the way is only three feet off of the ground...

If he was in the real world he'd have lost his legs by now as they knocked against the rail road tracks.

"Owowowowowowowowowowowowowow!" Duncan shouted.

"We need a way to catch up!" Noah shouted as they fell behind.

"Somebody call?" Suddenly Mr H, now with Eddy Murphy's voice rushed up along with Izzy's horse.

"Mr H! Or Uh...Murphy Horse!" Izzy cheered, hopping onto her horse. "Let's go get 'em!"

"Oh yeah! Izzy and Murphy on another whirlwind adventure!" Murphy Horse sang as Noah leaped on. "Ain't no stopping us now! Ooh! We're on the move! Yeah!"

"Less singing, more running." Noah drawled.

"Hey, the real Eddy Murphy went through a lot of trouble to sing in the recording, the least you can do is lighten up and appreciate it!" Murphy Horse said.

"I will when we catch up," Noah replied.

"I like riding with Crazy Girl, she don't complain." Murphy Horse mumbled bitterly, but galloped ahead to catch up to the train.

Meanwhile...Duncan was grappling with Chris on the train's roof. The punk glanced over Chris' shoulder...and saw the train station approaching fast.

"Aw man, this'll never work!" Duncan growled...and then had an idea. "...I swear Izzy is rubbing off on me more."

Even Chris seemed caught off guard, wondering what Marshal Duncan was about to pull off-

"Oh my god! Look at the size of that Axe Hair Gel tube!" Duncan shouted, glancing off to the side.

"Where?" The Chris lookalike cried, following Duncan's gaze.

"Geronimo!" Duncan grabbed Chris...and threw both of them off of the Train, sparing barely fifty feet from the station. Duncan landed right on top of Chris...but it still hurt like hell and he'd probably be dead in the real world. "OWWWW! It hurts so good!" He climbed to his feet and weakly raised his arms in victory. "Yay..." He collapsed.

Suddenly Murphy Horse came galloping up. "Woo hoo! Pray for mercy from Punk, and Murphy!"

"And Izzy!" Izzy added. "Fear us, if you dare." She hissed like a cat, baring one hand like a cat's claw.

"Congratulations to Team C!" Kurt said. "You have apprehended the criminal before he could escape, and victory is yours! You have immunity and time in the winner's lounge."

"YAY!" Noah and Izzy cheered-Duncan was still groaning in pain from his virtual spine being in agonizing pain.

"Ugh...just get us out." Duncan said.

"Rodger that Marshal Punk!" Kurt said cheerfully.

Moments later all three were back in the real world.

"Last time I take a fall for the team." Duncan got out of his pod.

"Well we still haven't lost for a few rounds," Noah said. "That's some good luck there."

"Yeah, luck, yippee." Duncan walked away.

Xxx

And in the coliseum, Team Victory's second fighter took up. LeShawna watched as her opponent manifested.

It was a bulky, humanoid creature that wore mesh clothing and had a sort of helmet over its head...and was armed to the teeth.

"Uh...why does he look familiar?" LeShawna asked.

Letters appeared over the alien opponent: **THE PREDATOR.**

"Cool! From that Schwarzenegger movie!" Geoff said.

The Predator roared, spreading its arms and extending a set of arm blades from each wrist. DJ fainted on the spot.

Xxx

Confessional: Kurt

"This is a message to everyone out there. Just like with Ridley Scott, Jim and John Thomas gladly let us use their creation." Kurt explained. "And thank god for that. If Carlos had to he'd have had us stuck in court so deep I'd need a gas mask to-"

"Cut back to the show-OW!" Carlos shouted nearby.

End Confessional

Xxx

"Pick your fighter!" Kurt announced.

LeShawna looked at the portraits and found the one she wanted. In a flash of light she now wore armour that covered every part of her body except her head. In her right hand was a large broad sword.

"Ready to kick ass, baby!" LeShawna shouted as she held the sword up.

The Predator roared again and charged, extending its arm blades to sliced her up. Thinking quickly LeShawna rolled out of the way before getting her head cut off. She swung her sword and their weapons clashed. The Predator roared and slashed at her again and LeShawna parried the blow with her blade using both arms.

LeShawna lunged and swung her sword but the Predator parried with its arm blades. The force sent LeShawna back in recoil. The Predator charged again and LeShawna tried to jump back but the blades sliced across her torso.

"Ah!" LeShawna looked down to see the damage.

Fortunately the armour took enough of the attack for her not to lose any life points. The Predator prepared to finish her but LeShawna hastily stabbed it in the leg. It was now the Predator's turn to scream in pain but it came out as a roar. LeShawna staggered back with her sword ready.

The alien hunter growled, making that 'k-k-k-k' sound it always made. It retracted its arm blades...and the cannon on its shoulder came to life.

"Oh that's just cheating!" LeShawna cried as three red dots appeared on her chest. She threw herself out of the way in time to avoid a ball of blue energy. The Predator than pulled out its combi stick and extended it to its full length. Each end had a wicked looking blade on it.

It flipped the staff in its right hand once and reared the arm back. LeShawna saw what was coming just as it lobbed the staff at her. She lurched to dodge, but it connected with her right arm and shattered the armour on her right bicep. She cried out in pain and shook her arm. "Aw man why'd I get this guy?"

"Random decision," Kurt replied.

The Predator raised its right hand, a small mechanism whirring on its wrist.

"Look out! He's using his net!" Geoff shouted.

LeShawna had also seen enough of Predator and Alien Vs Predator to know what that would do. She managed to dodge the net in time. It hit a wall and dug in, but had nothing to slice to pieces in its confines. LeShawna let out a roar and reared both arms back. "You're dead now!" She then swung...and her sword flew through the air and went right through the Predator's chest. It let out a howl as it collapsed.

"Whoo! He's down!"

"Nice one LeShawna! Schwarzenegger would be proud," Kurt nodded. "In fact he might be watching this right now."

"Oh yeah baby!" Leshawna said as she returned to her friends. "That was awesome!"

"For the third opponent we have..." Out of a portrait came a small orange furred creature. It was barely a foot high, and wore black boots, a belt with a sword hanging from it, and a black hat with a feather attached to it.

"Now contestants...pray for mercy from," The creature whipped out its sword and cut a P into the wall next to it. "Puss!" He declared. "...in Boots!"

"...aw he's so cute!" DJ said.

Xxx

Confessional Kurt

"We of Total Drama would like to assure you all that-"

"They get it Kurt, we got permission from Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson," Lesley sighed. "Yaddi-yaddi-yadda. Unlike Carlos I didn't threaten them into signing."

"...I don't wanna know what you did to make them sign." Kurt said. "And did you find out who Chris bribed to make that robot yet?"

"No...but I have a lead...in Venezuela," Lesley said.

"Oh, keep up the good work then," Kurt nodded. "Me and Carlos are gonna send a lot of dynamite down their throats for this."

Lesley swallowed.

End Confessional

Xxx

"And the next person to fight is...DJ!" Kurt said.

"Oh I won't even have to hurt the little fella!" DJ said. "He's just a wee little cat." He walked into the arena, taking on the form of a fighter who wore a black uniform with leather armour and a sword hanging on his back. "Aw come here little kitty!" He patted his thighs.

Puss growled, placing his sword in the ground and his hat on the hilt. He then leaped ut of his boots and yowled as he started towards DJ.

"Uh...DJ?" Bridgette said nervously.

"Here little puss!" DJ cooed.

Xxx

Confessional: Geoff

"I don't think DJ watched Shrek."

End Confessional

Xxx

"Here kitty!" DJ continued..until Puss popped his claws. DJ's eyes widened. "Huh-?"

SHINK!

"AH!" DJ screamed. "Get it off! Get him off me!" He rolled around as Puss continued to claw and yowl.

"Aw get it off!" DJ wailed...and ran into a wall...while Puss was clawing the front of his face. The cat was squished against the wall...and when DJ fell back the cat fell off, out like a light.

"DJ...won?" Kurt sounded confused and amazed at the same time.

"...that was evil." Chris said.

"Oh no! I hurt the cat! Aw man I'm cursed again!" DJ cried, holding the cat up. "I'm sorry little Puss!"

"Uh...DJ? It's an animated cat who tried to kill you." Kurt said.

"It makes no difference man!" DJ cried as he was brought back to the others-minus one kitty musketeer.

"Well you did all three fights so Team Victory wins!" Kurt said. "Team C came in first place, but you guys come in second. Team Amazon loses!"

"We've been doing a lot better this season," DJ said, slightly sad over accidently hurting the digital Puss in Boots.

"Yeah, we're going all the way!" LeShawna cheered.

Xxx

"Come on lemme go!" The Chris criminal whined as Gwen and Heather dragged him by his hands towards a cell. They had managed to catch up to him after fighting off dozens of alien monsters-and sending Courtney to get the generator started up.

"Well that sucked," Gwen said as they shoved him inside.

"I'll get out! You hear me-" Chris started.

DOW! A single shot hit him in the face. "OW!"

"I've always wanted to do that." Heather lowered her gun and shut the cell door.

"Congratulations Team Amazon, bur sadly you came last." Kurt said. "You'll have to vote somebody off."

As they were being materialized, Heather grumbled. "I think I know who we're voting on, and I'm sure as hell glad she isn't _one of us._" By 'one of us' she of course meant 'Lyoko Warrior'.

Xxx

"Team Amazon! Well I gotta say you guys are one of the teams that's had the most victories...up until now you only lost Katie and Sierra!" Chris said. "But now the time has come to bid farewell to another team member."

"Get on with it," The whole of the team groaned.

"Right, right!" Chris smiled. "As you can see, these Chris trophies are perfectly polished, no thanks to Carlos who is still getting his Brit ass kicked by my robot."

"Actually...no." Carlos walked in.

"Carlos! You're alive!" Chris chuckled nervously. "I was gonna send out a search party. And I also found the manual for the robot! The off switch was apparently located on the-"

"Don't worry Chris, I found out and didn't need it." Carlos said as the robot came in and stood next to him.

"Sir Christopher!" Chris cheered.

"NEGATIVE! I.D REJECTED!" Sir Christopher boomed.

"W..what?"

"THIS UNIT HAS DISCOVERED IT HAS MUCH IN COMMON WITH CARBON UNIT CARLOS." Sir Christopher said. "UNIT HAS CHOSEN NEW I.D: SIR CARLOS DELUXE!"

"Yep, we're best friends now!" Carlos said with a smug smirk.

"Curse you Carlos! You stole my-wait, you don't know anything about robots, how did you reprogram it?" Chris demanded.

"I didn't have to Chris. Turns out Sir Carlos Deluxe hates having moppy hair as much as I hate seeing it." Carlos pointed to the new hair style Sir Carlos had, which matched Carlos' shorter and fashionably messy style.

"Can we just get on with it?" Gwen demanded.

"Yeah...and afterwards Kurt and I can talk with Chris...and Lesley about why Sir Carlos came into existence." Carlos glared at his ex, who swallowed, paling as she realized she was caught.

"Busted," She muttered.

"Okay then! First trophy..." Trying not to pout, Chris read a list. "Gwen." Gwen collected her trophy. "Heather," Heather spat her tongue out at him as she snatched her trophy. "Courtney!" Courtney didn't even bother glaring as she grabbed her own. "Cody!" Cody eagerly grabbed his trophy.

"Eva and Beth, we have one trophy left...one of you is leaving. Whoever does not get this trophy is out!" Chris declared. "Now...this final moment...EVA!"

Eva grabbed her trophy as Beth slumped in defeat.

"What can I say Beth? You ain't cut out for shooting aliens!" Chris said. "Enjoy your time back home. The Jet of Losers awaits to take you to Loserville!"

"Hold on a minute!" Heather stood up. "Since I have immunity I have the option of giving it up right?"

"...Right." Chris nodded confused.

"Well, then I _give_ my immunity to Beth!"

"What?" Courtney, Chris, and Beth said at the same time.

"Did I stutter?" Heather asked.

"But why?" Beth asked, shocked.

"I don't have to say why just take it and say thanks!" Heather said and walked out but not before shooting Gwen and Cody a look that said 'You owe me'.

"Great. So I have an extra challenge to get rid of the baggage." Chris grumbled.

"Harsh dude," Carlos said.

"Whatever, tell the pilot to get the jet out of here." Chris shrugged.

"Uh...Chris?" The pilot for the jet entered the room. "We have a problem with the Jet of Losers, engine's clogged again."

"What do I even pay you for?" Chris demanded.

"...you pay us?" The pilot, Lesley, Carlos and Kurt asked.

"THIS UNIT DEMANDS AN ASSIGNED TASK FOR THE DURATION OF ITS STAY ALONG WITH EQUAL COMPENSATION." Sir Carlos Deluxe said.

"...and what will happen on the next episode? Will Team Amazon bounce back from their losing streak? Will I get myself out of this mess? Find out next time on Total. Drama. Reality!" Chris grinned. "...now pardon me, I need to make a run for it!" He ran out of the room.

"GET BACK HERE!" Kurt, Carlos, Lesley, the Pilot (who shall henceforth be known as...Lenny!) and Sir Carlos Deluxe roared, chasing the host.

"...is it a good thing that Carlos now has a Robot Servant?" Cody asked.

They considered the help a giant robot could give them against a XANA attack...and the down side of Carlos having any kind of weapon in his spare time.

"I vote we get rid of its harpoons," Gwen said. "All in agreement?"

"AYE!" The whole team-and cast shouted.

Xxx

"I hurt a poor little animal...AGAIN!" DJ bawled.

He cried into a pillow as the group sat in the recreation room.

"Calm down, DJ. It was just an accident." Bridgette put a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't you see? I'm cursed again!"

"It's not a curse if it was all digital." Noah deadpanned.

"What if it's a sign, man? What if I hurt an animal during the next challenge if we're not in the pods?" DJ put his hands to his face in panic.

"Come on, DJ. You're not going to hurt anymore animals and even then those were all accidents. There was no curse." LeShawna rolled her eyes.

"How can you say that? The proof was there!"

The gathered cast members exchanged a look.

"Damn it man!" Heather suddenly pulled DJ to his feet and gave him a light slap on the face to get his attention. "You've gone into a digital world, fought digital monsters that look like giant animals, and come back without feeling bad about it! Maybe that's your freaking curse! You hurt 'digital' animals now, not real ones! You haven't hurt one since last season! So get out of your pity corner and shape up!"

"You...you're right!" DJ said. "I haven't touched one hair on an animal's head and hurt them for this whole month! I'm curse free!" He grinned. "I'M CURSE FREE!" He ran off, cheering.

"Finally, he gets it." Noah sighed in relief and then put his hands together and looked up at the ceiling, and whispered very silently. _"Thank you."_

"Well with any luck the rest of this day will be nice and quiet," Cody sighed in relief.

Then their phones all rang. They all picked up at once and simultaneously said. "Hello?" Exchanging one odd look, they listened.

"Bad news gang, we have a tower!" Aelita said. "Get to the factory, fast!"

Gwen sighed. "On it," She hung up. "Cody, why'd you jinx us?"

"I hate me too Gwen, I hate me too," Cody stood up.

"Well let's go get this over with," LeShawna groaned. "After this we'd better hope we don't have to go through all this again."

They all ran out of the studio, heading for the factory.

Xxx

Aelita scanned through various Internet websites that she and Jeremy had listed to keep an eye out. A window showing the local news program was on so she could monitor XANA's activities on Earth. But they found nothing. Even though the super scan detected a tower there was no sign of any attacks.

The activated tower was located in the Sky Temple which would be hard enough to reach without dealing with XANA's minions. The sound of the elevator doors opening was heard and she turned as the doors opened.

"So what have we missed this time?" Noah asked.

"Here's what I know." Aelita sat back in the chair. "I just finished programming upgrades for some of you when the super scan went off. This time the tower is in Sky Temple."

"That's rare." Geoff said.

"And I just finished an internet scan, looking for any unnatural disasters but I found nothing at all."

"What upgrades are we talking about here?" Gwen asked, curious.

Aelita smiled. "Well, it's not a lot and I haven't programmed upgrades for everyone yet because we still need to set up the portal codes. I just finished adding something to the sunglasses Trent wears when he's on Lyoko."

"What's that?" Trent asked.

"It's not much but I modified your sunglasses to have several features such as X-Rays, a miniature radar in case no one's at the computer to tell you when enemies are coming, and they act like a traditional camera that can zoom in and out." Aelita explained. "You could think of it like a HUD from a video game."

"Sweet," Trent smiled. "Thanks can't wait to try those out."

"Well then let's not waste any time," Aelita got out of her chair.

"I'll stay back and keep an eye on things from here, now that the rest of you can go to Lyoko I'm playing it easy," Noah said.

"Which is fine by me," Gwen replied as the rest of the Warriors piled into the elevator and went down to the scanner room.

Noah sat down and typed in the Virtualization commands. Noah then turned to the window showing everyone in the scanner room and waited for them to pick who goes first.

"Who should go first?" Geoff asked.

"Well, I say someone who hasn't been in Lyoko should go first." Bridgette said.

"I'll wait for my turn." Cody raised his hand. "I can wait a few minutes longer ."

Geoff, DJ, and LeShawna gave them all a reassuring nod and stepped into the scanners. The scanners closed on them as Noah went through the process.

"Transfer, Geoff. Transfer, DJ. Transfer, LeShawna."

All three felt the familiar gust of wind that usually came when process of going into Lyoko started.

"Scanner, Geoff. Scanner, DJ. Scanner, LeShawna."

With all of that covered Noah pressed the enter button and waited for the process to finish.

"Virtualization."

Xxx

DJ, LeShawna, and Geoff landed in front of the entrance to the Temple in the Sky Sector with little incident. They stood up and looked around while trying to get the feeling of being back in Lyoko.

A few minutes later they watched as Trent, Heather, and Izzy materialized into Lyoko and landed on their feet.

"Wow. What a big castle!" Izzy looked at the Sky Temple.

A moment later Aelita landed in front of them. The group proceeded inside the Sky Temple. As usual it was imposing and dark inside.

"Ok...this is new." Cody said as they entered a large room that had many stair cases leading to other floors and chambers.

"During my scans into this region, I had deduced that at several points in time the Sky Temple undergoes a transformation to its interior. Everything inside is essentially...a lot of building blocks and puzzle pieces." Aelita said. "It looks like it has transformed."

"Well this is just peachy," Heather said.

"So do we stick to the plan?" Geoff asked.

"I don't see any other options," Aelita replied. "We should remain cautious though."

"Okay. Noah, what the fastest way to the tower?" Gwen asked.

"_I'm looking over it right now. I think you might need to head straight through the room._"

"Aelita, you and Bridgette can fly and take a look." Cody suggested.

Aelita nodded and arched her back a bit, arms spread to prepare to fly. But there were no wings appearing behind her. She blinked, confused, and tried again. "My wings aren't activating!"

"Check your powers," Gwen said quickly.

The whole group tested their individual powers-remaining cautious in order to avoid hurting their team mates.

"Nothing's wrong here," Cody said.

"I've got everything," Geoff added.

"I'm also good," Bridgette nodded.

"Maybe it has to do with that big...upgrade you took back in the City Sector." Cody suggested.

"Noah, what can you tell us?" Aelita looked up.

_"Well from what I can tell your stats are way up, but...it looks like during the whole thing your wings got deleted. It's like your powers were restructured entirely. I can't tell what replaced them right now."_

"So in other words I'm grounded, but at least I have my energy spheres," Aelita held up one pink energy sphere.

"I can still fly," Bridgette volunteered, forming her Board Sword.

"Okay, you go and take a look ahead. But don't go too far. We don't want to be separated." Aelita warned her.

Bridgette nodded and hopped onto her board. As she took off Geoff shouted. "Be careful!"

But no sooner than when Bridgette dove down through the nearest tunnel did the entire room begin to shift.

"Uh oh!-!-!-!-!" Cody shouted as the group struggled to maintain a footing.

"Bridge! Come back! Hurry!" Geoff shouted.

But the tunnel Bridgette chose sealed itself a moment later.

Suddenly the floor split open and lowered itself like a set of doors under Cody and DJ, sending them both plummeting as they screamed. Another part of the platform the group stood on tilted and sent Heather, Izzy and Aelita flying down into darkness.

"This isn't good!" Gwen said, flying to avoid being dropped down another trap door. But then Geoff fell down through a smaller one that led to a ramp that assuredly would leave him separated from anybody else who fell down into the lower levels.

"Gwen!" Trent shouted, waving his arms as more of the platform fell away.

"Trent!" Gwen shot over him and grabbed his hand, just in time. They landed on a nearby walkway and rolled to their feet.

"We need to go, now!" Trent shouted before they threw themselves through the door at the end of the walkway just before it collapsed into pieces. The door sealed behind them, leaving them in a narrow corridor.

"Well this is just great," Gwen got up. "We're cut off and this whole temple is something out of a Paul Anderson movie." (AKA: Aliens Vs Predator)

"I can test the gadgets Aelita gave my sun glasses," Trent pointed out before tapping the rim of his sun glasses, and the entire corridor became as clear as day to him. "Sweet, let's get going."

"I can't see a thing," Gwen pointed out. "And my Aura powers would rip us apart if I tried."

"Night vision," Trent explained, pointing to his sun glasses and took her hand. "I gotcha," He led her along.

"Thanks," Gwen nodded.

Xxx

"AHHHHH-"

THUD! THUD!

"Ow..." DJ groaned. "Cody...you there man?" He looked around. "Cody?"

"Et or elf off of ee."

"Wha?" He blinked and looked down. "Oh..." He got off of Cody. "What were you saying."

"I said to get yourself off of me," Cody rubbed his head. "Lyoko is too real for my tastes now."

"I don't think we've ever been in the Sky Temple before...have we?" DJ asked.

"Nope, the others were ,we got kicked off." Cody replied. "I think Schaeffer designed it though."

"Why would you think that?"

"The entry room had Egyptian Architecture in it...this looks like it's something out of Ancient Athens," Cody pointed to the multiple statues around them, some resembling Greek gods and goddesses, others looked like odd symbols.

"I thought XANA made this and the new ones," DJ said.

"Well he is supposed to be Schaeffer's uh...well in a way his son, maybe he shared an interest for Ancient History." Cody said. "Wouldn't put it past him. The Romans took Greek Religion for their uses, XANA uses their architecture for kicks."

"Interesting...but I don't see how that helps." DJ said.

"Wait..." Cody walked up to the center of the room, where all of the statues were facing. "I think it's a puzzle chamber." As he spoke, layers of blue letters popped up. "Bingo!"

"What is it?"

"It's a question." Cody said. "_What is the weakest part of any army?_"

"Uh...the cowardly?" DJ guessed.

"Gotta remember, this is Greek...or maybe all of this is supposed to represent Romans also." Cody said. "Wait...I think I know what it means."

"Well, fire away," DJ nodded.

"Okay, when the Romans started out, they copied off the Greek Hoplite warriors, and used the Greek Phalanx for the most part. And they used the whole 'spear and shield' strategy a lot. They used it in all of their formations. But the weakest part of those formations was always...the left flank of the army!" Cody declared.

The letters vanished, and a door opened in the side of the room.

"Wow...how does that make sense?" DJ asked.

"Oh uh...Roman Legionnaires held their shields in their left hands, spears in their right." Cody said. "If somebody got on your left and you were busy on the right, you were screwed."

"...I wish I paid more attention to Ancient History class," DJ mumbled as the two left the chamber...and wound up in another.

"Aw crap," Cody said as he looked at a statue of the God Horus. "I hated Egyptian studies."

Xxx

Bridgette had no idea where she was going when the room shifted. When she was cut off from the others she was simply forced to fly through the stone hallway on her surf board and hope she would run into her friends eventually. Moving cautiously through the hall she peered around for anything that could be seen as an enemy. When she came out of the hall she came out into a large room that had a platform surrounded by water.

"Wonder what this could be." She muttered as she landed on the platform.

No sooner did she land lasers blasted out of the water, aimed right at her.

"Woah!" She ducked under the first barrage and turned her board into her swords as she looked into the water.

There, swimming in the water was a group of eel like monsters. Aelita had called them Kongres and mentioned she and the original Lyoko Warriors only encountered them in the digital sea. Looking at her they fired lasers from their eyes again to take blast her to bits. However Bridgette dodged and blocked them easily.

"Sorry guys, but water battles are my specialty!" Bridgette said as her tattoos glowed and she swung her arms up.

The water around was lifted up into the air along with Kongres inside and floated above the platform. They fell down as Bridgette released the water making them fall and they flopped up and down trying to get back into the water. Bridgette never gave them the chance. Running forward she slashed them to bits with her swords until they all exploded into digital dust.

"Well that was easy." Bridgette smiled as she looked around. "Now to get out of here."

She tried to move but found she couldn't move her legs. Looking down her eyes widened when she saw the water around her legs had frozen. Looking around she saw the water beginning to freeze and turn to ice. She raised her eyes to face forward when she heard something only to see a blast of snow and ice slam into her, knocking her free from the frozen ground and sending her into the wall.

Sliding down she groaned as she tried get up, shaking the discomfort as she opened hers eyes to see the cause of the attack.

"Yuki."

Landing in front of her was indeed Yuki, XANA's general who specialized in ice attacks.

"Welcome to the Sky Temple, surfer," Yuki said as she formed her ice swords.

"Wish I could appreciate the host's way of rolling out the red carpet," Bridgette then swung her swords and shattered the ice around her legs. "What brings you here? I thought you liked the Ice Regions better."

"When the Master says, I can accept leaving it for a while," Yuki shrugged, twirling her swords in her hands. "Can you stand being away from your boy friend for too long?"

Bridgette replied with a single wave blast that Yuki blocked with an ice barrier. Bridgette ran forward and sliced the ice barrier apart with one swing. Jumping forward Yuki aimed a kick at Bridgette's head but she blocked with swords and sent Yuki flying back with a push. Yuki landed on her feet and dodged another energy wave sent at her.

Holding out her arm Yuki fired icicles at Bridgette who dodged or blocked while trying to get close. She swung her swords but Yuki raised her arms and covered them with ice allowing her to block both swords. Pushing her back Yuki and Bridgette clashed with their swords, each one attempting to gain the upper hand. Bridgette released an energy wave at close range.

Yuki managed to block most of the attack with her ice covered arms but the impact sent her flying back. Sliding back she got up and tossed her cloak aside and formed her ice skates. The room was now entirely frozen in ice allowing her to use her skates. Sliding forward on her skates Yuki fired ice needles and icicles at her opponent.

Bridgette managed to block most of and tried to slash Yuki but the ice warrior jumped over the sword and landed expertly on her skates and fired ice needles at Bridgette's unguarded back. Bridgette spun around and fired her energy wave but Yuki dodged easily, twirling on the ice like a professional skater.

"What the hell is this, Ice Charades?" Bridgette asked.

"I thought you humans like crossing sports with your action movies?" Yuki slid to a stop.

"Nah, I prefer this." Bridgette then lunged forward, forming her Board and then slid along the ice on it, crouching close to it. The tip slammed into Yuki and slammed her into a wall.

As Bridgette split her board in two, the General got up. "Well I'll admit that was clever." She then looked down. "...but so was this."

Suddenly the ice under Bridgette shattered, making the Surfer Girl yelp as she fell through. She ended up falling into another room...and through a hole in that floor into a third. As Yuki leaped down after her, a bored looking Blade sighed, his fists covered in the dusty remnants of the two floors he had smashed holes through. "Yuki's too damn theatrical about this."

In the room below, Bridgette groaned as she got up, her life points recharging as Yuki approached. The General swung her swords, and the two began a sword fight without the use of any powers for the first minute. But then Bridgette tried her Wave blast again, and Yuki ducked under it. She gathered a lot of ice at her feet and shot it up with her blades, all aimed at Bridgette. It sent her flying across the room and slammed her into the ceiling. She managed to land on her feet as Yuki prepared another ice attack.

"You put up a good fight, Surfer," Yuki said. "But I don't want to waste _too much_ time. So I need to get going."

"You're ditching me?" Bridgette demanded, readying herself for the next attack.

"I don't leave a battle with my back turned to my opponent," Yuki said. "I prefer to be...thorough, unlike Shadow when it comes to knowing what is on the battle field...and what has been crushed by ice until it can't fight anymore."

"What, no fancy talk?" Bridgette asked. "You're losing it."

"I was being literal," Yuki then pointed up...Bridgette followed her finger just before several tons of ice that had gone through the hole in the ceiling fell on her.

"Aw crap-" THUD! Bridgette was devirtualized instantly.

"Maybe we can fight again next time...I expect you'll be much harder." Yuki dismissed her swords.

"...can I go back now?" Blade demanded. "Seriously, I can beat a Krab in an arm wrestle and you just use me to punch holes in floors to make your fight look more impressive?"

"...I liked working with Ryder better than you."

"And I would have taken Mommy's Boy over you." Blade grumbled.

Xxx

Aelita opened her eyes to see she had fallen into a large chamber with multiple floating platforms. Walking over to the edge she saw the bottom was filled with large spikes that looked like they could pierce any unlucky person to fall on them.

"Aelita!" The pink haired girl looked up in time to see Izzy leap onto the platform. "Finally, somebody nice to talk to!"

"Where is Heather?" Aelita asked.

Izzy jerked one thumb over her shoulder before the Ninja girl landed next to her. "Right here!"

"It looks like this temple has more thought put into it than I first believed," Aelita said.

"Or it was set up to change just as we walked in." Heather suggested.

"That's most likely the case," Aelita nodded. "We should find the others and-"

"Hey mommy!" A familiar voice shouted.

Heather groaned. "Oh no, no, no, no...please don't tell me it's-"

"Attack hug!" Suddenly she was enveloped in a hug by Sora, who was floating a few feet off the ground thanks to his wings. "Glad to see you showed up just on time momma! It's been a while!"

Heather looked at the roof of the room and mouthed. "I asked you nicely."

"Wow, you're still grumpy as ever!" Sora said. "I think you need to see that Latino boy again, until then I'm technically a bastard!"

"Do you ever get tired of this?" Heather asked, squirming out of his arms.

"I have to play the bad guy, that's bad enough. Like I said, I don't have it in me to be any meaner! Especially to my own mommy when I'm technically just a few weeks old!" Sora said. "Speaking of when can we talk about my upbringing and education? I always wanted to study abroad."

"I have an idea!" Izzy said.

"Ooh! Finally a positive thinker!" Sora looked at her. "What is it?"

"I know how you can study abroad!" Izzy then promptly turned into a horse and turned her back to Sora. "This!"

THUNK!

"WHOOOOAAAAAaaaaa...!" Sora shouted as he went flying into the distance.

"Nice one!" Heather said to Izzy.

"Pray for mercy from..." Izzy said dramatically. "Izzy!...in hooves." She lifted her front legs.

"Good thing the helmet protected me from getting a concussion. Can AIs get concussions?" Sora flew over again. "So much for meeting somebody nice to talk to. Oh well, guess the banter's over, now I have to get to work." He paused. "Oh, that reminds me mommy, I got a raise at work!"

Then he whipped out his wind sword and swung it. The platform was split in half, but the three girls managed to leap over to nearby ones.

"You might want to be careful! This room was made to give me the advantage!" Sora called. "It would be really bad if you fell off of those things!"

"_No, really? We had no idea!_" Heather shouted. "_Thanks a bunch!_"

"You're welcome mommy; it's the least I can do after you raised me for my whole life!" Sora replied, waving to her.

"I swear he was crossed with Noah's DNA," Heather grumbled.

"Ooh!" Izzy said. "If XANA did make Sora with your DNA and Noah's, that would make Sora your _love child!_" She giggled.

"...Not. Freaking. Funny." Heather glared at the ginger haired shape shifter.


	60. Episode 58: XANA's Trap, Warrior's Loss

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 59

Geoff groaned as he ran through the hall, looking for everyone he was separated from when the room changed.

"Great. All these tunnels and doors and I can't even find out where they are." He complained quietly as he reached another corner. "And why hasn't Noah contacted us yet?"

Little did he know was that XANA had managed to set up a jamming signal inside the Sky Temple when he made it to disrupt communications between the real world and inside the Sky Temple. Noah had tried to direct them but he had no luck.

"Help!" Geoff looked up when he heard Bridgette's voice. "Please help me!"

"Bridge? Bridgette! I'm coming!" Geoff took off in a fast sprint.

"Help me! I can't stand it! Please, someone, anyone, help!"

"I'm coming!"

Running as fast as he could he came out into a dark room that seemed to have no walls or ceiling. And standing in the center were three Dragon Knights and lying on the ground between them was…

"Bridgette!" Geoff shouted as he combined his chakrams into his axe and charged forward.

The Dragon Knights turned as Geoff ran at them with a battle cry. The Knights pulled out staffs and charged forward. If anyone was there they would have commented that they had never seen Geoff so angry before. The Dragon Knights attempted to fight him off but his rage made him almost impossible to slow down as he cut through them in just a few minutes.

When they were defeated he ran over to Bridgette, dropping his axe as he held his girl friend.

"Bridge, are you okay?" He cradled her head in his arms. "Bridge?"

"Geoff?" Bridgette very slowly opened her eyes. "Is that you?"

"I'm here, babe. It'll be all right now."

"Geoff, I have something to say." Bridgette whispered.

"Yes…"

"…Psych!"

Bridgette grabbed Geoff as a portal opened up behind her.

"What?" Geoff was cut off Bridgette put her feet to his chest as she pulled down and kicked her feet up, tossing him into the portal.

He fell through the portal and fell down to a floor full of spikes. He never even knew what had happened until he was back in the real world.

Meanwhile, 'Bridgette' chuckled maliciously as she turned into Lilith. "Wow, some of these humans are so stupid! I didn't even think that would work. That makes two down, seven to go."

Xxx

LeShawna crashed through another wall. "Man that's giving me a head ache!" She rubbed her head as she looked around the room she was in. "Well where the hell am I now?"

"LeShawna! Hey! LeShawna!" The Brawler glanced over and saw a certain 007 wannabe and DJ rush out of a nearby passage.

The room they all stood in was rectangular, and had a natural light source from above on account of it having no ceiling to begin with.

"Aw man am I glad to see you guys!" LeShawna grinned. "How's it been going for you two?"

"I've had to recall every Ancient History class I've ever taken," Cody said. "But aside from that I'm fine. How about you?"

"Been smashing my way through walls to find my way out of here," LeShawna replied. "I never liked mazes."

"We need to figure out a way out of here," DJ said. "This isn't getting us anywhere."

"Well...we could try up there," Cody pointed to the open roof a hundred feet above them. "But I don't see how...we..." He glanced at his two larger, muscular companions as they exchanged a look. "could..." They both smirked. "Do...that...why are you looking at me like that?

"Well you always wanted to be a super hero," LeShawna said as she and DJ grabbed him by his coat. "So fly, 007!"

"AH!" Cody screamed as he was flung up into the air, and just barely managed to grab onto the edge of the opening. "I hate you two so much right now!"

"Just find the tower and we'll meet you there James Bond!" LeShawna shouted up to him. "DJ, let's get going."

They left the room while Cody climbed out onto the exterior of the temple. "Noah, can you hear me?"

_"Cody! About damn time!"_ Noah said.

"What are you talking about? I've been trying to call you for five minutes!" Cody said. "I'm on the outside of the temple but I don't see the tower anywhere. Can you direct me to it?"

_"On it...Cody?"_

"Yeah?"

_"Why is this saying you're on the bottom of the temple?"_

"Bottom? Are you nuts? If I was on the bottom I'd be...up...side..." Cody looked up and saw the Mountain Region. "Down..._mother._" He shook his head. "What the-I don't believe it! What is this?"

"_Maybe it's a part of the maze's tricks. Altered gravity?_" Noah suggested.

"Well this is new!" Cody swallowed. "Man, Paul Anderson had nothing on this! So what happened to the others?"

_"Bridgette and Geoff got devirtualized by Yuki and Lilith." _Noah explained. "_And Izzy, Heather, and Aelita have their hands full with Sora in one chamber. Cody I think this whole temple was made for one big trap, I can't communicate with you guys in there, so Geoff had no idea what happened when he faced Lilith._"

"What happened?"

_"She pretended to be a wounded Bridgette surrounded by Dragon Knights. End of story."_

"Ouch, sorry Geoff!" Cody said, walking along the outer wall of the temple. "So how long should it take me to walk to the Tower?"

_"A few minutes...maybe fifteen. It's a big temple dude."_

"Aw man!" Cody whined.

_"And watch out, if Lilith, Yuki and Sora are on the move we're on the lookout for four more Generals. Odds are they have a plan to give them the advantage."_

"I'll keep my ear to the ground-er...wall." Cody said. "Whatever you'd call this."

"_I'd call it the freakiest thing I've ever seen and I'm so glad I'm not there right now._" Noah replied. _"Maybe when you were tossed up you triggered a silent trap that adjusted your pull towards the center of the Temple. I've been picking up a massive energy source right in the middle of this thing."_

"Could that be the source of this?" Cody asked.

_"Maybe, it has fluctuations every time it changes. But it also showed me one part of the Pyramid that doesn't change." _Noah said. _"It's a single tunnel leading right to the middle of the temple. If you're interested it's just a hundred feet to your left."_

"It hasn't changed at all?" Cody asked.

"_Not one stone out of place."_

"I'm heading there then. The sooner this maze stops shifting the sooner Aelita can get to the tower." Cody took a quick left and soon found a tunnel with a spiralling stair case leading downwards-er...upwards.

_"Cody if you go back in there we'll lose communications again," _Noah cautioned him. _"I can't warn you of monsters or Generals."_

"I'll take that risk." Cody replied, and began his descent.

Noah sighed. "_Brave...but really, REALLY stupid."_

Xxx

Aelita, Heather, and Izzy were having far less fun than Cody was. Thanks to the fact that Aelita's wings were erased Izzy was the only who could fly when she changed into an animal that could fly. The platforms in room were easily breakable and if they fell off they would fall onto the spike covered floor and most definitely be devirtualized.

"Here I come again! Wind Slash!" Sora cried as he swung his wind sword, creating a harsh gust of wind that knocked the platform Izzy was and sent her falling down.

Izzy however changed into a bird and flew back up.

"One would think this would be a whole lot easier." Sora sighed as Heather and Aelita fired at him.

Dodging them he flew at them and fired his laser beam from the beak part of his helmet. Heather and Aelita dodged as they took off in opposite directions and landed on separate platforms. Now that Aelita was separate from the others Sora took the opportunity to take her out.

"Sorry about this! Wind Blade!" Sora swung his sword down and sent down a slash of wind that cut the platform in half.

Aelita jumped but Sora shot her in the chest with a laser blast causing her to fall to the bottom of the room.

"Izzy, catch her!" Heather shouted.

Izzy flew down as a Hawk to grab Aelita before she hit the spikes but shot her with his laser and sent her into the wall. Aelita closed her eyes, concentrating on finding something to avoid certain death.

'Damn it, even I had my wings I might still be in this mess!' Aelita thought with frustration and anger. 'I am not going to lose like this! There's got to be something I can use!'

That was when it happened. Aelita's frustration opened something in her mind. Something was unlocked and was opened just as she almost hit the spikes. Her feet began to glow with white energy.

Sora, Izzy, and Heather were shocked to see Aelita stand on top of the spike she was about to hit, completely unharmed.

"Whoa..." Izzy said as Aelita straightened herself out. "She's flying again!"

"But I don't see any wings!" Heather shouted.

"I don't need wings," Aelita smirked up at Sora. "It just comes naturally to me now!" Then she shot up faster than she ever had with her wings.

"Hm...well crap," Sora said before Aelita slammed both fists glowing with her energy field into him, and sent him flying across the room. "WHOA!" THUD! He face planted on the wall. "Ow..."

"I was wrong! Pray for mercy from...Aelita!" Izzy declared. "In hover boots!"

"Hm...hey mom if it's alright, I think I might take a leave of absence!" Sora called. "This doesn't affect our relationship, does it? I can still meet daddy when you and him actually get together?"

"GET GOING!" Heather shrieked at him.

"I'm so glad I never inherited that fiery temper." Sora muttered before he vanished.

"I am seriously considering whether or not having kids in the future." Heather muttered.

Aelita and Izzy landed on the same platform and looked around.

"Nice new powers there, Aelita. So those boots can make you fly again?" Izzy asked, looking closely at Aelita's boots.

"I'm not sure. We'll have to learn more about them later. Right now we need to get out of here and find the others." Aelita replied.

"There!" Izzy pointed behind them and Aelita and Heather turned to see an opening in the wall.

"We'll take it." Heather said as Izzy morphed into an eagle and lifted her while Aelita took off in the air, testing her new flying powers.

Xxx

Gwen wouldn't admit it, but she felt like she had when she and Trent had been dating between Total Drama Island and Total Drama Action with Trent holding her hand and leading her through the dark. She actually noticed that this was first time Trent and her had been alone in a long time. They had been on different teams since the season started and usually just hung out with the members of the Lyoko gang. She really had to keep these old feelings down for the sake of finding a way out of the dark and then looking for the others.

"You see way out?" She asked, not able to stand the silence.

"Nothing yet. This is a pretty long hall." Trent replied looking forward.

He stopped and Gwen accidently bumped into him. "Sorry!"

"It's okay. I didn't give a warning. I saw something move." Trent replied, mentally smiling about being close to Gwen again.

"What is it?"

"I don't know. I didn't get a good look."

That was when vines blasted out of the ground between them, knocking them back and cutting their hands a bit, losing five life points in the process.

"What the hell!" Trent's immediate response was to fire off a fire spell from his guitar.

The flames washed over the vines, but merely blackened them as more shot out of the ground. Soon an entire wall separated the two Lyoko Warriors.

"Gwen! Gwen!" Trent fired at the wall again, but had even less success than before.

"Trent! I can hear you!" Gwen called.

"What the hell is going on?" Trent shouted.

"A trap!" Gwen replied. "This thing is going down the entire hall way, I don't see the end of it!"

"Let's head to the end and see if we can meet up there!" Trent suggested, noticing that the way back was closed off behind him.

"Alright, see you there!" And then she was gone, only her footsteps fading away for him to know where she was.

Trent was able to move along thanks to his glasses' night vision setting. What concerned him was what would happen if a monster attacked Gwen in such closed quarters and in pitch black. If she used her auras she might devirtualize herself also.

"Hey Trent! Something's coming!" He heard Gwen hiss through a gap in the vines.

Sliding to a stop, the musical magician leaned against the wall. "What is it?"

He heard many small footsteps slowly growing louder and louder. "What do you think this is?"

"I have a good guess." Gwen said. "Trent...get away from the wall, I need to make this really accurate."

Trent backed away from the wall. He saw a red glow through the gaps in it and realized what Gwen's plan was. "Wait, Gwen-!"

Gwen shot her Fire Aura down her half of the corridor. It set fire to the vine wall, and multiple explosions of monsters being destroyed made small holes in it. But before it was even done, more vines were already growing.

"Gwen! Are you okay?" Trent shouted.

Gasping for breath, she replied. "Yeah...I'm good." Then suddenly her scythe cut a hole in the blackened vine wall. The spell caster smiled as she came into view. "I didn't want to risk using that, I thought I'd take myself out too."

"Well, that's one problem out of the-." Trent started.

"Look out!" Suddenly Gwen shoved Trent back as something flew into view. It clipped Trent's sun glasses, shattering them. He heard Gwen gasp, and then saw her digital outline as she was devirtualized by the attack.

"Gwen!" Trent shouted, and immediately brought his guitar out, firing a lightning spell down the hall way as a familiar laughter rang out.

"Well hey there Elvis!" Jinx taunted Trent.

"Jinx," Trent frowned. "No prize for guessing that."

"Aw, not enjoying ourselves anymore?" Jinx mocked him.

"When can I when I have the greatest moment killer in the world...RIGHT THERE!" Trent had followed her voice and took aim with his guitar. The lightning spell went through a hole in the vine wall and struck something on the other side. He heard Jinx cry out as she was slammed into the wall and slid down.

"Agh...well that was a nice shot!" She was straining to sound happy now. "Still, you've lost your fancy shades and your spell caster!"

"I can still kick your insane ass back to XANA," Trent moved to the other side of the wall and fired up a Fire Spell that illuminated the hallway. "Burn baby, burn!" He strummed out a stream of fire that Jinx blocked with a purple barrier.

Swinging her spear she released a familiar miasma that filled the hallway. Trent coughed as he moved back, attempting to get out of the miasma. Jinx moved forward and he only had a glimpse before she slashed his chest with her spear. He fired a lightning note that she dodged easily.

"Too slow, Elvis." She laughed as she slammed the blunt end of her weapon into Trent's head knocking him down. "This is boring now. We'll play some other time."

Before Trent could fire again Jinx vanished into the dark and he could hear her footsteps moving away.

"Damn it!" He slammed his fist into the ground.

Xxx

"We've been through how many rooms now?" LeShawna asked.

"I think is the twentieth." DJ replied as they walked into a room with statues of monsters.

"XANA's got us running around in circles and who knows how the others are doing." LeShawna muttered angrily.

She slammed a fist into the statue of a Krab and it shattered on impact.

"Calm down. We'll find them. We're bound to run into them eventually." DJ attempted to calm LeShawna down.

"I know. But this is so frustrating. We're finally back in the fight and look at us. Running around like mice looking for cheese in a maze." LeShawna sighed. "This is not what I had in mind."

"Well things are never predictable when it comes to this job." DJ shrugged.

"Ah well no use belly aching, let's get on with it-"

CRASH!

Suddenly a hole was blasted in the floor in front of them. The two warriors got ready for whatever was going to come out at them.

A humanoid figure leaped out of the hole, landing in a crouch. A long and broad bladed sword rested on one shoulder. He stood up, fixing the duo with a glare. "Well now, howdy there." Ryder tipped an imaginary bow boy hat to them. "What brings you two to a place like this?"

"Ryder," LeShawna readied her hammer. "I am so not in the mood for this!"

"Oh LeShawna you remembered me!" Ryder placed both hands over where he would have had a heart, were he human. "I'm so flattered I think I'll just...rip you and your friend apart byte by byte."

Suddenly he drew his sword. DJ formed a shield that separated Ryder from him and LeShawna. The General chuckled. "Cheap antics, really?"

Suddenly he began to glow with red energy. The air crackled around him as he sheathed his sword. "LIGHTNING SPRINT!"

There was a blinding red light, and Ryder was gone. The two warriors stared at where he had been in shock.

"What-where did he-"

"Look out!" LeShawna spun and swung her hammer as Ryder appeared in a flash of red behind them. The General ducked under the hammer and whipped out his sword. LeShawna caught the blade on the pole of her hammer, and forced Ryder back. The General stabbed at her, but DJ took his golem form and intercepted it, making it glance off of his crossed forearms and go upwards.

LeShawna dropped her hammer and lunged, slamming into Ryder and sending him back. Then she and DJ leaped away, rolling as they hit the ground and coming up on their feet a good fifteen feet from Ryder. LeShawna snatched her hammer up and held it defensively.

"Nice moves," Ryder held his sword in both hands, legs slightly spread. "But I'm not going to play this time."

"Oh, you mean the million times we beat your ass were just fun and games?" LeShawna mocked him.

"Talk is cheap," Ryder then vanished again.

The two warriors instantly went back to back as Ryder appeared in front of LeShawna. She countered a slash, batted aside a jab, and brought her left leg up in a side kick to Ryder's gut. He replied by charging his blade with lightning and swung it down. She brought her hammer up again as DJ turned to confront Ryder, but the blade broke through the hammer's pole entirely and cut LeShawna in half, devirtualizing her.

DJ swallowed as Ryder smirked at him. "Well now this is new. Just the Big jolly Giant left to fight me now." He strolled forward confidently. "This'll be way too easy. I've never had to take on a big coward like you before."

DJ paused, fists clenched. He stopped backing away from Ryder and glared at the General.

"Ooh, now the big coward's grown some back bone!" Ryder clapped slowly, his sword tucked under one arm like a package. "Well let's see if that makes any difference."

The General lunged forward and swung down. DJ pivoted out of the way and swung his arm up, keeping it parallel with the sword that stuck under the ground. He hit Ryder in the gut and sent him flying nearly fifty feet down the hall way. The General rolled head over heels a few times before he stopped.

Getting up with one hand on his head, Ryder groaned. "Well okay, the effect was kind of lost on that little bungle." He brought his sword up as DJ rushed him. "Okay big fella, let's see what you've got!"

DJ crossed his arms in front of him and sped up like a battering ram. Ryder angled his sword so it would look like he was going to try and stab the golem...but then smirked. "Psych! Lightning Sprint!" The General vanished, and DJ collided with the wall behind where Ryder had stood. Stopping in the middle of another generic corridor, DJ looked behind him.

FLASH! Ryder was suddenly next to him, sword raised back over one shoulder like he was a base ball player. "LIGHTNING BLADE!" The energy charged sword came right at DJ, who caught it in both of his hands and struggled against the immense energy Ryder had fed into the weapon.

"Ugh...come on..." Ryder strained to keep pressing the sword down. "Come on..."

"Not...gonna...happen!" DJ growled through clenched teeth.

"Come on already!" Ryder snarled. "One...more...inch...!"

DJ's life points were slowly being drained despite being in his Golem form. And it was at a rate faster than his life points could recharge. The Golem slowly began to force Ryder's blade back up and away from his head.

"Pretty good fight...but...it's...over!" Ryder ground out before feeding more energy into the blade, expecting it to easily slice through DJ...

Instead the whole blade exploded into shards of metal and strands of red lightning. It got the desired effect by dropping DJ's life points to zero, but it sent the unarmed Ryder flying back through another wall...and the two behind it.

By the time he was done, he was hanging on to the edge of a hole and hanging out over empty air. He looked down at the mountain region and sighed in relief. "Man that was close." Pulling himself back up, he sighed. "...well crap, that'll take a few hours at the least to reform. Guess I'm no use here anymore."

He wiped his hands on each other and smirked, proud of his brief work period. "Two down in one fight though, awesome record considering how bad these fights usually go!" With that, he formed a portal and left the Sky Temple.

Xxx

Cody continued through the hall that was supposed to lead to whatever was causing the maze inside the temple to shift.

"Can't even tell if I'm getting closer or further." He muttered as he turned a corner.

That was when he came into a large room and in the center a white orb with the Eye of XANA sat with cables coming out of it and went into the walls and ceiling.

"That might be it."

He walked closer to it, wary of any monsters or generals that were just waiting to surprise him. Pulling out his gun he aimed for the Eye. He pulled the trigger and two shots went into the Eye. The orb began to spark and short circuit and electricity went through the cables.

"That's my cue to exit!" He ran back through the way he came in as the orb exploded.

He took cover behind the corner in the hall and waited for it to be over.

"Noah? Can you hear me?" He asked, testing his theory.

"_Loud and clear, Cody. Good job._" Noah said. "_The shifts have stopped and obviously I can talk you to you guys now._"

Xxx

Aelita, Izzy, and Heather looked up when they heard Noah's voice.

"Noah?" Aelita asked.

"It's about time! Where have you been?" Heather shouted.

"_Sorry. There was a jamming device that kept me from talking. Cody managed to take it out along with whatever was shifting the maze so I can guide you to the others._" Noah said.

"That's good. How are they doing?" Aelita asked.

"_Not good. Geoff, Bridgette, LeShawna, DJ, and Gwen were all devirtualized in traps set up by XANA's generals. The only ones who disappeared from the temple were Sora and Ryder._" Noah said. "_Each trap gave the generals an advantage and without me to tell you they got the element of surprise._"

"XANA's been busy." Aelita said grimly.

"_The best plan I can suggest is that you all meet up and head for the tower._"

"Can you guide us there?" Izzy asked.

_"On it Crazy Girl."_ Noah replied.

"I'm not crazy, I'm just very happy!"

_"So are gay people, and I still like them more than you."_ Noah replied. _"Now there's a tunnel in the wall on your left. Take it, follow it a hundred feet, and then take a right."_

"This'll take a while," Heather sighed as the three of them leaped over to the tunnel entrance and followed the passage.

"_Oh well look on the bright side, after the sudden drop you'll be near where Trent is._"

"Sudden drop-?" Heather started as they took a right and then the floor slid out from under them. "NOAH!"

All three girls screamed as they fell about fifty feet. Izzy turned into a bird at the last second while Aelita activated her hover boots, and Heather flipped over and landed on her feet in a crouch.

"Noah, this is why nobody likes hanging out with you!" Heather shouted.

"Heather? Aelita? Izzy?" A certain musician with a magic guitar came around the nearest corner. "About time I found you guys, what the hell's been going on here?"

"A trap by XANA, the usual," Heather shrugged.

"We're going to head for the tower, but we should try and find Cody on the way," Aelita said.

"Where is he anyways?" Izzy asked.

"_He is walking up a very tall stair case from the room where the power source was._" Noah said. "_He triggered a gravity trap earlier that made him walk up the side of the temple to the entrance, but with the power source gone he'd fall faster than Chris when you kick him in the shin._"

"So he'll meet us up top?" Trent asked.

"Is there anybody else in the temple?" Heather asked.

_"Nope, sorry."_ Noah sighed. "_Like I said, everybody fell into a trap._"

"Well why don't you come in here and help?" Trent asked.

"Yeah, you could have phased through the walls, even if the maze was still shifting!" Izzy shouted.

"_...uh...you know what?...I don't need to listen to this assault on my character._"

"Figures, everybody else gets cured and he decides to back out," Heather grumbled.

_"I'm not backing out, I'm strategizing!"_

_"_Can somebody make him go into the scanner or kick his ass?_" _Heather demanded.

In the background, LeShawna said. "_I got it!_"

"_Wait, what are you-ow! Hey put me down! Hey! Whoa! This is assault on my person! Kidnapping against my will! I want my attorney_!" Noah whined as his voice faded.

Geoff then took the radio. _"Hey, got one whiny Keeanu Reeves copy coming your way."_

_"I'm homing in on your position so he doesn't have to go all the way inside the temple," _Gwen said as she took over.

Moments later Noah appeared next to them. He glared at them. "I hate you all so much."

"Welcome back to Lyoko, Genius." Heather smirked. "Now get off your lazy ass and get moving. We have a tower to find and shut down."

"Yeah, yeah."

Xxx

"Finally." Cody muttered.

He was hiding in a dark tunnel that led to the entrance to the room the tower was in. He pressed himself against the walls so he wouldn't be spotted by the monsters guarding the tower.

"Okay, I'm here at the tower but it looks heavily guarded."

"_Good job, Cody. You'll have back up in a few minutes._" Gwen said over the intercom.

It was just a few minutes later when they arrived.

"Hey, Cody. How's it look?" Trent asked as they ran up to him.

"We've got four Tarantulas out there guarding the tower." Cody gestured with his thumb.

"Any generals?" Heather asked.

"Not that I can see. Maybe they gave up."

"What's the room like?" Aelita asked.

"It's not good. We've got to go through a bridge. It's not too narrow but we should still be careful." Cody said peeking out.

That was when a laser came out and struck him between the eyes, knocking him through the air and hitting the ground hard.

"Crap!" Heather shouted.

Everyone scrambled down the tunnel as the Tarantulas aimed their guns and shot at the gang's makeshift shelter.

"This is great! We're stuck here!" Heather growled. "I have just about had it with these guys!"

"We need a way to take them out!" Trent said.

"I'll do it. I can slow time for thirteen seconds. That should be plenty of time for to take them out." Cody said.

"Be careful." Aelita cautioned.

"Don't worry. Leave it to me."

His eyes flashed and around him everyone and everything slowed and turned gray. He ran out onto the bridge and saw the lasers and Tarantulas were frozen. Taking out his pistols he shot each of them in the Eye and they exploded when his time powers ended.

"The coast is clear!" He called out.

"_Good job, Cody._"

"Thanks, Gwen." Cody smiled.

Everyone came out of the tunnel.

"Nice power there." Trent smiled.

"That took care of our problems." Heather commented.

"Let's hurry and get this tower shut down before something else happens." Aelita said.

However just as they moved to walk over the bridge to the tower another unwanted and unexpected surprise reared its ugly head.

"_Everyone watch out! Four more monsters coming your way!_" Gwen shouted.

"Double crap!" Heather shouted as four Dark Pyramids arrived in front of the tower. "Cody take them out!"

"I can't! I need a moment to recharge!"

Yuki appeared in front of the tower in a blast of snow and ice. The Dark Pyramids moved forward as she raised her hand an ice barrier appeared around the tower. They opened fire on them as Trent quickly played his Shield Note and a barrier blocked the lasers.

"I can't hold this much longer!" Trent said.

"No problem. Izzy, take them out!" Heather shouted pointing at them.

"Aye aye!" Izzy replied and ran forward.

She transformed into an elephant and charged towards the monsters and Yuki. However before she could stomp them the Dark Pyramids fired an ice beam that froze her.

"_Guys, Izzy will be devirtualized when the ice breaks. All of her life points were eliminated when she was frozen!_" Gwen warned them.

The Dark Pyramids continued their assault on the other warriors.

"Take this!" Heather shouted as she fired four shuriken and managed to destroy Dark Pyramids. "Go!"

The group then moved down the bridge and towards the tower.

"Get Aelita to the tower." Heather shouted and ran forward to fight Yuki.

Trent, Noah, Cody, and Aelita ran for the tower.

Noah shifted his hands into guns as the last two Dark Pyramids moved forward.

"This'll be easy."

"_Watch out! Three more monsters coming!_"

Trent glared at Noah. "Why can't you just shut up?"

The Dark Pyramids moved in front of the tower, reinforcing the enemy line and firing on them. Noah raised his hands to fire but was hit in the chest and the force of the impact knocked him down. Aelita saw another laser heading for Noah and stood in the way and doubled over when two shots hit her in the abdomen.

"Now you're dead!" Trent shouted as he aimed at the Dark Pyramid that hit Aelita and played his Lightning Note.

Noah and Aelita got up as Trent created another barrier to block anymore lasers. Cody jumped in gracefully and aimed his pistols at the last two monsters. The lasers embedded themselves in the Eyes and they exploded. Trent wiped sweat drops from his forehead as everyone began to relax.

"Oh man, I don't think we've ever gotten our asses kicked this bad," Noah said.

"That's how many of us devirtualized in one mission?" Cody asked. "I lost count at five or six."

"Okay, Aelita, get in that tower and we can get the hell out of here." Heather said.

Aelita nodded and walked over to the tower.

Xxx

Everyone in the lab sighed in relief as they took out the last monster. Everyone was stressed as the last people still in Lyoko. Gwen slumped into the chair as she smiled. "Good job, guys. Maybe now we can finally get ...What the?"

Before anyone could even ask what was five more red circles appeared on the screen. Three more appeared in front of the tower and two more approached on the bridge behind them.

"Are those...?" Geoff started.

"More monsters!" LeShawna finished.

"Guys, you're surrounded!" Gwen shouted.

Xxx

"Surrounded?" Heather repeated as everyone stood up in alarm.

Just as she finished repeating Gwen's warning lasers slammed into her from behind and she was devirtualized. Two Dark Krabs had moved onto the bridge behind them while three Tarantulas appeared in front of the tower.

"This is not good." Noah said as the last few fighters stood back to back.

"What can we do?" Cody asked.

"Stay still and let us hit you." A familiar female voice said.

Lilith landed in front of the tower next to Yuki and Blade and Jinx landed on the bridge.

"Okay and our odds just got a whole lot worse." Trent said.

"How can we take them out?" Cody asked.

"We don't." Aelita answered.

"What?" All three asked.

"There are too many enemies to fight. We're going to have to make a tactical retreat."

"I don't like the sound of it but she's right." Noah said.

"I suppose we don't have a choice, do we?" Trent sighed.

"Gwen, devirtualize us and fast." Aelita said.

"_What about the transfer error?_"

"Did anything strange happen to you or the others?"

"_No. We all seem perfectly fine._"

"I'm sorry about this, guys. I should have paid more attention to what was going on. Maybe we could have avoided all of this." Aelita felt deeply saddened that she had not seen this coming.

Trent was never one to blame someone or to hold grudges, even against Duncan. "It's all right. We haven't seen anything wrong in the real world yet. Besides, we all make mistakes.

"Gwen, devirtualize Aelita, Noah, and Trent first!" Cody shouted.

"No way! You two go with Aelita first!"

"Gwen, take all three of them now!" Aelita shouted.

"What?" The other three asked.

"It's all right. I can fly again so I can evade them long enough to be devirtualized. Hurry!"

Gwen nodded even though they couldn't see her. "_Devirtualizing now!_"

"Go Aelita!" Trent shouted and Aelita jumped into the air.

Xxx

A red exclamation point appeared on Noah and Cody's avatars.

"What?" Gwen's eyes widened.

"What is it?" Bridgette asked.

"A transfer error!"

Xxx

Everything happened so quickly. Aelita was busy avoiding multiple lasers and different attacks from the monsters and Generals. In the real world, several of the Lyoko Warriors were waiting for Trent, Cody and Noah to step out. Trent came out first, rubbing the back of his head a bit, but the other two scanners remained inactive.

"What's going on?" Trent asked.

"Transfer error again," Gwen said. "And it's bad this time."

"Bad bad or 'Oh god we're so dead' bad?" Trent asked.

"Uh...kinda both," Geoff said before the two scanners hissed open.

Cody and Noah fell out of the scanners and collapsed to the floor.

"Guys? Guys?" Bridgette knelt over Cody and checked him over. He had a pulse, he was breathing normally, but he wasn't reacting to anything. Neither was Noah.

"We need to bring Aelita back," Bridgette said. "Hurry!"

"Is it really a good idea to devirtualize her when these two came back this way?" Geoff asked.

"DJ, do it!" Gwen shouted up the ladder to the control room where DJ was at the computer.

Moments later Aelita appeared out of a scanner, shaken but otherwise fine. "I was getting worried in there! Did something go wrong?"

"Noah and Cody! They won't get up!" Izzy said urgently, shaking Cody. "Come on Cody! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!"

"Izzy, cut it out and let Aelita handle this!" Gwen gently pried Izzy away from the unconscious genius.

Aelita examined them both, looking for any reactions. "It's like they're brain dead. What happened during the transfer?"

"I did the devirtualization process just like how we practiced, but a transfer error came up!" Gwen said, slightly panicked.

"But nothing happened to me." Trent added.

"Did you remember anything specific before you were devirtualized?" Aelita asked.

"Uh...fighting...then I stepped out of the scanner like usual." Trent shrugged. "The monsters shot at us as usual."

"We need a scan of them. Can you life them back into the scanners so I can check them?" Aelita asked.

They nodded and Aelita climbed up the ladder while Cody and Noah were put back into the scanners. Aelita sat down and activated both scanners. The scanners Cody and Noah were in closed and she ran a scan of them.

"...My, god." Aelita breathed in shock.

"What happened?" DJ asked anxiously.

"Cody and Noah's memories," Aelita struggled to find the right words to articulate her words. "It's like their minds were totally wiped!"

Everyone listened in shock as they heard what Aelita had said. Cody and Noah were not just in comas, they were literally brain dead!

"But...how?" Gwen asked in horror as she was the one who devirtualized them.

"I don't know. I never thought XANA would be able to go this far." Aelita looked down in shame.

Everyone felt the same despair Aelita was feeling right now. They had walked into a trap and fell for it and now they might have just lost two of the best members.


	61. Episode 59: Race in the Sky Temple

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 60

**Download Records**

**Save Records**

**Access Records**

**File Found**

**Report: Success**

The images around the red chamber showed the battle in the Sky Temple and XANA's avatar sat on a red block in the center, smirking at his success.

'They must be feeling distraught over the loss of the battle and what happened.' XANA let out a quiet chuckle. 'They appeared so confident when they appeared. They had no idea what so ever and they still do not understand how badly they lost.'

XANA grinned sinisterly.

Xxx

Aelita watched as all of her friends gathered in the lab. Dragging their tired bodies up the ladder or out of the elevator. She felt as emotionally and physically tired as they all were and she had good reason. For the first time since their conflict with XANA they _lost_ a battle in Lyoko.

All the other battles had been close but they always came out at the last second...

But not this time.

The latest battle had been, to put it lightly, intense. XANA had come up with the perfect strategy to guard his tower and devirtualize everyone one at a time and he used their weaknesses. They were separated and hunted down like animals one by one. Bridgette's water powers proved next to useless when she took on Yuki, Geoff fell for Lilith's illusions with no one to warn him, Gwen ended up eliminated when she was stuck in a tunnel and couldn't use her spells with Trent close by and easily got taken out by Jinx.

LeShawna and DJ were taken out when Ryder blasted them to bits with his electricity. Cody's limits with his time powers lured everyone else into a trap and they ended up surrounded on all sides. Heather and Izzy were devirtualized and the rest were forced to retreat and in the process Cody and Noah somehow lost their minds...Literally.

No one uttered a single word. Bridgette leaned against Geoff as they both sat against the wall; Geoff's head hanging in shame for falling for Lilith's trick. Bridgette was sad and angry over how Geoff was tricked. Gwen looked over Cody and Noah looking upset believing she had done something wrong while Trent put a hand on her shoulder to calm her. LeShawna was lightly punching the wall, muttering curses at XANA while DJ simply hung his head for not being good enough.

Izzy sat on the floor, for once she didn't hyper or even remotely happy. She looked like she was about to fall over. Heather was sitting against the wall, trying not to look as upset or tired as everyone else was.

"So..." Izzy asked in between breaths to kill the awkward silence. "What do we do now?"

"Just go back to the studio and rest. We'll talk about this when we're all refreshed tomorrow."

Most of the group had small looks of relief when she said that. Gwen however didn't look ready to give up yet.

"Wait, Aelita. There's got to be something we can do right now!"

"There's nothing we can do, Gwen. We're all tired and exhausted after being devirtualized and we _still_ have a tower activated! Worst of all Cody and Noah are veggies unless I can find out what's wrong! What else can I say?"

Aelita's sudden outburst caught everyone by surprise. They had only seen Aelita angry or upset only a couple of times. However she had every right to be angry. They were just as angry as she was but she was probably the only one who wasn't too sad to express it.

Noticing that she was venting out in front of everyone she took a deep breath a couple of times to calm herself. "Sorry, Gwen. Today was pretty much hard on all of us and you got called here just after another episode. Until I find out exactly what happened we can't find a way to counter it and save Cody and Noah. For now we should just rest up and take it from there."

"She's right, let's head back to the studio," DJ sighed. "We don't have a challenge for a few days, things'll be fine."

Xxx

"This sucks." LeShawna muttered under her breath.

"It's not very bad, all things considered." Bridgette said, making an effort to try and cheer everyone up.

Currently DJ was carrying Noah while Trent was carrying Cody while keeping an eye out for anyone since they didn't someone asking questions. They were all silent during the walk home. Seeing the awkward situation Bridgette had placed herself she tried to find a topic that wouldn't be so painful for everyone.

"So what do you think happened in Lyoko?"

Heather sighed and looked over Bridgette. "As much as I would _love_ to talk about how we got our digital behinds handed to us I prefer to rest. Thank you very much."

Heather's joke just made everyone feel worse as they walked back to the studio. She was only this mad when her team lost a challenge or when someone screwed up badly. No more attempts for any further conversation were made after that. They later found themselves in the studio and splitting up to the team dorms.

"Here, I'll get Cody to his room." Gwen said, putting Cody's arm over her shoulder.

"You sure you don't need help?" Trent asked.

"I'll be fine. Go get some sleep and let's hope Aelita will be able to sort out this mess."

Trent nodded in agreement. "All right. See you later guys."

Everyone split up as Gwen and Heather went into the Team Amazon dorm and Gwen put Cody in his room. She looked down at him, feeling guilty and helpless for this happening to him.

'Hopefully you'll be fine.' Gwen thought as she walked out of the room.

Xxx

Aelita had snuck back into Kadic Academy, avoiding anyone seeing easily as she had down it over a thousand times. She slipped into her night clothes but she was not ready to go to sleep yet. She typed away at the keyboard as she played over the events of the Sky Temple in Lyoko. In order to solve this problem she first needed to understand it.

She turned on the scanner program and the image of the red glowing tower in the Sky Sector appeared on the screen. She stared hard at the tower as if it was XANA himself, smirking at her, rubbing it in her face of his recent victory. A victory that Aelita vowed to squash. But first she needed to figure out what happened and what to do.

Cody and Noah along with Trent were the only ones aside from herself were devirtualized from the lab while the others were taken out by XANA's monsters and generals. Now why weren't Trent and her infected by whatever virus that XANA most likely used on Cody and Noah? There was a transfer error in the process which the tower was no doubt linked to. Now she had to find the link between them.

Now why target just Cody and Noah? Aelita thought of a few reasons why. Cody and Noah were the only ones in the group besides her that were good with using the supercomputer without instructions and Noah was even able to create a few good programs like that multi-agent program Smith. Take them out and Aelita would be the only left to come with these new programs, especially for the portal to XANA's Carbon Copy.

But why not go after Trent or her when she was being devirtualized? Perhaps the Keys to Lyoko gave her a form of immunity. That might be her excuse, but why was Trent spared? If there was one thing that she knew about XANA was that he was almost anything but stupid.

He would never leave any stone unturned. What about the others? Bridgette and Geoff were pretty close and XANA used that against them. Geoff was taken out because Noah couldn't warn him that Lilith used her illusion abilities to disguise herself as Bridgette.

And Yuki was the perfect opponent to take out Bridgette because her water powers would simply turn to ice. LeShawna was physically the strongest of the group and DJ's golem form made him just as strong as her. Ryder blasted the both of them after a tough fight. Gwen was unable to use her auras without bringing the tunnel down and endangering Trent.

Izzy was always the first to charge which made her easy to take out and Heather was fast but her attack power was not as strong as the others. That left her, Trent, Cody, and Noah. Her thoughts were cut off when she noticed a small blip where the activated tower was. She clicked on it to what it was and when it opened up her eyes widened.

"My god!"

Xxx

Gwen had dreaded having to wake up to that annoying alarm clock. But here she found herself dragging her feet through the kitchen, passing several other weary Lyoko Warriors. Trent was pouring himself some coffee while DJ was munching on some cereal. Izzy was...oddly perched on the counter and was sleeping in that exact pose, like a bat.

Sometimes she worried for the ginger haired Lyoko Warrior...then again she always had.

"Mornin'," Trent mumbled.

"Mornin'," Gwen replied.

_Splash!_

They both turned and saw DJ had fallen asleep, his face now submerged in the milk.

"Did anybody sleep well last night?" Gwen asked as she hulled DJ's face out of the bowl of milk and cereal. She grabbed a paper towel to get rid of the Lucky Charms stuck on DJ's face.

"Dun' think so," Trent slurred, accidently pouring some coffee on his foot. "YOW!"

"EEP! EEP!" Izzy leaped off the counter, startled by Trent's shout.

"I ALWAYS FOLD MY UNDIES MOM!" DJ shrieked, coming out of what may have been a nightmare...maybe.

"...That was nice to know," Gwen said sarcastically. "Come on big guy, the last thing we need is you drowning in milk."

"Milk?" DJ yawned. "Mmmm...milky..." He fell face first into the bowl again.

"Aw man!" Gwen groaned as Trent helped her pull DJ away from the bowl. "At this rate he'll really drown in the stuff!"

"Who drown in what?" An equally tired Heather asked as she came in.

"You had trouble sleeping too?" Gwen asked.

"Slept about as much as..." Heather groaned. "I can't think of a comparison. Yeah, I didn't sleep at all."

"I didn't think getting our digital butts kicked would do this to us," Trent said. "Or at least I like to think it was just that."

"Well let's list the crappy parts of the last few weeks." Heather said as she opened a cupboard. "We lost the third lab under the studio. Seraphim's dead. We lost Duncan and Courtney. We've been getting our butts kicked more and more often. And oh, yeah, we're going to have to vote off warriors in another week or two."

"First off: we have to save Cody and Noah before it comes to that," Gwen said. "If we don't do something soon, they'll have to have an IV pumping fluids into them for the rest of their natural lives." She quickly poured herself some coffee from the same pot Trent had brewed. "Secondly," She was pouring some cream into her coffee. "Complaining won't help us. Yes, we lost a friend and an advantage of having scanners right under the studio. But we fought XANA without Seraphim, Robby, and the lab long before we found them. Shadow is gone, Nephilim is gone; Lyon is gone, so that means that things are back to square one except for Cody and Noah. And without them Aelita will take a little longer making a portal to XANA's hiding place."

"Seraphim said he was also looking for it," Trent said. "Probably could have shortened the time span a lot. But yeah, we're just back where we used to be. We won a lot; we're just...having a bad week."

"So let's stop whining about it and just go about our usual stuff, then when Aelita calls us she'll have a solution to help Cody and Noah." Gwen concluded.

Heather, rubbing at her eyes nodded. "Alright...you're right...just a bad week; I'm a little grumpy in the mornings."

"No biggy, I've seen you in a worse light," Gwen shrugged.

"Bite me," Heather mumbled as she poured herself some orange juice.

"Hate you too," Gwen replied.

"If Noah were awake, I bet he'd say 'cat fight' just to make you feel awkward," Izzy giggled.

"CAT FIGHT!" Suddenly an awake DJ shot up.

They all stared at him.

"...what was that about cats?" He mumbled as he glanced at them. "I don't like watching kitties fight, they're so cute..." He fell asleep...AGAIN!

"The big guy's out of it," LeShawna said, sitting down across from DJ.

CRASH!

They all glanced at the stairs, where Lesley was lying on the ground, sitting up.

"So am I," The Lawyer said as she got up. "I'm never challenging Roberto to a drinking contest again. I swear that guy's Scottish."

"I don't want to be caught in the weirdness today." Gwen said.

She took her breakfast and walked off, not daring to look at anyone so they would see her saddened expression and sure enough no one did.

Except one person.

"She okay?" Geoff asked.

"I think so." Trent lied, feeling bad but didn't want to make a scene.

Xxx

Gwen stared blankly up at the ceiling as she lay on her bed in her room. On the floor next to her bed was her sketchbook she discarded due to the fact that she was unable to concentrate. With absolutely nothing to distract her she had no way to distract herself from the guilt inside. With nothing to do she got out of her bed and walked through the hall of her team's dorm, knowing Courtney and Eva had long since woke up and gone down to get breakfast.

Walking quietly over to Cody's door she opened it slowly and crept inside. She was taken back by what she saw. There was Cody, supposedly sleeping on his bed yet Gwen knew otherwise. It was almost unnatural the he looked.

Not jumping up to say hi or trying to hit on her. And the possibility of him being that way forever made Gwen feel even worse. What would happen if his parents saw him like this if he never got better? They would be heartbroken.

She quickly got out of the room and went back to her room. But someone was waiting at her door.

"Hey, Gwen." The person greeted her, shocking her out of her thoughts.

"Trent?" Gwen replied, mildly shocked.

"Can we talk?"

"Is something wrong?"

"No I just want to talk. Can we go somewhere else?"

"Why not right here?"

Trent didn't want to talk out in the hall in case someone was listening.

"Can we just go somewhere else? Trust me, please?"

Gwen wanted to say no but there was no way she could say no to her ex-boyfriend. He had gone back to how he was before the second season and they managed to get their friendship back on track. So if he said something was important it had to be important.

"All right. Where should we go?"

"How about the park bench?"

"Sure."

Xxx

In the meantime Bridgette and Geoff were sorting out a few problems of their own. Geoff for once wasn't able to star off his morning with a smile. He was in the gym with his fists slamming into a punching bag, taking out all of his anger. Bridgette was sitting on a bench watching with a sad look at how angry her boyfriend was.

Getting up she worked over to him. "Geoff?"

Geoff stopped when he heard her voice. "Not now, Bridge."

"I know what's bothering you. Sometimes we lose. It happens."

"It's not that!" Geoff spun around and faced her. "It's me I'm mad at!"

"You?" Bridgette was puzzled. "Why?"

"Because I fell for such a cheap trick. When I saw what I thought was you on the ground, surrounded by those knights, I lost it. I couldn't think and then she got me. She suckered me like that." Geoff looked down in shame. "Worst of all I did it right in front of you. What kind of boyfriend does something like that?"

"It wasn't your fault. There was no way to talk to you until Cody took out that thing inside the temple." Bridgette hugged him. "Please don't beat yourself up over it. I would have done the same if our roles were reversed."

Geoff wrapped his arms around her. "I'm so sorry, Bridge."

"It's all right. You'll have your chance to get even. Please, just don't beat yourself up anymore."

Geoff nodded. "Anything for you, babe."

Xxx

Gwen and Trent made their way outside and found a bench out on the courtyard, far away from any cameras Chris may have set up thanks to Kurt and Carlos who showed them where the cameras were.

"This sun sure is nice." Gwen commented as she sat on a part of the bench that was in the shade.

She did spend some time out in the sun but staying out too long would give her a sunburn since her skin burned easily.

"Yeah it is." Trent agreed looking at the blue cloudless skies.

They didn't share a word with each other for a few minutes; they just started out into the sky. Knowing the idle chit chat was done Gwen decided to get to business.

"Is there something you wanted to talk to me about, Trent?"

Trent took a deep breath to help ready himself.

"Is everything all right, Gwen?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. There's nothing wrong with me." Gwen tried to sound convincing but Trent could tell she was lying.

Trent sighed and turned away to avoid seeing Gwen's reaction. "I find that hard to believe."

Gwen went still, frozen in shock. Only a few people could ever see through her and know how she was really feeling. She may have been Trent's girlfriend for a while but she thought she could easily fool him. Still Gwen chose to press on and stay in denial. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Come on Gwen, I know you well enough to know when you're lying."

Gwen was shocked when he spoke. She had never before heard Trent speak with such authority in his voice. She turned away, not sure what to say.

"Ever since that final fight with Nephilim and Lyon you've been even more gloomy if that's even possible. I can tell something's eating at you inside but you're too afraid to talk about it."

That comment tore through Gwen's carefully put up barriers and the inner emotions fell out. Small drops of tears formed in the goth girl's eyes and gently began to fell out. Gwen quickly wiped them off before they spilt down.

"It's okay if you're still sad about Seraphim, Courtney, and Duncan. We all are still a bit sad."

"It's not just that!" Gwen stood up. "Everything that went wrong is almost all my fault! That's why I've been thinking about quitting so no one gets hurt because of me!"

Trent was speechless after hearing what Gwen's intentions were. What would make her so upset to make her want to quit?

"Don't act like nothing's wrong, Trent. Almost everything I do ends up with someone getting hurt even when I don't mean it! I don't deserve friends like you and the others, I'm just causing you guys all sorts of grief!"

"Gwen stop it! Come on, that's crazy!"

Gwen's tone went from self pity to anger. "You know it's true Trent, just look at history. I'm more trouble than I'm worth. If I didn't get re-infected than I wouldn't have kidnapped Aelita and Heather and maybe Seraphim would still be alive and Courtney and Duncan would still remember everything! I even put you and the others through all sorts of grief the first time I was infected! I drove down town and almost got you killed and I beat down Noah, Cody, and Geoff and when I got infected again I was used to fight you guys in the City Sector!"

Trent had nearly forgotten what happened that time but he never blamed her for that.

"Even before this whole Lyoko mess everything I did ended up hurting the people around me." At this Gwen buried herself in her face in the palm of her hands. "How can you guys still stick with me when I'm a horrible person?"

"GWEN THAT's ENOUGH!" Trent stood, shouting a lot louder than he intended but he couldn't bear to watch Gwen put herself through this. "I don't ever want to hear you say something like that again because those are just a bunch of lies."

Gwen opened her mouth but Trent cut her off.

"Despite what some people believe you are not to blame for every bad thing that has happened on the show and you are in no way to blame for what happened when that virus took over. That wasn't you, it was XANA and Nephilim. They made you do all of those things, not you." Trent took a deep breath. "I went crazy, Duncan got angry and wanted to spite Courtney, and even though it was wrong you couldn't help it. You liked him and people can't help but have feelings and act on them. And just remember you helped Aelita long before I started and you saved me and the others a whole lot of times. We don't know if we can bring back Duncan and Courtney since their memories have been erased and we've almost lost Cody and Noah and now we're about to lose another member?"

He put his hands on her shoulders and made her look at him.

"How can we possibly win if we keep losing all of our friends and most valuable members? You're not a horrible person, Gwen. No horrible person would go through what you went through when you started this whole thing. You're a good friend to us all and that's why we stick by you. Everyone would be upset if you left, but we would allow it." Trent smiled to try and cheer her up. "Besides if you left Heather would track you down and drag you back into the scanners and you know it."

It was hard to stay sad after hearing Trent's speech and his last comment made her want to laugh. She tried so hard not to but a giggle escaped her mouth and she couldn't help it. "You're right about that, I guess. Thanks, Trent, I really needed that."

"No problem. It's never healthy to stay bottled up like that. The next time we go into Lyoko we're going to kick XANA's digital ass this time!" Trent slammed a fist into an open palm.

Gwen smirked and nodded. "There's no way we're losing this time."

They both nodded and laughed before their phones rang. Pulling them out they both got a text message from Aelita.

"It's time." Trent said and Gwen nodded solemnly.

Xxx

Aelita looked up when the elevators opened up and the team walked in with Cody and Noah on DJ's back since he volunteered to carry them both.

"So what'd we miss?" Bridgette asked.

"I just made a breakthrough and I'm double checking to make sure it wasn't a fluke."

That was when a beeping sound was heard from the computer's speakers which made Aelita smile happily. "Yes!"

"You got something, Aelita?" Trent asked.

"I sure do. After the last battle I ran through anything that might have looked like a clue to what happened. At first I thought XANA had given a virus to Cody and Noah similar to how he did with Geoff, Cody, LeShawna, and DJ back in the forests but it wasn't in the monsters. I checked the scanners and found they had been given an extra program."

"And that would be…" Heather gestured with her hand.

"A while back when there was no way to virtualize directly into Sector 5 Jeremy created an experimental program that he believed would work. Ulrich volunteered but when it was tested he vanished. It was later found his body was successfully virtualized into Sector 5 but his mind was not. It came out of the scanners as a spectre. But since spectres are made of electricity no one could actually see him but he let us know what happened when he possessed Odd's dog."

"Oh! He could possess people and animals! So cool!" Izzy smiled as she jumped into the conversation.

"Easy, Izzy. What's this got to do with Cody and Noah's condition?" Gwen asked.

"It's not too different was what happened to Ulrich only there's a big difference." Aelita tapped a key. "According to the scans, Cody and Noah are still virtualized."

"Say what?" Nearly everyone asked as Aelita showed them.

On the screen were images of Cody and Noah's avatars.

"But how? They're right here!" Geoff pointed at the sleeping Cody and Noah.

"Their bodies are here, Geoff, their minds aren't." Aelita said.

"Okay, but…" Geoff trailed off.

"It's like this. When a human is virtualized they retain almost everything they have in the real world, senses, appearances with the exception of your outfits altered to an avatar based off your personality, your soul, and your mind with all your memories intact. Since Lyoko is essentially one big virtual world everything inside of it is a computer program, which includes the people who use the scanners, they become computer programs when they are virtualized." Aelita tried to explain as best she could. "When we are virtualized every aspect of us is controlled by sets of different codes. You have senses because there is a program for each of them, sight, hearing, and so on. What XANA did was that when Cody and Noah were being devirtualized he managed to remove the coding for their minds and place them inside the tower."

"Okay, so we know what happened to them but there is still one important question." Gwen said with a serious expression. "Why would target only Cody and Noah when he could have taken us all out?"

"Like us XANA also has his limits no matter how powerful he's become and this was not like what happened in the mountains. Because of this he had to choose who should be the ones to get this virus." Aelita explained.

"But how'd they get this virus?" LeShawna asked.

"As much as I hate to say it XANA knew I would detect an error if he tried to install on his targets during the transfer into Lyoko so he modified it to lock on Cody and Noah's signatures just as they were being devirtualized manually instead of being defeat in battle. The moment they started to devirtualize the virus managed to remove the coding for their minds from their avatars and placed it in the tower."

"So what do we do now?" DJ asked, wondering what to do.

"Easy, we go into Lyoko and shut down the tower. That'll take care of it, right?" Heather said casually.

"That'll be easy. We can do that once we get to the tower." Bridgette smiled.

Of course, everyone's happiness was cut off when an electronic buzzer rang from the computer. Aelita glanced at the screen to see a percentage meter appear beside the tower.

"Oh no!"

"What's wrong?" Trent asked, getting anxious by the alarm in Aelita's voice.

"That was my scanner program. According to it, XANA has started to _delete_ the codes for Noah and Cody's minds inside the tower!"

"What?" Nearly everyone shouted.

"Like I said, XANA is starting to delete them."

"What if we do a return to the past? Wouldn't that fix them even if their deleted?" Geoff asked confused.

"It's not that simple. Both Cody and Noah's minds are missing from the actual computer that stores everything about our avatars. If those files are changed when we got back in time the change will be permanent. They'll be veggies forever!"

Now everyone was alarmed.

"Then we don't time to waste! DJ, can you operate the controls?" Gwen asked.

"No problem." DJ sat down as Aelita got out of the chair.

"The good news is that when Cody took out that device that caused the interior of the Sky Temple to shift we're now able to virtualize in the tunnel just outside of the chamber the tower is in." Aelita informed them.

"That's good. No mazes this time." Trent commented.

"What are we waiting for then?" Geoff asked. "Let's go get Cody and Noah back!"

Xxx

Gwen, Bridgette, and Trent went first to test and see if Aelita had been right about where they could virtualize.

"Well, we aren't being torn apart and split up so...I think we're good," Gwen said.

"Bring 'em on in DJ!" Trent called.

More Lyoko warriors began to appear until the entire group, minus DJ was in the Sky Temple.

"Let's make this quick," Aelita stated. "If XANA finds out what we're up to he'll have his Generals here in seconds!"

"_Look out!_" DJ shouted as a shower of arrows, ice shards, a blast of lightning, a laser beam, and purple energy blast came down upon them.

They all dodged in time and the attacks left a large crater where they previously stood. Looking up they saw XANA's generals standing on a platform above them.

"Hey guys!" Lilith waved at them. "What took you so long?"

"I guess we lost the element of surprise." LeShawna muttered as she pulled out her hammer.

Blade grinned and jumped down, his landing creating another crater when he landed on his feet. Slamming his fists together he stepped forward. "No tricks. This will be done the old fashioned way!"

He charged forward.

"Fine by me!" LeShawna shouted as she swung her hammer as Blade sent out a fist.

They collided and both were now in a brutal fight.

"Get Aelita to the tower!" LeShawna shouted blocking a fist. "I've got this!"

They all nodded and ran forward but the entrance to the chamber was sealed by a frozen wall, stopping them. Yuki appeared in front of the sealed exit and claws made of ice covered her hands.

"I'll take care of her." Geoff stepped forward. "Ice ain't so tough against electricity."

"That's why I'm here." Ryder landed next to Yuki.

"You're not taking them alone, Geoff." Bridgette stepped up next to Geoff. "You can handle Ryder. I've got a rematch."

She twirled her blades as she prepared to face Yuki.

"Oh, two for the price of one." Ryder twirled his blade. "Fine by me."

He swung his blade and unleashed a stream of lightning at them. Geoff swung his axe and unleashed his own blast of lightning and the attacks collided creating a large explosion. Yuki pointed her arms at Geoff when he had his guard down and fired shards of ice at him. However Bridgette fired her energy wave and took out the ice shards as she charged at Yuki.

Yuki ducked under Bridgette's swords as she swung them and pulled out her ice swords. They slashed at each other without end. In the meantime the others headed for the ice sealed door.

"Leave getting through that to me." Gwen said as her fire aura activated.

However vines erupted from the ground and cut them off from the exit.

"Nice try." Jinx said as the vines unfolded, revealing her standing on top of them with her spear over her shoulder. "Got any other ideas?"

"Just one, this!" Trent said as he played the lightning note and fired lightning at her.

However the vines covered her and blocked the electricity.

"Does anybody have some ideas?" Gwen asked.

"Allow me," Aelita said, and then put her hand together. "Plasma Beam!"

The beam of energy tore a hole right through the vines on the door and the ice behind it.

"Go through, I'll handle the little brat," Gwen said, referring to Jinx.

"Are you sure you don't want some help?" Trent asked.

"I'm sure," Gwen nodded. "I've really had enough of her already."

Aelita leaped through the hole she had made, followed by the rest of the group not already preoccupied. The hole sealed behind them, and the four Lyoko warriors pressed on towards the tower.

Gwen cut away several of the thinner vines with her scythe and then used her fire aura to burn away more of it. Jinx leaped away from her vines and taunted Gwen. "Come on mom! You're getting slower every time!"

"Slow, eh?" Gwen then fired a wind aura...that shot by Jinx.

"...what was that?" Jinx asked, glancing back at the vanishing wind aura.

SLAM! She was kicked in the back of the head and knocked to the ground.

"That's what!" Gwen shouted, standing over Jinx, who quickly rolled away. They circled one another, weapons drawn.

As the others neared the end of the tunnel Aelita looked up. "DJ, how much of Cody and Noah's minds remains?"

"_They're at seventy percent now!_"

"Seventy!" Trent exclaimed..

"Better hurry then!" Heather said and they ran even faster.

"_Watch out! Five Dark Pyramids and two generals!_"

"I'll cover the front and we'll smash our way through." Trent held out his guitar.

"Sounds good to me." Heather pulled out a few shuriken.

Aelita and Izzy nodded and stood behind Trent as they got ready to face their enemies head on.

"Here goes nothing!" Trent shouted as he played the shield note and charged out with everyone behind him.

As expected, the Dark Pyramids locked on and fired on them the second they came out of the tunnel and headed for the tower behind them. They charged their lasers and fired without end to destroy them but Trent's shield note blocked the lasers.

"I got these." Aelita said.

Her feet glowed white as she jumped into the air and aimed her hand down at the Dark Pyramids. Her plasma beam fired and blasted them easily.

"Aw, too easy." Izzy moaned.

"No that's good. Now we can save Cody and Noah." Trent said.

"_Watch out!_"

Trent turned and several arrows hit him in the chest knocking him down.

"Shouldn't you know to watch your back?" Lilith landed in front of the tower.

"I got her!" Izzy shouted as she ran forward, turning into a bull but Sora flew down and slashed through Izzy with his wind blade.

"Sorry." Sora said as Izzy disappeared. "It'd be problematic for you to go on ahead. XANA will get mad at us."

"Oh I am so not in the mood for this," Trent raised his guitar and let off a single sonic spell that Sora managed to dodge by leaping to the left.

"Temper, temper," Sora wagged one finger. "You're just like mom."

"I am seriously sick of him calling me that," Heather said before she launched a wave of shuriken at Sora. He drew his wind blade and had to swipe many of them out of the air. But two or three got through and left nonfatal wounds.

"_Hurry! We're at sixty percent!_"

"You two go on ahead, I'm going to deal with Sora," Heather extended her arm blades.

"Mother-son bonding time, it's a real private thing yah know!" Sora added.

"Let's hurry," Aelita said as she and Trent moved around Sora, heading for the tower.

"Alright momma, hit me with your best shot." Sora paused. "Oh wait...do I have protection from Social services if you hit me?" He rubbed his chin. "Hm...if only I had a permanent human body...I really gotta-"

"SHUT UP ALREADY!" A wave of shuriken almost ripped Sora to pieces.

"Okay, less braggy, more slicing!" Sora whipped out his wind blade again and swung, managing to take down more shuriken Heather launched. Aelita and Trent ran for the tower but Lilith stood between them.

"Plasma Beam!" Aelita put her hand forward and fired her plasma beam at Lilith.

However Lilith simply jumped into the air and black flipped over the attack. Landing on her feet she pointed her finger at them and portals appeared, firing energy arrows. However Aelita raised her hands and an energy shield appeared, blocking the arrows.

"Nice." Trent complimented.

"I've picked up some new tricks." Aelita fired her energy fields but Lilith kept dodging them.

"Like you're the only one!" Lilith shouted as she sent a wave of energy at them.

They dodged but the bridge began to vanish as a portal opened up underneath them.

"Trent!" Aelita shouted as she tried to grab his hand.

"I'm fine! GO!" Trent shouted as he fell through, pushing her out of the way.

Knowing there was no way to help Trent right now she turned and faced Lilith who pulled out her bow and fired another energy arrow. Aelita dodged and jumped using her new flight powers to propel her right on top of Lilith.

"Yikes!" Lilith jumped back as Aelita fired an energy field down on her.

The energy field hit the ground and created a small blast. Aelita glared at Lilith who created more portals to fire more arrows.

"This ends now!"

Her figure glowed bright white as she swung her arms forward and fired a white stream of light.

"Whoa!" Lilith jumped into the air.

Only for Aelita to fly right up to her.

"You're going down for good, Lilith!" Aelita clenched a white glowing fist.

"No thanks." Before Aelita hit her Lilith vanished in a flash of light and pixels.

Aelita landed on the bridge and looked around for anymore monsters. "The path is clear DJ. I'm heading for the tower."

"_That was way too close._" DJ sighed in relief.

Xxx

While DJ was watching the battle, Cody and Noah stirred from their resting spots against the wall. DJ never noticed them getting up and one picking up a piece of metal.

Xxx

Aelita sprinted across the bridge towards the tower when two figures appeared in front of the tower. Stopping, Aelita gasped as Cody and Noah landed in front of the tower. Standing up, they opened their eyes, revealing much to Aelita' s horror, their pupils had been replaced with the symbol of XANA.

"DJ, why are Cody and Noah here?" Aelita received no answer. "DJ? DJ!"

Xxx

DJ groaned as he nursed a painful headache as he sat back up.

"What happened?" He asked out loud as he tried to recall the last thing he remembered. "Cody and Noah!"

He spun around and looked at the wall where he put them and found they were gone.

"Oh man!" He spun back to face the computer and found that Cody and Noah had somehow been virtualized. "OH MAN!"

Xxx

Aelita stepped back as Cody pulled out his guns and Noah's hands changed into his Tarantula like guns. They both grinned sinisterly at her.

"Cody, Noah, if you can hear me you've got to listen. You're being controlled." Aelita attempted to reason with them.

"What makes you think they can actually hear you?" A familiar and unwelcome voice asked.

"XANA!" Aelita looked up in alarm with an energy field out. '_Where is he?_'

"Are you so occupied with finding me that you have forgotten the situation in front of you?" XANA's voice chuckled as it seemed to come from everywhere. "The longer you stand there the less of a chance you have of saving your comrades."

"_Aelita, we're at sixty percent now!_"

Aelita turned and faced Cody and Noah. She gritted her teeth and held out an energy field.

"That's right. Go ahead and strike them down." XANA replied, the sound of his tone suggesting he was enjoying every second of this. "After all in order to save their minds you'll have to fight their mindless bodies to reach the tower in time."

"Get real, XANA!" Aelita shouted. "As if I would ever do anything you say!"

Cody and Noah fired on her and she ducked, creating an energy barrier.

"That won't work." XANA scoffed.

Cody activated his time freeze power and vanished from Aelita's eyes. She gasped as she was shot in the in back several times and fell face forward onto the ground. Turning around slowly she saw Cody's pistols aimed at her head.

XANA chuckled. "You will not fight back? Even to safe them?"

Aelita fired a low powered energy orb into Cody's chest that sent him flying back.

"Ironic, isn't it, sister? The very people you wish to save are now fighting to stop you." XANA chuckled.

Noah shifted his guns into blade and ran at her. Stepping back Aelita dodged each and every slash as Noah and Cody pushed her back from the tower. Heather turned and saw Cody and Noah attacking Aelita. "Great! As if things weren't bad enough!"

Noah glanced at Heather and raised one hand, changing it back into a gun and shooting at her. Heather quickly dodged the shots. "What's with these two?"

"They aren't Cody and Noah," Aelita shook her head. "XANA switched their minds with something, maybe spectres!"

"Yep, the boss man likes those kinds of tricks," Sora shrugged. "Sorry mom, couldn't spoil it for you." Then one shot almost hit his head. "Hey watch it! Same team! Fighting looks fun to watch, but when you get hurt it ain't so funny anymore!"

Heather began to throw shuriken at Noah, who merely phased through them. "Oh that's so not fair!"

"I can even the odds for you Heather," Aelita said. "DJ, open Heather's profile on the computer and open the folder labelled 'Light'."

_"Gotcha...here we go! It's loading."_

Suddenly Heather glowed for several seconds, and then it faded. "What was that?"

"A new upgrade," Aelita said. "You might not have noticed but it's a little easy to see."

Heather looked down, and saw a satchel attached to her waist. "Huh?" Opening it, she found small spheres. "What are these?"

"Throw them on the ground!" Aelita formed a barrier between herself and Cody before she covered her eyes.

Heather tossed three of the spheres onto the ground.

BANG!

A blinding flash filled the room. Noah and Cody groaned in pain, covering their eyes as they staggered back.

"Yowza that hurts!" Sora whined, one hand on his helmet. "Mom, I don't like your new trick!"

Heather was the only one not affected by this attack. She stared at what it had done. "...flash bombs?" She looked down at the satchel containing more of the spheres. "...well, it adds to the gimmick."

Then she lobbed two Shuriken at Noah while he was blinded. They tore into him, knocking him on his back. Spinning, Heather released two more from her other hand that struck Cody. She spun around and smirked at the still blinded Sora.

Running forward she jumped into the air and slammed her foot into Sora's chest knocking him off the bridge.

"Yikes!" Sora shouted as he fell over and vanished.

"Thanks Aelita!" Heather shouted.

"Thanks for putting them to good use." Aelita replied as Noah and Cody got up again.

"Now we got to get through those two." Heather stepped forward. "This'll be fun."

"_You two better hurry. There's only twenty percent left!_"

"Got it!" Heather ran forward towards the two.

"Heather wait!"

Heather prepared to throw another flash bomb but Cody activated his time powers and her bomb and satchel vanished. Looking down at where it was and then up to see Cody holding the bag with a smirk she growled. "All right, we'll do it the hard way!"

She fired her shuriken but Noah blasted them with his guns and ran at her. Before she could react he phased into her, taking control of her body.

"Heather!" Aelita shouted as Heather turned around with a smirk more evil than any kind she had before.

Her wrist blades came out and she charged to slash at Aelita. She ducked and dodged her slashes. Her hands glowed bright.

"Sorry about this, Heather!" Aelita shouted as she sent a fist into Heather's stomach, blasting her virtual body.

Noah phased out in time before the blast took him out as Heather devirtualized. Cody and Noah once again stood between her and the tower. Aelita growled in frustration and sighed. "I've got to use it again. DJ, load my program."

"_You sure?_"

Aelita nodded. "Yes."

"_All right, Code: ANGEL loading. One hundred percent._"

Aelita glowed bright as the upgrade was activated. Aelita's new form only used ten percent of the Keys since they too powerful to be used all the time. Once the program was uploaded Aelita turned to face Cody and Noah. Cody tried to freeze her with his time power but Aelita had access to any power now so she was able to use her own time power allowing her to shrug off any of Cody's attacks.

She blasted Cody back and used what time left to head for the tower. Aelita quickly ran into the tower. Making her way into the center of the platform she flew to the higher platform. While this happened DJ watched as the numbers went down.

"Seven..."

Aelita landed on the higher platform.

"Six..."

She walked to the center where the interface was.

"Five..."

She reached out with her hand.

"Four..."

She placed it on the screen.

**Aelita**

"Three..."

**Code:**

"Two..."

**Lyoko**

"One..."

DJ and Izzy both sighed in relief as the timer froze.

"Oh yeah!" Izzy cheered.

"Return to the Past now!"

Xxx

"I hurt a poor little animal...AGAIN!" DJ bawled.

He cried into a pillow as the group sat in the recreation room.

"Calm down, DJ. It was just an accident." Bridgette put a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't you see? I'm cursed again!"

"We went over this once already," Noah deadpanned.

This made everybody freeze.

"Wait, you're up?" Izzy leaped on Noah. "Noah! Cody! Do something Noah or Cody would do! Make a sarcastic comment! Hit on Gwen! Read a book! Be geeky!"

"...Thank you, I'll bill you for the operation to fix my pelvis," Noah groaned, looking down at where Izzy's feet were crushing his thighs and hips.

"Yay!" Izzy hugged him. "They're back!"

"Where'd we go?" Cody asked.

"I don't wanna know." Noah said.

"Let's just say...it was really quiet around here, even with our hosts." Gwen chuckled.


	62. Episode 60: Major Mix Up

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 61

It was night in France as our heroes were working on the project that would allow them to gain the upper hand in the struggle against their digital nemesis. Izzy was throwing a paper ball across the room since she was bored, Aelita, Cody, and Noah were working, Bridgette and Geoff were leaning against the wall taking a nap while most of the others were simply waiting.

"So how's the portal thing going? I can't wait to go on a XANA hunt." said Izzy.

He threw the ball again and it bounced across the room past in front of Noah's face.

"Izzy!"

"Shh!" Cody said. "You don't want to wake our resident couple and have them start making out, do you?" He pointed at the napping Geoff and Bridgette.

"The programming is now complete. It didn't take long for me to remake the Skid. Now to launch the construction phase. And... Now." Aelita pressed the 'Enter' button.

A schematic appeared on the screen.

"Where's that?" Heather asked.

"When Jeremy and I first created the Skid we programmed a room to keep it in the core zone of Sector 5. When XANA remade Lyoko that room was not recreated so I had to remake it." Aelita replied as the Gateway command appeared on the screen. "This time the chamber will hold the portal generator allowing us to reach XANA's Lyoko copy."

"Ooh, fancy." Cody nodded.

"The programming is complete. Time to launch the construction phase. I'm ready, Noah." said Aelita.

"Just a few more seconds and I'll be all set too." said Noah typing a few more commands into his laptop. "And... We're online!"

"So now what?" Gwen asked.

"Well, in order for the portal to work it forges a connection to one of the computers powering the Carbon Copy but if something were to go wrong with the connection, well..." Aelita trailed off.

"We'd go bye-bye." LeShawna guessed.

"That's the best way to describe it." Aelita shrugged. "It needs to be tested first."

"We have to send someone through don't we?" Trent guessed.

"We could try to send a vehicle through with a tracker and camera on it." Cody said.

"We'd still have no idea if the portal would work for a person." Noah pointed out.

"So, we need a new plan to choose." Gwen said.

"How about we go to Lyoko, fight one another and the last one standing goes?" Izzy suggested.

"…that's a horrible idea," Noah shook his head.

"We solve it the old fashioned way." Gwen sighed.

"You mean…?" Cody started.

"Yes, _the usual._" Gwen nodded. "Anyone disagree?"

They gulped, but shook their heads. They were fine with it…somewhat. DJ woke up Geoff and Bridgette. Once they were let in what was going on they got up and joined the others.

"Everybody ready?" Gwen asked as several began to perspire a bit.

A tense air filled the room as Gwen cracked her knuckles. They lined up, four across from four. Gwen faced Izzy, Geoff faced Trent, Noah gulped as he faced LeShawna, Cody faced DJ, and Heather faced Bridgette.

"Alright….first five to give up are out." Gwen swallowed. "Agreed?"

"Agreed!" The rest nodded.

As one, Gwen, Geoff, Noah, DJ, and Heather held both their hands up, knuckles up and hands clenched into fists. Izzy, Trent, Noah, Cody, and Bridgette held their own knuckles up above their opponents.

"Here we go…" Gwen said.

"Mommy," Noah squeaked.

"Alright…KNUCKLES!" Gwen shouted.

Five hands slammed down on five sets of fists. The five victims clenched their teeth as pain shot up from their knuckles, and the process was repeated over and over. Aelita winced in sympathy as she watched the two sides engage in an epic battle of bloody knuckles.

"Oh ow ow owie!" Trent waved his hands two minutes in. "I give up!"

"Sorry dude." Geoff rubbed his own knuckles, which Trent had done a good job on.

Meanwhile, Noah withdrew his hands. "Ah okay I give I give!"

"Damn straight smart ass!" LeShawna smirked, rubbing her bruised and slightly swollen knuckles.

After several minutes of unbearable pain, Bridgette whimpered and held her hands to her stomach. "I'm out! I'm out!" She backed out, and Geoff was immediately there to check on her swollen hands.

"How did I know he would do that?" Noah sighed, rubbing his sore hands. "Well there's your bloody knuckles."

Cody backed out after one hit from DJ.

"Sorry man." DJ rubbed the back of his head feeling guilty.

"Now we have LeShawna, DJ, Geoff, Izzy and me to pick from." Gwen sighed looking down at her now red knuckles.

"I'll think I'll sit this one out dudes. Wouldn't want Bridge to worry about me." Geoff stepped back.

"Oh, that's so sweet!" Bridgette hugged her boyfriend.

"Me too." DJ said.

"So I guess us girls are the only ones who'll be taking the big jump." LeShawna smirked at Gwen and Izzy.

"Next time I vote we pick a less bloody and violent game when we have to choose who goes on the heroic mission!" Trent said.

"Aye!" Everybody agreed.

"Chinese Rock Paper Scissors?" Izzy suggested.

"NO!"

"I remember what happened each time I lost to Rock or paper." DJ whispered.

"Is that even an actual Chinese game?" Cody asked. "All you do is hit your opponent every time they lose."

"There's a whole bunch of Rock Paper Scissors variants you know nothing of." Gwen said. "Would you rather we do Russian Roulette or should we just go with regular Rock Paper Scissors?"

"Regular!"

"Regular is good!"

"Party poopers!" Izzy stuck her tongue out.

"Well we have our crew," Aelita looked at the screen, amused by what had just happened. "We can get going in a day so you can rest and make sure you're ready."

"Girl, you know us, we're always ready," Izzy said.

"Okay, head down to the scanners and I'll virtualize you into the core zone of Sector 5. I'll give directions on where to go once where but keep an eye out. With us this close XANA will no doubt attempt to stop us from making sure the portal works."

"You got it." LeShawna nodded as the three girls walked into the elevator.

Xxx

Gwen, Izzy, and LeShawna landed in the center of the Celestial Dome in Sector 5.

"This place needs a new color. All these blue blocks are just so...BORING!" Izzy's voice echoed through the entire sector.

"Hey, fox girl! We're right here ya know!" LeShawna rubbed her ear.

"Don't even bother, LeShawna. Trying to get her to calm down would be like asking Carlos to give up his Klondike bars." Gwen shook her head.

Xxx

"Okay, Carlos just calm down. He didn't mean it when he said you were addicted." Kurt raised his hands in a peace gesture.

Carlos was cradling a box of Klondike bars to his chest like they were his babies with a crazed look in his eyes. "Liar! Liar! Liar!"

"I don't think we're getting through to him." Kurt looked over his shoulder at the studio councillor whose right eye was swollen shut by Carlos when he tried to take the box of Klondike bars. "About I just pay you now and you can get that black eye looked at?"

"Deal."

"Liar!" Carlos kept growling. "Liar! Liar!"

Xxx

Gwen, LeShawna, and Izzy walked through the blue maze that made up Sector Five following Aelita's directions until they came upon an elevator.

"Oh! Fancy!" Izzy jumped onto it.

"We're about to possible get into some big trouble and she's still so cheerful." LeShawna commented.

"Of course I am! What would be the point of all serious and moody other than make things look miserable?" Izzy asked, looking at her and Gwen.

The elevator went up until they were in a chamber with darker blue coloring on the walls. In the center was a circular platform.

"That's it?" Izzy asked. "I thought it would look like something from Stargate!"

"_I haven't turned it on yet, Izzy._" Aelita pointed out.

That was when the platform flashed bright blue.

"_The portal works by after I make a connection to one of the supercomputers containing a piece of the Carbon Copy. After that the people on the platform will be sent through that connection and hopefully into whatever sector that computer contains. But before we try to use it to reach XANA's Carbon Copy we should make sure it actually works so I've set the coordinates to send you to the Desert Sector._"

"So it's like getting beamed in Star Trek? What if we end up being split into two with one good and the other evil? Or if we end up mixing up our body parts with each other? Or if we appear in a rock, in the ground, or we fall out of the sky?" Izzy kept on asking question after question.

"IZZY!" LeShawna and Gwen shouted unable to take it anymore.

"What?" She looked at them with a puzzled look.

"If you keep quiet and let Aelita work none of that will happen." Gwen said, trying to keep herself calm even though Izzy was driving her nuts.

"Oooo-hhhh, okay!" Izzy nodded.

"Sometimes I'm scared of finding out what goes on in that crazy head of yours." Gwen shook her head. "Okay, Aelita, we're ready."

"_The portal will open in thirty seconds and the coordinates for the Desert Sector have been set._"

TSEW!

A laser shot by Gwen, who drew her scythe. "Aelita, you _never_ tell us that! Every time you do, we get attacked!"

Several Hornets were flying down at the group, lasers blazing and acid spitting from their stingers.

"_Don't let them hit the portal!"_ Aelita cried.

"Got it!" Gwen launched her fire aura while Izzy opened fire with her arrows.

"Uh...Aelita, I don't mean to be a bother but..." LeShawna glanced at the Creepers that were crawling along the walls. "HURRY IT UP!"

"Look out!" Gwen shouted, tugging Izzy out of the way as one Creeper opened its mouth, which glowed bright red and released a single beam of energy.

It shot over the two girls and hit their third member, who barely had time to draw her hammer before she was devirtualized.

"When did Creepers have that?" Gwen shouted.

"Don't know! Shut up and fire!" Izzy said quickly, shooting the offending Creeper with a single arrow.

But then three of the other seven Creepers charged their new 'Laser Beams' and released them as one salvo. The two Lyoko Warriors managed to dodge them successfully, but they struck the platform instead.

"Uh oh," Gwen had time to say.

_"The Portal's been damaged!"_ Aelita shouted. "_Activating safety protocol!_"

As the Portal activated, the safety protocol began to hold Gwen and Izzy back. This however left them vulnerable to the third salvo of laser beams, which devirtualized them instantly.

Xxx

"Are they alright?" Aelita leaned over the side of her chair as Geoff looked down at the Scanner Room through the trap door that led down under the control room.

"Uh...kinda." Geoff said. "You guys might wanna look at this."

Then a single hand reached up, and Geoff pulled...what should have been Gwen up into the control room.

"...whoa..." Cody stared.

"..." Noah pulled out his phone and snapped a picture.

"What's wrong?" Gwen asked, rubbing one hand...through her _red hair._ "...when did my hair get red again?" She looked at her hands. "...and when did I get a _tan?_"

"Uh..." Heather pulled out her mirror and held it up to Gwen...revealing her tanned face, red hair, and bright green eyes...

Right before Izzy, with pale skin, long black hair with teal highlights, and dark eyes climbed up next.

"Hooolllyyyy...crap!" Noah slapped himself in the forehead.

"...this ain't right man." DJ shook his head.

"What the hell happened?" Gwen shouted. "What happened to us?"

"Girl, chill," LeShawna, who climbed up-fortunately looking like her normal said.

"Chill? I look right across from myself and I see Izzy copying my style, and me looking like my Uncle Archie!" Gwen shouted.

"What was the last thing you remember before you were devirtualized?" Aelita asked as she walked over, examining the dramatic change in the two girls.

"Oh tell me Bubble-gum, you had a clear picture." Izzy crossed her arms, looking rather...un-Izzyish. "The Creepers hit the platform, we got held down, they shot us."

"...oh no," Aelita gasped, hands over her mouth. "I think I know what happened!"

"Aelita, if you don't tell me I am going to go insane!" Gwen said urgently.

"The Portal activated after the platform was hit, and was supposed to send the data of your avatars to a specified coordinates. And when it was hit, the Safety Protocol held you back before the transfer could complete...meaning you were halfway in. And when it put you back together...there may have been a serious...well...to be frank: a mix up."

"Mix up? Mix up? Aelita, this goes beyond a mix up!" Gwen said. "This is a f-"

"Quit whining, that won't help!" Izzy snapped. "Aelita, tell me you can fix this! I feel emotional and angsty and moody! I hate it! I actually hate something!" She grabbed Aelita by the arms. "This. Is. Not. Right!"

"Calm down! I just need some time to sort out the problem and then I can get you two back to normal!" Aelita insisted. "Until then...you may want to think of a very good excuse."

"The guys at the studio will _never_ believe this." Bridgette said.

...Noah snapped another picture with his camera phone.

"What are you _doing?_" Izzy glared at Noah.

"Historic moment," Noah shrugged. "Oh and hold that pose."

Snap! The picture showed Izzy rearing one fist back...

Xxx

"Ok, it's clear," Noah, sporting a black eye waved Izzy and Gwen into the lobby with the rest of the team.

"Ok, we just get to my room, then you two can hide out there until Bridgette and Geoff get the proper hair dye kits." Heather said in a hushed tone. "Just don't get close to Chris or anybody else for a while until Aelita fixes this and we won't have to go back in time to-"

Suddenly they heard a raised conversation.

"Well I'm glad to see that's over with," Kurt sighed as he and Carlos walked into the lobby.

"Yeah," Carlos nodded. "Maybe that guy was right. Maybe I really do have an addiction. Maybe this is a sign that I need to give up Klondike bars entirely. If we ever see him again, I should apologize for the black eye I gave him."

"Well I don't think he'll...hold...it..." Kurt stopped as he saw Izzy and Gwen. "Against...you..." He raised one arm, jaw dropped and eyes wide.

"What is it?" Carlos waved a hand in front of Kurt. "What are you point...ing...at?" He was staring at the two, one eye twitching.

"Hi guys!" Gwen waved, smiling, and then slapped a hand over her mouth. "Crap!"

"Take a picture, it'll last longer." Izzy crossed her arms.

Snap!

"Damn it Noah!" Izzy glared at the genius, who ran away so fast that if it were a cartoon he would have left a cloud shape perfectly like him where he had been standing.

"Izzy, Gwen," Kurt began calmly. "Or uh...are you...you're Gwen," He pointed at Gwen. "And you're Izzy, right?" He pointed at Izzy.

"Give him a prize, he got it!" Izzy sighed, exasperated. "Yeah, it's us, genius."

"Bu-who-when-wha-huh-" the two producers babbled.

"We made Kurt and Carlos speechless!" Gwen giggled...

(Putting aside the taboo that just happened to Gwen, she finally got the name order for those two right!)

"...what in the seven seas of chaos happened to you two?" Kurt shouted.

"Something so unnatural that when I get my hands on those monsters I will _rip them to pieces!_" Izzy snarled.

"Did Aelita-" Cody started.

"Hit us with those freak spectres? Yeah." Carlos nodded. "We remember guys, talk to us."

"We tried to test out our Portal that would lead us to XANA's lair. It got hit by a laser, short circuited, and now Izzy right here is all moody and glum and I'm happy and perky!" Gwen said, smiling, then slapped both hands over her mouth. "Damn it!"

"...Kurt, I was wrong, this is the sign that I should just have more Klondike bars before more weird stuff happens!" Carlos shouted.

Kurt face palmed. "Aw son of a-"

Xxx

"Just keep quiet and it'll be fine," Kurt grumbled as he led the two mismatched contestants down the hall along with Heather, Cody, DJ, and Trent, who tried to keep them out of sight.

"You try and stay calm like this!" Gwen hissed. "I feel like I have ADHD!"

"That's because I _did_ have ADHD, moron." Izzy grumbled.

"Did?"

"They cured it."

Kurt glanced over his shoulder. "There's no cure for ADHD."

"That's what they want you to think." Izzy snapped her fingers.

"I really hope Aelita comes up with a cure," Trent said. "This is too weird."

Then suddenly, there was some soulless, inhuman cry going through the studio. They clasped their hands to their ears.

"Dear god man!" Kurt shouted.

"What the hell is that?" Izzy snapped.

Then it slowly became clear as a certain blonde haired girl came into view down the hall.

_"NoooBODy kNOWssss THE TroUbleS I've Seen!" _She sang, reading off of a lyrics sheet. "_NoBODy KNOWS!-_" She paused. "Hey guys!" She paused as she saw Gwen and Izzy...and their freaky makeovers. Slowly, in that pretty little head, gears that had long ago ceased functioning began to creak as they turned. After extreme turmoil, they turned...

**Once. **With a loud groan of rusted metal grinding across another surface.

"...You guys went out fashion shopping without me?" Lindsay cried. "How could you!"

"Oh god, anything but this." Izzy groaned.

"I'll never forgive you!" Crying, the blonde ran off.

"..." Kurt looked back at the group. "What the hell just happened?"

"I think we just lucked out," Cody shrugged.

"Less whining, more moving," Izzy marched ahead.

"I'll never get used to her acting like Gwen...like an even worse version of Gwen," Heather muttered.

Snap!

"NOAH!" Izzy howled.

"Good memories everyone, you'll look on this and laugh one day!" Noah declared as he leaped from his hiding spot.

"I'll give you something to laugh over!" Izzy cracked her knuckles. "Come here you!"

"AH!" Noah took off, being chased by Izzy.

"I'll bash you up GOOD!" Izzy shouted, leaping up and tearing down one of the hanging metal light panels.

"Izzy hold up, calm down!" Kurt ran after her. "Izzy stop! If somebody gets injured under our watch we get fired and Chris is left in charge! IZZYYYY-"

THUNK!

THUD! Kurt hit the floor, little birdies flying over his head. He giggled dumbly. "Birdies..." He blacked out promptly.

"Ouch!" Cody winced as Beth and Courtney came into the hall as Noah rushed past them.

"What is all the racket?" Courtney shouted as Izzy ran by them. "Why is Gwen chasing Noah?"

"Uh...that was Izzy," Beth pointed to Izzy as she vanished around a corner.

"...Why is Izzy's hair like Gwen's?" Courtney looked at Gwen. "And why is Gwen ginger?" She looked at Kurt. "And why is Kurt knocked out?"

"DON'T CALL ME GINGER!" Gwen shouted before she cart wheeled through the air and landed in front of Courtney. "I will **mess you up** girl!"

Courtney swallowed. "Yes ma'am!" She ran away.

"We've gotta stop Izzy! Come on!" Gwen ran off after Izzy.

"Well she's still got a little of herself in there," Cody muttered before they followed.

Xxx

"You can't run forever Noah! You're only hurting yourself!" Izzy shouted, swinging her weapon at the fleeing Noah and hitting everything else. "Come on! Hold still!"

"Hi-ya!"Suddenly Gwen slid in Izzy's path and stuck out one foot. Izzy tripped over her leg and face planted. "Ow!" She leaped up. "What the hell?"

"Izzy, you need to calm down," Kurt said, secretly motioning to Carlos, who was silently loading a dart into a hunting rifle. "Your temper has gone way off the charts! If that's what your craziness kept in check we're all dead!"

"Then tell the Book Worm to take this seriously and stop flashing a camera in my face!" Izzy snarled.

"Ok...NOW!" Kurt shouted, diving aside.

"NO-RE-TREAT!" Carlos emphasized every syllable as he fired multiple darts into Izzy, who stiffened and fell over.

"...I can't believe that worked," Kurt looked up at Carlos. "Weren't we more professional back in SAS?"

Carlos shrugged. "Beats me, at the time I thought I was applying for the Navy as a cook."

Xxx

Izzy groaned as she sat up rubbing her heard. "What the hell hit me?"

"Just a dozen darts that would have knocked out ten full grown elephants." Heather replied, looking up from her book. "I'd never thought I'd meet someone with an even bigger temper than Eva much less it be you."

"Oh, yeah. I can't believe this! How the hell does Gwen handle being this way all the time!" Izzy shouted. "Being all moody and not liking anything at all! It's insane!"

She looked around the room. "Speaking off where is Gwen?"

"Who knows what she's doing combined with your craziness. I actually prefer her as a goth to what she's become." Heather replied.

Izzy sighed and lay back on the bed. "That bookworm Noah didn't take any more pictures while I was knocked out did he?"

"He ran into his room and locked the door just in case you decided to come after him again. Courtney and Beth were freaked out by the whole switch."

"And just wait until Duncan sees me like this." Izzy grumbled. "He'll think I'm Gwen and start bothering me about who might have shaved his damn Mohawk."

"Could be worse. You could have Courtney on your back demanding what the hell happened." Heather shrugged.

"Oh god. That's right!" Izzy sat up. "Who knows how far she'll go to find out what's going on! Not unless Aelita found a way to reverse what happened to her and Duncan."

"She has a hunch but she's busy trying to work out how to reverse what happened to you and Gwen." Heather stood up. "Well, at least Gwen's taking this better than you are."

Xxx

"Keep running-keep running-keep running," Gwen repeated this quickly as she ran around the studio's indoor gym with no signs of slowing down. She was wearing track pants and a hoody to keep anybody from seeing who she was.

"Hey, slow down!" Eva snapped when Gwen almost ran into her. "Man you're more hyper than usual."

"Sorry, sorry, sorry!" Gwen said quickly, keeping her head bowed as she ran.

"Well just-wait a second," Eva blinked as Gwen kept running. "You sound funny."

"Nope, perfectly fine!" Gwen shouted trying to make her voice more high pitched. "Nothing wrong, I just feel like exercising!"

But then she was stopped by Lindsay. "Exercising with the new workout clothes you bought on that shopping trip you went on without me!" She tore the hood off from Gwen's head...and Eva did a double take as she saw what should have been Izzy, or should have been Gwen...but was..._neither!_

"Wha-who-why-what in the-?" Eva babbled.

"I know! Not only did they go fashion shopping for clothes, but they got new hair styles!" Lindsay whined. "How could you do this Greta?"

"It's Gwen-er I mean Izzy!" Gwen tried to lie, pulling her hood back up.

"Don't you lie Gwen, I know you ditched me!" Lindsay accused her.

"I have no idea what you mean Lindsay!" Gwen shook her head. "You went clothes shopping fifty times, how is one simple change a sign that we ditched you?"

"Because I know all the good shops!" Lindsay bawled. "How could you not come to me for help!"

"Aw I'm sorry!" Gwen suddenly hugged Lindsay (head for your doomsday bunkers). "We'll take you along next time, I promise!" She let the blonde cry into her shoulder.

Eva looked at the Gatorade bottle in her hand. "...I should have listened to Kurt when he said not to drink you!" She tossed it across the room...where it hit Roberto just as he came in.

THUNK! It struck him on the head.

"..." He held up one hand...and then pumped his fist against his chest once, raised it in a 'peace' sign and declared. "Yo!" He fell over promptly.

"...this is getting too weird to watch," Carlos, who had been bench pressing weight while keeping an eye on Gwen said.

"Carlos? Where'd you come from?" Gwen let go of Lindsay and stared at the producer.

"That's what the minister said at my wedding!" Carlos grinned. "That's also what Melissa's family said at the bachelor party...and our first anniversary." He frowned. "And at the Christmas party that shall not be mentioned in detail due to...lots of eggnog being involved."

Xxx

"Aw man what the hell am I supposed to do now?" Izzy whined. "I hate all the stuff Gwen does and now I hate the stuff I like to do!"

"Well I don't know! Go read or write something!" Heather sighed, exasperated. "Just quit whining about it!"

Grumbling, Izzy left.

"...I never thought I'd prefer Gwen to Goth-Izzy," Heather muttered.

Izzy sat down nearby with some paper and a pencil, and began to write.

Several lines in, Carlos came into the room, wiping his face with a towel as he passed Izzy's table. He glanced at her. "Izzy? I didn't know you like poetry."

"I don't, Gwen does," Izzy grumbled.

"Hey pasty," Duncan said as he passed by out of the blue.

"Go hit on Courtney you Three Days Grace reject!" Izzy snapped as she turned around.

Duncan suddenly started to stutter and babble. "Wha-who-Izzy? But, your hair-your skin-your attitude!" He blinked...and looked at the Gatorade in his hand. "I should have listened to Kurt and Eva! This is _your_ fault!" He tossed the Gatorade, aiming for a trash can, but instead...it hit Roberto just as he stumbled into the room.

THUNK!

"...momma." Roberto fell face first onto the floor.

"What's with everybody and drinking Gatorade today?" Courtney asked, sipping some Gatorade even as she spoke.

"I have no idea," Carlos shrugged. "So...you're not freaked out like Duncan?"

"Nah, there's a perfect explanation," Courtney shrugged.

"Really? I'm waiting to hear it, Ms CIT."

"It's obvious that it is a hallucination brought on by this Gatorade. I am seeing Izzy as Gwen while Gwen looks like Izzy, therefore the hallucination will wear off and they will look normal by the end of the day!" Courtney nodded.

"...good luck with that," Carlos mumbled. "So Izzy...how's the poem going?"

"See for yourself," Izzy held the sheet up for Carlos to read.

"Hm..." Carlos began to read...

Xxx

**Two minutes later!**

Carlos bawled, munching on a Klondike bar as he sat in his chair in the Computer Room. "All my life wasted on being some secret agent! I wanted to be a cook! Like a nice version of Chef Ramses!" He finished the Klondike bar. "I'm so sorry for all the things I wrecked or blew up!" He fell out of the chair and onto his knees. "Aw man I can't believe how stupid I really am! What's the point anymore?"

A rather horrified crew was staring at the paradox.

"...should we check if he's ok?" Lesley asked.

"We're all wasting our potential!" Carlos sobbed.

"...I think it's the Gatorade," Kurt said.

Lesley's eyes widened as she looked at the Gatorade in her hand. "Oh crap!" She was about to throw it.

"No! Just drop it in the trash," Kurt said gently. "We've had two incidents today and I'm surprised Roberto didn't have Second Impact Syndrome already."

"Oh, sorry," Lesley then tossed her Gatorade Bottle into the nearest trash can...

THUNK!

Only to see Roberto had been hiding in it.

"Damn it!" Roberto swore. "You people miss the trash can two times and _now _you're responsible with disposing of your garbage?" Then he fainted. "Derrrrr..."

"...Kurt? Is it me or is this day getting weird?" Lesley asked.

"Lesley, where have you been?" Kurt sighed.

"IT'S ALL FUTILE!" Carlos wailed, sobbing into the floor. "So many wasted years! I can't even fix a simple addiction to these delicious bars of goodness!" He unwrapped and munched on another Klondike bar.

"...well it's a step up from when he punched that psychologist in the eye," Kurt shrugged.

"...how did this happen anyways?" Lesley asked.

"I think he was reading Izzy's poem right there," Kurt pointed to a table where Carlos had left the paper.

"...Izzy writes poetry?" The lawyer raised an eye brow.

"Strangely enough, yes." Kurt nodded.

"Oh please, what could she have written to make Carlos cry?" Lesley asked before she and Kurt both stared at the lines of words on the sheet.

Xxx

**Ten seconds later...**

Lesley was sitting on the nearest couch, sniffling as she blew her nose into a tissue.

Kurt was still staring at the sheet. "...oh, I get it now!..." He blinked. "Oh.."

Xxx

**Ten _more_ seconds later!**

Kurt was sitting in the lounge, just staring out a window with a sad, longing look on his face.

"...Kurt, what's wrong?" Beth asked as she and Lindsay stopped next to him.

"Just go play girls," Kurt said, sounding ridiculously depressed. "I'll be fine."

"...oookayyyy..." Beth said before she and Lindsay backed away.

"...this sucks," Kurt sniffed.

Xxx

"Okay, I think everyone's going crazy." Bridgette said as the Lyoko gang sat in the common room.

"Really, what gives you that clue?" Izzy asked, wearing a black tank top and black skirt. "I even changed my own clothes!"

"At least you haven't taken to start wearing corsets." Heather pointed out.

(Note: After Seraphim removed XANA's virus for good and Gwen's hair returned to normal she started wearing her original outfit again)

"Don't give her ideas. She's already got Kurt, Carlos, and Lesley depressed through some crazy poetry." LeShawna said sitting next to her.

"Do you even know what she wrote?" Trent asked sitting on a chair next to the couch.

"Hell no! I'm not reading that!" LeShawna said. "You saw what it did!"

"Well, sor-ry no likes my poetry!" Izzy crossed her arms and pouted.

"This is just so unnatural." Heather muttered, not at all used to seeing something like this.

"You think it's weird? Ask us how we are feeling about this." Gwen sat down on the couch. "I just ran over one hundred laps and I still hardly feel winded."

"It's going to take a lot more than just running a hundred laps to get yourself calm." Izzy scoffed.

"Now she tells me." Gwen rolled her eyes.

That was when the Heather's cell phone rang.

"I hope that's Aelita." Gwen said as Heather answered.

"Hello? Aelita, thank god! Please tell me you have a solution." Heather said into the phone. "All right." She hung up and looked at the others.

"Well?" Bridgette asked.

"Aelita thinks she's got a solution."

"Let's go!" Izzy and Gwen said and stood up at the same time.

Xxx

"It wasn't easy looking for a solution to such a bizarre situation but I think I found one." Aelita turned her chair to face them. "It's actually a method I believe could reverse not only what happened to you two but what happened to Duncan and Courtney."

"How so?" Cody asked.

"Well, you all know that when I created the extra life points program it was actually done by creating a complete copy of your digital avatars, life points, weapons, stats, everything. These avatars contain the programs for your digital DNA which makes is how you all remember everything after each return to the past. These programs could be the key to how reversing both what happened to you and Duncan and Courtney." Aelita brought up the copies of Duncan and Courtney's avatars, surprising everyone except Noah.

"Duncan and Courtney's avatars. I thought those were deleted." LeShawna exclaimed.

"Their original avatars were deleted. Not the copies that were programmed to supply them with life points for the ones they lose in battle. Not only do they have Duncan and Courtney's digital DNA but...for lack of a better method of description, they act like a save point in a game they carry all the memories of what Duncan and Courtney experienced when they first came to Lyoko." Aelita pointed at the codes.

"So we can bring back Duncan and Courtney?" Bridgette asked with a small hint of hope in her voice.

"Maybe but right now we'll have to focus on Gwen and Izzy. Besides, we would need to know if it's safe for Duncan and Courtney to enter the scanners since it's possible the virus did more than just erase their memories and digital avatars. Basically after I looked over the data I modified the portal generator to scan the Gwen and Izzy's extra avatars and compare them to the current scans of Gwen and Izzy after the accident. Once the scans see the differences when the portal activated it'll sort Gwen and Izzy's codes to match that of their original selves." Aelita explained. "Simply put we reverse what happened to them."

"And what happens if XANA's monsters decide to drop in again?" Izzy asked.

"Not this time. It took me an extra hour but I developed a force field to protect the portal generator. It'll hold up for a while under a prolonged attack but if it goes right we won't need it for long."

"But suppose all of XANA's generals attack at once and break in after a few seconds?" Izzy drawled.

"Oh man, all of them at once! I've been pumped to get back at that stupid Jinx!" Gwen smirked. "...damn it Izzy!"

"Don't blame me!" Izzy snapped. "You're the one who has me acting so pessimistic!...my god I didn't even know what that word meant until I started reading _your _favourite books."

"ENOUGH!" Most of the group members shouted.

"You two have been fighting each other like crazy all day!" Trent said. "Not to mention you're driving us nuts, and not just because of how you look and act!"

"You made our producers and attorney go semi-suicidal," Noah added. "And gave me a black eye-oh and by the way-" He snapped another picture.

"That's it, I'm smashing that thing!" Izzy lunged, but DJ caught her in mid jump in a bear hug and didn't let go. "Lemme go! I'm gonna kill him with a banana, and don't ask me how!"

"Let's just get these two into the scanner and onto the portal generator," Cody said, exasperated.

"And this time we're _all_ going!" LeShawna shouted over the arguments going on in the background.

Xxx

"Transfer Gwen, scanner Gwen, virtualization. Transfer Izzy, Scanner Izzy, virtualization," Cody paused. "...and god help us all."

Xxx

Gwen and Izzy appeared in Sector Five...

"Aw man, here too?" Izzy shouted, wearing a black and blue version of her old robe outfit...with boots, a lack of long ears and claws, and fangs. She also had a scythe in hand.

"I miss my scythe!" Gwen whined, dressed in a red and orange version of her Lyoko outfit, but was barefoot, and had no cape...and she had Izzy's elongated ears, fangs, and claws.

"This is just getting ridiculous!" Izzy growled as Trent, Aelita and Bridgette appeared next.

"Whoa..." Trent stared at Gwen.

"Take a picture lover boy, it'll last longer," Izzy slapped him on the back of the head.

After all of the Lyoko warriors, minus Cody and Noah were in Sector Five, they moved as one towards the Portal Room. They kept an eye out for any monsters or Generals, but astoundingly encountered none for their entire trip.

As they entered the portal room, a blue energy field sealed the entrance behind them.

"_Energy shield activated,_" Cody announced.

"Let's hurry up then, I want my old me back!" Izzy rushed ahead.

"Me too!" Gwen _cart wheeled_ alongside Izzy.

"Quit rubbing it in!" The new spell caster snapped at Gwen as they leaped onto the platform.

_"Incoming monsters."_

Outside, a pair of Dragon Knights stepped forward into view, guns in hand. They fired on the shield, which held.

_"Better hurry that shield has an equivalent of 3000 life points, and it's dropping by 30 with each shot."_

"Alright, begin the activation!" Aelita ordered.

Cody punched in the codes as more Dragon Knights appeared, firing on the force field.

"You want a piece of me!" Gwen shouted ready to attack.

"_Gwen no! We need you in there if you want to change back to normal!_" Cody shouted, stopping Gwen in her tracks.

"Damn it." She muttered under her breath.

Trent aimed his guitar at one Knight with a large rifle firing an energy beam at the force field. Playing his lightning note a stream of lightning blasted out and vaporized the Knight before it could react. LeShawna pulled out her hammer and jumped up to the platform where one Dragon Knight stood with a roar. Swinging her hammer it smashed the Knight's upper half entirely off of the lower half, which was left standing where it was.

Aelita fired a plasma beam blasting another Knight but as each one was destroyed another one was replaced with a few more. Gwen and Izzy watched as their friends blasted Knight after Knight but more came out and fired on the shield.

"There's too many of them!" Bridgette shouted as she swung her swords and took out one Knight that ignored her in favour of taking out the shield around the portal generator.

"They don't want the portal to work." Aelita replied blasting another Knight.

"You got that right!"

Everyone looked up to see a meteor shower of purple energy blasts fall down towards them.

"Look out!" DJ shouted.

Everyone tried to dodge however some like Bridgette, Geoff, and Heather were taken out as some monsters distracted them. A purple energy blast hit them and blew their avatars apart sending them back into the real world. Looking up they saw Jinx land in front of the generator. Turning around she glanced at Izzy and Gwen...and started laughing.

"Oh my...ha-ha-ha-ha...this is...ha-ha-ha-ha...this is too good...ha-ha-ha-ha." Jinx laughed, her hands on her stomach looking like she was about to fall over. "I can't believe this actually happened!" She looked up at Gwen and Izzy as they glared at her making her laugh even harder. "This is hilarious! Okay, you!" She pointed at Izzy. "Say something! Go on, anything!"

"Bye bye." Izzy growled as she ran at her with Gwen's scythe.

"Izzy wait!" Gwen shouted.

Izzy jumped out of the force field and swung the scythe at Jinx who ducked under the swing, dodging easily.

"Let me show you how it's done!" Jinx swung her spear and the brunt side of the bladed end slammed into Izzy's head, knocking her down. "If you can't fight with that than don't even fight at all."

Jinx then turned to the shield and aimed her spear at it. It glowed bright purple and fired another meteor shower of purple blasts at it.

"_The shields lost another hundred life points!_" Cody said.

"And they're about to lose another hundred." Jinx replied as her spear glowed purple again.

"Oh no you don't!" LeShawna shouted as she charged from behind Jinx.

However Jinx was more than prepared as vines sprouted from the ground in front of LeShawna and grabbed her.

"Hey!" LeShawna growled as she tried to break free.

A blast from Jinx sent her back into the real world a second later. Jinx turned back to force field as Gwen jumped out and ran at her. However Gwen was not used to fighting with Izzy's style anymore than Izzy was with hers. Jinx simply side stepped and stuck her foot out, tripping Gwen easily.

"Boy, you've had a bad day. And unfortunately for you the boss wants me to make your day even harder." Jinx commented looking down at Gwen.

Behind her, Izzy was getting to her feet, frustrated at her lack of results. Then she thought of an idea, and set her scythe aside.

Jinx prepared to blast Gwen back to the real world, but was struck by a wind aura sent directly from Izzy's hand. She hit a wall and slid down. "Oof! What the-okay so you've got mom's powers too apparently!"

"So that means..." Gwen stood up and held out her right hand. A crossbow formed on it, and fired a single arrow. Jinx side stepped it, but the arrow exploded into a ball of fire aura that made Jinx yelp as she was burnt by it. "Ah! What the hell?"

The two girls exchanged a glance and then began to fire barrage after barrage of attacks. Izzy made use of Gwen's fire spell and Gwen used Izzy's explosive arrows causing Jinx to jump back and dodge as the explosions and fire auras almost burned her with each attack.

"Crap!" Jinx swore as she dodged another attack, missing her by mere inches.

Pointing her spear at the incoming arrows blast of purple light destroyed them before they reached her. She then fired beams of purple light at them, hitting them hard. A furious Izzy was the first to retaliate as her figured glowed red. Thrusting her hands forward a stream of fire blasted its way towards Jinx but the general teleported out of the way.

Reappearing behind Izzy she slammed the brunt end of her spear into the back of Izzy's head, knocking her forward. She then prepared to stab her when...

"HI-YA!"

Spinning around she saw a red rhino just inches from hitting her. A purple barrier activated but the force of blow sent her flying into the wall. Izzy looked up to see the rhino turn back into Gwen.

"Whoa..that was so cool!" Gwen squealed but slammed her hands over her mouth again. "Damn it!"

"_Gwen, Izzy, you have to get back inside the shield now. The program is ready to start and if you're not inside you'll miss your chance!_" Cody said.

"Got it!" Izzy grabbed Gwen and they jumped back inside the shield.

"_Program active!_" The platform that severed as the portal generator began to glow.

Jinx sighed as Trent, Aelita, and DJ stood between her and the generator. She bowed and vanished in a flash of light. Gwen and Izzy dissolved into codes of data as their avatars were scattered and reassembled.

Xxx

"They've been materialized," Cody said. "Must be a side effect of getting your code rescrambled."

"So are they back to normal?" Heather asked.

"Let's find out," Geoff got into the elevator with the rest of the group as Cody devirtualized the other fighters.

They all gathered in the scanner room. Standing in the middle of it were Gwen and Izzy...who were totally back to their normal selves!

"It worked! Yes!" Izzy cheered, hopping up and down. "Izzy's back!"

"Oh thank god!" Gwen sat down, hands on her face with an actually large smile on her face. "I'm so happy I could kiss Cody."

_"Why not? I'm not proud,"_ Cody said over the intercom.

"Just a figure of speech," Gwen sighed, standing up.

_"Okay but this system records all these conversations, and I'll remember this." _Cody teased.

"Well that was a fun day and I've got memories of you guys I'm pretty happy to show everybody." Noah held up his phone.

Gwen and Izzy's eyes narrowed, and they exchanged a look.

"Izzy, I have an idea." Gwen smirked and pulled out her phone.

"What is it?"

"I promised Lindsay a little something that she thinks we uh...robbed her of." Gwen chuckled. "Time to pay her back."

Xxx

"You know I feel better about myself after Izzy's new poem." Carlos said. "A lot of the world makes sense to me now, a lot of things I never noticed before are in plain view now!"

"I know!" Kurt nodded, holding Izzy's second poem. "Man I'm glad she's back to normal. She could make having to work with Chris look like a good..." He trailed off, eyes wide.

"Kurt? What is it?"

Kurt pointed ahead. "Do yourself a favour and don't look in front of you."

"Oh please, what could be so surprising that-" Carlos turned...and screamed. "AH!"

...

"Told you not to look," Kurt said smugly.

In front of them was...Noah, wearing a combination of Izzy and Gwen's styles and clothes, right down to the makeup. He looked nervous and unwilling as Lindsay dragged the cross dressing boy out of the lobby.

"It's gonna be so fun Gwen...or are you Izzy? I get you two so mixed up these days!" Lindsay laughed.

"Mommy!" Noah wailed as she dragged him into the streets...where many French people would be introduced to a horrific sight.

"Gwen? Izzy?" Kurt looked to the top of the stairs as the two girls appeared looking normal and dressed back in their usual clothes. "You two are back to normal, right?"

"Yep, we just wanted to cheer Lindsay up," Gwen nodded.

"And get back at Noah!" Izzy added as she and Gwen high fived each other.

"Man...these two are evil." Carlos whispered to Kurt.

"Maybe we shouldn't tell them that Noah sent us copies of the pictures he took," Kurt whispered back.

"WE HEARD THAT!" Izzy shouted.

"Crap!" Carlos swallowed. "Run Kurt!"

They both ran into the glass doors behind them...and smashed through them. The security cameras would later play this in slow motion as Cody made a spoof trailer of an action-thriller movie called...Those Two Guys.


	63. Episode 61: Geoff's Upgrade: Raiden

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 62

A couple of days passed after Gwen and Izzy's accident with the portal generator. Aelita made sure that a shield strong enough to withstand a constant barrage from monsters and generals was kept up at all times so no one would think of attacking it while Aelita was in school or the others were stuck doing an episode. Noah was traumatized from shopping with Lindsay and learned his lesson in annoying Gwen and Izzy. Even though he sent out pictures of them while they were switched dozens of people saw him after Gwen and Izzy got back at him.

He could only imagine how his family would react to this one. After that accident there was no Lyoko action for the next couple of days and now the next episode of Total Drama was beginning today.

Xxx

"Last time on Total Drama Reality, the campers were put through a series of high action, horrifying, and incredibly hilarious virtual games. They fought monsters, Predators, and...Puss in Boots! That fight DJ had with that cat was awesome! In rare and shocking turn of events Beth who was supposed to leave was saved when Heather gave her immunity to Beth, thus saving her from leaving the show and boarding the Jet of Losers." Chris announced. "What other surprises awaits us? Find out today on what could be the most dramatic episode ever of Total, Drama, REALITY!"

Xxx

All of the contestants got out of bed after hearing Chris' bullhorn and were standing at the usual spot where Chris would greet them.

"Howdy, competitors!" Chris greeted. "Today's challenge is different than usual. Today, we're going to the beach!"

"So do we need our swimsuits?" Gwen drawled.

"Probably." Chris replied, smirking.

"Can we first concentrate on _getting_ to the beach before we change into our swimsuits?" Courtney asked.

"Fine." Chris sneered. "The bus should be here any second now."

"Please tell me the bus driver isn't-" Bridgette started before the bus suddenly roared to a stop next to them, and the doors opened, revealing, in the driver's seat...Carlos!

"Howdy!" He waved.

"Not him!" Beth squeaked.

"Oh relax, he might be a destructive sociopathic maniac, but he's not a bad driver," Kurt, sitting in one of the passenger seats said.

"Yeah...wait, what?" Carlos looked over his shoulder. "What did the first couple of words you said mean?"

"You're a big boy Carlos, read a dictionary," Kurt then produced a HUGE dictionary from under his seat.

"You know I can't do that right now! I'll be driving!" Carlos protested. "...and why do you carry that around?"

"For times like this," Kurt drawled.

"You predicted that I wouldn't understand something you said?" Carlos asked.

"No, I predicted you wouldn't understand what a destructive sociopath is," Kurt replied.

"And that was something you said, smart ass," Carlos deadpanned. "It's the same thing."

"...you obviously have no idea what people call you, aside from Chris, do you?" Kurt asked. "I mean you only react to Chris because you know...you hate him."

"They call me maniac, psycho, pyro, pyro_ maniac_, demolition man, destructive rampaging fool, in Russia they called me _The _Carlos for some reason, and...about seventy or eighty more names." Carlos shrugged.

"And you never bothered to look up what they mean?" Kurt blinked.

"I was on the job!"

"And you never stopped once to think about what they could mean by those names?"

"I don't think, I _do._" Carlos said seriously.

"Can we go now?" Gwen complained.

"Hop on board!" Carlos grinned. "To the sunny beaches of today's challenge!"

With that everyone got on the bus and into their seats. As predicted Geoff and Bridgette picked the front seat on the left side where they could sit together while DJ and LeShawna sat behind them. Noah picked a seat and ended up with Izzy who babbled on endlessly about stuff. Noah pulled out book and started reading to help ignore her while Duncan sat at the end of the bus without anyone which he did not seem to mind.

"Oh my god, we get the same seat, Lindsay!" Beth said happily as they sat in the same seat.

"I know!" Lindsay squealed as they hugged each other.

At the front Cody smirked as Gwen took the right second seat and moved to join her when...

"Out of my way!" Courtney pushed by him and sat down next to Gwen surprising and worrying some people.

Gwen raised an eyebrow at Courtney's actions, hoping they weren't about to get into another fight.

Xxx

Confessional: Courtney

"Heather would _never_ give up her invincibility without a reason. Saving Beth like that just proves she's up to something. She and Gwen have been a little friendly recently so I might be able to get her to talk."

End Confessional

Xxx

Heather glared at Courtney, just knowing she might be up to something. Trent and Cody sat in the same seat but kept an eye on Gwen, making sure Courtney didn't try anything. Heather sat behind them alone which was fine with her.

"Everyone on board and ready now?" Chris asked, not waiting for an answer. "Good, let's go! We have ratings to rake in!"

"Just let me make sure this is running right." Carlos as he checked the display. "Everything's working right. Nothing should go wrong."

That's something even Carlos should have known not to say. Just as they began to pullout a spectre emerged from the telephone wires when no one was looking and entered the bus.

Xxx

Aelita was in the middle of class. Writing down the answers to the questions on the sheet in front of her she looked at the clock. She still had half an hour to go. She sighed and hoped the others would not get in trouble while she was stuck here.

Xxx

"So, Gwen." Courtney looked over at Gwen who was looking out the window with what would a friendly smile but Gwen saw right through her. "Can you believe what Heather did last episode? Giving up her immunity for Beth like that? Unbelievable, right?"

"I'm sure it came as a shock to everyone." Gwen shrugged not even turning around.

"You wouldn't happen to have any idea what Heather is up to would you?" Courtney asked, trying to sound as friendly as possible.

"Sorry, I'm not one who likes to figure out what goes on in Heather's head." Gwen replied.

"So, you two are not in some sort of secret alliance?" Courtney continued to probe.

Gwen had to suppress the sigh coming out. This would be so much easier if she could remember but Aelita, Cody, and Noah had a full plate already. She just had to hold on until they reach the beach.

"No. It's surprising you would think we are in an alliance." Gwen replied, without missing a beat.

"So, you wouldn't mind helping me figure out what she's up to?" Courtney asked.

Gwen looked at her with a sceptical look. "I thought we...you know...hated each other?"

Courtney chuckled, not her usual one, but a friendly one. "We were but seeing as Duncan and you didn't work out and believe me I know how much of a handful he is there's no reason we can't try to work things out." She held out a hand to Gwen. "Truce?"

That little speech almost made Gwen want to stand up and shout that this was a XANA clone and not Courtney sitting next to her. Heather watched this and instantly knew what Courtney was planning.

Xxx

Confessional: Gwen

"Okay, did anyone watching this show interpret that as a sign of the apocalypse because I sure did."

Xxx

Confessional: Courtney

"Okay, I may be sounding a little weird but right now I have no one in our group who'd want an alliance with me so it's not a total lie. If I can get Gwen on my side she can get Cody and maybe even Eva to help me get rid of Heather."

Xxx

Confessional: Heather

"If Courtney thinks she can pull something like this without me noticing she is dead wrong. It's not like Gwen will actually fall for that.

End Confessional

Xxx

Gwen was seriously contemplating on whether or not to accept but she knew Courtney must have had some sort of plan.

'I should have sat with one of the others and not tried to find an empty seat.'

Luckily for Gwen she was saved from having to make any decision as the bus stopped at a red light on the road that would take them straight down to the beach. The bad news was what saved from Courtney was something else out to make her life and the lives of everyone on the bus as miserable as possible.

"Carlos, what's taking so long? A turtle is going faster than us." Chris complained.

"Sor-ry, Chris, I didn't you had a manicure waiting for you at the beach." Carlos said sarcastically. "In the meantime there's a red light here." He pointed ahead.

"Our shows only last thirty minutes. If we're late the director won't just be killing me."

"Relax. The light's going green in the next few seconds." Carlos replied as he noticed the green light on the right side turn yellow.

Too bad that when that red light turned green everything would go wrong. The moment it turned green Carlos' hands were shocked by small blast of electricity forcing him to let go.

"OW!" Carlos screamed as he released the steering wheel.

"What is it?" Kurt stood up.

"I just got shocked!" Carlos replied as the bus drove forward.

"Now that's how fast we should be going!" Chris said as the bus moved faster.

"Dude take your foot off the gas!" Geoff called from his seat.

"I did smart guy!" Carlos snapped. "And it's on the break but we're still just going faster!" He looked back at them. "Buckle in!"

Bridgette swallowed. "This isn't right!"

"I know I'm kinda jumpin' the gun here, but who agrees this is XANA?" DJ asked.

"Me!" Most of the Lyoko Warriors shouted.

"What are you guys talking about?" Courtney demanded standing up.

"Can't talk right now, Courtney. We need to get off this bus, now!" Gwen shouted.

Carlos opened the door and they rushed towards it. Geoff was the first one there, taking a deep breath. "Here I go!"

He jumped off the bus and hit the road while the bus was moving at speed. He rolled on the side walk a couple of feet before stopping. He got up cradling his right arm as it took the full force of the impact and watched the bus continue its course, waiting for someone else to jump out. However the second he jumped out the door automatically shut and prevented everyone else from getting out.

"Crap!" Bridgette shouted, surprising a few since she almost never swore.

"Let me through!" Eva pushed them out of the way and balled up her fists.

She charged and sent a fist to smash her way through the door but the moment her fist collided with it she was sent back with a blast of electricity. She hit the front seat hard; luckily no one was behind her when it happened.

"This is just great. Geoff was the only one to make it out." Heather scowled looking out the window.

"Could be worse. None of us could have got out." Trent replied.

"Okay, what are you guys talking about?" Courtney demanded.

"Not now, Courtney!" Heather snapped. "Just sit down, shut up, and pray to God that you'll live!"

Xxx

Geoff panted as he ran down the side walk towards the factory. He wasted no time in pulling out his cell phone and dialling Aelita's number.

"Come on, come on, pick up." Geoff muttered as he held the phone to his ear.

Xxx

Aelita felt her phone vibrate in her bag. She quickly asked to go to the bathroom and walked out. When she was sure no one was in site she answered her phone.

"Hello?"

"_Aelita! We have a problem! Crazy bus with everyone trapped on board!_"

"Geoff, slow down and try again." Aelita whispered into the phone.

"_Our bus went crazy on the way down to the beach where the next episode is being aired. This has got XANA written all over it and if we don't hurry everyone onboard are goners!_"

"All right, all right, Geoff, calm down. I'll meet you at the factory and we'll find the tower." Aelita replied, trying to calm the part boy down.

"_Will we be okay against all the monsters and generals?_"

"I'm not sure but trying is a lot better than leaving everyone to die."

"_Good point, I'll see you there_."

Aelita hung up and looked around. When she was sure no one was watching she made a dash out of the campus. As she ran she looked down at her phone and dialled Gwen's number.

Xxx

When Gwen's cell phone she pull it and answered. "Aelita?"

"_Hey, Gwen. Geoff filled me in on what's going on. Do you have any idea on where XANA's taking the bus?_"

Gwen looked out the window and watched as the bus seemingly continued its path.

"No idea. You mentioned that one time XANA tried to crash that school bus into a chemical plant?" Gwen asked.

"_I'm not in the lab at the moment so I have no idea on how to find out on what's going on._" Aelita replied as she opened the sewer hatch. "_I'll be in the lab in a minute and hopefully Geoff will make it._"

"Good luck." Gwen hung up.

"Aelita?" Cody asked.

"She and Geoff are on their way to factory but they'll have a lot of trouble." Gwen replied.

Xxx

Hopping onto the skateboard Yumi got her Aelita moved as fast as she could. While she wasn't as skilled as Yumi or Odd she was able to jump over the gap in the sewer on the way to the ladder leading up to the bridge in front of the factory. Parking her skateboard Aelita climbed the ladder and opened the hatch. Without missing a beat Aelita ran towards the factory and grabbed onto one of the ropes and swung as far as she could towards the elevator.

Walking into the elevator she waited for it to take her down into the lab. Once the door was open she walked in and sat down on the chair as the super scan came on and locate a tower in the Mountain Sector. Once she knew where the tower was she opened another window that showed a map of the city. Then she dialled Gwen's number on the computer, her digital card appearing on screen as she answered.

"_Aelita?_"

"Hey, Gwen. I'm in the lab and supercomputer's tracking you now so I need you to stay on the phone."

"_Geoff make it yet?_"

"No. But if he doesn't show up in a few minutes I'll head into to Lyoko myself."

"_Against the monsters and the generals on your_ _own?_" Gwen asked, concerned.

"I might have no choice but to try. The keys will give me a fighting chance." Aelita watched as the computer began to analyze the Total Drama bus's path.

A blue solid line traced the path from the bus to the destination. The destination surprised Aelita a bit but she understood why in a second.

"Gwen, that bus is taking you into the river!"

_"How far away is that?"_ Gwen asked nervously.

"You'll be there in less than fifteen minutes at this rate!"

_"Oh man, I really hope Geoff will cut it."_ Gwen swallowed.

"He'll have to," Aelita stated. "In the meantime tell everyone to brace themselves and we'll make sure that you are all okay."

"_Good luck._"

Xxx

Gwen hung up and looked at everyone.

"Well, what's going on?" Heather asked impatiently.

"This bus will be in the river in fifteen minutes." Gwen replied without missing a beat.

"He's driving us into the river and leaving us to drown!" DJ cried in shock.

"Who is? Who's doing this and who were you talking too?" Courtney demanded, pointing at Gwen.

"That doesn't matter right now." LeShawna got between her and Gwen. "What matters right now is that we find a way off this death trap!"

"Good luck with that. If the windows are like the door you are all in for a very bad shock." Eva replied, standing up from the seat after recovering from her shock.

"So we're all going to die!" Chris cried. "I'm too young and handsome to die!"

Carlos smacked him on the back of his head. "The last thing we need is to get upset so calm down you big scared baby."

"Let me see if I can find a way to disable it." Kurt said as he pulled out the wiring.

Xxx

Geoff entered the elevator and waited as it headed down to the lab. Aelita looked up when she saw the door open.

"Geoff, you made it right on time!" Aelita said, relieved.

"Yeah." Geoff gasped for breath. "I got to say though, I always wanted to jump off a speeding bus like in the movies, but now that I did, I think I'll leave it to the actors to do it from now on. That was rough."

Aelita looked at Geoff's right arm and noticed the scrapes and cuts on it. "Will you be okay?"

"Oh yeah, it's not so bad. How are the others doing?" Geoff asked, diverting the topic away from his arm.

"Bad. At the rate they're going they'll be at the bottom of the river in thirteen minutes."

"Well we better hurry up and save them!"

Aelita nodded and quickly typed the commands for the automatic virtualization sequence. Once that was done they entered the elevator and headed down into the scanner room. They walked into the scanners and waited for the timer to hit zero. The doors closed and they were on their way into Lyoko.

Xxx

They both landed in the Mountain Sector on a large rocky platform.

"The tower's up ahead." Aelita pointed to the rocky bridge in front of them.

"Well, let's hurry!" Geoff said and they broke off into a sprint towards the tower.

They soon came across the tower floating on an island just on the other side of the bridge.

"Okay, I'm no tactical genius but I know a trap when I see one." Geoff said, stopping.

Pulling out his chakrams he looked around carefully. Aelita turned around and looked behind them and saw a spark disk heading straight at them. "Look out!"

She pulled Geoff down and the spark disk flew over them and crashed into a boulder causing a small explosion.

"Crap, I missed."

Looking up they saw Ryder striding across the bridge with his long katana resting over his shoulder.

"Ryder." Geoff scowled.

"Nice to see you again too, party boy." Ryder grinned as he held his sword out. "I've been looking forward to this ever since I heard you were able to come back here."

"Dude, I have no time for you! My girl is in trouble and no one's getting in my way!" Geoff fused his chakrams into his axe. "You want a fight? Well here it is!"

Ryder grinned and held out his katana. "We'll see about that. LIGHTNING ARC!"

A blast of red lightning blasted from his blade as he swung it. Geoff swung his axe and yellow lightning was released from the blade. Both attacks collided with each other and caused a large blinding explosion.

"Aelita, get to the tower! I'll deal with him!" Geoff charged towards Ryder.

Aelita, knowing there was no way to convince him turned and ran for the tower. But as she got onto the island the ground in front of her burst wide open slightly knocking her back. Holding a hand over her eyes she looked to see Blade emerged from a huge hole.

"Lookie what I found." He grinned, showing his razor sharp teeth.

Xxx

Kurt pulled out a pair of wire cutters when he found the wires for the bus's power. He quickly cut it and hoped that the bus would stop. It didn't even slow down a single bit.

"Crap!" Kurt slammed a fist into the dashboard. "So much for that working."

"We've to hurry or when this bus goes into the river we'll drown!" Bridgette panicked.

"How long do we have?" Carlos asked, turning around.

"Seven minutes." Noah replied, still calm despite the situation.

Carlos grunted. "We'll have to get off then."

"I already tried opening the door. It won't butch!" Kurt replied, banging the dashboard again. "That computerized bastard's got us trapped!"

"We'll have to find a way bust through the door." Carlos said.

"It wouldn't be a good idea to jump off anyway. With how fast we're going it might not make a difference." Cody looked out the window.

"Better than staying on here where we're going to die anyway." Heather said.

"But how will we get out? The door won't open and if we try we'll get shocked!" DJ replied.

"Then we'll just have to make an exit through something not electrified." Duncan got up and walked to the front.

"And what do you have in mind?" Carlos asked.

"This!" He turn around and to back to the bus where the emergency door was to ram through it but like what happened with Eva he was rebuffed by a blast of electricity.

He flew back and hit the floor in the middle of aisle, hard.

"Duncan!" Courtney ran over to him.

"Hey, nice to know you still get worried." Duncan smirked, which led to Courtney smacking him on the back of his head.

"Idiot." She mumbled.

"So much for busting our way out." Trent commented.

"The doors and windows are covered with electricity!" Gwen said as she touched her window and was rewarded with a small shock.

She pulled her hand back quickly.

"So we're going to die!" Lindsay cried as she and Beth hugged each other.

"Not yet." Bridgette quietly said, hoping Geoff and Aelita would make it to the tower on time before they were done for.

Xxx

Geoff swung his axe down only for Ryder to block and parry with his katana. Both fighters slashed at each other, their weapons sending sparks out with each clash. Geoff was mostly on the defensive, since Ryder had a weapon with a longer reach and the ability to stab where his axe was just good for cleaving at closer distances. The cowboy tried to get further away so he could use his chakrams, but Ryder stayed close to him the entire time.

"Come on lover boy!" Ryder taunted. "Your girl's got six minutes to live!"

Geoff ducked under a horizontal swing, and then rolled out of a vertical slice. He swung his axe and buried it into Ryder's side, making the General pull back, holding his side in pain. "Lucky shot,"

"If my Bridge gets hurt, I'm not letting you walk away!" Geoff threatened, his axe crackling with energy.

"Think you'll get lucky like the James Bond rip off artist did?" Ryder asked, sheathing his sword. "Let me show you how wrong you are!"

His body surged with red lightning that scorched the ground underneath him.

"Oh no you don't!" Geoff shouted as his swung his axe and released a blast of lightning at Ryder.

However Ryder simply smirked and held out his index finger. "Lightning Hurricane!"

A massive blast of red lightning blasted from his finger and blasted through Geoff's attack a knife through butter.

"Oh sh-"Geoff jumped off the bridge when he saw a small island below.

The attack blasted the stone bridge apart, sending debris flying everywhere.

Aelita looked over her shoulder in horror as she saw what happened. "Geoff!"

She quickly jumped as Blade threw his fist down on her.

"Concentrate on saving yourself!" Blade growled.

Geoff fell onto the rock island hard, losing fifteen life points from the hit.

"Oh man." He groaned as he sat up.

Aelita jumped back as Blade threw another giant boulder at her. Blade roared as he charged forward but Aelita raised her hand and activated her Creativity. Just as Blade neared her the ground opened up and he fell in. Aelita then turned to head for the tower when a roar from the ground was heard and Blade busted out of the ground.

"THAT'S IT! YOU'RE MINE!" Blade bellowed as he charged at her like a mad bull.

"Plasma Beam!" Aelita held out her hand and fired.

The beam struck Blade in the chest and pushed him back but all did was leave a burn mark on his chest. Blade simply growled as he charged at her. Aelita jumped into the air and dodged, knowing that if this enraged beast caught her he would tear her to pieces. Blade growled and jumped, pouring his strength into his legs he managed to jump so high he was almost right on top of Aelita.

Gasping in shock Aelita created a force field just in time as Blade slammed into it, knocking her out of the air. Aelita managed to land on her feet while Blade landed a few yards away, creating a small crater that shook the entire island. Aelita spun around in time to see Blade charge at her and swing his fist at her again. Thinking quickly Aelita formed an energy field in her fist as she dodged and jumped, slamming her fist into his face, knocking him down.

Aelita smiled but her smile vanished when Blade got up and something happened. Blade growled as black cannons came out of his hands. Aiming them at Aelita he fired large black orbs. Aelita created another force field but they smashed right through shield and one sent her flying back.

She skid across the ground until she was almost over the edge of the island.

"Like it?" Blade snickered. "Not only does my dark blood transform into close range weapons but I can create projectile cannons that can fire them so fast that anything hit is smashed by the speed and density of each shot."

Aelita got up holding her chest. Blade stepped towards her with his cannons aimed straight at her.

"How can you expect to hold off such a blast with almost nothing to block and no time to dodge? The answer is simple: just stay there and die!" Blade shouted as he fired another projectile at her.

However Aelita had an idea. Focusing her energy into her right palm an energy sword formed and she swung, cutting the cannon ball in half. Blade frowned as the pieces fell into the digital sea.

"Nothing solid can block those attacks, Blade, but after my upgrade I learned I can form energy weapons that burn through almost anything." Aelita explained as she prepared for another attack.

Xxx

"I see the river!" DJ shouted, pointing ahead.

Everyone looked to see the river ahead of them as the bus ploughed its way off the road and through the park overlooking the river. People screamed as they got out of the way and the bus smashed through the railing and fell into the river.

"Oh no!" Cody shouted.

"We're going to die!" Lindsay and Beth hugged each other, crying.

Courtney hugged Duncan, crying into his shoulder as he looked ahead with a scared look as the bus fell into the river. Eva who didn't want to go down crying kept on slamming into the door to get out but she was rebuffed with each hit. Carlos was helping but it didn't make a difference whatsoever. DJ was comforting Bridgette as she cried with most of the others.

"We are not going out like this!" LeShawna shouted as she slammed into the back emergency door.

Noah closed his eyes and gripped his seat tightly.

"Mommy!" Chris cried as he clutched his seat and hid his face. "Mother was right. I should have just worked in a fast food restaurant!"

"This might be it!" Gwen closed her eyes.

"HURRY GEOFF!" Heather shouted.

The bus fell into the river with a loud splash and began to sink.

Xxx

Aelita jumped back as Blade sent another barrage of dark blood cannon balls at her. She looked down and saw Geoff was still having trouble with Ryder. Looking back at Blade she jumped off the edge and flew down onto the rocky island where Geoff and Ryder were.

"Take this!" Ryder shouted as he prepared to fire another blast of red lightning when an energy field sent him skidding across the ground.

Geoff looked up and saw Aelita as she landed right next to him. "Aelita? Why aren't you at the tower?"

"Blade's there and I can't get through on my own. Geoff, it's a little soon but I've got an upgrade that might work against Blade. Cutting attacks won't work since every time he is cut his blood helps him. We need an attack that can hurt him from the inside." Aelita explained.

"Okay...So what's the upgrade?" Geoff asked as Blade landed on the ground next to Ryder, shaking the island.

"Computer: load program Raiden," Aelita commanded.

"_Uploading program._" The computer replied.

At that moment Geoff's avatar was enveloped in light that poured into his axe and the bladed weapon transformed back into his two chakrams. The weapons shook as they crackled with growing amounts of energy, and then the light faded. Geoff stared at his weapons as they emitted far more electricity than normal.

"_Upload complete._"

"What did that just do?"

"Throw one at Blade, and find out," Aelita instructed.

"Heh, you think any bladed weapon can pierce me?" Blade taunted. "I'm gonna enjoy grinding you into dust."

Geoff immediately threw a Chakram as Blade advanced, confident in his own invulnerability. The Chakram suddenly was a bolt of lightning that shot at Blade and struck him right in the chest. An explosion of many tendrils of visible energy almost blinded Geoff as Blade flew back with a cry of pain. When Blade landed, the Chakram was buried into his chest.

"I...you..." Blade looked between Geoff and the weapon that was buried between his ribs. "You...it pierced me...how?"

"Super upgrade dude, suck it!" Geoff snapped.

"You better stand down, Blade." Ryder commented as he walked over to the fallen general. "Your life points have dropped all the down to six. One more hit like that and you'll be a goner." He looked at Geoff and Aelita. "I'll take care of them."

Blade grunted and nodded. He got back up slowly as a portal opened up behind him. Reaching down to the chakram embedded in his chest he pulled it out grunting painfully and dark blood began to leak out from the wound. Tossing it aside he backed away glaring darkly at Geoff he limped through the portal and it vanished leaving Ryder the last obstacle between them and the tower.

"Okay, party boy; let's see how well your upgrade goes up against someone who knows how to use lightning too!" Ryder shouted as electricity crackled around him.

"With pleasure!" Geoff shouted and threw the other chakram at Ryder.

"Spark Disk!" Ryder shouted and threw a wheel of red lightning at the chakram.

Both attacks collided and unleashed an explosion of red and white energy. Geoff's chakram flew back into his hand and he prepared to throw it again

"Lightning Sprint!" Ryder shouted and vanished in a flash of red light.

Geoff had no time to react as a fist drove itself into his stomach and sent him flying back. Ryder had to duck as Aelita threw a punch at him.

"Aelita, I got this guy!" Geoff shouted as he grabbed his other chakram and fused them back into his axe.

Aelita nodded reluctantly and took off towards the tower.

Xxx

Everyone on the bus banged against the doors and windows as the bus the bottom of the river. Lindsay and Beth were still hugging and crying while the others were fighting to get out. That was when a crackling sound was heard.

"Did anyone hear what I think we heard?" Gwen asked nervously.

"Depends. Do you think you heard a cracking sound?" Noah asked, just as nervous.

Everyone looked and saw small cracks forming across the ceiling.

"Everyone get back!" Kurt shouted as drops of water began to fall.

"What is taking them so long?" Heather shouted.

"They'll pull through! I know they will!" Bridgette replied, praying that Geoff could get Aelita to the tower in time.

"Who will pull through? Who are you talking about?" Courtney demanded, not able to take being trapped at the bottom of the river.

"Hopefully you'll remember one day, Courtney." Gwen replied, confusing the CIT.

Xxx

Aelita flew up towards the island where the tower was on and ran for it as fast as she could. Down below Ryder and Geoff stared each other down with dark looks as they got ready.

Xxx

The water began to fill up, reaching up to everyone's stomachs.

"This is not how I wanted to go out!" Chris cried. "I was supposed to die in a huge mansion surrounded dozens of hot women!"

"Yeah right." Carlos muttered.

Xxx

Aelita stopped in front of the tower and entered it.

Xxx

Ryder and Geoff let out battle cries as they ran straight at each other.

Xxx

"Come on, Geoff. You can make it." Bridgette prayed as the water was now up to her neck.

Xxx

Aelita stepped into the center of the bottom platform and began to ascent to the second one.

Xxx

Ryder and Geoff swung their blades and when they collided there was a huge blast of lightning. Geoff ended up devirtualizing but Ryder hit the ground hard, his life points down to three. Getting up he opened a portal and vanished into it.

Xxx

The water now reached the ceiling and everyone was struggling to hold their breath.

Xxx

Aelita landed on the second platform and stepped towards the interface. She placed her hand on the screen.

**Aelita**

**Code: Lyoko**

Xxx

Everything in the real world stopped, frozen in time.

Xxx

"Tower Deactivated." Aelita said as the data fell to the bottom. "Computer, activate Time Return program. Return to the Past Now!"

The program activated and the world was engulfed in a white light.

Xxx

Geoff was up at the sound of Chris' bullhorn and got up. He ran out into the hall and found the other members of Team Victory waiting for him.

"Geoff!" Bridgette ran towards him.

"Bridge!" He hugged her and picked her up, spinning around with her in his arms.

Bridgette laughed as Geoff put her down. "I knew you would come through in time!"

"Luckily Aelita had an upgrade just for me in time. It would have been a very hard time." Geoff chuckled, rubbing the back of his head.

Bridgette grabbed his face pulled him towards her lips. Everyone in the hall sighed as they started to make out.

"Guess we should have seen this coming." LeShawna sighed but she smiled.

"Where the heck are you all? Get your butts out here!" Chris's amplified voice was heard making everyone wince.

"Okay, you two got to go!" Trent broke them up.

"Right!" Geoff and Bridgette nodded.

They quickly ran through the hall to get outside where the bus was waiting.


	64. Episode 62: Total Drama Volleyball

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 63

The trip to the beach was uneventful the second time around with no XANA taking control of the bus and driving it into the river this time.

"Okay, everyone, out of the bus!" Chris shouted.

Everyone got out of the bus and waited for Chris to get on with explaining what today's challenge was supposed to be.

"All right, after days of hard work I have found the perfect spot on the beach to start the first challenge." Chris smiled.

"You didn't do squat!" Carlos shouted. "I went out and looked for a spot while you were of putting on that stupid Chris Mclean suntan lotion!"

"Oh right. Man that stuff worked great." Chris chuckled. "Let's move!"

He led them onto the beach; no one was impressed with the location he picked out. It looked too similar to the beach on Total Drama Island.

"Today's episode will have three different challenges. Each one harder than the last and at the end of the day the team that ends up with the most victories wins!" Chris announced. "The challenge is..."

"Get on with it!" Heather and Courtney shouted.

"Shush! Don't you know anything about drama! This helps keeps the fans in suspense!" Chris snapped back. He cleared his throat. "This episode's challenge is a...Volleyball challenge!"

"You're kidding, right?" Gwen groaned.

"Nope. Volleyball just happens to be a favoured sport on the beach and a perfect way to entertain me and the thousands of viewers. Now there are some cabins over there." Chris pointed to a few cabins under some trees. "Go and change so we can get the challenge started!"

Everyone ran, their feet kicking sand into the air which caused Gwen to cough as they reached the cabin.

"Never did like coming to the beach a whole lot." She muttered.

"Really, you should come more often. It'd get you a nice healthy tan. You can borrow my sunscreen." Courtney held out a bottle of sunscreen.

Gwen stared for a second and accepted. "Thanks."

A few minutes everyone was back out on the beach in their swim suits looking at Carlos and Kurt just finishing putting up volleyball net and drawing lines to set up the court.

"All right. Here's how it goes, one team will play against one other team and the winning team faces the third. In order to win the challenge your team must defeat both other teams in the game."Chris explained the rules. "Now we just have to figure out who plays who first."

"Let me guess, we have to guess what you like best about yourself? Like that mop wig you have for hair?" Noah asked.

"Okay, smart guy; let's see if you'll actually play a sport. Team Victory against Team Chris Is So Awesomely Hot!" Chris announced.

Xxx

Confessional: Bridgette

"This is great! As someone who loves to surf the ocean I am a pro at all sorts of sports on the beach." Bridgette gave a thumbs up to the camera. "This game is mine!"

Xxx

Confessional: Izzy

"This is going to be so much fun! Izzy loves games where she can hit something!"

End Confessional

Xxx

Bridgette along with Geoff, DJ, and LeShawna stood on one side of the net while all the members of Team C stood on the other side.

"Is this even fair? They've got more members than us." Noah said.

"Well, if you guys didn't suck so much maybe you'd have more members." Chris sat on the life guard chair. "In order to win you've got to win five points. The ball must land in the line that makes up the court or no point to the team that is serving if it goes over the line. Try not to suck, Noah."

"Whatever." Noah muttered.

"Oh, and look what I got." Chris snapped his fingers.

Another robot resembling Sir Carlos landed next to him.

"He got _another_ robot?" Kurt and Carlos glared at Lesley.

"Don't look at me! Chris took out a pay check for two robots!" Lesley held up her hands.

"And you're telling us this _now_?" Carlos pointed at the robot.

It resembled Sir Carlos before it before it changed its name. Its hair style looked like Chris's and it was a bit bigger.

"Let me introduce you to Sir Christopher Deluxe 2.0!" Chris announced. "It's just like the first one but this time I programmed my brain into it so even if it does go crazy it would never harm me because I love me!"

"Dismantle it, Chris." Kurt ordered.

"What? Why?" Chris yelled.

"Because the last time you bought a robot it went crazy and tore up the place. The last thing we need is a robot rampaging through the beach."

"Never!" Chris shouted like a little kid.

"Fine." Kurt sighed, not feeling like getting into another fight. "Just don't come crying to me when that thing starts to tear up the place."

"Thank you, Kurt!" Chris smiled happily.

"Sir, your tomato juice is here." An intern held out a glass of tomato juice.

"Finally." Chris replied but before he could reach it the robot grabbed the glass of tomato juice and drank it. "...that was not supposed to happen!"

After Christopher Deluxe 2.0 finished the glass of tomato juice sparks came out of its head. "MALFUNCTION! MALFUNCTION! ACTIVATE BATTLE MODE! DESTROY EVERYTHING IN SIGHT!"

"Oh crap!" Chris squeaked.

"I told you to dismantle it!" Kurt shouted and the robot turned to him with several missile launchers appearing. "Oh shi-"

"THREAT LOCATED! DESTROY!"

"Chris, I hate you so much!" Kurt started to run off as Sir Christopher Deluxe 2.0 fired missiles and lasers from its eyes.

"...wow, I thought I'd be the one to get chased," Carlos paused. "Wait a minute, if that thing kills Kurt I won't have anybody outside the contestant teams who is smart enough to talk to! SIR CARLOS DELUXE, ATTACK!"

Suddenly Sir Carlos Deluxe burst through the nearest wall. "TARGET LOCATED, ENGAGE COMBAT MODE!" Then the two robots faced one another...then Sir Carlos' weapons retracted.

"What are you doing?"

"WARNING! SIR CHRISTOPHER DELUXE 2.0 HAS UPGRADED OUTER ARMOUR AND WEAPON SYSTEMS, AVAILABLE OFFENSIVE OPTIONS WILL NOT PENETRATE...RUN AWAY!" Sir Carlos ran away.

"Well great, Carlos' robot won't help-ACK!" Kurt yelped as the robot landed right in front of him with its rocket launchers. "CARLOS! Get your rocket launchers!"

He took off running down the beach with the robot chasing after him.

"Don't worry dude!" Carlos shouted...from the life guard chair. "I have a team en-route now; I'll just stay to make sure Chris doesn't get another robot!"

"Will Kurt be ok?" Beth asked, concerned as Kurt ran away.

"Oh he's fast on his feet, I'm sure he can dodge a robot trying to kill him." Carlos shrugged.

Several explosions rang out nearby.

"This is not _funny!_" Kurt shouted from a distance. "AH! Watch where you aim that thing! Uh oh!" BOOM! "Where do they get these things?"

"...on with the show!" Chris declared.

"_I hate you Chris!_" Kurt shouted as he ran away from the destructive robot.

"Now, Team Victory against Team Me So Destructively Hot: let the volleyball game begin!" Chris shouted...and was promptly hit in the face with a volley ball. "OW! ...anyone see where that came from?"

Noah whistled innocently.

"Just start the game!" Chris shouted. "We play to five points!"

Bridgette was the first one on Team Victory who would serve since she insisted on how good she was at volleyball. She sent the ball over the net but Izzy jumped into the air and smacked it, sending right over the net onto Team Victory's side and it hit the ground before anyone could catch it.

"Point to Team C!" Carlos raised his left hand to Team C's side. "Their serve!"

"Awesome!" Izzy cheered as the ball landed in her hand.

Tossing the ball into the air she smacked it and sent it over the net. Geoff jumped up to knock it back but it smacked him in the face. "Oh!"

DJ ran quickly managed to use his hands to knock the ball into the air and keep it from hitting the ground. "Bridge!"

Bridgette ran towards the net and jumped into the air, smacking the ball and sent onto Team C's side of the net. Izzy tried to smack it back but the ball hit her on the face and knocked her down.

"Oh. Owies." She giggled as the ball hit the ground.

"Point to Team Victory!" Carlos raised his right hand.

"Are you going to do this the entire game?" Noah asked.

"Because you asked...Yes!" Carlos shouted at him. "Now, Team Victory's serve. Trent, you're turn! LeShawna, you're on the benches."

LeShawna sat on the bench while Trent picked up the ball and sent it flying too far, and it landed outside of Team C's side...and almost nailed Heather in the face, only for her to duck.

"Sorry dude that landed out of bounds" Chris said.

"What was that? Learn to aim!" Heather glared.

"Oh right...sorry, wasn't thinking," Trent said sheepishly. "I just really don't want to lose to..."

"Oh forget it man, it's over between me and Gwen, its history!" Duncan shouted from the other side of the net. "Can we get on with the game already?"

Xxx

Confessional: Trent

"I know that I should be over it but I just want, for once, just knock Duncan on his jerky butt and wipe that cocky smirk off his face.

End Confessional

Xxx

"Serving now is Team C!" Carlos called as Duncan took the ball.

"Here we go," Duncan then sent the ball across the net. DJ managed to send it back over the net, but Izzy leaped up to hit the ball back into Team V's side. But Trent leaped at the same time...

KONK! Their faces collided, their fists missing the ball...which fell into Team C's side of the court.

"Woo! Hey Music Boy, I'm gonna have a heap of laughs watching this on TV later!" Duncan chuckled. "...and actually I think Owen will be ticked. Better hope Chris doesn't bring anybody back."

"Oh shut up..." Trent groaned, getting to his feet.

Izzy laughed dumbly as she got up. "Derrrr...haha..."

"That's two points for Team Victory." Carlos announced. "DJ hit the benches. Lindsay, you're up!"

"Okay." Lindsay skipped to where the ball was.

"This will be good." Gwen muttered as Team Amazon watched.

Lindsay picked up the ball, and tossed it into the net.

"No point. Ball to Team C." Carlos called out.

"We're not supposed to hit the net?" Lindsay asked, making everyone sigh.

"Noah, you're up." Duncan tossed the ball at the genius.

"Oh joy." Noah drawled.

He picked up the ball and sent it into the air...and it nearly hit Carlos on the head.

"Hey, watch it!" The producer snapped.

"I'm sorry. I was originally aiming for Chris." Noah shrugged.

"You're the one who hit me!" Chris shouted pointing at Noah.

"Chris, shut up. We have more important things to worry about. Like how his aim nearly knocked me off the chair!" Carlos shouted. "No point to Team C. Geoff, on the bleachers. LeShawna, your turn to serve."

LeShawna got up from the bleachers and picked up the ball which Geoff sat down. She sent the ball over the net but Izzy hit it with her head and sent it back over. Lindsay tried to catch it but she tripped over and her hand slapped the ball out of the court as she fell waving her arms.

"No point to Team Victory." Carlos groaned. "Izzy, your serve."

Izzy ran up to the ball and kicked it over the net. However it went over the line meaning that there was no score.

"That was a little unorthodox!" Carlos commented.

"But great for ratings." Chris grinned.

"Not for Team C. The ball went over the line, no point."

Izzy crossed her arms, pouting like a little girl.

"Bridgette, you're off, DJ your serve." Carlos called.

DJ took the ball and sent it flying over the net, but just like what happened with Izzy the ball went over the line.

"Dude, you're from Jamaica. How can you not know how to play this?" Chris asked.

"I was only two when I moved to Canada. Not cool man." DJ glared at Chris.

"So far you're all still even with two points. Duncan, your serve!" Carlos called.

Duncan smirked and sent the ball over the net but Trent wasn't going to allow it to land. He ran forward and spiked the ball into the air. "Someone get that!"

"I got it!" DJ jumped and hit the ball with his head making it go over the net and Izzy who tried to block.

Noah looked up and saw the ball coming down towards his head. He opened his mouth in a slow motion. "Noooooo..."

It hit him on the head and he fell over. The ball landed on the ground a few feet behind him.

"Uuuuuhhhhh...thaaaaat'sssss neeeeew," Carlos said...still in slow motion.

"Whhyyyyyyy arrrrrreee weeeee talkiiiing soooo slooooowww?" Chris asked.

"Hell if I know," Carlos said, now speaking normally. "Point to Team Victory. The score is 3-2 in Victory's favour."

"Okay then, Trent hits the bleachers and Geoff serves next!"

Geoff ran up and picked up the ball. "Get ready dudes!"

He tossed the ball into the air and slapped it sending it flying...into the net.

"No point!" Carlos called.

"What was that?" Duncan laughed.

"Team C's serve! Noah's up." Carlos nodded. "And this time if you really want to aim for Chris, aim for Chris!"

"Hey!" Chris whined.

"...or just aim over the net I guess," Carlos scoffed.

"Yeah, whatever," Noah sighed...and sent the ball over the net successfully. Nobody had actually expected him to, so needless to say Team V wasn't too prepared and the ball hit between Geoff and DJ.

"Point to Team C! Score tied, 3-3...I know people, I never saw it coming either," Carlos said. "Noah serves again."

"Aw man..." Noah sent the ball over the net again, but this time LeShawna returned it with a spike. Duncan managed to send it back, and after a few seconds of passing it back and forth the ball landed on Team C's side.

"4-3 for Team Victory!" Carlos called. "Lindsay, bleachers. Bridgette, you're up!"

"That's good, I need to get all this sand outta my hair," Lindsay said as she stepped off.

Bridgette inhaled slowly, and then sent the ball over the net with an over handed slap. Izzy sent it back with one of her vicious returns, but DJ was prepared and spiked it up into the air. But he sent it so far that it landed outside the line.

"No point to Team Victory. Team C's serve. Izzy's turn!"

Izzy snickered and rubbed her hands in that 'schemy fingers' way. She then sent the ball over the net.

"I got it!" Geoff said as he tried to raise a hand to get the ball.

"Wait, Geoff, it's gonna go-" LeShawna started before Geoff sent the ball back over the net. "Out."

"It was? Sorry," Geoff said sheepishly.

"Aw forget it man, just-LOOK OUT!" LeShawna shouted before she leaped back. Geoff yelped as he dodged aside. But LeShawna had miscalculated where Izzy had shot the ball. Instead of her intercepting it...the ball hit Geoff in the face.

"Aaaaaaahhhhhh...!" Geoff cried out...

THUD! It hit him in the face.

"Ow..." He rubbed the side of his face.

"Geoff!" Bridgette shouted and ran over to him.

"Aw it's good Bridge, just a ball," Geoff smiled as he lied on his girlfriend's lap.

"Point to Team C, 4-4." Carlos said. "Both teams need just one more point to win! Sudden death! Team C's serve, Izzy's up."

"Prepare to _die!_" Izzy said with a cruel laugh.

"She's in sudden death mode!" Cody swallowed as he ate some pop corn from a bowl.

"No, her medication just stopped working," Gwen said. "...not that it ever did any good."

"Hai-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-YA!" Izzy held the ball up. "Prepare for Izzy's Flying Pinwheel of Doom!"

"...Pinwheel of Doom?" Trent raised an eyebrow. "Yep, we've got this in the-"

"HAI YAH!" Izzy launched the ball over the net.

"AHHHH!" Geoff screamed.

"EEEEEK!" DK squealed.

"Noooo!" Bridgette reached out with one hand.

"...why are you all talking so slow?" Trent asked before he saw it and joined in with the slow-mo denial call. "Nnnnnnooooo-"

THUNK! It hit him in the face and bounced off of him, flying out over the line and at the life guard chair.

"Aaaaaahhhhh!" Carlos cried in slow motion, jumping out of the chair and slowly descending towards the Earth. "...uh...guys? No wires."

Nearby, a team of lifters nodded and dropped Carlos, who landed face first in the sand. "Ack! Gently!"

The ball hit the life guard chair and then went for the bleachers, which were occupied by Team Amazon.

"AH!" Beth ducked, and the ball hit Heather, bounced off her, hit Courtney in the back of the head, bouncing off of her and hitting Gwen in the stomach, making her double over as it rebounded and hit Cody as he stood up and backed away from the bleachers...only to be hit in the groin.

It doubled him over as he let out a cry of pain. "Aggghhhh!"

Then the ball rebounded off him as Eva stood up.

She sighed in relief. "Oh man that was close-"

THUNK! It hit her in the face...and she fell over.

All of Amazon lay unconscious or in pain. Team Victory lay in defeat. And Team Chris was cheering.

"...that was the weirdest thing I have ever seen," Noah said. "And I made a city black out."

"I think a commercial break is in order." Carlos said.

"All right. Well, folks the first part of the challenge is over. Who will in the next part? Find out after these messages on Total, Drama, Reality!" Chris announced.

"I wonder how Kurt's holding up." Carlos looked at the beach where Kurt ran off.

Xxx

"'Not supposed to happen' he said. 'Won't go on a rampage' he said." Kurt muttered as he looked around to see if he lost the robot. "Chris, if it's the last thing I do I will personally shave your head off and make sure the hair never grows back!"

He looked around for a bit and stepped out. "I think I finally lost it."

That was the one thing he should _not_ have said. The moment those words came out of his mouth the robot appeared right behind him.

"TARGET LOCATED." The robot activated its missile launchers.

"Crap!" He squeaked and jumped out of the way of the incoming missiles and lasers.

"DESTROY! DESTROY!" The robot repeated over and over.

"You sure got Chris's brains!" Kurt shouted as he jumped and avoided a missile.

Xxx

"And we're back!" Chris announced when the commercials were over. "Last we left off Team Victory got their _loser_ butts kicked by Team Me Winner Hot in the first round of the Total Drama Volleyball tournament. Now all they have to do is whoop Team Amazon's butts in this round and they win."

On Team Amazon's side were Eva, Heather, Courtney, and Gwen while Cody and Beth were on the bench. Cody was still nursing his lower region from being hit by the ball thanks to Izzy.

Xxx

Confessional: Heather

"After Izzy's shot they should have had her taken out of the game. She's a hazard in a game like this."

"Yeah right. She'll bring in tons of ratings!" Chris called outside the confessional.

"Go away!"

Xxx

Confessional: Eva

"Unlike surfer girl I'm a real pro at volley ball. I played all sorts of sports to keep up my exercising!"

Xxx

Confessional: Cody

"Did I do something to tick Izzy off?" Cody asked as he held an ice pack to his crotch area.

End Confessional

Xxx

"Alright then first up we have Eva serving...my god I pity Team C," Carlos shook his head. "Begin!"

Eva sent the ball sailing through the air. Noah squeaked and ducked before it could hit him in the face again; luckily Izzy was able to spike it back up into the air. It just went over the net by a bit and was returned by Courtney. Duncan held one arm up and casually slapped it back to Team Amazon's side. "Sorry princess."

Courtney's eyes narrowed as Gwen sent it back to Team C's side. Noah managed to bump it over the net, and Courtney leaped up and slammed it down with one hand.

THUNK! It hit Duncan in the face. He sighed. "...ok I had that coming...check please." He fell over.

"Point to Team Amazon!...medic!" Carlos looked to a pair of men in white coveralls. "Ice Pack for the Three Days Grace Reject! Eva serves again!"

"Can I at least have a one minute break?" Duncan asked with an ice pack over his face.

"We got a show to do, smart guy, suck it up!" Carlos said.

Eva served again, but Izzy was ready this time and intercepted it at the net. She slammed it down so it landed between Gwen and Heather, who didn't even have time to try and return it.

"Point to Team C! And Izzy serves!"

"Oh crap!" The members of Team Amazone shouted at once.

"I know...let me get off the chair first!" Carlos said.

"HAIIIII-YAH!" Izzy leaped up and sent the ball sailing over the net...and sadly landed it outside the line. "DOH!"

"No Point to Team C! Out of bounds!" Carlos sighed in relief. "Oh thank god it didn't hit me or anybody."

"Uh...sir?" One of the medics spoke up.

"Yeah?"

"You should see where the ball landed." The medic pointed...to a now sinking fishing boat with a volley ball sized hole in it.

"...how does she _bloody_ do that_?_" Carlos shouted, and shook his head as he grabbed another ball. "Ok, Gwen's on the bleachers. Cody serves!"

"Kay!" Cody limped into position and took the ball. He straightened up-despite the still present pain in his twig'n berries and tried to do an overhand serve, only for it to fall short. "...sorry guys."

"Don't worry Cody, we know it's uh...hard to serve like that," Gwen said from the stands.

"No point to Team Amazon, Team C's serve with Duncan serving!"

Duncan nodded and managed to easily send the ball over the net with an underhanded serve. Eva managed to return it, and Noah tried to send it back over the net. But sadly he suffered a minor thing that some new players might experience...he bumped one finger against the ball instead of all at once. He winced. "Ow!" He held his hand as the ball hit the ground.

"Point to Team Amazon, 2-1! Courtney's off, Beth goes on to serve!"

Beth took the ball and smiled. "I played volley ball a few times back home." She then managed to get it over the net with a few inches to spare, and Izzy sent it back. Heather dove and managed to send the ball back up into the air. But as it was about to pass over the net Noah made a desperate leap.

"Aaaaaahhhhh!" He shouted in slow motion.

"What the hell is with all the slow motion?" Carlos shook his head.

THUNK! It struck him in the face.

"Yaaaaaaaaaggghhh!" He fell back to the Earth in slow motion, kicking up a small cloud of sand at 5 miles per hour.

The ball flopped back onto Team Amazon's side.

"Creative, Point to Team C, 2-2, Noah's serve!"

"Great," Noah drawled, getting up. "I hate volley balls."

"Well they hate you too genius," Carlos nodded.

Noah held the ball, and swallowed. "If you hit me again," He added in a whisper. "_I will destroy you._"

Duncan and Izzy exchanged a look, and shrugged.

Noah held the ball up and then tossed it up, rearing one hand back for an overhand serve...but missed and the ball hit him in the face, _again!_

THUNK! And down he went.

"Wow. And...No point to Team C." Carlos said and started to laugh. "I so want to see that happen again. Ball goes to Team Amazon, Heather, you're on the bleachers, Gwen you're serve."

Gwen caught the ball as it was passed to her. The rest of her team, assuming that she had _never_ even touched a volley ball tensed.

"You can do it, Gwen!" Courtney cheered drawing looks.

Xxx

Confessional: Heather

"Courtney's definitely up to something. There's no way Gwen's had any experience with playing this game so why bother to cheer for her?"

Xxx

Confessional: Courtney

"Gothy's so going to choke on this one but maybe if I offer support I might be able lure her into a false sense of security and convince her to help me against Heather."

Xxx

Confessional: Gwen

"If there's one thing I've learned about everyone it's that I can tell when they think you're going to choke. Thanks for the faith guys!"

End Confessional

Xxx

She held the ball out in one hand, reared her other arm back...

THWACK!

She sent it flying over the net. Noah squeaked as it flew at him. He ducked...and it hit Duncan in the same spot he was hit before.

"Oh COME ON!" He shouted one hand on his face.

"Whoa, the goth girl knows how to play-and guys it bounced back over the net!" Carlos warned Team Amazon. The ball had rebounded off of Duncan and over the net where Eva sent it back with an overhand hit. Izzy swatted it back down, but Beth managed hit it up. But she accidently made it hit the net.

"Oh so close...aw well, we have another memorable moment from Team C," Carlos shrugged. "No Point to Team Amazon. Team C serves with Izzy."

Izzy eagerly caught the ball and then launched it over the net again. For about thirty seconds the two teams managed to keep sending it over until Eva tried to intercept it just as it was about to pass over the net. She leaped up and swung, her hand clipping the ball and making it hit right on the line, where it stayed.

"...what does that count as?" Duncan asked.

"Uh...beats me dude," Carlos shrugged. "Chris, what does that count as?"

"What makes you think I know anything about volleyball?" Chris shrugged.

"...you _picked_ it!" Carlos snapped.

"Yeah, and I picked a whole lot of sports for these guys to play in other seasons, doesn't mean I knew about them!" Chris replied defensively.

Carlos grumbled. "...well, time to consult my closest companion, next to Melissa...and Kurt...Mr Coin!" He held up a Canadian Quarter. "Call it teams, whichever side comes up gets the point!"

"Heads!" Duncan and Izzy shouted.

"Tails!" Heather, Courtney, and Cody shouted.

(**This was actually judged with a real quarter)**

Carlos tossed the quarter up into the air. It flipped end over end until it landed in his palm. He closed his fingers over it for a second, and then peeked at it. "...HEADS! Point to Team C! 3-2 for Team C!"

"I never win at that game!" Cody snapped his fingers.

"Team C's serve! Still Izzy!"

Izzy cheered. "Yay!"

Carlos reached into a bag next to him and put on a construction hat. "Brace yourselves!"

Izzy tossed the ball up into the air, and leaped up. She sent it flying with an overhand serve. It shot over the net, aimed at Cody.

"Oh no! Not my-" Cody covered his groin...and it flew between his knees. "...phew!"

The ball landed a foot behind him.

"Point to Team C again, 4-2." Carlos said. "This is it! Izzy gets another shot in and Team C wins the challenge for the day."

Izzy caught the ball and snickered. "Sudden _death mode!_"

"We all know what that means!" Carlos shouted, hiding behind his chair. "Everybody take cover!"

Team Victory hid behind the bleachers.

Izzy let out her war cry and launched the ball over the net.

"Noooooo!" Cody shouted-again with the slow motion?

Gwen moved to intercept, but then stopped. She also stopped Eva from getting it. "What are you-?"

"That," Gwen pointed to the line, which she and Eva had moved closest to during the game. "We never noticed that." The ball landed right outside it!

"No point to Team C! We're saved!" Carlos grinned. "Ok, Eva's off, Courtney serves!"

Eva rushed off while Courtney caught the ball while moving in. She took a deep breath, exhaled, and then hit the ball with an underhand serve. It was going to hit near Noah, who tried to move under it...

And it hit his injured finger.

"YOW! WHY?" Noah cried, falling to his knees. "I HATE VOLLEYBALL!" The ball hit the ground.

"Point to Team Amazon, 4-3!" Carlos called. "Courtney serves again!"

Team Chris was now being more cautious. Duncan and Izzy picked up the slack for Noah and managed to keep returning it, but then Izzy got eager and rushed for the ball when Courtney leaped up to tap it back over the net in mid flight. Izzy leaped and hit the ball...but she hit the net and almost tore it down, but instead got twisted in it. And Cody managed to send it back to Team C's side.

"Wow...4-4, tie game, now it's a real sudden death...will somebody get Izzy down?" Carlos asked.

"Oh no, no, just leave me here! I like this!" Izzy whined.

"Izzy get down," Carlos said sternly. "You're not supposed to be up there."

"Fine! Party pooper," Izzy pouted and untangled herself.

"Ok...sudden death." Carlos said. "Courtney serves again..."

Courtney swallowed, and hit the ball with an underhand serve again. It tumbled through the air, momentarily eclipsing the sun as all eyes focused on it. Then, it came down so close to the line...and hit the top of the net. Twenty or so pairs of eyes blinked as it didn't bounce or roll off, it just kept rolling along the top of it.

"Come on...come on!" Chris bit his lip. "Come on Team Me So Hot!"

"Get it!" Courtney shouted.

"Hit it!" Duncan shouted.

They both rushed for the net...and an explosion rang out on the edge of the side. Kurt rushed through suddenly.

"Kurt?"

"Hi Carlos! His everyone! You suck Chris!" Kurt shouted as he ran through. "AH!" He was chased by Sir Christopher Deluxe 2.0.

"DESTROY! DESTROY!" The robot shouted, launching missiles that sent everybody flying into the air.

"Whoa..." the cameraman said as the crew watched everything go to hell.

"I HATE THIS SHOW!" Kurt shouted.

"WHOA MOMMA!" Carlos was sent flying, still sitting in the life guard's chair.

"I don't wanna die!" Noah shouted, twisted in the net with Izzy.

"Where's the ball?" Duncan and Courtney shouted, looking around.

"Up high!" Noah and Izzy shouted.

Duncan and Courtney saw it, and both rushed for the net at once. "AHHHH!"

"Aaaaaaggghhhh!" Kurt screamed as the robot caught up to him.

"Aaaaaahhhhh!" Carlos screamed as the life guard chair fell to the ground.

"Ahhhh!" Chris shrieked as he hid under a picnic table. "OW! Man who made this sandwich!" He held up a sandwich. "It tastes awful!"

Duncan and Courtney both leaped up at once, hands raised to hit the ball...

THUD!

They hit _each other, _and fell into the net, twisting it around and making Izzy and Noah fall out of it. In the end they became the prisoners of the much abused volley ball net. They were stuck face to face, stunned and shocked...and then the ball hit Duncan on the back of the head and rolled onto Team C's side.

There was a stunned silence. Even Sir Christopher 2.0 had stopped to see, even as he held Kurt up by the collar of his shirt.

"...Point to Team Amazon! And the winners of this game!" Carlos suddenly jumped out of a pile of sand, hands held up high. "Amazon wins this match!"

"YEAH!" Team Amazon cheered.

"YES!" Kurt smiled, then Sir Christopher 2.0 looked at him again. "Uh oh. Carlos, get me a sword!"

"You got it buddy!" Carlos then reached into his cooler... and pulled out a long sword. "Catch!"

Kurt caught it and then jammed it into the robot's arm, making it drop him. "En garde you tin can!"

Suddenly the robot's chest opened up, and it pulled out a long sword of its own. "STATEMENT: THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!"

"...Wow, Chris' brain is not doing you favours," Kurt shook his head and then engaged the robot in a sword fight.

"Ok get ready for the next game!" Chris shouted as the sword fight moved away.

"What? I thought we won!" Gwen said.

"We can't have it that simple, there are three teams." Chris shook his head. "If we just had one team drop out at the beginning then everybody would know who _isn't_ going to win. So to win this challenge you need _two_ victories! You beat Team Me, which sucks, so now you have to beat Team Victory!"

"Aw man, we'll never get out of here alive," Cody groaned.

"You got that right!" Kurt shouted, still exchanging blows with Sir Christopher 2.0. "Whoa! Watch the legs! I haven't had a sword fight like this in a while!"

"He really hasn't," Carlos added.

"When does Kurt sword fight?" Noah asked, nursing his hand.

"Since that one time, not too far from here actually a few years ago..." Carlos trailed off. "He got into a real sword fight."

Xxx

_Kurt held a fencing sword in one hand, fending off multiple strikes from a cloaked opponent while a woman clung to his right leg. Then he forced his opponent's blade up and then pointed the tip at his throat. "Back you scoundrel!"_

Xxx

"...who?" Noah asked, incredulous.

"We never found out his name," Carlos shrugged. "But Kurt tells me the guy was a _real _scoundrel."

"Can someone get me out of here?" Courtney asked, still tangled up in the net next to Duncan. "I can hardly breathe next this _scoundrel_." She coughed, unable to cover her nose. "Have you even heard of mouthwash?"

"Hey, go ahead and leave us like this. I'm kind of enjoying it and I think she's enjoying it too." Duncan smirked as he looked at Courtney.

"You're lucky I can't move my arms!" Courtney shouted, struggling to move.

After Courtney and Duncan were untangled from the net Team C sat on the bleachers while Team Amazon and Team Victory faced off. Beth and Cody sat on the Team Amazon bench while Lindsay and DJ sat on the Team Victory bench.

"Okay, to find out who serves first, call heads or tails!" Carlos called out.

"Heads!" Geoff, LeShawna, and Trent called out.

"Tails!" Heather and Courtney shouted.

The following was AGAIN decided with a real coin. Don't believe me?...shut up.

Carlos tossed the coin up into the air, and caught it. He uncurled his fingers and shouted. "Heads!"

"We lose _again,_" Cody sighed. "Is it because I'm on this team?"

No Cody, we don't hate you that much, so quit whining. The coin has spoken!

"Team Victory serves!" Carlos declared, passing the ball to Bridgette while Geoff, Trent and LeShawna took their positions on the court across from Gwen, Heather, Eva and Courtney. "Bridgette serves first!"

Bridgette managed to get the ball over the net where it was intercepted by Heather. It flew over Geoff and Trent, only for LeShawna to launch it back over to Team A's side.

It was coming at Courtney who swallowed at the sheer speed it was moving. She considered letting them have this point...

"Hey Princess, I made a bet with barby over there!" Duncan called. "If you lose, she gives me a big kiss!"

"I did?" Lindsay blinked, then Duncan cleared his throat. "Oh-oh yeah! I did!"

Courtney's vision turned red, and she struck the ball so hard that when it flew back over...Trent went stiff...and then fell over, hands on the ball, which was seemingly stuck to his stomach. "Ow..."

"Uh...point to Team Amazon!...can't call that interference," Carlos shrugged. "Ok then, Team Amazon serves with Cody, and Courtney goes on the benches...thank god for everybody."

Courtney marched over to the benches where Team C was sitting.

"And Duncan might want to either run away or invest in health insurance," Carlos added.

"I'll take that first one!" Duncan leaped over the back of the bleachers.

"Duncan when I get my hands on you I'll-" Courtney started.

"Whoa now Courtney," Carlos objected. "No beating up on Team C's bench. You're on Team A's bench."

Courtney grumbled and sat down.

Duncan, hiding behind the lifeguard chair nodded at Carlos and passed him fifty Euros. "Thanks,"

"Don't mention it, it was a pleasure doing business with you," Carlos said silently, pocketing the Euros. "Clever plan." He spoke up. "Team A's serve!"

Cody sent the ball to the back of Team V's side, where Trent sent it flying back to the front of Team A's. Eva jumped up and stretched one arm out. The other team was ready for a vicious slam, but she lightly tapped it so it merely tumbled towards the ground.

Geoff threw himself forward and bumped the ball back over the net. Gwen hopped up and returned it to Team V, but LeShawna had moved up, and then did what Eva had been expected to do. The ball hit on Team A's side so hard it kicked up a small cloud of sand.

"Point to Team Victory! 1-1!" Carlos shouted. "Alright, LeShawna goes off and Lindsay serves!"

"Oh no!" All of the players on Team V shouted.

Xxx

Confessional: Heather

"Oh yes. There's no way Lindsay will get them a point." Heather smirked.

End Confessional

Xxx

"Ready!" Lindsay said brightly, holding the ball.

"Your serve Lindsay, have at it!" Carlos called.

Lindsay tossed the ball into the air, and swung her right arm up. It was a well executed serve that sailed over the net and was barely returned by a quick reaction from Heather.

"...ok that was unexpected," Carlos said as the ball was returned several times to each side.

Lindsay was returning at least a third of every shot sent by Team A, mostly the ones sent towards the back of Team V's side.

"Man this one is taking longer than usual," Noah said, his head turning each time the ball flew past. "Aw well, as long as it stays on the court and away from my face I-"

"Oh! I broke a nail!" Lindsay whined, shaking her head after sending the ball back. A vicious return from Gwen sent it glancing off her head. "Oof!"

Noah spotted it, and...

_Code Lindsay_

"Crap," He sighed.

THUNK!

Both Noah and Lindsay lay in the dirt, face down.

"...medic!" Carlos called, and the men in white carried the two away. "Point to Team Amazon, 2-1! Beth serves now. Eva, you're on the benches!"

As Team A rotated again, Beth tried to get the ball over the net. But it fell short and hit the middle of the net.

"Ooh, sorry Beth," Carlos shook his head. "Ok, no point to Team A. Team V's serve and DJ's up! Trent, hit the benches."

DJ did not fail to impress the team this time. His serve scored them their second point without giving Team Amazon any chance to react.

"Good one DJ! Point to Victory! 2-2! Serve again!"

DJ would have scored a third point, but Gwen threw herself forwards desperately and managed to just barely get the ball back over the net. Geoff almost casually flicked his hand and made it fall towards Gwen, who shut her eyes before Heather took over with a vicious swing.

THUNK! It hit Geoff's head, dazing him instead of knocking him out cold like Lindsay and Noah. But it rebounded over the net to where Gwen was waiting for it, sending it back again.

"Man, now I know why Noah hates this, that ball hurts!" Geoff whined, one hand rubbing the side of his head.

"DUCK!" Bridgette shouted.

"YIPE!" Geoff dove out of the way of the ball, which Bridgette failed to intercept.

"Point to Team Amazon! 3-2! Courtney's serve! Heather's on the benches!"

"Finally!" Courtney got up and caught the ball as DJ passed it to her. "It's about time I get the chance to finally get the chance to show everyone how I'll finish this game in just a few seconds."

She sent the ball over the net but Geoff sent it back over with a vicious slap. Eva sent it back over but Trent managed to spike it into the air and Bridgette jumped into the air and sent the ball back onto Team Amazon's side. Courtney ran to send the ball back over but Gwen noticed something. "Courtney, wait, the ball's going over-"

She hit the ball and it hit Gwen in the stomach before she could finish her sentence.

"Point to Team Victory. 3-3." Carlos announced.

"What was that? I sent the ball right to you!" Courtney shouted at Gwen as she got up.

"Well, _sorry,_ but when I saw the ball was going over the line I figured 'Hey, why not tell Courtney it's going over the line and totally let my guard down when she sends the ball right into my stomach!'" Gwen retorted. "Next time I'll just shut up and let you try to hit the ball when it goes over the line."

Courtney growled as the ball went to LeShawna and Geoff took her place on the benches.

"Get ready everyone because LeShawna's going to win the game!" LeShawna shouted as sent the ball into the air but instead of going over the net it headed straight for the table where Chris was having a sandwich.

"Ah!" Chris shouted as he jumped away with his sandwich in his hands as the ball hit the table and knocked some plates down.

"No point to Team Victory." Carlos announced. "Gwen, you're off, Eva's serve!"

Eva wasted no time in _launching_ the ball like an arrow...or a rocket...or whatever really fast object. It shot over the net, and came close to the back line. Bridgette jumped and desperately swung one hand. Though the blow did not entirely send the ball back at the same speed, it managed to just barely lift it over the top of the net. Cody made a leap and knocked the ball back over to the other side in time.

"Whoa man it's getting more intense every time!" Chris said. "But come on, where's the drama people?"

"Chris, if you ask for any more soap opera moments on this, I will use you as fishing bait," Carlos threatened without even looking at his cousin. "...and for crying out loud get your hand out of my cooler!"

"Aw you are so selfish man! You've probably got tons of soda and beer in here-YOW!" Chris withdrew his hand...which had a mouse trap on it. "What the hell man?"

"I knew you'd try to stick your hand in, and I tried to warn you," Carlos then glanced back to the game as Amazon managed to land the ball in Victory's side. "4-3 in Amazon's favour. Eva serves. Pardon me a moment." He promptly put on a forest camouflage helmet with matching elbow pads, knee pads, and a vest. "Ok...serve!"

Eva swung the ball up and hit it. It went up in an arch, coming down towards the sand.

At that moment, several things happened.

Number One: Chris once again tried to rummage through the cooler-not knowing Carlos had hidden a full sized Rap Trap in it.

Number Two: Kurt, standing victorious on top of the defeated Sir Christopher Deluxe 2.0 held his sword up to the air and roared. "Hah! There can be only ONE!"

Number Three: The robot, in a last attempt to destroy Kurt activated the rockets hidden in its shoulders and fired them...missing Kurt entirely and shooting up into the air. They began to spiral towards the ground...

"Come on..." Courtney bit her lip.

"Here it comes!" Beth said nervously.

"I got it! I got it!" DJ shouted eagerly, leaping up and rearing one arm back, ready to strike.

BOOM!

As DJ hit the ball, explosions occurred in the background, highlighting his figure while taking up the background. He sent the ball flying over the net as the explosions spread around the area, not touching the game. The members of Team Amazon stared in awe...and were so distracted the ball managed to bounce off Cody's face and hit the ground.

"Wow..." Carlos said.

"Ow..." Cody groaned, rubbing his nose.

"That. Was. Awesome." Chris said. "That's gonna get us a whole lot of ratings!...Carlos ,where'd you get those fireworks?"

"Me? I was about to ask you that!" Carlos said defensively.

"Then...where'd those come from?" Chris looked around.

"Dunno...don't care! Final score everybody! Team Victory serves!" Carlos declared.

Bridgette took her place on the benches while Trent stepped up to serve.

"Alright, the fate of this game is riding on you Elvis-I mean Trent!" Carlos said. "Your serve!"

"Okay...I've got this...I can do this..." Trent slowly held the ball up, eyes fixed on it. He slowly held his other hand back. "Ok...no holding back...gonna win...gonna win..."

"Gonna get the hell on with it today?" Duncan asked.

"...screw you," Trent muttered, and then tossed the ball up and sent it over the net with and over hand serve.

"Get it!" Courtney shouted, diving for it and managing to send it back over the net.

"HAH!" LeShawna struck it back, only for Cody to take one for the team and leap up...

THUNK!

"OW! WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN?" Cody shouted as the ball bounced off his face.

The ball, rebounding from his face shot back into Team V's side and hit Trent in the face, knocking him down. The ball then bounced down onto his chest and rolled off.

There was silence...

"Point to Team Amazon! THEY WIN!" Carlos shouted through ha megaphone.

Team A cheered while Team V stared, devastated. Cody walked over to Trent and offered his hand to help the musician up. "You okay, man?"

"I'm good." Trent took his hand and got up. "How's your face?"

"Fine. I've been hit way too many times for it to bother me now." Cody shrugged.

"Well, Team Victory is once again Team _Loser_ and now we get to decide which of you leaves and never comes back." Chris announced.

"Hey guys." Kurt walked over to them.

"Hey, Kurt, how'd that fight with the robot go?" Carlos asked.

"It was good, right?" Kurt looked behind him and Chris's new robot appeared behind him.

"Kurt watch out!" Everyone shouted, preparing to fun for it.

"Relax. I found a way to turn it off and put it on voice command. Even though it now needs a voice command for everything it can't go on a rampage now." Kurt reassured them. "And I'll be making sure that you're not getting back, Chris."

"No! Why?" Chris fell to his knees.

Carlos smacked him on the head. "You're an idiot, Chris. Now, let's get on with this elimination."

That was when Carlos' cell phone rang. Pulling it out he answered quickly. "Hello? Director! What's up?...Yeah...okay...You got it." He hung up. "Sorry guys, no elimination today."

"What?" Chris asked.

"The director believes that it's too dangerous to have the robots on the show with the contestants. So unfortunately we have to get rid of Sir Carlos and this robot. She wants it on the plane immediately."

"So why can't we send the loser home along with the robots?" Chris asked.

"Are you kidding? One unlucky loser on a plane with two killer robots?" Carlos looked at Chris like he was an even bigger idiot than everyone thought. "All right, everyone, go change and back on the bus!"

Then he looked to Sir Carlos Deluxe. "Goodbye Sir Carlos, we'll meet again...I'm sending you to my dad's storage shack back up in the countryside."

"AFFIRMATIVE, THIS UNIT SHALL WAIT FOR REACTIVATION." Sir Carlos boomed.

"Oh and uh...don't touch the mason jars marked 'Hearts of True Heroes'...nobody has to know about them," Carlos added in a whisper.

"DISTURBED RESPONSE: AFFIRMATIVE, WHATEVER YOU SAY." Sir Carlos nodded.

"You!" Kurt pointed at Sir Christopher 2.0. "Go with Carlos, do whatever he says until you're on the plane. And even then do what the pilot says!"

"AFFIRMATIVE!" Sir Chris boomed.

The two robots marched off, side by side to an awaiting armoured truck that would carry them to the airport.

"...I'm gonna miss Sir Carlos," Carlos sighed.

"...why?" Cody, standing next to Carlos asked.

"...ah good point, to hell with him," Carlos shrugged and walked away.

"I guess this concludes another episode. What will happen next time? Will we finally get an eliminated contestant next time? Will I find a new assistant? Find out next time on Total, Drama, REALITY!" Chris shouted.

"Oh Chriiiiis!" Kurt said in a sing-song voice. "The Director wants to talk with you!" He then pulled out of the bus, a small portable TV that he turned on, revealing...

"CHRIS MCLEAN!"

"AH!" Chris gave out a high pitched scream.

"Oh and LESLEY!"

"EEEEEEKKKK!" Lesley squealed.


	65. Episode 63: Ghost: Invasion of the Noahs

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 64

"Noah, no."

"Oh come on, I'm smart enough to program upgrades into my own character," Noah whined.

"You said something similar with Smith," Aelita pointed out, not taking her eyes off of the screen of the super calculator.

"Ok in my defence that would have worked if it wasn't for Shadow and the possessed Heather, so not my fault!" Noah said defensively.

"Look, Noah, I know how you and everybody are excited to see the upgrades after Heather and Geoff's demonstration, but it takes time to program upgrades for everybody," Aelita explained.

"Which is why I can be a helping hand!" Noah added. "Come on, Cody and I got this faster than anybody, even with your instructions. I'm pretty sure I can program my character to be a neo-superman if I put enough work into it."

"Noah," Aelita sighed, turning to him. "Don't take offense, but Gwen, Cody, and several others warned me of how your intellect might turn you into a mad scientist one day."

"Yeah, except I'll probably be sarcastic _with_ the lab coat," Noah nodded. "I mean come on, just because I messed up with one program doesn't mean you have to handle everything on your own. Gimmee a clue about what it is at least!"

"Noah, I don't know if any one ever said this to you in a computer class or a computer related subject...but no." Aelita said bluntly. "One lab accident Noah, just one and you'll go nuts. Smith didn't count, and that was fortunate enough."

"Yeah I know, I get it, I caused a couple black outs, and because I'm so smart nobody ever had the guts to say no to me in a computer related subject," Noah chuckled. "In fact I think only you, Cody, and that Jeremy guy are on par with me."

"Nice to know you're capable of acknowledging that," Aelita deadpanned.

"Aw come on, do I have to beg?" Noah asked.

"No Noah, you don't have to," Aelita shrugged. "I'd still say no. Can't you enjoy a day off from the challenges?"

"You don't watch Total Drama much, do you?" Noah asked. "Chris' schedule hardly leaves you time to sleep. At least I can spend my sleepless nights working on something useful."

"Noah, when I finish yours and everyone's upgrades I'll show you so you can judge," Aelita said firmly, hands on her hips. "Until then if you keep asking me I'll reprogram you avatar to put you in a Tutu."

"You'd do that?"

"I'd even put a pretty pink bow in your hair and frilly underwear to add to the effect." Aelita threatened.

"...you really have a capacity for evil," Noah muttered bitterly before he left the lab. "Far beyond that of XANA."

"I'll take that as a compliment...or try to," Aelita mumbled, typing away on the computer.

Little did she suspect that in a certain Canadian boy's head, a scheme was forming.

Xxx

Aelita usually worked well into the night on the portal and the upgrades. After Gwen and Izzy's accident with the portal generator she upgraded the defences as she prepared for when she would use to it to forge a connection with XANA's digital domain. However she knew when they reached XANA's lair they would need to upgrade their powers and weapons for any surprise XANA might have up his sleeve. Aelita would stay up as long as possible before leaving to get some sleep around 1:00 am.

As she exited the elevator she stopped and let out a yawn before she left the lobby. She never noticed that someone was watching her leave from a hiding spot. After making sure she was gone the figure tiptoed towards the hatchway leading to the ladder that led down to the lab. Taking extra care to not be spotted by the security cameras he climbed down onto the floor and ran beneath the camera over the lab.

Noting which wire controlled the camera he pulled and he saw the red light on the camera switch off. Smirking at his victory Noah strolled over to the computer. Sitting down he pulled out the folder labelled 'Ghost' that had his upgrade on it and looked it over.

"Okay, let's see what I got... Illusionary decoys to confuse the enemy." Noah looked it over. "Not bad and combined with my intangibility that would fool almost anyone...But I can do a whole lot better."

He typed away at the computer to modify his upgrade.

"Okay, test it out, when Aelita shows to everyone what it is, she sees how good it works and even though she will likely smack you across the head she will not put you in a tutu." Noah smirked as he put in the automatic virtualization sequence.

He took the elevator and into the scanner as the countdown hit zero. The scanner closed and he was sent into Lyoko.

Xxx

Landing in the Desert Sector of Lyoko Noah took a second to look around just in case a monster or general would try to sneak up on him.

"Okay, let's do this." Noah looked up. "Computer, load program 'Ghost'."

A flash of light appeared around him for a few seconds. Looking down at himself for signs of any changes he noticed a watch on his left wrist.

"Okay, let's test it out." Noah pressed the button and in a flash of light he split...into two! "...Whoa. Okay then, now to make sure that it works and not some glitch here's a question for the good looking guy in front of me. What's two plus two?"

"What are you, in kindergarten?" His copy asked.

"Ok, so you're not some dumb clone, that's good," Noah nodded.

"Wish I could say the same for you, buddy." The clone crossed his arms.

"Ouch...now I know why people hate me so much," Noah muttered. "Ok, let's make sure all your weapons work, turn your arm into a gun."

"Ok," Noah-2 turned his left arm into a gun...and shot Noah in the foot.

"OW!" Noah hopped around on one foot, clutching his other. "Why'd you shoot me for?"

"I thought you wanted to test it," The clone shrugged.

"Oh yeah? Let's see how you like it!" Noah then turned both arms into guns and shot his clone twice, knocking him down.

"OW! The hell man?"

"Not so funny now, is it?" Noah scoffed. "Ok, you can think too much like me, but you can fight like me, a lot better than some illusionary copy."

"I also have THIS power!" The clone then split into two more clones.

"Get him!" Noah-3 shouted.

"AH! Wait...this means war!" Noah split into two more clones.

Both teams of four tried to further split, with no more success.

"Ok...why can't we multiply anymore?" One Noah asked.

"Beats me, maybe it's a limit," Noah-6 shrugged.

"Hm..." Noah sighed. "Ok, funs over, back to the real world."

"Okay!" All seven Noahs focused their guns on him. "Whoa now, what are you doing?"

"You said you want to go back to the real world, don't you want us to shoot you?" Noah-3 asked.

"No!" Noah shook his head. "I'll just...Okay, I don't remember how I was going to do it."

"Ok, plan B, shoot him!" Noah-2 shouted.

"OH yeah? Well...eat this!" Noah raised both guns as all seven Noahs fired at him.

In short, after a two minute long gun fight, all eight Noahs were down...

The bad part...Noah didn't end up devirtualizing alone.

Xxx

Noah fell out of the scanner he stepped in earlier, not expecting to fall to the ground with the feeling two bodies falling on top of him.

Noah sat up, looking at the pile of bodies. "...oh...my...god..." He face palmed. "I am_ so_ going in the tutu for this."

"Yeah, bad luck for you buddy!" Noah-2 chuckled.

"Why are you smiling? You're me!"

"Yeah, but I didn't go ahead with this crazy plan, it was _your_ idea." Noah-2 replied. "I'm an innocent copy drawn into this madness."

Noah, so stressed and angered by now had a repeat of when he made a bully cry by making fun of his shoes...he just never knew his own insults could make not one, but _seven_ versions of him cry.

After the tear fest, he got his clones to regroup.

"Ok...we need a plan to figure this out so nobody finds out about this," Noah said urgently. "I disabled all the cameras, so nobody will know about this. What we need to do is this: you guys hide out here and I'll go back and figure out how to fix this."

"What, you go back to the Studio and sleep on a nice soft bed and we sleep on the cold floor?" Noah-4 demanded.

"Why don't you stay here and _we_ go back to the studio?" Noah-8 demanded.

"Oh yeah? Well what would people say when they see _multiple amounts of ME walking through the freakin' door!_" Noah shouted.

The all stared at him. Noah-7 then spoke up. "We sneak in?"

"Well what's your brilliant plan for sneaking in, genius?" Noah asked. "...and oh dear god I'm insulting myself!"

"Just leave it to us," Noah-6 said competently. "We have a plan, and nobody will know what happened."

"...if only I could believe a single word I say," Noah sighed. "The tutu is so beckoning."

Xxx

_And so our hero(es) returned home...and caused the apocalypse._

**_In the morning..._**

"Hey Kurt!" Carlos called, looking at an empty fridge. "What happened to all the food? I went shopping yesterday!"

"Noah took it all," Kurt replied.

"Noah? What the hell?" Carlos looked at him. "The guy's featherweight! And I just saw him in the cafeteria!"

"He said there wasn't enough food for him," Kurt shrugged.

"So what, did he pull an 'Owen' on us?"

"Beats me man,"

"Now I have to go shopping all over again! Worst of all I can't find the Klondike bars!" Carlos whined. "Kurt, I leave you responsible to make sure Noah hits the gym from now on!" He stormed out.

Xxx

"Noah! What's taking you so long man?" Geoff complained. "I gotta go dude!" He banged on the door with one hand, the other on his stomach.

"Hey Geoff," Noah said as he walked up behind him.

"Hey Noah, can you tell Noah to hurry...up...?" Geoff turned.

"What?" Noah...specifically Noah-7 asked.

"If you're you, then who's-?" Geoff blinked as the door slowly came open. "But-who-" The other Noah, Noah-5 slipped out quickly before Geoff turned around. "What?"

"The bathroom's empty Geoff," Noah-7 drawled.

"Wha-who-spidermonkey?"

"Just go," Noah said...just before Noah-3 slipped into the bathroom, and locked it.

Geoff turned again. "What?" He knocked as Noah-7 quickly ran away.

"Occupied!" Noah-3 shouted. "Too slow man!"

"Aw maaaaan!" Geoff whined.

Xxx

"AH!" Heather leaped out of the shower stall, hastily grabbing her towel. "What the hell? Who took all the hot water?"

"I was about to ask the same thing," Gwen drawled as she, Courtney, and Lindsay stepped out also.

"Must be the boys," Courtney growled as she got dressed and stormed over to the boy's shower down the hallway.

She passed Noah-6 on the way. "Hey Courtney."

"Not now Noah!" She then kicked the door open. "YOU IDIOTS USED ALL THE HOT WATER!"

"AH!" Noah-4 leaped back into his stall. "Can't a guy have some privacy?"

"Noah, where's Duncan-" She paused, looking back down the hall, only to see Noah-6 was gone. "What?" She looked at Noah-4, who stuck his head out of the stall.

"What? Don't stare at me, I'm naked!" Noah-4 complained. "What the heck's wrong with you?"

"...I was wondering that myself," Courtney backed away from the door, shutting it.

Noahs 3, 5, and 8 stuck their heads out of their own stalls.

"Coast clear?" Noah-3 asked.

"Looks like it," Noah-8 nodded.

"I told you not to take so long Noah-8!" Noah-5 scolded Noah-8.

"Yeah, because you're so quick in the shower yourself," Noah-8 glared at his counterpart.

Xxx

"What? All four copies?" Gwen stared at Leslie, who had the duty of Librarian in the studio's small library-mostly made up of novels the contestants liked.

"Yep, he was just here," Leslie nodded. "Checked out the first one at 7:30, the next one at 8, the third at 8:20, and the last one just two minutes ago."

Gwen blinked, and then rushed out of the library. "Noah!"

"What is it?" Noah-1, the original one to check out the book Gwen was after looked up as he finished his novel.

"Why'd you check out all four copies of World War Z?" Gwen demanded.

"Oh, sorry, well I just finished so here yah go!" He gave her the novel and quickly ran off, realizing his clones were all idiots...like _him._

Satisfied for now, Gwen began reading.

Xxx

Eva was lifting weights, as usual and noticed Noah was sitting in the stands, his laptop open. "You know, the gym's for exercising! Not for geeks to lounge around with their computers!"

Noah-2 did not even look at her as he flipped her the bird.

"Why you little-!" Eva got up...but Noah-7 saw his fellow clone's situation and had snuck up behind Eva. As she stood up, he quickly reached down while behind her and tied her shoes together.

She tripped over. "Oof!" Dazed, she did not notice two Noah's quickly fleeing the gym. "When I get my hands on that little twerp I'll-"

"What twerp?" Noah-4 unfortunately had entered the gym at this point.

"You! You little weasel!" Eva snarled, and untied her shoe laces, giving chase as Noah-4 screamed and ran away.

Noah-4 led her on a merry chase through the studio, until they ran out into the parking lot and he passed Noah-5, who had his own laptop out on a bench.

"Hey me," He said. "Hey Eva." He added as Eva ran by.

"Come back here and-huh?" Eva paused.

Noah-5 quickly realized his error and closed his laptop before diving behind the bus...just like how James Bond would have done it.

Eva saw an empty bench. "...what the hell?"

"What's wrong?" the real Noah chose that moment to enter...and sadly was not quick enough to escape the confused and enraged Eva.

What he did not know is that the second Eva's fist hit him there were seven cries of 'Ouch!' at the same time.

Xxx

"We have GOT to be more careful!" Noah, sporting a black eye hissed to Noahs 2 and 3.

"Hey you try staying in here all day with nothing to do!" Noah 2 whined, strangely having a hand his right eye. "No food, we read all the books, and we can only do so much on the internet before it gets boring!"

"Oh sorry it's too much of an inconvenience for you! I was too busy getting the living daylights beaten out of me to notice!" Noah glared at his clones. "And where are the other five of you!"

"Missing," Noah-3 shrugged. "They decided they were bored and went out into the city."

They did not notice that Izzy was standing around the nearest corner, listening in. She was confused as to why Noah was talking to himself. Did he have voices in his head?

"Noah?" She called.

"Oh crap," Noah whispered. "Crazy-zilla, hide, hide, hide, hide, hide!"

"Where?" Noah-2 whispered urgently.

"Just hide!" Noah then pushed his two copies into the dumpster in the side alley of the studio and slammed it shut before facing Izzy. "Hey-ey! Izzy!...what are you doing here?"

"Were you talking to yourself?" Izzy asked.

"Was who talking to the what?" Noah looked away.

"What?" Izzy blinked.

"Who?" Noah asked.

"What did you say?"

"Who did what say?"

"Huh?"

"Who?"

"STOP IT! I have a headache!" Izzy clutched her head and ran away.

"...wow, I never thought I'd hear that," Noah sighed in relief as his two clones climbed out. "Ok, I need to get this fixed before they figure out what's happening!" He looked at his clones. "Now tell me they went to places none of the others would go to!"

"Uh...we'd be lying." Noah-2 said. "Right now we have a problem."

"Now what?" Noah groaned.

"For some odd reason the both of us have a splitting headache that came around the time Eva kicked the crap out of you." Noah-3 said. "Felt like a giant fist broke my nose."

"I don't believe it! You're telling me that when one of us is hurt the rest of feel it? When did I become so stupid!" Noah paused. "...when I split into 8 clones of myself! Oh god! Oh god!"

...he's lost it," Noah-3 whispered to Noah-2.

"...how about we just go and find the other clones and get them to the factory?" Noah-2 said, trying to calm Noah down.

"Yes! Yes! But wear hoods or something! Don't get recognized! Don't be seen together!" Noah said desperately.

As they walked they did not notice their arms go transparent for a second.

Xxx

"Is it just me or is Noah a little odd today?" LeShawna asked as the Lyoko group gathered at a table in the recreation room. "The guy took up most of the food leaving not a lot for breakfast and lunch leaving Carlos to go out and shop for food."

"He used up all the hot water in the showers." Heather snapped.

"He checked out all the books I was hoping to read at once." Gwen spoke up.

"He kept me waiting to go to the bathroom for over half an hour!" Geoff whined.

"He's even managed to somehow tick off Eva after he managed to tie her shoes together when she was chasing him." DJ said.

"He gave me a headache!" Izzy whined rubbing her head.

"Something very odd is going on with our little smartass bookworm." LeShawna frowned as she sat at the table with everyone. "I seem to be running into him everywhere around here like he's able to teleport from one spot to the next or he's somehow become super fast."

"I noticed that too. I see him behind me when I think he's behind the bathroom door in front of me and when I finally turn around to go to the bathroom he goes back like he's the Flash!" Geoff exclaimed.

"Maybe he's just got some extra sugar in his system." Bridgette shrugged.

"Yeah right. He's up to something." Heather crossed her arms.

"Like what?" Cody asked. "Noah's not the type to do something crazy that he wouldn't want anyone knowing."

"I don't think you'll believe that after this, Cody." A familiar voice called out making everyone look at the door.

"Aelita?" Trent asked in surprise as Aelita walked in followed by Kurt. "What are you doing here?"

"Aelita called me and asked to come here. Figuring this had to do something with your 'other competition' I drove to her school and picked her up. Hopefully she'll be back in time before she's missed." Kurt replied.

"Why? Don't tell me that there's a XANA problem behind Noah's craziness." Gwen looked at Aelita.

"Actually even though it's a Lyoko related problem for once it doesn't have XANA's hand in it. This morning when I took the chance to look over the upgrades I was making for everyone I noticed Noah's had been tampered with. I headed to the factory and found the cameras were disabled." Aelita put her laptop on the table.

"Someone broke in?" LeShawna asked.

"Lucky for us Jeremy and I set up a second set of cameras in the lab after XANA created a clone of my father and fooled the cameras which nearly got everyone killed in a trap after nearly turning them against Jeremy." Aelita pressed the enter button.

Everyone saw the image of eight Noahs appearing in the scanner room with three falling out of two scanners while two fell out of the third.

"...oh...my...god." Izzy said. "It's the Invasion of the Noahs!"

"So that's how he-" Geoff frowned. "He-they-oh man that was the worst half hour of my life!"

"What happened?" Gwen shouted. "He's got eight siblings already, and they weren't born at the same time!"

"He tampered with the upgrade I made to his character," Aelita said. "The original plan was to have him make illusionary copies of himself to fool enemies, and keep them from finding the real one. They could already pass through solid objects, so with his intangibility it would be hard to figure out which is real. Apparently me threatening to reprogram his avatar with a tutu didn't dissuade him from trying to prove how much of a super smart genius he is."

"So that's why we ran outta food, we had _seven_ more mouths to feed!" LeShawna's eyes narrowed.

"And why the hot water was used up!" Heather added. "He and his copies took it all up!"

"And overloaded the bathroom!" Geoff added.

"And took all my favourite books out of the library," Gwen crossed her arms. "When I get my hands on him..."

"We have another problem," Kurt interjected. "Noah's clones vanished on us, along with Noah Prime."

"And if we don't get him back into the scanner there may not be anything left of him," Aelita added.

"What do you mean?" DJ asked.

"I looked over the scans of Noah's character before he was devitualized and I found out there's a side effect to Noah's modifications to the upgrade. Not only did it make eight copies of him, it divided his digital DNA amongst the clones," Aelita said. "He's unstable and if he isn't in a scanner soon he's going to fade."

"Fade?"

"Exactly. Fade. Out," Aelita snapped her fingers. "Just like that."

"You mean he'll vanish?" Izzy asked.

"I've seen it happen before when Yumi and Odd ended up switching bodies and if the process isn't reversed, that's exactly what will happen," Aelita nodded. "We need to find him and get him, _all_ of him to the scanners."

"Times like this that I wish the lab under the studio worked," LeShawna said.

"Ok we have limited time to save Noah from yet another of his inventions," Gwen sighed. "Let's split up and search his favourite places."

"Detective Izzy is on the job!" Izzy put on a hat that came straight out of a Sherlock Holmes book and placed a small pipe that blew bubbles in between her lips. She blew out a small burst of bubbles.

"...yeah, good luck with that," Gwen nodded. "I'll take the diner we always meet at."

As they scattered, Kurt called Carlos so they could get to work.

"Carlos? Hold off your shopping spree," He said. "Noah's split himself into eight copies-yes that's why you have to go shopping...kill him after we save his life."

As they left no one noticed that someone was spying on them.

Xxx

"Why that little-" Carlos, pushing a shopping cart paused as he looked out the front window of the shop. Passing by was Noah, drinking a bottle of water. "Kurt?"

"Yeah?"

"...I have to call you back," Carlos frowned. "I found him...one of him."

"Uh...monsieur? Would you like paper, or plastic?" The cashier attendant asked.

"Uh...pardon me a second," Carlos said, abandoning about three hundred dollars worth of groceries and then leaped at the window, smashing out into the street with it. He landed, rolled, and got up. "Freeze right there Noah!"

"AH!" Noah spun. "Carlos?" He then turned and ran away, tossing away his bottle.

"Gah! What's the point of saying freeze if they never stay still?" Carlos growled, taking off after Noah.

Xxx

In the Forest region of Lyoko, a tower on the top of a small hill began to glow a familiar and ominous red.

XANA wasn't totally blind to what went on. He knew about the Lyoko Warriors' situation...and was about to cash in on it.

Xxx

In several areas of Paris, odd events began to happen.

Noah-8 was sitting in a coffee shop, waiting for his order when outside, a spectre came out of a lamppost and infected multiple amounts of cars and even a bus came to a stop. He glanced outside, then shrugged and looked to the counter as his cup arrived.

The cars, empty or filled began to move on their own, all turning towards the coffee shop...

Xxx

The other Noahs were experiencing similar soon-to-be accidents.

But Izzy had no idea this was happening when she began to search for Noah the old fashioned way: door to door.

BANG! She kicked open a set of doors. "Freeze Noah! Halt in the name of International security!"

"Mrow?" A white furred cat sat up and stared at her.

"Awwww! Hello kitty!" Izzy stroked the cat behind its ears.

Xxx

Take 2

BANG! "Halt! Freeze! In the name of International security!" Izzy shouted.

"SSSSHH!" A woman said. "This is a library!"

"Oh, sorry," Izzy backed out.

The librarian shook her head.

"North Americans."

Xxx

Take 3

BANG!

"Halt in the name of international security!" Izzy shouted...as she burst into an INTERPOL office.

Everybody stared at her.

"Uh...sorry, wrong place," She then leaped out the nearest window.

"...are _any_ of our safe houses _safe_ anymore?" One agent questioned his partner, who shrugged.

Xxx

Take-oh forget it, let's skip a few dozen times ahead.

BANG!

"I've been through fifteen houses, twelve shops and seven schools so you'd better be in here Noah!" Izzy shouted as she burst into a coffee shop...through the back door.

"Izzy?" Noah-8 stood up.

"You!" She grabbed him. "Noah you're coming with me!"

"Why?"

"We know what you did Noah!" She growled. "Or should I say Noah Number 2!"

"Number 8," Noah replied. "We set the order up."

The customers stared at the two insane Canadians.

"Oh, okay then," Izzy grinned. "YOU'RE COMING WITH ME NUMBER EIGHT! And don't you play word games with me, woman!"

"Ok, ok!" Noah paused as he looked out the window. "Uh...Izzy-"

"I said no word games!"

"What about this word? XANA!" Noah pointed to a dozen cars and a bus...with red XANA eyes in their head lights.

"Uh oh..." Izzy swallowed before a single car crashed through the front window. The customers fled into the back, screaming. The car revved its engine as it faced the two.

"Mommy!" Noah squeaked.

"Time to run!" Izzy slung Noah over on her shoulder and leaped on a table.

The car charged and smashed the table...after she leaped off of it and placed Noah in front of her, using him to smash a window as she leaped.

"OOOOWWWW!" Noah shouted as they flew through the air and landed on the side walk.

"Pray for mercy from, Izzy!" Izzy declared...and then realized she had eleven more cars and a bus to deal with. "Uh...time to go!"

"Hey put me down!" Noah-8 demanded as she ran with him over her head.

"No time! Run!" Izzy shouted.

Xxx

Noah-4 ran into an alley to escape Carlos but instead he ran into a dead end. "Crap!"

"Ah-ha!" Carlos cornered the unfortunate copy. "You are in a lot of trouble, mister!"

"I am just an innocent copy! It was the real Noah's idea! I had nothing to do with it! Heck I didn't exist until he did it!" Noah-4 got on his knees and begged. "Please have mercy!"

"All right! All right! Sheesh!" Carlos put his hands up to calm the duplicate down. "I wasn't going to beat you up or anything. Let's just get you to the lab and-"

"AH!" Noah pointed behind him and Carlos turned to see a truck turn off the road and face them.

In its head lights were the Eyes of XANA glaring at them both.

"Oh great." Carlos sighed. "All right, you psycho laptop! Come and get me!"

"What?" Noah-4 shouted as the truck charged at them.

Carlos looked up at the fire escape on the side of the building and grabbed Noah-4 before jumping up and gripped the bottom of the fire escape. The truck drove under them and smashed into the end of the alley.

"You're paying for that!" Carlos shouted as he pulled himself and got the Noah copy off his back.

"Why am I paying for it?" Noah-4 whined, thinking he was being blamed again.

"Not you!" Carlos grumbled. "Now come on shrimp number two-"

"Four," Noah-4 corrected him.

"Whatever! You owe me for sending me out on a shopping trip just a day after I already had to go shopping!" Carlos growled. "And who ate all my Klondike bars?"

"We weren't anywhere near them!"

"Then who-" Suddenly, Carlos had a thought. "CHRIS!" He shook his head. "Agh, I'll handle him later. You're coming with me to the factory and you're going to be fused back together!"

"Aw..." Noah-4 whined.

"Don't you give me lip, boy!" Carlos scolded the genius clone as he dragged him along to the top of the fire escape.

Xxx

Noah-5 was eating at his usual table at the restaurant the Lyoko gang liked to eat at during meetings. Since most of the food from the studio was gone he figured he grab some lunch here after taking some money from Noah Prime's wallet, even though they were the same guy.

"That was nice." The duplicate sighed in relief. "I needed that badly."

"And in a few seconds you're going to badly need an appointment with the dentist to get all your teeth back in." A familiar and annoyed voice spoke up behind him.

Spinning around Noah-5 was greeted with the sight of annoyed looking Gwen with Noah-6 looking apologetic.

"Oh...Hey, Gwen." Noah-5 said with sweat coming down his forehead. "Who's that?"

"Sorry, bro, she knows." Noah-6 rubbed his right arm. "She dragged me out of the book store and said if I didn't want a repeat of what happened with her and Izzy I'd tell her where you were."

"Oh." Noah-5 looked at Gwen with a nervous look. "I'd just like to point out for the record that it wasn't me who checked out your books."

"I'll deal with that later. You two are coming with me and if you give me any trouble I have Lindsay on speed dial." Gwen threatened.

"All right, all right! Just let me pay the bill." Noah said, putting several dollar bills on the table.

"Come on. We don't have all day." Gwen led them out of the diner. "I've had enough surprises for one day."

"Then I guess this isn't helping you." A voice made them all stop like they were frozen in time.

Courtney was standing next to the diner's entrance, hands on her hips and staring at them...or specifically at the Noahs.

"Well this is something you don't see every day." They turned and saw Duncan sitting on a bench sharpening a jackknife.

"...you guys followed us out here?" Noah-5 asked.

"Hardly, we listened to Gothy and the others in their meeting," Courtney replied.

"Oh great," Gwen promptly slapped herself in the face.

"Gwen, I want an explanation for this, a _really_ good one," Courtney said. "Why are there eight Noahs running around here and who was that pink haired girl you were talking too?"

"Normally I'd take the time to tell you this isn't a good time to talk, but these two have an appointment!" Gwen said urgently. "Move it boys!"

"Get back here!" Courtney shouted as the three made a desperate dash across the street when there was no traffic.

But then several scooters and motorcycles parked nearby-or in the middle of being driven jerked. Drivers were thrown off of several.

"Hey, what's going on?" One man shouted.

"I don't know, I-AH!" A woman shrieked as her scooter threw her off like a horse rearing back. Then all of the vehicles shot towards Gwen and the two Noahs.

"Look out!" Gwen grabbed them by the shirts and tugged them off the road and between a parked van and car. "That's definitely XANA!"

"No, really? We had no idea," Noah-5 said.

"Let's just get to the factory before we get crushed!" Noah-6 added.

"Man, you're way more annoying when there's two of you," Gwen muttered.

"The worst part is that there's really _eight _of us," Noah-5 pointed out.

"You got that right." The momentarily forgotten, Courtney exclaimed, joining them with Duncan once the horde of living vehicles had passed by.

"Yeah, I'm Noah-5, this is Noah-6," Noah-5 introduced them. "Nice to meet you!"

"Save it for later!" Gwen growled, forcing the two clones away.

The possessed motorcycles turned towards them and followed at full speed.

"Why are those following us and can they even work without a driver?" Courtney shouted as they ran.

"Not. Now!" Gwen shouted back pulling out her cell phone and dialling Trent's number. "Come on...come on...Trent! Tell you found one of them!...Okay, we're on our way to the factory now."

Xxx

"Got it." Trent replayed as he dragged Noah-7 out of electronic store. "Move it."

"All right, all right!" Noah-7 whined.

They headed down the sidewalk not knowing they were being followed. A blue car without anyone in the driver seat watched them and moved to take them out.

Xxx

Aelita along with the other Lyoko Warriors ran down the road where the saw the bridge to the factory.

"So what are the chances one of them is here?" Geoff asked as they ran.

"Noah wanted to prove he was able to upgrade his character without help and since he didn't tell us about what happened it means he'd want to fix it before we'd find out." Aelita replied. "There's a very good chance he's there."

That was when a black car drove out into the road in front of them and stopped.

"What's this guy's problem?" Heather shouted as they stopped. "Watch where you're going!"

"Heather, I don't think that's your usual idiot driver." LeShawna pointed at the headlights where the Eyes of XANA flashed for a second.

"Oh great, not now." Cody groaned.

"I got this. You guys get to the factory, I'll distract him." LeShawna picked up a can and threw it at the car's windshield.

"Never trashed a car before...might be fun!" Geoff grabbed a rock and joined in.

"I vote we just go off road for this one," Cody suggested.

"Agreed!" The unoccupied warriors nodded, and they moved through an alley and chose to climb over the fence separating the buildings from the slope next to the river. Then they climbed onto the bridge and ran inside.

Meanwhile Geoff and LeShawna were leading the car on a chase.

"This crap belongs in those dumb action movies!" LeShawna complained as she and Geoff tried to confuse the possessed car by running in different directions.

While this was happening two figures were watching them and followed Aelita and the others.

Xxx

"Okay, we just get the others back here get into the scanner and we reverse the upgrade and fuse back together. No worries about no one finding out and no tutu for me." Noah Prime said as he sat down.

However it seemed that this was not his lucky day as the second he sat down the super scan appeared showing him there was an activated tower in the Forest Sector.

"Oh great! Now what?" Noah whined as the elevator door opened.

"How about you asking what size that tutu will be?" Aelita asked walking out of the elevator.

"Oh, Aelita!" Noah stood up from the chair and began to sweat heavily under her glare, holding his hands up. "I just want to let you know that I can fix this without any problems."

That was when his hands went transparent for a second.

"What the-" Noah looked at his hands.

"When you split into eight copies you divided your digital DNA up and now you're unstable. If you're not fused back together you'll vanish." Aelita explained with her arms crossed.

"Vanish?" Noah asked with a small look of fear.

"Yes, this is exactly the reason I told you to wait instead of jumping and trying your own modifications." Aelita shook her head.

"He screwed up big time." Noah-2 said. "If you promise not to put us in the tutu we'll speak against him."

"Hey!" Noah glared at his two clones.

"What we didn't split ourselves?" Noah-3 shrugged.

"We are just victims of circumstances we had nothing to do with it." Noah-2 said.

"Save it for later!" Heather snapped. "I'll be talking to you, all of you about using up all the hot water and putting us through all this trouble!"

"Can we maybe save this for later after we shut down that tower?" Noah pointed to the computer showing the activated tower.

Aelita walked over to the computer after Noah quickly vacated her seat and looked at the scan. "The tower's in the Forest Sector. We've got to hurry before Noah and the clones vanish."

"Or one of us is killed." Noah-2 said. "We found out after Eva kicked Prime's butt that if one us is hurt the rest of us get hurt even though we don't get any wounds."

"And if one of us gets...well...crushed by a car for example," Noah-3 said.

"Then that clone," Noah-2 cut in.

"And all of us,"

"Are,"

"Boned!" They both finished at once.

"With a capital B," Noah-2 added.

"Oh great, so one whiny genius goes and the rest of them do to!" Heather said, pulling out her phone. "I'd better call Carlos, Gwen, Izzy and Trent and warn them."

She dialled Carlos first.

"Carlos, can you hear me?"

"One second!" She heard Carlos 'whoop', Noah's scream-or _a _Noah's scream, and then a crash. "Ok, what's up?"

"Look, you can't let that clone with you be hurt in any way," Heather said. "If one clone gets hurt or dies, the same thing happens to the rest of the Noahs."

"Easier said than-" CRASH! "Done! It's a big old hit and run series out here!" Carlos shouted. "And look out, smart car!" CRASH! "Ok, all clear!"

"Look, you gotta get to the factory, and fast. Noah's fading, XANA's possessing half the city's cars and scooters, and we're on a tight deadline!" Heather insisted.

"You got it! I'm a pro at these deadlines!" CRASHBANGTHUD!

"...What was that?" Heather asked.

"Hold on a second," Carlos replied.

...THUD!

"Ok, there we go...ouch," Carlos muttered. "I had to jump from the roof of one indoor parking lot to the floor of another one...man this crap belongs in those Jason Bourne movies-ooh! Or better yet, those District-13 movies."

"Just tell me you'll get that Noah clone to the factory in time!"

"No problem, I called Kurt up so he could give us a non-possessed lift to the factory! I just hope he makes it in time." Carlos replied. "And-oh crap, electric car incoming!"

THUD!

"Youch, those things are fast!" Carlos shouted. "Gotta go Heather, good luck Heather-oh crap, look out for that-" THUD! "Bus."

Click!

"...we're so dead!" Noah-3 whined.


	66. Episode 64: Ghost II: Noah's Upgrade

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 65

"Excuse me! Pardon me! Out of my way!" Izzy shouted as ran down the street, passing by bewildered pedestrians while she ran from the possessed vehicles on her tail.

Noticing a teen who was staring with wide eyes at her had a skateboard she stopped in front of him.

"Excuse me I need this! Here's a twenty!" Izzy handed him a twenty dollar bill and jumped onto the skateboard. "Thank you!"

The teen was silent when he looked down at the Canadian bill. "This is not twenty euros!"

Izzy skid down the road on the skateboard with a screaming Noah-8 on her back. "Oh yeah! This is awesome!"

"I don't feel so good." Noah-8 had a hand over his stomach.

"Throw up on the cars following us! Blind them!" Izzy shouted as she went around a corner. "Whoo-hoo!"

Xxx

Gwen led the two Noahs through an alley with Duncan, and Courtney following them. Peaking out she looked for signs of any vehicles that might attack them.

"All right, Gwen, what's going on?" Courtney demanded.

"I thought I told you not now, Courtney. Do you have a hearing problem?" Gwen looked over her shoulder with a glare that Courtney returned.

"I have to be with Courtney on this, pasty. How exactly did the bookworm end up with seven copy cats?" Duncan asked.

"You want to know?" Gwen turned around.

"Yes." They both said.

"Well it started like this...Oh god evil motorcycle!" Gwen shouted looking behind them.

"Where?" The two spun around look at the other end of the alley giving Gwen the chance to grab the two Noahs and run for it.

"What the-hey!" Courtney spun. "Why that little-!"

"Aw man, the oldest trick in the book!" Duncan slapped himself in the face. "Man she's good."

"Get her!" Courtney ran in the direction Gwen and the Noahs fled in.

"That's her big plan? _Get her?_" Duncan shook his head.

"Better than nothin'!" Duncan took off after them.

Xxx

"Make sure the clone gets to the factory without injury she says," Carlos muttered. "Look out for possessed cars says she!" He looked down from the roof of the building he and the Noah were sitting on at an entire horde of cars and motorcycles that were practically staring up at them. "Heather, you are the master of UNDERSTATEMENTS!"

"Where's that ride you mentioned?" Noah-4 asked.

Suddenly a whirring noise filled the air. Then it turned into a roar as a helicopter with the Total Drama logo on it. Kurt shouted down at them with a megaphone as he brought it low over the roof. "What are you waiting for? Don't you know a rescue when you see one?"

"You have a helicopter?" Carlos shouted as he and Noah climbed in. Carlos took the co-pilot's seat.

"Nope, but Chris does!"

"Chris let you borrow this?" Carlos asked. "Hold on, bring us up before XANA possesses the helicopter too!"

Kurt raised the helicopter away from the vehicles and into the air. He then started for the Factory. "I got it when I blackmailed Chris; I said I'd tell you he was the one who stole the Klondike bars!"

"Amazing," Carlos sighed. "And I already knew about that!"

"Well, now we have a ride!" Noah-4 said. "We just need to get there in one piece."

"...Noah? I hate you," Kurt said.

"What did I do now?"

"Jinxed us," He pointed one thumb out the window...at several helicopters approaching them.

"Those look like News choppers," Carlos stated.

"Excellent observation! Now answer me this puzzling question." Kurt handed him some binoculars.

Carlos stared at the helicopters as Kurt continued. "_Why aren't there any news reporters in them?_"

The Helicopters, like the vehicles below were flying by themselves.

"...oh, that's why," Noah squeaked.

"...Kurt? I really hope you have a license for this," Carlos said.

"Do you have a license for the big monster truck in the garage?"

"No."

"Then _hang on!_" Kurt began to dodge the helicopters that made kamikaze runs at them.

Noah-4 screamed, hanging onto his seat while Carlos wished he had thought to bring a gun with him. Then again shopping might kill by being the most boring thing on Earth, it still didn't merit a heavily loaded assault rifle.

"I really hope we're almost at the factory, I can't hold it!" Noah-4 groaned, hands on his stomach.

"Don't you dare throw up in here man!" Kurt growled at him.

"This is a lot worse than MI6," Carlos muttered, holding onto his seat and looking ahead with wide eyes.

"Ok Carlos, I have a crazy idea to get Noah number...what number are you?" Kurt glanced at Noah-4.

"Four."

"Number four here to the factory," Kurt continued. "Noah Number 4, check under those seats."

Noah-4 pulled out...parachutes.

"...what are you thinking?"

"Put those on, right now," Kurt ordered. "And get the side door open!"

He was passing over the factory now, in position to land if he had the time. But sadly for Noah-4, that wasn't the plan.

The clone realized that and shook his head. "Oh no!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Incoming!" Carlos pointed to three approaching helicopters.

"YES!" Noah pulled the parachute on.

"Jump!" Kurt shouted.

Noah-4 leaped, shrieking as he fell through the air and activated his parachute as he approached the ground.

"Ok, time for the second stage of the plan!" Kurt said, pulling on a parachute.

"Kurt, what are you doing?" Carlos, with the last parachute on asked.

"I think you know what it is," Kurt angled the helicopter towards the tight formation of news helicopters trying to intercept Noah so they could slice him apart with their blades.

"...No!"

"Yes!" Kurt nodded.

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No-CRAP!" Carlos leaped out of his seat at the same time as Kurt and they scrambled into the back as their helicopter plummeted.

They leaped out and then went in an arch that took them away from the helicopters when their own slammed into the lead one. It spun out of control, catching the other two with debris and knocking all four of the helicopters out of the air while Kurt and Carlos parachuted down to the ground.

"Wow...that was actually easy!" Carlos said. "...but I still hate flying!"

"Looks like the Noah clone landed safely," Kurt pointed to where Noah-4 was on the factory's roof.

"I hate you Kurt!" The clone called.

"Get inside, and good luck!"

The clone grumbled and looked for a way inside.

Xxx

Meanwhile the Lyoko gang inside the control room were preparing to head into Lyoko to deactivate the tower.

"You know I could take over while you get into the scanners with the others." Noah pointed out as Cody sat down.

"You want to Aelita to get even more annoyed with you? You must really want the tutu." Cody replied.

Noah groaned while his two clones snickered but shut up when he glared at them. Looking at the screen Cody watched as Noah-4 landed on the roof.

"Good news, Aelita. One of the clones made it to the factory."

Aelita, Heather, and Bridgette were in the scanners while DJ waited for his turn.

"That's good." Aelita nodded. "We better hurry and make sure none of the others get hurt though."

Xxx

"_Starting up the scanners._" Cody replied. "_Transfer, Aelita. Transfer Bridgette. Transfer Heather._"

All three scanners closed.

"_Scanner, Aelita. Scanner Bridgette. Scanner Heather._" Cody watched as the scan was finished. "_Virtualization._"

Xxx

They landed on the grassy ground and looked up to see the calm and beautiful setting of the Forest Sector.

"It's been a while since we've been here." Bridgette said as she held out her board.

"I like it better here than in most sectors. I like this place and the Mountain Sector best." Aelita said.

"_DJ's in the scanner now and here are your vehicles._" Cody said and the OverWing, Overboard, and the Overbike appeared.

DJ landed on the ground a second after that.

"I'll take the board. After all the other times on the Overwing I think it's about time I get another ride." Heather got on the Overboard.

"I'll take this one then." Aelita hopped onto the Overwing.

"I guess I got this." DJ got on the Overbike.

"We just go straight ahead and we'll find the tower." Aelita said as Bridgette stepped onto her surfboard.

"We better hurry before any of the others get into any trouble." Bridgette said as they took off.

"_Good news is that Gwen and Trent are meeting up at the bridge._"

Xxx

"Trent!" Gwen called out as she saw Trent with Noah-7 running towards the bridge.

"Hey, Gwen!" Trent called back, stopping to greet her. "You found two of them?"

"Yeah but we can't stop here. Duncan, Courtney, and Eva are on our tail and they are not going leave us alone." Gwen replied jerking her thumb behind her.

"That's not good." Trent said, not noticing a blue car driving towards them, the Eye of XANA flashing in its headlights.

Luckily Gwen saw it and pulled Trent and Noah-7 out of the way before they got run over.

"Neither is that!" Noah-3 shouted as they ran down the bridge.

"We've got to lose that!" Noah-7 shouted pointing back at the blue car gaining on them.

"I've got him!" Trent said as he turned around and waved his arms around. "Hey, over here!"

The car sped by him, targeting Gwen and the Noahs instead but Trent did not like being ignored. He jumped on the back of the car and climbed onto it.

"What is he doing?" Gwen asked as Trent pounded on the vehicle and seemed to catch its attention.

"A repeat of when you drove him through town on a death ride," Noah-7 shrugged.

The car was now focusing on getting him off by trying to shake him off but he held on tight. When it failed to get him off XANA seemed to get another idea as he commanded the car to head straight off the bridge and into the river.

"Trent!" Gwen shouted as the car drove off the bridge with Trent still on it and into the river. As the car feel though, Trent launched himself off it and flew through the air.

"This trip _suuuuuuucks-_" SPLASH!

"Ouch!" The three Noahs present winced.

"Trent!" Gwen ran to the edge of the bridge. The car was sinking, but Trent surfaced ahead.

"I'm ok!" He waved. "Kinda in a lot of pain but nothing broken! Get the triplets in the factory!"

"Alright, but be careful Trent!" Gwen called to him. "Come on you three!" She dragged the clones into the factory.

Suddenly Trent was hauled out of the river by Kurt and Carlos. The red haired producer patted the contestant on the shoulder. "Gotta give you points for heroism Elvis."

"Thanks," Trent smiled.

"Come on, more cars will be here soon and we've got a perimeter to set," Carlos said...clad in his old SAS uniform and carrying guns for the umpteenth time since Trent had met him.

"Where do you hide all of that stuff?"

"Not tellin'."

Gwen led the three Noahs into the factory and they slid down the cables into the lobby.

"Now get in the elevator and head down to the scanners." Gwen pointed to the elevator. "Haven't we had enough problems for one day?"

"There you are!" They looked up to see Courtney and Duncan slide down the cables. Once they landed Courtney pointed at Gwen. "You have some nerve pulling that trick on us like th-!"

She never got to finish her sentence as she and Duncan suddenly clutched their chests and fell over groaning pain.

"What the-" Gwen asked as she and the others ran over and looked down at them.

"It...hurts...it...hurts..." Courtney cried as she clutched her chest with tears coming out of her eyes.

"What hurts?" Gwen asked kneeling down to her and Duncan.

"Everywhere!" Courtney shouted.

"Duncan? You too?" Gwen looked over at Duncan who nodded while clenching his teeth in pain.

"What the hell is wrong with them?" Noah-4 asked.

"I don't know but we can't stay here for long. Help me get them into the elevator." Gwen said.

She picked up Courtney and Duncan with the Noahs' help and they walked down the stairs into the lobby and headed for the elevator when a familiar and very well disliked sound came to life...a dozen scooters and motorcycles came roaring into the lobby.

"Holy-!" The Noahs panicked and ran into the elevator.

Gwen sighed. "Ok...that cuts it."

"What are you doing?" Noah-7 asked with Duncan and Courtney's arms over his and Noah-3's shoulders.

"Get into the elevator with them and take it down." Gwen said as she promptly grabbed a pipe left leaning against a wall.

"What are you going to do?" Noah-6 asked.

"Never mind me, you get them out of here." Gwen walked out into the middle of the lobby.

"But-"

"I said get out of here right now!" Gwen shouted, surprising everyone as she glared at them with a look that scared everyone.

"Ok!" The Noahs shut the elevator door. "Uh...on your own!" They took it down.

Gwen turned and faced the motorcycles and scooters coming at her. As one motorcycle shot past her, she stuck the pipe out and got it right in the front wheel. It spun out of control and then slammed into a wall, shattering into pieces.

Xxx

"Okay, this might not be good. But Gwen taking out that motorcycle was awesome."Cody said looking through the security cameras seeing Gwen shouting at the other Warriors and take out a motorcycle.

"But now we've got nearly everyone coming into the lab." Noah said as the elevator doors opened.

"What happend?" Cody stood up as he saw Duncan and Courtney knocked out on the clones' shoulders.

"You have some explaining to do!" Noah said to the three clones.

"You can rant later we need to see what's wrong with them." Noah-4 replied.

"Ok...just keep them here!" Cody said quickly.

"Are all my clones here yet?" Noah asked.

"Ok, head count, we have Noah Prime," Cody counted with his fingers. "Noahs 2 and 3 were already here 5, 6 and 7 are coming down, Noah 4 is coming in through the roof...we just need Noah 8 and we're all set! Who has number 8?"

Xxx

"Aye-yayayayayayaya!" Izzy let out a war cry as she leaped from roof to roof, a frightened clone hanging onto her.

"This trip _suuuuuucks-_" THUD! They hit a billboard and slowly slid down it.

"Don't. Say. Anything." Izzy said, her voice muffled by an electric car add, calling the latest line of cars the 'safest model on the planet'. She glared at the advertisement. "...that's a little...ironic."

"Or false advertisement," Noah-8 added.

"I said don't say anything!"

Xxx

"...she'll be right over," After a brief conversation with Izzy, Cody hung up. "How are things in Lyoko?"

"_Quiet. No monsters or generals yet._" Heather replied.

A beeping sound caught Cody's attention. "You spoke too soon, Heather. Six monsters and general on the way. Wait...hold on three of them are-"

Before Cody could finish one of the monsters fired on them.

Xxx

"What'd he say?" Bridgette asked.

"Look out!" Aelita pointed ahead as a green orb flew at them.

They got out of the way and the orb flew into a tree and exploded, blasting through the tree's trunk and it toppled over into the digital sea.

"That was close." Bridgette said as she landed and her surfboard split into her swords. "But did anyone else think there was something familiar about that?"

"I do. Look!" DJ pointed ahead and they spotted the monsters.

"Those are..." Heather trailed off.

Ahead of them were three mechanical Gorillas with large cannons on their left shoulders and a small blaster on their wrists. Behind them were three Mechs with their cannons ready to fire.

"Gorillas!" DJ shouted.

"But those are Nephilim's monsters!" Bridgette said holding her swords out. "How can XANA use them when Nephilim's gone?"

"Good question there, surfer girl." Sora landed between the monsters and the Lyoko Warriors, waving his hand at Heather. "Hi mom!"

"Oh god." Heather groaned, putting her hand over her face.

"Always nice to see you, too. Anyway you're right, these were originally Nephilim's monster but when Master XANA decompiled his body and absorbed what was left of his data all of Nephilim's monsters became his." Sora explained. "Pretty nice huh?"

"Nice is not the word I am going for." Heather growled.

"Ah well, I better get this started." Sora sighed and pulled out his wind blades.

Everyone got ready to fight as Sora's wings came out and he took off into the air, allowing the Gorillas to fire a single concentrated beam of energy at the Lyoko Warriors. They jumped out of the way and the beams vaporized the vehicles.

"Great. Three giant apes, three killer robots, and my monster kid attacking us." Heather groaned as she hit behind a tree. "How can this get any better?"

"Glad you asked!" Sora flew by firing his beak laser.

Heather ducked and fired her shuriken launchers which Sora dodged easily. Sora flew in towards Heather who ducked out of the way in time for Sora's wind blade to slam into the tree, leaving a hole in the trunk. Heather jumped on Sora's back and prepared to bash his head in but Sora jumped out of from behind the tree bringing him and Heather out into the line of fire. The Mechs fired and shot Heather in the chest, knocking her off Sora's back.

Sora flew into the air allowing the monsters to aim their weapons at Heather as she was starting to get up. Luckily DJ ran out and put up a barrier as the Gorillas fired. However the three blasts from these monsters blasted DJ's barrier and knocked him back. He got out of the way in time before he could be devirtualized.

"Those things blasted my barrier!" DJ said as he and Heather took cover again.

"I hope we get reinforcements soon because we are not going to last long." Heather said, peeking out and seeing the monsters charging up another shot.

"My plasma beam can take out the Gorillas but I need a clear shot." Aelita said.

"Good luck with that. We're struck here with those monsters pinning us here and Sora attacking us from above. They got us right where they want us!" Heather growled at being this helpless.

"Then we take away their advantage." Aelita closed her eyes and let out a song.

The Gorillas noticed that Aelita was using her Creativity and moved out of the way but the ground cracked open and two fell off into the digital sea. A large pillar of light came out of the digital sea for each Gorilla.

"Nice! That ought to give us a chance." Bridgette came out from behind her cover and they prepared to fight their way through.

"Yeah, bust through what's left of them!" Heather shouted as she ran forward.

"Oy, why do I always get the tough assignments?" Sora sighed, pulling out one wind blade and swung it through a large tree right next to him. "Timber!"

He released a powerful gust of wind that made it fall in the direction of the charging Lyoko Warriors.

"Back!" Aelita shouted as the tree fell upon them.

Aelita, DJ, and Bridgette ran back but it was too late for Heather as the tree fell between her and the other Lyoko warriors. Under the tree's massive weight the ground began to crack open which Heather noticed.

"Uh oh." Was all she could say as the ground beneath her began to crumble and the tree fell completely through into the digital sea below.

She scrambled to get away as the ground began to collapse beneath her but she slipped and fell back over the edge flailing her arms wildly as she desperately tried to balance herself. "Guys? A little-HEEEEEELLLP?"

She plummeted towards the digital sea below.

"Heather!" Bridgette got on her board and dove down after her as fast as she could, but knew she would not reach her in time.

So she aimed her arms out-in this case downwards and fired a concentrated beam of her 'Wave Blast' at Heather. It struck her, and after two full seconds of concentrated fire Heather vanished mere feet from the Digital Sea while Bridgette veered up and away from the digital waters with inches to spare before she shot back up to the battlefield.

"Hm...close one, wouldn't make a funny story around the water cooler to say I got my own momma scattered through the digital void," Sora said, one finger tapping his lower lip as he stared through the hole he had made. "Hm...and this presents a bit of a problem if we want to keep fighting." There was a large gap between the two groups now, with monsters on one side and Lyoko warriors on the other. "Oh well, I'll be waiting for you guys at the tower, good luck!"

As Sora took off, Bridgette landed, barely avoiding being blasted out of the air. "Oh great, if we try to fly across we'll get zapped and if we stay here we'll get picked off! What now?"

"Leave that to me. But first we need to take out the monsters on the other side." Aelita replied, noting that one Gorilla was still functioning and was aiming its cannon at them. "I got that one."

She raised her hand and fired a plasma beam but she was aiming at the Gorilla since she knew it would evade or cancel out her attack with its cannon. Instead she aimed for the edge of the ground on the Gorilla's side of the gap and the plasma beam blasted through the ground making it crack up from the attack and the Gorilla's weight which it could no longer hold up. The Gorilla looked down as it fell with the debris into the digital sea. A pillar of light signalled it joining its comrades in destruction.

"We can deal with the Mechs while flying." Aelita said as she activated her flight ability.

DJ got on Bridgette's surfboard and they flew over the gap and headed for the tower at full speed. The Mechs fired their laser cannons but DJ's barrier recharged itself allowing him to use it to block their lasers. Aelita and Bridgette fired their energy waves that took out the Mechs without much trouble.

"Cody, how are things going?" Aelita asked.

"_Well, Gwen is busy with motorcycles and scooters in the lobby while Kurt, Carlos, and Trent are busy with a number of cars outside. Oh, and Duncan, and Courtney showed up._"

"What?" Bridgette and DJ shouted.

"_They were spyi_ng _on us during the whole meeting earlier today and followed Gwen when she ran into the two Noahs._"

"Great. Anything else?" Bridgette groaned.

"_Yeah, I think the Noahs are getting worse._"

Xxx

Cody looked to see the chests of the Noahs go transparent for half a moment, making them all sigh in relief when they were solid again.

"I really hope Izzy is close by." Cody muttered. "By the way, Aelita, Duncan and Courtney collapsed when they entered the factory and they seem to be in some kind of pain."

He looked over at the two while the Noahs had the first aid kit and tried to help them.

"I think we need them in the scanner because I've got the feeling this might be a Lyoko issue." Cody said.

"_Take a sample of their hair and put it in the scanner. We can't risk them getting hurt if the virus has done more than just erase their memories._" Aelita responded.

The elevator door opened and Heather walked in. "When I get my hands on that brat and I will give him such a thrashing that...Courtney and Duncan? Why are they here?"

"They followed Gwen and Trent but when they walked into the factory they seemed to be in pain and passed out." Noah-6 replied.

Xxx

"Oh man you are _not_ going to take me over on that," Noah-8 shook his head desperately as Izzy held up what looked like a homemade Launcher...with a hook attached to a cable in it!

"Oh yes you are!" The red haired girl snapped at him. "And if you whine this next one is going up your cloned ass!"

"Before or after I go transparent?" Noah-8 asked rhetorically.

"Shut up!"

They were both standing on the top of an unfinished building, abandoned y its construction crew in the face of a tide of possessed vehicles. Izzy had a 'MacGyver' moment and created the hook launcher. Now she was aiming at a Total Drama Reality billboard on a building nearby. "Come on...just aim right between Chris' eyes...then we swing over the river!"

"You're nuts!" Noah shook his head.

"You know, you people say that so much I don't care anymore. Now come on!" She grabbed the Noah Clone.

"Don't you dare! I'll sue! Endangerment of a minor!" Noah-8 whined, but Izzy had launched the cable and hit Chris right between the eyes.

"Bull's eye!" She grinned and secured the Noah's arms around her neck. "Don't let go!"

"Mo-MMMMYYYYY!" Noah-8 let out a high pitched scream as he and Izzy swung across the street, under the billboard, and over the river.

Many cars and motorcycles suddenly stopped as they tried to get past two gun toting producers and Trent to look up at Izzy and Noah-8.

Carlos and Kurt glanced up.

"Wow...she's good," Kurt tilted his sun glasses up.

"Yeah," Carlos nodded...and then blew away a motorcycle in a hail of gun fire. "HAH! Sneak attack!"

The battle resumed as Izzy released the cable.

"Hai-YAHHHHH-"

THUD! She and Noah-8 face planted on the roof of the factory.

"...I hate you..._so much._" Noah-8 said, his voice muffled.

"Quit whining, we're here!" Izzy hopped to her feet. "Let's get you inside so we can get Noah back to normal...and stick him in a Tutu for pulling this crap on us!"

She dragged Noah-8 down into the factory.

Xxx

"_Good news guys, Izzy's landed with the last Noah on the roof and they're coming down._" Cody spoke to the warriors.

"That's great! Does that mean we'll be getting help anytime soon?" Bridgette asked on her surfboard with DJ as they headed for the tower.

"_Sorry, most of the others got cut off or distracted by cars and any other possessed vehicle. I can try but we need someone with experience at the computer to reverse Noah's modifications._"

"I guess we'll have to 's no telling how much time the Noahs have left. Get them all into the scanners and you know what to do." Aelita replied flying next to Bridgette and DJ.

"_Got it and if we're lucky Noah and Izzy could give you guys a hand._"

"We're going to need it. Look!" DJ pointed ahead making Aelita and Bridgette stop their flight to the tower.

The tower was right up ahead, sitting on a small hill with the characteristic ominous red glow showing it was under XANA's control and waiting for them was the welcoming committee XANA had prepared. Three Megatanks were stationed in front of it with their shells close while in front of them were three Gorillas with their cannons charged and ready to defend the tower. In front of the Gorillas were five Dark Krabs with a squad of ten Spiderlings and two Tigers underneath them serving as the outer defence of the group.

"Cody, we're going to need them here as soon humanly possible." Bridgette said with a gulp.

"You made it!" They turned and saw Sora and three Hornets hovering above them and two Dragon Knights with their wings out. "Bravo! I actually thought you wouldn't make but I guess I should know better. Good thing it's the boss's job to do the thinking and not me. I would have left the tower unguarded. Stupid me." He smacked himself on the back of the head. "Well, guess this means I have to try and stop you. I was just enjoying my break too."

"Don't let us stop you." Bridgette turned the surfboard around to face Sora while DJ jumped off.

"Like too but can't." Sora pulled out his wind blades. "All right, boys!"

The Gorillas aimed their cannons fired. Only they weren't targeting the Lyoko Warriors. Their shots passed the warriors and hit large trees above the group and Sora. The trees exploded sending large pieces of wood falling down.

As the debris fell Sora held out the left wind blade above him and the right one in front of him. The left wind blade created a wind funnel while the right one created a wind tunnel in front of Sora. This allowed him to fling the large pieces of broken off wood in the Lyoko Warriors' direction.

"Oh crap!" Bridgette shouted as she sent flying off her board by a large piece of wood.

Aelita blasted any piece flying at her with her plasma beam while DJ held up a barrier. However Sora's attack made them vulnerable to attack by the monsters guarding the tower. The Megatanks opened their shells and aimed so that they would not hit any of their comrades and fired.

"Damn it!" Aelita pushed DJ out of the way as the blasts took out his barrier allowing the other monsters to attack.

Spiderlings aimed and fired at Bridgette who rushed to collect her swords, scoring a few hits costing her ten life points with each hit. Picking up her swords she blocked the lasers and took cover.

"A little help here, Cody!" She shouted as she ducked under another laser shot.

The Hornets hovered above and fired lasers down at the warriors, keeping them apart and not giving a chance to counterattack.

Xxx

"Izzy and the Noahs are on their way to the scanners. Hang on!" Cody replied. "Okay Noahs, into the scanners."

As he spoke into the head set Izzy and the Noahs assembled in the scanners.

"About time." Noah noted as they all went transparent again but this lasted longer than a few seconds. "Move it!"

They crowed the scanners with three Noahs in two and the last two in the final scanner.

"All right, if this works all the Noahs will be scanned and combined back into a single one. Here we go. Transfer Noahs." All scanners closed. "Scanner, Noahs. Virtualization."

Xxx

Noah's avatar landed in the Forest Sector and looked around.

"There's only one...me?" Noah looked around to make sure he was the only and let out a shout of joy. "Yes! Yes! It's just me again! No more 'me's' giving me grieve with my own sense of humour! Haha!"

_"I'm sending Izzy down."_

"Oh," Noah slumped, sounding disappointed.

The fox eared girl appeared next to him seconds ago. "Ah...back in my old clothes. Finally!" She smiled at being back in her red and orange dress since she hadn't been in Lyoko since the accident with her and Gwen. "Explosive arrows," She shot one into a tree, knocking it down. "Check! Shapeshifting," She turned into an elephant. "Check! I've gots me stuff back!"

"Yippee, now can we get a move on?" Noah asked. "Now that I'm me again the others will need our help!"

"Hop on then!" Izzy turned into...a rhino.

"...I hate you," Noah sighed, but then remembered. "...I'm driving."

"Wait, what-?"

Noah phased into her and possessed her.

"Ack-you litte-!"

Noah took over. "No time to talk Izzy, CHARGE!"

The possessed Rhino took off into the forest. "Whoa! Whoa!" Noah had to avoid colliding with trees. "How do you drive this thing?"

CRASH! THUD! CRASH!

Xxx

Bridgette, DJ and Aelita had their hands full. The monsters attacked with the more powerful ones keeping them from reaching the tower while the smaller ones fired rapid lasers to pin them down. And Sora along with the air born monsters kept on launching attacks from above that had already decreased their life points. Bridgette was at fifty life points with her extra life program regenerating them slowly but not enough to give her a chance to survive for much longer. DJ only had thirty when he took a hit from Sora's laser before Aelita fired and blasted one of the Dragon Knights.

Aelita herself had sixty even though the extra life point program was keeping them in the fight but it was only a short term solution.

"I'm all for any ideas." Bridgette said, wincing as the tree she was hiding behind was hit by a Megatank.

The tree shook but did not fall over.

"I've got nothing." Aelita replied, firing her plasma beam but it missed as the monsters were too far out of range.

A war cry was heard as a red rhino charged past their hiding places and straight at the monsters. It trampled most of the Spiderlings and smashed through a Dark Krab before a Gorilla stopped it with its bare hands. Noah phased out of the rhino and into the Gorilla making the rhino shift back into Izzy's human form.

"Woah..." Izzy stumbled with a hand on her head.

The Gorilla turned gray, signalling Noah's control over it and quickly swung its right arm at the Gorilla on its right. Striking it in the face the Gorilla fell over from the blow while the Noah-possessed Gorilla spun around and struck the Gorilla behind him on the side of the head and fired its cannon, blasting the bewildered Gorilla to pieces.

"Noah! He's back to normal!" Bridgette said with a smile as the Noah possessed Gorilla quickly took out the other Gorilla.

"And in time too." DJ said.

The monsters backed away, wary of this new threat.

"Okay, now's the time to get to the tower." The Noah/Gorilla faced the three Megatanks still guarding the tower. "Who's next?"

"You shouldn't have done that." Sora landed in front of the Megatanks.

"Yeah? Why not?" Noah asked, levelling the Gorilla's cannon at the general.

"Because after XANA discovered your ability he's been at work to equip all monsters with a little something for when you took over them." Sora explained. "You should find out in three...two..."

"Noah get out of that!" Aelita shouted.

"One." Noah phased out of the Gorilla in time as it exploded.

"AH!" Noah flew through the air and hit the ground, losing a few lift points. "Well, that was fun."

"So much for you taking out the other monsters with one big possessed one." Sora said as the remaining monsters regrouped.

There were only three Spiderlings, two Dark Krabs, two Tigers, three Megatanks, one Dragon Knight, and three Hornets.

"Your friends are still on the run from the cars and motorcycles but they won't last long. You want through you better hurry." Sora raised his wind blades.

"Good thing I got this." Noah said as he split into three Noahs and two copies split into three more Noahs each.

"Not again. That copy thing is really old." Sora sighed and fired at one of them...

Only for the laser to go right through it.

"Hm?" Sora looked as the Noahs ran all over the place. "They fixed the clone problem so now they're all just illusions. Now I have to go through all the trouble of finding the real one." He sighed. "Why do I get all the hard missions?"

DJ and the other Lyoko warriors charged at the other monsters, finally mounting a successful counter attack since all the monsters were distracted by the Noahs. A Megatank began to open up and aim for Bridgette, but DJ slammed into it and rolled it back...right through one of the few remaining randomly placed holes in the sector. A pillar of light shot up several moments later to signal that it had hit the digital sea. Aelita managed to get off a Plasma Beam that took out one of the Tigers before the three Hornets began to pursue her.

One of them was suddenly speared on the tip of Bridgette's hover board as she shot down between the other two. They turned to pursue, but Aelita took this chance to fire an energy sphere at one, knocking it out of the sky where it exploded on the ground. Izzy turned into an elephant and reared back on her hind legs before she charged for the Dark Krabs. They both formed up along with the last Dragon Knight and fired at the shape shifter.

The Dragon Knight was suddenly picked up by DJ, who slammed it against a tree and then punched it in the XANA eye on its helmet, devirtualizing it. Izzy then turned into a lion and attacked the final Tiger while DJ smashed through the final Dark Krab.

"Oh boy. I didn't think it'd get this bad." Sora said as the remaining monsters were getting taken out easily. His helmet beeped and he knew what that meant. "I guess I opened my mouth too soon."

A portal opened up behind him and he walked into it. As the final monsters taken out Aelita ran into the tower. Knowing there was not a lot of time left for the others she flew up to the upper platform and inputted the code.

**Aelita**

**Code: Lyoko**

The tower's menacing red aura turned back to calm blue and outside all the possessed vehicles shut down.

"Return to the Past now!" Cody pressed the enter key and they were all enveloped by a sphere of light.

Xxx

"All right, I know I messed up big this time." Noah said to everyone who was pretty much not really happy with him, not that he could blame them. "I went behind your backs, toyed with my upgrade even thought I was told _not_ to do that, made copies of myself, didn't tell you and made your lives miserable."

"No duh." Heather said with her arms crossed.

"So...I guess I should get use to wearing a tutu in Lyoko now." Noah said with slumped shoulders, knowing there was no way out this time.

"You'll be pleased to know that your actions, as stupid as they were may have actually saved us a lot of trouble." Aelita said, looking at the computer.

"Say what now?" LeShawna asked.

"First off, the situation with Duncan and Courtney's virus. You took a piece of their hair into the scanners before you went into Lyoko, right Noah?" Aelita asked, looking at Noah.

"Yeah." Noah nodded.

"Does it explain why they collapsed?" Cody asked.

"Well, the scans show similarities between the virus XANA created that he used to keep Cody, DJ, Geoff, and LeShawna out of Lyoko by fooling the scanners into thinking they were XANA copies and the virus that XANA gave Gwen. The difference is that virus won't make them sick like it did with Gwen but when they approach the scanners something in the virus seems to activate from sort of proximity sensor that tells it to attack them from the inside." Aelita explained, showing the scans.

"So that's why they collapsed." Gwen replied.

"It is similar to what Shadow called the Kill Switch for the virus XANA gave you." Aelita replied.

"Wait a second. If this virus tries to kill them when they are close to the scanners how come they haven't been hurt since the third lab is over the studio?" Geoff asked.

"Most likely because the main computer's motherboard was fried meaning the scans are powerless." Aelita shrugged.

"So they can be fine if they walk into the third lab but if they walk in here they might die." Trent surmised. "Can anything be done?"

"I'm not sure. With the other viruses we could use the scanners but if we try get them in the scanners to cure the virus might kill them the moment they brought into the scanner room." Aelita shrugged.

"So we might have no way to bring them back." Bridgette had a sad look on her face which made Geoff put his arm around her shoulders.

"Well, here's some good news. The portal generator has been fixed and this time I tested it by the vehicles through and it was a success when they appeared in each sector where the portal was programmed to send them. All I need to do now is connect with one of XANA's computers and we're ready to finally go after XANA." Aelita said. "It just needs a few days and it'll be ready. So if you want we can start when it's ready."

Everyone looked at each other, not speaking but Aelita could tell they were thinking it over a lot. A moment passed and they looked at Aelita.

"Girl, I think I can speak for everyone when I say we're tired of waiting for XANA to attack while we sit back and do nothing but wait for the next one." LeShawna said.

"And if we don't hurry up and kill him, he could do worse than erase our minds," Gwen nodded. "We've lost three people, technically just one, we're lucky it's only been that many after all this time."

"Robby might disagree with that," Trent muttered.

"And so we're not going to just sit here and let XANA do any worse to us," Gwen continued.

"I have the portal generator secured but I will need few more days to set up the connection program so we can reach the copy," Aelita stated. "But if we're going to go...when is your next break from the show?"

"I say screw Total Drama," Geoff said. "This is life or death guys! And Aelita's friends are still waiting for us!"

"I say we go as soon as it's ready," Heather suggested. "We rest up and then we'll be ready to fight."

"All for going say 'aye'." Aelita held up a hand, as did the whole group.

"**_AYE!_**" They all called out.

"Okay then, we head out the second the portal's ready," Aelita nodded.

"And XANA won't know what hit him," Trent added confidently.

"...on an unrelated topic, does this mean I don't have to go in the Tutu?" Noah asked.

"You wish buddy!" Izzy then reached into her bag and pulled out a bright pink Tutu. "I ordered it for just your size!"

Noah yelped and ran through the group. "Pardon me, bye-bye!" Not bothering with the elevator, he started up the ladder to the secondary exit with Izzy in pursuit.

"Get back here!" She called after him. "You know I'm gonna get you!"

"You'll never take me alive!" He shook a fist at her as he reached the top. "...or dead!"


	67. Episode 65: Calypso: Power of the Ocean

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 66

The next morning after the day of the incident with the Noah clones everything was pretty much normal. Well, that was what LeShawna and DJ thought when they saw the door to Bridgette's door partially opened. They looked in and saw several skirts, shirts, pants, and dresses scattered all over the floor. Bridgette was standing in front of a mirror holding up two dresses so she could compare them.

"I'm not sure which one of these would be better." Bridgette muttered, not knowing her guests.

"I think the blue dress suits you best." LeShawna said.

"Ahh!" Bridgette yelped in surprise as she spun around, dropping the dresses as she looked behind her. "LeShawna, DJ? Please don't do that!"

"Sorry, about that. We saw your door partially opened and we thought you weren't here." DJ apologized.

"Yeah, our bad." LeShawna said, looking at the floor that was covered in clothes. "So what's all this supposed to be?"

"Oh, well after we came back yesterday Geoff asked me if I wanted to go on a date with him today." Bridgette replied with a smile.

"Well that's great!" DJ exclaimed.

"Good for you girl!" LeShawna put a hand on Bridgette's shoulder. "About time you two did something other than just make out in front of everyone."

"LeShawna!" Bridgette exclaimed with her cheeks turning red making LeShawna laugh.

"Relax, girl I was just teasing." LeShawna patted her on the shoulder. "But what's the big panic attack for?"

"Because I have-"

"Wait for it," LeShawna mumbled to DJ.

"_Nothing to wear!_" Bridgette finished.

"Five points to me," Leshawna whispered to herself and then looked at Bridgette. "Well where's he takin' you to?"

"He found a nice restaurant a few blocks away," Bridgette explained. "It's fancy but not...'rob your wallet' fancy. And it has a good veggie menu."

"Well, bonus points to Party Boy," LeShawna nodded.

"Yeah, must have been a lotta trouble to find a place with a veggie menu," DJ added.

"What am I going to do? I have my normal outfit and a bunch of workout clothes-and a few things I was planning to wear if I ended up on Aftermath again." Bridgette sorted through more of her wardrobe.

"Big guy, I think she's gonna need a _lot_ of help with this," LeShawna said to DJ, who nodded. "Ok Bridge...if we help you, will you _please_ stop freakin' out? You're loud enough to wake the dead, girl!"

Xxx

In the basement of the studio, Chris sighed as he looked at several pictures of himself with his now melted down trophies. "I miss my trophies so much..." The pictures were oddly set on a coffin. "Where ever you are, I hope you are in a better place than this...with my cousin."

Then the noise of Bridgette's panicking upstairs could be heard through the ceiling.

"Hey, can you people keep it down?" Chris shouted up at the ceiling. "You're loud enough to-"

Suddenly the coffin shifted, and Chris' eyes nearly popped out of his head as the lid slowly started shifting.

'What the hell? But it was a closed casket ceremony!' Chris thought, referring to the lonesome funeral for his trophies-at least a few people attended the funeral for Carlos' car!

With a yawn, a figure draped in blanket sat up, letting out an eerie groan.

"AHHHHHHH!" Chris immediately ran out of the basement.

"Huh?" Carlos took the blankets off his head. "...how'd I get down here again?" He paused. "Wait...pictures of Chris...coffin...nobody's attending..." The gears in Carlos' head started grinding as a grin grew on his face. "Oh...my...god!"

He hopped out of the coffin-clad in only a pair of boxers and ran out of the basement. "FREE! FREEDOM! IT'S HAPPENED! I KNEW IT WOULD HAPPEN ONE OF THESE DAYS! I'M FREEEEE!"

As he reached the top of the stairs, it suddenly swung open.

THUNK!

"Oh!" Carlos tumbled backwards down the stairs. "Ouch! Oh! Ow! Ow! Ouch!" THUD!

Kurt, who had opened the door took out his earphones for his I Pod and turned on his flashlight. "Yo Carlos, are you down here?"

A long, eerie groan came from the bottom of the steps.

"...that's a little creepy," Kurt mumbled. "Maybe I should stop dumping him in that coffin down there every time he has a Klondike Bar induced hallucination." He then shrugged and shut the door.

Xxx

"What about this?" LeShawna stood with Bridgette in front of a mirror, holding up different tops and skirts from Bridgette's closet.

"Uh...no...the colours don't match," Bridgette shook her head.

LeShawna sighed, adding the clothing to a growing pile of clothes. "Ok, we need an expert."

"You don't mean-?" DJ gasped.

"You know I do," Leshawna nodded. "Who else has a fashion sense around here?"

DJ sighed. "I'll call her." He stepped out into the hall and began to walk around, looking for their soon to be new helper. "Hey! Lindsay are you out here-"

THUD! A door opened in his face and he fell over.

"Hello?" Lindsay stuck her head out.

Somewhere else, there was a _Code Lindsay _alarm going off.

DJ let out a long eerie moan.

"Eep! Ghost!" Lindsay hopped out of the room she had been in and looked around franticly until she noticed DJ on the ground. "DJ! Help! There's a ghost around!"

"Huh...?" DJ sat up and straightened his hat. "Lindsay, we need your help. Bridgette's gettin' ready for a date with Geoff and she can't make heads or tails of what to wear."

Lindsay gasped, and then struck a heroic pose-unfortunately planting one foot on DJ...while wearing high heeled boots. "This looks like a job for Lindsay!"

DJ groaned in pain.

"EEK! GHOST!" Lindsay ran off. "Hold on Bridgette, I'll get you ready for dinner before that ghost gets you!"

...

"Code...Lindsay," DJ muttered before fainting.

Xxx

"Bridgette!" Lindsay ran into the room.

"Lindsay!" Bridgette replied.

"Blondie!" LeShawna shouted.

"LeFanda!" Lindsay shouted.

"LeFanda? The hell girl, it's LeShawna!" LeShawna snapped.

"No time for that now LeDana," Lindsay said in an authoritative voice. "I have to get Bridgette ready for a date! Come with me!" She grabbed Bridgette's wrist and tugged her out of the room.

"Is this really necessary?" Bridgette asked.

"More than ever!" Lindsay then shoved her into her own room and got in, closing the door behind her.

Xxx

**_Five minutes later..._**

"Hm...Usually Lindsay's done by now," LeShawna mumbled, looking at her watch.

"Done what?" Heather asked, stopping as she heard LeShawna.

"She's helping Bridgette find clothes for a date with Geoff." LeShawna said.

"Oh, yippee, she gets to help Bridgette dress, we have to find Carlos," Heather sighed. "Klondike Bar hallucination again."

"Man that guy's gotta lay off the Klondike Bars." Leshawna complained.

Suddenly a long eerie moan rang throughout the hall.

"...did you hear that?" Heather asked.

The moan repeated itself. "_Uuuuuuugggghhhh..._"

"I heard that one!" LeShawna got up. "What the hell was that? Is Chris playin' with the speakers again?"

Suddenly the door to the basement opened, and slowly Carlos, in only his boxers stepped out, groaning. "Uuuuuuuugh...my head! Seriously, you can't at least knock first Kurt?"

"Carlos! What happened to your clothes?" Heather demanded.

"I don't know...I was eating Klondike Bars..." He grinned dumbly. "And they were _goooood._" He shook his head. "Then I woke up in a coffin down there. Did you know Chris is dead?"

"What? I wish." Leshawna said. "The guy ran out ten minutes ago screaming about mummies."

"...I may have had a hand in that methinks," Carlos mumbled to himself. "That explains the bed sheets." He held up the bed sheets that had been covering him in the coffin. "So what are you girls doing?"

"Lindsay's helping Bridgette prepare for a date with Geoff," LeShawna repeated herself. "We're waitin', or at least I am. Where the hell are your clothes?"

"Hm...not sure," Carlos scratched his matted hair. "But I really hope that I had them on when I came back inside," He didn't like the idea of being identified as a public menace walking around in his underwear.

Lindsay swung the door open. "Attention everybody! Lefana-"

"LeShawna!"

"Right, LeMama, get everybody here, pronto! I shall unveil the new Bridgette!"

"Right...let me get my pants first," Carlos said, walking off.

"Ooh wait, do you mean the ones I found in the parking lot?" Lindsay called after him, holding up a set of black trousers.

"Aw crap!" Carlos groaned, taking them. "Thanks. Did you find my shirt?"

"It's hanging from the antennae on the roof," Lindsay replied.

"Doh!" Carlos mumbled. "What the heck did I do?"

Xxx

Everyone had gathered outside of Lindsay's room, wondering what it was that she wanted everyone to see. Geoff was there, after picking out his own clothes for his date with Bridgette. He changed out of his open pink shirt and shorts for a blue jacket knowing that blue was Bridgette's favourite color with a black dress shirt and sharp black slacks.

"Everyone, we are gathered today to present Bridgette looking _absolutely_ perfect for her date." Lindsay declared as she stepped out and stepped aside as Bridgette hesitantly walked out.

Nearly the jaw of every male in the hall dropped as Bridgette stepped out.

"Whooooaaaaaaa." Cody said with wide eyes and a wide jaw.

She was dressed in a perfectly tight light blue dress that reached her knees with matching high heels that were the same color as her dress. Her hair was no longer in its pony tail looking neatly combed and she wore long light blue gloves. Around her neck was a silver chain necklace with a dolphin.

"Wow! You look beautiful Bridgette!" Gwen complimented.

"Awesome..." Just about every guy muttered at the same time.

"Damn girl." LeShawna nodded. "You're making every boy here's brains turn into goo!"

"Thanks!"

"Dude..." Chris mumbled to Chef and Roberto. "How the hell did I miss _that_ every season on TV?"

"I thought you and Chef had a thing goin'," Roberto snickered.

THWACK! Chef clocked Roberto...silently.

"Bridge, you look amazing," Geoff took her arm. "Let's go Bridge!"

"Alright, bye everybody!" Bridgette waved as Geoff led her away. "Thanks for the help, Lindsay!"

"You're welcome!" Lindsay waved back.

"I got to say I hope those two have fun out there." Kurt said, then turned to Carlos. "Was there something we were supposed to do after this?"

"GET BACK TO WORK!" From the next room over the Director was talking-er...shouting through the TV.

"Did you hear anything?" Chef looked around.

"Maybe, dunno," Chris shrugged. "If it's important, we'd remember it. If not ,we'll worry later. Let's see...schedule..." He unrolled a paper. "Four oh clock, stare at mirror. Five, shower...five thirty, watch security cameras for black mail-"

"And at Six, GET BACK TO WORK!" The Director shouted.

"...how does she _do that?_" Chris sighed, rolling the paper up.

Xxx

At the front gate outside Bridgette walked a little hesitantly as Geoff led her down the restaurant he wanted to take her to.

"You okay, baby?" Geoff asked.

"I'm just a little worried about leaving the others while we go off and have fun. What if there's an attack while we're away." Bridgette replied.

"Don't worry, Bridge. They can handle it and we've got our cell phones." Geoff assured extending his elbow like a gentlemen for her. "Shall we?"

With a giggle Bridgette accepted and they walked down the street.

Xxx

"It's about time those two did something other than just make out." Gwen said as they sat down in the recreation room and watched Cody and Trent play Halo.

"Yeah. Did they ever go on a date after getting together or did they just make out?" Noah asked, looking up from his book.

"...To be honest I don't really know." Gwen had a thoughtful look. "I think they might have gone on a few dates between the second and third seasons but I never asked."

"So this might actually be their first date!" Izzy exclaimed and sighed. "I remember my first date and how wonderful it was."

"Owen?" Heather asked.

"No."

"Justin?" LeShawna asked.

"Hell no!" Izzy growled. "His name was Carl."

"Carl?" Nearly everyone asked.

"Yeah, he was such a great guy. We went on these fantastic adventures, outrunning the RCMP, battling alligators in the sewers, blowing up evil aliens." Izzy had a big smile as she looked up at the ceiling. "It was _so _much fun!"

Everyone stared at Izzy, wondering if Carl was as crazy as she was.

"How long did you two go out?" DJ asked.

"Oh, I think it was about two...three days tops!" Izzy held put up three fingers.

Xxx

As they continued their discussion down in the basement of the studio someone had plans of their own for the Lyoko group.

"'Get your crappy pictures out of the basement mophead'" Chris growled as he picked up the pictures of himself from the coffin. "Yeah this coming from the guy who came down hopped up on Klondike bars and ran around in his boxers."

His ears caught the sound of something and he turned around.

"Carlos if this-huh?" Chris was caught off as an electrical socket began to fizzle with electricity.

A black substance made its way out of a socket, burning it as the spectre came out.

"Ah! GHOST!" Chris dropped the pictures and ran up the stairs. "HELP! HELP! EVIL GHOST ON THE LOOSE!"

The spectre ignored him as it made its way to circuit breaker that controlled the lighting. Disappearing into the breaker it made a small fizzle and then it seemed to be back to normal.

Xxx

Aelita sighed as she fell onto her bed after finishing her class. She dropped her bag at the foot of her bed. Sitting on the bed she took out her cell phone and looked at the picture Gwen sent her of Geoff and Bridgette ready for their data. It made her smile at how happy both of them were and Bridgette looked beautiful.

Sighing she looked at a picture of her and Jeremy on a data a few months ago, looking at the smiling faces of herself and Jeremy. It made her miss Jeremy and the others even more and she was almost impatient in getting the portal ready. Any further thoughts were put on hold when a familiar beeping sound was heard. Sitting up so she could see the computer at her desk she saw a window appear on the screen that showed the super scan detecting an activated tower.

'Great, the last thing anyone needs right now.' Aelita got up and ran out of her room, pulling out her cell phone.

However before she could dial the others a wire shot out and knocked her cell phone. Crying out in shock she dropped the phone and watched as the wire fried it with a blast of electricity. Aelita jumped out of the way as the wire tried to wrap itself around her. Students came out of their dorms to see what was going on.

"Everyone get out of here!" Aelita yelled, as the wire shot at her again.

They screamed as more wires came out of the walls and tried to attack her. Aelita stood outside, knowing what had happened. She had to get to the lab before something bad happened to the others.

Xxx

"Geoff, how did you pay for all of this?" Bridgette asked as they sat down at a restaurant at the pier and sat down by the ocean.

It was a beautiful sight to see that made Bridgette just want to go out and stay on the docks and watch the river all day.

"You like it?" Geoff asked with a smile.

Bridgette was at a loss for words. Geoff was sometimes not the smartest person but he could be really romantic when he wanted to be.

"Well, I found this place a while back and just knew that it was perfect and I wanted to bring you down here. Took me a while because I was saving up." Geoff replied.

"It's beautiful." Bridgette smiled as they leaned in for a kiss.

Little did they know that as they did, the electric wires around the restaurant sparked.

Xxx

As Aelita ran onto the bridge towards the factory she noticed the wires were convulsing with electricity as if XANA was trying to spook her.

'Not good. If XANA has control of electricity of the factory he could shut it down when we're in Lyoko, trapping us forever.' Aelita thought.

She ran into the factory, ignoring the flickering lights, the sounds of electric wires convulsing with electricity. She decided not to take the elevator, thinking that might be too risking if XANA decided to cut power to the elevator while it was taking her down to the lab. She took the long way to the lab and climbed down the ladder.

'I hope I'm not too late.'

Xxx

"What's Chris yelling about now?" Heather grumbled as they heard Chris shouting in the hallway.

"Don't know. Maybe Carlos had another Klondike bar hallucination." Noah shrugged.

"Okay, Chris hand over the Klondike bars." They heard Carlos say.

"This is not a joke there was literally a ghost down in the basement!" Chris shouted.

"Yeah right? Was it Aunt Gladis telling you how annoyed she still is at you breaking her favourite vase?" Carlos scoffed.

"No! It was all black and like some kind of cloud and it came out of an outlet and went into the circuit breaker!" Chris shouted.

Everyone looked up when they heard that.

"Black and like some kind of cloud?" LeShawna repeated.

"Came out of an outlet?" DJ continued.

"And went into the circuit breaker?" Gwen and Heather finished.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Cody asked.

"That depends are you thinking what I think you are thinking?" Izzy asked.

That was when the wiring came to life inside the rec room.

"Knew it!" Izzy shouted as a remote for a Playstation wrapped around her.

"Move!" Gwen shouted, just as a wire grabbed her stomach.

She tried to force it off but a blast of electricity hit her, making her scream and fall over.

"Gwen!" Trent and Cody shouted.

"Here!" Heather pulled a knife from her back pocket.

She threw the knife and it sliced through the wires. Now that there no electric wires Trent quickly tore the wires off Gwen, leaving a burn like mark where the wires had been.

"Thanks." Gwen gasped as they put her arms over their shoulder.

"Move!" Heather shouted as the large TV looked like it was overloading and about to explode.

They ran towards the door with Cody and Trent supporting Gwen. They ran out and door as the TV overloaded and electricity shot out. LeShawna jumped out as the blast covered the room and DJ slammed the door which was sent flying into the wall by the blast.

"Everyone all right?" Cody asked.

"Define all right?" LeShawna held her side and moved the arm to show everyone a hand sized burn mark.

"Can you move?" DJ asked knelt down beside her.

"I guess. We better let Aelita know that XANA has decided to launch an attack." LeShawna stood up, keep a hand pressed on her wound.

That was when Cody's phone rang. She pulled it out and answered. "Hey, Aelita, we were just about to call."

"_Sorry, my cell phone was fried when the wires at my school came alive and shocked it._"

"Same thing happened here. Looks like XANA's taken control of the electrical wiring in the studio."

"_I just got to the lab and called you from the computer. I'll warn Bridgette and Geoff. Remember this when you get to the factory don't-_"

Aelita was cut off as a wire busted out of the wall and snatched Cody's phone, frying it with a blast of electricity

"Oh come on!" Cody shouted, not happy with the loss of his phone but sighed."Before I was got cut off Aelita said she's at the factory. She'll call Geoff and Bridgette."

Xxx

Just as Bridgette and Geoff were about to kiss the light bulb above cracked opened and a blast of electricity shattered their table, making them fall forward.

"Whoa!" They shouted as they across the ground, their food and drinks falling on everyone and a bit landing on their clothes.

Everyone looked up and watched as the electrical wiring and appliances began to fizzle with electricity.

"Oh come on!" Geoff groaned as he helped Bridgette stand up. "One simple date is all I ask for. Is it _that_ hard?"

His answer came in the form as electric wires came out of the wall and flew at him like how a snake attacks its prey.

"Look out!" Bridgette shouted and pushed him out of the way.

"Thanks Bridge." Geoff said as they got back up.

"We better go."

They ran out of the restaurant and headed for the factory. Noticing the telephone wires were surging with electricity they decided to run as fast as possible.

Xxx

LeShawna, Heather, DJ, along with Trent and Cody who were supporting Gwen ran across the bridge towards the lobby of the factory. LeShawna, DJ, and Heather took the cables and slid down while Cody and Trent helped Gwen down the stairs since getting shocked by the wire left her in no condition to fight or to try sliding down the cables.

"Come on, let's go!" LeShawna hurried to the elevator which had been left open.

"Let's go!" Izzy ran in with her.

Aelita saw this on the security cameras and spoke through the speakers in the lobby. _"LeShawna, Izzy, wait! Don't go in there!"_

It was too late as she ran in just as the doors started to close on their own.

"Hey! What's going on?" LeShawna pounded on the elevator doors that refused to open.

Then the elevator started to go down, taking LeShawna and Izzy with it.

"What happened?" Heather shouted.

"_I was too late to warn you. XANA's not only controlled the electric wiring at the studio and Kadic Academy but the factory's too. I tried to tell you not to take the elevator._"

"Is there any way to help LeShawna and Izzy?" Cody asked.

"_I can't shut down the elevator. The best I can do is an emergency stop meaning they'll be stuck in the elevator until we shut down the tower._"

"We better hurry." Heather said and they took the long way to the lab.

The climbed down the latter as Aelita stepped up.

"Glad to see you could make it. Gwen are you all right?" Aelita asked as Trent had Gwen on his back as he climbed down.

"Yeah, I'll be good." Gwen nodded as she leaned against the wall.

"Yeah, because you'll be staying here." Trent said.

"What?" Gwen looked at Trent.

"He's right, Gwen. You got blasted with electricity and you can barely stand. In your condition a fight in Lyoko would put you in a coma if you fell out of the scanners." Cody nodded.

Gwen sighed but relented as she sat down against the wall.

"Where's the tower?" Heather asked.

"Tropical Sector." Aelita replied.

"That's funny. Geoff and Bridgette are having a date at the pier and the tower's in the one sector with an ocean. Looks like XANA's still got his sense of humour." Cody commented.

"Speaking of, where are they?" Trent asked.

"I called their cell phones but no answer. Hopefully they're on their way." Aelita replied. "In the meantime we have a tower to shut down."

"I'll take care of the virtualizations." Noah spoke up.

"Okay, but stay away from the upgrades unless I tell you to." Aelita said sternly.

"You're not going to let that go are you?" Noah sat down.

"Helping us find out about Duncan and Courtney's virus was your only 'Get out of Jail Free' card on this team."

Xxx

"_Virtualization!_"

Trent, DJ, and Cody landed on a beach of a small island with a few palm trees. As usual the sun was in a setting position making it seem like it was afternoon in Lyoko but everyone knew what time it was. A second later Aelita and Heather landed next to them and they stood up.

"Everything's cool, Noah, we're all here." Trent spoke up.

"_Sending the vehicles now._"

All five vehicles appeared in front of the warriors. DJ hopped on the Overboard while Trent took the Overbike. Cody stepped onto the Overwing and Aelita took the OverSled leaving Heather with the Overjet.

"The tower's not too far from here." Aelita pointed south. "Just a few minutes and we'll be there."

"Which general you think you will be waiting for us?" Cody asked as they took off.

"My money's on Ryder or Blade." Trent replied.

"Knowing my luck it'll be Sora again." Heather shook her head.

"How about Jinx or Lilith?" DJ asked.

"We'll find in about a few seconds. There's the tower!" Aelita pointed ahead.

The tower was in the center of a small island with only a few trees on top of large rocks.

"Shouldn't we have had some company about now?" Trent asked, looking around for any monsters in the sea or air. "I mean they've got to know what we're up to by now."

"He has a point." Cody nodded, not liking how nothing was appearing.

"Maybe they're still deciding who should attack us." DJ pointed out.

They landed on the island and looked around.

"Noah are you sure nothing's coming our way?" Trent asked.

"_Hang on, give me a second here! I'm busy with so many things at once and despite the popular believe I am actually not gifted with the ability to multi-task! _" Noah grunted over the headset.

"Coming from a guy who's being a smartass while working at the same time." Heather smirked.

"_Oh, ha, ha!_" Noah laughed sarcastically.

Trent snickered before he stepped on something wet. Looking down he saw streams of water slowly making their way onto the island.

"Guys...was the water this high before?" Trent asked, gaining everyone's attention to the fact that the ocean was rising.

"No..." Heather said as the water was now up her ankles.

"Noah!" Everyone shouted.

_"I see it, I see it!__ Hang on. We've got monsters!" _Noah noticed red icons moving to the others on the screen.

"Ah, we're a little occupied here!" Heather shouted as the water started to travel up her knees.

A buzzing sound was heard and everyone looked up to see about ten Hornets and six Mantas flying at them.

"There's our welcoming committee." Aelita said.

As the water rose up Aelita activated her boots and floated above the water as everyone moved back onto the vehicles. DJ and Heather managed to get on the OverWing and Overjet and take off while the rest of the vehicles ended up underwater and there were flashes of red light and the vehicles vanished. The ocean was rising up so much now that the entire island was now underwater and everyone ended up floating in water as it continued to rise until the tower was covered.

"Oh great we have monsters underwater!" Cody cried.

"I'll check!" Trent went underwater and looked around for signs of monsters.

A flash of red light made him activate his barrier underwater that blocked incoming lasers and missiles from Kongres and Sharks that swam at them with the intent to tear them apart. The good thing about being digital while underwater was that he didn't have to hold his breath when he screamed. There were three Kongres and two Sharks swimming to attack the warriors from under them since their fighting styles were not suited for fighting underwater. Trent swam back up to the surface and released a gasp of non-existent air.

"We've got sharks and eels on us!" He shouted.

"Oh crap! We're no good like this!" Cody replied looking around for signs of any attacks from under him.

_"Uh...guys?"_

"Noah if you say it's a problem I'm gonna come back out there and hit you in the-" Heather started.

_"There's something happening right below you."_

"Damn it Noah!"

Suddenly the water shifted...and then slowly the group in the water realized that they were rotating.

"Oh crap..." Trent swallowed before a full blown whirlpool formed.

"AHHHHH!" They screamed as they were slowly drawn down into the center of the whirlpool down a dark vortex.

_"Oh man, DJ, Heather you can't let them go down that hole! There's another hole in the ocean floor of the Tropical Sector that leads to the Digital Sea down there!"_

"Oh snap!" DJ and Heather-well Heather said something a lot worse than 'snap' shouted as they angled their vehicles down into the expanding vortex of water.

"I knew I should have tried harder to learn how to swim!" Cody cried.

"Uh...Cody?" Trent was looking down. "Incomiiiiiiing!"

THUD!

"...Ouch!" Trent whimpered as he sat on the front of the Overwing.

"Ooh!...sorry!" DJ said as he moved Trent onto the Overwing behind him.

"If that was real...I'd be pissed," Trent said in a strained voice, doubled over with one hand holding onto DJ while the other uh...nursed himself.

Heather pulled Cody out and Aelita used her Creativity to close the hole which made the whirlpool vanish.

"Thanks, Heather." Cody said.

"Don't mention it, seriously don't." Heather replied as they flew out.

"We've got a bigger problem. XANA hasn't tried flooding a sector since he tried to flood the Mountain Sector with the Digital Sea. The only difference is that the water won't destroy us this time." Aelita replied.

"How do we get rid of all this water?" Heather asked.

"We don't need to worry about the water destroying us. I can just swim down to the tower." Aelita replied.

However it seemed XANA was still two steps ahead of them. The water froze above the tower and the island it was on. The water continued to freeze until there was an island of ice above the tower.

"Should have known one of the generals was nearby." Heather grunted.

They looked up and saw Yuki standing on a Manta that flew down to the icy ground. She jumped off and landed on the ice a few feet away. The other Lyoko warriors landed on the ice, ready to fight.

"There goes our bet." Cody grumbled.

"That's not the problem right now. Aelita, you go and get to that tower." Heather said.

The monsters attacked the second Heather said that and fired lasers down. Cody reached for his pistols but found they were missing.

"I don't have my guns!"

"My guitar's gone too! They must have fallen off in the whirlpool!" Trent replied as they got hit by lasers and were devirtualized.

Heather ran forward and with her wrist blades out to slash Yuki to bits. However Yuki was more than prepared as tapped the ice in front of her and just as Heather slashed at her ice blasted out of the ground in front of her and making her wrist blades hit the ice instead of the general behind it. Heather stepped back as Yuki touched the wall and sent a blast of icy shards at her. Heather tried to dodge to the best of her abilities but several shards managed to leave small cuts on her outfit and skin, making her lose a few life points with each hit.

"Heather!" DJ shouted as she fell back towards them. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine! I just forgot how tough this snow girl was." Heather grunted as she got up.

"She's too strong to fight alone, especially with all this ice and water." DJ said.

"Then we take her together." Aelita said as she held out her hand to fire her plasma beam.

However the air monsters flew in and fired their lasers. Aelita dodged the lasers and jumped back as the Hornets sprayed acid at her. DJ charged forward in his golem form. Yuki made spikes of ice blast out of the ground but DJ's armour shrugged them off.

He jumped into the air and fell upon the general to deliver his blow but Yuki phased down through ice as DJ's fist hit it, causing large amounts of cracks.

"Noah, where'd she go?" Heather asked, looking around.

"_Hang on a sec-DJ move!_"

It was too late as the ice cracked open and DJ fell into the water.

"DJ!" Aelita shouted.

DJ deactivated his golem form since it was making him sink to the bottom of the ocean but as he attempted swim back up to the surface the hole closed up and he ended up attacked by Sharks and Kongres that were still there. As he attempted to activate his barrier a missile hit him in the chest and exploded, sending him flying back and making him senseless for a second. That was all it took for the remaining sea monsters to blast him to bits.

Xxx

"Oh crap!" Noah groaned as DJ was taken out of the fight.

Looking up at the monitor he saw Geoff and Bridgette run into the factory lobby.

"Yes!" He put on the headset. "Geoff, Bridge, don't use the elevator! Take the ladder down and fast! The others need help!"

Xxx

Aelita fired her plasma beam but Yuki dodged and launched three spiky orbs made of ice into the air.

"What's she doing? That's not going to hit us-"Heather was cut off as the icy projectiles exploded and rained down thousands of sharp icy shards on them. "Crap!"

She and Aelita ended up with several shards hitting them making their life points decrease heavily. The monsters fired lasers and hit them, knocking them back down.

"Aelita, please tell me you have a plan." Heather grunted as she got up.

"_Here's something for you. Backup!_" Noah said as Geoff and Bridgette landed on the ground behind them.

"Here we are, dudes! Payback for messing up my date with my girlfriend!" Geoff fused his chakrams into his axe and swung it, unleashing a stream of lightning that incinerated one of the last two Flying Mantas.

Bridgette got on her surfboard and flew straight at the Hornets, blasting them apart one by one. Once all the monsters were destroyed the warriors regrouped.

"About time you got here." Heather said.

"Sorry, we got sidetracked." Bridgette replied.

"But we're here and we're going to kick butt!" Geoff punched the air with his fist.

"We need to get through this ice girl first." Heather pointed at Yuki who just seemed to be waiting for them.

"Let's get her!" Geoff declared.

"Geoff, don't you know whenever we have a 'get them' plan we have bad luck?" Aelita asked.

And as the universe did indeed demand, Yuki slammed one foot down, and a wave of ice shot all four warriors into the air. They landed halfway across the island, sliding a bit before regaining their footing.

"How are we supposed to fight her if she's got the home field advantage?" Bridgette asked.

"Then it's good thing I finished your upgrade, Bridgette." Aelita replied with a smile.

"What? How?" Bridgette turned to Aelita.

"Noah, go to the upgrade files and click on Bridgette's folder."

"_On it...Found it. Upload Program...Calypso!"_ Bridgette's swords and tattoos glowed brightly.

The glowed faded and Bridgette looked down at her swords, looking for any signs of changes.

"I don't see any changes, Noah."

"_Hang on. It says that both swords can fire concentrated blasts of water and has amplified your hydrokinesis!_" Noah read the information.

"Concentrate your hydro powers on the ice. It's frozen water which you can control. Focus on making it melt." Aelita explained.

Yuki chose that second to fire spears of ice at Bridgette. The surfer quickly pointed her swords at the incoming spears and concentrated her hydro powers on melting the ice. The swords glowed blue and just as the spears were inches from her they melted and turned to water.

"Whoa! The ice melted!" Geoff said.

Bridgette looked down at her swords and back Yuki with a smirk. "Looks like you can't use that anymore."

She aimed one sword and it glowed blue before firing a large blast of water. Yuki fired an ice beam to freeze it but Bridgette's hydrokinesis kept it from freezing it before it even started. Yuki's eyes widened as she quickly created an ice shield to block it. The blast hit the shield making it shatter and sent Yuki sliding through the ice on her back a few feet back.

Grunting she got up and looked at Bridgette, pulling out her ice swords.

"You guys go after the tower, I'll handle her." Bridgette said to the others.

"You sure?" Heather asked.

"Yeah, now get going!"

"Right, kick her ass, babe!" Geoff gave her a thumbs up making her giggle as he and Heather took off with Aelita.

Bridgette turned to face Yuki who started the battle when she slammed her hands onto the ice and spikes made of ice erupted from the ground around the surfer. Bridgette swung her swords around her, activating her hydrokinesis allowing her swords to melt and cut the ice around her with just one swing. Taking this chance Yuki phased through one of the icy spikes behind her and swung her ice blades. Bridgette blocked and concentrated on melting the ice however Yuki glowed bright blue and the icy swords did not melt much to Bridgette's surprise.

"It seems our power over our elements is equal now. I didn't expect your upgrade to make the ice melt back into water. But now that I'm using my power to keep the ice frozen you can't melt it anymore than I can freeze your water attacks." Yuki stepped back and tossed her cloak off.

"So we're even then. Okay, we stick to the basics then. No water or ice powers." Bridgette held her swords in an x-pattern.

Yuki nodded and they got ready.

Xxx

Aelita, Heather, and Geoff ran until they were right above the tower.

"Okay, how we do we get down there?" Geoff asked.

"I'll use my plasma beam to melt through the ice. Geoff, your chakrams can shock the monsters down there and I'll swim down there to the tower." Aelita explained.

"What about me?" Heather asked.

A laser blast hit her and made her life points hit zero. Her form faded into code as she was sent back to Earth. Geoff and Aelita turned to see four Dark Krabs charging at them with their lasers firing.

"You think you two can keep them busy?" Aelita asked as she pointed her hand at the ice and fired her plasma beam.

"Got it!" Geoff shouted as he swung his axe, releasing a lightning blast. "Just don't take too long."

Xxx

The moment that Yuki was in range Bridgette began with a slice from her right blade. Yuki rolled under the attack and swung a kick at Bridgette, who caught her foot on the flat of her left blade and kicked out with her own attack, hitting Yuki in the chin. She rolled with it, flipping over once and then into the air before landing on her feet.

Bridgette tried several more jabs and slices which Yuki either dodged or blocked with her ice swords. As Bridgette swung again Yuki jumped and landed on the blade, making it land on the ice and Yuki ran up and kicked Bridgette in the face, knocking her down but not enough to make her lose grip on either of her weapons. Bridgette rolled out of the way as Yuki landed where her face was and got back up. She got back up and fired a Wave Blast that Yuki dodged by flipping back, the wave just going over her face by a few inches.

Landing back and the ice Yuki sprung forward and launched a foot at Bridgette, her skate sprouting from the bottom of the foot as it neared Bridgette's face. The surfer ducked and Yuki flew over and landed gracefully on the ice with her skates out and moving across the ice even faster. She launched herself at Bridgette who fired a Wave blast at the ice, hoping to make her slip but Yuki dodged the blast and moved under Bridgette's swords and swung a foot out as she crouched and twirled. Bridgette jumped, dodging the sweep and landed a few feet away.

She plunged her swords into the ice and glowed blue. Yuki held out her swords and looked around, trying to understand what Bridgette was doing. She heard a rumbling noise under the ground and realized what Bridgette was doing. She jumped just as a blast of water came out of the ground where she had been standing.

Yuki retaliated by sending hundreds of icy needles that made Bridgette dodge but she got hit a few hits. Bridgette combined her swords into her board and flew at Yuki. The ice general attempted to create a barrier as Bridgette's board glowed blue, but it smashed through the ice easily. Yuki managed to dodge and summoned multiple ice spears before launching them at the surfer. Bridgette flew through the air, dodging the spears, some by mere inches.

She turned and flew straight at Yuki who did not dodge this time. Yuki took a breath and exhaled, releasing a chilling whirlwind that sent Bridgette flying back. She was sent sliding across the ice, her board landing a few feet from her. Yuki attempted to finish her by firing an ice beam from the palm of her hand. Bridgette quickly grabbed her board, splitting it back into her swords and unleashed her Wave blast that collided with Yuki's ice beam and cancelled both attacks out.

However Yuki had taken the chance to activate her skates again and moved in while Bridgette was defending herself. She slashed Bridgette several times before she could react. Bridgette gasped as Yuki slammed the hilt of one of her swords into her face and knocked her down. She dropped her swords and Yuki stood over her.

"You put up a good fight...Bridgette. If you survive this attack I hope we have a chance to meet again." Yuki said, still calm as she moved to stab Bridgette.

Bridgette however smirked and grabbed Yuki's swords, and they started to melt. Yuki's eyes widened as Bridgette kneed her in the stomach and fired a Wave blast at close range, knocking her back hard. Yuki slid across the ice when she stopped she looked up to see Bridgette holding her swords down at her neck.

"You let me get in close to you so you could use your power to melt my ice." Yuki stated.

"Yeah. You put up a good fight, but I got to help the others." Bridgette said as she raised her swords to finish Yuki.

However Bridgette unable to succeed as Yuki's eyes widened when she spotted something under the ice below them. "Look out!"

Bridgette looked down as a power drill blasted out of the ice under her. She jumped back and saw the drill sink beneath the water.

"What the-"

"_It's that Kalamar thing again!_" Noah said, just now noticing the monster beneath the ice.

Bridgette looked to where Yuki was and saw she was gone. "Guess we'll meet again, Yuki."

Xxx

Aelita finally managed to melt a hole through the ice all the way down to the water. "All right, Geoff now!"

Geoff nodded and split his axe back into chakrams, throwing them down the hole and into the water, unleashing an explosion of lightning that fried all nearby underwater monsters. Aelita dove down the hole and into the water. She saw the red glowing tower and swam towards it.

Xxx

LeShawna and Izzy banged against the ceiling of the elevator to get out. Meanwhile electricity sparked outside of the elevator and began to set the cables holding the elevator on fire.

Xxx

Aelita stopped in front of the towers and very slowly swam through the entrance. She came out, now on the platform releasing a gasp of air that didn't exist. Stepping into the center of the platform she flew up to the second platform.

Xxx

The cables holding the elevator were on fire and they started to snap.

"What's that sound?" LeShawna asked.

"Sounds like cables snapping."

"Oh crap!"

Xxx

Aelita landed on the second platform and stepped to the interface.

Xxx

The cables snapped and the elevator plummeted to the bottom with LeShawna and Izzy screaming.

Xxx

Aelita placed her hand on the screen.

**Aelita**

**Code: Lyoko**

"Tower deactivated."

"_Return to the Past now!_" Noah said as the program activated before the elevator hit the bottom.

Xxx

"Well, that was close." LeShawna sighed in relief as the group walked down the hall. "Death by falling elevator."

"We made it out intact." DJ shrugged.

"I wonder how Geoff and Bridgette's date's going."

"Hey guys!"

LeShawna and DJ spun around to see Geoff and Bridgette behind them in their normal clothes.

"I thought you two were on your date." LeShawna exclaimed.

"Well, we decided that since even though it was interrupted we figured that was the best we'll have until the you know what mess is solved so we'll have fun right here." Geoff chuckled with an arm around Bridgette's shoulder. "Besides anywhere with Bridge is romantic enough for me."

"Aww." Bridgette cooed as they started to make out…._again._

"Of course." LeShawna and DJ sighed.


	68. Episode 66: TD Battle of the Bands

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 67

Everyone got up at a very early time the next day thanks to the fact Chris woke up them up early for three whole seasons. They hardly managed to get any sleep knowing what was going to happen tonight. As they finished their breakfast in the cafe they took the time to inform Kurt and Carlos of the plan.

"So, it's finally happening, huh?" Kurt asked as they finished their breakfast. "You're finally going after the...bad guy."

"Yeah, and it's not soon enough if you ask me." LeShawna pointed her spoon at Kurt. "After all the crap we went through, it's payback time!"

"Yeah, just wait till I get there. I'll be all like 'HI-YA!' and XANA and his goons will go 'AH!'." Izzy stood up on the table and started doing martial arts moves. "They'll run away, screaming for their motherboards! Ha-ha-ha-ha!"

"For the first time ever I actually agree with the crazy girl. The faster we get this over with the faster I can get back to winning this competition." Heather said putting her plate down.

"Yeah right, you win two seasons in a row? No one's that lucky." Gwen chuckled.

"We'll see about that." Heather crossed her arms.

"We should also remember to be careful. This is XANA's realm we're talking about. Who knows what's there that could give us a hard time." Cody cautioned.

"The little dude's right." Geoff said, not noticing Cody frown at being called little. "I mean we've all seen some pretty freaky staff in the last couple of months."

"But we don't much of a choice if we want to save Aelita's friends and stop XANA before there's a disaster." Bridgette pointed out.

"Well, we're here now and we're going to finish it." Geoff said with a fist in his hand.

"You sure you should do this tonight? You've got a challenge tomorrow and you're going in right after that." Kurt said.

"Guys, don't tell my momma I said this but hell yeah!" DJ said, gaining looks of surprise from everyone at the table. "We're doing it."

"He's right. Ever since this started we've been on the defence while waiting for Aelita to find out where XANA was hiding and along the way we had to deal the generals, Shadow, Nephilim, Lyon and any other piece of crap that liked giving us a hard time." LeShawna nodded. "It's time to fight back."

"Yeah, let's see how XANA likes it when we attack him." Trent said, standing up.

"You got that right." Geoff nodded.

"So what will you day while waiting?" Kurt asked.

"Don't know. Just enjoy the day and wait for the portal to be waiting." Gwen shrugged.

"I guess that's good way to waste time while waiting to attack the world's most dangerous AI." Carlos said.

"Yeah. Better check and see if anything's happening around town." Kurt got up and walked to the door but stopped and turned around. "Be careful guys, I have faith but all the same, be careful when you head out. He knows you're coming."'

"Yeah, that thought crossed minds." Heather sulked.

"By the way, Aelita called and she wants to meet you in the garage." Carlos said.

"Aelita's here?" Cody asked, everyone having the same puzzled look as him.

"Yep. Better go see what she wants and pray it's not another emergency." Kurt turned to Carlos. "You did turn off the security cameras, right?"

"Right!" Carlos smacked himself on the head. "I knew I forgot something. I'll have it done in two seconds."

He jumped over the table and ran out the room.

Xxx

Later, Aelita was waiting for the group in the studio's garage. Carlos had managed to secure another van-and turn off the security camera for them on Aelita's request. The group began to file in one at a time.

"Okay Aelita, we're here, what's the big surprise?" Gwen asked.

"Not yet Gwen, we have a bit of a drive first," Aelita replied. "Who has a driver's license?"

"Me," Heather nodded.

"Well then follow my directions," Aelita instructed

After a brief drive through the streets of Paris-which were slowly getting brighter as the sun began to rise higher. They stopped in a parking lot-which was rendered dark until the sun began to slowly illuminate it.

"What are we here for?" Cody asked, sitting in the back of the van.

"I figured you guys could use a break, from the show and Lyoko so..." Aelita looked at her watch. "Good thing today's a special opening; it opens at 7 am, which is in three, two..."

Suddenly many lights came on at one end of the parking lot, illuminating a high gate and fence, decorated with a smiling face and several men and women adding balloons and more decorations to it.

"No way..." Trent whispered as the gates opened.

"No way," Gwen added as she opened the back door and climbed out.

"No, freaking, way!" Izzy began to hop up and down after getting out.

"CARNIVAL!" They all shouted.

"Whoa!" Geoff said in awe of the carnival opening up.

"This is amazing!" Cody said with a big smile.

"I know some of you are not entirely fond of carnivals but still I thought it was better to spend the day than waiting in the studio for the portal to be ready and thinking of what trouble we'd run into." Aelita smiled.

"Ohmygodohmygodohmygod THANK YOU!" Izzy hugged Aelita, lifting the girl off her feet and nearly suffocating her.

"This is just what we need to let loose!" Trent nodded.

"Thanks Aelita!" Before she knew it, she was being engulfed in a hug by every Lyoko Warrior-even Heather and Noah.

"Glad to see...I made...a good choice!" Aelita said, slowly losing oxygen until they released her.

"Come on people, let's go!" DJ cheered.

They all ran for the gates as they were opened up.

Cue some inspirational music!...okay forget the music, just go to the next scene!

Xxx

Imagine the Total Drama theme song playing...

The gates opened and all the game shops and stores in the carnival opened up. The Lyoko Warriors ran and split up, each choosing a different game or place.

_Dear mom and dad I'm doing fine_

"WEEEEEEE!" Izzy squealed as she rode on a rollercoaster with Noah, whose mouth was open in a scream.

"MOMMMYYYYYYYYY!" He screamed.

_You guys are on my mind_

Meanwhile DJ was playing a game where he shot a water gun at targets. He knocked them all down and won several stuffed animals. Gwen and Heather clapped for him, and he offered them both one. Gwen accepted a pink rabbit.

Heather crossed her arms and looked away not wanting to look soft in front of them while Gwen took the squirt gun and got an evil smirk. She then sprayed Heather.

_You asked me what I wanted to be_

Trent was playing at an indoor arcade section, playing Guitar Hero against several others. He won and pumped one fist into the air while Cody and Bridgette cheered him on. Geoff was playing a surfer simulator game.

"Wooooo-uh oh!" He slipped off.

"Geoff!" Bridgette ran over.

"I'm okay babe," Geoff said...before they made out _again_.

_I think the answer is plain to see!_

Izzy, Noah, Gwen, and DJ were on a small train that took them on a tour of a zoo. A baboon jumped up and down pointing at them. Izzy started to jump up and down and pointing at the baboon while making monkey like sounds gathering looks and making her friends sigh and lower their heads hoping no one would notice them.

_I wanna be famous!_

LeShawna walked over to a game of strength. She grabbed the hammer and looked at the plank she was to hit, then at the bell at the top. She smirked and hit down on the plank, managing to make the metal bar strike the bell. She won a prize, but then saw a little girl staring at the prize with longing. Leshawna, having seen the girl fail at the test twice, gave it to her. The girl hugged it close and then hugged LeShawna, who smiled sheepishly.

_I wanna live close to the sun!_

Cody and Trent were playing a shooting game. Cody's character got killed, but Trent managed to shoot the last target and won.

_Pack your bags, cuz I've already won!_

Bridgette swallowed as she stared down from the Bungee Jump platform she and Izzy stood on. Izzy was bouncing with glee before both girls jumped off.

"EEEEEEEK!" Bridgette let out a squeal before they shot back up, flew over the platform-which was NOT supposed to happen. Bridgette screamed until she landed in Geoff's arms...cue make out.

_Everything to prove nothing in my way_

Heather was forced onto a game with Gwen of all people. The game was basically where you move your feet like a dance and the screen shows ninja characters fighting (think of Scott Pilgrim). They both began perfectly, and then Heather had a solo round against a white counterpart of her character. After a brief fight Heather won. She stared in surprise at the screen, unable to believe it.

Gwen patted her on the shoulder.

_I'll get there one day_

Geoff lined up for the baseball game with Bridgette watching him in the background. He flashes her a smile making her giggle but was distracted when the first ball was launched and knocked him down. Bridgette ran over with a concerned look while other people who were watching laughed at the poor guy's misfortune. Geoff doesn't notice as he is too busy being happy on Bridgette's lap.

_Cuz I wanna be famous!_

Aelita pulled out a camera and took multiple pictures.

Cody and Noah were laying on the ground, a few empty ice cream cones around them as they clutched their heads, suffering brain freezes.

Gwen, Bridgette and LeShawna were in the Haunted House until a fake dragon popped out and scared Bridgette, who hopped into Geoff's arms just as he appeared in the picture...cue the make out AGAIN.

Izzy and a now –unfortunately hyperactive Heather and DJ were taking multiple poses with funny faces.

Everyone having lunch at a table, with Izzy squirting ketchup at everyone making LeShawna and Heather try to attack her while Gwen and Noah just sighs while everyone simply laughs.

_Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na NaNa NaNa Na Na!_

Gwen patted a goat that rubbed against her leg while Izzy was playing in the mud with some pigs making people stare at her.

_I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!_

Trent and DJ were sticking their heads through a few cardboard cut outs of women in bikinis. Izzy was then shown sawing through the cardboard cut out of a dog and sticking her head through it in place of the cardboard dog's head. She stuck her tongue out as another picture was snapped.

_I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!_

DJ, Gwen, Heather, Geoff, LeShawna, Bridgette and Aelita all stood on a platform at the top of a zip line course that zig zagged over the carnival grounds. Noah and Cody were snapping multiple shots of them sliding overhead, some screaming, others laughing.

_I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!_

The entire group was quickly gathering together near the gates. Cody was talking to an employee, who nodded and took a camera from Cody, who rushed over and joined them. Izzy put him in a pretend headlock and placed one fist on the top of his head. DJ had Heather on one shoulder and Gwen on the other while Geoff was holding Bridgette bridal style while she gave a peace sign to the camera. Noah was making a set of bunny ears behind Trent's head as he waved to the camera, and Aelita was doing the same to him. LeShawna was holding up a sign that said 'Hi mom!' in the middle of the group just before the photo was taken, immortalizing the moment.

_Whistling: I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous_

Xxx

The sun was now setting as the carnival was now starting to close from a full day of activities. The Lyoko Gang walked out of the entrance, all looking happy and just feeling like they never had the weight of the world on their shoulders at all.

"That was so much fun!" Izzy squealed as they walked out, jumping up and down and laughing like a hyperactive little girl.

"I haven't had that much fun in a long time!" Bridgette sighed happily as she leaned against Geoff with her head on his shoulder.

"I was never that much a fan of carnivals but after nearly of month of monsters and Chris I never felt so glad to enjoy this." Gwen smiled big, which was something very few people got to see and even then it was rare.

"I got to say that's the most fun I've had ever." Heather admitted, not comfortable with being how happy she is.

She never had this much fun with her family or anyone she knew in school. She was too busy having to put up with her annoying siblings or just annoying anyone she knew in school.

"You can say that again. I never did enjoy coming to these things with my siblings since they were all hyperactive monkeys." Noah said, holding his head from the ice cream headache he had.

"I totally forgot about everything that's been going on." Trent chuckled.

"That was so _awe-some!_ Way more wicked than any part I have _ever_ been to and dudes I have partied a whole lot. Whoo-hoo!" Geoff shouted, making people stare at him and shake their heads while thinking 'Crazy teens'.

"You guys are so lucky. I never got to come to things like this because my parents were usually out working and stuff." Cody spoke up. "The most fun I have at home is usually when my mother pays me for beating my dad at chess."

"Dude, I promise you this when the show is over and we've whooped XANA's digital ass we are going to party like life depends on it!" Geoff put his hand on Cody's shoulder. "And I'm not exaggerating man. It. Is. Going. To. ROCK!"

Everyone laughed, forgetting about the show, past conflicts, Lyoko, and anything else that may have had given them a hard time in the past. At least until Noah looked up and saw the sun was setting. "The sun's going down. I can't believe we spent the whole day here."

"Time sure flies when you want to actually have some fun." LeShawna replied as they all looked up at the sun.

"Yeah, and tomorrow will most likely be the busiest day of our lives." Trent said.

"Going through whatever crappy challenge Chris has set up for this time and then we get to the really hard part." Gwen sighed.

"The hard part as in getting to the copy or when we get to the center and try to rescue Aelita's friends?" Cody asked.

"I guess we'll find out." Aelita replied.

"Hey, let's not think about this right now, dudes. We've had a fun day and talking like this is just going to make us feel down." Geoff spoke up.

"He's right. Let's just enjoy the time we've had off from everything and simply just deal with the other stuff as it comes." DJ agreed.

"Yeah!" Everyone nodded.

They had some more fun as the sun went down and then Heather helped drive Aelita back to Kadic Academy and drove back to the studio with the others. They all fell asleep easier than they ever had before after a full day of fun.

Xxx

"Last time on Total Drama Reality." Chris announced. "We took a different approach to the show and had our contestants battle it out on the beach with a very AWESOME volleyball tournament. Each team played with awesome and hilarious results. In the end though instead of having the pleasure of booting off one of the losers I was forced to send my last assistant home with the one Carlos stole from me."

"I didn't steal Sir Carlos! He just hated that hair style you gave him!" Carlos shouted, interrupting Chris' announcement.

"Dude! You're ruining the big dramatic announcement!" Chris growled.

"Whatever." Carlos waved him off and walked out.

"Anyways, since everyone thought have two armed robots on the show was 'dangerous' for the cast both Sir 'Carlos' and Sir Christopher Deluxe 2.0 were sent onto the Jet of Losers and most likely to a junkyard. What a waste of cash and all the trouble I went through to get them."

"Get to the point!" Kurt shouted.

"All right, all right, anyways what other surprises awaits us? Find out today on Total, Drama, REALITY!" Chris ended the announcement.

Xxx

All of the contestants got out of bed after hearing Chris' bullhorn and were standing at the usual spot where Chris would greet them.

"I am going to kill Chris and shove that bullhorn down his throat!" Heather growled.

"But how would he swallow that?" Lindsay asked, not getting what Heather meant.

Before Heather could reply Chris walked out with his usual grin.

"Well, seeing as you're all up and ready, get your butts to the theatre." He said and then walked off as fast as he appeared.

"Now that you're all here, I can announce the challenge!" Chris announced as he walked onto the stage. "Now get ready for Total Drama's Reality's BATTLE OF THE BANDS!"

Carlos, who was sitting in the audience part of the theatre, slapped himself in the face. "We are so sued."

Xxx

Confessional: Duncan

"Yes! I may not like signing and all that crap but there's no one better at rocker-style guitar smashing than me!" Duncan pointed one thumb at himself.

Xxx

Confessional: Geoff

"Our team is SO winning this! There's absolutely no one here that can rock and party harder than me!" Geoff grinned as he pointed both thumbs to himself.

Xxx

Confessional: Courtney

"I happen to be an expert with plenty of instruments and my singing was rated to number one in my school. Those other teams have no what they're up against!"

End Confessional

Xxx

"NOT SO FAST CHRIS!"

Everyone cringed as Chef brought out a cart with a TV on it, showing the executive director of Total Drama.

"Your eminence!" Chris shouted as he fell to his knees. "What brings you here?"

"Your accidents during the last couple of episodes with those robots!" The director snarled. "I let you out of jail with a warning not to pull anymore funny stuff and you went and bought robots with harpoons!"

"That was for my protection and it wasn't my fault they went crazy!" Chris protested. "I told everyone not to pour water on the first Sir Christopher!"

"Yet it did go crazy and the reason the second one went crazy because it thought it liked tomato juice because it had YOUR brain!" The Director yelled, her voice making a few windows crack.

"Whatever!" The director shouted. "Chris, right now you are the very reason why I have a temper problem! Every time I tell you 'enough with the shenanigans' you continue to do so behind my back! No more!"

"You're firing me?" Chris exclaimed in shock.

"No. That would be too merciful. I have a much better idea in mind. As of this day, you Chris Mclean are no longer host of Total Drama Reality. You are now a contestant!" The director announced.

"WHAT?" Chris and almost everyone shouted.

"Since you still have not learned your lesson I have decided that you will learn it the hard way." The director smirked.

"But I can't be a contestant! I'm the host and why would I even audition for my own contest?" Chris protested.

However the director's smirk only widened. "Apparently even you forgot to read the contract you signed on as host of the show after we assured the jury and the parents of the contestants after World Tour." She pulled up the contract. "In the event that the host Chris McLean abuses contestants and his position without the consent of the producers than he shall have to pay a heavy fine or we demote him to any position we see fit. That includes being made a contestant of the show! See how you like being treated like a loser contestant!"

"What?" Chris shouted.

"And since you've been whining about much Team C has sucked you get to help them out!" The director continued.

"So we get the mop head and he can't do anything?" Duncan asked as an evil smirk appeared on his face as the sound of him cracking his knuckles was heard. "Sweet."

"Please! Don't do this to me! I learned my lesson! I'll be good!" Chris got on his knees before the TV and begged.

"I gave you so many chances to be good Chris and you screwed up with each and every chance! Not this time!" The director shouted.

"Look on the bright side, Chris." Noah smirked. "You're _one_ _of us now_."

"One of us. One of us." Izzy said in a blank tone, looking like she was in a trance as she kept on raising one arm to the air.

"Wait, so who is the host?" Carlos asked.

"Well Carlos seeing as you were in charge of the robots and didn't exactly do a good job of it, I'm not putting you in charge of that." The Director said. "KURT!"

"Yes ma'am?"

"Seeing as you've gone insane the least on this show, you're the new host!" The Director said. "But if you step out of line or go crazy, consider yourself extinct!"

"Yes ma'am!" Kurt nodded. "Since I'm the host can I tell Carlos to stop smashing my wind shield whenever he gets out of my car?"

"Never!" Carlos shouted.

"And filling in for Kurt as Co-Producer is..."

"Me!" Lesley said one hand in the air.

"...is that a good thing?"

"Yeah!" Lesley nodded eagerly.

"Just get on with the challenge!" The Director said.

"YES' MA'AM!" The Host and Co-Producers replied, snapping salutes to her.

The TV shut off and Chef rolled it out. Kurt walked up and snatched the script from Chris. "Give me that. Now go stand with your team!" Kurt pointed to Team C.

Chris groaned as he walked off with his head down and shoulders slumped.

"Ok...what songs..." Kurt looked at the script. "Hm...well skipping Chris' crappy dialogues each team must play one song and Chef along with Lesley and I will judge you on how well you play. There are instruments in the back, and you have three hours to practice, see if it works out. Works for me. Let's get on with the show! Everybody find your instruments, find your song, and when three hours are up be sure to put on a show!"

Xxx

**Team C**

"Why me? Why Me? Why?" Chris bawled.

"You do realize since you're not the host there's nothing to stop me from punching your lights out and telling you to shut up, right?" Duncan asked, cracking his knuckles.

"Oh come on man, insult to injury!" Chris whined. "I was living it big!"

"You were living off our lives being hell," Noah pointed out. "Oh and off of the show's funds."

"Not anymore bro," Duncan smirked. "Now we get sweet payback."

"Wait! You need me if you want to win!" Chris backed away.

"Oh yeah right, I know about that 'Fame Town' thing, buddy," Duncan chuckled. "Sounded like a Racoon with extra long claws scratching a chalk board in half."

"It sucked!" Izzy added.

"I wanted to bludgeon myself," Noah muttered. "So we need to figure out what song to play...and seeing as I have no interests in singing...I got nothin'."

"I may not be good at singin'," Duncan lifted Chris into the air by the collar of his shirt. "But I know a lot about guitar smashing."

"Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!" Izzy raised her hand.

"NO." All three boys-even Chris said at once.

"We're not setting a guitar on fire," Noah said.

"Aw...how'd you know?"

"Lucky guess," The genius shrugged.

"So what song do we pick?" Izzy asked.

"I got plenty of rock songs that would be great." Duncan said.

"Great. Why not make up a song called 'We Suck, Throw the Tomatoes at Mop Head'." Noah drawled.

Xxx

**Team Amazon**

"Okay, we need a strategy." Heather said as Team Amazon gathered together.

"And a song." Cody added.

"Any idea what we should sing?" Beth asked.

"Well, I know plenty of songs that would win us-"Courtney started.

"So you want to be head singer? Yeah right!" Heather scoffed.

"First off, we need to know who here knows how to play an instrument. I can play the drums." Gwen said.

"I'm good at the keyboard." Cody said.

"The guitar is one of my most skilfully played instruments. I can use that to show that-"Courtney was cut off as Gwen put her finger on her mouth.

"Anyone else?" Gwen asked.

"I'm good with a guitar." Eva raised her hand.

Everyone stopped and looked at her.

"What? You thought I never played an instrument before?" Eva scowled.

"...Not really but then again we never did ask you." Gwen confessed.

"Whatever."

"Sorry guys, I'm no good with any instrument." Beth said sadly.

"Relax, you can introduce us." Gwen replied assuring her. "We just need to figure what we need to sing."

"And who will be the lead singer?" Cody asked.

Eva shrugged. "I know how to use a guitar and if these two will shut up I'll be the lead singer just so we can get this over with."

"YOU?" Heather and Courtney asked incredulously.

"Put this into the mp3 player and I'll show you!" Eva snapped as she stood up and held out a music disk.

Gwen took the disk it in the nearest Mp3 player.

"Let it be known that I'm only doing this because we need to win and I want the hundred grand." Eva then cleared her throat as the music started.

Xxx

**Team Victory**

"NO." Everybody said to the only non-Lyoko warrior member of the team. AKA: Lindsay.

"We are not going to do a Celine Dion song," LeShawna said firmly.

"Oh..." Lindsay groaned.

"Bridge and I could do a duet-" Geoff started.

"NO." Everybody-including Lindsay shot down that idea.

"I could be singer for whatever we choose, I'm a master," LeShawna said proudly.

"I used to sing for my school's choir," Lindsay said.

"Were you any good at it?" DJ asked.

"Yeah!" Lindsay nodded.

"Okay, we'll pick a song to see how well you sing but not Celine Dion songs." Trent said.

"Okay!" Lindsay said as she rushed onto the stage.

"Okay. What should we pick?" Bridgette asked.

"I got one." Geoff walked over to Lindsay and held up a music disk.

"Oh! I know that one." Lindsay squealed.

"Okay, let's see what you got." Geoff put the disk into the radio and hit the play button.

Xxx

About an hour later everyone was now putting their instruments together for the big show. Beth was painting the Team Amazon logo while LeShawna painted the Team Victory logo and much to the amusement of everyone Chris was stuck painting the Team C logo and his painting skills were literally none existent. Everyone laughed at how he failed to draw anything remotely resembling his own face. Considering how much the guy loved looking at his own face it was ironic that he couldn't even make a bad drawing of it.

Gwen had finished putting together her black drum set together while Courtney put two microphones together. Eva was just sitting on the ground holding her own guitar while Cody was still putting the last keys into his keyboard. Team Victory was almost finished their instruments as well while Team C was having just a few complications. Duncan held a complete electric guitar over his shoulder as he walked by Chris still trying to draw the symbol of Team C.

Duncan held a mischievous smirk on his face as he walked by whistling. Then he suddenly turned to shout at Noah. "Yo, how's it going?"

As he turned the guitar smacked Chris right in back of his head, knocking him onto the large paper with the still badly drawn logo. He got up covered in blue paint and pointed at Duncan. "You did that on purpose!"

"Normally, I'd make up some excuse to get myself out of trouble but...Yeah that was me." Duncan chuckled.

"Smooth." Noah commented as he finished putting the microphone together.

"Now I have to get cleaned up and start all over again!" Chris complained as he headed out of the room.

"Oh no you don't!" Noah snapped his fingers.

Izzy jumped in front of Chris when he was at the door and growled like a guard dog.

"Come on!" Chris whined.

"You're still no closer to finishing that logo. Get to work, mop head." Duncan said, holding his guitar making it look like he was going to hit Chris with it...which he probably was going to do anyway.

Chris grumbled and walked back over to the table to try painting again.

Xxx

Confessional: Duncan

"I've got to tell you this is the most fun I've had on this show in a long time." Duncan laughed.

End Confessional

Xxx

"Okay, everyone times up!" Kurt called out. "If you haven't picked a song than you are _out_!"

Beth walked onto the stage and held the microphone.

"Presenting...Team Amazon!" She called out, introducing her team.

Team Amazon was on stage with Gwen as the drummer, Cody with a keyboard, Eva had a guitar and she lightly pushed Beth out of the way so she could have the microphone while Heather had another microphone so she could sing as Eva's backup for the chorus and Courtney had a bass guitar.

"Alright, listen close because this is the only time I will do this. I never admitted this, but we need the points and if I lose this I'm definitely being voted off, and I want that hundred grand, so I will….sing." The crowd and millions of people watching the show gasped in shock. "I'll be singing my own version of High School Never Ends by Bowling For Soup."

She cleared her throat as the music began. People expected her voice to be horrible, but when it began, they were given yet another shock of the day.

_Four years, you think for sure_

_That's all you've got, to endure_

_All the total dicks_

_All the stuck up chicks_

_So Superficial_

_So immature!_

_And then when, you graduate_

_You take a look around and you say 'Hey Wait!'_

_This is the same as where I just came from_

_I thought it was over!_

Eva broke off to a regular tone and groaned with the lyrics. "Oh that's just great!" Then she went back into singing.

_The whole damn world is just as obsessed_

_With who's the best dressed_

_And who's having sex!_

_Who's got the money_

_Who gets the hotties_

_Who's kinda cute_

_And who's just a mess_

_And you still don't have the right look_

_And you don't have the right friends_

_Nothing changes but the faces_

_The names_

_And the trends_

_High school never ends! _

_Check out the popular kids!_

_You'll never guess what Jessica did!_

_And how did Mary Kate lose all that weight?_

_And Katie had a baby so I guess Tom's straight!_

_And the only thing that matters_

_Is climbing up that social ladder!_

_You still care about your hair and the car you drive!_

_Doesn't matter if you're sixteen or thirty five!_

_Reese Witherspoon, she's the Prom Queen_

_Bill Gates, Captain of the chess team_

_Jack Black the Clown_

_And Brad Pitt the quarterback_

_I've seen it all before_

_I want my money back!_

_The whole damn world is just as obsessed_

_With who's the best dressed_

_Who's in the club_

_Who's on the drugs_

_Who's throwing up before they digest_

_And you still don't have the right look_

_And you don't have the right friends_

_And you still listen to the same crap you did back then!_

_High school never ends! _

_High School never ends!_

_The whole damn world is just as obsessed_

_With who's the best dressed_

_And who's having sex!_

_Who's got the money_

_Who gets the hotties_

_Who's kinda cute_

_And who's just a mess_

_And I still don't have the right look_

_And I still have the same three friends_

_And I'm pretty much the same as I was back then_

_High school never ends! _

(I do not own Bowling for Soup or any of their works, Highschool Never Ends is their property)

As the music faded, Eva set the microphone back, gasping for breath as the judges stared in shock. Suddenly they all broke into applause.

"NINE OUT OF TEN!" Chef and Lesley shouted at once as they clapped.

"Nine?"

"Her voice kinda cracked every time she said 'highschool never ends'," Kurt said. "But she is good! I mean really good! Eva, you might have a career for you in music if wrestling goes south!"

"How does she _do that?_" Carlos asked one of the security guards working under him.

The man shrugged. He didn't even speak…because most background characters in this never get more than a line or two.

Xxx

Meanwhile outside of the studio and Kadic Academy all was quiet as it usually was in the beginning of the night. A spectre emerged from the street lights in the parking lots of both the school and studio and went into the nozzle of the cars parked in the parking lot of the studio. At once the spectres emerged from the back nozzle of the cars a few seconds later, not looking different but with a single spark there was a flash of light.

Xxx

Several minutes later, Team C was setting up behind closed curtains.

"Ok then, Duncan sings and is on guitar, I'm Base, Izzy's on the drums...Chris sits off to the side and nods his head to the beat," Noah concluded.

"Right!" Duncan and Izzy nodded.

"Ok team, you're up in thirty seconds!" Carlos called over to them. "Good luck everybody-except you Chris."

"Damn it!"

The three original members of Team C took their places and held their instruments.

The curtains were pulled up, and they faced the crowd.

"Okay people we have Team C playing...Threshold!" Kurt shouted. "Let's get started!"

Duncan inhaled deeply and then nodded to his group. They started playing.

_I'm hearing voices, animal noises_

_The creme de la creme, the feminine abyss_

_And I'm reaching my threshold_

_Staring at the truth 'till I'm blind_

_My body's stupid, stereo putrid_

_Spilling out music into raw sewage_

_I'm reaching my threshold_

_Staring at the truth 'till I'm blind_

_My threshold_

_My threshold_

_Reaching my threshold_

The judges bobbed their heads a bit to the tune.

_I'm hearing voices, animal noises_

_The creme de la creme, the feminine abyss_

_And I'm reaching my threshold_

_Staring at the truth 'till I'm blind_

_My threshold_

_I'll explode_

_Reaching my threshold_

_(My threshold)_

_My threshold_

_(My threshold)_

_My threshold_

_(Reaching my threshold)_

_My threshold!_

(Song: Threshold

Band: Sex Bob-Omb

You all saw Scott Pilgrim vs the World right? I don't own the song or the movie)

The music faded, and Duncan lifted his guitar over his head and smashed it on the stage. The audience cheered for the trio.

"Hm...not exactly my style, but I'll give you points, it was good. 8/10." Kurt said.

"I don't like that kind of music, but you did do well so...6/10." Lesley said.

"Pretty good for a punk, a wacko and a nerd...8/10!" Chef nodded.

"All right then, Team Victory's next and hopefully they'll _get_ a victory." Kurt said.


	69. Episode 67: Into the Fire

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 68

Aelita looked around as everyone finished dinner in the café at Kadic Academy. Everyone looked up when they saw a kid run into the café screaming.

"Fire! Heading this way!" The boy shouted.

"What are you talking about?" Milly asked.

"There's a fire monster coming this way!" The boy repeated.

"Yeah, right. What a weird imagination you have there." Another student said.

Aelita frowned, wondering if the kid was crazy or…

BOOM!

That was when something blasted into the cafeteria. Students stood and ran, screaming as something made of fire walked through the giant hole it made at the entrance to café. It was humanoid shaped, average height, and made completely of fire with no nose, eyes, hair, mouth, or ears.

"Oh my god!"

"Fire! Fire!"

Several people thought that it was a man on fire at first, so one of the workers and Jim grabbed a pair of extinguishers and tried to douse the fire monster despite Aelita shouting at them to stay back.

It raised one arm and shot a wave of fire, but Aelita slammed herself into Jim and ended up getting her backpack set on fire-with her laptop in it too! She tore the flaming pack off and tossed it away, rolling to put out the part of her dress that was starting to catch fire a bit from the pack.

"Did that thing just _shoot_ fire?" Jim shouted.

"Everybody out!"

Suddenly Aelita was tugged to her feet and pulled back, just in time since every step the creature took set everything within three or four feet combust. She saw that of all people it was Milly and Tamiya, the school reporters. "Thanks!" She then urged the two towards the emergency exit. "Now come on we have to get out of here!"

More students were pushing to get out of the cafeteria building also. Luckily by the time they managed to step around the fires the door was clear for the most part. They stumbled out into the open air…and saw that the tree line around the whole school was on fire!

"Oh my god it's everywhere!" Tamiya said, shaking.

Aelita looked around for a way out. It was after her and if she could get away it would follow her and not harm the others. She took towards the gate however a wall of fire came between her and the way out.

'Damn it! There's got to be a way out!'

She turned back to the school and ran forward, ignoring the calls of the teachers and the other students. She needed to get to the boiler room and fast.

'I hope the others will be fine.'

Xxx

"Hey, we're back and now Team Victory is playing!" Kurt announced and pointed to the stage with the Team Victory logo on the curtains. Bridgette and Geoff stepped onto the stage.

"Everyone, presenting the winners of the challenge!" Geoff announced as the curtains went up.

"Team Victory!" Bridgette finished, before they got out of the way.

Trent was holding a guitar obviously with both him and Lindsay standing behind a microphone, DJ was the drummer, LeShawna had the keyboard,

Trent_: Like a gift from the heavens, it was easy to tell,  
It was love from above, that could save me from hell,  
She had fire in her soul it was easy to see,  
how the devil himself could be pulled out of me,  
There were drums in the air as she started to dance,  
Every soul in the room keeping time with their hands,  
And we sang..._

Trent and Lindsay_: Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay,  
And the voices bang like the angels sing,  
We're singing...  
Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay,  
And we danced on into the night,  
Ay oh ay oh,  
Ay oh ay oh,  
And we danced on into the night,_

Lindsay_: Like a piece to the puzzle that falls into place,  
You could tell how we felt from the look on our faces,  
we was spinning in circles with the moon in our eyes,  
The room left them moving between you and I,  
We forgot where we were and we lost track of time,  
And we sang to the wind as we danced through the night,  
And we sang..._

Trent and Lindsay_: Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay,  
And the voices bang like the angels sing,  
We're singing...  
Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay,  
And we danced on into the night,  
Ay oh ay oh,  
Ay oh ay oh,  
And we danced on into the night,  
Ay oh ay oh,  
Ay oh ay oh,  
And we danced on into the night,_

Trent_: Like a gift from the heavens, it was easy to tell,  
It was love from above, that could save me from hell,  
She had fire in her soul it was easy to see,  
how the devil himself could be pulled out of me,  
There were drums in the air as she started to dance,  
Every soul in the room keeping time with their hands,  
And we sang..._

Trent and Lindsay_: Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay,  
And the voices bang like the angels sing,  
We're singing...  
Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay,  
And we danced on into the night,  
Ay oh ay oh,  
Ay oh ay oh,  
And we danced on into the night,  
(And the voices bang like the angels sing),  
Ay oh ay oh,  
Ay oh ay oh,  
And we danced on into the night,  
Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay,  
(Ay oh ay oh),  
Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay,  
(Ay oh ay oh),  
Singing ay oh ay oh ay oh ay,  
(Ay oh ay oh),  
And we danced on into the night... _

(Song: Into the Night by Carlos Santana and Chad Kroeger, like before I don't own this. The song was SargentEpsilon's idea, thank you for the suggestion)

For several moments there was silence, and then all three of the Judges were clapping.

"Amazing! Ten out of ten!" Lesley said.

"Agreed! Blondie ain't bad!" Chef added.

"Definitely ten out of ten!" Kurt nodded.

"Wow…she's got the looks, blonde hair, all the money, no brains, yet she can put a robot together and can put any singer to shame," Carlos said, speaking to the same guard from before. "What is wrong with this world?"

The guard shrugged again…because apparently he was created without a voice.

"Damn background character rules," Carlos grumbled.

"Okay! Team Victory wins with Team Amazon in second and Team C lost. And no it is not because Chris made you suck, you chose a song that kinda sucked…but if you wanna blame him, feel free. Now onto the elimination ceremony!" Kurt declared, leaping onto the table and striking a dramatic pose. "…oh and we need something besides Chris Trophies to hand out."

"Why?" Chris whined.

"You're not the host, deal with it." Kurt said.

Xxx

Later, in the elimination room.

"Okay people here they are!" Kurt held up a plate with…all sorts of stuff on it. A magnifying glass, a bubble pipe, and an I-Pod (still in its package).

"That's just junk!" Chris said.

"Well what do you want us to call it other than 'new trophies'? The random pieces of crap that keep you in this show?" Kurt glared at him. "Now, the first person who stays safely in the show we have….Noah!"

Thunk!

"Sorry," Kurt said as Noah rubbed his head where the magnifying glass had hit him.

"Hardy-har-har," Noah grumbled, staring through the magnifying glass.

"Izzy!"

"Ooh, bubble pipe!" Izzy began to blow bubbles through it while putting on a hat similar to Sherlock Holmes'.

"Now for you two…I can safely say I don't like…well…either of you, so it will give me great pleasure to announce the name of the person leaving." Kurt said. "And Chris, taking a page out of your book, I will prolong this as long as possible to build the drama…." He looked at his watch after ten seconds. "I just need to figure out how long I prolong it for."

After a minute the Pink Panther Theme Song could be heard in the background as they all waited, just staring at the I-Pod on the tray Kurt held.

….

"GET ON WITH IT ALREADY MAN!" Duncan shouted. "I'm goin' nuts and I kinda have to use the bathroom!"

"That's what you get for downing seven Pepsis," Kurt said. "But anyways….Duncan! I-Pod is yours!" He tossed it to Duncan.

"Yes!"

"What?" Chris whined. "Their voting is prejudiced! You can't get rid of me!"

"Actually we can, you're a contestant," Kurt said. "And actually seeing as we can, I can do this!" He pulled out a microphone before his voice was broadcasted over the speakers-and in fact the whole show. "Attention everybody in the studio and anybody who is watching this. I expect your full cooperation in this (That includes everyone who is reading this)…." He inhaled. "WOOOOOOOO!" He let out a big cheer while everybody raised their hands in the air, joining him.

"…thank you." He set the microphone aside. "Anyways Chris, time to visit the Jet of Losers."

Xxx

"Yes, Chris is _OUT_ of here!" LeShawna shouted as everyone cheered at Chris being taken away.

"I know! I have to play one last prank on him before he leaves!" Izzy pulled Noah and Eva together. "And you two can help out! Bring Team E-Scope back together!"

"….are you _that_ bored up there?" Noah said, glaring at the sky.

"Let go of me or I'll break your arms," Eva growled.

"Oh Eva come on! You know you wanna play one last prank before Mopzilla before he goes!" Izzy said eagerly.

"….correction, you knew I'm _that bored _down here," Noah nodded to the sky.

"…what's the plan?"

"Quick, help me carry these tomatoes out!" she hefted several baskets of tomatoes, which Noah and Eva helped her carry.

"Hey, take pictures for the rest of us to see!" Geoff called out to them.

"You got it!" Izzy called back.

"Now I can't wait to see what they have in store." Duncan chuckled.

"Yeah, something like a juvenile prank would make you laugh." Courtney scoffed.

"Still no luck on stopping those two from fighting?" Trent whispered to Gwen who was sitting on the couch with Heather.

"It's not easy. She even thinks Heather and I are in an alliance which makes things a little harder."

The Lyoko Warriors sighed quietly, a moment of silence as they watched their former comrades argue once again. Cody looked up when he smelled something.

"Do any of you smell something…burning?"

Everyone looked up and started smelling the air.

"Did Carlos…." Gwen started but never got to finish her question.

The wall exploded behind them, sending furniture flying and burning at the same time. Gwen looked up saw something walk through the large hole. It looked like a human on fire, but there was no sign of skin, hair, a mouth, nose, ears, or eyes. It was all Gwen needed to see to realize that this was no human on fire but the creation of the one enemy she had come to hate more than anyone or anything she had hated in her life.

"Look out for the fire!" Trent shouted as he pulled Gwen out of the way of the falling lights as the room started to burn.

Everyone ran out of the common room and into the hole as the fire creature followed them. LeShawna slammed the door and ran after them.

"Was that guy on fire?" Beth shrieked.

"XANA," Gwen muttered. "Perfect!"

"And now he's burning the whole studio down!" Trent added.

"Let's get out of here and get to the factory!" Gwen said, standing upright and running alongside Trent.

"Bit of a problem there!" Cody shouted, pointing out a window...to where a _wall_ of fire was surrounding the whole building!

"There's no way out!" Bridgette cried.

They heard somebody clear their throat and saw Kurt standing at the next window. "Guys? Anybody want to explain to me why there appears to be _ghosts made of fire?_"

"XANA attack," Trent, Gwen, and pretty much the whole team replied at once.

"Of course, he had to attack in the middle of celebrating," Kurt held up a funnel and a bottle of ice wine. "I've been saving this all year!"

"Damn...I knew this day would come," Carlos said.

"You knew we'd be attacked by a XANA ghost made of fire?" Kurt rounded on him.

"No, that the studio would be _set on fire,_" Carlos corrected him. "Which is why I had this." He grabbed a small hammer and walked over to a box on the wall made of glass that said 'Break Glass if 'The Day' Comes'.

"That's eerily creepy," Kurt said.

"Why thanks," Carlos smashed it and pulled out a map of the studio. "Catch!" He tossed it to Gwen, who looked at it.

"How does this help?" She asked.

"Well seeing as we can't go the usual ways seeing as we risk a painful fiery death, we shall use the map to find a way out..._underground,_" Carlos said in a knowing voice.

"You want us to go through a sewer?" Heather demanded.

"Why not? You've been through sewers a few times anyways," Kurt said.

"They're right, let's go!" Gwen rolled the map up.

"We'll stay here and hold it off," Kurt said.

"How?" Cody asked.

"With anything we can find now go, go!" Kurt waved them off.

"Hold on a second! No one's going anywhere until someone tells me what is going on!" Courtney shouted, making everyone remember that she, Duncan, Beth, and Lindsay were still with them.

"Not now, Courtney! Just shut up and do what they say!" Gwen shouted back as she took off with the rest of the Lyoko group following her.

"Oh no you don't, Gwen!" Courtney moved to chase her.

"Oops, sorry. But seeing as how I'm in charge I must see to the protection of everyone here, so kindly please move back so you can be safe and not get burned." Carlos said, lightly pushing Courtney back.

"Time to get some help." Kurt said as he ran off to find help.

He ran into the VR room to see Lesley and Chef in there, enjoying some drinks.

"Hey, Kurt! Chris can't leave yet cuz the fuel from the TD jet is gone and the pilot says that somebody emptied the fuel truck we had standing by. Still welcome to celebrate!" Lesley held up a drink.

"Sorry can't, fire monster rampaging through the studio and it's trying to kill us." Kurt sat down.

"Kurt, you do realize how absolutely nuts you sound right now, right?" Chef asked.

"Hang on one sec, let me check the cameras," Kurt wheeled his chair over to the security monitors and turned them on in time to see... "Hello..." The fire monster was passing through the lounge, chasing Gwen's group until the camera melted. "..." He turned. "Uh...guys? There's a fire monster."

"What?" Lesley stood up. "Kurt, that's not-"

"Take a look!" Kurt forced her to look at another unfortunate security ycamera that caught a glimpse of it before the monster melted.

"...Eep!" Lesley squeaked.

"Not getting through that easily." Kurt said as he pulled the switch and turned on all the sprinklers in the studio.

Xxx

As the Lyoko warriors ran down the hall the sprinklers turned on, getting their hair and clothes wet. Gwen opened a door and they went down the stairs.

"So where are we going?" Bridgette asked.

"Well, there's supposed to be a boiler room at the bottom. We'll make it to the sewers through there." Gwen replied as they were about halfway.

A blast was heard and they looked up to see a flaming ghost blast through the door. It didn't seem the water was dousing the flames but steam was coming off it.

"Oh come on!" Heather shouted as they resumed running.

They made it to the bottom and Gwen kicked the door open and they ran into the boiler room.

"Where's the door?" DJ asked.

"There!" Geoff shouted, pointing at the door that said 'Do Not Enter'.

"I choose to not understand this sign." Cody said as he rammed into the door, but not bust it open.

"Let me try." LeShawna said as she held up a fist and punched the door, making it fall off its hinges and another stair case.

"Here we go." Heather said with a hand over her nose.

That was when the fire ghost landed on the ground at the bottom of the stairs and made a snarling noise at the escaping Lyoko warriors. It morphed into a ball of fire and flew at them as they ran through the door.

"Come on!" Trent shouted as they all ran though.

He slammed the door and jumped out of the way as the door was blasted apart and fire spewed everywhere. No one dared stop to look back to see if they lost it, but knowing XANA they doubted that they were out of the woods.

"Any idea where to go?" Bridgette asked.

Gwen pulled out her Blackberry and turned it on, allowing light to be shown in the dark sewer. Everyone did the same with their cell phones as they walked through the sewers. Gwen looked at the map, pointing her blackberry at it.

"Luckily Carlos included a map of how to navigate the sewers."

"He did that?" LeShawna asked incredulously.

"Yeah, don't ask why." Gwen replied.

"Has anyone thought of calling Noah and Izzy and telling them what's going on?" DJ asked suddenly.

Everyone stopped and looked at each other.

"Crap." Gwen dialled Noah's phone number.

Xxx

Izzy along with the rest of the newly reunited Team E-scope spied Chris who was pouting as he waited for the jet to be refuelled. Noah glanced down at his phone as it rang while holding a box of tomatoes. He wasn't exactly sure what they are for and he was pretty sure that even Izzy didn't know what they were for either and saw that Gwen was calling. He answered the phone, nearly dropping the box.

"Noah, pay attention! Those tomatoes are important!" Scolded the crazy girl; however the bookworm wasn't paying any attention to her brief rant.

"NOAH!" Yelled the redhead, determined to get her friend's attention.

"It's Gwen; we've got to go to the factory." Answered Noah as hung up the phone.

"Ooh fun! Let's go battle XANA!" Izzy said, dropping the box of tomatoes.

"What the hell are you two talking about?" Eva asked as they turned to run. "Hey! Get back here!"

"Sorry, Eva! Can't talk, gotta go bye!" Izzy ran out onto the sidewalk just as a car exploded, knocking her back.

"Izzy!" Noah shouted, as he ran towards her with Eva straight behind.

"What the hell was that?" Eva looked at the exploded car. "That was just...out of nowhere."

"If only that were true." Noah muttered as he helped Izzy stand up. "Let's run before another freaky thing happens."

As Noah spoke the fire from the explosion seemed to come to life as it gathered itself together and formed a humanoid shape.

"What the-"Eva had a surprised look as the fire spectre stepped out of the debris, towards the three contestants.

"And that's our cue to run!" Noah shouted as he ran down the street with Izzy and Eva behind him.

Xxx

Like the rest of the group Aelita managed to escape by running to the school's boiler room and ran to the factory through the sewers. She climbed up the ladder and opened the hatch. Taking a peak around she didn't see any signs of any flaming spectres which seemed odd since she thought they'd be guarding the factory. She got up and ran into the lobby, taking no chances she looked around for any signs of a fire ghost that might be hiding and waiting to pop out and attack her. She didn't take any chances with the elevator knowing that the cables could get burned if there was a fire ghost nearby and she'd fall to her death in the elevator.

Instead she took the long way to the lab and climbed down the ladder. Landing on the ground she ran over to the computer and sat down. The super scan showed an activated tower in the Desert Sector. She dialled Gwen's number, hoping she and the others were all right.

"Gwen are you there?" She asked when the phone was answered.

"_Aelita? I'm glad to be hearing your voice right now._" Gwen replied.

"Sorry it took me so long. My laptop and cell phone got burned when a spectre on fire attacked the school."

"_Same thing happened to us. What the hell did XANA do to his spectres this time?_"

"From what it looks like the spectres must have taken control of something highly flammable and when combined with the spectres' electricity sparked instant flames."

_"Well it's burning down the studio; we had to escape through the sewers!"_

"There's an entrance to the sewers there?"

_"Kurt and Carlos' emergency escape plan, don't ask."_ Gwen said. (Finally they get the order right!) _"We might take a while the get through here. We have no idea where Noah and Izzy are either."_

"Guess I'm on my own until then," Aelita replied.

_"I don't think it's a good idea to go into Lyoko alone," _Gwen said.

"I'm not helpless, Gwen, I still can activate the keys if I'm overwhelmed."

"_That put's a serious strain on your avatar and brain when you try to focus all that power and you still don't have a lot of practice with it. Give us at least five; maybe ten minutes tops to get there before you jump into the scanners._"

Aelita wanted to argue but Gwen had a point. "All right, I'll wait. Good luck."

Xxx

"I don't wanna die! I don't wanna die!" Noah repeated as he, Izzy and Eva fled from a wave of fire that was consuming a street behind them. Other people had wisely fled-though they had cars that could outrun the spectres.

"Yowza it's hot out here! I feel like I'm in Barbados again!" Izzy giggled. "Or Hawaii!"

"Will you shut up and just run?" The genius snapped.

"You know, you should really look on the bright side of this!"

"We're gonna be turned into extra crispy pieces of bacon! Where's the bright side?"

"Everybody likes bacon!" Izzy said, grinning dumbly.

"If I wasn't so worn out I'd stick you in a corner with one of those 'dunce' hats!" Noah grumbled.

"Will you both shut up already?" Eva snapped at them. "What the hell is going on here?"

"Well looks to me like the whole freakin' town is on fire! Is that specific enough for you?" Noah glared at her, not in the mood to put up with having to answer questions from her. "Izzy, you run around here a lot, are there any rivers or something wet in general?"

"Well this morning there were some guys working on a sewer," Izzy replied.

"Cool! Where was-IIIIIIT-"

SPLASH!

Izzy and Eva slid to a stop and looked at the open man hole that was surrounded by orange cones and a sign that said in French 'Warning, watch for open manhole'.

"That would have been useful a few seconds earlier," Izzy shrugged. "Hang on Noah, I'm comiiiiiiiiiiing-!"

SPLASH!

"Ow...that's what she said," Noah groaned.

"Wait for me!" Eva jumped down.

SPLAAAAASH!

"Ow! You landed on my arm!"

"Sorry." Eva got up and help Noah stand up, who was cradling his arm. "You okay?"

"It'll be a miracle if I ever use this again!" Noah whined.

"Ah suck it up!" Eva snapped. "I'm trying to be nice here! And besides you know something about this!"

"What gives you that clue?" Noah retorted.

"Well, you talked to Gwen on the phone and said you had to go to 'the factory'. Then Izzy mentioned about you two going to fight some guy named...Zana? And then a car exploded and something made of fire started chasing us until we fell in here!" Eva snapped.

"...Oh." Noah looked at Izzy. "You want to explain this?"

"Explain what?" Izzy asked.

"...Right." Noah smacked himself on the head.

"Noah..." Eva growled.

"Look, Eva, I'd love to tell you everything so you don't pummel me into the ground until I'm no more but I can't. We're all in danger here and if we don't get to the factory ASAP we will be _burned_ alive. We get the factory and I'll tell you _everything_." Noah said.

Eva crossed her arms and scowled but she didn't reach to grab him or shout at him. Taking that as a sign that she more or less accepted the deal Noah turned and went down the tunnel with Izzy and Eva following.

Xxx

The Lyoko gang except Noah and Izzy reached the ladder that led up to the hatch right in front of the bridge leading to the factory.

"About time we made it!" Heather said out loud, not all happy about being in the sewers.

Cody was the first one to climb up the ladder followed by a few others. He opened the hatch and poked his head up...Only for him to shout and fall back down, knocking Gwen, Trent, and Geoff who were climbing up behind him. They fell to the ground and landed on each other.

"What was that, Cody?" Bridgette cried.

"We can't go up there!" Cody got back up; ignoring the small cuts and bruises he got from falling.

"Why not?" DJ asked.

His question was answered when the sewer hatch above them was blown open. They braced themselves and got out of the way of few bits of falling debris. They looked up as the smoke cleared to see...fire ghosts standing above the hole that had been made by the explosion and looking down at them.

"That's why!" Cody retreated.

"All in favour of not getting turned extra crispy say 'Aye'!" DJ squeaked.

"AYE! The team wailed as they ran back the way they came." Several of the ghosts began to move down into the tunnel. One of them turned into a simple cloud of fire that shot down the sewer tunnel after the warriors.

"Awe man that is _not _fair!" Trent whined.

"That fork we came by is up ahead, split up and find another way out!" Gwen said.

They reached the fork, and immediately split up. Gwen, Heather, Geoff, LeShawna, Cody and Bridgette took the right tunnel-the one they had come from while the rest of the group took the left tunnel. The ghosts also split up, two of them going after each of the groups.

"How are we going to get out?" Bridgette shouted.

"The map says that there's another way out up ahead!" Gwen said. "I wanted to bring us out closer to the factory so I skipped over it!"

"Well let's hurry before those things catch up!" Geoff said...before the back of his hat was caught by a stray blast of fire. It was reduced to ashes. "My hat! NOOOO! That was my best hat!"

"Don't worry; we'll have to return to the past after this anyhow!" LeShawna pointed out. "For now I'd be worried about the fact that YOUR BUNS ARE BURNIN' YOU MORON!"

"What?" Geoff looked down...and saw the back of his short were also on fire. "AH! My butt's on fire dudes!"

"In the water!" Gwen ordered as they came into a wider tunnel.

"Aw man this stuff smells!" Bridgette whined, but jumped in anyways.

"You sure we can't just try and fight-"Heather was cut off as LeShawna grabbed her and they both jumped in.

Geoff leaped in, and steam rose up.

"Wooooo...!" He sighed in relief. "Ah...AH-" He was pulled under just as both ghosts shot into the tunnel. They hit the water and turned into clouds of steam. The warriors felt the murky water heat up, but after a minute or so they couldn't take it anymore and swam back up.

"Now I know why this was Courtney's worst nightmare," Gwen said as she climbed out. "That was disgusting."

"Eeeewwww..." Cody groaned, looking at his soaked clothes. "I think I touched something dead in there."

"Let's just get back to the factory." Heather shook herself to get the murky water off.

"We can't. There's probably more of this things waiting for us to come back plus the ladder was destroyed so we can't climb back up." Gwen replied.

"So how do we get to the factory without those things seeing us?" Bridgette asked.

Gwen was silent as she looked at the water. Everyone else seemed to catch on.

"Oh, no. No, I am not going back in there!" Heather shook her head repeatedly. "I have made plenty of sacrifices for the team but this is _way_ over the line!"

"You have a better idea?" Gwen crossed her arms.

"How about you all go swim and I find another way to get in?" Heather backed up.

"Come on." Cody said, not seeing any other way.

"No! Not. Ever! Not in a million years! No Freakin Way Josey!" Heather shook her head. "Triple emphasis on 'No Freakin Way'! Access Denied! And to quote from one of my favourite scenes on Scrubs with Dr. Cox 'Man Falling off a Cliff NOOOOOOOO'!"

Xxx

**_Five seconds later_**

"I hate you all," Heather grumbled, trudging along neck deep in sewer water.

"Yeah well to quote what you have said plenty of times before 'Suck it up'!" Gwen replied.

Heather mumbled something no one could hear as they swam down the river and saw the bridge. Swimming carefully and quietly in case anymore fire ghosts were around.

"Let's get swim up to the sidewalk and climb up to the bridge." Heather said, wanting get out of the water badly.

"And what if we're spotted by those things when we get on the bridge?" Gwen asked.

"You know another way in?" Heather shot back.

"Yeah." Gwen pointed to the land the factory was on and everyone followed her gaze to...a trap door.

Following her they swam up to the land and got up, not stopping they opened the door and ran in to the lobby and then the elevator.

"If there is one good thing about going to Lyoko is that all the crap disappears." Heather grumbled.

The elevator door opened and they saw Aelita run up to them.

"You guys made it! I thought for sure-"Aelita stopped when she inhaled a bad smell coming from off of them. "What happened to you?" She tried very hard not to cover her nose, afraid she might offend them but she stepped back so she couldn't smell it anymore.

"We ended up swimming through the river to get here when those things blew up the sewer hatch at the bridge." Bridgette replied.

"I see," She couldn't help anymore but put a hand on her nose. "Sorry!"

"No problem, we took a minute to get used to it," Heather shrugged. "Let's just go to Lyoko and pray the stench doesn't follow us."

"Are Trent, DJ, Noah, and Izzy all right?" Aelita asked noticing they were not with them.

"We got separated from Trent and DJ when we ran and Noah and Izzy went to prank Chris before he left." Cody replied. "Hopefully they'll make it."

"Right. The tower's in the Desert Sector but there are no monsters or generals guarding it yet." Aelita nodded. "Cody, you're in charge of the lab. See if you can find the others while we're being virtualized."

"Right."

Xxx

"_Virtualization!_"

Gwen, Heather, and Bridgette landed first on the sandy ground of Lyoko's Desert Sector. Heather held up her hand sniffed at it.

"Thank god! No stink from sewage water here!" Heather sighed in relief.

"I haven't been here since the mix up with Izzy." Gwen looked down at her black and blue clothes and smiled as she pulled out her scythe. "Completely back to normal."

Right after she finished speaking Aelita, LeShawna, and Geoff landed on the ground beside him.

"The good old hot desert in the middle of an attack with fire. You know this joke is kind of getting old, XANA!" LeShawna shouted out into the desert, not caring if anyone heard or not.

"_Vehicles on the way!_" Cody said.

"This'll keep anyone from getting too hot." Aelita said as the vehicles appeared.

"I've missed this." LeShawna got on the OverJet.

"Okay, the last ones had Ryder, Blade, Sora, and then Yuki. Who's next?" Geoff got on the OverBike.

"Knowing my luck, it'll be Jinx." Gwen stepped on the Overboard.

"That's no surprise. We should be wondering what monster will be waiting for us." Aelita got on the OverSled.

"Knowing XANA it'll be that lave golem monster just to let us know how much he likes to screw with us." Heather got on the OverWing.

"Want to make bets while we're at this?" Bridgette hopped on her surfboard.

"The tower's south of here. It'll take less than a minute to reach." Aelita said as they took off.

"I just hope the others make it." Gwen muttered.

Xxx

"Seriously, fire? Do computers play fair anymore?" Trent shouted as he and DJ waded through chest deep water-well for Trent he had to doggy paddle to stay above the water.

"I know man, those things could burn down the whole city!" DJ added with a nod. "Buuuut let's focus on the now, like...where are we right now?"

"Uh...I think Gwen had the map," Trent replied.

"I see a man hole up ahead, can we get out there?"

"What if there are more fire monsters?" Trent asked.

"Worth a check," DJ shrugged.

"Ok, fine, let's get out and take a look." Trent climbed out of the water and up the ladder to the man hole cover. He moved it aside and climbed out into an alley. "...it looks-"

BOOM! A truck at the mouth of the alley exploded, and two fire spectres appeared, marching towards Trent.

"Yo Trent, what was that?"

"...GERONIMO!" Trent put one hand on his nose and cannon ball jumped down the man hole.

SPLASH!

"Ew! Man all over my hat!" DJ whined as he was soaked by Trent's landing.

"Fire! Lots of fire! Next man hole!" Trent said urgently, dragging DJ along with unbelievable strength through the water-fuelled by pant wetting fear.

Xxx

Cody looked up when the computer started beeping and he saw Noah's cell phone icon on appeared on the screen.

"Noah?" He answered.

"_Yo, Cody! Tell me the others are very close to the tower._" Noah sounded a little desperate but Cody couldn't tell.

"Sorry, the others just got virtualized and they're on the way."

"_...Crap._" Noah sounded really crestfallen. "_Okay, we're on our way to the factory. Izzy says she can figure it out how to navigate the sewers so we can get to the factory._"

"Noah, you can't use the sewer hatch at the bridge. We tried and ran into fire spectres. They blew up the hatch and the ladder and we got separated from Trent and DJ when we got away."

"_So how we do get there?_"

"Well...there is a way but I'm not sure you'll like it." Cody hesitated.

"_Try me._"

"Have Izzy find the way to the river that runs underneath the factory bridge and head for the trap door underneath."

"_...You're right. I don't like it."_

"It's the only way! We had to swim through it to get away from those ghosts!"

"_Have you seen what's in that water?_"

"You're starting to sound like Heather. You want to get burned alive?"

"_...I hate you._"

"Like I care. Good luck!"

Xxx

Noah bit back a curse at Cody when he hung up. "Okay, Izzy we need another way to the factory. You know the way to the river?"

"On it!" Izzy snapped a salute and got down on all fours.

She started sniffing the ground which made Noah and Eva look away since the ground was covered in something they didn't even want to know what it was. Izzy started leading them down the tunnel.

"Stuck in a sewer with a bookworm, a psycho while being chased by things on fire and not to mention the psycho is sniffing a ground that has more crap then my grandpa's outhouse." Eva grumbled. "What the hell was I thinking coming along? Can this get any worse?"

"Just you wait and you'll see." Noah muttered.

"What was that?" Eva growled.

"Nothing!"


	70. Episode 68: Unexpected Help

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 69

"The tower, it's there!" Aelita pointed to a red glowing tower off in the distance, surrounded by a field of large rocks.

"Okay, we see the tower, so now we just need to wait for the blast that comes out of nowhere." Gwen replied.

"You know, this would be the part when someone would say 'It's quiet. Too quiet'." Geoff spoke up.

"_Hang on...Move!_"

Everyone looked up when they heard something and almost had no time to react. A large swarm of purple energy blasts fell down on them.

"There it is!" Gwen shouted as they evaded the blasts.

The energy blasts hit the ground and each one created a large explosion that was so big it sent the Lyoko warriors flying across the desert. Their vehicles crashed and vanished into streams of codes as they hit the ground.

"Geoff, please don't say anything else." Heather groaned as they got up.

"Hey, you're the one who wanted something to happen." A familiar female voice replied as she landed in front of the warriors.

"Jinx." Bridgette said as she picked up her board and split it into her swords.

It was indeed Jinx standing a few feet away with a casual smirk and her spear hanging over her right shoulder.

"Miss me?" Jinx asked, holding out her spear.

"Like I miss Owen's farts!" Heather replied.

"Oh come on! You asked if there was someone or something around here to fight and now that there is you're going to bitch and moan. Are you on your period or something?" Jinx spun her spear.

Heather replied with a spread of shuriken in her direction. Jinx managed to twist out of the way of most of them or use her staff to send them glancing away from her. "Nice try ninja girl-"

THUNK!

"Ow!" Jinx rubbed her forehead and looked at the rock Heather had thrown at her. "What are you, twelve?"

"Whiner."

"No, that's _your_ kid!" Jinx grumbled.

"At least he has a sense of humour," Heather extended her hidden blades. "I'd gladly take him over you any day."

"Especially after I kick your whiny ass back to the real world." Jinx pointed her spear at the three warriors. "Take this!"

She fired a beam of purple light blasted from her spear at the warriors. They barely got out of the way before it destroyed the spot they were at. Aelita fired her plasma beam from both her hands as Bridgette swung her swords, releasing her Wave Blast while Geoff fired a lightning blast and Heather fired a spread of shuriken. However before the attacks hit Jinx Lilith appeared in front of her and created several portals that swallowed everyone's attacks.

"Hi everyone! I've got a present for you!" Lilith waved as she opened several portals fired the warriors' attacks right back at them.

"Me too!" Jinx shouted as she pointed her spear at the warriors and fired a barrage of purple energy orbs similar to Aelita's Energy Field.

"Crap!" Geoff shouted as they all scattered to avoid the attacks.

Heather ended up getting hit by a few of her own shuriken while Bridgette was knocked back when she used her swords to block her own Wave Blast. Gwen spun her scythe and created her barrier to block Jinx's energy orbs while Aelita used her plasma beam to cancel out Geoff's attack before it blasted him and LeShawna.

"You didn't think only one of us would be sent out here with six of you, did you?" Lilith asked, with her trademark bright smile.

"We were hoping." Gwen replied. "But then again nothing is ever easy when we're on the job."

"We can still make it. There are only two of them." Geoff held out his axe ready to attack.

Jinx and Lilith snickered.

"Geoff, what did I tell you about talking-"Heather started but was interrupted by Cody.

"_Look out!_"

Everyone dodged as a large blast of energy came out of a large portal Lilith created. Looking up they saw a monster come out of the portal.

"Scorpions!" Bridgette shouted as they regrouped.

The Scorpion was one of the rare but very large monsters the older TD Lyoko warriors first faced during XANA's second attack. The last time anyone faced one of these monsters there was only one but now there were _two_ of them.

"That's not all!" Lilith's mischievous grin grew larger.

Another monster followed the Scorpion out of the portal. This time it was one of Nephilim's monsters, the same monster the Lyoko warriors faced in the first level of the Central Processing Tower in the City Sector, the Hydra.

"Oh not this thing again! We barely beat it with like a dozen of us fighting at once!" Geoff shouted.

The Hydra roared with all five heads, and spat five streams of fire from them.

"PLASMA BEAM!" Aelita shot in front of the group and raised both hands, sending out a particularly strong plasma beam that struck the Hydra in its body before any of the five heads could properly aim at the group.

The Hydra was sent sliding back, but quickly got back up while the two Scorpions moved in.

"Heather, LeShawna, take the left Scorpion! Geoff, with me on the right!" Gwen shouted.

"Bridgette, get on your board and keep evading!" Aelita activated her flight ability. "Don't give it a chance to attack; we need to distract it until the Scorpions are destroyed!"

"Got it!" Bridgette rushed forward, forming her swords into their board shape and tossing them before her.

She leaped up and landed on one flat side, pressing herself down into a kneeling position and gripping the edges while the board accelerated. She shot under one dragon head and over the next one, shooting up into the air above the monster. She then tilted the board backwards, the front end going up until she flipped over entirely and dove down as fast as a bullet. She fired a wave beam at the monster's third neck, slamming the head into the ground. She evened out and avoided hitting the ground, but clipped the top of the second head as it rose to take aim at her.

Gwen shot into the air as the Scorpion fired a bolt of electricity from its head. She twisted out of the way in mid flight and then shot down. She flipped over as she got close to the Scorpion.

K-SHING!

She sliced into its neck a bit, deducting life points-but not a significant amount. She flipped over again and landed in a crouch behind it. The Scorpion's tail swung at her, and she was forced to evade it, swinging and spinning her scythe so that either the blade cut into the tail or the pole bashed it away. Her movements sped up as the Scorpion pressed the attack, ignoring a few energy spheres Aelita launched at it from behind.

One could literally see a blur of gray and black in front of Gwen as she fended off the Scorpion's barrages. For nearly thirty seconds she kept it up before the Scorpion raised one foot.

"Oh crap!" She used her Wind Aura and launched herself away from the Scorpion as it stomped down. The tremor sent her flying back out of control, forcing her to use her flight ability to stabilize herself.

Heather was back flipping away from the second Scorpion's tail while LeShawna was getting ready to take a swing. She took a baseball player's pose-one could possibly hear the proper music being played as she rested her hammer on one shoulder. Heather back flipped past her.

Taking a step to the left, LeShawna watched as the left leg came down again. She swung...and the Scorpion's leg was forced out from under it. With a howl, it fell on its side, writhing.

"It's outta the park!" LeShawna cackled.

The Scorpion roared and fired a bolt of electricity at her that she barely evaded but the shockwave sent her flying across the ground. The Scorpion got back, limping slightly as it swung its tail down on her. She rolled out of the way and the tail slammed into the ground, leaving large cracks. The Scorpion charged up another electrical blast and fired at her.

LeShawna turned and ran without looking back as the blast headed straight for her. She spun around and raised her hammer. Activating its power she held the hammer out in front of her as it expanded in size. She swung it at the blast and the impact created a large explosion that blinded anyone who was watching.

When the smoke cleared LeShawna was still standing with her hammer intact but smoke was come out of it.

"That was close." LeShawna sighed in relief.

In the meantime Geoff was helping Gwen against the first Scorpion. Geoff had fought this type of monster twice before and in both times he managed to destroy. Now he was stronger and had much more experience than he did back then. He swung his axe the moment the Scorpion was distracted by Gwen as she flew in and swung her scythe, it blade cutting into the ribs of the beast.

However it shrugged off her attack and whipped its tail at her. She dodged just as Geoff swung his axe, unleashing a blast of lightning aimed at the Scorpion's neck where the Eye of XANA rested on the back of its head, hoping that it would hit and sever the monster's head from its body. However it seemed that this one had learned from mistakes of its predecessors as it spotted the attack and ducked its head under the blast, avoiding it completely.

"Oh come on!" Geoff complained.

The Scorpion turned and fired its own electrical blast at him. He swung his axe and unleashed another blast of lightning that cancelled out both attacks. The Scorpion hissed as it fired laser blasts from not only its head but also its tail, Geoff deflected each shot back at the monster but there was no damage done to it whatsoever.

Gwen flew in and attempted to cut off its head at the Eye of XANA but the Scorpion evaded again and swiped at Gwen with its tail, knocking her out of the sky and several feet away. She slid across the ground a few times before coming to a halt. Groaning she slowly got up and reached it with one hand, summoning her scythe. "I never had this much of a problem with bugs before."

"_Technically Gwen, scorpions aren't bugs. They're arachnids._" Cody replied.

"Let's see you handle it then," She grumbled, preparing for the next attack by the Scorpion. "Aelita we need a new strategy!"

"I've got one!" Bridgette called. "Keep it busy for a minute!"

"You got it!" Gwen raised both hands and launched her fire aura at the Scorpion, burning it and beginning to slowly wear its life points down.

The Scorpion replied with another blast of energy that Gwen blocked by using her Earth Aura to assemble a rock barrier.

"Bombs awaaaaaaaaayyyyy!" Bridgette shouted as she dived for the Scorpion from above. It looked up, momentarily confused, and then began to charge an energy blast. But Bridgette levelled out a bit and sank the tip of her board right through the head of the Scorpion. Sadly the board stopped immediately and sent Bridgette flying through the air.

"Aaaaaahhhhhh!" She wailed, flailing.

Then suddenly something caught her in mid flight, and she and her saviour rolled a bit before coming to a stop.

"You alright babe?" She opened her eyes and saw Geoff.

"Aw Geoff." Cue the make out!

"Lyoko to love birds! We're in a battle!" Heather called.

They didn't hear.

Sighing, she turned invisible and then grabbed each of them by one ear.

"Owowowowowowowowow!" They both shouted as Heather dragged them to their feet.

"Fight! Now!"

"Alright! Sheesh!" Geoff ran off.

"Kill joy," Bridgette pouted before her board landed next to her after the Scorpion exploded in a flash of light-of course after stumbling around for several seconds. Grabbing her blades, she went to help with the other Scorpion. "I'm not pulling that move again!"

The other Scorpion was still battling LeShawna when Geoff and Gwen came to help while Bridgette continued to distract the Hydra. LeShawna blocked another blast from the Scorpion with her hammer as she tried to charge at it and smash its brains with her hammer. The Scorpion had no chance to react as Gwen used her fire aura to engulf it in a blast of fire. It roared as the flames burned its body and it fired aimlessly as it tried to escape.

"Now!" Gwen shouted.

Geoff nodded and split his axe back into his chakrams and threw into the tornado of fire. It hit the Scorpion and unleashed a blast of electricity that blew the fire tornado apart. The Scorpion screamed as it was vaporized into nothing but streams of data and digital dusts.

"Yes!" Bridgette cheered as they took out the last Scorpion.

Now they had to handle the hard part. The Scorpions were easy compared to the Hydra as it took the cooperation of nearly everyone in the group with the exception of Gwen who was still infected with XANA's virus to take it out. Only now they were missing several members making it even harder.

"It shouldn't be hard now. We know where its weak spot is." Geoff reasoned.

"Geoff!" Heather growled. "What did I say about talking?"

The Hydra let out a roar from all five of its heads as it moved to attack them.

"Here we go!" Bridgette got on her board and flew around the monster, avoiding lasers being fired from its mouth.

Once she could see the Eye on the back of the monster she fired her Wave Blast at it. However it raised its tail and blocked her attack. One of the heads turned and fired at her.

"Oh crap!"

She barely evaded as she crouched down on the board, ducking under the laser blast as it flew over her head.

"Okay, I'm starting to remember how tough this thing was the last time we faced it." Geoff rubbed the back of his head.

"We need to get the Eye on its back but it blocked me." Bridgette landed next to them.

"That means we have to be smart." Gwen said. "After all don't we have some upgrades now? Use them!"

The Hydra took the chance to spew fire on them.

"Bridgette!" Gwen shouted.

Bridgette held out her swords and they spewed out streams of water at high speed that cancelled out the Hydra's attack.

"Geoff, use your chakrams!" Aelita said just as the attacks ended.

Geoff threw one of his chakrams at the middle head and it hit the forehead. A second after that an explosion of electricity blasted out it and vaporized the middle head.

"Won't they just grow back now?" Heather asked.

"Which is why we move fast! PLASMA BEAM!" Snapping both arms up, Aelita struck the third head just as it opened its mouth to fire. The head exploded in a flash just as the other began to slowly reform.

"I always wanted to try this!" Geoff charged one chakram with electricity and threw it at the fourth head. It struck it and sliced through it down the middle. The fourth neck writhed and twisted as the head exploded. By then the first head was just beginning to form a mouth.

"Get it now! We'll never have another chance if it forms more heads!" Aelita shouted.

"I'm on it!" Gwen shot into the air.

The fifth and first heads shot at her. She twisted, placing one hand on top of the first head and vaulting onto it. Then she slid down its neck as the fifth neck bit down on it. The first head exploded in its mouth, and Gwen leaped off and landed on the Hydra's back. She raised her scythe and swung down, sinking it deep into the XANA symbol on the back.

She jumped as the Hydra shattered into lines of data and vanished.

"Wow. They sure took them out fast." Jinx smirked as she stood up from the boulder she sat on. "Does that mean it's our turn?"

"Wait just a little longer." Lilith replied as the warriors regrouped.

"Well that was fun." Heather said sarcastically. "I forgot how much I hated fighting the big monsters."

"We better hurry and get through these two and to the tower before something else happens." Gwen turned to Lilith and Jinx.

"Too late!" Lilith said as monsters came out of the rock field surrounding the tower. "I invited them over while you were taking on the others."

"Gee, you shouldn't have." Gwen growled as the monsters approached.

Five Pyramids along with four Dark Krabs came out followed by four Dark Tarantulas that each let out a screech as they crouched down and aimed their guns at the warriors. A red energy field appeared each one of them to protect them from attacks while three Dragon Knights stepped out behind them.

"Oh great." Heather muttered as she aimed her wrist launcher at the nearest monster.

"So which ones do we take out?" LeShawna asked.

"Your hammer won't do much good against the shields. They've got the stronger ones at the back to hit us from long range. I got a few ideas to get around their shields but we have a few more problems." Aelita looked to see the Dark Krabs and Pyramids heading out to engage them.

"Don't think they're the only ones we invited!" Lilith raised her hands to the sky and portals opened up above the tower.

Three Flying Mantas, three Hornets, and three Bats flew out and headed for the warriors. "The boss wants to make sure there's no chance of you getting to the tower." Jinx said as the monsters got ready to attack.

"He'll track down the others and make sure they can't reach the factory and after you're all devirtualized the supercomputer is next." Lilith finished.

Thwack! Jinx hit Lilith on the back of the head lightly.

She spun around and glared at her. "What the hell?"

"Don't you know never to go bragging about what the plan is!" Jinx demanded. "Do you _watch _those drama movies?"

Lilith blinked. "..._you_ watch drama movies?"

"What else do you expect me to do, sit around and look broody and busy? I need a time waster," Jinx shrugged. "Whenever you brag about the plan, it falls apart faster than half of marriages these days! And that's just on average!"

Lilith glared at Jinx.

"When this is over I am so going to launch a thousand arrows at you until you're a porcupine."

The Lyoko Warriors got ready as the Dark Krabs and Pyramids were the first to move forward. The rest of the monsters were held back as they waited along with the generals.

"Sending a few to warm things up, uh?" LeShawna smirked as she got ready to charge at them. "This'll be easy!"

"That's what you think." Lilith snapped her fingers and the ground started to crack.

"Now what?" Heather groaned as they all attempted to steady themselves.

"The ground, it's cracking!" Aelita pointed as cracks traveled down the ground between the group and the tower, leaving them on a floating island that was now floating away from the mainland.

"Bon voyage!" Lilith waved at them.

"What are they up to? Disconnecting this from the mainland is not going to help." Gwen looked around as the Dark Krabs and the Pyramids that had been on their side of the crack when it disconnected the island from the mainland got ready to fight. "These guys aren't even going to be much of fight against all of us."

"Not to mention some of us can fly." Bridgette pointed out.

The monsters themselves were still and quiet, observing their enemies as they got ready.

"Whatever, we don't have time for this. Let's just take these guys out and get on with it!" LeShawna held her hammer over her shoulder as she charged forward.

But as she ran at them she found it hard to move all of a sudden. It was then everyone noticed that the once flat desert island had suddenly began to tilt itself.

"Oh, no. Not again!" Aelita suddenly found herself flashing back to one of the early battles with XANA when he tilted the Desert Sector to give his monsters the advantage.

It was just like before only now the large desert platform was floating away from the mainland where the tower was and the vehicles started to slip back as everyone started to crawl on all fours to stay alive and not fall to their doom in the digital sea. The Dark Krabs and Pyramids were unaffected as they were able to hold their ground thanks to the fact that they were designed to climb mountains. Bridgette split her board into her swords and plunged them into the ground to stay up with Geoff wrapping his arms around her waist to stay with her. Aelita quickly did the same thing she did the last time this happened and formed several platforms for the gang to stand on as the platform completed its vertical tilt.

The monsters began their slow march down the platform towards them.

"This is great!" Gwen shouted as she and the others pressed their backs against the wall.

The relentless attacks along with the small amount of room on the platform kept most of them from using their powers, such as Aelita and Gwen trying to fly or Bridgette assembling her swords back into her board so she could fly. Geoff didn't have enough room to launch lightning blasts at the monsters above him without blasting himself or the others. LeShawna couldn't use her hammer without hitting anyone and Heather's shuriken were not enough to destroy the monsters above her or the ones flying around the platform.

"I know, I remember how painful it was the last time." Aelita replied as lasers were just mere inches from her face.

"We need some kind of plan here." LeShawna said as the monsters above them advanced and continued to fire.

"Look out!" Bridgette shouted, pointing into the air.

The flying monsters began to make passes at the warriors. Firing lasers, acid, and mines down on them to keep them from moving or defend themselves.

"Oh crap!" Geoff shouted as he held his Chakrams out to block incoming lasers.

Geoff tossed a Chakram that caught one Manta, but aside from that they found it hard to counter the attack. The rest of the warriors were forced to deflect multiple barrages of laser fire from the other monsters. Mantas flew down towards the warriors and launched flying mines that surrounded them to keep the ones that could fly from escaping while Hornets sprayed acid down. The Dark Krabs and Pyramids above took advantage of having the high ground and fired lasers without stop to the warriors below.

"Oh come on!" Heather groaned as all they could do at the moment was press their backs against the wall to avoid lasers from the monsters above and rely on Gwen, Aelita, and Geoff from blocking lasers from the airborne monsters.

"They're not playing around this time. They want to win." Gwen said as she blocked another laser shot from a Hornet.

"XANA knows how close we are to reaching his Carbon Copy and he's not going to let us in without a fight." Aelita fired an energy field at a Bat but it dodged.

"This is getting us nowhere." Heather looked up at the incoming monsters. "Gwen?"

"Yeah?" Gwen looked over at her.

"Can you use your Earth Aura to give us some cover?"

"Maybe." Gwen had a thoughtful look on her face. "There's enough from the other platforms to give us some cover for a few seconds."

"That's more than enough time. We can't win being pinned like this so we find a way out." Heather replied.

Gwen nodded and her figure began to glow yellow as she activated her Earth Aura. The few platforms nearby split apart and the rocks flew towards the group and floated above them, acting as a shield against the hailstorm of lasers.

"Good now I can try something." Heather unsheathed her right wrist blade and pointed at one of the rocks.

"What are you planning?" Bridgette asked.

"Testing something Aelita gave me. You think those flash bombs were all I got?" Heather smirked as the blade shot out from under her wrist, revealing that it was attached at the end of a long rope. "Grappling hook!"

"...cool!" Geoff nodded.

"I figured Heather needed a better way to get around...and that night I saw a Legend of Zelda walkthrough on You Tube," Aelita shrugged as Heather attached to one of the rocks.

"Alright Gwen, get ready!" The rope began to retract quickly, drawing Heather to the rock. She landed on it and held on. "Now!"

Gwen used her Earth Aura again, and launched Heather and the rocks right up towards the monsters at break neck speed. Heather extended one of her hidden blade as she began to pass between the legs of a Dark Krab. She jammed it up and sliced a long line along the Dark Krab's middle, and then swiped her blade to either side, cutting through its legs. With two legs lost, the Krab lost its grip and fell towards the warriors below.

"I got it!" LeShawna swung her hammer and it smashed into the Krab, shattering it and sending its remains into the digital sea.

Heather flipped off of the rock before it struck one of the Pyramids, and then she launched her grappling hook at another Pyramid. It dug into it, but did not hit a XANA eye. The Pyramid paused as though confused, allowing Heather to reel herself in and land on it. She jammed her other hidden blade into a part of it and kept herself out of the way of the Pyramid's eyes as they tried to swivel around to lock onto her. Two Hornets saw her and tried to shoot up at her, but she used the Pyramid's bulky form to block them by moving on top-staying flat to the Pyramid's sides to avoid being shot by the XANA eye positioned there.

"She's got them distracted. Now's our chance!" Aelita said.

With most of the monsters above them distracted by Heather the others turned to the airborne monsters still attacking them. Bridgette jumped off the platform and fell to the digital sea. As she fell she assembled her swords into her board and planted her feet on it. Just as she was about to hit the digital sea she blast into the air flew back up towards the battle. The Bats turned to attack her, firing lasers down on her making her spin and swerve to avoid getting hit.

However she found that the Bats were a combination of both Hornets and Mantas. The Mantas have more fire power while the Hornets were more manoeuvrable and much faster. The Bats were a combination of the Mantas' firepower and the Hornets speed and manoeuvrability which made it hard for Bridgette to hit them while they attacked.

"I don't think Bridgette's going to get those flying rodents off her any time soon." Gwen commented as she blocked another shot from a Manta.

They were still under attack by two Flying Mantas and the Hornet that didn't join its comrades in attacking Heather.

"Looks like we'll have to fight through all of this. Aelita, you and I will go in the air. Guys, you think you can..." Gwen started.

"Go girl. We'll take of these." LeShawna nodded.

Gwen and Aelita nodded as they took off.

"Cody, can you make sure the extra life program is keeping me here. I don't know how long I'll be in the air." Gwen looked up.

"_Don't worry Gwen. The extra card is feeding you life points faster than your flight ability is using them._" Cody reassured her.

"Thanks."

On the new top of the platform-meaning its side, one Dragon Knight glanced down at the fight and whistled. It pulled out a pistol then leaped off and dived down towards the battle, gaining acceleration as it fell. Heather looked up when she heard a something falling. She looked up and saw fall it past her but not before it fired a shot from the pistol and knocked her off the Pyramid she was on.

"Heather!" LeShawna and Geoff called out as Heather fell.

Heather did not seem to hear them as she was too busy with falling into the digital sea, _again_. This time she was not going to let it happen. Just as she passed the platform Geoff and LeShawna were on. She fired her grappling hook up and the bladed end went right through the edge of the platform. Heather stopped falling and hung below the tilted the island.

"This is perfect." She muttered as she looked down and immediately looked back up wishing she hadn't looked down.

The Dragon Knight sprouted its bat like wings and flew up to her. It pulled out a katana swung it at her but it was stopped when a plasma beam came at it, forcing it to dodge. It missed the Knight as it ducked under but it missed by mere inches. Aelita flew up next to Heather while keeping her hand pointed out at the Dragon Knight. "You okay?"

"Yeah, but I think I might need some help getting up." Heather replied.

The Dragon Knight prepared to attack when Gwen flew at him like a meteor. It raised its sword and blocked her attack. As this happened Aelita grabbed Heather's left arm and flew her up to the platform. The Hornets regrouped and flew at her with the Flying Mantas, firing lasers down on both of them. However two Charkrams flew through the air and cut through two Hornets and one Manta, breaking their formation up.

"That ought to show you!" Geoff shouted as he caught both his Chakrams that flew back.

There were only one Hornet and one Manta left now as they tried to attack Geoff and LeShawna but Aelita got Heather back onto the platform and she fired her shuriken at them, taking them out with one shot each. Gwen's scythe made it through the Dragon Knight's sword but it flew back and avoided being sliced in half. The Knight pulled out its pistol and started firing laser beams at her, forcing her to dodge. While using her flight ability she couldn't use her spell attacks unlike Aelita and Sora who had no problems using their powers while flying. Gwen couldn't use her spells; she could only throw her scythe at the Knight which it could easily dodge since fighting in the air was part of its design.

Meanwhile Bridgette continued to fly above the digital sea on her board with the Bats right behind her. She swung her arms, firing her Wave Blasts which made the Bats respond with lasers from their mouths. The attacks collided and created a large explosion from the collision. She flew back up towards the tilted platform seeing that nearly all the monsters were taken care of and ducked as Aelita fired energy fields at the Bats, blasting the middle one to bits of data.

Gwen flew down and sliced down on the right Bat, taking out its wings and knocking down into the digital sea. Bridgette spun around and fired her Wave Blast taking out the final Bat.

"Well, they're made it out of that pretty quickly." Jinx commented as they watched the battle.

"Then it's a good thing that wasn't the only plan we had." Lilith turned looked over at Jinx who nodded.

She aimed her spear at the tilted platform and unleashed a barrage of purple energy bolts moving at the speed of light towards the tilted island.

"_Look out!_"

The energy beams traveled through the air and impacted the tilted island. Unfortunately LeShawna was on the other side of wall where the attack and it traveled through the wall and hit her.

"LeShawna!" Geoff and Heather shouted as she was devirtualized but they little time to react as the Gorilla fired again and blasted the tilted island apart, knocking Geoff and Heather off the platform and into the sea.

"NOT AGAIN!" Heather shouted.

Luckily for the both of them Bridgette flew in and they landed on her board in front of her. Geoff landed on his back and Heather landed on his chest. They both groaned and looked up at Bridgette.

"We're over already, Geoff?" Bridgette asked with a smile that said she was joking but it made Heather roll off Geoff quickly and Geoff stutter 'NO!'

Gwen and Aelita flew up beside them as they flew up to the mainland and landed at the edge as the remaining monsters consisting of four Dark Tarantulas, three Dragon Knights being led by Lilith and Jinx.

"We better get through them and fast." Bridgette hopped off her board and split it into her swords.

"Where are Izzy and Noah when you need them?" Gwen muttered.

Xxx

Plunk! Plunk! SPLASH!

Noah resurface in the river, gasping. "I'm aliiiiiive!"

Eva and Izzy surface next to him.

"Shut up moron! You'll give us away!" Eva hissed.

"...sorry." Noah began to swim across to the factory with Izzy and the non-Lyoko warrior in tow. They climbed out and crawled up the slope to the side of the bridge connected to the factory.

"Ok, explain to me again why I had to swim down a sewage tunnel, across a river, and into some dump?" Eva growled.

"Hey, you wanted to have an answer, this is the safest way to go without being burned." Noah shrugged.

They swam across the river and headed for the trap door. They climbed up on the shore and ran over to the trap door. Opening it up Noah jumped in, followed by Izzy and a reluctant Eva. Little did they know was that they were being watched.

Xxx

"Keep on trying!" Carlos shouted as he tossed a second fire extinguisher behind as he and Lesley attempted to put out the fire ghost that was burning up the studio.

The ghost stopped in its tracks and turned around; heading out the way it came.

"...That was unexpected...I mean, yeah! You better run!" Carlos pointed at the ghost as it walked out of the studio. "Cause I was about to send you screaming back to your blowtorch!"

"Ok, what the hell was that?" Lesely shouted, dropping the bucket of water in her hand.

"What makes you think I know?" Carlos shrugged as he turned to walk out.

"Don't give me that, Carlos! I know you!" Lesley shouted, walking after him.

Carlos just kept on walking not even stopping or looking at Lesley. "Sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about. How about we celebrate that we're still alive? Still drinks and snacks around? Oh, let's sing our own song about being alive?" Carlos kept on walking. "Oh Canada, our home and native land-"

"CARLOS!"

Xxx

The fire spectres surrounding the studio and Kadic Academy turned and left, leaving everyone to wonder what happened. The spectres were being redirected to the factory after XANA discovered that Noah and Izzy made it to the factory. Now he would burn the factory to the ground with everyone in it.

Xxx

Noah and Izzy ran into the elevator with Eva looking around and then at the elevator. "You're going in that?"

"You still want to know?" Noah asked.

Eva grumbled and walked in. Noah pushed the down button and the doors closed. They waited as the elevator down and the doors opened. Eva's eyes widened in shock as the doors opened to reveal the lab. "What the..."

"Lucy, we're home!" Izzy called out as she and Noah stepped in.

"Hey, guys you made right on-Eva?" Cody peeked out from the corner of the computer and saw Eva walk in slowly, taking in everything she saw. "What are you doing here?"

"That's what I would like to know! One minute Noah and I are with Izzy doing only she knows what and the next minute I'm chased around the city by these...flaming things and led by that crazy red head to this f***n place!" Answered Eva frustrated and still quite confused.

"Eva calm down, you're at an abandoned factory." Cody responded.

"Excuse me, but isn't this time to kick some digital butt? Can Izzy go to Lyoko now?" Asked the crazy redhead.

"Sure, get in the scanner Izzy. Noah you too."

"You know, I'm pretty sure you'd be better in Lyoko then me. I can take your place and let you handle it." Noah said, hoping that Cody would let him man the computer.

"Nice try, get in the scanner." Cody pointed to the elevator like a mother telling her child to go his room.

Noah groaned as Izzy dragged him to the elevator. "You suck!"

"Like I really care." Cody looked back the screen.

"Excuse me, but I believe someone promised they'd tell me what the f*** is going on?" Eva scowled at being ignored. "What is this place! Where the HELL am I!"

"Okay okay, can you please calm down. It's alright, just go back to the studio, Izzy and Noah will join you soon." Cody assured the bad tempered female.

"I'm not going back...Izzy talked Noah and I into a few questionable pranks so if I'm going down, so are they." Replied Eva, as she walked to a spot next to Cody, interested with the screens in front of her, her face now looking more calm and a bit fascinated by the computers but still slightly angry . "What the hell is this contraption anyway?"

"This is a supercomputer. It holds the digital world of Lyoko and it is where our friends are now. Fighting to save both Lyoko and the world that we live in from an evil AI named XANA."

"Who?" Asked Eva, looking back at Cody with a look that said 'What the hell did you just say?'

"An evil computer program bent on taking over the world." Explained Cody.

Eva looked at him like he was Izzy. "...Have you been watching the Matrix again?"

"Sadly, no." Cody shook his head. "I know it's crazy but it's all real. The fire thing is an attack by XANA who wants to kill us all and we're here to stop it."

"Stop it? What are you, like super heroes?" Eva asked, incredulously.

"Not here, but in Lyoko yeah." Cody replied not minding the amount of sarcasm in Eva's voice.

The elevator opened up and Izzy and Noah walked in as LeShawna came out.

"About time you two got here! I thought for sure-EVA!" LeShawna stopped when she saw Eva at the computer with Cody.

"She followed us here when we got attacked by the fire ghosts and we had to bring her along." Noah replied as he pushed the down button.

"And I'm not going anywhere until I get the whole story here!" Eva glared at LeShawna who looked ready to snap back at her when Cody shouted. "Okay! No fighting here!"

They stopped glaring at each other as Cody looked at the monitors to see Noah and Izzy get into the scanners.

"Good news, guys. Help's on the way." Cody spoke into the headset.

_"Okay thanks, Cody."_ Replied Gwen.

"Was that Gwen?" Asked Eva.

"Yep." Replied the tech geek.

"She's in this...Lyoko?" Eva pointed the holo-map.

"Yeah. Fighting to save us." Cody then looked and saw Izzy and Noah in the scanners."All right. Here we go. Transfer, Noah. Transfer Izzy."

Eva watched the monitors that showed the scanners that Noah and Izzy were closed.

"Scanner, Noah. Scanner, Izzy. Virtualization."

Xxx

When the four Dark Tarantulas took aim and fired everyone knew they were going have a hard time fighting past them. They fired their front laser cannons without stop at the warriors, forcing them to take cover since most of their attacks were useless against the shields around the monsters. The group was forced to split up and hid behind a different a rock formation. The Dark Tarantulas were making sure they didn't have a chance to jump out and attack or fly up and get past them to the tower.

Gwen peaked out to get a better look and quickly took cover again when lasers came straight at her head. "Well, I'm open to anyone having ideas on how to get out of this mess."

"I got nothing." Geoff shrugged from his spot.

"Still working on it." Bridgette replied.

"BANZAI!" A loud and familiar female voice shouted above them.

They looked up to see Izzy who flew above the Dark Tarantulas as a bird and now she shape shifted into a large red whale and fell on the Tarantulas, squishing them under her now large body.

"That's some cavalry!" Bridgette said, grateful for the assistance.

"That's just phase one!" Izzy said jovially before Noah stepped out from behind a rock.

"Yoo hoo! Big'n ugly!" The three Dragon Knights fired at him, only for the shots to pass through him. He yawned and phased through the rock. Then two more Noahs appeared behind the Knights. "Miss me?"

The Dragon Knights kept on shooting into the Noahs as a total of eight slowly began to advance, all of them rushing back and forth to confuse the trio of Dragon Knights. Finally, one turned after futilely shooting one holographic Noah five time...only for the real Noah to jam a blade through its chest. He formed his other hand into a gun and shot the second Dragon knight three times, making it stumble and giving Heather the chance to shoot two Shuriken into it, destroying it.

"And who ever said I need to exercise to do that?" Noah asked, forming his gun hand into a shield and blocking a barrage of lasers from the last Dragon Knight. He slammed his shield into the Dragon Knight, making it stumble. Then he used his sword hand and decapitated the monster. Its body exploded into many lights.

"Pray for mercy from Team E-Scope!" Izzy declared triumphantly, turning back to her normal form.

"Good timing, both of you," Aelita smiled. "But come on, we have to get to the tower fast!"

"Yeah but now we need to get past those two." Gwen pointed at Lilith and Jinx who seemed to be waiting for them.

"We'll take care of them in just a few seconds!" Geoff combined his chakrams into his axe.

"You know, I wonder if you guys find it odd that I was able to get so many monsters here considering how much energy XANA needed to launch his attack." Lilith commented as the gang approached.

"Why should we care?" Gwen scoffed.

"Simple. XANA created them ahead of time and waited until he had enough power to launch his attack." Lilith smirked.

"So? We destroyed them all so it doesn't matter." Heather aimed her launcher.

Lilith's smirk widened. "Not all of them."

Two large portals opened in the sky making everyone look up.

"Thanks to my portals I can go anywhere in Lyoko and use them travel between here and the Carbon Copy. Not to mention using them as weapons by summoning my energy arrows." Lilith explained. "This saves XANA a lot of trouble since he can take the time to materialize a great deal of monsters and then wait to recharge while I send the monsters here. Monsters like these."

Emerging from the two portals were the largest airborne monsters the gang had ever seen. One was created by XANA and used to take help capture the original Lyoko Warriors, the Terror Bird. While the other was created by Nephilim but became part of XANA's army, the Phoenix.

"Aw maaaaan!" Geoff whined, his jaw dropping.

"Not those things again!" Gwen groaned.

"And both at the same time?" Noah added. "That just isn't fair!"

"XANA usually doesn't use these because of the ridiculous amount of power they take, but he was willing to take his time," Lilith giggled. "Try to have fun!"

"Bite me!" Half the group shouted before the two monsters dove in for their attacks.

"Anybody got a plan?" Noah asked as they took off running.

The Phoenix opened its mouth and fired a white energy beam down on them.

"Step on it, dudes!" Geoff shouted and they ran even faster.

"Izzy, change into something fast!" Aelita shouted.

"I know just the one!" Izzy jumped up and transformed into a...Pterodactyl! "I love this form!"

Heather grabbed Noah and threw him onto Izzy's back and jumped up after him. Bridgette threw combined her swords into her board and jumped forward with her body pressing against it as it started to fly. Geoff jumped on and landed behind her as she stood up while Gwen and Aelita activated their flight ability. They split up and avoided the blast as it hit the ground and created a large explosion that sent everyone flying.

"Woah!" Geoff held onto Bridgette as she tried to steady her board. "This is _so_ not cool!"

"Tell me about it!" Bridgette replied as she managed to steady the board and headed to regroup with the others.

Gwen was sent flying through the air but Aelita managed to grab her arm and help her stay in the air before she hit the ground or fall towards the digital sea.

"Thanks." Gwen said as she started to fly again.

"No problem." Aelita said as they flew towards Izzy who managed to keep Noah and Heather on her back.

"Any idea how we get out of _this_ mess?" Noah asked as they regrouped and flew away from the two large bird-like monsters.

"I can freeze the Phoenix like last time but I can't do that with the Terror Bird on our tail." Aelita pointed out.

"Meaning we need to play bait to keep them off Aelita's back." Gwen said lasers started flying at them.

Looking back they saw Krabs and Tarantulas on the back of the Terror Bird taking aim and firing on them.

"Oh come on! Give us a break!" Heather shouted as everyone resorted to dodging lasers and fast. "We need help now!"

Xxx

"Cody, you got to get in there and help them!" LeShawna said as they watched the battle and it was not looking good.

"I know but what good will I be against those two monsters along with Lilith and Jinx?" Cody stood up, banging against the chair's armrest. "They got us stuck."

Eva simply stood back watching the battle on the screen. She saw the others with some pink haired girl looking all 3-D while fighting two big birds. She couldn't take her eyes of the screen since the fight started, watching them with some strange powers like they were super heroes going up against mechanical looking animals that fired lasers. She couldn't describe what she was watching in words since she didn't even know if this was real.

"They're got to be something we can do here! If this keeps up Trent and DJ are goners and the whole city will be burned down!" LeShawna exclaimed.

"I know! I know! And I am going in there but I have no idea what I can do to take those two out." Cody got up from the chair.

"You'll think of something you always do." LeShawna tried to reassure him.

As Cody moved to get up, an idea came to him. It wasn't exactly a good idea but they all needed help since DJ and Trent weren't there they only had one more person to ask.

"Guys, do you want backup?" He asked the warriors.

"_Trent and DJ made it?_" Aelita asked.

"No. They're not who I have in mind." Cody answered which made LeShawna look at him with a surprised look when she figured out who he was referring to.

_"You mean just you, Cody?"_ Answered Gwen.

"I wasn't talking about just me." He replied

_"Who? Kurt and Carlos?"_ Asked Bridgette, narrowly dodging a blast from a Krab on the back of the Terror Bird.

"No, not Carlos and Kurt (Kurt and Carlos damn it)." Said Cody.

_"Who then?"_ Asked Bridgette.

"Eva." Replied Cody.

_"Eva!_ Everyone except Aelita, Noah, and Izzy shouted.

_"How did she get there?"_ Asked Bridgette.

"Izzy-"Started Cody.

_"Enough said."_ Interrupted Bridgette, sighing.

"She's our only option. I'm stuck here working the computer, and...maybe she'd work out as a good warrior," Cody said.

"Feel free not to ask my opinion," Eva crossed her arms.

"Do you want to help save the world?" Cody asked.

"...I never turn down a fight," Eva replied with a nod. "I'll play your dumb computer game and save the world...but I want plenty of answers."

"Oh trust me, after this I won't have a choice but to tell you everything," Cody sighed as he pointed to the elevator "We're going to take the elevator down another floor to the scanner room. They're the big pillar things. Step into one and wait."

They stepped into the elevator and were gone in seconds.

"Guys, you have backup coming," LeShawna said, taking Cody's place at the computer. "Backup that has a pair of handmade Yeti Fur Boots at home."

"_She'll be shouting out for answers when she gets here._" Bridgette sighed.

She watched as Cody stepped into one scanner while Eva looked at her scanner a few seconds before stepping and crossing her arms.

"All right, here we go. Transfer, Cody. Transfer Eva."

Both scanners closed.

"Scanner, Cody. Scanner, Eva. Virtualization!"


	71. Episode 69: Eva the Brawler

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 70

Trent and DJ were panting as they ran down the sewers for the last half hour trying to find a way out without getting seen by the fire ghosts. So far no success and they really wanted to get out since they have to endure the harsh smell of the sewers for a while now and they were covered in murky sewer water. At one point DJ screamed when he stepped on a dead rat, crying that he squished it even though it was already dead. They stopped to take a breath and listened for any sounds of attack.

"You think we're clear?" Trent asked.

"I don't know. I really don't want to find out the hard way."DJ looked to a ladder.

"Oh no! I went up last time! Now it's your turn!" Trent shook his head very fast.

"I don't want to get burnt!"

"Neither do I!"

"Play you for it!" DJ held up a fist.

"Fine, you're on!" Trent held up his fist.

"Rock, Paper, Scissors!" They said this around five times before there was a winner.

"Yes! I win!" Trent had scissors while DJ had paper. "Now get up there and take a look!"

DJ grumbled as he climbed up the ladder and knocked the hatch open. He took a quick peak and then ducked back under.

"Are they up there?" Trent asked.

"No." DJ shook his head.

"You sure?"

"Really sure, man. The whole street's empty." DJ climbed back down. "We must have lost them."

"So we can head back to the factory?" Trent asked with a hopeful look.

"We better hurry and help." DJ said and they took off.

"I wonder how the others are doing." Trent muttered as they ran.

Xxx

Eva had no idea what was happening. First she was in that pod like thing, then there was a ring of light traveling up her body, and then there was this huge flash that made her close her eyes. Next thing she knows, she's falling on her behind on the ground which wasn't there few seconds ago. "Ow!"

She got up and looked around with a speechless expression. "What the hell?"

She wasn't in the scanner now. She was in some kind of 3-D looking desert that had floating dry rocky plateaus with massive wires stretching across the sector.

"Welcome to Lyoko, Eva." Cody's voice came from behind her.

She spun around to face him and saw him looking 3-D along with the rest of the place wearing some kind of tux that oddly enough looked good on him.

"How? Who? What?" Eva sputtered as she looked for the right question.

"Don't worry, we all had some kind of reaction when we first came here." Cody attempted to reassure her.

"Just what the hell is going on?" Eva shouted, finally getting her voice back.

"Well, like I said, we're in Lyoko, a digital world, and we're here to save the world from an evil computer program." Cody was trying to keep her from pounding him back into the real world. "We do this by helping Aelita deactivate towers. You see that?" He pointed to an inactive tower nearby. "That's a tower. If it glows blue, it's safe. If it glows red...XANA is using it so he can invade the real world. He has all sorts of tricks like making monsters appear or taking control of military jets. He tries it every other week, and we always have to stop him."

"Why hasn't anybody noticed these attacks?" Eva asked, taking a deep-if unnecessary breath as she looked around.

"No one can remember."

"Say what?" She looked at him.

"You'll find out later. In the mean time, you might want to see what you look like here," Cody pointed to her.

Eva looked down at her hands noticing that that they looked 3-D as well, and saw they were covered by blue metallic gloves with black lines that went all the way to her forearms. They had small metallic spikes sticking out of the knuckles. She wore a sleeveless blue shirt much like in the real world and a set of black pants. She had blue knee pads and matching boots with white soles while her hair was in the usual pony tail she had in the real world.

She looked like she was ready to run a marathon.

"Whoa...I kinda like this look," She muttered, flexing her hands and arms a bit. She felt lighter than air yet stronger than ever now.

"It suits you." Cody nodded. "It's the one of most normal looking outfits out of everyone who's come here. But not only does coming here give you a new look but also gives you a weapon and a special power."

"Does this count?" Eva held up her spiked gloves.

"I'd say so. But we should also find out what your power is. Hey, LeShawna?" Cody looked up. "How are the others doing?"

"_They're coming your way._" Eva looked up when she heard LeShawna's voice.

"Thanks. I think we'll be ready when they get here." Cody turned back to Eva. "Okay now we need to find out just what is you can do here."

He pulled out two pistol-like weapons that had daggers in them. "I'd like to let you figure it out on your own but we don't have a lot of time and usually the best way to find out is to fight."

"_You_ fight me?" Eva laughed at the idea. "I'll admit I didn't think you'd win against Duncan in that wrestling tournament but I'm a _whole_ different level."

She wasn't wrong as Eva's strength combined with her temper made nearly everyone afraid of her. She was strong enough to take on a yeti and win. Only a few were strong enough to take her on and even then she was physically stronger than anyone on the show except possibly Chef, Carlos, and Kurt. Cody was arguably one of the weakest in fighting considering how small he was. Sure, he surprised everyone when he beat Duncan in the wrestling tournament but it was not because of his strength and Duncan was cocky in believing it would be an easy fight. Eva was stronger than Duncan and she wasn't going to let herself be taken by surprise like Duncan did.

"That's true but trust me on this; in Lyoko even the smallest can be more deadly than anything bigger." Cody smirked as charged forward.

Eva had to suppress a chuckle as Cody charged and expected him to try and throw a punch at her which she would easily block. However instead of that he somehow jumped up into the air, higher than he should have, and aimed a kick at her face. Luckily Eva managed to block by raising her arms to cover her face and Cody's foot hit them instead. Cody jumped off and landed a few feet away on his feet.

Shaking off the surprise Eva charged forward, her closing her fists as she threw her first punch. To her surprise Cody dodged each and every punch easily, sidestepping, ducking, and jumping back from each and every punch she sent. Eva knew Cody was quick but this was ridiculous as she had yet to land a single punch on him in a minute of attacking. Cody managed to surprise her by catapulting himself over her, placing one hand on her shoulder for support as he did it and landed a few feet behind her.

His move threw her balance off-along with her guard, and she snarled as she spun around, stumbling a bit. "Are you gonna fight or are you gonna prance around?"

"We're fighting? I had no idea," Cody said innocently. "Personally I never believed in violence."

"Well allow me to DISAGREE!" Eva lunged forward and swung a fist down. Cody stepped back to avoid it...and when her fist hit the ground it sent out a wave of energy that sent him flying back.

"Whoooaaaa-" Thud! Cody landed on his feet after hitting a stone wall. He had lost 30 life points to the attack, but his life points slowly began to regenerate. "Ow...shockwaves?"

"Did I just do that?" Eva looked at the small crater she had made with her fist. "...awsooooome!" She smirked, and then punched a rock. Before her fist actually came into contact with it though, a blue glow emanated from her hand, and then a bright blue light covered her hand. Her fist collided with the rock, and blew it to pieces. "Nice!"

"Wow...Falcon Punch," Cody said, rubbing his head a bit. "Okay I think we'll cut training short, I don't want to be devirtualized by accident."

"Smart move, nerdo," Eva snickered.

"Hey, if I used my special power, you'd have lost," Cody frowned.

"Oh yeah? What is it?" Eva asked rhetorically.

Cody sighed and used his time freeze power. To Eva it was like he vanished on the spot. "What the-?"

"Yo," She turned...and saw a gun pointed in her face. Yelping, she ducked out of the way of the barrel, and Cody laughed. "Scared yah! I can stop time for thirteen seconds here!"

"If you do that again I'll-"

"Kick my ass? Pardon me," Cody paused, checking to see if he could use his power again yet. After a few more seconds he tried and vanished again.

Eva jumped forward and spun around just in case Cody appeared behind, but instead she came face to face with something else while Cody reappeared with both guns drawn and facing the Dark Krab that had been virtualized right in the middle of the desert near them. "Eva, it's a Dark Krab, look out for its lasers!"

"Lasers?" Eva got her answer when she saw a red glow from the Dark Krab. A single laser hit her shoulder, taking 20 life points. She immediately threw herself out of the way of the second shot and rolled behind a boulder as it peppered the surrounding area with more lasers. Cody returned fire, his shots bouncing off of its armour as he side stepped behind a rock pillar.

"We have to hit the XANA eye on its top!" He shouted to Eva. "My power will take longer to recharge now!"

"Well then I'll handle it!" Eva snapped, angered at being caught off guard so easily-and so many times within five minutes. She held up a good sized stone, and formulated an idea...even though she probably didn't even know what 'formulated' meant.

She vaulted over the boulder she was using as cover and tossed the stone into the air. The Dark Krab spotted her and stopped firing at Cody. As the rock came down, Eva's other hand glowed blue. She struck the rock with an open palm...and it shot like a cannon ball at the Dark Krab. The impact sent the monster flying through the air and over the edge into the digital sea.

"Awesome!" Eva flexed her glowing hands. "I can get used to this!"

"Well that's one way to use shockwave powers," Cody nodded. "You sure got it down fast but then again you've been a real fighter a lot longer than any of us have."

"Thanks. So that eye...That was the same as the Red Eye Virus that almost turned me into a veggie a few months ago wasn't it?" Eva crossed her arms.

"Yeah. That was XANA." Cody rubbed the back of his head. "Look I'd said I'd explain but now's not a really got time. We still need to hurry and find the others who need help."

"_You wouldn't have the time to explain anyways. The others are heading your way and they are not alone!_"

Cody turned and off in the distance he could see the outlines of both the Terror Bird and the Phoenix following small figures that became larger as they got closer.

"Whoa..." Eva was speechless by the size of the two-bird like monsters. "That lobster was one thing. Those two are something else."

"We just need to hit them on the Eye symbol and it takes the monsters out." Cody replied.

"Really? So what's the plan then, genius?" Eva asked.

"First off, let's meet the others." Cody pointed to the rest of the Lyoko Warriors as they fled from the monsters. "Come on!"

He took off running with Eva following, not wanting to be left out of all the action. Looking up they could see the others avoiding lasers from the monsters on back of the Terror Bird while the Phoenix charged and fired another white beam that made them split up.

"Okay, Eva, we need to take the pressure off them. And I got an idea how." Cody pointed at several large rocks.

"Sounds good to me." Eva cracked her knuckles and ran over to the largest boulder she could see.

She spat on her hands even though no actual spit came out since she was now digital and rubbed them together before she lifted the boulder. Her gloved hands glowed light blue as she lifted the boulder over her heard and hurled it into the air. It flew over the flying Warriors and headed straight into the face of the Terror Bird. It roared in pain as the boulder hit its head and made it stop in the air as it roared from being hit, knocking the Krabs and Tarantulas off its back and sent them falling onto the ground or into the digital sea. Dozens of pillars of light shot up with each impact into the sea, and explosions of light appeared and died like fireworks.

The Phoenix stopped and looked down at whoever it was that fired that boulder and saw Eva throw another large boulder at its face. However the Phoenix was prepared and fired a blast from its mouth cannon, obliterating the projectile before it even got close. It aimed down and fired at Eva but Cody's time control powers had managed to fully recharge allowing him to slow time down for thirteen seconds. He quickly got Eva out of the way just as the blast left the Phoenix's mouth cannon.

By the time the thirteen seconds were up Cody and Eva were out of the way of the blast as hit the ground and resulted in large explosion. When it was over it a large hole was left in the middle of the plateau.

"That was close." Cody said as he and Eva got up.

Eva scowled at Cody helping her but didn't say anything as the others landed. Eva noticed the red Pterodactyl land with Noah and Heather on its back. Bridgette and Geoff were on a blue surfboard that seemed to fly as it floated above the ground while Gwen and a pink haired girl around the same age as most of the Total Drama cast landed on the ground. She watched in shock as the Pterodactyl suddenly vanished in a flash of red light and changed into Izzy.

"Hey, guys! You all right?" Cody waved as he ran over to them, followed slowly by Eva.

"Thanks to you two for distracting them." Gwen nodded to both him and Eva as she made it to the group and looked at everyone in their Lyoko clothes.

"...this looks like an anime convention...in 3D," Eva commented.

"We had similar thoughts," Noah nodded. "Lookin' good yourself by the way. I hear blue is the new black of this century."

"I hear black _and_ blue is the colour of any smart ass who says too much," Eva replied dryly. "Why bring it up?"

"...Touche. Aelita, this is Eva, the muscle of the Total Drama cast, and the one person you shouldn't offer to shake her hand because she might bite it." Noah said, since Aelita and Eva never met before. "Eva, this is Aelita. The one person you should never threaten to sock 'cuz she's a little spit fire herself!"

Both girls raised one eye brow at the genius. "...what? I complimented and indirectly threatened you both; you can't say I play favourites!"

"Ok, we've wasted too much time already. Half of Paris might be on fire by now," Gwen said. "How far are we from the tower now?"

"Not far," Aelita replied. "If we hurry we can get there in time."

"Well we can't do that if our two feathery friends keep messing us up," Bridgette pointed to the Terror Bird and Phoenix, which were circling.

"I can handle the Phoenix but we need an idea on how to take out the Terror Bird." Aelita said.

"I think we already got one." Cody smirked at Eva. "You already managed to hit once. Feel like trying again?"

"Sure, why not?" Eva shrugged, liking the idea of taking something out.

"I can freeze the Phoenix like last time but I will need cover." Aelita spoke up.

"Consider it done." Bridgette changed her board into her swords.

"We can distract them before they notice what's going on. I got a few ideas." Gwen said, pulling out her scythe.

"Got any against this?" A familiar voice and everyone turned in time to see a shower of purple energy blasts rain straight down on them.

"Oh crap!" Noah shouted.

Luckily Aelita stepped forward and held out both hands, creating two energy fields in both hands. Focusing the energy in her hands they spread out and formed a protective bubble around everyone that blocked the energy blasts.

"Nice." Eva compliment, impressed by this.

When it was over Aelita dropped the energy field and they saw two familiar figures land on the ground a few yards away.

"That was some nice reflexes, Aelita." Lilith commented as she stood up fully. "I thought for sure Jinx had you."

"And who are these two?" Eva asked.

"The redhead's Lilith and the brunette with the giant knife on the end of the stick is Jinx." Noah explained. "They're the bad guys."

"And the one who are sending you back to the real world." Lilith pulled out her bow and an energy arrow appeared as Jinx pointed her spear forward and fired another barrage of purple lasers.

Xxx

LeShawna watched in suspense as the battle continued while monitoring for signs of any changes or surprises for the warriors. A small hint of movement on the window showing the outside of the factory from a security camera caught her attention and her breathing stopped. Fire spectres gathering together in front of the factory.

"Uh oh."

The fire spectres transformed into waves of fire as the merged into one resembling the top half of a humanoid body, a torso, two arms, and a head with white eyes and a white mouth. The newly created monster let a large roar that was heard throughout the city.

"Awwwwww hell!" LeShawna whined. "Guys?"

_"We're kinda busy!" _Geoff shouted.

"Well those spectres just turned into an even bigger spectre! I mean like Extra extra EXTRA _large_ monster!" LeShawna explained. "And that bad boy is right outside the factory. So if it's not too inconvenient: HURRY UP!"

Xxx

"I'd like to see her try and end this in a few seconds if she wasn't devirtualized." Gwen muttered as she spun her scythe to create barrier that blocked more energy attacks from Jinx.

She charged forward, swinging her scythe down at her foe. Jinx blocked easily with her staff and pushed her back, swinging her spear. Gwen dodged as the bladed end passed her side but Jinx took the chance to kick her in the side. Gwen stumbled back and fell as Jinx jumped and swung her spear down on her. Gwen rolled over and the spear hit the ground. Jinx jumped back as Gwen's Wind Aura activated and released a gust of wind.

"You're the not the only one with fancy spells!" Jinx twirled her spear as it glowed bright blue and plunged into the ground.

A blast of blue fire erupted from it and it formed into flaming blue dragons that flew straight at the warriors. They closed in, rearing their heads. In response, Eva raised one foot, which glowed with the same blue tinged energy she used and slammed it down. A wave of energy and rocks shot out of the ground and absorbed the dragons. Eva smirked, and held one fist over her head. "I'm suddenly glad I listened and came here."

Then she slammed her fist down onto the ground. A line of blue energy carved a deep crevice into the ground that extended towards Jinx, reaching her in seconds. The General was put off balance as the platform shook, and barely managed to move to one side as Eva caused a square shaped section of the platform to plummet, leaving a hole in the middle of it next to where Jinx had been standing.

"Well that's new," The General commented, staring down towards the digital sea in surprise as the two sections vanished into the digital waters.

"How about a refresher then?" Gwen asked, making Jinx turn to see her 'mother' standing right in front of her. "Back to basics, young lady."

She swung her scythe down but Jinx raised her spear up and blocked the attack just in time. She spun around, not breaking the lock and launched a kick at Gwen's chest. However Gwen broke the lock and brought her scythe down in time, blocking Jinx's kick. Jinx jumped back and twirled her spear as she landed.

She aimed her spear at Gwen and fired another barrage of purple energy blasts straight at her. Gwen activated her Earth Aura and quickly sent a barrage of rocks and boulders into the swarm of energy blasts that quickly collided with each other and cancelled out both attacks. Jinx took the chance and leapt forward, twirling her spear over her head as it glowed with purple energy. Gwen jumped back as the spear slammed into the ground where she was and a blast of energy erupted from where the spear had hit the ground.

Jinx quickly jumped after Gwen and their battle continued in the form of large explosions from element spells and curses. Eva turned to see the other general, Lilith standing there with a simple smirk on her face. "Well, since they're having fun I guess I'll see how tough you are."

"Eva, no wait!" Bridgette tried to warn her but Eva ran forward at full speed towards Lilith.

The red headed general only stood still with her same mischievous smirk as Eva ran forward, pulling her fist back and sending it forward. It impacted Lilith's stomach and made her fall over.

"Ha! You're not so tough!" Eva smirked at the downed general.

"Eva, duck!" Aelita shouted.

As she shouted Lilith suddenly vanished in a flash of light and Eva was sent crashing face first into the ground after being hit in the back by five energy arrows as Lilith appeared a few feet behind her with her bow out.

"What?" Eva gasped in shock as she looked over her shoulder.

"Ever hear how you end up seeing things in the desert that aren't really there? The heat gets to you and you start to see things. Well don't worry, that's not what happened here. You just saw mirage that was made by me." Lilith explained as she fired another arrow from her bow but this time Eva dodged.

She ran forward and tried to punch her again but once again Lilith shattered in a flash of light. As this happened Lilith appeared above her and fired another energy arrow down at her head. Luckily Cody fired his pistols and took the arrow out. He aimed at Lilith but she disappeared again. He, Noah, and Izzy ran over to Eva as she got up.

"You okay?" Noah asked.

"I'll be fine when I get my hands on her." Eva growled.

"Eva, I know you're mad right now but charging her head on alone is a very bad idea. Lilith's too strong for anyone to take on alone even if they are used to doing this or if they are very tough in the real world." Cody tried to calm her down. "She's the head general, Villain Numero Two, and trust me when I say she's pretty much earned that rank."

"You'll need help if you want to fight her." Noah agreed.

"I'm not that much of a team player." Eva replied, seeming to calm down.

"Yeah, well trust me; it's a lot better to have someone watching your back." Noah turned his hands into guns.

"He's right you know, especially since I'm not alone." Lilith snapped her fingers and the Terror Bird landed behind her with a loud thud that sent dust flying.

The Terror Bird glared down at Eva, remembering her throwing that large boulder in its face.

"Oh, crud." Cody muttered as the large monster stepped forward.

"Hang on guys!" Geoff planned to run forward and help but the Phoenix flew and landed in front of him. "Oh come on!"

"It's never easy." Heather grumbled as she prepared herself.

The Terror Bird stepped forward, its clawed feet leaving large cracks in the ground with each step as it glared down at the Warriors that prepared to fight. It opened its mouth and fired a large blast of red energy at them.

"And here we go!" Cody shouted as everyone split up, running out of the way as the blast hit the ground and created a large explosion.

Xxx

Trent and DJ climbed out a sewer hatch near the factory and ran out. Panting they turned the corner to see the factory...and a gigantic fire monsters approaching it.

"Ohhhhhhh, man." DJ groaned.

"It's going to burn the factory down!" Trent shouted, looking for something to distract it. "We got to do something!"

"Like what?" DJ asked.

Trent noticed a fire hydrant nearby. "There!"

They ran over to it and DJ busted it open allowing water to burst out of it like lava out of a volcano. He put both his hands in the stream that flew up and aimed it the water at the fire monster. It was preparing to blast the factory when it felt the unwelcome sensation of cold water striking it. Steam flew out from where the water hit it and it looked down to see who dared to attack it.

"Dude, I think we'd better run!" DJ said as the fire beast roared.

"I think you're right!" They turned and ran for their lives as the fire monsters sent a stream of fire that blew up the hydrant.

"Okay, I know I'm not supposed to be mean but I really think that was a bad idea!" DJ shouted as they ran.

"No problem! I agree, one hundred percent!"

The fire beast sent thousands of fire balls after them, setting the street and the buildings nearby on fire.

Xxx

Meanwhile the fight in Lyoko continued as the two large bird like monsters attempted to blast the warriors to digital bits. Bridgette aimed both her swords at the Phoenix and fired her hydro guns, sending two large streams right at the beast very fast. The water collided with the flames and large amounts of steam came out from it. However the Phoenix was still standing and fired at the surfer.

Geoff swung his axe and unleashed a wave of lightning that collided with Phoenix's attack, cancelling both attacks out. However the Phoenix resorted to spreading its wings and unleashing fire balls at the warriors in front of it. Heather back flipped out of the way while Bridgette used her hydro guns against any fire balls that came at her and Geoff. Aelita flew in the air and fired a plasma beam but the Phoenix's fire shield blocked the attack.

Izzy charged forward and transformed into a T-Rex before jumping at the Terror Bird and tried to take a bite out of it. The Terror Bird roared as it shook her off and tried to blast her but Izzy rolled to the side, evading the blast and charged again. The Terror Bird took off into the air, dodging Izzy and fired down at her again. Luckily Izzy didn't stop and sprinted out of the way of the blast, which left a giant a hole in the ground.

Cody and Noah fired, trying to distract the Terror Bird while Eva picked up another rock and threw it at the monster. However the Terror Bird learned its lesson from before and quickly blasted the rocks before it slammed into its chest. It glared down at Eva and fired a blast to take her out as payback but she ran out of the way, leaving the blast to make another hole in the plateau. Izzy turned into an eagle and flew up towards the Terror Bird.

While the fighting continued Lilith simply sat on a boulder and watched. There was no need for her to get involved yet while the monsters and Jinx were taking them out. She simply sat and watched like she was watching a very good TV show. She looked up and saw Izzy dodging blasts and flying above the Terror Bird and that was when she knew what the shape shifter was planning.

But she had counted on this happening anyway. One thing that came with being a general of XANA is that XANA gave his generals the ability to communicate with his monsters through a psychic link much like he uses to order his monsters. Using this ability she sent one command to the two monsters.

'Switch!'

The Phoenix automatically turned in the middle of its fight with Geoff, Heather, and Aelita and fired at Izzy who transformed into a large red whale to squash the Terror Bird below it. The blast hit the red whale before it landed on top of the Terror Bird and Izzy was devirtualized. At the same time the Terror Bird aimed its beak and fired at the Phoenix's opponents.

"Aw crap!" Eva reacted-mostly panicking, though she'd never admit it. She slammed her foot down again, and a shockwave caused a large amount of rock to rise and catch the bulk of the blast that had been fired by the Terror Bird.

"Good reflexes!" Cody nodded.

"How the heck do we bring something that big down?"

"We just need to damage it enough," Cody replied. "If we can hit the XANA eye on its back, that'll be really effective. If you were up there this would be over in seconds but-"

"Hm..." Eva looked up at the Terror Bird as it came around for another attack. "Hey pipsqueak, I have an idea...and you're gonna help me bring that bird down."

"Uh...what's the plan?" Cody asked, feeling the temperature drop-which should have been impossible for the Desert Sector.

Suddenly he was held under one arm by Eva, while Noah went under Eva's other arm.

"Uh...Noah, what is she doing?" Cody swallowed.

"I think I know what it is," Noah sighed. "Just in case we forget to say this later, I'll say it now...ouch."

Suddenly Eva focused energy into her feet, and in a flash of blue energy sent herself-along with her screaming passengers flying up towards the Terror bird just before it came down to strafe the platform with lasers. It missed entirely, and was momentarily perplexed when it wondered where its targets had gone. Then it felt something land on its back, and knew immediately it had been caught off guard.

Eva stood up. "Heh, worked!" She cracked her knuckles. "I could really get used to this. Now come on, you said this eye thing will drain it if we hit it, right?"

"Cody-" Noah gagged. "I think I'm about to make history here!"

"How?" Cody groaned, getting up.

"I'll be the first guy to throw up in a digital world-URGH!" Noah groaned. "Oh god I really wish Icould throw up right now!"

"Quit whining and get shooting!" Eva ordered.

"Yes ma'am!" Both boys replied as they shot to their feet. Noah formed both hands into guns while Cody used both of his pistols.

However just before they could fire three energy arrows hit them in the back and knocked them down. Looking over his shoulder, Noah spotted Lilith land behind them with her bow out. "Perfect."

"That's it. She's going down!" Eva growled but Cody got in front of her. "Hey!"

"Listen, she's trying to distract us from taking out this monster. Help Noah take it out and I'll distract her. I can keep her occupied for a few seconds." Cody turned and pointed his pistols at Lilith.

Eva looked ready to argue when Cody activated his Time Freeze ability and froze time for thirteen seconds. During those thirteen seconds he launched an endless barrage at Lilith who seemingly toppled over but when the thirteen seconds were over she vanished in a flash of light.

"Decoy." Cody muttered as Lilith reappeared behind him and quickly knelt down, swinging her foot out and kicking Cody's legs out from under him and kicked him in the back as he fell over.

Cody was sent over the edge and sent falling off the monster.

"Oh crap!" Eva shouted when she saw this.

"_Falling James Bond, people!_" LeShawna shouted.

Everyone below paused to look up at the falling Cody. Before anyone could help the Phoenix looked up and fired, blasting Cody to bits.

"One down." Lilith turned to Eva and Noah.

Eva growled as she prepared to charge the general but Noah stopped her. "Hey!"

"No time! Take it out!" Noah shouted as he aimed at the Eye symbol on the Terror Bird's back.

The Eye was hit and the Terror Bird screeched in pain as it started to fall out of the sky. Lilith disappeared leaving Noah and Eva to fall with the monster.

"Okay, it's goin' down, so how do we get off?" Eva shouted.

"Uh...I don't think I planned that far ahead!" Noah replied.

"You idiot!" Eva groaned, slamming her face into the surface of the Terror Bird. "Of all the people I get teamed up with I get the suicide expert!"

"Well actually we'll just appear back in our world but-LOOK!" Noah pointed at the Phoenix as it made another pass over the platform below. "I have a plan! Have you ever gone sky diving?"

"No but that was because I was stuck on the benches for two whole seasons!"

"Good point! Follow me!" Noah let go of the Terror Bird-due to the speed it fell at it looked more like he gently floated up and away from it. Eva followed him as they fell towards the fire bird.

"What's the plan?"

"I'm gonna phase us through the bird and grab onto its talons!" Noah told her. "They aren't made of fire! We can grab them and let go when it makes another pass!"

"That's the dumbest plan ev-"

"Too late!" Noah grabbed onto her and activated his power just before they phased through the Phoenix's main body. As soon as they passed out of it, Noah deactivated his power, and both he and Eva managed to grab onto the left talon. "We did it!"

"...I hate you," Eva muttered.

"Tell me something new! Or better yet get ready to jump off!" Noah replied as the Phoenix strafed the platform with another wave of fire. "...now!" they both leaped off and landed in a small oasis that had somehow been untouched by the battle. It was the size of a pond, but deep enough that they didn't hit the bottom.

Rising to the surface, they both climbed out and watched as the Terror Bird-which had hit the platform nearby began to dissolve into millions of tiny lights.

"Well that sure worked," Noah nodded. "...Bear in mind before you kick my ass for the phasing plan, it was your idea to jump onto that bird in the first place."

"...oh shut up already," Eva stormed off to help the others.

Xxx

Things back in the real world were not looking better. The fire monster drove off DJ and Trent and turned its sights to the factory. It seemed to take in a deep breath and unleashed a ball of fire that hit the factory causing a large explosion. The lab shook with a few pieces of debris falling LeShawna, Cody, and Izzy.

"Please hurry!" Cody looked up as the fire monster continued to attack.

Xxx

The Phoenix was the only monster left while Lilith reappeared on her rock to watch the fight while Jinx and Gwen continued to fight. The Phoenix flew around the plateaus firing its main cannons and releasing an endless barrage of fire balls to take them out.

"Okay, this guy is really annoying." Heather said as Bridgette fired another stream of water from her swords. "It's now or never, Aelita."

Aelita nodded and looked at the sky. "Computer, load Code: Angel, one hundred percent!"

Everyone watched as an aura of pure light surrounded Aelita and she knelt down on her knees.

"What's she doing?" Eva asked as she and Noah made it behind a rock with the Bridgette and Geoff.

"Aelita's dad created this place and gave her these programs called the Keys to Lyoko. Apparently they're supposed to make anyone who has them more powerful than anyone in this entire digital world. That Code: Angel activates them but they are so powerful it's impossible for Aelita to constantly use them at full power so she can't use them for long, but it permanently upgraded her character first time it was used. So unless Aelita activates them she can't use her full powers." Bridgette explained. "And when they're activated she can only use them for up to five minutes before they shut down or they overload her avatar."

As Bridgette explained this the Phoenix flew down and attempted to strike Aelita but before it did she let out a soft, almost angelic chorus. A surge of power surrounded her and blocked the Phoenix's attack. She looked up at the Phoenix held up her hands. A white mist surrounded the Phoenix as ice started to cover it. It screeched as it moved to stop her but Aelita's power was much stronger than it was the last time she faced this monster and the Keys made her power stronger and faster.

The Phoenix's flames were snuffed out by the cold ice and a statue of ice was left in the air. It fell to the ground and shattered into sparking pieces of ice.

"Well...isn't that just frustrating?" Lilith groaned as she heard a new voice.

"Why did he have to send you to check up on me?" She looked over her shoulder.

"Aw come on! I even brought comfy seats!" Sora replied, patting...what looked like an incredibly comfy chair that he had somehow brought with him from XANA's lair.

Sighing, Lilith sat back on it. "I don't think we'll have much of a chance of stopping them unless XANA can make another monster or two over in his carbon copy...which I doubt he could within the next few minutes anyways. He spent a lot of energy recharging the life points on those monsters or improving their attack power."

"Yeah...the boss man wasn't too happy that he made a mistake...but at least he ain't one of those bosses who punish his minions on principle!" Sora tried to lighten the mood. "Besides, on the bright side he won't make that mistake again. So lighten up Lily, there's always next time."

"...what did you just call me?" Lilith cast a killer glare at her underling.

"...I plead the fifth?"

Lilith rolled her eyes. "Whatever, get Jinx back here so we can get back."

Xxx

"Alright, it's down!" Eva smirked, hands on her hips.

"Let's get to that tower and end this before there's nothing left of Paris then!" Gwen shouted before she landed a few feet away. "Hell, we might be lucky if there's anything left of Europe by now!"

Aelita shot off towards the tower, leaving a trail of light behind her as she flew faster than any vehicle could take her.

Xxx

In the meantime the fire monster was burning the factory to the ground, causing the lab to collapse as it burned its way through the ground.

"Uh oh!" Izzy looked up as the ceiling became hot red.

Xxx

Aelita landed in front of the tower and ran inside. She flew up faster than usual and landed on the platform.

Xxx

Fire fell from the ceiling as pipes and wires melted from the intense heat.

"We're about to cooked here!" LeShawna shouted, not wanting to be burned to death.

Xxx

Aelita placed her hand on the interface.

**Aelita**

**Code: Lyoko**

Xxx

The fire monster suddenly roared as the flames making up its body vanished into the air.

"Oh yeah!" Izzy pumped her fist into the air.

"Let's do it! Return to the Past now, baby!" LeShawna pushed the enter key and everything was engulfed in a flash of light.


	72. Episode 70: Reach XANA's Realm

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 71

Eva had no idea how it happened. One second she was in that digital world, Loko or whatever it was called and next thing she knew she was sitting in the waiting room with the rest of Team Amazon as they watched Team C played their song _again_. She looked over at Gwen, Cody, and Heather and they gave her looks that said they would explain later. So she ended up watching the battle of the bands and the eliminations again.

She watched as everyone seemed to repeat itself just before the attack except Izzy didn't try to drag her or Noah out to prank Chris this time. They simply acted like it never happened but she was smart enough to know that they were playing along to not draw suspicion. It was getting late and it seemed like she was going to shout 'what the hell happened' when Gwen gestured to the outdoors and she followed her and Cody out. When they were outside and far enough from the studio to know they would not be spied on Gwen turned and faced her.

"Okay, I know you've been waiting for answers since we ended up back in the middle of the challenge and it's great that you played along back there. It would have looked weird if you started asking while on live TV." Gwen started the conversation.

"I didn't want to look like a nut case!" Eva replied. "But you're gonna start talkin' right now!"

"Yes, we will," Gwen nodded. "Alright, where do I start...oh yeah, how we ended up doing all that all over again? Well it'll sound crazy but...we went back in time to before the attack."

"...time travel? You're serious?" Eva sounded sceptical. "I'd expect Cody to tell me that."

"Well we did, and it's true and we travelled back in time a few hours," Gwen shrugged. "How else can you explain that we wound up in the middle of a challenge that we all know ended before the action?"

"Or how everybody besides uh...any Lyoko Warriors kinda repeated every single action?" Cody added. "You can't help but change a few minor things when you know you've travelled back in time. Like this one time I caught a virus and-"

"Moving on," Gwen said abruptly. "We'll give you the full story, but let's meet up with the others first. We're gonna gather in the factory so everybody can explain this; we'll have to make sure nobody follows us though."

"Just how many people are in your uh...group?" Eva asked as they started to walk towards the factory.

"About nearly everybody in the cast except for Beth, Lindsay, Duncan, Courtney, and until recently you," Cody explained. "We also have Kurt and Carlos, but uh...they have special circumstances. They promised to make sure to cover for us as well as to prank Chris while we're gone!"

Xxx

Chris sniffed as he walked towards the Jet of Losers. "They-they can't get rid of me! I'll be back," He frowned. "I'll be back and get my revenge!"

He got on the plane and sat down, pouting.

"….STATEMENT: WELCOME ABOARD THE FLIGHT TO HELL, DUMB ASS."

"…Oh no..no!" Chris opened the curtains to the cockpit…and saw both Sir Carlos Deluxe and Sir Chris 2.0 in the pilot seats while Lenny was snoring on the floor. "NOOOO!"

The plane took off as Chris' cry of terror echoed through the city.

"…Kurt?"

"Yes Carlos?"

"Was I a little too cruel?"

"….maybe," Kurt shrugged. "He'll be fine."

"Yeah, he's Chris," Carlos nodded. "And the gods are punishing me by making sure he lives a _long_, long time."

Xxx

Eva was quiet as she followed Gwen and Cody to the factory. She was still full of questions and was getting a little impatient for answers as they came upon the bridge the factory that she swam to get to through the river with Izzy and Noah last time. Or was it a few hours later when she did that? Eva shook her head and got rid of that question.

It'd probably just give her a headache. They walked into the lobby and Eva took the chance to look down seeing that the rest of the 'Lyoko Warriors' were already gathered and waiting. Gwen and Cody jumped and slid down the cables hanging from the ceiling which Eva copied a few seconds later and landed on the ground.

"Hey, guys!" Cody waved to the group that sat by the elevator.

"Hey, dude! You made it!" Geoff sat up from the bench he and Bridgette were sitting on.

"About time." Heather got was leaning against the elevator.

"Don't mind her; she's just mad because she hasn't got a chance to talk to her boyfriend online." LeShawna pointed her thumb at her making Heather growl.

"No surprise there." Noah closed his book.

"Awesome! We have another member of the group!" Izzy jumped up and down.

"We still need to explain what's going on here. How's Aelita doing?" Cody asked.

"She just finished dinner in the cafe at her school so she'll be here in a few minutes." DJ said but just after he finished talking Aelita slid down the cables and landed behind Gwen, Cody, and Eva.

"Hey, there." They turned and faced her as she walked over to greet them.

"That was fast." Gwen smirked. "Eva, you met Aelita in the digital world now you meet her in real life."

"So...you're the one who was flying around shooting lasers back in uh...Lyoko?" Eva asked. "...no offence but you looked like something out of one of Harold's fantasy games."

"None taken," Aelita couldn't help but share a laugh with the others at that. "My friend Odd said something similar once."

"Leave it to Eva to start out meeting the group leader with an opening joke at her expense," Noah drawled.

"Noah, you do remember what she did to you during the clone crisis, right?" Cody whispered to the other genius. "And what Aelita thought about doing to you? And what Izzy _almost_ did to you?"

"I remember," Noah shuddered.

"You managed to scare the pants off nerd-o there?" Eva raised one eyebrow, interested.

"I threatened to change his avatar so it wore a tutu," Aelita added.

"No way," Eva had a surprised look when she heard that.

"I would have added frilly pink bows and matching undies," Aelita giggled.

"...it's official, I like you," Eva nodded, snickering at the idea of Noah in a tutu.

"No way...it takes us years and we hardly get on your good side at all for more than two seconds...and all she has to do is say she threatened to make me look like I'm something out of a Barbie movie for you to like her?" Noah asked, incredulous.

"...yep, pretty much," Eva shrugged as though it were a simple fact.

"That's Aelita for you, she can get on anybody's good side," DJ chuckled.

"Well Eva, jokes aside I think I have a lot to tell you," Aelita said, changing the topic. "You're a part of our team now, so we won't hide anything from you."

"Right to the point, good, I like that," Eva crossed her arms. "Okay, shoot."

With that said Aelita explained the history of Lyoko, how her parents were part of Project Carthage, the origins of XANA, how her mother was abducted and her father took her into Lyoko where they were attacked by XANA and discovered by her friend Jeremy and the original Lyoko Warriors about a decade later. She explained the time she thought she was an AI and how the original group helped to bring her into the real world so they could unplug Lyoko and stop XANA for good, how she discovered her memories and how they thought they destroyed XANA with her father's sacrifice only to learn about two and a half months ago that XANA faked his death and captured the original warriors during the Red Eye Virus attack. Gwen stepped in and explained to Eva how she along Geoff, Bridgette, LeShawna, and DJ were the first ones to join Aelita as the new Lyoko Warriors and later Cody joined up. She then explained how Heather, Trent, Noah, Izzy, Duncan and Courtney became part of the team during their trip to the mountains during a XANA attack and how they found Aelita's old house and discovered the hidden lab.

When Eva heard Duncan and Courtney used to be part of the group she was curious about why they weren't anymore before they got to the part where Duncan and Courtney's memories were erased with their avatars from the supercomputer and how they might have found a way to restore their memories but they hit a dead end when they learned the virus would kill them if they got near an active scanner. Finally Aelita finished with explaining how they found a way to reach XANA's lair to rescue her friends and were planning to do so after the challenge when XANA sent his fire spectres to stop them.

"Wait for it..." Gwen held up three fingers as Eva processed the seemingly impossible story.

Two...

One...

...

For a moment Gwen was confused, having expected Eva to react rather...vocally, yelling and asking even more questions about Lyoko or what had happened during the past months. Instead she just said...

"I wondered why Robby up and left so quickly," She muttered. "I liked that guy; he knew how to play poker."

"He had an ear piece disguised as a hearing aid that let Seraphim give him advice," Geoff muttered.

"What? He cheated? Aw man he cleaned me out for a hundred Euros!" Eva growled. "If I ever find him I'll-"

"How about we focus on the main point? The evil AI? World domination?" Cody asked. "You're gonna have to learn to take other matters uh...well, you'll have to treat them as...secondary to the main issue."

"It's kinda required girl," LeShawna added. "You one of us now."

"One of us-" Izzy's mouth was covered before she could do her hypnotized chant again. Noah rolled his eyes as she tried to speak through his hand.

"It's going to be very dangerous, Eva. Once you enter Lyoko, you end up as a target since XANA won't stop until anyone standing in his way is gone." Aelita continued. "You entered the scanners, you helped us stop the attack, and you remember everything. Now you're on XANA's list and I guarantee that even if you decide to not go into Lyoko to fight again that won't stop him from making sure you don't change your mind."

"Bring it. I don't run from a fight." Eva cracked her knuckles.

"That a girl!" Izzy cheered.

"Figured," Noah nodded. "A yeti? No problem. Helpless nerd? A breeze. Evil demonic AI hell bent on ruling the world and displacing humanity as the ruling power...get her a sports drink and a virtual avatar, and then she's good to go."

"We have a full week to work with the challenge gone and the Aftermath will be next." Gwen smirked. "And with the portal generator up we can reach XANA's place and take the fight to him."

"Good thing too, since now with Eva on the team we only have Beth and Lindsay to vote off before..." Trent trailed off.

"If Duncan and Courtney can't remember what's the point of keeping them on?" Eva asked.

"We don't want them to leave without remembering Lyoko or how they change for the better." Bridgette stood up. "You should have noticed different they acted after the trip to the forest and suddenly back to the way they were a few weeks later."

"I did. I wondered why Courtney stopped threatening to kill Gwen but I shrugged it off. I'm not interested in all the drama that came from that stupid love triangle." Eva shrugged.

"Believe me, I hated the triangle almost more than anyone except Courtney but I did convince them to shelf the hate." Gwen had a sad look. "But I don't like the idea of them getting voted off without trying to help them."

"We just need a way to get them into the scanner before the virus kills them but that's a topic for another time." Aelita spoke up. "Let's finish this down in the lab."

Everyone walked into the elevator and Aelita pushed the down button, making the elevator head down to the lab.

"Like Gwen said, we were planning on using a special program in the form of a portal generator to reach XANA's hideout, a digital copy of Lyoko where my friends, the original Lyoko Warriors are being held. After the challenge and school today we were going to head here and get started." Aelita explained.

"And me being here set back those plans?" Eva crossed her arms.

"No, we just need to make a few changes to the plan." Aelita replied.

"So what's the plan here? We all go through the portal?" Bridgette asked.

"Well, first off I want everyone to see and test their upgrades." Aelita replied. "I think a few of us need to hang back, it'll be too much of a risk if we all head through the portal. Knowing XANA, he'll try everything he can to make sure we don't succeed in getting through the portal."

The elevator doors opened and they walked into the lab. Aelita sat at the computer and pulled up a window showing the portal generator's status.

"The portal generator is up and working. All we need is a connection to the Carbon Copy." Aelita announced.

"All right, how do we make a connection?" Bridgette asked.

"That's the part that some of you won't like. We can't simply forge a connection between Lyoko and the Carbon Copy with the click of a mouse. XANA has set up firewalls to keep almost any hacker or virus that would happen to stumble upon any supercomputer he has so we have to use the only other way. We need a tower." Aelita turned around.

"Whoa, that didn't exactly work out last time." Gwen replied, remembering that she ended up getting infected with a virus when XANA tried to take over the tower that gave her superpowers.

"Believe me, Gwen; I know how you feel about that. But unfortunately for us if we want to get through as soon possible without losing the connection and our chance to XANA's hiding place for possibly months we need a tower." Aelita replied.

"I guess this is why some of us need to hang back." Heather commented.

"Yeah, the moment the tower is active and forging a connection between our computer and one of the supercomputers holding a piece of the carbon copy XANA will either try to take over the tower, take out the portal, or attempt to repel the tower. We'll need a group to secure the tower and make sure that nothing get's near it. I tried to set up a firewall to keep XANA out but I doubt it will, if he has enough power to even try." Aelita explained the plan.

"Say we get through the portal and we made it to the Carbon Copy, what do we do then? Go straight and fight head on?" LeShawna asked.

"No, because getting devirtualized in the Carbon Copy may mean that we're never getting out of the scanners." Aelita shook her head.

"No scanners for the Carbon Copy means death if we get devirtualized right?" Cody asked.

"Partially, which is why when we make through the portal we head for the way tower to link whatever sector we find ourselves in to our supercomputer so if anyone is devirtualized you'll come back here and not end up deleted or turned into stored data on the computer of the sector we end up in." Aelita informed the group. "Once the link is set up we can virtualize directly into the sector of the Carbon Copy. We'll have to do that with every sector until we reach the Sector 5 of the copy."

"Any idea where XANA might be holding your friends?" DJ asked.

"I think it might in the Sector Five of the copy since the original one was designed to hold XANA when his program was still part of the supercomputer. It's heavily fortified and with all the monsters and generals between us in the other sectors and the security system in Sector 5 it's the perfect place to hold them and make sure they can't do anything to escape or call for help." Aelita pointed at Sector 5.

"Who goes to the tower, and who goes to the carbon copy?" Geoff asked.

"We'd better decide fast," Aelita insisted. "Five to the tower, five to the copy, and one here to keep an eye on the teams. Since we have a new warrior with us I think it'd be best for Eva to go to the tower and get some training in."

"I'm a pretty good fighter already." Eva replied, frowning.

"Yes, but you've only just become part of the group now after one trip to Lyoko. You did good in there but it takes more than knowing how to fight to be here. One reason is that if you don't spend enough time in Lyoko you can't build up any resistance in case XANA attempts to possess you and being possessed on either Lyoko or in the real world can be a disaster." Aelita explained, not fazed by Eva's outburst. "Not to mention you admitted you're not good at being a team player and since we always make sure no one is alone in Lyoko during an attack."

"Yeah, you're tough Eva, but even you would have trouble against going up against XANA's monsters and generals." Cody agreed.

"And Aelita's the only one who can shut down the towers to stop whatever attack is happening in the real world." Trent pointed out. "So that means she always has to be with someone so she's not ganged up on by whatever's between her and the tower."

"Alright, alright I get what you mean," Eva held up her hands to stop anymore reasons. "So what do we do when we're not uh...on the job?"

"Whatever you would do if none of this was real," Aelita replied, emphasizing the importance of this instruction. "Whenever there isn't a XANA attack, you have to act like everything is normal. Exercise, sleep in, just go about your day unless you want to try your hand at programming."

"...the sleeping in part sounds good."

"Knew she'd prefer that." Noah whispered to Cody.

"Anyway, who goes and stays?" Aelita asked everyone.

"I'll stick around in the real world for now," Noah volunteered. "It's either me for James Bond's nephew."

"I'm definitely going into the copy then," Aelita nodded.

"I'll stick along with you," Gwen said.

"Count me in!" Cody said eagerly.

"You know LeShawna's comin' along!" LeShawna added, not leaving any room for arguments.

"I wanna go! I wanna go!" Izzy hopped up and down.

"The rest of us will cover the tower then," DJ concluded.

"Good luck in there dudes!" Geoff said encouragingly.

"Yeah, please be careful." Trent said, looking at Gwen.

He looked over at Cody who nodded back at him with a silent promise that he could tell said 'Don't worry, I'll keep her safe'.

"Come back alive, I want to whoop your butts on the show." Heather crossed her arms, pretending that she's not at all worried they weren't coming back.

Bridgette ran up and hugged Gwen and LeShawna who hugged her back. DJ and Geoff high fived Cody, wishing him good luck.

"Take Eva along and show her what's like in Lyoko's Forest Sector. Most of the large monsters can't move in that sector."Aelita stood up from the chair. "However if the generals or a large group of monsters shows up you'll have a fight on your hands especially if there are Megatanks and Gorillas...which is why I wanted to make sure you all your upgrades and test them out."

"All right!" Izzy jumped up and down. "New powers!"

"Bridgette and I already know what our upgrades are." Geoff said pointed to him and Bridgette. "My chakrams are like major lightning bombs and Bridge gets better water powers."

"So do I." Heather replied. "My flash bombs can blind any monster or general in my way and I got grappling hooks."

"And I make illusionary copies of myself now and nothing more." Noah replied, hoping no one would bring up the cloning incident.

"And I finished the last of the upgrades last night. Noah can upload them when we need them since I want them kept secret as long as possible." Aelita said.

"Well, let's get this show on the road!" LeShawna raised her fist in the air.

Xxx

"_Transfer._"

"_Scanner._"

"_Virtualization!_"

One by one everyone was sent to either the Forest Sector or into Sector Five. Eva landed on the ground perfectly, after years of training she was able to land on her feet easily despite being new to the Lyoko Warriors. She looked down at the thick green grass and moss under her feet and looked up tall trees that towered above the group on and between the pathways. The golden morning sunlight made its way through the trees that cast a warm glow in the sector.

"Not bad." Eva commented on how the Forest Sector looked.

"I like it better than most of the sectors too, but only because the big monsters can't fight here." DJ landed beside her.

"I just said it looked nice, it doesn't mean I prefer to the other sectors especially if I can't fight the big ones." Eva shook her head.

"I like the ones that don't have the big monsters." Bridgette walked beside them with her board under her left arm. "It's a lot harder than it looks, so trust me when I say the less big monsters there are the better."

"Amen." Trent said, walking with them.

"So where are we going?" Eva asked.

"There's a tower nearby that we need to make sure nothing happens to it." Geoff said, pointing to a tower in the center of grassy platform with four pathways connected to it.

"So we just sit here and wait for the others to get to this...other Lyoko?" Eva asked, not liking the idea of sitting around and doing nothing.

"No. We can also help you get used to being here." Trent said.

"_But first let's see what upgrades we have for anyone who hasn't got it yet. First we got...DJ!_" Noah spoke up.

A flash of light surrounded DJ and he looked down at himself to see any changes but didn't see anything. "I don't see anything new."

"_Try your golem form._"

DJ quickly activated his golem form but instead of his body being made of stone it was now made of blue metallic armour that covered him head to toe. "Wow! I'm Iron Man!"

_"More like five or six times as invincible, but that's pretty much the upgrade in a nut shell. Try smashing something."_

DJ walked over to a tree and flexed one hand...and tore the tree out of the ground. "Wow!"

"_...you know that's a hollow tree, right?_" Noah asked. "_You know...weighs about nothing if you're super strong? Try an actual tree._"

"Alright then," DJ tossed the tree over his shoulder...and nearly took Bridgette's head off but luckily she ducked. "Sorry!"

"It's fine, just...watch where you throw things from now on," Bridgette said meekly as DJ approached a large tree that was not hollowed out.

"Alright, here we go..." DJ grasped the trunk and began to pull on it. For a few seconds nothing happened, but then...

"Uh...whoa..." Trent swallowed as he watched DJ literally lift the tree out of the ground. The metallic golem strained under the weight, but soon held the tree over his head. "...I'm really glad this is DJ with the super strength, I'd be terrified if it was anybody else."

"This is great!" DJ laughed. "I could go toe to toe with Blade with something like this!"

_"Congratulations Tony Stark, now let's move on to the next person,"_ Noah drawled. _"Trent. Ta_ke _a look at your guitar."_

Trent examined his guitar. "Hm...Looks the same."

_"Toss it,"_

"What? It's my weapon."

_"Toss it or I'll redesign yo_u_r avatar to wear a frilly pink tutu like how Aelita threatened me,"_

"Like she'd let you try that!"

_"Do you want to test me?"_

"...fine." Trent tossed his guitar up into the air...and it literally stopped, angled itself and flew back to him, stopping a foot above the ground. "...did I drink something I shouldn't have?"

_"Behold, a Hover...Guitar!" _Noah tried to sound dramatic. _"It works like Bridgette's Hover Board, and it can still use your elemental attacks!"_

_"_Nice!_"_ Trent hopped on and tested it, flying above slowly. "This is _so_ cool!"

Eva was silent as she watched, impressed with everything she had seen so far.

"You think this is crazy? Wait until you get into a fight with the generals once you've got the hang of it. It'll be crazy." Heather said to her, noticing her look.

"_Okay, now that everyone there has got their upgrades let's get this show on the road._" Noah said. "_Just need to wait for the others to reach the portal._"

Xxx

It didn't take long for Aelita's group to reach the portal generator and they walked into the center of the circular platform.

"We're here now, Noah." Aelita spoke as they stepped on.

"_Okay, I'm getting ready to activate the tower."_ Noah replied.

"Now we just need to wait for the next disaster." LeShawna commented.

"_Ha, ha. Very funny._" Noah replied sarcastically.

"In the meantime let's show the rest of you your upgrades." Aelita turned to the others with a smile.

"All right! Izzy can't wait to know what her new power is!" Izzy hopped up and down as she ran in front of Aelita. "What is it? What is it? Will it let me mutate into some horrible but awesome monster? Will I turn into mythical beasts because I always wondered what I would be like as a dragon! Or will I get to shoot fire without transforming at all?"

_"I pray it's just the first,"_ Noah mumbled. _"Please Aelita, don't give her something that lets her transform into fictional monsters. The last thing I want is seeing the confines of her insane mind coming to life."_

"Hey! I resent that!" Izzy whined. "I just really want to know! I can't stand waiting!"

Aelita laughed at Izzy's behaviour. "Sorry, Izzy, but I had to agree with Noah about the monster thing. But I'm sure you'll like the upgrade. In the meantime Noah can you please activate the tower and get this started?"

"_Yeah, yeah. I'm on it._"

Xxx

Noah looked up from the holo-map and opened another window. Following the instructions Aelita left at the computer he picked the tower in the Forest Sector where the others were guarding, inputted the instructions that were written down on the paper in his hand and with a click of the mouse the tower was activated.

Xxx

Everyone in the Forest Sector looked up as the tower's aura changed from blue to green.

"So now what?" Eva asked, looking at the now green glowing tower.

"Well, Noah now has to work on connecting our computer to one of the copy's computers and that may take some time." Bridgette replied as she put her board down and sat on it.

"So we just sit around and wait?" Eva asked, not liking the idea of doing anything.

"Aelita asked you to come along to get the feel of this place." Heather shrugged. "I guess we better start. Since there aren't any monsters around let's start with you getting used to your power and what you can do. Aelita had us to this when we first joined, having get a feel of what we could and couldn't do."

"How about a job around the sector first? Familiarize yourself with the terrain first?" DJ offered.

"Sounds like a start." Eva shrugged, not seeing anything wrong since they actually knew what they were doing.

"I'll come along. Can't be too careful around here." DJ walked up and Eva saw nothing wrong with that.

"Don't go too far. We may need your help." Trent landed on the ground and picked up his guitar.

"Don't worry. I never take risks." DJ said and he and Eva chose one of the pathways and took off.

"Something's going to happen. I know it." Heather drawled.

Xxx

As everyone waited Noah was focusing on the task Aelita left to him and he was determined to succeed...So she wouldn't put him in a tutu like she promised she would if he ever touched the computer or any programs without asking her again. He was working on breaking through the layers of firewalls around the Carbon Copy so the others could reach it through the portal. It wasn't easy since they were highly encrypted, much more encrypted than anything he had ever seen. It's not surprising considering that XANA was a master at making security programs than any human programmers.

But that didn't mean he was unbeatable.

Noah would show him that he was not the only one who was a programming genius besides Aelita or her boyfriend Jeremy.

"_How's it going, Noah?_" Aelita asked.

"It's tough, but I'm not backing down. If XANA thinks he's the only badass hacker around here he's mistaken." Noah replied, not taking his eyes off the screen. "I just need to break through those fire walls."

However an exclamation mark appeared on the screen.

"Oh come on!" Noah exclaimed. "Now what?"

He looked it over and found that XANA was not going to sit down and let them reach his domain.

Xxx

The group in the Forest Sector simply sat around, waiting for any signs of trouble. Eva was sparring with Bridgette and she had to admit, the surfer girl was a better fighter than she thought. With each strike sent by Eva Bridgette would dodge easily, spinning out of the way like it was a dance and slash at her but Eva was fast and smart enough to dodge.

"She's catching on very quickly." DJ commented sitting on the ground.

"Fighting? That's no surprise. It's the teamwork that she will need to work on. She doesn't work well with people." Heather replied, with her hands on her cheeks as she sat on a boulder watching the fight.

"Some of us were like that before." Trent pointed out, looking at Heather.

"Yeah, yeah, but I've grown, I'm better, and all that crap." Heather waved him off.

That was when a pulsing sound was heard making Bridgette and Eva stop sparring for a second.

"What was that?" Eva asked, looking around.

"Something bad." Bridgette replied, recognizing the sound.

The ground around the green glowing tower pulsed red and everyone looked up to see the aura starting to change from green to red.

"Noah, it's starting!" Geoff shouted.

Xxx

"_Crap! Aelita, the tower's being taken over by XANA!_"

"That's impossible. We just stopped an attack a few hours ago. He shouldn't have enough power to take control of a tower so soon." Aelita looked at the others.

"But how can we help Noah from here? We're all digital now." LeShawna replied.

"There might be a way. I'll be right back." Aelita jumped off the platform and ran out.

"Where's she going?" Cody asked out loud.

Xxx

Aelita ran out of the portal chamber and into the blue coloured maze of Sector Five. Navigating around the corridors she found the elevator that led up to the Interface of the sector. Once the elevator stopped she hopped onto it. It moved again, traveling up, down, and sideways before coming to a stop on the pathway leading to the Interface.

She ran off the elevator and out of the Celestial Dome, stopping at the Interface of Sector 5. She opened up the program Noah was using to connect to the Carbon Copy.

"All right, here goes. Computer, load Code: Angel, one hundred percent." Aelita spoke up.

The Keys to Lyoko inside of her became active as a white aura surrounded her. Placing her hand on the interface she felt herself connect with Lyoko itself. Her face became blank, void of any kind of expression, no thoughts of anything whatsoever in her mind aside from completing her task.

Xxx

"What the..." Noah trailed off as he watched in shock and awe as another program attempted to take control of the tower from both him _and_ XANA. "No way. Aelita, are you doing what I think you're doing?"

Xxx

Everyone in the Forest Sector was on high alert as the red tower meant they would have company soon. However instead of monsters appearing the most unexpected thing happened. The tower's aura changed color again but not back to blue or green but a light pinkish color.

"Noah, why's the tower glowing pink?" Geoff asked. "Last I checked towers under XANA's control don't glow pink."

"_It's not XANA. I think its Aelita._"

"Aelita!" Everyone except Eva spoke up.

As this happened the tower started to switch back to red and then back to pink, showing a struggle over control.

Xxx

Aelita had her eyes opened but she wasn't even looking at the screen anymore. She wasn't even looking at anything inside Sector Five or Lyoko anymore. Looking ahead she could see it. She could feel it, the code inside of her.

She always had a connection to Lyoko and that allowed her to use the code that allowed her to control Lyoko and to shut down the towers to undo XANA's evil and now she could feel it flowing through her. It was directing her, helping her find the Carbon Copy so she could connect with it, and breach the barriers XANA had placed around it.

She typed on the interface faster than any human being could. She was thinking of absolutely nothing but what the code told her and she followed its instructions with each command she typed onto the interface. She could feel the connection growing stronger through the code, imagining the code becoming brighter with each passing second from how strong the link now was. It was like another part of her had awoken.

She flew forward and slammed into the barrier, causing it to crack. The barriers were breaking but she could feel another presence. Her eyes hardened as she recognized who it was.

XANA

He knew that she was breaking through. His power was diminished from his attack but he was still attempting to push her out. She pushed back, determined to break through the barrier. However before she could break through she felt XANA's power grow stronger.

"You won't stop us," Aelita said through clenched teeth. "We're coming for you now XANA and you won't _escape-_"

Suddenly XANA shoved back, and Aelita nearly broke the connection entirely. The pain was enough to make her scream for a second as energy crackled all around her. "A-ah!" She strengthened her defence before pushing forward again. She was barely able to hold her own against XANA.

Xxx

_"Guys, we may have a problem on Aelita's end. XANA is trying to force her out and he's winning!"_

"But how? We just stopped a major attack. He needs a few days to recover." Gwen replied.

_"Beats me. I think that I could help her fight him off but...I need another computer to help out, and another operator. I'm not an octopus."_

"...somebody hit me!" Cody said out of the blue.

"Say what now?" LeShawna asked.

"Hit me! I have to go back and help Noah! My Laptop is in the lab, I can plug into the super computer and help reinforce the connection!"

"He's right," Gwen whipped out her scythe. "Sorry!"

"No prob-" Cody was cut in half and vanished.

XXx

Cody stumbled out of one scanner, gasping. "Well that was the easiest devirtualization I've ever had, and by friendly fire too!"

He took the elevator up to the lab and rushed for where he left his bag.

"Hurry up man, Aelita can't hold out forever," Noah said.

"I'm hurrying here!" Cody unrolled a cable from his pack and hooked his lap top up to the super computer. "I'm in!"

"Ok, you work on helping Aelita break through; I'll try and cut off XANA's access. It won't be permanent but maybe I can buy you two time to finish up." Noah instructed.

Xxx

Aelita felt a great weight vanish from her shoulders allowing her to let out a gasp of relief. Something was taking the pressure off her while another presence was attempting to disrupt XANA's attempts to push her back. She smiled as she could tell just who it was that was helping her. With the pressure off her she pushed back, hard against the barriers.

She could feel the connection getting stronger but at the same time XANA gathered his strength and launched another blast to cut her off. She wasn't going to let it happen. After coming so close she was far too determined to give up. With Cody helping to strengthen the connection and Noah working to cut off XANA's access she took the chance to gather her power and launched her attack at the same time as XANA did.

She could see red beams of energy coming at her and she fired her white beam which collided with XANA's attack. She could feel XANA attempting to strengthen his attack but she pushed forward hard.

Xxx

"She's doing it! She's pushing him out!" Noah smirked as he continued to try and keep XANA out of the tower.

"That's great! Keep going!" Cody replied, typing away at his laptop as fast as he could.

Noah then looked and saw red dots appearing on the holo-map.

"Oh crap!"

Xxx

Everyone in the Forest Sector watched as the tower continued to change color with each second.

"Are things always this crazy when you come here?" Eva asked, turning to face the others.

"Not really. It's usually pretty straight forward. Bad Guys show up, we fight them, we kick their butts, and save the day." Geoff shrugged.

"_Incoming!_" Noah shouted.

Everyone spun around to see what looked like a tornado heading straight at them.

"Oh sh-" Eva was cut off as DJ quickly pulled her out of the way.

The tornado made everyone split up as they ran as fast as they could to get out of the way. It hit the tower but caused no damage.

"Oh man! I missed! Now I have to try again and you'll put up a fight." Sora complained as he landed on the ground. "I mean is it so hard to just stand still and make this easy for everyone?"

"Why do you keep going where I go?" Heather demanded.

"Aw come on mama, you know I just can't resist being parted from you!" Sora said affectionately. "Oh and I have a boo boo on my finger, can you-"

He ducked under a hail of shuriken. "Hey! I'll call social services for that!"

"..._Mama?_" Eva rounded on Heather. "What the hell?"

"...Sora's an AI...made from Heather's DNA," Geoff explained slowly. "XANA took her DNA, combined it with his codes from a monster and...that's how this guy showed up."

"_This guy_ can hear you, and he has feelings I'll have you know!" Sora pouted under his helmet.

"You're gonna _feel _a lot of pain now!" Heather then swung her grappling cable out.

"Wait before you attack I think you should know I'm not alone-" Sora yelled as the grapple tip closed in on his face and-

CRASH!

A crater suddenly formed in the ground between Sora and the group. The grapple cable went into the crater and the end just barely stuck out on the other end near Sora's feet. Sora turned several shades of pale under his helmet as he looked at how close the crater was to him. "Now _that's_ just mean."

"Gimmee a break, it's not my fault that Ryder can't drive worth a crap," Hauling himself out, Blade stretched before he was suddenly kicked out of the crater forcefully by a single foot. Ryder got up, dusting himself off.

"You, weigh, a _ton._" He glared at Blade. "Get back in the gym some time!"

"...these guys are seriously AIs?" Eva asked, disbelieving.

"Want a bigger surprise? Big and gruesome there is made from Noah's DNA," DJ pointed at Blade making Eva gawk.

"No way...how does something so scrawny make something so big...and what's with his hair?"

"...okay, that's enough," Blade's eyes narrowed. "Time to go to work." He slammed one foot down, and the whole platform began to shake.

"Nice try!" Eva, her foot aglow with blue energy slammed down, and the shaking stopped.

"Ooh, me thinks Blade has a rival!" Sora said eagerly.

"Let's not let him have all the fun!" Ryder pulled out his katana.


	73. Episode 71: Blade's True Form

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 72

"Come on, come on." Noah muttered as he attempted to push XANA out of the tower but was not succeeding despite his best efforts.

He was typing away, working to push XANA out of the tower before Aelita felt the strain from using her powers too much but XANA was equally determined to stop them. As if that wasn't enough he saw another red dot on the holo-map. "Don't we ever get a break?"

"What is it?" Cody looked up.

"Gwen, you got to move fast. We've got two more generals at the core and they're ready to blast it apart."

"_Damn it!_" LeShawna shouted over the speakers.

"My thoughts exactly." Noah muttered.

Xxx

"We better move fast!" Gwen shouted. "Izzy, you can get there faster than us by changing into something that flies but is big so we can reach the core."

"Let's hurry!" LeShawna pulled out her hammer.

"Hang on! If Sora, Ryder, and Blade are fighting the others and two in the core that still leaves one more general that might attack the generator if we're gone. LeShawna, someone needs to stay behind in case the last one shows up." Gwen pointed out.

LeShawna sighed. "You're right. Go on, girl, you better hurry. I'll keep an eye on the generator."

"Thanks. Let's go Izzy!"

"Got it!" Izzy changed into Pterodactyl allowing Gwen to hop on and she took off.

She flew through the hole in the ceiling above out of the sphere that was Sector 5.

"Okay, to get to the core we need to go through the south pole of this place." Gwen instructed and Izzy dived down until they were under the sphere.

"There!" Gwen pointed to a large winding passageway. "Head up there!"

Izzy flew through the passageway and she flew up until they landed on the bottom floor of the passageway that housed Lyoko's core. Izzy changed back into her human form as she let Gwen off on the floor and the group looked around.

"Noah, you see where they are?" Gwen asked.

"_Above you!_" Noah shouted.

They looked up above them to see a purple blast coming straight down at them. They scattered and the blast hit the ground, scarring it with a crater. They turned to see Jinx land in the center of crater with her spear sitting on her shoulders.

"About time you made it. I thought I should just go ahead and blast the core." Jinx twirled her spear.

"Should have figured you'd be here." Gwen pulled out her scythe and twirled it too.

"Give me a break. It's only been a few hours since the last attack and I already have to fight you again."

Izzy quickly fired a barrage of explosive arrows but they were frozen in mid air by a cold white mist that hit them before they hit Jinx. Looking up Gwen and Izzy watched as Yuki somersaulted down and landed beside Jinx.

"Of course XANA would know better than to just leave Jinx in charge of this," Gwen drawled.

Jinx opened her mouth to reply, only for Yuki to cover it with one hand while raising the other. "I'd rather not listen to another burn fight. I get enough of that from the Sora."

Yuki launched a barrage of ice spikes at the two. Gwen moved in front of Izzy and spun her staff while activating her fire aura. The result was a disc of red energy that melted the spikes into nothing as soon as they touched it. Before it was over Izzy leaped over Gwen and fired both of her wrist mounted cross bows at Jinx and Yuki, who separated as Izzy blew craters into the ground.

"I'll take the shape shifter," Yuki formed an ice staff in one hand. "You deal with the spell caster."

"Just the way I like it," Jinx grinned and lunged at Gwen with her spear. She brought the blade down, only for Gwen to use the pole of her scythe to bat the blow aside and then angle it so that Jinx would trip over the pole. It worked, but Jinx placed one hand on the ground and flipped herself back onto her feet before she even hit the ground and was back to fighting Gwen before she could even blink.

Yuki ducked and twisted out of the way of multiple explosive arrows while Izzy rushed at her. Before she could get close to attack, Yuki back flipped into the air and landed on one of the large steps lining the cylindrical room the core was in. Izzy leaped onto the wall, and found that the claws on her hands and feet could allow her to hold on for a time. This allowed her to essentially rush across the wall for several seconds before pushing off and leaping over Yuki. Izzy turned over and spun in mid flight, firing down multiple arrows at the surprised general.

Yuki formed an ice dome over her that took the brunt of the damage, but it still took her a moment to recover lost points from that attack. By then Izzy was preparing to repeat her attack. This time when Yuki made an ice dome, she then made it explode outwards, peppering Izzy with shards the brought her down by thirty life points. The shape shifter was thrown off course and fell over the edge of the step.

Yuki breathed a sigh of relief...only for a tentacle to shoot up from over the edge and grab her by an ankle. It tossed her into the air while Izzy, in the form of a squid climbed back up onto the step and returned to her real form. "It's not real nice to do things like that you know!"

"I was about to say the same thing!" Yuki formed ice bolts in each of her hands and began to throw them down at Izzy. When they struck a surface they detonated and froze anything within several feet. Ixzy had to leap onto one of the higher steps and then repeat her evasion twice. Yuki landed and pursued her.

Meanwhile on the bottom floor, Gwen and Jinx continued to fight at close quarters with their weapons while trying to use their powers in combination. Jinx could not petrify Gwen no matter how many times she launched her cloud of purple mist at her, and Gwen could not burn Jinx with her fire aura due to the attack requiring her to aim it. Finally Gwen gained the upper hand and slammed her right knee into Jinx's ribs, making the General stumble back towards the edge of the hole in the middle of the room.

Gwen did not make the mistake of going for a finishing attack yet, knowing Jinx would dodge or counter in a way that would most likely devirtualize her. So instead she kept her distance and waited for Jinx to stand upright.

"Well, looks like I'll need to show off my new trick ahead of schedule for this fight!" Jinx jammed the blade of her spear into the ground, and a purple liquid flowed out of her hands and down the length of the spear, entering the floor.

Suddenly the floor beneath Gwen began to shift, and one of her feet sank into it. "Ah!" Gwen found solid ground with her other foot and pulled herself free as the floor melted where she had been standing. "What is that?"

"Like it? The poison mist that can drain you of your life points can come in liquid form now," Jinx said. "It burns anything it touches like acid-though a lot faster."

Gwen had indeed been touched by the liquid, which took away fifteen life points in the one second her foot had been drawn into the melted ground where the liquid was taking effect.

"What good will that do? I can fly, remember?"

"Yeah...but it also comes in this form," Jinx raised one hand, palm out and fired a jet of purple liquid out of her hand.

Gwen cart wheeled out of the way of the spray, which began to melt more of the room and caused it to drain into the hole at the center in a flow of blue liquid. The spell caster took flight to avoid the next wave of acid, leaping and pushing off of the wall of the chamber and flipping over so she could hold her scythe over her head-while upside down and spun it. She activated her wind aura, turning the scythe into an extremely powerful fan that blew away another jet of acid launched by Jinx.

"As if you weren't annoying before," Gwen muttered as she landed on one of the large steps.

Then an explosion rang out from one of the upper steps, and Yuki slid down an ice slide she made. She lost her balance and tumbled to the ground near Jinx. Izzy jumped down and landed on a large step that was a few steps away from Gwen. "How's it going?"

"Can't complain." Gwen shrugged as she held her scythe out, ready to defend herself.

"Good, because the fun's just starting!" Izzy laughed as she jumped down.

Xxx

Meanwhile in the Forest Sector Geoff, Bridgette, Trent, Heather, DJ, and Eva were facing off against three more of XANA's generals, Blade, Ryder, and Sora. The Lyoko Warriors got between the tower and the generals since the tower was most likely their target.

"So how should we do this? We take them out all at once or one on one fights?" Blade asked, with a grin that showed off his shark like teeth.

"One on one? It's six to three!" Sora pointed at the warriors. "It can only be one on one if we had Lilith, Jinx, and Yuki with us!"

"Relax, whiner. We don't need to bother with fighting them one at a time. That'd be too easy." Ryder replied which got him several glares from the warriors. "We can be the nice ones and let them have a partner."

"I'd like to go first." Blade stepped forward which caused the platform to shake. "Seeing as how the new girl thinks she's so tough I choose her!" He pointed at Eva.

"Fine by me!" Eva got in a fighting stance.

"Wait a minute, Eva-" DJ started but was too late.

Eva let out a battle cry as she charged forward. Pulling back a fist that glowed bright blue she sent it forward but as it neared Blade he simply raised one arm and blocked the punch. Eva's punch released a shockwave but it only made Blade slide back a few inches. Eva followed up by swinging her right leg up, trailing blue energy behind it and leaving a brief outline of it in the path of her foot. Blade raised his left arm before she struck.

The result shot dust up in every direction...but Blade himself did not even move an inch. He held Eva's foot in one hand. "Cute attack there, but...I've had worse." He grinned. "_This_ is how you fight!"

Suddenly he swung Eva off her feet, over his head and slammed her into the ground-taking forty life points off. Eva planted her palms and pulled her leg free, kicking Blade in the gut with the other before rolling forward away from him. Blade brushed the front of his shirt and chuckled. "That tickled."

Eva launched a new barrage of attacks, adding more energy to each one. But Blade blocked every strike, not even flinching no matter how powerful Eva's attacks were. Eva swung her right arm and knocked Blade's arm aside and used her other fist to hammer a blow to Blade's stomach. This time Blade was sent back a few feet but like before it didn't knock him over or seem to injure him at all.

Eva didn't pause and charged forward, determined to win this fight. She fired a blow to his head but Blade caught her blow with his arm and sent his own punch to her face but she ducked under the blow, rolling aside and springing back up to charge forward. Blade braced himself and jumped back, avoiding a punch from Eva before landing on the ground several feet away and jumped forward, using his strength to propel him forward like a cannon. Eva managed to jump back in time as Blade aimed a fist down at her; the impact from his punch left a large crater in the ground.

Eva ran forward while Blade was pulling his fist out of the ground and tried to punch him in the head with a blue glowing fist but instead of blocking Blade slammed his head forward and it collided with her fist. This time Eva was sent flying back from the impact of the blow and she skidded across the ground. When she looked up Blade was leaping at her with a roar. Rolling to the side, she avoided devirtualization and swung her left foot up, slamming it into the side of his head. The blow made him lose balance, but he recovered just before another kick launched him onto his back.

Eva mounted him, knees pressing into the sides of his ribs as she began to punch him.

"Ooh, goin' right for the mount, huh?" Blade chuckled as he raised his arms to ward off multiple punches from Eva. "You haven't even bought me dinner yet!"

Suddenly a particularly vicious hit go through his defence and hit him in the face. Deciding enough was enough; he grabbed her by the neck and threw her off while getting to his feet. Eva began to rise and lunge again, but he caught her by the neck and then slammed her into the ground.

"Time to go home," Blade reared one hand back and swung it down-

THUD! It struck an invisible surface that shimmered and stretched like elastic before it held firm like stone. Blade found a barrier forcing his hand away from Eva's neck as a dome slowly expanded from Eva. DJ stood next to Eva, transforming into his metal golem form. "Thought you might need some help now."

"I'll kill you later," Eva growled as she got up.

Blade snickered as the two got ready to fight again. "Now things get interesting."

"Not as much as you think!" DJ charged forward to Eva's surprise who had never seen DJ fight before.

He jumped forward and sent a punch at Blade's face but the general blocked with his arm. Despite blocking the blow it still sent him sliding back and DJ continued his barrage of punches. Blade sent his own fists forward but DJ blocked and his new metallic armour seemed as resistant as Blade's own body and shrugged off most of the general's blows. Eva took the chance and charged in, slipping under Blade's guard and sending a blow to his torso, knocking him back.

DJ then sent a punch as Blade's face and sent him flying back. The general landed on his feet and kept his guard up as Eva and DJ attacked again, working together to push him back. Blade was no doubt physically the strongest of XANA's generals but he was up against two fighters who were just as strong as he was and they were actually working together to push him back. After a few more minutes of fighting Blade stepped back as DJ and Eva got ready to attack again.

"Who know you were a decent fighter?" Eva asked DJ, impressed by how strong he was. "I thought you didn't like to fight because your momma said so."

"I still don't like to fight but when I started this and learned what could happen if we lose I decided that I had...Well you get the picture." DJ shrugged.

"Ha! Talking to each other like you're already won?" Blade grinned. "This fight hasn't even begun."

"Yeah, bring it tough guy." Eva taunted.

"One second, I have a question. You know of a disease that causes you to sweat blood?"

"What?" DJ and Eva asked.

"For those of you who know me my body is not like that of the other generals and even any Lyoko Avatar. When you cut me, I actually bleed." Blade held up his thumb and bit it, causing dark blood to come out. "This blood can shape into anything I want and I can make it as hard or sharp as any kind of weapon. Now that I've explained that to you, I'll ask again. Do you know what makes you sweat blood?"

"What's that got to do with anything?" Eva growled.

"The answer is hematidrosis, a condition that occurs when a person suffers a large amount of stress. Blood vessels around the sweat glands rupture under the stress and the blood enters the sweat glands and when the poor idiot starts to sweat it comes out in a mixture of blood and sweat." Blade explained.

"Why are you talking about that?" DJ asked.

"This." Suddenly a liquid that was tinged black like Blade's blood began to flow from his forehead and other areas of his body, literally coming out of his skin. Everyone recoiled in disgust as they watched the transformation.

"Eeewww...B.O," DJ put a hand over his mouth, feeling like throwing up even though he couldn't.

Suddenly, after the sweat covered his whole body, it seemed to stop flowing and hardened into a shell that moved with Blade, covering everything except his mouth and eyes. He grinned at them from under the shell of solidified bloody sweat. "Unexpected, huh?"

"Disgusting, yes." DJ nodded. "Virtual sweat or not."

"That's not all it does. Try this!" Blade thrust his hand forward and a large thorn made of black blood blasted out of the palm of his hand.

DJ held his hands out to stop it but it slammed into his body and sent him flying back. Even though his armour kept the spike from piercing his body and sending him back into the real world the kinetic force of the attack sent him flying back. He struck a tree and knocked it down...causing a domino effect that knocked over seven or eight more.

"Ooh! Dominos! Let's do it again!" Blade cackled.

"Here, let me try!" Eva charged one fist with a massive amount of energy-more than her usual hit and hit Blade, launching him...

All of fourteen inches across the ground. He slid, leaving a trail in the ground, and smirked. "...is that all?"

"...aw crap." Eva ducked under a punch from Blade and then leaped back to avoid a haymaker that would have punched through her chest. "Hey Tony Stark! A little help?"

"Comin'...man I have never been this dizzy," DJ got up, dazed and threw a wild punch, only to spin around with the force of it and collapse to the ground.

Eva jumped back and ran towards DJ while Blade stopped and watched, letting them regroup since he didn't believe they could harm him now.

"Any ideas on how to beat him?" Eva asked as DJ got back up.

"I'm not sure." DJ rubbed his head.

"Not sure? You've done this for a few months and all you can say is you're not sure?" Eva asked, incredulous.

"I never fought Blade before. When he came around I was stuck out of Lyoko for a while. He fought Geoff, LeShawna, Izzy, Bridgette, and Aelita and never did that before." DJ was referring to how Blade made blood sweat out his skin and used it make the armour covering his whole body.

"So you got nothing?" Eva glared at him.

"Not exactly. I've got one idea, that's similar to how Aelita beat him along with Izzy and Bridgette. Follow my lead." DJ said and charged forward, changing back into his metal golem form.

Eva had no idea what DJ had in mind but she followed and they both charged at Blade.

"Want some more?" Blade asked, getting ready to fight again.

But that wasn't what DJ had in mind. DJ jumped and slammed his fists into the ground in front of Blade, creating a large crack in the ground. Eva didn't get it but she knew better than to asked question so she jumped forward and slammed her fists into the same spot in the ground. The crater went deeper and the tracks got even bigger.

"What is this?" Blade asked.

"You're the general you figure it out!" DJ replied.

"Fine. I'll just take you out." Blade stepped forward but as he stepped across the crater the cracks got even bigger.

"Eva use your feet on the ground and get back!" DJ said, deactivating his golem form and running back.

Eva still didn't understand but she did as he said and channelled her power into her feet as she stomped on the ground and jumped off. The cracks continued to grow while Blade was getting frustrated. He stepped forward and that was when he figured it out...

...Unfortunately, it was too late.

The cracks in the hole shattered, creating a hole where Blade was leaving him without anything to stand on.

"Oh son of-AHHH!" Blade plummeted out of sight.

"...that's it?" Eva stared at the hole. "That's how you beat this guy? Make a hole under him?"

"Uh...the most effective plan is uh...the last one you would think of?" DJ replied sheepishly.

"...you really are nuts," Eva sighed.

DJ chuckled...right before a black spike erupted from the ground and split him in half.

"Sh-"Eva swore as DJ was devirtualized and saw more black spikes come out of the ground.

Looking down at the hole she saw Blade being held up by black tendrils coming out of his armour with black spikes on the end of these tendrils that slammed into the bottom of the platform and came out to the top keeping him falling into the digital sea. Blade grinned as the tendrils started to pull him back up through the hole. "Miss me?"

Eva growled. This was not going well at all. She hated to admit but she was probably not going to win. Blade was more experienced, more powerful, and that damn blood of his kept him from being injured. If there was one thing Eva hated it was losing even if the opponent was stronger.

But Blade's grin made her so mad that she refused to admit defeat. So, instead of thinking of way to defeat him she jumped down the hole on top of him with a fist aimed at his head.

"Is she crazy?" Heather shouted as she got up and watched this happen.

"Bridge!" Trent turned to the surfer who nodded and assembled her swords into her board.

Holding it in front of her as she jumped forward she laid on the board as she flew towards the hole. But before she could reach it a whirlwind hit her and sent her skidding across the ground.

"Sorry, but helping is against the rules." Sora said as he lowered his wind blade.

Meanwhile Eva had landed on top of Blade, holding on to him with one hand she hammering blows down on Blade's face and kicking at his chest. They did not do much against him, but the tendrils holding him up within the hole quivered and then shook with every hit. Blade tried to force her off or hit her, but she was striking him almost three hundred times a minute.

"Get off of me you annoying little-" Blade grunted as one of his tendrils snapped off. "Aw crap."

Eva placed one hand on his neck and used the other to repeatedly pummel him. He was too busy trying to form more tendrils from his hands to counter attack. But slowly he found that his blood armour was beginning to actually crack under the constant strain. Small back chips flew off of his head after a few blows.

Eva didn't stop as she continued to hammer against Blade's armour and the tendrils were starting to crack.

"You're crazy! Keep this up and we'll both-"

CRACK!

"..fall." Blade finished as the tendrils cracked.

"NOAH!" The Lyoko Warriors shouted as Blade and Eva started to fall into the Digital Sea.

Xxx

Noah had to divert his attention from helping Aelita fight off XANA to see Eva and Blade fall of the platform and into the Digital Sea.

"Oh crap!" He cried quickly as he tried to devirtualize Eva.

He hoped Aelita would be able to hold on.

Xxx

As they fell more tendrils made of Blade's blood sprouted from his body and quickly pierced the trunks of several trees, allowing them to hold him in the air. Eva had still been holding Blade so she was safe but Blade grabbed the arm that was holding his neck with one hand and grabbed Eva's face with his other hand to try and push her off.

Xxx

Noah sighed in relief but knew the danger was not over.

"How's she doing?" DJ asked as he came out of the elevator.

"She's crazier than Izzy was when we first started."

Xxx

Blade and Eva were still struggling in the air above the Digital Sea with Blade's tendrils barely holding them up.

"You are very tough fighter. Even more so than the one who wields the large hammer." Blade smirked as he still attempted to push her off. "I've not had a fight like this at all."

"Yeah, most people I take on are wussies and cowards." Eva replied, holding her own.

They both grunted as they attempted to knock the other off. Eva's fists and feet started glowing blue causing the tendrils and the armour to crack open. Blade noticed this and tried to head butt her but Eva held on still. She was not going to lose this fight.

Blade was astonished by how strong she was but was equally determined to win. The hardened dark blood came to life as it changed back into its liquid form and started to cover Eva.

"Wha-"Eva gasped as the blood traveled up her body.

"My blood is capable of becoming as hard as metal and changing back into its original state." Blade smirked.

Eva struggled as the blood attempted to cover her from head to toe. It covered the arm that was holding Blade's neck and hardened itself like a statue to keep it from moving. It spread down her body and started to harden itself around her feet.

"It's a little hard to pound something when you're as brittle and still as a statue, isn't it?" Blade teased her as the blood began to close in on her head next.

Eva knew that if she was frozen solid in this position she'd either be devirtualized or fall into the digital sea-which according to the others is a big no-no. But then she had an idea...

A blue glow covered her whole form beneath the layer of blood.

"Huh? What's this?" Blade stared as cracks began to appear in the blood he had transferred to her. "...uh oh-"

THOOM! Blue energy shot out from every inch of Eva, shattering the blood armour into dust and freeing her with a roar. It also shattered several of Blade's tendrils and left the others too weak to hold on properly. They snapped one by one.

"...I hate you," Blade glared at Eva before the last one snapped.

Both of the fighters plummeted towards the sea below, separating at first. Eva flipped over so she was falling forwards and spread her legs and arms out. It slowed her descent a bit while Blade began to plummet. Looking down, she saw Blade raise both of his hands; tendrils of dark blood came out of his palms and hit the last nearby trees.

"Oh you aren't gettin' off that easy!" Eva folded her arms to her sides and straightened her legs, shooting down like a bullet.

Blade looked up and sighed. "...of course."

SLAM! Eva collided with him and knocked him down. They were nearly halfway down to the digital sea by now.

"Noah, hurry!" Bridgette shouted.

"_I'm on it!_" Noah replied.

Blade pointed his hands to the sea and fired another stream of dark blood. The blood flew down to the sea faster than both Eva and Blade and hit the water. But instead of getting washed away in the stream of data like everything else did the blood solidified itself into a circular platform for them to land on. They landed with a large thud, sending ripples through the sea around the black platform but it still held both fighters up and kept them from falling into the sea.

"So close." Blade growled as he got up. "You're lucky to have been so close or you would have died."

"I don't believe in luck." Eva got back into a fighting stance. "Want to try and take me out for real?"

Blade laughed. "You don't know when to quit, do you? Fine, a chance to get rid of you is too good to pass up. No more powers, no armour, I'll tear you apart with my bare hands!"

Both fighters roared and charged at each other.

Xxx

"I always get creeped out when Blade does that. That dark blood power is really icky." Sora commented as the others on the platform continued to watch the battle. "That girl sure is tough. Going head to head against Blade and not to mention the whole falling to the digital sea and avoiding death by that much" Sora held up and a hand and put two fingers very close together.

"It doesn't matter now. Blade will take care of her while we are left to deal with those four." Ryder pulled out his katana and pointed it to the other four Lyoko Warriors. "Take your pick."

"Looks like we're next up, guys." Geoff combined his chakrams into his axe.

"Finally. I was getting tired of sitting around." Heather got her launchers ready.

"So who gets who?" Trent aimed his guitar.

"Let me decide that with this!" Ryder shouted and swung his blade down, firing his Lightning Storm attack at them.

Bridgette and Geoff leaped to the right while Trent and Heather jumped in the other direction, avoiding the attack. Sora and Ryder split up with Ryder going after Geoff and Bridgette while Sora flew at Heather and Trent.

Xxx

Ryder's blade slammed into both of Bridgette's swords as she blocked and raised his own sword to block Bridgette's sword as she swung to his left following with a slash at his other side. Ryder shoved her other sword away and blocked again and pushed her back. He swung again, making Bridgette duck and quickly fired a blast lightning from his hands. Bridgette blocked but it pushed her back long enough for Ryder to spin around and block Geoff's axe as he charged from behind and slashed at Ryder's back.

Both weapons sparked with electricity as they collided and for a second they locked before stepping back. Bridgette attempted a double stab at Ryder's stomach but the lightning user swept up one foot and a blast of lightning came out and hit her in the face knocking her back. It didn't devirtualize her but it sent her flying back.

"Oh, you are _so_ going down!" Geoff shouted, angry for what Ryder just did.

He charged and slashed at Ryder who blocked that along with the next several slashes that followed. Geoff pushed away Ryder's blade and delivered a kick to his mid-section but Ryder blocked with one arm. He pushed Geoff back and swung his blade to release a large stream of lightning. Geoff rolled out of the way to avoid and Ryder charged forward bringing his katana down.

Geoff caught the attack, pushing the sword down and launched another kick. This time managing to kick Ryder in the stomach that pushed him back. Grunting, Ryder shrugged it off and jumped back in, slashing at Geoff again. Geoff usually had to duck and roll so he could get in close and try to hack at Ryder, who would leap back so that he would have the advantage of distance over the axe wielding party boy.

They tried to zap one another or smash each other into the ground without anything even close to a semblance of success. It was as though they were evenly matched on every level of speed, strength, and power. Bridgette jumped back and charged Ryder's back as he clashed with Geoff again. The Lightning User could tell she was behind and pushed Geoff back before spinning around to block both Bridgette's swords with one hand holding his sword and the other pointing at Geoff.

Before Geoff could block Ryder fired a blast of electricity that hit him in the chest and sent him flying back. Ryder quickly turned to face Bridgette and whipped his blade at her. Bridgette caught it with her left blade and twirled her right blade at his head. Ryder stepped back and let his sword take the hit instead.

Bridgette swung both of her swords at once, pushing Ryder back. She pressed the attack and charged forward, scissoring her swords forward and catching Ryder's sword between both of them. They broke off a second later and Ryder swung his sword.

"Lightning Storm!"

His sword released another blast of lightning that flew at her. Bridgette leapt out of its way and it crashed into a tree. It burned through its trunk and the tree fell over into the digital sea. Bridgette spun around just as Ryder swung his katana down and blocked with both swords.

Both fighters pushed against each other for a few seconds. They broke apart and charged again while Geoff got back up.

"Bridge, move!" He shouted as swung his axe and fired a blast of lightning.

Bridgette jumped back leaving Ryder to take the blast. He held out his sword and swung it at the last second, creating a large blast. When it cleared Ryder was still standing, smoke coming off his body.

"Close but not close enough."

Meanwhile Trent and Heather had their hands full with XANA's airborne general Sora. Trent had hopped into his guitar as soon as he activated the vehicle mode and flew straight at Sora.

"Hey, I'm the one who does the flying!" Sora whined as he sprouted his wings and flew up avoiding Trent's guitar crashing into him.

He spun around and fired a laser beam from his beak at Trent who dodged and flew up. A stream of lightning fired from the top of the guitar at Sora who held out both his wind blades that created a wind shield to deflect the attack. He flew at Trent and when he was close enough he strengthened his wind shield into a twister. Trent was flung back but he managed to avoid hitting a tree and managed to balance himself.

He saw Sora flying at him and quickly activated his Shield Note as he flew forwards. They both charged and collided with each other, unleashing strong winds in every direction. Trent tried to blast Sora with his Fire Note but Sora saw it and quickly changed his wind barrier into a gust of wind that blew the musician back. Holding both his wind blades out Sora shot two twisters at Trent who flew out of the way as the attacks knocked down several trees.

Suddenly Heather's grappling hook wrapped itself around Sora's foot making him stop and look down.

"Hey! No fair!" Sora whined as he looked down at Heather.

"Trent take him out!" Heather shouted.

Trent flew back and fired another stream of lightning at Sora. However the wind user simply held up one wind blade in the path of the attack and the burst of lightning hit the blade head on.

"Here's a neat little trick I learned from sparring with Ryder." Sora said as the wind blade absorbed Trent's attack and became a blade made of actual lightning. "He wasn't too happy when he found out I could do this. Now there are two generals with lightning attacks."

He quickly grabbed the rope around his foot, severing before swinging his lightning blade down on the rope.

"Sorry mama!" Sora called out as electricity traveled down and shocked Heather.

After being shocked for ten seconds straight she flew back, short fifty life points that would take much longer than she was comfortable with to regenerate. She took several moments to get up, during which Trent had to keep Sora from getting close enough to finish her up. He used sonic and fire notes, avoiding lightning notes specifically.

"Ok, no more lightning attacks," Heather said, getting to her feet. "Agreed?"

"Agreed!" Trent then used a shield note to deflect another slice from Sora. "New plan?"

"Got one," Heather looked at her grappling hook. "Bring him in close for me. I need him on the ground."

"I'm on it!" Trent ran forward and threw his guitar ahead of him. As it hovered along the ground he hopped on and flew off of the ground. He flew above Sora, dodging more wind attacks and then tilted backwards, hands on his guitar. "Man...good thing I always watched Bridgette when she did this."

Trent and his board began to plummet. Taking the guitar in his hands he fired sonic notes down at Sora as fast as possible. Multiple attacks pounded Sora, who was taken surprised by the new tactic. He was forced closer and closer to the ground until finally he hit it and was eagle spread as Trent kept up the attack until he was fifty feet off of the ground. He brought his guitar under his feet and veered off, just in time.

Sora left an imprint of himself as he slowly got up. "Ow...-"

"Surprise, brat!" Heather was behind him and quickly looped her grappling hook around his right arm, letting it dig in.

"Ow-what the-?" Sora tried to knock her away as she ducked and twisted around him, extending her cable as she went and causing it to go around or between his limbs or around his waist or neck. By the time she ran out of chain Sora was pretty much caught with the chain constricting his movements.

"...uh oh," Sora realized what Heather was doing now.

She smirked and pulled the chain taught. "Hit him Trent!"

"Here it comes!" Trent shot across the platform towards a now panicking Sora.

"Oh man..ohmanohmanohmanohman!" Sora tried to tug his way free of the chain. "Oh this is so gonna-"

Trent's guitar struck Sora and sent him into a large boulder, and Trent went flying over him as his board was suddenly stopped by the now down General.

"..._hurt!_" Sora squeaked, sliding down the rock.

Heather retracted the chain and watched as Trent's guitar suddenly flew after its owner and caught him inches from the ground.

"Close one!" The musical fighter said as he tried to regain his balance. "Man I can't believe that worked!"

"You know I resent that, right?" Heather crossed her arms.

"...uh...I was kidding?" Trent smiled sheepishly.

"I think Sora here is out of the fight now," Heather lightly kicked the General in the side.

"Insult to injury says I..." Sora groaned.

"Yep, he's down," Heather nodded. "Let's go help out against Ryder."

"Sounds good to me!" Trent's board turned and shot off to help Bridgette and Geoff against the katana wielding general.

But Sora was not down as they thought he was. He aimed his beak and fired a laser that hit Heather in the back and devirtualized her.

"Heather!" Trent spun around and aimed his guitar board at Sora. "I thought you were down!"

"The thing about the armour is that it really comes in handy if I ever plan for a career as one of those dummies they use when testing how cars handle being in a crash." Sora pointed down at his dented armour. "Plus I learned how to play dead."

"Well get ready for the real thing." Trent flew forward.

A Manta flew from under the platform and shot Trent in the chest before he could react.

"Tell mama I said no hard feelings!" Sora waved as he fired the laser on his beak and finished Trent off.

When he was devirtualized Sora hopped onto the Manta's back and moved to help Ryder. As this happened the battle between Eva and Blade down below was becoming a lot fiercer. Blade threw a punch but Eva did the same thing which caused a sonic boom when their fists collided. Eva threw Blade's fist away with her other arm and sent a fist to his stomach.

Blade staggered back slightly and Eva charged forward. Blade straightened up and ducked under the blow and sent a fist at Eva's face but she blocked with one hand and sent a blow to his stomach again. But this time Blade was ready and swung his other arm out, knocking her fist aside sending her down with it. Blade aimed a fist at the back of her head but she rolled aside and his fist hit the solid dark blood made ground. Eva catapulted herself up and quickly threw a punch that Blade dodged followed by a blow that he blocked with both fists.

He grabbed her wrist and twisted it moving behind Eva's back faster than anyone through he was and pinned her arm to her back.

"Gotcha!" Blade grinned and aimed his fast at the back of her head to finish her off.

But Eva wasn't about to let him win. She gathered her power into her feet and jumped back, slamming into Blade and knocking him down. Blade grunted as he fell on his back, releasing Eva in the process and the brawler took the chance to aim with down with a full powered fist that glowed bright blow and slammed into his chest.

"Take this! I hope you feel it!" Eva roared.

Blade grunted as his chest burst open in a flash of data making Eva smirk but her eyes widened when dark blood poured out and shifted into the form of a hand grabbing her arm.

"What the fu-"Eva swore as she pulled her arm back and started punching the black blooded arm holding it.

Blade snickered for a few seconds and started laughing. That was when a spike made of dark blood came out of his mouth making him gag before he bent before and started vomiting more dark blood. Eva recoiled in disgust as blood poured out of his mouth but actually put a hand over her mouth when she saw Blade's body suddenly get thinner and thinner until it looked like it had nothing inside anymore, even bones!

It was now empty sack with nothing left inside, not even eyes or teeth. The black blood that came out of the body shifted into a tall humanoid form. The head had no eyes, ears, or nose but a grinning mouth with large teeth appeared as it started to laugh.

**"To think you actually managed to burst open my container!" **The creature laughed as white milky eyes with the symbol of XANA as their pupils appeared all over its body. "**Always remember little girl not everything is as it appears!**"

"What the hell are you?" Eva got into a fighting stance.

"**This is my real self! Hidden in that sack of digital coding my blood is my true body! I am without end! My body cannot be destroyed by you, your allies, or even the digital sea!**" Blade cackled, his voice now sounding much darker and more inhuman rather than the gruff voice he carried before.

"We'll see about that!" Eva shouted as she ran forward but was stopped when a tentacle made from the blood that made up the platform they stood on reached up and grabbed her. It traveled up her body and solidified itself until only her head was left uncovered.

"**Time for you to learn what's like to be torn apart on the inside!**" Blade changed into a stream of blood and flew at her.

Xxx

Sparks flew as the battle between Geoff, Bridgette, and Ryder continued. The lightning general was using his electricity to keep Bridgette away while fighting off Geoff.

"Spark Disk!" Ryder held out a hand and threw a disk of electricity at Bridgette.

"Whoa!" The surfer jumped to the side, barely dodging the attack.

Ryder took the chance to slash at Geoff who parried with his axe but as he parried Ryder's sword glowed bright red.

"Lightning Storm!" Ryder shouted as he swung and released a blast of lightning.

Geoff held up his axe to block but the blast sent him flying into a tree dropping his life points to twenty. Ryder smirked as Bridgette ran over to help Geoff up.

"This is going to be easy." Ryder held up his sword.

That was when Eva flew up and landed on the platform, leaving a wide crater as she landed.

"Eva! You made it!" Bridgette smiled happily as the brawler walked over.

"**Not exactly.**" Eva sneered, a wicked grin on her face.

Bridgette had no chance to move as Eva backhanded her into the tree Geoff had hit and hit it so hard she left an outline of herself on it.

"Bridge!" Geoff ran over and helped her get up.

"So, you went ahead and used your blood to take control of her, huh Blade?" Ryder scowled as Eva turned to him with her wicked grin growing even wider.

"**Why yes I did. She broke my other shell so I took hers as a new one. Best of all I can use her power along with my own.**" Eva turned to Bridgette and Geoff as they stepped back. "**My blood is my true body while what you thought was my body was just a shell. It hardened it against attacks, shifted into any weapon, and it doesn't matter if you destroy this shell since I can just find a new one! Now, prepare to die!**"

Eva charged at them but just she was about to smash them both a blur moved in front and slammed a hammer into Eva's head sending her rolling across the ground. She got up and saw LeShawna standing in front of Bridgette and Geoff.

"How about you pick on someone else you freak?" LeShawna growled.

"**Heh! Thank you for volunteering.**" Eva stepped forward but was shot in the shoulder by a laser.

She spun around and saw Noah with his right arm changed into a gun and it was smoking.

"You know, I'm pretty sure you're not in the best condition to drive something with that much horse power," The genius drawled.

**"You again," **Eva cracked her knuckles. **"Oh well, the more the merrier."**

Then she slammed one foot down and shot out a wave of energy that almost struck the warriors-but Noah formed one hand into a shield and got in front of the others. He absorbed the attack and then aimed his gun hand at Eva again. "Please tell me this is the only General we're contending with."

"**Oh don't worry, I don't want _anybody_ stealing my victory from me,**" Eva replied cracked her knuckles.

"Fine by me. I've had my fill of fighting." Sora got off the Manta and sat on a rock. "I like watching fights better than actually fighting. Keeps me from getting hurt."

"Good to know." LeShawna held her hammer out.

"When did you guys get here?" Bridgette asked as she got up.

"I saw everything that was happening and after some prodding from Cody I finally agreed to come in and help. He got LeShawna here to help out." Noah explained.

"But what about the portal?" Geoff asked.

"I got a plan to help Aelita out but first we need to figure out how to get the parasite that is the general that was _actually_ made from my DNA out of Eva." Noah levelled his guns at Eva.

"**Well, _genius_, come and see if you can figure it out!**" Eva challenged as she charged forward.

Xxx

Aelita blocked another blast as she attempted to break through the barrier. This battle no longer depended on power and skills with programming. It was now a battle of sheer will power between two beings that were complete opposite in almost every detail. She could feel the connection growing but at the same time she could feel his presence.

"You're not getting away this time! I won't stop until every trace of you is wiped out for good!" Aelita called out, not caring if XANA heard it or not.

Aelita continued to fight off XANA's attack as she pushed forward. She could feel it. She was getting closer. That was when she sensed something.

She raised her hands and blocked a blast from a shadow figure that appeared in front of her.

"Decided to try and actually push me out yourself, XANA?" Aelita glared.

However when the figure laughed it was not XANA's voice she heard but...

"Lilith!" Aelita's eyes widened as the top general revealed herself.

"Surprised?" Lilith asked, putting both hands on her hips.

"XANA gave you the power to activate towers?" Aelita got into a fighting stance.

"Kind of. But you and your boyfriend are the ones to thank for this." Lilith giggled like a little girl knowing a big secret.

"What do you mean?" Aelita asked.

"Remember when he was trapped in virtual limbo and you saved him?"

Aelita nodded slowly.

"XANA discovered that Jeremy had a bit of your code that he got when your minds melded!"

Aelita's eyes widened in disbelief as her mind processed what she had heard. "Then, that means..."

"If your boyfriend ever got over his fear of going into the scanner he could have deactivated towers like you. XANA discovered it when he took Jeremy's DNA and spent some time on it. Ever wonder why a general stronger than Shadow appeared only _after_ you boyfriend's DNA was used?" Lilith tilted her head with her usual mischievous smirk. "Thanks to those codes I can not only activate and deactivate towers but I've got a few powers that I inherited from you too, _mommy!_"

That was when red XANA symbols appeared all around Aelita glowing bright red.

"We never got the chance to bond before, let's start!"

The symbols fired red energy beams.


	74. Episode 72: Lilith's Plan Revealed

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 73

Gwen and Jinx continued to push their staffs against each other with equal strength. Both fighters continued to push against each other for a while until they threw each other back. As they flew back Jinx aimed her spear and fired several energy beams while Gwen activated her fire aura and pointed her hand before releasing a large ball of flame. The attacks collided caused a large explosion.

Using the smoke from the explosion as a distraction Jinx's spear glowed with blue flames as she summoned dragons made of blue fire and used them to surround Gwen. The spell caster activated her fire aura and struck each dragon down but as she took down the last dragon Jinx fired a purple energy blast. The attack hit her and sent her spinning in the air, stunned from the attack and she fell of the large step they were fighting on. Jinx walked over the edge and looked down to see if Gwen was finished.

A blast of wind blew her and sent her into the wall. Gwen climbed back up, having been hanging over the edge with one hand keeping her from falling off the step. Her green wind aura became red as she swung her scythe and released a blast of fire. Jinx held up her spear and a purple barrier to block the attack.

But just as the attack faded Gwen's scythe passed Jinx's spear and knocked it upwards following a blow to Jinx's stomach from brunt end of the scythe. Jinx hit the wall again but dodged as Gwen swung her scythe again. She placed her hand on the wall and vines sprouted out, grabbing the spell caster and her scythe. However Gwen simply used her fire aura to burn through the vines but Jinx used the time to get back and gain some breathing room.

She plunged her spear into the ground and released the purple poison into the ground, melting side of the platform Gwen was on making her jump into the air and activate her flight ability. Jinx quickly shot her in the chest and this time she fell down to the bottom of the chamber with a loud thud.

Groaning Gwen climbed back up while leaning on her scythe. "I think now's a good time to see what my upgrade is."

"_On it!_" Cody's voice replied.

"Cody?" Gwen asked, expecting Noah's voice.

"_Yep, here to save your life my lovely spell caster. And uploading your upgrade...now!_"

Gwen's scythe glowed bright pink like Aelita's energy field for a few seconds before fading.

"O-kay. What does it do?" Gwen asked as Jinx leaped off the platform from above and aimed her spear down at her.

"Like I'll let you figure it out!" Jinx released more liquid miasma from her spear and it fell down on her.

"_Gwen, imagine yourself immune to the poison! Quick!_"

Gwen had no idea what the spell did but she did what Cody said and imagined the poison having no effect on her. Her body glowed bright pink again as the poison hit her. Jinx landed and looked to watch as the poison melted Gwen's avatar but she was given a shock. Gwen's aura was causing the poison to turn white and vanish.

"Huh?"

"This spell gives me immunity to attacks?" Gwen asked looking down at herself.

"_Kind of. It turns out Aelita was working on changing the poison spell you got when XANA took control of you but couldn't change it so she deleted and replaced with a type of poison spell of her own. One that destroys and purifies anything with XANA's codes like Aelita's power!_"

"Wow." Gwen looked at her aura. "I guess I can deal with the pink aura then."

"_It blocked the poison attack because it's like a counter poison. It works like Aelita's energy attacks that destroys almost anything, especially a XANA made program._"

"Like Aelita's energy attacks? Hmm..." Gwen swung her scythe and from the end of her scythe came a blast of pinkish energy that flew at Jinx.

She dodged and the attack flew into the wall on the other side of the room, blasting a big hole in the wall.

"Whoa!" Gwen looked at the hole, shocked and impressed by the damage her new attack had done.

A few seconds passed and then she looked at Jinx with a smirk. "You might want to run before you end up like that wall."

"All you did was even the score." Jinx twirled her spear. "Aelita's failed to breach the Carbon Copy by now. A little upgrade is not going to win against XANA."

"Well then he better get his digital ass up here because I'm about to blast yours out of here!" Gwen twirled her scythe as she and Jinx began to circle, moving counter-clockwise.

Then Jinx lunged and jabbed her spear at Gwen, who didn't make an effort to block it. Instead she used her Wind Aura to simply launch Jinx back.

The General had not expected Gwen to use her spells, so she was completely surprised by the tactic. Getting up, she shook her head. "Ok, I should have seen that one coming."

"Are you slipping?" Gwen asked, feigning concern.

"Nah, just a tough day in the office!" Jinx shot forward and dodged the next Wind Aura attack, and engaged Gwen at close range.

Jinx mostly relied on jabbing the front tip or swinging the bottom edge of her spear at Gwen, whose scythe had a longer reach and a larger blade. That and Gwen was just as fast as Jinx, making them pretty much evenly matched against one another. Neither of them had time to try and use their powers at this range, so they didn't bother.

Gwen spun her scythe, moving it from over her to either side or using the pole to bat away a jab from Jinx. She kept on moving and didn't stop while Jinx had to carefully think out her next move and avoid being sliced to pieces at the same time. Gwen's scythe soon became a blur of motion as it cut through the air, making a humming sound due to the speed it moved at.

Gwen landed her first strike by slicing down, and Jinx panicked for a moment. She brought her spear up and braced it against the pole of Gwen's, but the edge of the scythe still sank several inches into her shoulder. The general gasped, falling to one knee as she tried to push Gwen's weapon back up.

THUD! But then Gwen's knee struck her in the face and knocked her on her back. Jinx rolled aside as she spotted Gwen raise her scythe for a finishing blow. Gwen infused the scythe with her Earth Aura so that when it hit the ground it caused a massive tremor. Parts of the floor began to crack and shattered.

"_Be careful in there Gwen, that's called the Core for a reason!_"

"Right, bad idea," Gwen nodded, pulling her scythe back up and stopping the Earth Aura attack as she faced Jinx again.

Up above, Izzy and Yuki were leaping at one another from steps or off of walls. Yuki created ice slides and bridges to cross while Izzy would blast them to pieces and crawl along the walls or even turn into a flying animal to move quickly, matching Yuki's speed. They ended up on a stair together and ended up fighting in close combat. Izzy charged forward at Yuki who shed her cloak revealing the inner clothing she wore underneath and threw it on Izzy.

The shape shifter was blinded before she used her claws to cut through the cloak. As she did this Yuki took the chance to jump in and plant a heavy kick to her chest which sent her rolling off the step and onto the one below it. Izzy rolled and got up to her feet as Yuki jumped down, landing a few feet away from her.

"Hi-ya!" Izzy leaped forward and sent a karate chop at Yuki who ducked under the blow and quickly sent a kick at Izzy's face.

This time Izzy dodged by leaning back and somersaulting out of the way. Landing on her feet Izzy fired her crossbows Yuki spun out of the way, gracefully avoiding each arrow before she placed her hands on the ground and froze the step they were on. Before Izzy could wonder what that was supposed to do her question was answered when ice spikes erupted from the ground.

"Whoa!" Izzy yelped as she flipped out of the way and planted her feet on the wall.

Kicking herself off the wall she flew over the spikes and at Yuki, taking the form of a tiger ready pounce and cut her to pieces. Narrowing her eyes Yuki fell on her back and kicked upwards, her feet crashing into Izzy's chest and released an ice blast that partially froze the shape shifter and cost her thirty life points as she sailed over Yuki's head and off the step.

Yuki got up and looked over the edge, seeing no sign of the shape shifter and began to think Izzy was gone...

BOOM!

Only for the step to explode under her feet and send her flying up as a T-Rex opened its mouth and roared. "I am Tyrano-Izzy! Hear me ROAR!"

Yuki quickly formed an ice slide that carried her around the sides of the room as Izzy pursued her, changing into different animals at will. Finally she used a humming bird form to get ahead of Yuki and then turned back into her normal form and sank one set of claws into the wall. She held up the other straight out and-

THUNK!

Yuki was clothes lined by shape shifter and sent head over heels off of the ice slid. She managed to grab the lowest step away from the floor and pulled herself up. Yuki turned in time to see Izzy turn into a large gorilla that tried to grab her. However just as Izzy grabbed her, Yuki released an icy breath from her mouth that froze her arms.

Yuki quickly broke free and placed both feet on Izzy's chest before kicking off the shape shifter and knocking her off the step and onto the floor. Yuki flipped over, her feet hitting the wall and she kicked off it propelling herself forward. Izzy looked up to see Yuki fire an endless barrage of ice spears down on her. She flipped back as the ice spears embedded themselves in the ground and she kept on somersaulting backwards until she was at the edge of the hole in the middle of the room.

Yuki landed a few feet away and placed her hands on the ground. Ice began to cover the floor as it traveled to Izzy at high speed and before the shape shifter could even blink her feet frozen leaving her stuck. Izzy quickly slashed at the ice with her claws but the ice remained frozen around her feet. Taking advantage Yuki quickly formed several ice spears and sent them forward.

"_Izzy, slash at the spears!_" Cody said as her claws began to glow.

Just as the spears neared her Izzy swung her arm and laser beams split through the ice spears shattering them into pieces as Izzy's glowing claws returned to normal.

"Woooooooo..." Izzy stared at her claws.

"_Mega-Slash. Can cut through almost anything except energy barriers._" Cody read the description of Izzy's upgrade.

"Awesome!" Izzy slashed at the ice around her frozen legs and shattered it easily.

She quickly charged Yuki who created large spikes of ice out of the frozen ground that attempted to impale the shape shifter. However Izzy's new claws sliced through the ice until she was right on top of Yuki. She slashed at the general who shattered into pieces of ice.

"...Well, that was easy." Izzy commented, looking at the ice shards.

"_Izzy, behind you!_"

Izzy turned around to see a white shoe slam into her face and knock her down.

"Wow..." Izzy said dizzily as she looked up and saw Yuki standing over her. "Was that your twin sister?"

"Ice clones. A perfect duplicate of myself made of ice." Yuki created ice kunai in both hands, twirling them expertly as she launched herself forward.

Izzy jumped up and charged and the battle was renewed.

Xxx

Eva's fist glowed as she launched herself forward. LeShawna met her, grappling with her. Eva raised one foot to slam it down, but found Bridgette's board slamming into the back of her knees and knocking her and LeShawna over.

The latter fighter took this chance to pound Eva's face into the dirt and then toss her up into the air. "Hit him hard people!"

Geoff launched both of his Chakram at Eva, both of them cutting through her in flashes of light and deducting life points. Noah fired two pot shots into her, and then Bridgette slammed the tip of her board into Eva in mid fall, and then back flipped off before her board slammed Eva into a nearby cliff face.

When the cloud of dust faded, the board floated back to Bridgette's side lazily...and then Eva charged out. "**It takes a lot more than that to kill me!**"

"Trust me, I got a lot more!" LeShawna shouted as she charged forward, swinging her hammer.

Eva's fist glowed as she batted LeShawna's hammer easily and kicked her in the stomach. It knocked her back into a tree and Eva took the chance to finish her off. LeShawna looked up and ducked as Eva's fist slammed into where her face was and it hit the tree instead. The resulting hit made the tree fall over into the digital sea.

LeShawna launched a kick into Eva's chest making her step back and swung her hammer again. But Eva simply held up her hand...and caught it.

"**You just don't get it do you?**" Eva grinned. "**My blood makes this shell immune to all physical attacks. No matter how hard you hit me this girl's life points remain the same.**"

She grabbed LeShawna's hammer and threw it along with LeShawna herself over her shoulder and she landed on her back hard, losing thirty life points from the blow.

"**Still think you're going to win?**" Eva chuckled.

That was when LeShawna's hammer glowed capturing everyone's attention.

"What the..." LeShawna looked at her hammer.

"_Incoming upgrade for LeShawna!_" Cody announced.

"What is it?" LeShawna asked before Eva tried to punch her again.

However LeShawna swung her hammer in time and everyone watched as it glowed fiery red before it hit Eva and sent her skidding across the ground towards the edge. Luckily she slid to stop, getting up she growled at LeShawna.

"_The upgrade is that the kinetic energy of the impact is five times stronger than before making each hit more than enough against almost any opponent._" Cody read the description of LeShawna's upgrade.

"Sweet, baby!" LeShawna twirled her hammer as Eva got ready to attack again. "Bring it!"

"**Gladly!**" Eva charged forward as LeShawna got her hammer ready.

Just as Eva sent a blue glowing fist forward LeShawna swung her hammer and the resulting blow created a shockwave that blew almost everyone back. When the dust cleared Eva and LeShawna quickly attacked each other again. Hammering blow after blow at each both combatants were equal in strength and determination to destroy each other. Just as LeShawna swung her hammer again black blood poured out of Eva's skin covering her body like it did with Blade's original body and took the blow making her slide a few inches to the side.

"**It looks like I'm getting used to this body. Maybe when I win and take it back to XANA he will let me keep this shell as a pet.**" Eva snickered.

"Come on out and let me smash you!" LeShawna got ready to attack again but Bridgette in front of her before she could.

"LeShawna wait!" Bridgette put a hand on her shoulder. "Have you forgotten who we're fighting? That's Eva not Blade we're fighting. We can't just take her out we need to take out Blade."

"**Good luck with that. None of your weapons have what it takes to force me out.**" Eva charged forward.

"Hm...okay then!" Noah's hands returned to normal. "New plan!"

"We're all ears!" Bridgette said, separating her board into swords and waiting.

"Perfect!...yoink!" Noah leaped into Eva's path and used his ability to pass through solid objects...to pass into Eva the way he would once possess monsters before XANA programmed them to explode when possessed.

"**Wh-what the hell?**" Eva began to jerk and spasm, groaning in pain as she put her hands on her head. "**You** **little shrimp! I'll get you for this-**"

She fell on her knees and bent over, slamming her head into the ground repeatedly and hard enough that if she was in the real world she would have got a very bad concussion.

"Come on. Come on." Bridgette repeated quietly as she and Geoff watched in suspense as it happened.

Then Eva groaned in pain as she started vomiting the black blood that Blade was made of. It spread as Eva continued to vomit until it was large enough to be a small pool or a very large puddle.

"Eva!" Bridgette, Geoff, and LeShawna ran over to Eva who was still coughing out black blood.

"That...was sick." Eva growled as she sat up.

"Where's Noah?" Geoff asked before Noah was sent flying out of the puddle and into a tree.

Noah slid down the tree but got back up quickly. "That was fun." He looked at the others and then at Eva. "She okay?"

"I'll live." Eva stood up as the black blood began to move again.

They got ready as the blood came together and formed into its humanoid form again with eyes appearing all over the body and a large grin showing white shark like teeth appeared where the mouth would be.

"**So much for doing this the easy way.**"

"You are so _dead_ for that!" Eva growled.

"**Come and get me if you're so sure.**" Blade chuckled.

Eva roared and charged forward with glowing fists.

"Eva wait!" Bridgette shouted but it was too late.

Eva slammed her fist into Blade's chest but it went right through his stomach and out the other side. Eva tried to pull her arm out but it was stuck.

"**Don't you ever learn?**" Blade asked as he turned his right arm into a sword and cut her in half, devirtualizing her.

When she vanished he looked to the remaining four Lyoko Warriors. "**Don't hope that this will be over quickly. I plan to have a lot more fun.**"

Everybody tensed, ready for his attack...all except Bridgette that is. She rolled her eyes and raised her right arm out to her side, flexing her fingers once.

**"Warming up, surfer girl?"**

"Nah, cooling you off."

**"What-?"**

Suddenly he saw a nearby oasis had become Bridgette's newest weapon against him. The water shot out and arched through the air towards him like it had been shot out of a cannon. The blood being stared up and had time to curse before the water slammed down on him and formed itself into a dome. Bridgette then touched the edge of it with her blue blade, freezing it.

"Wow..." Geoff blinked. "Bridge, you somehow became even hotter just now."

"The guy's powerless to get out of that, he's frozen too," Noah nodded, tapping the dome with one knuckle. "I guess that'll keep him off our backs for a while."

All of them began to turn...

Only for the dome to shatter, sending shards of ice flying in all directions. LeShawna spotted the danger first and got in front of the others, using herself as a shield as multiple shards buried themselves into her, devirtualizing her instantly.

"LeShawna!" Bridgette cried out as Blade reformed again.

**"Well now we know not to try _that,_ do we?" **The General asked sarcastically.

"Aw man, what do you have to do to beat this guy?" Noah groaned. "Okay if you're my son you are so grounded!"

"**And you're about to be flat as a pancake!**" Four tendrils erupted from Blade's back and plunged themselves into the ground.

"_Everyone move!_" Cody shouted as he was what Blade was planning on the holo-map.

Just as he shouted tendrils made of black blood sprouted out of the ground to impale the warriors.

"Whoa!" Geoff jumped back, just barely dodging getting impaled through the chest.

Bridgette sprang into the air, somersaulting over the attack and landed out of the way. Blade turned his right hand into a whip and swung it at her from her left side. Bridgette dropped forward and stayed down as it passed over her head. She put her hands on the ground while holding her swords and threw herself into the air, flipping back onto her feet and charged forward at Blade.

Blade swung his whip again but Bridgette swung her swords and fired her Wave Blast that cut through the whip. Taking the chance Bridgette swung her swords, hoping that her attack would take Blade out but to dismay Blade hardened his blood made body so hard that sparks flew when he blocked Bridgette's swords. Blade roared as he sent a punch at her but she manage to block with one sword, sparks flying as the fist collided with her sword. Moving quickly she blocked several much punches with her swords as she was pushed back but one slipped past her guard and slammed into her stomach.

Luckily Bridgette felt no pain as she was hit in the stomach and as a second one hit her in the face. She quickly thrust her right sword at Blade's face but Blade hardened his face and when Bridgette's sword collided with it the impact actually broke her sword. Bridgette gasped as the pieces fell.

"**You still don't get it do you?**" Blade asked and with a swipe of his arm he sent Bridgette flying into a tree.

Geoff quickly swung his axe and sent a wave of lightning at him but Blade simply raised his left hand and blocked the attack.

"What is it with this guy? No matter how hard we hit him nothing's hurting him!" Geoff groaned.

"**Like I said, my true body is made of the dark blood. I can solidify it or turn into its liquid blood form and not even throwing me into the digital sea will kill me.**"

"There is a weakness somewhere. No one's indestructible here, not even XANA." Noah muttered. "There's no way this guy is invincible. Cody, have you scanned this guy?"

"_Sorry, Noah, I'm a little distracted with making sure the tower's still with us._" Cody replied.

"Listen, I need you to scan this guy ten minutes ago! Aelita's tough, she can hold on for just a few seconds." Noah said as Blade held out one hand like it was a gun. "And hurry!"

"**Bang.**"

From his finger came a blast of small bullets made of dark blood that Bridgette tried to block but it shattered her remaining sword and went right through her chest, taking the last of her life points. She devirtualized just as the bullet hit the tree behind her and went out the other side.

"Bridge!" Geoff shouted as she vanished.

"Geoff, move!" Noah shouted as Blade pointed his index finger at Geoff.

"**Sayonara.**" Blade fired but Geoff quickly jumped to the side and bullet went straight through a rock behind him that shattered on impact.

Geoff and Noah took off, running as fast as they could while Blade continued to fire blood bullets from his fingers that were so hard they shattered almost anything they hit. One even hit a tree so hard it sent it flying over the edge and into the digital sea. They turned right when they found another path and quickly jumped out of the way of Blade's bullet barrage.

"Okay, I am really getting tired of that guy." Geoff said as he and Noah got behind a large log.

"Me too. Cody, tell me got something." Noah looked up.

"_Well, I think I got something. Before Blade had a set of life points like every other monster or digital avatar but after Eva busted that shell open and his black blood came out he's got no life points._"

"No life points? How can you have no life points but still be walking and fighting? Is he a zombie?" Geoff asked as Blade walked out the corner and grinned when he aimed his fingers at the log.

"_More like his shell had life points but destroying it doesn't destroy him. His black blood form can regenerate from almost anything that it's almost impossible to kill him._"

A blood pullet blasted through the log and shot out the other side just inches from Noah's right cheek. "There had better be a 'but' coming up."

"_There is. If there are no life points it means Blade must have some kind of core keep his blood body together._"

"We take out the core..." Noah started.

"We take Blade out." Geoff said just as a blood bullet went through his hat. "Aw man!"

"Where's the core?" Noah ducked as the barrage continued to pierce the log and closer to them.

"_That's going to take a little while to find._" Cody replied, sheepishly.

That was when Blade fired a large spear that slammed into the log and shattered it when it came out between Geoff and Noah. They quickly jumped and avoid getting hit as they came out from their cover to face Blade again.

"You'd better hurry, Cody." Noah turned his hands into guns.

Blade stopped firing his blood bullets and slammed his fists into the ground.

"_Jump now!_" Cody shouted.

Geoff and Noah didn't bother to ask why and even if they thought about asking they didn't have the time. Just as they jumped back spikes made of black blood erupted from the ground that would have skewered them if they were hit. Noah fired his lasers and Geoff fired another blast of lighting that blasted Blade apart. However a second after that the black blood came together and reformed his humanoid form.

"**That all you got?**"

"Cody now would be good." Geoff stepped back as Blade's hands turned into cannons.

"_I'm getting there!_" Cody replied hastily.

Blade fired lances of black blood at them and they were so close that one even left a tear in Noah's trench coat as he dived down, ducking under it. He fired several shots from his guns that hit Blade but it only made holes in his body that could allow him to see through the other side before the black blood regenerated healing his wounds.

In retaliation Blade held his arm out which stretched out until it was long enough and whipped it at Noah. Luckily for Noah even though he was not a physically strong as most of the other warriors his time in Lyoko as well as his time on Total Drama made him fast enough to dodge most attacks, even fast ones. He quickly dived out of the way as the whip made of black blood came at him and cut through a tree like a knife through butter.

"Okay, I just about have had enough of this guy!" Geoff growled.

"_Then this is the part where I save the day._" Cody replied sounding triumphant.

"You got something?" Geoff asked as Blade advanced.

"_Yeah, use your chakrams and hit him with a lightning bomb._"

"Why?" Geoff separated his axe into his chakrams.

"_Just do it!_"

Geoff shrugged and threw one of his chakrams at Blade who stood and let the chakram hit him in the chest. The moment it touched him it exploded in a blast of lightning that blew his body apart. Black blood scattered across the forest but the blood started to come together to reform Blade's humanoid body.

"_Okay, Noah the moment you see one Eye appear as its reforming shoot it!_"

Noah didn't bother to ask as he aimed his guns at the mass of black blood coming together. An eye with the symbol of XANA as its pupil opened up as the creature reformed and Noah took the shot. But Blade quickly scattered as he knew what was happening and the blood scattered to try and flee and reform somewhere else.

"What's going on?" Geoff asked.

"_Remember how XANA's Eye is the weakness of his monsters? That rule applies to Blade. Scans show one of the Eyes of holding a program that allows Blade to harden his body to protect it from harm and turn into liquid whenever he wants. The center Eye directs the blood and forms around it when he regenerates and it works almost anywhere, not even drowning in the digital sea stops the center Eye from controlling the blood."_

"Okay, so which Eye does it? There's Eyes all over his body!" Geoff pointed out as the eyes with XANA symbols as pupils on Blade's blood made body covered his arms, legs, and torso with one big Eye on his head.

"_Find the Eye that opens first when he regenerates! That's the center Eye, the rest grant him three hundred sixty degree view of everything around him._"

"To keep him from getting surprised by sneak attacks." Noah guessed. "Alright then, I think I know how we can get at it. Geoff, can you play shark bait?"

"You got it!" Geoff formed his Chakrams into their axe form and watched as Blade began to reform twenty feet away. "There you are!" He reared both arms back and then flung his axe through the air. It spun, energy crackling about it as it became a disc of golden light. "Sweet!" It cut right through the mass as it began to reform.

"How was that-Noah?" Geoff looked around, but the genius was gone. "Did I just get ditched?"

**"Looks like it pal," **Blade snickered as he began to reform again, all of his eyes focusing on Geoff. **"Now with Daddy running off to hide, I won't have any trouble** **getting rid you-GUH!"**

A hand suddenly burst up through the mass of blood. Noah, rising out of the ground behind Blade, smiled. "Yeah, about that...If I'm having a son like you in real life, I'll go abstinent."

Then he formed his hand into a gun and fired right into the center eye. Just as Blade tried to break up again, Noah fired. The eye broke into many red shards of light that dissolved into nothing. Blade let out a shriek as a shockwave flew out from him, throwing both Noah and Geoff off their feet.

They tried to stay low to the ground as patches of light appeared on Blade who couldn't believe this was happening. He tried to find a way to stop this but it was no use. Despite the fact that this was the end he could not help but smile and shout out his last words.

"**THIS WAS A GREAT FIGHT!**"

As he shouted his blood turned into black vapour and disappeared into the air.

"...whoa..." Geoff grinned. "We actually got a General!"

"Uh...I think you mean that _I_ got a General," Noah said, as he sat on the ground with a big sigh. "I can't we actually _won_. I know we've been in a lot of fights since this started but this was a dozy."

"No kidding. But we did it." Geoff leaned against a tree and set his weapon down. "How are the others doing?"

"_Gwen and Izzy have their hands full with Jinx and Yuki while Aelita is having trouble with the connection. XANA really wants her out._"

"She'll win. There's no way she's going to lose this chance." Geoff said with complete confidence.

Xxx

Aelita quickly blocked another blast from Lilith as the battle continued. Lilith would attack to push Aelita back to force her to break connection while Aelita would defend and attempt to push forward and complete the connection. Both of them were evenly matched and neither was giving the other any kind of advantage. Lilith suddenly stopped when she sensed something making Aelita stop as she stared in confusion as to why Lilith suddenly stopped.

Lilith's eyes widened in shock before she turned at Aelita and sent an angry glare that promised pain and suffering. "Your friends have done it now. They just took out Blade."

"They did?" Aelita asked, surprised but relieved that they did it.

"Yeah...and now I'LL SEE TO IT THAT THEY PAY BY MAKING YOU SUFFER!" Lilith roared as she renewed her attack.

Aelita hastily raised her hands and created a barrier to block Lilith's barrage of red lasers. They were now floating in a storm as lightning flashed all around them.

"Time to change the scenery!" Lilith said as she vanished.

Aelita looked around, searching for any sign of Lilith and what her next attack might be.

"Aelita?"

She turned around and saw...

"Mother?" Aelita's arms dropped to the side as she stared in complete shock as standing behind her was her mother, Antea Schaeffer.

"Yes, my angel." Antea smiled, giving her the nickname that she had used to call Aelita when she was a little girl as she stepped towards her shocked daughter. "It's me."

Aelita couldn't move, speak, and she almost couldn't even think. Her mother looked exactly the same as she remembered despite the fact that she had not seen her in a long time. All she had to remember her mother was the few pictures she found at her old house. She had hoped, prayed, that one day she might see her mother alive but since she had learned that Antea had fallen into the digital sea she gave up.

Antea slowly stepped towards her, taking long strides as Aelita could only stare.

"But, you..." Aelita muttered with disbelieving eyes.

"I know." Antea said sadly. "I am so sorry for leaving you alone. It must have been so hard for you.

"I tried so hard to stay alive. But I lost daddy when he tried to kill XANA." Aelita now looked guilty but Antea's hand on her cheek almost made the guilt vanish.

"You've grown up so much and look so beautiful." Antea stopped just in front of her.

Aelita could only stare as she reached out and...

SLAP!

Aelita fell to the ground, almost paralyzed in shock as she felt the stinging sensation of Antea's hand slapping her check so hard she fell over. She put a hand on her cheek and she looked up at her mother and found the smile was gone, replaced by a glare of hate and anger.

"You stand there like a scared little girl while your father and I risk our lives for you and for what? To just watch us die in vain!" Her mother yelled at her, which was something she had never seen before.

She couldn't recall ever seeing her mother angry.

"Wh-what?" Aeltia could only gasp.

"She's always just sitting there and letting someone else take the fall." Another voice said as Aelita sat up.

She spun around and saw...

"Yumi?"

Yumi Ishiyama was standing a behind her with her arms crossed and glaring down at her.

"After all the hard work we did for her you'd think she'd be able to do some herself." Ulrich Stern stepped out from behind Yumi matching her glare of contempt.

"I guess when you don't do the hard work you get lazy." Aelita turned and saw Odd kneeling next her looking disappointed. "But seriously, after seeing everyone around you die or get caught is it too hard to ask you to do something rather than sit like a little girl and stare as we lose?"

"To think I slaved day and night to save you and when I need your help you're useless." Aelita's eyes widened as she looked up...

"Jeremy." She could only gasp in shock as the boy who saved and cared for her since the day they met looked down at her with a look of hate that she could never imagine him having.

"We help you through all that pain and suffering and when we need you, you let us get captured. Now we're the ones who are suffering!" Jeremy yelled down at her.

"What would you expect? When you guys lost she ran to us for help." Aelita could only stare as Gwen appeared with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face. "She acts all tough when she has help but she was all but bawling until we showed up."

"I got sent right back to Square One with Courtney because of her," Duncan appeared, glaring venomously at Aelita. "Happy Aelita? I know I was until you messed it up."

"Well I almost _died_," Geoff said. "I got shot!"

"I almost drowned!" Gwen pointed out.

"Everywhere you go you just bring more and more trouble for everybody!" Heather snapped as the rest of the gang appeared behind her.

"That's all we're good for though, isn't it? We're your precious body guards," Another voice added as Seraphim himself stepped through the crowd. "I think I should have the honour of ending her right now. After all Aelita, I died saving your thankless ass. I _died_ because of _you!_" He pointed at her, ripping his mask off with a snarl.

"So what, you can shut down a few towers? We could have stopped all this by flipping a switch!" Gwen continued. "But no, you have to be the big hero of the story. Well do you know what the best thing to do would have been? Let your old friends shut down the computer so none of this ever happened! So that _you_ would never ruin our lives!"

"I-I didn't-" Aelita couldn't form a comprehendible word as she scrambled away from the group, which was closing in around her.

"Just like before, she stands there and whimpers like a baby." Courtney sneered.

"Guess some people just can't gain a back bone." LeShawna scoffed.

"Someone ought take just end it. This is pathetic." Trent shook his head.

"Face it, Aelita. You can try all you want but it's never enough." Lilith appeared in front of her.

"Shu-shut up! This is just some trick! It always is!" Aelita tried to hit her but Lilith vanished.

"She thinks this is just some show huh? Somebody better show here it's real." Noah appeared with an annoyed look.

"Allow _me,_" Seraphim formed a lance. "I have one more infection to get rid of." He reared his arm back. _"Annoyance, disinfected."_

Aelita shrieked and thrust both hands forward. "GET AWAY FROM ME! PLASMA BEAM!"

The beam shot right through Seraphim, who exploded into light.

"Damn...guess I should have expected that one." Lilith commented.

Aelita shook with what could only be described in one word: fury, pure fury towards the General in front of her. "You...**you...**" She reared one arm back and then delivered the hardest punch of her life to Lilith's face. The blow sent Lilith flying back. **"BITCH!"**

Aelita was proceeding to pound the living day lights out of Lilith, who could barely counter or dodge between the vicious blows Aelita dealt her.

**"YOU _DARE_ TO USE MY FRIENDS LIKE THAT? _YOU DARE TO USE MY FAMILY LIKE THAT?_" **Somehow Aelita's already activated Code: Angel powers increased without any verbal command, only increasing the strength of her assault. **"I'll pick you apart and crush what's left of you!"**

Lilith jumped back, avoiding Aelita's blows and her energy blast as the pink haired Lyoko Warrior flew at her to tear her apart like she said before. Her attacks kept Lilith on the defence as she dodged each one to avoid getting deleted. Just as Aelita tried to hit her again a blast of lightning her in the back.

She fell down and looked to see who hit her. It was Trent in his Lyoko form, his guitar smoking from firing that lightning attack. Each one of the Lyoko Warriors, old and current surrounded her.

**"More tricks, Lilith?" **Aelita growled as she raised her hand and created a barrier that blocked a barrage of shuriken, laser arrows, laser blasts, fire auras, and other attacks. **"I am not falling for them anymore!"**

The barrier dropped and Ulrich and William took the chance to charge forward and attack. Ulrich leaped at her with both swords as she created an energy sword to block them. She pushed the swords up and sent a kick into Ulrich's chest knocking him back just in time to duck under a swing from William's sword. She thrust a hand into William's chest that was full of energy that knocked him back as other Lyoko Warriors started to gang up on her.

She flew back firing her plasma beam as LeShawna tried flatten her with her hammer. Izzy turned into a Triceratops and charged at her but Aelita flew out of the way only for Seraphim to appear in front of her and stab at her with his daggers. Aelita twisted her body making the daggers fly past either side of her body as she grabbed Seraphim's arms and channelled pink electricity that shocked him and she blasted him away. Just as Seraphim flew back Gwen flew in swinging her scythe making Aelita duck as she backed away and held up two energy fields to block Gwen's scythe as she swiped at her multiple times.

As this happened Yumi and Heather got behind her and prepared to attack. But thanks to the Code: Angel program being active she used the Triplicate technique used by Ulrich to create two copies of herself to block Heather's shuriken and Yumi's fans. They blasted both of them back while the real Aelita gather pink energy in her fist and sent it into Gwen's stomach, blasting her to bits. But no matter how hard she fought no one she hit vanished, they just regenerated and continued to fight.

Lilith snickered as she watched Aelita get surrounded. "If you think that's bad wait until I kick it up a notch."

"You can try!" Aelita shouted as she fired a plasma beam at Lilith which disintegrated her but Lilith regenerate a second after the blast faded. "But it takes more than just some cheap illusions to break me!"

She spun around and blasted everyone who surrounded her with a plasma beam from both of her hands. Everyone who was hit disintegrated instantly. When Aelita's attack faded she took a deep breath but she got ready when she saw them regenerate and come at her again, shouting about how it was all her fault for everything.

'This is not real. Ignore them!' Aelita mentally chanted as she dodged, kicked, punched, and blasted everything in sight.

"This is what happens when someone is your friend." Lilith snickered as something appeared behind Aelita.

Aelita growled as she jumped up and flew at Lilith who ducked under her, dodging a pink energy fist that was broken her into pieces. Aelita quickly spun around and flew at her again. Lilith quickly summoned her illusionary copies to stop her but Aelita kept on blasting through them.

"Looks like I may need to use my secret weapon." Lilith tapped her chin as Aelita blasted through the copies between her and Lilith.

Lilith grinned as she snapped her fingers. "Here's one more for you. Think you can handle him?"

Aelita sensed someone appear behind her and spun around and fired a blast but when it was over she looked who she shot.

"Daddy?"

Waldo Schaeffer didn't reply, he just stood there and stared at her and then at the hole in chest from Aelita's blast. Aelita remained still; her mind knowing it was a trick but her body was frozen all the same as she watched her father fade as the energy from her blast disintegrated him.

"NO!" Aelita screamed.

As she was distracted all of the illusionary copies regenerated behind and took advantage of her distraction and stabbed with their weapons. Aelita fell to her knees, unable to handle the pain as the copies kept her down.

"Since I am the leader of the generals you of all people should understand how pissed I am for losing Blade. The idea that one of us could be defeated for good never crossed my mind, not even when we lost Cyrus or Shadow." Lilith appeared in front of her, looking down at her with a stern look instead of her usual mischievous smirk. "Since your friends are heading your way I shall now show them the consequences of their actions. I'll make them watch...AS I BREAK YOU!"

She placed her hand on Aelita's head and glowed red.

Xxx

Yuki and Jinx stopped fighting as they regrouped and looked at each other as they looked like they heard something.

"Looks like mission accomplished." Jinx looked up at the ceiling.

"What are you talking about? The fight's not over yet." Gwen said as she Izzy stopped a few feet away.

"We're just the diversion to lure you away from the main target." Yuki explained as a portal opened up behind her. "Our part is done."

They stepped back into the portal and vanished.

"What is she talking about?" Izzy asked.

"_Everyone, something's up with Aelita._" Cody replied. "_We just lost control of the tower to XANA again._"

"What's wrong, Cody?"

"_Her power is skyrocketing but she's not gaining anymore grounds and we're losing the connection. It's like something's distracting her from connecting to the Carbon Copy. Since she took control of the tower and kept XANA out it looks like he was trying to push her back and she was in some kind of mental battle, her mind was fighting to get through but I can't access for the programs for the connection since she's on control now. Something must be distracting her._"

"We better help her." Gwen said, turning to the center of the room where the hole was. "This is the fastest way out."

Izzy nodded and changed into a bird while Gwen activated her flight ability. They flew down the hole and out the south pole of Sector Five before they flew up towards the platform where Aelita was, standing at the Interface. When they landed they saw Aelita with her back turned to them and her arms at her side with the programs for connecting to the Carbon Copy left unattended.

"Aelita?" Gwen asked but she didn't seem hear them let alone acknowledge their presence.

"She seems out of it." Izzy said as she walked around Aelita to see her face.

"Aelita?" Gwen ran hand in front of her face but Aelita didn't seem to even see it. "She's out of it? Must be the whole mental battle thing. We need a way to see what she is seeing. Cody, where's Noah?"

"_I'm on it. He'll be there in a few minutes._"

"We might not have a few minutes. Tell him to step on it!" Gwen urged.

Suddenly Aelita's grabbed both Gwen and Izzy and threw them off the edge. Both Warriors were surprised for a few seconds before they reacted. Gwen activated her flight ability while Izzy changed into a bird and flew back up.

"Aelita, what was that for?" Izzy asked as they landed in front of her.

She did not answer, she simply held up one hand and it started to glow telling Gwen and Izzy that she was about to fire.

"Move!" Gwen shouted as she jumped back and they avoided getting blasted by a plasma beam. "Cody, you see this?"

"_Yeah, I do! I'm running a scan on her now but I don't see any XANA data in her._" Cody replied.

Aelita giggled but it sounded nothing like her. It sounded more like...

"Hey, I know that sound. That's Lilith!" Izzy said in the form of a hawk.

"Give the shape shifter a prize!" Aelita spoke her voice sounding like Lilith.

"How'd you possess Aelita?" Gwen demanded.

"That was a little too easy. The poor girl's had a lot on her plate and it was so easy to break her."

"Yeah, right." Gwen scoffed. "Aelita's too tough to be taken out by your tricks. Now answer me, how did you possess her?"

"_Gwen, I just finished the scan. There are no signs of XANA coding inside of Aelita._"

"And you won't any no matter how good the scan is." Aelita snickered. "That's because I broke her resistance."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it's like this, did Aelita ever tell you how her boyfriend ended up trapped in digital limbo when he tried to virtualize himself."

"What about it?" Gwen glared.

"She rescued him, first time they actually touched and in that one moment of contact a piece of her code was absorbed into the geek."

"He got Aelita's code?" Izzy asked.

"That's right; when XANA captured him and found out he did a little experimenting before creating me, giving me the code allowing me to become a lot stronger than an average general. You never wondered why I came along some time after the others. I can access towers as well as Aelita and XANA but I can only activate towers on XANA's behalf." Aelita explained an evil grin on her face. "When this girl took over the tower that was trying to connect to the Carbon Copy I was the one she was fighting for control. If it makes you feel better she put up a good fight but I've got more experience before I turned the tables on her. Now she's my doll and her first orders are...making you guys suffer. I would have taken you all out with her but when you destroyed Blade I made it a lot more personal. Say bye to Aelita, everyone."

She raised her hands and fired a plasma beam from both hands.

* * *

Okay, I know it took me a while to update but for the last few weeks I've been distracted with work and stuff that it slowed my thinking down so I ended finishing this chapter a little later than I usually do. So here it is and in case I don't update for the next couple of weeks I just want to say Merry Christmas everyone and happy New Year.


	75. Episode 73: The Path Opened

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 74

Geoff and Noah were about to head for the edge of the sector so Cody could summon the Transport Orb to take them to Sector Five when they noticed something...something bad. The tower they had been guarding had changed color from pink to red.

"Ah, Cody, we have a problem here." Geoff called out. "The tower's turned red again!"

"_I know. Aelita's been somehow possessed_!" Cody explained.

"Oh great. If we lose her we lose the fight and the war." Noah drawled.

"_Gwen and Izzy are fighting her now. You guys just wait while I... think of something._"

"Oh yeah, we're doomed." Noah drawled.

Xxx

To be honest Cody had no idea of he and the others in the lab could do anything to help the ones still left in Lyoko. They had all been devirtualized fighting XANA's generals and had to wait for their characters to recharge. In the meantime with Aelita possessed the tower that they were using to connect to the Carbon Copy was now under XANA's control. If they lost they might lose the only chance to reach XANA's Carbon Copy.

Gwen and Izzy dodged the plasma beams Aelita fired from her hands, flying through the air just barely dodging each blast. Izzy turned into a humming bird and flew down at Aelita to sneak up on her but a blast of pink energy surrounded her and created a shockwave that sent Izzy into the wall on the platform behind Aelita.

"Whoa." Izzy rubbed her head. "I forgot how tough she is."

Aelita turned and fired at her but Izzy ducked, turning into a mouse and then turning into a bull charging at her.

"Izzy don't!" Gwen shouted.

But before Izzy hit her Aelita jumped off the platform and into the air.

"Guys, I have some rather sad news." Lilith spoke through Aelita. "You have a choice to make. If you want to keep the connection going you can't harm Aelita but if you want to save her...you'll have to kill her."

"Wha..." Izzy and Gwen stared at Aelita.

"Like I said, she's broken now." Lilith said as Aelita flew straight at Gwen in the air.

"Aelita wait!" Gwen shouted Aelita's fist glowed bright pink.

Gwen dodged the fists as she flew back, dodging the fists knowing that one hit would blast her out of Lyoko. She flew under one fist and tried to grab Aelita but she slapped her back and Gwen flew back, slamming onto the platform. She grunted as she sat up.

"This is crazy. For Aelita to actually be fighting us..." Gwen muttered as she climbed to her feet.

"I know right." Izzy nodded, not seeing the pink blur flying straight at them,

"Look out!" Gwen shouted in time for Izzy to receive a kick in the back sending her into Gwen.

They slammed into the ground as Aelita clenched one glowing fist. She sent down on them but Gwen and Izzy rolled away, both on either side of the fist as it crashed into the platform and blasted a part of the platform.

"There's no way Aelita could get possessed like that." Gwen said, picking up her scythe. "But if she had then I know a way to cure her."

She glowed pink, activating the newest spell Aelita had given her.

"She made it to destroy XANA's codes similar to the poison spell that XANA gave me." Gwen swung her scythe at Aelita who stood still. "Please work!"

Aelita held up one finger and blocked the scythe.

"Crap!"

"It won't work with that spell. Like I said, she's broken, it's not like she's been possessed by XANA, okay? If you're going to attack, you'll have to fight her like you'd fight the monsters and us, spell caster!" Aelita snickered.

She made Aelita step towards the edge.

"If you won't attack, I'll just have to make you choose. The connection or Aelita's life." Aelita stopped at the very edge.

"What are you doing?" Gwen growled levelling her scythe at Aelita but made no move to attack.

"This is so unfair!" Izzy shouted, not liking where this was going. "Come on out and fight us the old fashioned way!"

"Attack Aelita with your full power or do you want to see her fall into the digital void?" Lilith made Aelita raise her arms. "Better choose fast!"

She fired plasma beams again making them both jump off the platform, Gwen activating her flight ability and Izzy changing into a woodpecker.

"Come on, Aelita! There's no way you'd let yourself be taken over like this!" Gwen shouted. "You really going to let her control you?"

"Lyoko to Aelita! WAKE UP!" Izzy yelled.

They dodged more plasma beams as they flew around the platform, making sure Aelita did not jump off.

"Fight!" Lilith shouted.

"Don't you know why we're doing this? If we can't stop XANA the world is dead! Everything you worked for..."

Everyone thought back to how hard Aelita worked to help them survive XANA's attacks.

"Your friends... "

They remembered how Aelita talked about Jeremy, Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd from time to time, helping her find a life in the real world.

"Your parents..."

They thought back to how hard Aelita's parents worked to save the world, keeping Aelita safe from the forces of Project Carthage and XANA.

"You were more important to them than the whole world!"

Gwen flew at Aelita with her scythe out.

"Everything _we_ worked for is dead!

SLAP!

She slapped Aelita hard it sent her away from the edge. She fell on her back as Gwen stood over her.

"No matter what you say to her it's hopeless." Lilith spoke through Aelita. "After all you're not friends. She's Lyoko's Guardian, meant to keep it and the world safe regardless of the cost. That's why she keeps recruiting people to help her, people to sacrifice themselves for the so called greater good. Those are her true feelings."

She raised her hand and fired a plasma beam but Gwen jumped, avoiding just it flew over her face. Aelita got up again and prepared to fire another plasma beam but this time Gwen was ready. She spun her scythe and created a barrier that blocked the blast. Izzy landed behind Aelita and changed into a gorilla as she knocked Aelita down with a heavy shove.

"Gotcha! Don't worry Aelita I know the way to expel evil mind control! I found out when they tried to hypnotize us as at the RCMP mental institution." Izzy said before she was kicked in the chest and sent onto the elevator that led up to the platform.

"Cody, we need some ideas now!" Gwen shouted.

"_I'm working on it!_"

"Work faster!"

Xxx

Cody rubbed his head as he needed to think of something to help them save Aelita.

"Well, what's the plan?" Bridgette asked as they gathered around the computer to watch the fight.

"I don't know. I'm thinking but I got nothing." Cody leaned back. "This is crazy."

Xxx

Aelita tried to blast Gwen again with her plasma beam but she flew into the, just dodging blast as it burned her skirt. Aelita looked liked she was about to fire another plasma beam but she stopped for a second and lowered her arms. Gwen was confused for a second but then she saw a red aura surrounding Aelita.

"Cody, those keys give Aelita the powers of every Lyoko Warrior right?"

"_Right, why?_"

"Just needed a reminder."

Before Cody could ask why Aelita raised both hands and unleashed a stream of white fire at Gwen. She had used the Keys to Lyoko to copy Gwen's fire aura only now it was much stronger than Gwen's. Gwen flew back as the stream of fire flew at her. She threw her scythe to take out the flames but to her shock the single stream of fire split into two.

One flew at her while the other one flew beneath her and headed straight for her back. She was hit and burned, screaming as her life points were reduced to thirty. The regeneration program worked to rejuvenate her but she had to stay out of the way of anymore attacks.

She floated above the platform with Aelita having a smile on her face that didn't look right on her face at all.

"It's funny isn't it? All that was needed was that connection Aelita wanted so badly to make to the Carbon Copy. Too bad she had no idea how badly things can turn out when the connection works both ways." Lilith made Aelita snicker again.

"The connection...Cody! The connection is letting Lilith do this! Take out the tower!" Gwen shouted.

Xxx

"_Geoff, Noah, the tower is what's allowing Lilith to control Aelita. She's using the connection against us! Take out the cables connected to the tower._"

"On it!" Geoff shouted as he took off towards the tower.

He fused his chakrams into his axe and jumped into the air. With a loud yell he swung his axe down on the cables and cut right through them, severing the tower from the system.

Xxx

Aelita's eyes widened as she fell on her knees. "What...have you...done?"

"You're controlling Aelita through that connection." Gwen landed on the platform. "You used the connection to attack Aelita mentally and possess her. That tower was used for the connection, take it out and the connection is severed meaning you can't control her anymore."

"_Gwen, something's wrong. The tower's not changing._" Cody said.

"What?" Gwen looked up.

"_It's true. There's no change._"

Aelita giggled then went into full blown laughter. Gwen looked down, glaring at the entity that was controlling Aelita.

"What have you done?"

"It's a shame." Aelita stood up and stared at Gwen with Lilith's smile spreading over her features. "Have you forgotten already? It wasn't used by the computer anymore when Aelita took control to strengthen the connection meaning that severing the cable was useless!" Aelita laughed again. "The connection works both ways, Gwenny, I used my own powers to connect with Aelita using that same connection meaning that the tower can't be shut down unless Aelita or I sever it."

"N-No way..." Gwen gritted her teeth.

"Why don't you ever listen to me, Gwen?" Aelita shook her head. "There's nothing you can do to save her, no matter how hard you try. Her mind is broken, her will to fight is gone, she's nothing but my toy now."

Aelita glowed green.

"GIVE IT UP ALREADY!"

Gwen was blown back as a whirl wind slammed into her and sent her into the air. She was held up in the air, trapped in the whirlwind.

"Gwen!" Izzy shouted, no longer feeling her happy self but was now actually worried.

"Time to die." Lilith tried to make Aelita drop Gwen into the digital space in Sector 5, leaving her to fall forever without hope.

Just as Izzy was about to help Gwen was pulled back onto the platform. "What the-"

"I'm still here?" Gwen looked at Aelita as she seemed to literally shake and noticed that her figure was convulsing.

"Aelita?" Both girls asked.

"It can't be..." Lilith spoke through Aelita's mouth.

She tried to make Aelita's body move, tried to use her powers, but nothing seemed to happen.

"My...body...is..." Aelita stuttered as her left arm came up and her clenched her fist. "My body is...moving...by itself... What's going on?"

Izzy ran over to help Gwen up. "Is that what I think it is?"

"I think so." Gwen smiled. "Knew she had it in her.

"This can't be..." Lilith struggled to take control back.

'It's exactly that you bitch!' Aelita shouted in her mind as she slammed the fist into her own face.

"Aelita!" Gwen and Izzy ran over to her as she fell over on her back

Xxx

"You've gone and done the dumbest thing in the world." Lilith appeared above Aelita as she was face down on the ground. "You're actually conscious. I thought for sure that last attack was enough to leave you a veggie."

"Conscious?" Aelita started to get up. "When did you think I lost conscious?"

As she sat up Lilith saw there was a blade in Aelita's chest. "You stabbed yourself?"

"When you had them gang up on me. I knew it was all a trick but my heart still broke when I saw my mother shouting at me and my father dying. When you had them attack me, if I hadn't done something I _would_ have lost conscious." Aelita looked up, smirking as she pulled her own energy blade out. "That was a lot closer than I would have wanted."

Lilith growled as the mental images of the Lyoko Warriors surrounded her. "This time I'll stab you until your brain dead."

"Wrong. It's over." Aelita stood up and her fists glowed. "I am experienced in this, Lilith, it's kept me alive through all the hardships, the grief, the pain, and now..."

She brought her fists together and formed a bright light.

"It's payback time."

She slammed her fists into the ground and released a shockwave that consumed all the mental images in a flash of bright light.

"What?" Lilith flew back.

"Plasma Shockwave!" Aelita shouted as the blast of energy took out all the mental images Lilith had created.

Xxx

Geoff and Noah watched as the red glowing tower change back to pink.

"Yes! I knew she'd do it!" Geoff pumped a fist in the air.

"Was there any doubt at all?" Noah asked with a smirk.

Xxx

Aelita opened her eyes and they glowed bright as a white light blasted out of her eyes and into the data space surrounding Sector 5.

"Whoa!" Izzy and Gwen jumped, watching as Aelita floated up with the white beam oflight still coming out of her eyes.

Xxx

Lilith dodged another white blast as Aelita fired her plasma beam at her. She summoned her arrow and fired a barrage of energy arrows at Aelita. However the pink haired guardian of Lyoko simply created an energy barrier and blocked the arrows. She fired her beam again and blasted Lilith's arm off, but the red haired general didn't even react.

She simply smirked as her arm regenerated itself.

"What a girl. She's gone and burned herself up, blast them all apart." Lilith grinned. "But this kind of won't wor..."

Lilith stopped as she looked down and saw an energy blade coming out of her chest. Looking down in shock as Aelita appeared right behind her.

"How's it feel to be stabbed inside your dream world?" Aelita asked.

Lilith chuckled. "You're just too much fun for me to hate."

She reached down and pulled the blade out. Her wound regenerated despite the fact that if she was a real human she would have died as the blade had gone right through the human heart was at in the human body.

"Trying to kill me inside my own dream world?"

She summoned her mental images of the Lyoko Warriors again and they all surrounded Aelita.

"I'm immune to pain here unless you stab the real me. But here, just who am I? In your dreams you can be anyone or anything." Lilith smirked.

Aelita stopped as she looked around at the warriors that all looked ready to gang up on her again.

"So, I need to find the real you, huh?" Aelita said as she created another energy blade. "Trying to take you all out won't work since you survived my last blast. So I just have to take you out the old fashioned way."

She looked around at each warrior, ready for almost any attack they might try to use while she's not looking. With the Keys to Lyoko she knew how to counter each attack but if they gang up on her again she'd rather not go through the trouble of stabbing herself to keep herself from getting her mind broken by Lilith's illusions.

"I hope I am lucky." She threw her sword through Lilith who smirked and laughed.

"Bad luck, time to end this. Spend your life in a drunken dream, never seeing you friends ever agai-"Lilith stopped as she faded.

Behind her was Jeremy who was looking down at the blade that had gone through his chest. He fell to his knees, looking up at Aelita in shock.

"But how..."

"You seem to have fun using Jeremy's image, probably from the fact that his DNA gave you life and your powers." Aelita explained as the mental images began to fade. "That's how I figured out that your original form was nothing but a disguise. Something I learned the hard way from my fights with XANA, always using the images of my loved ones, imitating their voices, personalities, all to lure me out and break me down."

The mental world seemed to start breaking apart.

"I've seen this all the time and I always managed to find a way out, even when I was backed into a corner which was almost all the time. It's how XANA works, something he obviously passed onto you." Aelita said as white cracks opened in the dark void of Lilith's dream dimension. "You should have severed the connection when they cut the cables to the tower. The both of us are still connected to the tower which is still managing a partial connection to the Carbon Copy." Aelita smirked as Jeremy shifted back into Lilith. "You've led us to your master's doorstep, something I am sure he will not be so happy to hear."

Lilith started to fade but she still smiled. "Even if you reach the Carbon Copy the fight is far from over. Things are going to get a lot harder. You have no idea just what XANA has waiting for you and anyone who decides to die for you."

"We'll deal with it. We've come this far, we won't back down." Aelita was surrounded by a white glowing aura. "Tell XANA that it's his turn to be afraid now."

She slammed her fists into the ground and the dream world was shattered in an explosion of white and pink energy. Lilith could only watch as the blast headed for her, not doing anything to stop it. But she was not worried at all. In fact she was smirking.

"I'll get you next time...mommy. Count on it!" She said as the blast hit her.

She was vaporized along with the rest of the dream world.

"I'm coming...everyone." Aelita smiled as she faded.

Xxx

Cody and everyone watched as the programs set up to connect to the Carbon Copy started working overtime. Breaking through the barriers around XANA's Carbon Copy and forging the connection to reach it.

"She's doing it! She's doing it!" Cody yelled happily. "She's breaking through!"

"All right, girl!" LeShawna pumped a fist.

"Awesome!" Trent shouted.

"Everyone, Aelita's got it! We're connecting!" Cody informed everyone still in Lyoko.

Xxx

"Whoo-Hoo!" Geoff threw his hat up into air. "We did it dudes!"

Noah sighed as he took a deep breath and let out a..."Whoo-hoo."

"Dude, what kind of 'Whoo-hoo' is that? I've heard turtles shout louder than that." Geoff asked turning to the book worm.

"It's all I got." Noah shrugged.

The pink glowing tower change back to its neutral blue aura.

"_We did it, guys. We've got a connection to the copy._" Cody said. "_We're up and running now._"

"What about Aelita?" Bridgette asked as everyone had forgotten just in how much trouble Aelita had found herself in. "Is she all right?"

"Yeah, what happened do her?" DJ asked.

"Hang on. Gwen, Izzy, how's Aelita?" Cody asked.

Xxx

"Hang on, Cody." Gwen and Izzy knelt down next to Aelita who seemed to have lost conscious through connecting with the Carbon Copy. "I think the fight took a lot out of here. She's completely out cold."

"What do we do?" Izzy asked.

"_Well, we've got a working connection now. We can wait for her to come around or we can devirtualize you all and come back when we're all ready._"

"What's the worst case scenario?" Gwen asked.

"_We might lose the connection since XANA could take the chance to disrupt if we don't send someone through the portal and connect with us on the other side._" Cody explained.

"Get Noah and Geoff over here and help me find the tower here, we're going to need to help Aelita and everyone rejuvenate their life points." Gwen said as she picked up Aelita. "When she wakes up we'll talk about what to do."

Xxx

Aelita's eyes opened to the soft white smooth surface of a platform found inside a Lyoko Tower. Sitting up slowly she let out a soft groan as she put a hand on her head.

"You okay?" Aelita looked up and saw Gwen who was sitting on the edge of the platform over the dark abyss below.

When she heard Aelita she got up and walked over to her. She knelt down next to her as Aelita sat up.

"_She's up everyone._" Cody announced.

"_Whoa! That was quite a scare you gave us girl._" LeShawna said out loud so everyone could hear her in Lyoko.

"_You all right?_" Bridgette asked, concerned.

"I've felt better but I'll live. What happened?" Aelita asked, looking at Gwen who shrugged.

"That's a question I was planning to ask you." Gwen replied.

"_She's right. You gave us all a major scare._" Cody said.

"_Yeah, we thought for sure that we lost you._" Trent spoke up.

"The last thing I remember was..." Aelita looked up. "Lilith!"

"It's all right." Gwen put a hand on Aelita's shoulder. "It's all right. She's gone. You kicked her out of your head."

"That explains the pounding headache I have." Aelita smiled as she put her hand on her head. "I feel like I've got a hangover. Not that I ever was tempted to try alcohol."

"That's good." Gwen smiled but became serious again. "Lilith said your boyfriend had a piece of your code in him."

"I know, she told me. It was back when he was trying to materialize me. One night he got angry when he failed after trying to make the program work several times and I tried to cheer him up but he barked at me. He felt bad later and tried to virtualize himself onto Lyoko to apologize to me in person." Aelita explained. "Yumi was at the controls after he showed her how to work the computer but she typed in the wrong command and Jeremy ended up in a virtual limbo, somewhere between Lyoko and Earth. It took me a while but I found a way to save him."

Aelita looked through ceiling of the tower as she remembered everything that happened.

"That was the first time he and I ever touched, when it happened our minds connected in a way that I had never felt before." Aelita's smile faded as she looked down. "It must have been through that a small piece of my code was accidently removed and absorbed into Jeremy."

"And when XANA scanned his DNA that code was scanned too." Gwen surmised.

"Giving Lilith powers that were similar to mine even able to activate towers because they would think that's me or see enough of my code to gain access." Aelita continued. "And if she has the Keys to Lyoko like me and XANA..."

"She could be stronger than Shadow and even Nephilim."Gwen finished just realizing how serious this could be. "She could be as powerful as you and XANA."

"I thought it was just coincidence that the one who replaced Shadow as the leader of the generals was made from Jeremy's DNA and it was just coincidence that she had powers similar to me but I guess asking for just to be a coincidence was silly." Aelita rubbed the back of her head.

"That seems to be our luck." Gwen smirked. "She took you by surprise. If you had known you wouldn't have let yourself be possessed."

Aelita looked down at the ground when she heard that. "She didn't trick me. I made a stupid mistake."

Gwen looked at her in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Lilith told me that Blade was destroyed. Is it true?"

"_It's true. It wasn't easy but Geoff and Noah found Blade's weak spot and took him out._" Cody said.

"Lilith sensed it and she got angry. She decided to make you all pay by making mesuffer. At first we were fighting each other, I tried to keep the connection alive while she tried to push me out and sever it. But when she sensed Blade had been deleted she used her powers to make these illusions." Aelita trailed off.

"Aelita, what did she do?" Gwen asked after Aelita had been silent for a moment.

"I saw my mother." Aelita said making everyone listen to her now.

Everyone now knew what happened to Antea and knew it was sore subject for Aelita. It would be a sore subject for anyone who lost their mother like she had.

"There are times that I feel like I'm forgetting her because I haven't seen her since I was six and that was a long time ago. But then...Out of nowhere she's standing in front of me, exactly how I remember in every exact detail. Her face, her eyes, her voice." Aelita's voice was quiet but everyone could still hear her. "I should have seen through the illusion but seeing her...I hesitated as I couldn't move when she spoke and I suddenly found myself lost in the fantasy. She reached out to me..." Aelita reached to her face and covered her left cheek, where she had been slapped. "And she slapped me."

Everyone was quiet as they listened but several gasps from the lab were heard as Aelita revealed what had happened.

"I've never seen her angry, not once, in my whole life. They had a lot of reasons to be unhappy but they were always smiling, living happily when I was growing up." Aelita looked at Gwen. "To actually feel her hand slapping me, and then watching her berate me, blaming me for everything went wrong. I couldn't even think because I was too shocked. Then, out of nowhere you, the others along with Courtney and Duncan, Jeremy, Odd, Yumi, Ulrich, and even Seraphim appeared. I was too much in shock as you all started berating me, insulting, blaming, and even some of you tried to stab me."

"She tried to make you think we all thought this was your fault." Gwen realized.

"When Seraphim tried to stab me, I blasted him with my plasma beam and the illusions faded. I lost it, I went mad because of what Lilith did, all I wanted to do from that point was tear her apart." Aelita looked down. "And still she managed to trick...when she tricked me into blasting my own father apart."

"An illusion, Lilith made it to trick you."

"It shouldn't have worked. I knew it wasn't my father, I knew it was all a damn trick." Aelita covered her eyes, feeling like tears should be falling. "But when...I saw him disappear from my attack like he did before...I felt like it broke my heart."

Everyone was silent as they listened. What Lilith had done had infuriated several members of the group, even Heather was a little mad because that was a low blow even for her.

"Listen," Gwen put a hand on Aelita's shoulder. "This is not your fault. What happened with your parents, your friends, Seraphim, and everything else that went wrong is not your fault. You had nothing to do with the government's plans for your parents, you didn't let your father die and despite what you may think no one blames you. You've just had a lot of bad luck, we've all had it and now it's time to fight back."

"_It's true, Aelita. This ain't a perfect world and no one saw this coming but we sure as hell as smart enough to know this was not you_r _for anything that's happened._" Cody said. "_If this was a perfect world, I'd won the prize money, lived out my life as a billionaire, and managed to get a certain girl of my dreams._"

"Keep dreaming." Gwen smirked.

"_Wasn't planning on stopping._" Cody replied.

"He's right. If we all preferred it you'd have finished this years ago, XANA would be dead, your friends and family would be with you, and Chris would be living as a hobo after we sued his for every stupid thing he did to us." Gwen said, just imagining herself using her powers to blast Chris. "But the good news is that we have a chance to help you finish this once and for all."

"You mean..." Aelita looked up.

"Yeah, you did it. We've got a connection now." Gwen smiled. "We can reach XANA's Carbon Copy but only if you feel up to it."

Aelita sat up. "What do you mean? I was going to ask if you all feel up to it. Knowing XANA once we reach the Carbon Copy everything we've been through up to now has just been basic training."

"You know our answer." Gwen replied standing up and offering her hand.

Aelita took and Gwen helped her stand up.

"We've been on the defence way too long. I say we got for it." Gwen said.

"And the others?" Aelita asked.

"Let's ask them and don't worry. I know a way to help you feel better." Gwen said as they walked out of the tower.

Aelita stopped for a second. "Gwen, what Lilith said before, about me using you all..."

"Forget it; I know you're way too nice for something like that." Gwen smiled. "Stop being so damn self conscious about everything."

She put her hand on Aelita's shoulders and led her out of the tower.

"Aelita!" Aelita found herself knocked over as a red dog jumped on her and started linking her face.

Gwen laughed along with Noah and Geoff who were watching nearby.

"Nice to see you too, Izzy." Aelita managed to get Izzy off her who quickly shape shifted into a kangaroo.

"Yo, everyone I'm Izzy Legs and I'd like to..." Izzy pretended she was adjusting sunglasses covering her eyes while speaking with an Australian accent. "Hello!" She began to dance. "A hip! Hop! Uh-hippy! A hippy to the-"

Her words were lost as Gwen let out a snort, slapping her thigh and trying not to double over. Geoff gave in next. Despite trying to look stoic Noah's mouth curled into a grin and he put one hand over his mouth as he tried not to laugh. Finally Aelita joined the rest of them as they started laughing at the dancing red kangaroo.

Izzy snickered. "The Izzy strikes again!"

Aelita finally stopped laughing; trying to actually catch her breath even though in Lyoko there was no air to breath. "All right, I take you it you guys want to go ahead."

"You betcha!" Geoff pumped a fist. "Let's do it!"

"Izzy is so ready for more action!" Izzy transformed back into her human form.

"All though we all probably will end up going through armies of monsters, dangerous traps, and possibly end up facing gruesome death I say... Bring it on." Noah replied, still sounding the same as usual even though he had a small smirk.

"Looks like you got your answer, Aelita." Gwen looked at Aelita. "You in?"

"I'm in." Aelita nodded. "If you all want this and we can make it then I'm in."

"That good enough for everyone?" Gwen asked looking at the ceiling of the blue chamber they were in.

"_You guys sure you want to do this?_" Cody asked. "_If you guys go ahead with this we won't be able to talk to you on the copy. You'll have to actually forge a permanent connection between the supercomputer and the copy. You guys could end up in trouble and we can't help you out from here._"

"We'll be fine. We'll be careful." Gwen reassured them.

"_Please be careful._" Bridgette said.

"_Yeah, girl, come back alive._" LeShawna added.

"Don't worry, careful is Izzy's specialty. I am always careful, how do you think I manage to keep surviving fights with XANA and evil aliens."

"Where was that careful when you made us crash into Jamaica?" Noah asked.

"When did I do that?" Izzy asked, looking confused.

"Forget it, Noah." Geoff chuckled. "It's no use trying and I've long since accepted that."

"Is the connection still up, Cody?" Aelita asked.

"_Yep, still running._" Cody replied.

"If we're doing this we need to do it now." Aelita replied.

"Well, then let's do it!" Geoff pumped a fist into the air.

"To the portal!" Izzy pointed to the exit.

"Actually we don't need to." Aelita smirked.

"What do you mean?" Gwen asked as everyone looked confused.

"You'll find out. Cody, is the portal general up and running?"

"_I'm just running the program now._"

"The password is Protector." Aelita said.

"_All right, entering password. P-R-O-T-E-C-T-O-R._" Cody typed the password in and the program accepted the password. "_Program up and running!_"

Xxx

The portal generator activated, the platform glowing bright like how the interior platforms did when Aelita entered the towers. In the center a white orb appeared looking exactly like the Transport Orb appeared and flew out of the chamber. Everyone saw the Transport Orb heading for them.

"Wow!" Gwen and Geoff said at the same time.

"Awesome!" Izzy jumped up and down.

"Even I got to admit that's impressive." Noah nodded.

"Cody, we'll contact you when we forge a real connection at the Carbon Copy." Aelita said.

"_Good luck._" Cody said.

"_Go get 'em!_" LeShawna added.

"_Come back alive, Geoff._" Bridgette said.

"Count on it, Bridge." Geoff nodded.

"_I'm not good at this but don't lose._" Heather said, trying to sound like she was encouraging.

"_Good luck._" Trent said.

"_Yeah, be careful._" DJ added.

Everyone in Lyoko nodded as they stepped towards the Transport Orb.

"One small step for man, one giant for-"Izzy started but the Transport Orb engulfed her and everyone else.

It then flew out of Sector 5 and down into the digital seal. It went through the gate and into the World Wide Network, straight for the Carbon Copy.

Xxx

Finally, the Warriors are on their way to the Carbon Copy! What obstacles will they face there? Find out next time.

And Happy New Years Everyone!


	76. Episode 74: Forest Sector Copy

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 75

The Transport Orb came out of the digital sea after a few minutes of traveling at what some would say the speed of light. It flew up to the edge of the sector and softly landed on the platform and vanished revealing the surviving members of the Lyoko Warriors that could make it. Izzy fell over on her hands and knees, clutching her stomach.

"Wow, for the first time ever Izzy feels air sick!" Izzy squealed as she stood up. "That would be so cool if that could work in the real world."

"Yeah, the perfect air plane. Takes you places in a few seconds and leaves you to throw up when you get off. No chance of them cleaning up your mess." Noah looked around. "Wow...it looks...like nothing we haven't already seen."

They were in an exact copy of the Forest Sector on Lyoko, everything looked the same, the grass, the paths, the trees, and the sunlight.

"Cody, can you hear me?" Aelita asked, but she received no reply. "The connection is one way, we're able to reach here but unless we forge a permanent connection we're stranded until we find a way or..."

"We get blasted." Gwen finished.

"There's no way that's happening dudes! We made this far and we're going all the way!" Geoff pumped a fist in the air.

"Be careful everyone, there's no Cody to warn us of danger and no vehicles so we have to do it the old fashioned way." Aelita pointed down the path. "If this sector is just like the Forest Sector I know where the Way Tower should be."

"Well, a little exercise never hurt." Gwen shrugged.

"Great, exercise." Noah drawled. "The only thing better than exercising here is what we run into while we do it."

"Are you kidding? That's the best part!" Izzy held up her cross bows.

"Once I put the Virtual DNA of everyone in that tower we can arrive here from Earth anytime we want and XANA won't be able to do anything about it." Aelita continued.

"I bet he'll be happy with us constantly showing up on his doorstep." Gwen smirked.

"Or when we crash his house." Geoff snickered as they started down the path.

As they walked the gang took in the sights of the Forest Sector of the Carbon Copy, looking for anything different from Lyoko's Forest Sector but so far everything remained the same right down to the same tree stumps they passed a few times.

"Well this is a little disappointing. For such a super smart AI XANA sure likes to use the same thing over and over again. Where's the imagination?" Izzy asked. "Come on! Just walking around here is so boring!"

"Well, find a way to entertain yourself." Noah said, not bothering to look at Izzy.

"Okay!" Izzy jumped into the air and changed into a lemur as she landed on Noah's head.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Noah looked up as Izzy settled herself on his head.

"Entertaining myself!" Izzy replied as she stood up on Noah's head. "Changing into animals is so much fun especially looking animals from a few movies."

"Is she about to-"Aelita asked, guessing which movie Izzy was talking about as Odd talked her into watching it.

Izzy began dancing on Noah's head, irritating the boy genius even more. "I like to move it, move it. I like to move it, move it. I like to move, move it. Ya like to..."

"Move it!" Geoff chorused.

"Seriously!" Noah complained as Izzy continued to dance.

"I like to move it, move it. I like to move it, move it. I like to move it, move it! Ya like to..." Izzy put a hand to her ear.

"Move it!" This time Geoff, Aelita, and even Gwen chorused.

"I like to move it, move it. You like to move it, move it. She like to move it, move it. He like to..."

"Move it!" Everyone chorused, even though Noah was most likely shouting at Izzy to get off his head when he said it.

"All Lyoko Warriors all over the world – Super Izzy 'pon your case, man. I love running from explosions and when ya move ya body uno move it nice and sweet and crazy. Alright?"

"Somebody kill me." Noah drawled as everyone laughed as Izzy continued to dance on his head singing.

Aelita smiled as they turned on the path and up ahead they saw a tower.

"There it is! It's exactly like the Way Tower in Lyoko's Forest Sector." Aelita pointed at it.

"About time. Can the pop star take a break now?" Noah asked, making Izzy jump off his head and change back into her human form.

"Party pooper!" Izzy stuck her tongue at him.

"It's a party at my house 24/7, it's a tough job but someone has to do it." Noah shrugged. "At this point I welcome anything that is coming to kill me."

That was when Noah decided to curse himself as the sector started to shake.

"Wh-Wh-Wh-What-t's-t's-th-th-tha-that!" Izzy said, the vibrations making it hard for her to pronounce what she's saying.

The ground started to crack and change directions with the trees that floated above the digital seas starting to move. The path the warriors were started to face away from the tower as platforms, paths, and trees shifted.

"The sector...It's shifting!" Aelita held onto to a large boulder to avoid falling into the digital sea.

"This doesn't happen in Lyoko!" Gwen shouted, falling to the ground and hanging on.

"So this one's got a surprise!" Noah said, holding onto the ground next to Gwen.

"Whoo!" Izzy shouted as she turned into a monkey and held onto Geoff's back. "Digital Earthquake! I don't have my emergency kit!"

The tower they were heading for vanished as the platform moved out of sight with floating trees shifting in front of it.

"Oh no!" Aelita watched as the tower vanished.

A moment later the sector stopped shaking and everyone found themselves on a path facing a large log that could be used as a shelter.

"Whoa!" Noah sighed in relief as he and Gwen stood up. "That was unexpected."

"What was that?" Geoff asked, letting go of the tree he was holding to keep himself in place.

"The sector...It shifted much like...Sector 5." Aelita looked around. "Before Jeremy rebuilt it Sector 5 had a built in defence system that had the maze shift and change every three minutes when we went there through the Transport Orb. It's obvious XANA modified this sector to change like Sector 5, probably done to make it hard for us to reach the Way Tower."

"So we got a sector that changes every...how long?" Gwen asked.

"Three minutes." Aelita replied.

"Great, three more minutes and we get even more lost." Noah drawled.

"Not quite. There's got to be a switch, something that controls the shifts in the sector. If we can find it we can stop the changes and maybe the sector will change back." Aelita sighed. "I should have known this would happen. XANA went out of his way to change Lyoko, his monsters, all to make sure he had the element of surprise."

"No one could have predicted this. We just roll with it." Geoff replied. "Let's find the switch."

"Hold on. I got something that may help." Aelita held up her wrist computer. "I use this whenever we have no one at the super computer to help us. If this sector is similar enough to Sector 5 then..." She typed in several commands and there was a beeping sound. "Yes!"

"You got something?" Geoff asked.

"There's a signal, meaning that there is a switch to the changes in the sector. We find it and we can change it back to the way it was before." Aelita looked up with a smile. "XANA's not the only one who likes to be prepared."

"You've got a lock on the switch?" Gwen smiled. "You're just full of surprises you know."

"Uh...that was the easy part. The hard part will be reaching the switch considering how far away it." Aelita looked up sheepishly.

"How far?" Noah sighed.

"A few miles south of here, over half the sector far." Aelita noticed several red dots coming towards them. "And we've got company!"

Three Tarantulas roared as they marched down the path towards the warriors. They stopped and aimed their cannons at them. Aelita got in front of everyone and created an energy shield to block the incoming lasers. Gwen flew into the air above them and threw her scythe at the Tarantulas.

However a laser knocked the scythe out of the here and saved the lead Tarantula from getting bisected.

"Crap!" Gwen swore as she summoned her scythe back and flew out of the way as they aimed at her now.

"Izzy's got this!" Izzy transformed into a rhino and charged at the Tarantulas.

She rammed her through the monsters and trampled the middle one to pieces while the other two were knocked off into the digital sea.

"Come on! Let's go!" Izzy shouted as she turned back into her human form and waved at everyone.

"Izzy look out!" Aelita shouted.

Izzy was hit in the back by a laser that sent her flying face first into the ground. Three hornets flew down and started firing on them. Aelita fired an Energy Field and blasted one of them to pieces as they flew over the warriors. Noah turned his hands into guns and fired at the Hornets but they used the cover of the trees to evade Noah and Aelita's attacks.

"They're just trying to distract us. Let's go!" Aelita pointed down the path.

"Got it!" Geoff helped Izzy up and they ran down the path as fast as they could.

As they ran more monsters popped out along the way. As they ran past a large tree a Pyramid stepped out and fired, hitting Noah in the back.

"Ow!" He tripped and fell over.

"Hold on!" Geoff threw a chakram that hit the Pyramid in the Eye and deleted it.

"You okay?" Gwen helped Noah up.

"I will be when we're out of here." Noah grunted.

The beeping sound on Aelita's wrist computer was beeping louder and faster. "We're almost there!"

However XANA was not done trying to make things difficult for them. A Megatank rolled down the path straight at them without stopping to open its shell.

"Watch it!" Gwen shouted as everyone jumped out of the as the Megatank rolled down the path past them.

"Great. I never like bowling that much and now I get to be the pin." Noah grunted as he got up.

"Yeah and this ball likes to come back on its own!" Izzy pointed as the Megatank rolled back towards them.

Everyone started running as the tank attempted to run them over.

"How the hell does Indiana Jones deal with this?" Geoff shouted.

"I've got this!" Aelita stopped and turned to face the Megatank rolling towards her.

Aelita fist glowed pink as she ran in front of everyone and slammed her fist into the path, shattering the ground and leaving a gap between them and the Megatank. The metallic monster stopped just as the edge and remained there as if trying to figure out a way to get around the gap.

"Anyone want to say some witty line that might bring us more trouble?" Aelita asked as she turned around.

"No thanks. That's how XANA likes to mess with us." Noah shook his head.

"Like say sending another Megatank behind the other one and waited behind us?" Izzy asked, making everyone turn from the gap to look at her as she looked down the path.

"Yeah why?" Geoff asked.

Izzy pointed and everyone saw...another Megatank rolling towards them.

"...I really hate XANA." Noah grumbled.

The Megatank stopped and opened its shell, preparing to fire its laser. At the same time the Megatank on the other side of the gap was charging its own laser.

"Anyone got a plan?" Geoff asked.

"Just trust me when I say jump." Aelita replied getting ready

"Your plan wouldn't happen to involve us jumping off and possibly falling to our doom right?" Noah asked, getting ready.

"Pretty much."

"Just checking."

The Megatanks fired their elliptical lasers that would have sliced anyone in half if it had hit them. However the Lyoko Warriors jumped off the path, avoiding the blast. Gwen and Aelita activated their flight ability and while Izzy transformed into an eagle. Aelita caught Noah while Gwen grabbed Geoff as they flew out onto the path and landed behind the Megatank that had tried to sneak up on them.

Aelita fired her plasma beam and blasted the monster to bits.

"It'll take more than that to bring Super Izzy down!" Izzy shouted as she changed back into her human form.

"Don't encourage them!" Geoff said as they took off, Aelita tracking the switch with her wrist computer again.

"We've only got a minute left before the sector shifts again!"

"Are close are we?" Gwen asked as they ran onto a platform with a large hollow tree stump.

"It's...There!" Aelita pointed to the stump.

There was an opening leading inside the stump and inside was a bright blue Eye of XANA with the center having a pole sticking out much like the switch in Sector 5.

"Got it!" Izzy changed into a tiger and ran towards the stump at full speed.

"Izzy, hold on!" Aelita shouted, trying to warn her as she ran at the switch.

However XANA was not about to let them reach the switch yet. Stepping out in front of the switch inside the stump was a Dark Krab that charged its laser and fired.

"Oof!" Izzy shouted as she was hit and knocked, changing back into her human in mid air.

Gwen ran in front of Izzy and spun her scythe, creating a barrier that blocked the second shot that would have deleted Izzy.

"Next time, listen when someone yells stop." Gwen said as Izzy got up.

Six Dark Krabs came out of hiding and surrounded the warriors.

"How much time do we got?" Geoff asked, holding up his axe.

"Thirty seconds before the sector shifts again." Aelita replied, her hands glowing as she charged a plasma beam.

"Noah!" Gwen turned to the bookworm.

"On it." Noah said as illusionary copies of himself started to surround him and ran off in different directions.

The Dark Krabs fired their lasers, the copies phasing through the lasers as the Warriors took advantage of the diversion. Gwen jumped on one of the Krabs and swung her scythe down into the Eye. The Krab fell over and exploded as Gwen jumped off and landed on her feet. Geoff swung his axe and unleashed a blast of lightning at one Dark Krab but when the smoke cleared the Dark Krab was still standing, its armour able to handle the blast. It fired a laser that hit Geoff in the chest and knocked him back.

Izzy changed into a lemur as she swung onto the trees and leapt from branch to branch, avoiding lasers scorching the bark and blasting the branches she was on. Aelita flew into the air and headed to the switch but two Hornets flew out from behind the trees and a lucky shot knocked her out of the air and fell down towards the digital sea. She had managed to grab onto the edge of the platform without slipping knowing what would happen if she did.

"Need a hand?" Gwen landed in front of her and offered her a hand.

"Thanks." Aelita replied as Gwen pulled her up. "We only have ten seconds left!"

"Izzy!" Gwen called and the red lemur landed on her head.

"What's up?" Izzy asked.

"I got an idea, stay in animal form." Gwen replied as she picked the lemur up.

"Five seconds left!" Aelita warned her.

Gwen held up the lemur as her wind aura activated.

"Four..."

Gwen threw Izzy into the air as the lemur tucked herself into a ball.

"Three..."

Gwen fired a gust of wind that sent Izzy towards the switch like a speeding bullet.

"Two..."

Izzy let out a war cry as she shifted back into her human form in mid-air and flipped over the Dark Krab guarding the switch. She aimed her crossbow down and fired several arrows into the Eye.

"One..."

Just as Aelita finished the countdown Izzy hit the switch with her head, stopping the sector from shifting into a different shape. The switch receded into the Eye and glowed blue. Everyone stopped and watched as the sector began to shift back to its original shape. Trees floating in the air moved around as paths disconnected themselves from the grassy platforms and realigned themselves.

Noah took the chance to fire a shot at a distracted Dark Krab and hit the Eye in one shot. It fell over and exploded while Gwen used her Pink Energy Aura to fire an energy blast and Aelita fired her plasma beam to take out the remaining monsters.

As the last Dark Krab exploded into shards of bright data, Izzy returned to her human form and gave out a cheer as she hopped up and down. "Yay! We beat the clock!"

"Come on guys, we have to get to that Tower, I don't want to face down a lot more monsters," Gwen said.

"Preferably without another Mega-Tank?" Geoff asked.

"No Mega-Tanks," Aelita nodded.

The walk back was mostly uneventful except for a few groups of Hornets trying to take pot shots at the team. Aelita or Izzy took them out while Gwen would block their lasers so the group would not risk losing anybody short on life points.

"Are we there yet?" Izzy asked.

"No." Noah replied. "And no changing into lemurs and jumping onto my head."

"Aw!" Izzy pouted as she kept on walking.

It was quiet walk back to the Way Tower until a few minutes passed.

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"_No._"

"Are we there yet?"

"SHUT UP!"

"Oh come on I'm bored!"

"Well then entertain yourself...and no singing!" Noah added the last part as Izzy opened her mouth.

Izzy pouted but then smirked as she changed into a donkey, confusing anyone who was paying attention.

BOP

She started making 'bop' sounds with her mouth, annoying Noah while Aelita was too busy searching for the tower. Gwen was used to it so she just tuned Izzy out while Geoff just kept on walking.

BOP

Noah flinched as he tried to keep himself calm.

BOP

Noah took deep breath to keep calm. Izzy leaned in close to his ears.

BOP

"AH!" Noah shouted, not able to take it anymore. "Are we there yet?"

"Yep!" Aelita pointed to the Way Tower.

"Yes!" Noah knelt on the floor. "Thank you oh so merciful-"

"Shh!" Gwen put a hand on Noah's mouth. "You want us to run into more trouble?"

Aelita walked over to the tower when she was sure no more monsters were in sight. She reached out to enter the tower and found herself inside. Looking around she found the tower was exactly the same as any other tower she had been inside before. The others walked inside with her, not wanting to be left outside.

"So now what?" Geoff asked.

"Well, I can enter the DNA of everyone from this." Aelita held up her wrist computer. "We can then virtualize directly to this sector without the use of the portal generator but only to this sector until the Way Towers in the other sectors have our Digital DNA and have a permanent connection."

"Meaning we can come here like in Lyoko." Gwen surmised.

"Exactly. I can have it done in five minutes but most likely XANA knows this..."

"Meaning we should expect company." Noah finished.

"All right!" Izzy pumped a fist in the air.

"XANA will no doubt try to make sure we fail, even if it means taking out the tower which would delete the entire sector or cause it to degrade until coming here makes it a risk for everyone." Aelita continued. "Be on the lookout for the monsters with the big guns, most likely Megatanks and Gorillas."

"And since some of us are low on life points we have to be extra careful now." Gwen pointed out. "So make sure you're not a target."

"Sir, yes sir!" Izzy saluted.

"No way am I losing after making it this far." Geoff held up a fist.

"Why not? I'm pretty much doomed anyway." Noah shrugged.

"I'll start my part." Aelita flew up to the second platform.

"I wish I could do that." Izzy pouted.

Just after she said that the tower started shaking.

"Right on time." Gwen sighed as they ran out of the tower.

One Megatank and two Gorillas were outside of the tower, their cannons charging their lasers up.

"Is there a time when Aelita's ever wrong?" Noah asked, his hands turning into guns.

"Not if you want her to be wrong about saving the world." Gwen spun her scythe.

"Just three of them? I got this." Geoff stepped forward with his axe.

The Gorillas charged their laser but they did not fire at the gang or the tower. The shots collided with several large trees, making them fall towards the warriors and the tower.

"Timber!" Izzy shouted.

Geoff swung his axe and blasted one of the falling trees before it fell on him or the tower. One fell to Noah who simply stood there.

"Why me?" He asked just as it fell on him.

A second later he phased out of the fallen tree looking unharmed. "Now that is just plain rude."

Gwen activated her Pink Aura and swung her scythe, releasing a wave of pink energy towards the three monsters. The Megatank had taken the chance to charge its laser while everyone had been busy taking out the falling tree. It fired and its elliptical laser collided with Gwen's energy attack, cancelling both attacks out.

The Gorillas aimed the fallen trees and fired, sending sharp splinters of wood at the warriors.

"Splinters!" Izzy shouted as she turned into a turtle and managed to avoid the sharp splinters hitting her.

Gwen activated her fire aura and swung her scythe, burning the wooden debris to ashes. Geoff split his axe into his chakrams and threw both of them at the Gorillas. Both of them successfully hit both Gorillas in the chest and released an electrical explosion that vaporized them. The Megatank aimed and fired but Izzy dodged and, taking a page out of Odd's book used the explosion to propel her into the air and she landed on the back of the tank.

"Take this!" Izzy shouted as she fired two arrows into the Eye and jumped off as the tank exploded.

"Ha ha!" Izzy jumped up and down and started a little dance. "The day is saved!"

"Izzy, duck!" Gwen shouted.

Izzy ducked...by changing into a duck as a laser sailed over her head. Turning around she watched as five Spiderlings followed by four Pyramids marched down the path charging their lasers.

"Uh oh. Quack!" Izzy changed back into her human form as she ran back to regroup with the others.

"They're not the only ones coming!" Noah pointed to another path as three Dark Krabs came onto the grassy platform.

The sound of Hornets made the group look up and see about ten Hornets heading for them,

"I sure hope Aelita's almost done."

"You know you complain about this thing a lot when someone says something like that but you say things that almost get us killed more than any of us." Izzy pointed out as she aimed her crossbows at the monsters.

"Izzy?" Noah asked.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

Xxx

"Come on, come on..." Aelita gritted her teeth as she began to download the digital DNA of the Lyoko Warriors into the Tower.

Another window popped up diverting Aelita's attention.

"Okay, come on. Cody, can you hear me?" Aelita asked but she received no answer. "The connections not strong enough yet."

Aelita worked on establishing a connection between the Sector and Lyoko, allowing Cody to devirtualize her and the others when they needed to leave.

'Come on.' Aelita thought as she heard explosions and knew what was going.

She sent out a silent prayer that they would survive as she worked even faster while making sure she hadn't done anything wrong with the program.

'Hold out a little longer, guys. Just a little longer.' Aelita thought as the tower shook.

Xxx

Meanwhile outside of the tower the others had found themselves surrounded as more and more monsters appeared cutting off any chance of escape while firing lasers down on them.

"We'll be blasting evil monsters as they come, as they come!" Izzy sang as she back flipped through the air and blasted two Spiderlings and a Pyramid with her arrows.

"We'll be blasting evil monsters as they come, as they come!"

She slid under a Krab and fired an arrow up as it fired its third cannon, the one on its belly. Izzy avoided it by just a few inches, her hair getting a little burnt while the arrow she fired exploded and took out the Krab.

"We'll be blasting evil monsters."

She sprang up and jumped as Pyramid fired at her, the laser missing her feet as she fired a few arrows that hit the Pyramid's shell and exploded, deleting it instantly.

"We'll be blasting evil monsters."

But as she landed she was hit in the chest by a Spiderling that she deleted when she fired her arrows back at it.

"We'll be blasting evil monsters as they come, as they come!"

She fired her arrows up and hit three Hornets as they flew down and fired at her. Luckily none of the lasers hit her but her arrows didn't miss their targets.

"Everybody now, one more time!" She cheered before singing the 'Blasting Evil Monsters Song'.

"Izzy get back here! You're running out of life points too fast!" Gwen shouted as she spun her scythe and created a barrier to block incoming lasers.

Noah had deployed his illusionary copies to distract the monsters but by now they all knew which one was the real Noah and ignored the copies while trying to take out the real one. He along with Geoff had fired lasers and lightning blasts to keep the monsters back while Gwen used her barrier to block lasers but they were getting attack on all sides. It seemed obvious that XANA could summon more monsters in his territory than in Lyoko as for every monster they took out another took its place. The smallest and weakest to the bigger and more powerful ones were surrounding them and the tower from all sides.

Megatanks took the chance to fire at the tower, regardless of the damage to the sector that would happen if the Way Tower was destroyed. The other monsters concentrating on the warriors, gaining up on them from all sides. Izzy changed into a T-Rex and whipped her tail out, sending monsters into the air and some hitting trees or the ground and exploded into deletion.

"Izzy-Zilla cannot be defeated!" Izzy cackled, turning her sights to the other monsters.

That was when they stopped firing and stepped back.

"You think they're giving up?" Geoff asked, keeping his axe up.

"They're like battle droids, they don't feel fear. They just do what they're told, like shoot, clobber, or brutally kill us." Noah replied, his arm guns smoking.

"So why'd they stop shooting?" Gwen narrowed her eyes.

That was when the monsters split their ranks open, allowing four new ones to step forward.

"Are those...Dragon Knights?" Geoff asked.

They did indeed resemble Dragon Knights but instead of wearing black armour the armour was blood red with the black Eye of XANA on their foreheads.

"What's with the new color?" Noah asked.

"Careful, every time we see a monster with a new color it's always stronger than the normal ones." Gwen cautioned.

The red Dragon Knights pulled out their own weapons as they sprouted red wings.

"Don't give them a chance!" Gwen shouted as she activated her fire aura and sent a stream of fire at them.

Geoff quickly fired a blast of lightning from his axe at Knights. However the Red Dragon Knights flew up into the air, avoiding the attacks and flew at the warriors. Gwen only had the chance to block as a Red Knight wielding a staff with a blade on both hands slammed into her scythe, knocking her back. Gwen jumped back and landed on her feet as she activated her fire aura and tried to burn the Red Knight but flew through her fire attack, seemingly ignoring the flames and sent a fist into her stomach.

"Oof!" Gwen gasped before a fist was sent to her face and knocked her on her back.

She quickly rolled out of the as the Knight slammed the bladed end of its staff down on her head. She activated her Earth Aura and sent a boulder at the Knight. It slammed into the Knight and the monster fell over but it got up a second later.

"My god, just what cheat code is XANA giving you guys?" Gwen groaned as she got ready again.

Geoff yelled as swung his axe down on his Red Knight who blocked with a broad sword. It pushed forward, making Geoff slide back and swung its blade at him. Geoff grunted as he blocked, sparks flying off his axe as the Red Knight pushed him back. He jumped back and fired a blast of lightning but the Knight held up its sword and blocked the attack. But it was not done, it absorbed Geoff's lightning attack and fired it straight back at him.

"Whoa!" Geoff jumped out of the way as the attack flew past him and hit a tree.

It burned through the tree and made it fall over into the digital sea. Geoff turned to see the Red Knight sprout its wings and fly at him. He raised his axe as it slammed into him and flew into a boulder. The Red Knight pulled back a fist and attempted to crush Geoff's head but he leaned to the right, dodging it as it shattered half the rock behind him.

"Meep!" The party boy squeaked before scrambling away. "A little help here?"

"Busy, deal with it!" Noah shouted as he dodged between the trees, creating illusion copies as his own opponent fired lasers at him. "This is why I told mom I didn't wanna sign up for track!"

Izzy was having the easiest time of it. While her opponent was better at dodging in the air, she was better at dodging, period. She cart wheeled, rolled, flipped, and twisted out of the way of the lasers and blades the dragon knight used. Finally it got in close enough and missed stabbing her through the abdomen, and took a vicious downwards sliced from her right claw. "Hai-yah!"

She then back flipped away from the Red Knight as it staggered. Then she let out a long 'ohhhh' as she took on a pose. She then spoke...with her mouth not matching the way her words came out. "I shall defeat you with my superior skills, avenge family honour!"

"...seriously?" Noah asked before a copy next to him shattered into tiny lights. "Meep!" He kept running. "And _now_ I'm worried about you, Izzy!"

"Haaaaiiiii!" Izzy leaped through the air towards the Red Knight, which spread it wings and took flight. "-aaaaaaiiiii!"

Gwen ducked a laser from her own opponent...which struck Izzy's opponent in the back, causing it to stumble and took a vicious kick from Izzy, who kept moving while the Red Knight fell head over heels and landed on the ground below. Izzy landed on the Red Knight Gwen was fighting. "Hello! Bye-bye!" She grabbed it by the neck and sank her claws in deep, pulling its head up so that it was distracted and giving Gwen the chance she needed to finally sink her scythe deep into the Dragon Knight's chest. Izzy leaped off before it exploded.

"Whoa! Thanks Izzy!" Gwen smiled as she let out a sigh of relief.

"All in a day's work." Izzy said, putting her hands on her hips while sounding like a super hero.

Only for the Red Knight she had been fighting earlier to slam into her and send her into Gwen, knocking them both down. They looked up as the Red Knight aimed the blade end of its staff down on them. They rolled separate ways from each other with the staff impacting the ground between them. They got up to attack but the Red Knight spun it staff as it blocked Gwen's scythe and reflected Izzy's arrows.

It slammed the blunt end of its staff's blade into Izzy's head, knocking her to the ground and then swung with so much force that Gwen's scythe flew out of her hand.

"Crap!" Gwen ducked under the next swing and jumped back from the one after that.

She backed into Geoff's back who was knocked back by the Red Knight he was fighting.

"Hey how's it going?" Geoff asked.

"Not good. You?" Gwen replied, not taking her eyes off the Red Knight she had been fighting.

"I've been better." Geoff shrugged.

Noah up to both of them with his hand guns smoking. "Mind if I join?"

"Not really." Geoff shrugged as Gwen summoned her scythe back. "We're not doing so hot are we?"

"You think? These Knights are kicking us all over the place." Noah looked to his Knight as it landed and stood with the other two. "We only got one?"

"Guess XANA's been handing out upgrades too." Gwen grimaced.

Xxx

"Cody? Can anyone hear me?" Aelita asked.

The screen was emitting a static sound as Aelita continued to work on the connection.

"..._ta...A..._" Aelita could hear someone's voice coming through and worked even harder to strengthen the connection. "..._Ael...n...u...ear...s..._"

"Come on, come on!" Aelita gritted her teeth as she typed away at the interface.

"_Aeli...you...here..._" Cody's voice came out.

"Cody! I'm here! We made it! We're at the Carbon Copy!" Aelita exclaimed, hoping he would hear her. "I need to download everyone's digital DNA and here and fast! Did you hear me?"

"..._Can...er...you. Boos...ting...connection..._" Cody replied, his voice being muffled by the static.

Aelita suspected XANA was setting up a jamming signal and trying to disrupt the connection through other means than just his monsters. However Aelita set up a scan that once the connection was partially established the supercomputer would home in on the Keys to Lyoko inside her making her the beacon and tracking device they needed to link to. If they could establish a link from both sides they'd have a permanent foot hold in the Carbon Copy.

She believed that the reason why she was having trouble talking to Cody was because XANA had set up several programs to try and jam communications between Lyoko and the Copy. She just had break through for a second...

"Hang on, Cody! I'm working to boost the connection!" Aelita said, working even faster and harder.

She was not going to lose this chance. This was the best chance to reach XANA's hideout and find her friends. If they lose... Aelita shook her head and concentrated all her effort.

"Cody, can you hear me? I need you to send the digital DNA for everyone and connect this sector to the scanners or we won't be able to materialize back into the real world."

"..._On it. I'm...loading...the files._" Cody's voice was louder and clearer now.

Aelita had to suppress a smile of joy that she was making progress. She knew all too well that something could go wrong at the last second.

"Okay, Cody." Aelita started an upload that would give Cody the codes needed to materialize everyone from the Carbon Copy and into the scanners.

"_Sending...digital DNA now!_" Cody replied and Aelita noticed another window on the interface.

"Come on, we can make it." Aelita pleaded.

Xxx

Outside of the tower things were not going well for the Lyoko Warriors. The Red Knights were matching them in almost everything. They were faster and stronger than the usual knights and smarter than any other minion XANA had created except for his generals.

"Okay, recap, we're stuck in XANA's digital domain, we're running low on life points and to top it off we've got deadly versions of Dragon Knights with red armour trying to kill us." Noah sighed as they gathered together, facing off against the three remaining knights. "This day just gets better and better."

"I know, right! This is awesome!" Izzy aimed her crossbows at them. "All that's missing is some western cow boy music and a tumble weed flying by."

"_...G...Guys!_" Everyone looked up when they heard the familiar voice.

"Cody!" They all exclaimed.

"_Hey...Guys. We're finally making a connection! I can see you guys in what looks like the Forest Sector!_" Cody's voice sounded almost completely clear of any static.

"All right, dudes! Aelita did it!" Geoff exclaimed, pumping a fist in the air.

That was when the Red Knights reacted, sprouting their wings and heading straight at them. One aimed a rifle and fired, hitting Noah in the chest. It went right through him, turning his body into lines of code.

"Noah!" The other three exclaimed as he vanished.

They had no idea if Noah had either been sent back into the real world or...

Gwen sent a fierce glare at the Red Knight who had blasted Noah. "Cover me!"

She activated her Wind Aura and sent a whirlwind at the Knights as they was still in the air. All the Knights were sent flying from the intense wind. Gwen activated her flight ability and flew at the Knight who shot Noah. It had just managed to stand back up when Gwen activated her Earth Aura and shot a rock at it, knocking it back down. She then activated her Fire Aura and torched the Knight until its life points hit zero and faded into red lines of data.

"Cody please tell me that-"Gwen was cut off as she felt something pierce her back.

She looked down to see the bladed end of the Red Knight she was fighting earlier piercing her chest. She gasped as it pulled the staff out and left her to fall and fade from the digital universe.

Xxx

For a second there was nothing but pure light in her eyes as she let out a gasp of air. Feeling the area where the Knight had stabbed her she ran a hand over her chest. Groaning she looked up, to see several familiar faces looking down at her.

"Okay, either Aelita managed to connect the supercomputer to the Carbon Copy in time and allow us to devirtualize without the deletion part...or we're all dead and we got sent to the bad place." Gwen looked up.

"What makes you say that girl?" The face of LeShawna smiled down at her.

"Because Heather's here." Gwen pointed at the raven haired girl who glared at her for the joke.

"I thought the same thing when I came out." Noah's voice was heard from the other scanner.

"That's what I get for being concerned." Heather huffed as she crossed her arms.

"So...we made it?" Gwen asked.

"Yep, you guys made it." LeShawna held out her hand and Gwen took it allowing LeShawna to help her stand up.

Xxx

"_Aelita, you did it! Noah and Gwen are safe and back with us!_" Cody said happily.

"That's great, Cody. Run the devirtualization program for me along with Geoff and Izzy. I think we've overstayed out welcome." Aelita smiled.

"_On it._"

Geoff and Izzy were back up by the last two Red Knights as they advanced on them.

"If we're going down we're goi-"Geoff was cut off as he was devirtualized.

"He's going, going, gone!" Izzy exclaimed as Geoff vanished. She looked down at her body was starting to devirtualize too. "And I'm gone too!"

Aelita walked out of the tower as Geoff and Izzy vanished. She had a triumphant look on her face as she stared at the Red Knights. "You failed XANA, we're here now. And we're not stopping...until we reach the core and finish you off."

The Red Knights responded by attacking. The first one threw its staff while the other fired its gun. The staff pierced Aelita's chest while the last went through her head, knocking her life points down to zero. She faded from the Carbon Copy and back into the real world.

Xxx

"Whoo-hoo!" Geoff shouted as he spun around Bridgette in his arms. "We did it!"

Bridgette laughed from how happy her boyfriend was while mostly everyone else smirked at them. They had good reason to be happy as they now had a foot hold in the Carbon Copy, making them even closer to rescuing Aelita's friends and destroying XANA.

"Sounds like you guys had a wicked time in there." LeShawna commented.

"You have no idea." Gwen shivered. "A few minutes there and we were already fighting for our lives. XANA really doesn't like people trespassing."

"Things are only going to get worse now." Noah drawled. "More sectors to explore, the constant changing so it's impossible to map them, the monsters, the generals. We have a our hands full while fighting XANA in Lyoko. The Carbon Copy's a whole other story."

"But we've come this far." Aelita pointed out as she sat on the chair at the computer. "You got anything better to do?"

"No way! We're going all the way!" Izzy exclaimed.

"She's right, which is something I thought I would never say." Heather shrugged. "I never back down."

"XANA won't know what hit him when all of us knock down his door." Geoff put Bridgette down. "This calls for another party!"

Everyone sighed when Geoff said that.

"You'd think he'd be all partied out by now?" Trent whispered to Gwen who nodded.

Xxx

Meanwhile as the Lyoko Warriors celebrated their victory, deep in the depths of the Carbon Copy, in the center of the Sector 5 copy XANA's avatar stood in a large room with dozens of screens surrounding him. Behind him his generals appeared one by one, fully recovered from their battle.

"Master XANA." Lilith bowed. "I am so sorry for failing. We couldn't stop them and we lost Blade."

XANA however closed his eyes and smirked as he turned. "Don't worry, Lilith. As much of a disappointment it is that Blade was destroyed you all did better than I had hoped."

The generals almost all looked confused with the exception of Yuki who maintained her calm look.

"As much I hoped to stop them I knew there was a chance Aelita would succeed in reaching here." XANA looked back at the screen. "She still has a long way to go. And they have no idea of what's coming next."

The screen glowed as words appeared on it.

TIME RETURN PROGRAM COORDINATES SET

"I hope they enjoy their celebration. It may be their last one." XANA grinned.

A dark figure stepped into the room in the view of XANA and the generals.

"My Generals, say hello to your new comrade." XANA walked forward to the figure who bowed before him.

"I am ready to serve, Master XANA." The figure said, his voice sounding robotic and less human than the other generals.

"Go to Lyoko and when the warriors come," A red aura surrounded XANA. "Burn them until nothing is left."

The figure stood up. "My pleasure."


	77. Episode 75: Blast from the Past

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 76

_"Aelita run!" Her father, Waldo Schaeffer shouted as Kankrelats stopped in front of her and fired._

_She screamed as she ran into the tower. She turned back and saw they weren't following her into the tower._

_"Daddy, what's going on?"_

_"Stay here, Aelita. I'm going to try and talk to XANA." Her father, in the form of a ball of light said._

_"Who?" _

_"A multi-agent program I created to run Lyoko and the Supercomputer. Stay here." Her father vanished._

_Aelita waited and waited but she couldn't bear to wait any longer. She stepped out of the tower and gasped in horror. Her father was being attacked by Hornets._

_"Daddy!" She screamed._

_"Aelita, you must get back into the tower, now!" Her father screamed. _

_The monsters didn't seem to notice her as they continued to attack her father._

_"Daddy, what's going on?" Aelita shouted._

_"Aelita, I must shut down the supercomputer to stop XANA, he's become a threat to mankind." Schaeffer said as the Hornets continued to fire at him. "I'm sorry for this."_

_"Daddy?" Aelita asked, stepping back in fear._

_"Aelita, run back into the tower now! It'll be keep you safe!" Her father shouted._

_"Now, now, that will not do." Another voice said, behind Aelita, sounding smug but at the same cold and without emotion._

_She spun around to see who it was. She gasped, seeing someone standing between her and the tower. He looked a lot like her but was a male, taller than her, dressed in all black with a dark coat that had a red interior and chin high collar. His skin was pale, and his eyes...they were red and they scared her._

_"XANA! Leave her alone!" Schaeffer shouted, sending a orb of light at him._

_XANA however simply stood there and let the orb hit him, exploding in a blast of white light that slowly turned red and faded. XANA stood there, looking like nothing had hit him._

_"Ironic isn't it father? You came here to find safety in your so called World Without Danger yet now you facing even more danger than you did out in the real world." XANA snickered, his smirk sending chills down Aelita's spine. "But even if you shut down the computer you still have something I want and I intent to have it."_

_Aelita watched in shock, awe, and fear as dark tendrils came out of XANA's back with hands at the end of them and headed straight for the defenceless Schaeffer._

_"Daddy!" Aelita screamed as the arms grabbed him._

_Schaeffer groaned in pain as the arms started to pull the energy orb that was his form apart._

_"What will it be, father? Will you hand it over and spare dear sister the agony of watching your painful deletion?" XANA asked, snickering. _

_Schaeffer screamed as something came out of orb, a small shining blue light._

_"Ah, there it is." XANA held out his left hand as the shadowy tendril placed it there and receded into his back. "One half of the puzzle." _

_He looked up towards Aelita who backed away. _

_"It's nice to finally meet you sister, after all this time."_

_"Wh-Who are you?" Aelita stuttered, as she stepped back._

_"That's right. Father never told you about this place or me." XANA looked up at the orb of light that was Waldo Schaeffer. "This is Lyoko and it along with myself are his greatest invention."_

_He stepped towards her making her step back._

_"XANA! Leave her alone!" Waldo shouted._

_"My apologies Father, but I know you gave her the other half of what I want. If you had kept the whole program there'd be no point in me bothering with this." XANA snapped his fingers. "Hold still and this will be over."_

_Aelita heard a screeching sound as she slowly turned and saw... the Scyphozoa!_

Aelita screamed as she sat up on her bed, her eyes going wide as she gasped for breath. Sweat poured down her face as she ran a hand up her forehead.

'That dream...that was the day my father and I went to Lyoko for the first time.' Aelita took a deep breath as she collected her thoughts. 'But I never before remember seeing XANA in his avatar form or being attacked by...' Aelita shuddered at the memory of the Scyphozoa. 'That's all new to me. Did I discover another suppressed memory?'

Aelita shook her head. Having a nightmare like that was never a good thing. She hoped it didn't mean something bad was happening but she knew better by now.

'Please just be another dream.' She looked out the window and saw the sun was starting to rise.

Xxx

It was a beautiful morning at the Total Drama Studio and everyone had reason for a nice and peaceful sleep in. One reason was that Chris was finally gone, kicked off his own show and sent the Playa Des Losers. For the Lyoko Warriors, it was rest from the long battle they had, reaching XANA's Carbon Copy which was a major victory in the war.

The mood had become more positive ever since the streak of near losses and difficult battles the warriors had faced towards the middle of their adventures after their fight with Nephilim. Now when one looked around the warriors weren't dead tired or snappy, they were back to their old bright attitudes...well those who had them in the first place anyhow. This wasn't noticed due to the fact that the same had happened in the other contestants and workers in the studio thanks to Chris' departure.

It could not even annoy Roberto when he was given the job of mopping the whole cafeteria. He and the other janitors could be heard singing a song: Ordinary Day by Great Big Sea. Somebody had thought to turn the radio to that very song.

**_I've got a smile on my face, I've got four walls around me_**

**_The sun in the sky, the water surrounds me!_**

The scene transitioned from Roberto in the cafeteria to Kurt and Carlos in the manager's office burning all of Chris' remaining belongings he had left behind.

**_I'll win now but sometimes I'll lose_**

**_I've been battered, but I'll never bruise, it's not so bad_**

Then it went to the lounge where many of the contestants joined in singing.

**_And I say way-hey-hey, it's just an ordinary day_**

**_And it's all your state of mind_**

**_At the end of the day, you've just got to say,_**

**_It's all right!_**

Then it went to Larry the Jet Pilot-who was on extended vacation thanks to Sir Carlos and Sir Christopher 2.0.

**_Janie sings on the corner, what keeps her from dying?_**

**_Let them say what they want, she won't stop trying_**

Then it actually went to the Total Drama Jet, where the two robots at in the cockpit...which they had 'robot pimped' to suit their tastes. They used recordings of the actual song played from their speakers.

**_She might stumble, if they push her 'round_**

**_She might fall, but she'll never lie down_**

They both leaped to their feet.

**_And I say way-hey-hey, it's just an ordinary day_**

**_And it's all your state of mind_**

**_At the end of the day, you've just got to say,_**

**_It's all right!_**

It went to Total Drama Aftermath where they had a whole band set up to continue the song...oddly enough.

**_In this beautiful life, but there's always some sorrow_**

**_It's a double-edged knife, but there's always tomorrow_**

**_It's up to you now if you sink or swim,_**

**_Keep the faith and your ship will come in._**

**_It's not so bad..._**

Then the tune picked up to its full pace as all lights in the studio went on and the studio audience went wild.

**_And I say way-hey-hey, it's just an ordinary day_**

**_And it's all your state of mind_**

**_At the end of the day, you've just got to say_**

**_I say way-hey-hey, it's just an ordinary day_**

**_And it's all your state of mind_**

**_At the end of the day, you've just got to say_**

**_It's alright!_**

Then it transferred to the Total Drama Aftermath cast members, led by Alejandro-who was enjoying his freedom from the Total Drama Bot and the sensitive skin it had left him with.

**_'Cause it's alright, it's alright_**

**_'Cause I've got a smile on my face and I've got four walls around me..._**

...

"Why did we have a band set up for that?" Blaineley asked.

"Kurt had this set up," Alejandro shrugged. "It was e mailed just a few days back, remember? It said 'open this message when 'the day comes'.' And when Chris was fired we opened it and got all of this set up!"

"Really?...I don't think I was paying attention," Blaineley shrugged.

"Not a big surprise," The Director said as her personal TV was wheeled out into view. "I was half tempted to send you packing with him, but then I'd have to leave Carlos in charge of either the main show or Aftermath."

A second, smaller TV was wheeled out next to the Director's. "Do you really trust me that little?"

"You asked me the same thing and I made the mistake of trusting you," The Director replied. "Remember the last Christmas party?"

"I paid for all of that egg nog and your dry cleaning!" Carlos protested before a third TV with Kurt on it was wheeled out.

"Carlos stop using the TVs to talk to the director, we have a budget to look after!"

"You're using it too, moron!"

"...touché." Kurt mumbled. "But if you keep this up we'll use up the whole budget."

"Where do we get all of these TVs anyways?" Carlos asked. "And why aren't you just talking to me directly? You're sitting right next to me."

"Oh, you wanna talk to me personally? Alright then," Suddenly Kurt's TV shut off and Carlos was grabbed by a hand at the collar of his shirt.

"Uh oh-AH!" Carlos was tugged out of view, and the TV shut off.

Xxx

"If we can't save money we can't pay for challenges or pay the lease on this place!" Kurt said as he and Carlos tried to strangle one another with little results. "I may be crazy enough to help you on all those crazy missions, but explaining this to the Director? No thank you!"

"Relax, we're fine and you know it."

Kurt cut him off. "No, we are not taking chances this time." He and Carlos released one another. "Never again, I had white hairs for a year after last time. Just stop with the TV talk and let's keep the show running!"

"Uh...sirs?"

"What?" They both shouted at the speaker.

"You know we're live, right?"

"...that's awkward," Kurt said. "Aw snap I only turned off the video setting; the TDA crew can still hear us."

"What's this I hear about the budget?" The Director asked.

"Uh...going through a tunnel! Bye!" Carlos grabbed the radio and smashed it.

"...that's coming out of your pay check," Kurt said.

"Bite me, it was the only option."

"Aside from turning it off?"

"Too easy and not permanent enough."

"You still forgot one thing though," Kurt sighed.

"Oh yeah, what's that?" Carlos asked, only for Kurt to point to their left before a massive flat screen TV turned on and showed a very mad Director.

"CARLOS!"

"AH!" Carlos scrambled back and tripped over his own feet, right through an open door that Roberto had stepped through...and down the stair well. "Ouch! Oh! Ooh! Oh! Ouch! Stairs! Ow! Are! Oh my toe-EVIL!"

Xxx

"I can't remember the last time things were chirpy around here." Bridgette smiled as she sat down next to her boyfriend in the cafe. "Everyone's so happy, the interns, the janitors-"

"Duh, Chris is gone for good this time. You think they liked him anymore than we did?" Noah bit an apple.

"It's a surprise no one's got out the fire works." Trent smiled.

"Don't light that yet!" Someone shouted outside and then the sound of fireworks went off.

"Fireworks!" Izzy screamed as she ran outside.

"There it is." Gwen shook her head as she smiled. "Chris can't come back this time, he's gone for good. All the way back in Canada."

"That means thing can quiet down on the show now?" Heather asked as she put her milk down.

"Ow! Ow!" Carlos shouted as he rolled down and into the cafe. "Ouch! Finally!"

"That answer your question?" LeShawna asked.

"Whatever. I'm just going to enjoy the day and get some relaxation." Heather took her food and left the cafe.

"I never managed to figure out how she managed to keep a conversation with you all." Eva said, having only an apple for breakfast.

"Believe me, she actually makes an effort." Gwen replied. "But she does have a point. A day to relax and get rid of any stress."

"And when's the next time we go to that...place?" Eva asked, letting everyone know what she was talking about.

"Well, Aelita's got most of the day occupied by class. She might ask us when we want to go again." DJ answered.

"I'd almost say as soon possible. We got a week to cover as much ground as possible." Cody said.

"Another round in the Copy? Count me out." Noah shook his head. "I'll take my chances at the computer."

"Come on, Noah. You're missing out on a chance to tick XANA off even more. I can imagine him blowing a motherboard after we made it through the Forest." Geoff laughed.

"Yeah, where's your sense of adventure?" Trent asked.

"Oh hooray. Going to the Carbon Copy. The most fun I ever had." Noah said sarcastically.

"You'd think we'd learn by now." Gwen sighed.

Xxx

While the Total Drama Gang and everyone at the studio was resting after the challenge, Chris being fired, and the Lyoko Warriors long battle against XANA's forces Aelita herself was busy with the normal part of her life: school. It was a day mostly like any other day where she listened to Mrs. Hertz's lectures while writing down notes for an upcoming assignment or test. She looked over to the chairs that were once occupied by Odd, Jeremy, and Ulrich when they usually sat next to her in class. They were filled by new students now since no one had actually managed to locate them or Yumi yet and Aelita knew that they never would unless she and the others rescued them.

She imagined they were still there, Odd about to fall asleep through half the class, Ulrich drawing himself and Yumi kissing, while Jeremy raises one finger for any question Mrs. Hertz throws out. Her thoughts were cut off when the bell rang, signalling the end of class with almost all the students happy about it. Aelita packed her things away and walked out of the class with the intention of returning to her room to finish up her work, both school and Lyoko related work. As she walked she spotted Milly talking to Yumi's little brother Hiroki who still seemed a bit sad.

Aelita quickly looked away as she suppressed the feeling of guilt rising up in her. It wasn't easy looking at him and not be tempted to just tell him the truth. He and his parents were still depressed and they had a right to be. Yumi had completely vanished from their lives and they had no intention of ending the search. For the millionth time Aelita cursed XANA for the pain and grief he had brought, even on people who had never crossed him.

Odd, Jeremy, and William's were no better while Ulrich's dad ended his search much to his mother's grief. That only increased Aelita's motivation rescue them all, to save her friends and their families. She walked back to her dorm and entered her room, closing the door when she was inside.

'Knowing my luck it'll be another long night with just a few hours of sleep.' Aelita thought as she dropped her bag on her bed.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

"You have got to be kidding me!" Aelita sighed as her computer showed an activated tower. "You just don't know when to give us a break do you, XANA?"

She knew this was coming ever since she and the others came back from the Forest Sector of the Carbon Copy. XANA had put a big fight to keep them from connecting it to Lyoko and it was fair to assume he was not happy they had succeeded. That didn't mean that Aelita was happy that he chose now to activate a tower. Pulling out her cell phone as she peaked out into the hall for any signs of Jim she ran out of her room and dashed down the hall while dialling the number to one of her friends.

"_Hello?_"

"Izzy?" Aelita asked, thinking she had dialled Bridgette's number.

"_Oh hi, Aelita!_"

"Izzy, are you on Bridgette's cell phone?" Aelita asked as she came upon the stairs.

"_Oh yeah! She dropped it when she and Geoff went to the make out bench outside!_" Izzy replied. "_Hey, everyone! Aelita's on the phone!_"

"Izzy, I'm sorry for calling but-"

"_Sorry? What's there to be sorry for? This is great; you can come over and join the party! Everyone's celebrating now that Chris is gone!_"

"But Izzy-"Aelita arrived at the bottom of the stairs and ran outside.

"_Come on, Aelita, when was the last time you had any fun? I know you took us to that carnival but we can do the same for you! It doesn't have to be just Lyoko and evil XANA attacks!_"

"Speaking of that Izzy there's-"

"_Hey, everybody say hi to Aelita!_"

"_Who's Aelita?_" One of the workers nearby asked.

"_Someone who also got burned by Chris._" Izzy replied.

"Oh. Hi Aelita!" Izzy held up her phone as the workers, interns, and Roberto shouted.

"Izzy, I know you're happy but-" Aelita stopped at the man hole in the forest.

"_Oh, hang on! Let me see if I can find Kurt and Carlos and the others so they can say hi too!_" Izzy interrupted as she ran around the studio.

"Izzy!" Aelita tried to keep herself patient but Izzy was making her want to reach through the cell phone and whack the red haired girl up the head several times.

"_Hey, Aelita, you should have seen the fire works! Somebody actually set fireworks and lit them outside the studio! It was so cool!_"

"IZZY!" Aelita shouted, almost louder then she had ever used her voice.

"_Whoa!_" Izzy fell over, dropping the cell phone as she jumped back and tripped over the ground. "_Ow!_"

"THERE'S AN ACTIVATED TOWER MEANING THERE'S A XANA ATTACK HAPPENING THAT'S OUT TO KILL US ALL!" Aelita shouted.

"..._Sorry, I dropped the phone. Could you say that again?_" Izzy asked.

Aelita felt like banging her head against the nearest tree.

Xxx

As Izzy listened to what Aelita was about to say a spectre came out of a socket in the middle of the hall. Izzy looked down and saw it as it morphed into...a copy of her!

"Uh, Aelita?"

"_What?_" Aelita sounded exasperated as she replied.

"I think we got a XANA attack."

Izzy's duplicate smirked as she punched Izzy, knocking back down to the floor and making her drop the cell phone in the process.

"_Izzy? What's goin-_" Aelita wasn't able to finish her question as the Izzy clone stepped on the cell phone and broke it.

"Owwwww..." Izzy shook her head and looked up at her clone as it raised one foot. "What in the wide world of sports?" It stomped down, but Izzy rolled to the right and leaped to her feet, taking a pose.

"Alright weird evil Izzy Clone, prepare to _die!_" Izzy declared before leaping into the air with a battle cry. "Hai yaaaaaa-" The clone became intangible, causing Izzy to fly through it. "Uh oh-OH NO!" She crashed through the basement door and began to roll down the stairs. "Ow! Ouch! Ow! Ow! Oh! Curse you-OW MY TOES!"

The Izzy clone smirked evilly as she walked over to the door and looked down the stairs.

"Hi-ya!" Izzy jumped out with her foot hitting the clone's face.

The clone staggered back a few feet but caught Izzy's next blow and threw her over its shoulder and down the hall. But Izzy landed on her hands and somersaulted through the air and landed on her feet. She turned around and got into a fighting stance. "All right, evil clone, bring it on."

The Izzy-clone smirked as her hands glowed bright and fired a blast of energy.

"Uh oh!" Izzy ducked under the blast and several more as they were fired. "I change my mind! Leave it off! Don't bring it on, leave it off!"

Xxx

Sadly her shout went through ha nearby vent and into Kurt's office.

"Ok...just have to finish this and-"

_"Leave it off! Leave it off!" _He heard Izzy shout.

"What the hell?" He looked at the vent.

_"Don't bring it on, leave it off! I like it off!"_

Certain unwanted and unintentional thoughts appeared in Kurt's mind as he shook his head, shuddering. "Kurt, you have got to stop thinking about things like-"

_"Oh baby I really like it off!"_

"Must not think nasty thought, must not think nasty thoughts," Kurt plugged his ears.

Xxx

Izzy wasn't the only one with a clone problem. Eva was exercising in the gym, lifting weights as a spectre emerged from a socket and morphed into a copy of her. The Eva-Clone smirked as walked towards the real Eva who had yet to notice the clone. Eva grunted as she managed her one hundredth lift but stopped as a copy of her looked down at her with a smirk and instead of human eyes she saw the Eye of XANA in both of them.

The clone grabbed the weights she was lifting and pushed them down on until it was pressing down on Eva's neck. Eva grunted as she tried to lift it back up before she was choked to death but she found out the hard way that XANA's polymorphic clones had super strength, stronger then even her. Her foot lashed up, hitting the clone in the face, making it grunt out of annoyance rather than pain allowing Eva to get up and throw the weights away. Eva got up on her feet and jumped at the clone, knocking it down but the clone grabbed her by the neck.

Eva grunted as she tried to pry the clone's hands off her but it was too strong. The clone stood up and lifted her into the air before it tossed her through the air. Eva was sent flying into a treadmill and knocked it over when she hit it. Eva groaned as she got back up, Aelita had warned her how powerful XANA's spectres were but she hadn't taken it seriously until now.

That didn't mean she'd let the clone win, she was going to wipe that smirk off its face. Eva growled as charged at the clone.

Xxx

Noah was reading a book when he felt a finger tapping him on the shoulder. "If there isn't some kind of emergency then go away."

"Funny you should say that." The person behind him chuckled.

Noah looked up when the stranger sounded just like... He turned around and saw...himself.

"Would this count?" The Noah copy asked, his eyes shifting to show XANA's symbol.

"Oh cr-"Noah was cut off as his copy slugged him in the face and knocked him off the chair he was sitting on.

He looked up and rolled out of the way as the Noah-clone tried to stomp down on his face. He got up and ran for it as the clone chased after him.

Xxx

DJ hummed happily as he walked around the woods around the studio. He sat on a stump and watched some squirrels climbing the trees and birds flying around above him. His pet Bunny jumped onto his lap and he patted it on the head. He breathed in the fresh air with a smile as he was finally able to relax. That was when Bunny started shaking and jumped off his lap.

"Bunny? What's wrong?" DJ stood up and followed the terrified rabbit.

The rabbit ran into the bushes and hid itself from sight. DJ ran over and pushed the bushes aside to reveal a terrified looking Bunny.

"Bunny, what's wrong?"

"Probably has to do with me." A voice said behind him.

DJ turned around and saw...himself, except he was sure his eyes didn't resemble XANA's symbol.

"Oh fu-" DJ was cut off as his copy tried to punch him.

He dodged but ducking under the punch and started running to get away from the clone.

Xxx

All around the studio it was the same with the other Lyoko Warriors, each one ending with a polymorphic spectre looking exactly like them trying to kill them.

"Has XANA ever heard of a break?" Heather shouted as she ducked a punch form her copy and tried to punch it in the face.

However when her fist hit the copy's face it felt like she was punching a brick wall. Heather shouted in pain as she clenched her now bleeding fist. The copy smirked and grabbed her by the throat and tossed her into the air. Her back collided with the wall eliciting a shout of pain from her as the copy advanced towards her. It stood over her and her hand morphed into a blade.

"Pardon me?"

The copy turned and saw Gwen...with a fire extinguisher in her hands. That was all the copy saw before Gwen started hammering its face with the fire extinguisher. The copy was unprepared and knocked to the ground. Gwen quickly helped Heather up and they started running down the hall.

"You enjoyed that didn't you?" Heather threw a glance at Gwen.

"Can't say I felt bad about it." Gwen smirked.

That was when a copy of Gwen appeared in front of them, blocking the exit.

"Oh great." Gwen groaned.

"Don't bother, my turn." Heather smirked.

"I'm pretty sure the fire extinguisher won't work for this," Gwen replied as Heather opened a red box on the wall-like the one Gwen got the extinguisher from...

Except she got out a fire axe.

"...ah." Gwen nodded. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Yaaaahhhh!" Heather charged at the clone.

Xxx

"Mommy!" Noah whined as he hid on top of one of the shelves in the kitchen, his clone hopping up and down trying to reach him. Growling, the clone grabbed the shelf and began to shake it.

"Hey, stop it!" Noah shouted. "Get-ing dizz-y!" He groaned.

Suddenly the clone was tackled...by Carlos!

"Oh no you don't!" Carlos growled, putting it into a head lock. "I just got my demented cousin out of here, I am _not_ gonna put up with crazy evil clones!" He looked up at Noah. "Get down from there and get moving!"

"Thanks!" Noah hopped down.

"No problem-uh oh," Carlos looked down before he was launched into the ceiling and fell back down onto the clone. "Ow..."

Noah rushed out as Carlos and the clone got up.

"Ok, I've handled things ten times your weight," Carlos pulled back the sleeves of his shirt and grabbed the nearest rolling pin. "Bring it!"

Xxx

Kurt's calm voice could be heard making an announcement over the studio's speaker system. "Attention? Attention? Testing, testing, is this thing on?...good. Now everybody, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but we have a minor situation in progress. We are currently under attack by evil, digitally created clones with super powers made by an evil demonic AI out to dominate the world and destroy all mankind."

"What is Kurt _doing?_" Cody shouted.

"I usually would not tell you this but I just know how this is all gonna end so what the hell. Will anybody with fighting skills please pick up a nearby weapon and prepare to defend yourself and the Total Drama Contestants while anybody with no fighting skills whatsoever please watch your step on the way out and have a nice day."

"...what is he talking about?" Roberto asked before the nearest wall was blown open...and clones of the Total Drama Cast and crew poured through. "Holy crap it's the Attack of the Clones!"

The startled crew members grabbed anything they could to fight with or ran away screaming-mostly the latter. The contestants who were not already fighting their own clones rushed into the main studio to find the fight in progress, with Roberto and the other men and women being beaten back in a rather one sided battle.

"It's an army of...us!" Geoff said. "Aw man we can't handle this many clones!"

But then they heard a familiar horn...revelry.

"Huh? Revelry?" Cody wondered aloud before the far wall had another hole blasted through it as Kurt drove through it in his car and ran over or slammed into a dozen of the clones. He stuck his head out the window.

"_What are you standing around for? _Don't you have a fight in another universe?" He shouted. "Get going, we'll keep the clones distracted!"

Most of the Lyoko Warrios nodded while LeShawna turned to Eva who was still fighting her clone, even though it was immune to pain.

"Come on! Let's go!" LeShawna tugged her arm.

"I don't run from a fight!" Eva growled.

"This ain't the real fight! You know where that is!" LeShawna retorted.

Eva glared but stopped fighting and turned to the entrance. Gwen, Heather, Cody, Trent, Bridgette, LeShawna, Geoff, and Eva took off.

"Where's DJ and Izzy?" Gwen asked as they ran.

"DJ took a walk in the woods earlier." Bridgette replied. "Izzy, I have no idea.

"They'll be fine! They know how to survive!" Heather said as they ran through the woods and found the hatch to the sewer.

"Here we go again." Geoff said as he lifted the hatch.

Unfortunately a hand reached out and grabbed him, pulling him down into the sewer.

"Geoff!" Bridgette shouted as she jumped down.

She landed in the dirty sewer water with a big splash. She looked up and saw Geoff's copy holding him by the neck.

"Let go of him!" Bridgette shouted as she ran at the copy while its back was turned.

But with a simple backhand she was sent flying back. Everyone climbed down as this happened and LeShawna jumped on the Geoff clone's back, knocking it down and making it release Geoff.

"Go! I hold it off!" LeShawna shouted as she started wrestling with the clone.

They nodded reluctantly and ran down the sewer.

Xxx

Aelita sat in the chair at the lab, hanging up after trying to call the other Lyoko Warriors when she lost contact with Izzy. She looked up when she saw some of the others run into the lobby through the security camera. She waited for the elevator to take them down to the lab and got up when the door opened up.

"Thank goodness you're all right, when I lost contact with Izzy I figured something really bad was happening." Aelita said as they walked in.

"We ended up in a crappy digital remake of Attack of the Clones." Gwen replied. "Where's the tower this time?"

"Swamp Sector. No monsters or generals yet." Aelita replied.

"On it." Noah sat at the computer.

The elevator closed and the rest of the group headed down to the scanner room.

Xxx

"_Transfer._"

"_Scanner._"

"_Virtualization!_"

One by one they landed in the wet muddy ground of the Swamp Sector.

"Nice place." Eva commented when she saw the sector she was in.

"I know." Heather grunted as she stepped out of a puddle. "Why'd it have to be this one?"

"Noah, how far is the tower?" Aelita looked up at the sky.

"_Just a few kilometres from your spot, better hurry before something busts into the lab._" Noah replied. "_Here's the vehicles._"

One by one all six vehicles appeared in front of the warriors. Eva whistled when she saw the Overbike. She quickly hopped onto it before anyone else.

"That was the same reaction with a few of the others." Gwen commented as she got on the Overboard.

"Most of the guys do that." LeShawna said as she got on the Overjet.

"Guys and their fancy motorcycles." Heather shook her head as she got on the Oversled.

Trent and Cody got on the Overwing while Birdgette assembled her surf board together and took off into the air with Aelita while Geoff stood behind her on the board.

The flight to the tower was unbelievably...easy. There was not a sign of monsters or traps; no generals or attacks...

"_The tower should be on that island._" Noah said.

Aelita looked ahead but she felt a familiar feeling shoot through her. "It's not a tower."

They could see the island where the tower was supposed to be except...there _was no tower at all_! There was just one big island in the middle of a lake. And standing on top of a large rock was a familiar looking young man...or what looked like a young man.

"Welcome again," XANA said as they circled him. "It's been a while since we could talk face to face."

"Who's that?" Eva asked.

"XANA." Gwen glared as she pulled out her scythe.

Eva raised an eyebrow when Gwen said that the teen that looked like Aelita in front of her was in fact XANA himself.

"That's XANA? But..." Eva said.

"I know." Aelita glared at the smirking young man.

"Where's the tower?" Geoff looked around.

XANA shrugged. "You tell me; didn't your super scan pick one up? After all, I can't attack the real world without a Tower now can I?"

"Noah?" Aelita looked up.

_"The super scan says there's a tower right there where XANA's standing."_

"'Oh what could the trick be this time?' you all wonder," XANA narrated. "But of course there's a trick, it wouldn't be original if I left the tower in plain sight every single time."

"Noah, could the tower be under XANA's position?" Bridgette asked.

"_No way, not unless the tower's buried under the ground._"

"What are you up to this time?" Trent pointed his guitar at the amused XANA.

Aelita raised her hand and prepared to fire a plasma beam. "There's more to this than what we've seen. An attack of polymorphic clones, a tower that is supposed to be here but no sign of it and there's no illusion hiding it, and you of all people waiting for us.

"Hah, so you've noticed haven't you?" XANA snickered. "You know there's tower activated and you know there's nothing wrong with your super scan yet there is no tower. Care to guess what has happened?"

"Better yet, how about I just kick your digital ass right here and now." Eva cracked her fists. "I prefer to do that rather than waiting around."

"Ah, the new one, and another familiar face." XANA glanced at her. "How long has it been since we last met?"

"I'd think I'd remember a face like yours." Eva glared at him.

"Oh that's right. To you that hasn't happened yet, but it will and if I remember right you're in for the shock of the century." XANA spoke, not bothered by everyone pulling out their weapons and ready to attack him.

"That's it!" Eva shouted as she charged at XANA.

"Eva no!" Aelita shouted, knowing that XANA was provoking her.

Just as Eva was in striking range and sent a fist out that was when a blast of fire came out of the ground, surrounding XANA and expanded towards the warriors.

"Whoa!" They all jumped back as the fire nearly burned them.

Aelita created an energy wrap that she threw at Eva and pulled her back before she was burned to deletion. They quickly hopped onto their vehicles and flew back as the blast of fire consumed the island.

"_Holy crap! Something else is in there next to XANA!_" Noah exclaimed.

They watched as the flames faded and in the center of the scorched island was another figure standing next to XANA. He wore a full body suit of black with several wisps of red lines here or there in no certain pattern or order that covered him head to toe. Over that he wore thin armour that matched his suit's colour, but was arranged in a more organic, form fitting way that it seems to move with him. It had six red lights on the back: two on the shoulder blades, two just below them, and two on the small of his back. His armour and suit were form fitting, revealing a well toned body that showed he was a male.

He wore a helmet over his head with a pitch black visor that hides all details of his face. His right gauntlet was thicker and had layers of metal plating and pointed tips, making his hand look more like a claw. On his chest was the Eye of XANA.

"Good entrance," XANA commented.

The helmet clad head slowly turned towards him. _"Thank you...master."_ His voice sounded strained and whispery, distorted a bit by the helmet.

"Another General?" Eva groaned. "How many are there?"

"I've never seen this one before," Aelita said. "Who are you?"

The General did not reply, staring at Aelita.

"...hello? No fancy title or introduction?" Geoff asked.

"Tall dark and silent...and here I thought the Generals couldn't get any more cliché!" Heather muttered.

"Now let's not act like children...let's let our powers do the talking," XANA smiled. "Burn them, Cain."

_"Yes...master."_ Suddenly Cain shot away from the island...using jets of fire that shot out of his feet!

"Whoa man-" Geoff was knocked off of the Over Jet and sent falling. Cain turned, sprouting a pair of large, bright wings that glowed like they were on fire from six red spots on his back. They allowed him to turn in mid air, flapping silently like an owl's. Aelita caught Geoff in mid fall and deposited him on the island while the Over Jet crashed and exploded.

"This one's a pyro!" Trent swallowed. "Just our luck!"

"I'm quite proud of this one." XANA called. "For the record, his title is Cain of the Inferno!"

Cain flew at the other Lyoko warriors in the air, blasting at them like a rocket. Trent aimed his guitar and Cody aimed his pistols and fired a blast of lightning and a barrage of laser shots but Cain spun through the air, the attacks passing right underneath him as he blasted himself at the musician.

"Oh crap!" Trent shouted as Cain rammed into the Overwing and knocked both him and Cody off of the vehicle as it shattered on impact.

They landed in the water with a big splash but they only lost ten life points from the fall. Cain flew at the other warriors still in the air, holding out his left hand as a stream of fire blasted out of the palm of the hand.

"Whoa!" Everyone scattered and flew down to the swamp below them.

Bridgette floated above the water and held out her hands. Her tattoos started to glow as she thrust her arms up and a stream of water shot out from the lake. Cain flew down, creating a fire shield around him as the water slammed into it. A blast of steam added to the fog around the lake making it harder to see then before.

"Gwen! We can't see!" Aelita shouted.

"On it!" Gwen activated her wind aura and blew away the mist.

She was just in time as Cain fell from the air and landed on the tip of Bridgette's board. The surfer shouted as the sudden weight sent the board spinning down and Bridgette was catapulted into the air. Cain spun around and fired a stream of fire that hit Bridgette and burned her body into not thing but data streams sending her straight back to Earth.

"Big mistake!" Geoff shouted as he swung his axe and let loose a blast of lightning.

Cain however flew out of the way and headed straight for Geoff, choosing the party king as his next target. Fire blasted from his feet making him so fast Geoff was barely able to hold his axe in front of him as Cain slammed his shoulder into it and sent Geoff flying back into a tree. He hit the tree so hard he left an outline on it as he slid to the ground. Cain landed on front of him and held out his hand as a small flame appeared in the palm of his hand.

Just as he unleashed a blast of fire Gwen landed in front of him and activated her fire aura. They were both engulfed in flames until Cain ended his attack. He waited for the flames to fade and show that he had taken out two Lyoko Warriors but to his shock even though no one could see his face Gwen and Geoff were still there looking unharmed.

"Whoa!" Gwen sighed in relief and smirked at Cain. "That was a hell of a gamble I made but it worked. Fire doesn't work on me when I have my fire aura activated."

Gwen took advantage of Cain's surprise and swung her scythe at his head. He stepped back, Gwen's scythe missing his neck by just a few inches and quickly dodged again as Gwen swung her scythe repeatedly to try to cut him apart. Cain held out his left hand and a blast of black smoke appeared as Gwen swung her scythe again.

The smoke solidified itself into a long black claymore with red veins and the Eye of XANA on the hilt. It caught the blade of the scythe, and Cain then wrenched both weapons to the right, twisting them so his blade was on top of Gwen's now. He then stepped on the pole of the scythe, driving it into the mud and leaving Gwen to try and pull at it, only to find that like most of the Generals Cain was stronger than he appeared. He swung his claymore down at her, but Geoff blocked with his axe. Not to be deterred, Cain bent his sword arm-needing only one to use the large claymore and leaned in, jamming his elbow into Geoff's sternum.

Though he had no air to breathe in Lyoko, it still stunned Geoff long enough for Cain to bash him across the face with the hilt of his weapon. Gwen slipped her scythe free at that moment and swung around Geoff, but Cain ducked under it and then spun, swinging his left leg out in a counter clockwise sweep that tripped both warriors.

"Ok...this guy's good." Gwen said as she and Geoff got up.

"Hang on!" Trent shouted as he dove down at Cain, mounted on his guitar. He bent down and managed to fire off a lightning spell in mid flight. Cain brought his sword up, and the spell struck his blade...and did not harm him. He spun the sword once and held up his other hand. A jet of fire shot at the surprised Trent, and hit his guitar. He flew off, flailing as he fell towards Cain...

And was impaled on his sword. He gasped once, and was devirtualized like that.

"Trent!" Gwen lunged at Cain and managed to shove him back with the bottom end of her scythe and then land a small blow on his stomach. The cut seemingly vanished, but it had been a bit of damage done regardless. Cain batted aside her second swing harshly and grabbed her by the neck, lifting her off her feet as she struggled.

"Hey! Ugly!" Cain turned and saw Eva...holding a whole tree in her bare hands. She growled and charged. "Dodge this!"

"Eva, it's better if you _don't_ announce your attacks!" Gwen said before Cain dropped her and walked towards Eva, as though interested by this new attack.

"HA!" Eva swung. "YAH!" The tree swung at Cain...and before it even touched him the bark burnt and melted into nothing...and Eva was left holding two thirds of the tree, the other third separated right above the area that would have hit Cain, who was still walking towards her.

"How did you-" Cain flung his sword hand...and his claymore spun through the air as fast as one of Geoff's chakrams. It sank into Eva, right between her ribs, and she was gone with a brief grunt of pain. Before she was gone Cain tore his sword out of her and rested the tip on the ground, facing the last five of the warriors.

"Oh man...this isn't good," Geoff swallowed. "This guy's crazy good. We didn't have this much trouble from the other Generals first time we met."

"And the worst part is we can't even make fun of him, or make him slip up; this guy's like Darth Vader!" Cody added.

"We need a strategy, or we're gonna get picked off one at a time," Heather looked around. "Wait...Aelita; can you carry two people in flight?"

"I can ever since I first used Code Angel," Aelita nodded.

"Take Cody and me up," Heather said. "Gwen, Geoff, distract him."

"One distraction coming up," Geoff nodded and then flung both of his chakrams through the air towards Cain who simply held up his claymore and batted them away.

Gwen activated her wind aura and released a gust of wind at the water sending a tidal wave at Cain. The general activated his wings and flew above the wave as it crashed into the land he had been standing on. As he flew up Geoff combined his chakrams into his axe and swung it, firing a blast of lightning over the tidal as Cain flew above it. However fire erupted from his feet making him go faster and he narrowly avoided Geoff's attack. However that had it been what Gwen was waiting for.

She used her wind aura to fire a whirlwind at Cain that left him spinning in the air.

"Now!" Gwen said.

Geoff fired another blast of lightning towards Cain but as the general spun a blast of fire surrounded him and something appeared between him and the lightning blast.

"What the-"Geoff was cut off as the fire manifested in the form of a Phoenix but much smaller then the Phoenix monster created and used by Nephilim and XANA.

"_Ember._" Cain said as the Phoenix blocked the lightning attack.

"He has a Phoenix with him?" Gwen exclaimed.

"Like it?" XANA asked, as he continued to watch the fight. "His own personal monster, even though much smaller than the original Ember is more powerful."

"_He's right! It's got more life points then the Phoenix!_" Noah said.

Cain stood on Ember's back with his arms crossed as Ember flew down towards the two warriors. It shrieked and fired a jet of fire from its mouth. The warriors dove into cover, and it flew overhead, beginning to come around for another pass at them.

"What can't this guy do?" Heather shouted from overhead. "Alright Aelita get us over him and drop us on top of him, we'll handle it from there! Cody, use your time stop power and try and knock him off that Phoenix with a quick shot!"

"Got it!" Cody nodded as Aelita brought them over the Phoenix.

Cody activated his time stop ability, drawing his gun in one hand and taking aim at Cain...

He fired once, and struck Cain between the shoulder blades. It knocked the General to his knees and made him roll off of the Phoenix.

"Oh hell yeah!" Cody grinned as time returned to normal.

Ember faded...and reappeared under Cain from a cloud of fire and smoke. It caught him, and he straightened himself up, looking at the three overhead.

"Drop me now!" Heather shouted before she plummeted and landed on Ember next to Cain. She jabbed at him with one of her arm blades, the left one only for Cain to grab her arm and force it across her chest. She tried to use the other one only to have this repeated. She was turned around as she struggled, and was shoved off of Ember by Cain, who shot a jet of fire down after her.

Luckily Gwen flew up and got Heather out of the way in time. Aelita dropped Cody and landed in front of them. Holding out her hands she created an energy shield that blocked the flames.

"He's too strong to fight at close range." Aelita said having spent her time analysing Cain's fighting style. "Combined with his fighting style and his fire power he's too dangerous to try and take on if you specialise in close range combat. Stay back, I got an idea on how to fight him."

She dropped the energy shield and fired a plasma beam from both of her hands as she flew up into the sky. Cain parried one blast while Ember flew out of the way of other and followed. As they flew up into the sky Aelita fired several energy orbs while Ember fired a stream of fire. The attacks met and the sky lit up with red and pink light.

Aelita flew back and continued to fire her plasma beams as Ember flew at her with Cain blocking her attacks. Unfortunately Ember was as faster than she was and got close enough for Cain to swing his claymore at her. Aelita held up one arm and caught the claymore with an energy shield but Cain held up his clawed hand and sent it at her chest. But fortunately Aelita was fast enough to stop it by grabbing Cain's wrist.

Her hand glowed pink keeping Cain from burning it. Despite blocking both attacks Cain was physically stronger as he managed to throw her back easily. As she flew back she fired two large energy fields and then fired two more plasma beams. Cain parried both energy fields with his claymore while Ember created a fire shield to block the plasma beams.

But the force of the attacks pushed them both back. Balls of fire came out of Ember's wings as it flew towards Aelita. She managed to evade or block the attacks with an energy shield but Ember got very close.

"Sorry if it looks like I'm copying you, Eva!" Aelita clapped her hands and created an energy shockwave that collided with Ember that resulted in a large explosion.

Aelita knew that Cain was not finished and her thoughts were confirmed when Ember came out flames with its master raising his claymore above his head. But as he appeared Aelita fired several energy fields that struck him in the chest forcing Ember to fly back and protect its master from more damage. This time Aelita flew at Cain and focused both of her hands into a single large plasma beam. Cain avoided it when Ember flew to the side but that had been Aelita's plan.

As Cain flew at her and slashed at her with his claymore he was surprise to see that she floated in the air and let him cut her. That was when he sensed something behind him and spun around in time...to see a pink glowing fist slam into his face and knock him off Ember.

"Whoa! When did she make a clone?" Cody asked.

"_During the big blast she made a clone that took her place and turned herself invisible thanks to her creativity powers._" Noah said, impressed with Aelita's quick thinking.

While Cain was still stunned Aelita quickly flew at him and pummelled him again and fired a plasma beam. But Ember appeared in front of Cain and took the blast. The force of the attack sent them falling to the ground.

"All right, Aelita!" Geoff laughed as Aelita landed on the ground.

"Thanks but he's not down yet." Aelita pointed ahead as Cain stood up.

His visor was cracked enough that parts of it fell. He looked at Aelita, who stared at the single visible green eye beneath it...

She gasped. "Oh...god...you."

"What is it?" Cody asked.

Suddenly Cain's sword jammed deep into the ground. He twisted the handle, and a noise similar to an engine revving filled the air before the ground shook, lines of red light appearing as parts shifted...

And suddenly a ring of fire shot up around Cain, enveloping him. Behind him, a portal formed, compliments of XANA who appeared next to his new general.

"An excellent test," XANA nodded. "But let's let the other have their fun Cain."

"_Yes..._" Cain said before the rest of his visor fell away and his regular voice was heard. "Master."

Everybody recognized the voice, and the face-everybody but Eva. But it couldn't be...

"Seraphim." Aelita whispered before Cain stepped through the portal and was gone.

"No way!" Gwen said, feeling completely shocked.

"Seraphim was a noble warrior." XANA commented as he turned to face the warriors. "He spent years searching for this place to rescue Aelita and father as well as kill me, only to go into hibernation when he thought I was dead. He sacrificed himself to save all of Lyoko."

"You..." Aelita growled. "What did you do to him?"

XANA smirked. "Seraphim's legacy lives on, in the form of the younger program created from the same digital DNA that created him. A clone in all ways, right down to his effective programming."

"Bastard!" Geoff yelled.

It took a lot to make Geoff angry but seeing that XANA had not only destroyed Seraphim but created a clone of him made him furious.

"Don't get angry yet, everyone. There's still more happening here than you think." XANA replied, looking very amused. "You still have yet to locate a tower that should be right here and yet there's still nothing."

"It's not in Lyoko." Aelita spoke up, glaring at XANA with as much hate as everyone. "It's in the Carbon Copy."

Everyone looked at her but didn't interrupt.

"You used the connection between Lyoko and the Carbon Copy to make it look like there was a tower here but instead you used a tower in the Carbon Copy and allowed the super scan to detect it knowing that we'd think it'd be here." Aelita explained. "We have no way of knowing if a tower in the Carbon Copy is activated unless it's in the Forest Sector since we gained a connection to it."

XANA chuckled. "So you figured it out? It's always impressive to see you figure it out but you took a little longer this time. Can you guess what my next trick is this time? This one's going to be a real surprise."

He held up his hand.

"To quote several of your friends and Jeremy: Return to the Past now!"

"What?" Aelita shouted.

Xxx

In the lab, Noah, Trent, Bridgette, LeShawna, and Eva who were still in the lab while Izzy and DJ were still at the studio having been unable to get past the clones and reach the lab watched as a pillar of light came out of the computer. It started like every other Return to the Past but something was different. It froze for a second before there was a great force pulling them into the light.

"Whoa! AHHHHHHH!" They all screamed as they were sucked into the light and it expanded out.

Xxx

DJ watched as his clone smiled at him and great light engulfed him.

Xxx

Izzy dodged another punch when a great light flew at her and she vanished into it.

Xxx

When the light retracted...everybody was back in bed waking up that morning. Aelita was at Kadic and the gang was at the studio. The confused and disoriented humans climb out of bed, but something was not right. When they came out into the kitchen they noticed a few of them were...missing.

"Guys! I can't find Bridgette, Trent, LeShawna, or DJ!" Exclaimed Geoff as he had his phone out and was repeatedly trying to call Bridgette and there was no answer.

"We checked Eva's room and she's not there either." Gwen replied, feeling very concerned right now.

"I think Noah and Izzy are missing too." Cody replied.

Everyone looked at each other with very uneasy looks. Gwen pulled out her cell phone and dialled Aelita's number.

"Aelita, you there?" Gwen asked.

"_Yeah, I'm just checking the Time Return program and we've got a problem._"

"Tell me about it, Bridgette, Trent, Izzy, Noah, DJ, LeShawna, and Eva are gone!" Gwen replied.

"_What?"_ Aelita exclaimed. "By gone you mean..."

"Vanished without a trace. What happened?" Gwen asked.

"_We've got a program linking the time return program to the Carbon Copy meaning XANA found a way past the firewalls Jeremy put up. I don't know how he did it but that's how he triggered the Return to the Past and the tower is still active._" Aelita explained. "_Gwen, the entire attack and Cain were a diversion!_"

"To get as many of us out into the real world as possible." Gwen realized with wide eyes. "But then where are the ones who were devirtualized?"

Xxx

Bridgette groaned as she opened her eyes and found herself in the forest where the sewer hatch that led to the factory was. She heard groaning and saw Trent, Izzy, DJ, Noah, Leshawna, and Eva getting up from the ground.

"What happened?" Trent rubbed his head. "How'd we get out here?"

"The last thing I remember was...a Return to the Past." Noah got up.

"You guys shut down the tower?" DJ asked.

"Actually...I don't think so." Bridgette shook her head as everyone stood up. "I think we should get back to the studio."

"Yeah." Trent nodded and they all walked out of the forest taking the usual path to the studio.

"Hey, why is the path a lot...messier than usual?" Bridgette asked as some twigs snagged on her sweater.

"Yeah, doesn't Roberto come out here every day to trim?" DJ added.

"Maybe he's just lazy today," Noah shrugged. "Well I don't know about you two but I am looking forward to...my..." He stopped. "Bed?" Everybody else bumped into him when he stopped.

"What's the hold up?" Eva demanded, shoving her way to the front...

And the studio was barren and in disrepair. The advertisement posters for Total Drama, the fancy cameras and speakers, the vehicles parked out front...all gone.

"What the..." LeShawna trailed off.

"What the...are they renovating or something?" Izzy wondered.

"In the middle of a season? Not likely," Bridgette shook her head and walked up to the front doors, trying to pull them open. "Hey, it won't open!" She peeked inside. "Why is the glass so cracked...and how'd all these cobwebs get all over the place?"

"Is this Chris' idea of a joke?" Eva growled.

"No...If it were we'd have known about it," Trent muttered before he kicked the weakened glass door of its hinges and peeked inside. "Wow...this place is a total dump."

"What are you on, Trent; the producers practically spent all of Chris' money sprucing the joint up." Eva snapped, storming inside. "Wow...he's right."

"This is wrong. We should head to Kadic and see Aelita." Bridgette said.

Everyone nodded and they walked out of the studio and towards Kadic. As they walked they took the time to look around and noticed a few things, like restaurants that weren't there the last time they checked or shops and stores existing when they hadn't seen them the last time they walked down the side walk. As they walked a newspaper landed on the ground in front of Noah who was about to kick when he noticed something.

He picked it up and looked at it.

"Come on, Noah. We don't have time to read the paper." DJ said as they walked past him.

"Guys? We've got a serious problem." Noah said, for once his sarcastic tone was replaced by one that sounded very concerned.

"What is it?" Bridgette asked impatiently as they looked at him.

He held the paper up and pointed at the date.

_Monday, July 5th, 1993_


	78. Episode 76: The Race Through Time

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 77

After the others disappeared Aelita quickly ran over to the studio when she was finished with school and met up with the others along with Kurt and Carlos. They were now in Kurt's office which he had taken after Chris was eliminated. Heather paced back and forth while Aelita sat at the desk and the others looked over her shoulder.

"This is crazy! New general, the others missing, and XANA having control of the Return to the Past program? What else could go wrong?" Heather asked as she paced.

"All right, calm down!" Kurt stood up making Heather stop pacing. "Let's start with what we do know...what do we know?"

"Well for one there's a new general." Cody started. "Cain of the Inferno and he's a clone of Seraphim."

"All right, how did XANA create a clone of Seraphim?" Carlos asked.

"He couldn't have just created a clone. Seraphim was an AI that was designed like an anti-virus program." Cody pointed out.

"Who had Robby's DNA scanned into him." Aelita spoke up.

"So how could XANA have made a clone of Seraphim if he didn't have the DNA?" Kurt asked.

"...He must have got it when he attacked Seraphim in the City Sector!" Aelita looked up with wide eyes.

"The fight with Lyon and Nephilim?" Gwen looked grim as Aelita nodded. "Damn it. He attacked Seraphim and copied the DNA when he was putting that virus in him."

"But why now? It's been a couple of weeks since that fight. Why bring this guy out now?" Geoff asked.

"Because we were making progress." Aelita glared down at the screen. "We lost Courtney and Duncan when Nephilim erased their memories and we lost Seraphim but gained a way to reach the Carbon Copy which XANA tried to prevent and to rub salt on the wound we destroyed Blade while we were at it. XANA wanted to surprise us with something big to knock us off our winning streak."

"He used the link with the copy for misdirection." Cody said.

"He sicked Cain on us because we had no idea he had a new general ready." Heather continued.

"And he somehow hacked into the Return to the Past program and used it when enough of us were devirtualized." Gwen finished. "But the question is where did they go? A Simulation Bubble?"

"I scanned all of Lyoko, no Simulation Bubble or anything like that." Aelita replied.

"What about capturing them somehow? They could be stuck like the original Lyoko Warriors are now." Kurt pointed out.

"Possible but let's keep thinking." Aelita replied. "However I believe our best bet would be to head to the Copy and shut down the tower."

"Well then let's go!" Geoff sat up.

"Hold on! We can't just go the Carbon Copy and fight our way to the tower." Gwen objected. "We're down more than half our group, we've got a new general who kicked nearly all of our asses, and we'll have to go through dozens of traps and monster while fighting most likely all of the generals. We're really outnumbered this time."

"I'd hate to say but Gwen's actually right on this." Heather nodded. "We need a really good plan."

"And I might have something but we shouldn't speak here." Aelita closed her laptop. "We need to go somewhere where XANA can't hear us if he tries to listen in."

"Where would that be?" Cody asked.

"I've got a few ideas."

Xxx

When Noah held up the newspaper it took everyone about ten seconds to understand what they were seeing. Everyone's reactions were different but they were all centered on the words on the newspaper.

_Monday, July 5th, 1994_

Bridgette was still in shock as she fell to her knees, unable to move her eyes from the newspaper. Izzy for once seemed completely still as though she was looking for signs of a joke.

"Oh god..." DJ felt tears coming out of his eyes as he figured it out.

His mind was frozen as he went over what happened and what was horribly wrong.

"No way...no way...no _freaking_ way..." LeShawna uttered over and over again.

"What the hell is this?" Eva snatched the paper from Noah. "Just what the hell are you trying to pull?"

"It's no joke." Noah could only stare, for once not able to come up something sarcastic.

"But...there's no way...we can't have been sent back...to this..." Trent tried to reason that this wasn't happening.

But it did happen. They had been sent back nearly seventeen years somehow. Before most of them weren't even born or had even learned how to walk!

"But...but..." Bridgette uttered over and over while looking like she wasn't even breathing.

"How can we be sent back that long? Aelita told us that the Program's got a safety feature only capable of going back up to a week!" LeShawna found her voice and shouted.

"I don't know! One second they were fighting that general and...XANA." Noah actually growled out the name of the program he hated even more than Alejandro. "He did this!"

"But he couldn't! Aelita made sure to keep firewalls around the program." DJ reasoned. "Didn't she?"

"It's not the first time XANA's managed to surprise us. He found a way in and he must have used that tower increase the program's power and it targeted us because...we weren't in Lyoko. That's why the others aren't with us!" Noah realized.

"He trapped us here! What will happen to the others?" Bridgette stood up. "Geoff, Aelita, Gwen, Cody, Heather, they're all on their own against the generals without us to help!"

"I don't know!" Noah _shouted_ back making everyone stare at him in shock. He looked down at the ground. "I don't know."

Everyone was silent as they simply looked at the ground feeling completely helpless while cursing XANA for what he had done.

"...the lab!" Bridgette looked up. "The lab might still be there!"

"Of course! Aelita told us that her dad had set up the lab more than a decade back before the supercomputer was turned back on!" Trent realized.

"Well what the hell are we waiting for?" LeShawna asked.

"We need to get to the park!" Noah said and they all took off.

However just as they ran into the forest Noah stepped into the front of a moving bicycle. The owner screamed as they tried to move out of the way and swerved onto the grass before falling over.

"Oh crud!" DJ ran over to the downed person as they groaned. "Are you all ri..."

"DJ, come on let's go!" Noah said, anxious to get to the factory.

"Guys? You might want to see this." DJ replied.

"What's up?" Trent asked as he walked over and stopped in mid step when he saw who DJ was helping. "Holy..."

"What's going on? Come on we got to-"LeShawna ran up to grab them but froze when she saw who was in front of them. "Yikes."

"Okay, that's it! Just tell us wh-"Eva stopped when DJ stepped aside and allowed everyone to see.

"Is that..." Bridgette whispered.

"Whoa." Izzy said, sounding surprised.

Noah could only stare as the person stared at them with a confused look.

"Why are you all staring at me like that?"

They couldn't answer quickly as they looked over the person in front them. The bright green eyes, the short pink hair, the face that showed curiosity from their stares and irritation but also showed she was a bit shy to be around so many people. She wore a simply yellow shirt with a pink jacket and a dark green skirt. They had not run into any person. It was someone they knew very well.

Aelita was feeling a bit awkward and irritated from all the stares she was getting since she had no idea why they were gawking at her.

"Did I get something on my face?" Aelita put a hand to her face feeling for anything like a cut or scratch when she fell off her bike.

Xxx

**Present Day**

"You couldn't choose a better place to talk?" Heather asked as Aelita led them to the meeting place she had in mind.

Unfortunately it was the one place she'd choose the Swamp Sector with an army of snakes over...

The sewer.

"Sorry, Heather but it's the one place I can think off where XANA can't hear us over any kind of electronic device that's nearby." Aelita replied as they stopped.

"Could explain why you asked us to dump our cell phones back at the studio." Gwen took a deep breath to deal with her claustrophobia.

"Why not out in a park? A forest?" Heather asked.

"For all we know XANA could use a satellite to spy on us. Considering what we've been through you don't think it's prudent to be a little paranoid?" Aelita asked.

"Good point." Kurt said as he and Carlos had been invited along. "So what's the plan?"

"Well, we have no idea what the attack was, we have no idea how XANA got into the Time Return program which is what I will be working on after we save the others." Aelita started. "But going through the Carbon Copy with the traps XANA has set will not be easy so just in case it takes a little long can you two make sure that no one gets too suspicious?"

"So as long as you find them before the next episode then we're good. Tomorrow's an Aftermath episode so you'll have a few more days to find them before the next episode. If you can't find them before that time then we're going to have trouble." Kurt replied.

"In the meantime we need a strategy when we get to the Swamp Sector. We can expect traps, monsters, and maybe even the generals, all of them." Aelita looked to the Lyoko Warriors. "Five us against all of the generals is going to be tough, especially against the newest one."

"She's right; Cain's more than a match for all of us without help." Cody nodded.

"I can keep him busy for a little while. My fire aura makes me immune to his powers." Gwen pointed out. "I can keep him distracted for a little while."

"What about the others?" Heather asked. "We've got Yuki, Sora, Ryder, Jinx, and Lilith behind Cain."

"I can take Ryder, me and that dude's been like arch rivals since day one." Geoff said.

"I don't think it's a good idea to be predicable, Geoff. With most of the others gone I think the best opponent for you would be...Yuki." Aelita replied. "Your lightning attacks will be perfect against her ice powers."

"I can handle Ryder." Heather raised one hand.

"What about Lilith, Sora, and Jinx?" Cody asked.

"Well...Cody, you haven't seen the upgrade I had for you." Aelita smiled which made everyone look at her. "It might be good enough to keep them busy for a while."

"Really? What is it?" Cody asked, eager to know.

"It's a surprise." Aelita stood up. "I think we have a plan ready and we better hurry. Kurt's right, we don't have a lot of time."

Xxx

**Monday, July 5th, 1994**

Everyone stared at Aelita for a few more seconds until they remembered her question and quickly came back to reality.

"Uh...sorry!" DJ rubbed the back of his head. "We...we were in the hurry to get somewhere and I guess we weren't looking where we were going." He quickly helped her to her feet and picked her bike up for her, setting it upright.

"Yeah...and for a second there we thought you were our friend uh...Alexa," Noah added quickly. "You know, with the pink hair and all."

"Alright then...you're not from around here, are you?" Aelita asked.

"What gave it away?" Bridgette decided that there was no use in lying about it.

"For one your accents," Aelita pointed out. "They don't sound French so you must be from somewhere else."

"Canada." Trent nodded.

"Oh, well welcome to France, but try not to run into too many people like that," Aelita got onto her bike. "Are you exchange students?"

"Uh...what makes you ask that?" LeShawna asked.

"Because we're close to Kadic Academy and its morning meaning students have about ten minutes to get there." Aelita replied.

"Oh, uh, we're shadow students." Noah replied quickly. "Yea, that's it! We're here to see what it's like to be a student at Kadic!"

"Oh, okay. Well, the gate's that way." Aelita pointed. "Try not to be late."

"We'll be careful, yeah..." Noah said as Aelita rode off.

"...that was freaky," Eva said bluntly.

"What are the odds we'd meet Aelita on this day?" DJ asked as they looked at each other.

"This day..." Noah trailed off as he had a thoughtful look for a second. "Wait, this was way back, right?"

"Yeah, what about it?" LeShawna asked.

"If she's still living here, that means not only is there a lab at the factory but...this is before Aelita and her dad went into Lyoko!" Noah exclaimed.

Everyone was silent in shock as they realized that Noah was right.

"But...why would XANA send us this far back?" Bridgette asked.

"Maybe it was an accident." Izzy shrugged.

"This is something we should check out." Noah said.

"Wait, can we even pull off going to Kadic and not looking suspicious?" DJ obviously had no confidence in their situation.

"Well if we don't then Aelita will wonder things and if she is as curious now as she is seventeen years or so from now then she will most definitely snoop around and find our _deep dark secret,_" Noah said, outlining the risk of not going. "...I know I could definitely pull it off. I'm like Frank Abagnale Jr."

"Frank who?"

"...he was able to make people think he was a doctor or an air plane pilot just by saying he was," Noah sighed.

Everybody stared at him.

"...Ever see 'Catch Me if You Can'? Starred Leonardo De Caprio?" Noah pressed.

More stares.

"...my god you're all really TV stars and you don't even know your movie stars? Seriously, every TV star shoots to become-oh forget it!" Noah shook his head. "Never mind, just follow me and act casual. Watch Frank Abagnale the Third at work."

"Did you understand a thing he said?" Trent whispered to Eva, who shook her head but followed along anyways.

He led the way towards the Kadic campus. He walked confidently and ignored any glances the students gave the group of odd balls in rather colorful clothing. They walked to the Principal's Office, where Noah politely knocked.

"Hello, may I help you?" the Secretary asked.

"We're here to see Principal..." Noah's eyes quickly scanned the room and spoke barely half a second after stopping. "Jean-Pierre!" He had seen the name tag on left on the floor with the word 'Principal' spelled in French.

"Very well Monsieur..."

"You don't know us? My god we had a meeting planned for months!" Noah slapped himself in the face irritably. "Is this how Kadic treats its foreign aristocrat students!"

"A-aristocrat?"

"Yes! We are the..." Noah thought quickly again. "Saint-Clair siblings who have come here as Shadow Student!"

"You're all...related?"

"Yes! I know, my parents have had eight children in the family with two different husbands and three different wives between the two of them," Noah explained quickly. "Hence all the hair and skin colours. Now are you going to let us in or not?"

"I-I need to speak to-"

"Aw forget it, let's just head home! Isabelle, call ahead and tell them to get our private jet ready to head back to Canada!" Noah shouted.

"Why of _couuurse_ dear Noah!" Izzy said in a 'sophisticated' accent. "Let us leave this rubbish city behind us! And we can tell father that his donation to this school might as well be forgotten and the check used to feed the fire!"

"Yeah, some people!" Noah turned to leave.

"No, no! I will call Jean-Pierre now!" The frantic secretary called the Principal through an intercom. "Monsieur? The wealthy Shadow Students from Canada have arrived!"

_"What? Shadow Students-"_

"And they said that if they do not meet with you now then their parents' donation to our academy will be cancelled!"

The door swung open and a much younger Jean Pierre Delmas appeared. "Come in! Come in!"

Noah strolled in like he owned the whole school and reclined in a chair as the others piled into the office.

"Soooo Shadow Students from Canada, yes very good!" Jean Pierre said as he sat in his own chair across from Noah. "You said that your parents were making a donation, correct?"

"Yes, depending on how well our education here is," Noah nodded. "We're here to see if we would like to attend this school ever since Bridgette began to yearn to come to Paris for the long term."

Bridgette swallowed and tried to put on her best act. She held both of her hands to her left cheek and put on a dreamy look. "Oh yes, I've always wanted to stay in this beautiful city and see what it's like!"

"I see, well then I'll have all the papers ready and I welcome you all to Kadic Academy." Jean Pierre reached out with his hand and Noah shook it.

"Thank you." Noah stood up. "I'm sure we'll have a very good day here."

"I will have Jim direct you to English class which is where your homeroom is. Have a nice day." Jean Pierre said and pressed the intercom. "Jim, come to my office quickly."

The group left the room and waited for Jim to come and get them.

"That was great! Who know you had good acting skills?" LeShawna whispered.

"Years of watching my siblings trick, lie, and manipulate my parents. I knew I learned _something_ from them." Noah smirked.

They watched as a younger version of Jim Morales, the same gym teacher who fought off a hoard of XANA's monsters that time he materialized them in the real world walked towards them. Following him lead them to English class where they were greeted with stares from the other students who were all seniors and had never them in their years at Kadic.

They managed to find some seats at the back of the class and sat together. There was a man at the front of the room, someone who they didn't see until they sat down and looked at him. At this point even Noah and Izzy were surprised along with everyone besides Eva as the man turned around and faced them.

"Oh. My. God." Bridgette whispered in surprise.

"Another surprise." Noah commented, keeping himself calm.

"This is really freaky." LeShawna shook her head.

"What the hell's your problem? It's just an old guy." Eva scowled.

"That's not just some old guy, Eva..." Trent was cut off as the man introduced himself.

"Good evening, class. My name is Franz Hopper." The man introduced himself.

"AKA Aelita's dad." Noah whispered making Eva look at him with a small look of surprise.

"...Huh, he looks a little younger than I thought."

The man at the front of the classroom was indeed Aelita's father who was also known as the creator or Lyoko and XANA, Waldo Schaeffer aka Franz Hopper.

"This is beyond freaky now!" Trent whispered.

"Play it cool and be casual," Noah whispered urgently before Franz Hopper's eyes settled on the 'shadow students'.

"Ah and here are our new shadow students from Canada, the Sinclair siblings," Hopper said. "Are any of you familiar with Roman History and Society? That is our current topic."

"Yep, I know everything about that," Noah nodded.

"Excellent,"

Xxx

**Present Day**

_"Transfer."_

_"Scanner."_

_"Virtualization!"_

One by one all of the Lyoko Warriors in the present landed in the Forest Sector of the Carbon Copy thanks to the now permanent like with the supercomputer.

"So this is what the Carbon Copy's Forest Sector looks like? Wow, looks like nothing new." Heather commented as she stood up and looked around.

"That's what we thought when we first got here." Gwen replied as she pulled out her scythe.

"Still think it's a good idea for all of us to be here Aelita?" Cody asked the pink haired girl who nodded her head.

"We have no idea what happened to the others and if XANA uses the Time Return Program again you or anybody at the supercomputer could vanish too." Aelita replied as she held up her wrist computer. "Don't worry; this'll come in handy, especially for this."

She tapped a few commands and the vehicles appeared in front of them.

"Always have a backup when there's no at the computer to help." Aelita smirked as she got on the OverJet.

Geoff took the OverBike, Gwen got on the OverBoard, Heather took the Oversled, and Cody jumped on the Overwing.

"We better hurry before the timer hits zero and we end up lost." Aelita said and they raced off.

"What we should really worry about is what possible plan Kurt and Carlos have to make no one's suspicious." Gwen said.

"Hey, so as long as it's not using robots it can't be that dumb." Cody shrugged.

Xxx

"Carlos, when they asked us _not_ to use robots I think they meant not build robotic copies of them!" Kurt shouted.

They were in Kurt's office and in front of his desk were robotic copies of the Lyoko Warriors that looked horribly designed with scratches on their bodies, an eye hanging out of their sockets on a few of the bots, and some even had their limbs in the opposite direction.

"Okay, so I was moving a little fast and I forgot to listen." Carlos shrugged. "It's still not a bad idea."

"Not a bad idea? Carlos, you got Izzy and Eva's arms mixed up!" Kurt pointed at the two robots. "Anyone can figure it out!"

Just as Kurt said that Roberto came walking by the officer and Kurt had left the door open.

"Oh, so there you guys are." Roberto commented as he looked in the room and then walked off.

"...Roberto's not a good example." Kurt pointed out.

"Is this where everyone is?" Lesley looked inside and sighed in relief. "I was afraid everyone had vanished for a second."

She turned around and walked out.

"...I thought she'd see through that one easily." Kurt looked surprised. "But I guess Lesley's not a good example either."

Then Chef walked about and looked in. "Meh." He then walked off.

"Okay, he's the worst example and why is my door open?" Kurt shouted.

"Relax, man. You saw them and nothing happened." Carlos smiled. "For once everything is going as planned."

He then held up the remote and pushed the one switch. The robots turned on and looked at him.

"See, they work completely." Carlos smiled but noticed the robots were glaring at him with red eyes. "What?"

"DESTROY! DESTROY! DESTROY!" The robots chanted as they marched on him and Kurt.

"Carlos, what are they doing?" Kurt asked as he and Carlos stepped back and had their back against the wall.

"I think they forgot to program the Laws of Robotics!" Carlos squeaked as the robots surrounded.

"DESTROY!"

Xxx

"Incoming!" Aelita shouted as lasers fell down upon them like rain.

Everyone swerved out of the way, moving behind the trees as the lasers scorched the path. Aelita peeked out from behind the tree she hid behind and got a look at the number of monsters heading for them. Four Krabs, six Pyramids, six Hornets, and three Tarantulas had positioned themselves between the warriors and the switch.

"That's _not_ good." Geoff gulped.

"I got an idea for that." Gwen looked at Heather. "It was actually inspired by your kid."

Before Heather could ask what Gwen meant she activated her wind aura and focused it around her scythe. As the whirlwind travelled around the blade of her scythe Gwen swung it at the tree and cut cleanly through it. The monsters looked up, frozen in what could be considered shock as a very large tree began falling towards them. They attempted to move out of the way but the tree smashed down into the path, flattening two Tarantulas and shattering the path.

Land began to fall to the see with monsters desperately clawing their up to try and survive but either slipped or the piece of land they were broke off and fell into the digital sea as well. Several pillars of light blasted out of the sea signalling their destruction and in the end all that was left was just a single gap in the path.

"And I thought Izzy liked to go overboard." Heather commented. "Still, I guess it got the job done."

"Don't tell me that was a compliment." Gwen smirked as she flew by with the others taking off on their vehicles.

"In your dreams!" Heather called after them as she flew after them on Oversled.

They made it to where the switch that controlled the shifts in the sector was located. It was located on a boulder and guarding it were three Megatanks.

"Great! XANA brought out the heavy guns to keep us from making it through this sector." Geoff pulled out his axe.

"Like three tanks would be good enough." Heather scoffed. "My turn now."

"Heather, wait a sec-"Aelita was cut off as Heather sped off towards the monsters.

The three Megatanks opened their shells as Heather flew at them at full speed. As they charged their lasers Heather brought her feet up to her seat while still driving the Oversled. The Megatanks fired their lasers Heather manoeuvred the Oversled so that the center Megatank would hit her. As the laser flew at her Heather let go of the throttle and jumped into the air just as the laser hit the Oversled.

The resulting explosion catapulted Heather through the air, flying over the Megatanks while somersaulting at the same time. She aimed down and fired her shuriken launcher at the Eyes and managed to hit the center Megatank's Eye. As it exploded Heather landed on the rock and jumped down as the other two Megatanks charged their lasers. Luckily for Heather the Megatanks stopped paying attention to the other Lyoko Warriors and they took advantage of that.

Cody activated his Time Stop ability and took the chance to shot both Megatanks in the Eyes with one shot from each pistol. They exploded after thirteen seconds passed and Heather slapped the switch just before the countdown hit zero, ensuring that the Carbon Copy's Forest Sector wouldn't shift while they were in it.

"Good job, guys." Aelita smiled as they gathered together. "But there's something we should consider before we head into the Swamp Sector."

"What's that?" Geoff asked.

"Should we head to the Way Tower to set up a link between the Copy's Swamp Sector and the supercomputer or should we head to the tower?" Aelita asked. "If we set up the link then we avoid having to come back here and fighting monsters to reach the switch and the Way Tower. XANA might activate the Time Return program again and we'll all be sent back to the real world in the middle of a fight."

"In that case, I vote we set up the link." Gwen raised her hand. "No point in coming back here to stop the same attack."

"The link." Heather raised her hand. "I hate repeating things like this."

"I guess I agree to set up the link." Cody nodded.

"What about the others? Who knows what trouble they are in?" Geoff pointed out.

"I guess we can only hope they are all right." Aelita shrugged as she took off on the OverJet.

Heather got on the Overwing with Cody and they headed for the Way Tower of the Copy's Forest Sector.

Xxx

**Monday, July 5th, 1994**

"This is just plain crazy!" LeShawna whispered once they had gathered in the cafeteria for lunch. "We got sent back in time; meet not only Aelita but also her _dad_!"

A few tables away from them Aelita sat, alone and without anyone at her table. She didn't seem to mind it as she gazed off into space while eating her lunch. A few of the Warrior couldn't help but notice how Aelita was acting a bit like Gwen, both being loners and acting cautious about who they decide to interact with.

"I know. I've seen a lot of weird things since this started but this takes the cake." Noah nodded. "But I got an idea on where to start on how to get back."

"We're all ears." DJ whispered.

"We take the lunch break to sneak into the factory. Aelita's dad will be busy teaching all day and we can take the chance to see if there's something we can do to reverse the Return to the Past." Noah explained.

"But Noah, you don't know how the Time Return program works." Bridgette pointed out. "Not even Aelita figured out how her dad managed to make it work."

"Then I guess I'll have to see how it works. It's either that or we start making plans on how we live out the next seventeen years." Noah replied. "We could make a couple of nice changes. For one, sending a letter to my younger self and tell him _not_ to sign up for Total Drama."

"What about Lyoko?" Trent asked.

"Oh, PS there's an evil AI in a digital world out to wipe out all of mankind. When you get this note be sure to eat it when you're finished reading."

Eva lightly whacked Noah on the back of his head. "Enough of the wisecracks, genius."

"So...what will we do if we can't find a way back?" DJ asked.

No one at the table had an answer to that question.

"Let's just finish lunch and sneak out to the factory." Noah said as they all stood up and dumped their trays.

It wasn't hard to sneak out. They simply walked out of the cafeteria and headed into the park. It wasn't hard to find the sewer hatch in the park and they jumped down it. Trent was the last one to climb down into the sewer after he closed the hatch. The sewer was the one thing that hadn't changed at all between the past and the present which wasn't a surprise to anyone.

They simply walked down the sewer until they stopped and came upon the ladder that led to the hatch in front of the bridge that connected the factory to the mainland. Bridgette was the first to climb up the ladder and open the hatch. Looking around for anyone watching them she pulled the hatch open and climbed up, allowing the others to follow her.

"Some things just never change." Noah commented as they looked at the factory which was the same as it was in the present.

It was still abandoned with no one living or working nearby which was why Waldo Schaeffer had chosen it to hide his lab. They ran across the bridge as fast as they could and slid down the cables into the lobby. It was nice to see the factory was the same, making them all almost forget they were stuck in the past.

"Now what?" Eva asked as they stepped into the elevator.

"Pray to God we can find a way back to the future." Noah replied as he pushed the button for the lab.

The elevator doors opened a minute later to reveal the lab, looking exactly the same as it did in the present.

"How the hell does the lab stay this clean for seventeen years?" LeShawna asked as they walked in.

"Maybe Aelita's dad set up little cleaning robots the size of bugs to make sure everything keeps running." Izzy got on all fours and sniffed the ground. "I'll know in just a few seconds."

"If Aelita's dad's got the security cameras running we'll know when he shows up. I just hope we have the time to look over the Time Return program and find a way back." Noah sat down on the chair in front of the computer.

"So now what?" Trent asked as he stood beside Noah.

Noah started typing and looking for the files on the Time Return Program. "Come on...come on..."

He tried typing the password for the supercomputer's restricted files but password that worked in the present was rejected.

"Crap! I guess Aelita or Jeremy changed it at some point in the future." Noah sighed.

"So now what?" Bridgette asked.

"I guess I work and see if I can hack it." Noah shrugged.

"At this rate we'll be stuck here forever!" Eva groaned in frustration. "I might as well head home and make plans to open my own gym!"

While everyone else was speaking a message box came up on the screen.

"Guys? Did anyone else notice this before?" Noah asked as he pointed at the screen.

'Hello?' The message box asked.

"Where'd that come from?" LeShawna asked as everyone looked at it.

"I don't know..." Noah replied and typed back. "Hello?"

'Why are you trespassing in the lab?' The message box asked.

Everyone's eyes widened as they realized that someone knew that they were in the lab.

"Uh..." Noah said and then typed. 'We're friends of Franz Hopper.'

For a moment there was no reply before a new message box appeared.

'Friends? He never mentioned letting friends into the lab.'

'He asked us over today.' Noah quickly typed while everyone watched in silent suspense.

'Really? He never used his phone.' The mysterious person added another message box. 'Who are you?'

'Uh..." Noah thought a second before typing a name. 'Carlos.'

'Well, Carlos, since you're being honest allow me to make this conversation easier.'

That was when a window opened next to the message bog. It was made up of green lines of code before something appeared in the center of the window. Everyone was silent in shock as they recognized the face even though it was different. Hair that was dark, being almost purple, eyes that were bright green that showed curiosity, and normal slightly tanned skin.

"Hello, Carlos, I have no name but my designation...is XANA."


	79. Episode 77: Rewind

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 78

**Present Day**

**Swamp Sector of the Carbon Copy**

"I never liked coming here." Gwen sighed as they stepped out of the Tower and into the Swamp Sector. "How long before Aelita can link this sector to the supercomputer?"

"Pretty soon." Cody replied as he looked at the Way Tower they stepped out of. "The good thing about Way Towers is that they can lead you to other Way Towers."

Right after they reached the Way Tower in the Carbon Copy's Forest Sector they located the Way Tower and used it to travel to the Swamp Sector on their vehicles which were parked around the tower while the warriors waited for Aelita set up the link like she did before.

"Great, now all we need to do is find the switch to keep this sector from shifting, find the activated tower, fight through the traps, monsters, and generals that will show up all the while hoping we'll find everyone else still alive." Heather counted their objectives with her fingers. "Will the trips to the other sectors on this copy be this exciting?"

"Hey, you want to back out, just say so." Gwen smirked.

Heather glared at her. "Like I'll let you take all the credit!"

"You think they'll ever get along?" Geoff whispered to Cody.

"The day that happens is the day Sierra stops stalking me." Cody whispered back. "Which in layman's terms means probably never."

"Got that right." Both Heather and Gwen said at the same time, having overheard the two whispering.

They stopped and looked at each other for a second and then shrugged and walked in opposite directions. Gwen however stopped in mid step and looked around. "Guys, you hear something?"

"Like what?" Geoff asked.

"Something...over... "Gwen pointed straight. "There. Sounds like...rumbling."

Everyone looked in the direction Gwen pointed very carefully but it was hard to see anything. Like Lyoko`s Swamp Sector there was a fog in the Carbon Copy`s Swamp Sector that covered almost the entire sector making it hard to visually see anything. The sound Gwen had mentioned was growing larger and larger and whatever was coming was getting much closer.

"Uh-oh. Guys, I know what's coming." Gwen gulped as she stepped back. "We got to get in the tower right now!"

"Why? What's coming?" Cody asked.

"THAT!" Heather shouted as she pointed at the source of the sound that just came out of the mist.

A tidal wave.

"Oh snap!" Both Geoff and Cody quickly turned and ran into the tower followed quickly by Gwen and Heather.

Aelita had just finished setting up the link and was on her way out when all four of them ran and knocked her down with them falling on her.

"Guys?" Aelita asked in shock when she saw them on top of her. "What's wrong?"

"Trust us; you don't want to go out there." Geoff said before what felt like an earthquake hit the tower.

"An earthquake?" Aelita asked.

"Tidal wave." Everyone else replied.

"Again?" Aelita groaned as everyone got off her and helped her up.

"Again." Heather nodded. "And I got a pretty good idea who's behind this one."

"Well, guess we should move before they try again." Aelita replied.

They all stepped out of the tower to see the entire island the tower had been was completely wet with the vehicles washed away.

"Aw man!" They looked up when they heard a familiar voice groaning. "You guys surviving that means I have to do more work!"

Sora was hovering in the air above them rubbing the back of his head.

"Man, I knew I was the wrong person for this job. I always get the hard ones." The winged General groaned. "Why couldn't XANA send Yuki or Cain out?"

"Oh trust me, we don't want you here anymore than you want to be here," Gwen glared at him. "You could always turn around and fly away."

"Naaaah then I'd get deleted, and if I learned anything from Blade and Cyrus that's painful!" Sora shook his head. "So no thanks. Gonna have to kill you all now, sorry momma!"

"Damn it will you stop calling me that?"

"Heh, that never gets old," Cody snickered.

"Keep it up James Bond, you're next."

Sora tore his wind sword free and swung it. The group saw the shimmer of air before the concentrated blade of wind formed by the weapon shot at them. They all dove to either side right before the attack tore a small narrow hole into the ground.

Geoff swung one of his Chakram up, and the weapon spun through the air. Sora leaned back so the weapon missed him by mere inches, but then Aelita shot an energy sphere at him. The attack struck him in the gut and made him stumble back through the air. "Whoa, illegal move! That goes against the rules of war!"

"Quit whining!" Heather then shot her grappling hook up onto one of the nearby trees that hadn't been torn out of its roots by the wave. She swung into the air and landed on a thick branch. "War's war, _sonny boy!_" She shot her grappling hook again and swung through the air with a 'tarzan cry'.

Sora watched her, actually amazed at the display. "Wow, mommy's good."

THUD! Her feet collided with his chest, sending him flying right into the ground. "...ow."

Heather landed on him a moment later, feet planting into his ribs. "DOH! Twice in five seconds, I'm calling social services now!"

"Honestly, do you ever shut up?" Heather aimed her launched at the back of Sora's head.

"It's something I'm working on." Sora looked over his shoulder at her. "But that's not your current problem."

"Oh yeah? And what's that?" Heather scoffed.

"That." Sora pointed to the water...just as a Viper (that's the name for the giant snakes I've decided to now refer to them as) blasted out of the water and lunged at Heather.

"Ah!" Heather jumped out of the way, avoiding the Viper's large mouth full of sharp dagger like teeth by just a few inches.

Sora took the chance and launched himself back into the air again. The Viper turned to the group and opened its mouth, charging the cannon in its mouth.

"Nice try!" Gwen threw her scythe at it.

The scythe spun through the air like a Frisbee towards the Viper who quickly bent to the side and avoided getting its head cut off. It took the chance and fired a blast from its mouth cannon at the group. Luckily Aelita had taken the chance to create two energy fields and fused them together to form an energy shield blocking the blast. Cody had aimed his pistols carefully at the Eye on its head and the second Aelita dropped the shield he fired and the two shots impacted the center of the Eye.

The Viper screamed as it fell to the ground and exploded into digital dust.

"Nice shot, dude!" Geoff patted Cody on the back.

"Great, they made it out of that one too." Sora groaned as he looked down on them from the air. "Why can't I just get an easy job for once?"

"Don't count on it." Sora looked behind him and saw Aelita floating behind him with her arms crossed.

"Oh crap!" Sora spun around and flew back.

Aelita fired an energy field at Sora's right wing that sent him spinning through the air back and into the water around the island. He landed in a loud splash in the water but climbed back up to his feet a second later.

"Oh man, I need an energy bath when I get back." Sora groaned.

"That depends if you answer my questions." Aelita floated above him with a stern look making him step back.

"You know, the way you hover over me like that reminds a bit of the boss." Sora stepped back.

"Speaking of, I want to know what he's up to this time." Aelita replied as she prepared to fire a plasma beam. "What did he do with the others?"

"Beats me." Sora shrugged. "None of us knows exactly what he's planning. Lilith may get a spoiler of what's going on but that's it."

"You're kidding? He sends out to guard the towers but never tells you what's going on?" Heather asked incredulously.

"Not really. We usually figure out what's going on pretty fast." Sora shrugged. "But while we're on that note..."

Sora fired a laser from his break at Aelita who dodged and fired but Sora's wing had repaired itself and he took off into the air.

"There's a lot more of us here, guarding that tower!" Sora called back to them. "Whatever plan you've got it better be a damn good one!"

He flew off into the fog and vanished.

"Well, it's not like we didn't already know that was coming." Heather grunted as Aelita landed back on the island.

"So, we got a major party up ahead. Who wants to bet that the new guy will be showing up?" Aelita asked.

"Aye!" Everyone else raised their hands.

"Since when do you make the jokes, Aelita?" Gwen asked.

"I guess I've been rubbing off on you all, especially Noah." Aelita shrugged as she turned and started following Sora's path.

That was when what everyone thought to be another earthquake started.

"N-N-Now w-what?" Heather groaned as they tried to steady themselves.

"The sector...it's shifting!" Aelita shouted as the land mass along with small islands in the middle of the swamp started to move through the water. "Sora was a diversion to buy time!"

"Crap! Who'd of thought Sora could trick us like that?" Gwen commented.

A few seconds later and the sector stopped shaking but now it was completely different from before.

"Well, this is not good." Geoff tilted his hat. "If the sector keeps shifting we'll never find the tower."

"Meaning we'll have to find the switch for this sector." Gwen sighed. "The only thing missing is a Noah comment about walking through the swamp."

"I bet he'd love to hear that." Cody chuckled as they followed her. "I can just tell that wherever he is he's making some kind of heavily sarcastic joke."

Xxx

**Monday, July 5th, 1994**

Noah was speechless. He and the other could only stare at the screen with the digital humanoid form staring back at them. The digital humanoid stared at them with a calm and polite smile on his face as he observed their reactions, interested in seeing how they would react to what they were talking to. Noah and the others on the hand were silent as they tried to process the fact that they were talking to what apparently was an uncorrupted XANA! The way he acted and looked was completely different from the XANA they had come to know in the present.

The XANA they knew was cruel, heartless, and liked to manipulate the emotions of his enemies to his advantage, enjoying the damage he caused. He caused them so much grief and continued to do it without the slightest regret, regarding them as obstacles in his plans to dominate the world. This one, he acted with the mannerisms as the XANA they knew but he looked...not nearly as evil looking as he did before. His avatar also didn't look as evil as the avatar XANA had created in the future, it looked harmless while the face that stared at them showed no evil intent, just curiosity.

"You're all speechless." XANA spoke after a moment's silence. "Does my appearance surprise you so much?"

"Uh..." Noah for once in his life couldn't come up with anything to say.

"Well actually we-" Izzy was tugged back by LeShawna and DJ, covering her mouth as they formed a circle. "What gives?"

DJ whispered. "Are you crazy, girl? You can't go around just tellin' something like XANA that we're from the future?"

"Stuff like that ends with monkeys ruling the future, crazy girl!" LeShawna, being as quite as possible said as she shook Izzy by the arms.

"Your reaction is understandable but there's no need to overreact." XANA looked at them all carefully, trying to get past their odd behaviour. "From the look on your faces I can tell, you're wondering just what exactly I am." He chuckled.

"...Yeah...uh...what are you?" Trent managed to find his voice before XANA could get suspicious.

"My designation is XANA as I have already said, but to be more precise I am also an artificial intelligence acting as the main control program of this computer." XANA smiled as he slightly bowed his head. "Considering that you claim to know this lab and Father it wouldn't be wrong for me to say that you already know what this computer is for."

"Uh...yeah, he mentioned something about it." Noah replied, not sure about how much he should reveal while making sure XANA did not become suspicious.

"So, he only explained a bit?" XANA tilt his head. "Fascinating, and he let you into the lab and allowed access to the computer without knowing everything?"

"Uh, he said he'd show us what he needs help on." Noah quickly replied.

"Help?" XANA had a confused look on his face now. "I don't see what he could need help with. All programs in the computer are running at optimum efficiency as I run two hundred diagnostics every five minutes."

"Oh, he wants us to add something new for him so he can finish the project." Noah said, hoping that XANA would believe him.

Everyone behind him was silent, desperately hoping that the past incarnation of their worst enemy wasn't about to activate a tower and attack them.

"Really, something new?" XANA looked interested. "Perhaps you can show me what needs to be done. I'm sure working together we can finish it in time. It is boring here for me after all and something new to work on sounds interesting."

"Uh...maybe we should wait for Professor Hopper to show up since I don't think he'd like us getting started without him." Noah quickly replied.

That seemed to work as XANA sighed. "You're right about that. He can be irritated when the work is done without his supervision. Well, in the meantime, Carlos, would you like to play a game?"

Noah quietly gulped hoping XANA didn't notice his discomfort. "What kind of game?"

"Something simple."

A new window featuring a chess board appeared on the screen. All of the right chess pieces were in their proper spot with Noah having the white pieces while XANA had the black ones. "Father doesn't allow many game programs to be installed but he has a few to entertain him. He usually plays alone against the game's AI but I have played these games myself countless times when I am bored. I'm interested in playing against someone since it's been a while. Do you accept?"

Noah threw a glance at everyone who gave him a quick nod. It was obvious that XANA had no idea of their future encounters and perhaps having a good relationship with him now would actually help them find a way back. Trying to hack into the Time Return Program with XANA watching was a really bad idea unless they could earn his trust.

"All right, I'm in." Noah said after he glanced at everyone.

With the exception of Cody and Aelita no one else would play chess with Noah unless they wanted a quick defeat.

"Splendid!" They could all see how excited XANA looked. "I hope we both enjoy this, Carlos and I get to know you and you're other friends as well."

Everyone quietly gulped when they heard XANA say that.

Xxx

**Present Day**

**Swamp Sector of the Carbon Copy**

Another Viper blasted out of the water with its mouth full of sharp teeth open and ready to chomp down on its prey. However a stream of lightning blasted out of Geoff's axe and blasted the giant snake monster apart from the inside.

"That makes about four of them we've run into." Cody said as they jumped off a small island and onto the larger land.

"XANA's going to need a lot more monsters if he wants to keep us from reaching the switch." Heather crossed her arms.

Just after Heather said that eight Dark Krabs marched out of the water and into the land where the warriors stood.

"And he's got em." Gwen sighed as she pulled out her scythe. "Cody, you and Aelita get to the switch and turn this sector back to normal. We'll hold them off."

"On it." Cody nodded and he and Aelita took off to find the switch that Aelita located somewhere nearby with her wrist computer.

The Dark Krabs charged their lasers and fired on the two running warriors. Luckily for them Gwen jumped in front of the lasers and spun her scythe, creating her barrier that blocked the lasers.

"Take this!" Geoff shouted as he swung his axe and unleashed a blast of lightning.

It managed to hit one Dark Krab and sent it flying into the water where there was an explosion signalling its end. Heather settled for dodging and firing her shuriken wrist launchers since she didn't have the power to take on seven Dark Krabs. Gwen focused on blocking the lasers as she and everyone else knew that until the switch was found more monsters would just keep on appearing.

Aelita and Cody ran onto another island where the saw the switch on a tree this time.

"Okay, a switch with no monsters guarding it." Cody pulled out his pistols. "Trap?"

"Trap." Aelita nodded.

"Man, XANA's getting a little predictable." Cody looked around for any monsters that might pop out. "So what trap could it be this time?"

They both stepped forward and suddenly found themselves sinking into the ground. Looking down their eyes widened as they discovered what the trap was.

"Quicksand!" They both shouted.

"...Well that's a classic," Cody added. "So how do we get out of this?"

"You're asking me that?"

"You're the leader and you have all the cool powers, can't you uh...perhaps make something for us to hold on to?" Cody began to panic as he sank down to his waist.

Aelita closed her eyes and let out a low hum as her Creativity powers began to affect the trees around them. Vines and branches grew, extending down towards them. Cody eagerly grabbed one branch. "Salvation!"

However just as he grabbed the vines they were cut up and set on fire by large flaming claymore. Aelita and Cody looked up to see the intimidating figure of the new general, Cain, standing over them.

"Cody?" Aelita looked at him with a small glare.

"Yeah?"

"You should know better than to say something like that out loud."

"Yeah, I forgot."

Cain raised his claymore to finish them off.

"Computer, activate upgrade program: Warp!" Aelita shouted.

"_Program activated._" The computer replied.

Cain watched in interest as Cody was surrounded by a bright aura.

"Cody, think of being anywhere else but in the quicksand!" Aelita grabbed Cody's shoulder.

Closing his eyes Cody imagined himself out of the quicksand and to Cain's shock they both disappeared in a flash of light. He looked around for any sign before a splashing sound was heard behind him. He spun around to see Aelita and Cody standing up after landing in the water.

"Whoa...what was that?" Cody looked at Aelita.

"Your upgrade. You're not exactly a front line fighter so I designed an ability to let you teleport not unlike the one Jeremy designed for Odd." Aelita smiled. "But mine actually works."

"Awesome!" Cody laughed. "Aelita, you've heard this plenty of times before but you are the greatest!"

"Thanks, but we really should focus on the situation!" Aelita pointed as Cain unleashed a stream of fire on them.

"Oh right!" Cody put his hand on Aelita's shoulder and they vanished.

Cain looked around to find them but didn't see where they teleported to until he heard Cody's voice behind him. "Oh yeah!"

He spun around and saw them standing in front of the switch as Aelita slammed her fist into it. The moment she hit the switch the sector started to shift back to its normal state, taking out several monsters that were caught and crushed by moving islands.

"How do you like that?" Cody smirked at Cain as the fire general turned and stared at them making Aelita and Cody think he was glaring at them for getting past him.

"You think he's mad?" Cody asked.

That was when Cain charged at both of them, moving so fast he was almost a blur as he swung his claymore to get rid of both of them. Cody teleported out of the way while Aelita took to the air.

"Yep, he's mad!" Aelita nodded as she landed.

Cain didn't give them a chance to plan or regroup. He shot between both of them at speeds that most would not achieve while wielding a heavy weapon like his. He would not go for a direct hit, but for merely distancing Cody and Aelita from one another until...

THUD! The flat side of his blade hit Cody and knocked him off balance. He fell into a shallow pond and spat some water out. "Gross!" He looked up and saw Cain raising his blade. "Oh you're lucky we're digital! I'd be allergic to most of the stuff here in real-oh shit!" Cain stabbed down with the blade, and a cloud of steam formed as a result of one burning claymore evaporating the water.

"Cody!" Aelita shouted in concern.

Cody reappeared by Aelita who sighed in relief, having managed to use his new Warp ability to escape. "Oh man that was close! Aelita this upgrade's cool and all but if we don't figure something out then he'll pick us apart!"

"Can you just stall him for a minute while I work my magic?" Aelita asked.

"I'll give you two," Cody nodded and drew both of his guns. He managed to block Cain's Claymore by using both of the blades attached to his guns and engaged Cain in a makeshift blade fight while trying to shoot him at close range. Cody would jab or sliced at Cain and then try to shoot him point blank, but the general still managed to evade or block the attacks. Once he even spun his claymore in one hand so that it blocked a shot from Cody's gun and then stabbed at his chest with it in one swift motion.

"Aelita, anytime please?" Cody asked as he ducked under a swing that sliced clean through a tree.

Aelita was kneeling again and using her creativity powers. Slowly ice began to form in the water nearby. With her work done she spoke. "Cody, get him into the water, now!"

"Easier said than done but I'll try!" Cody replied, spotting a large pond nearby that seemed deep enough. He leaped over a stab and tackled Cain, and then used his Warp ability so that they both landed in said pond.

The ice was spreading quickly.

"Cody get out of there!" Aelita shouted...and saw a single flash of light under the water that signalled a devirtualization before the ice set. She saw Cain at the bottom of the frozen pond, his sword held out in a way that made it obvious that he had stabbed Cody before he could Warp out of the way. Cain was out of the fight for now at least. He'd have to melt his way out of there...and when Aelita made ice it didn't melt quite as easily as it should.

"Sorry, Cody." Aelita said before she took off to find the others.

Geoff, Gwen, and Heather had nearly finished off all of the monsters when Aelita had hit the switch and reverted the Swamp Sector to its normal state. Heather aimed and shot a shuriken at the Eye on a Dark Krab as it charged its laser. The shuriken hit the Eye and the Dark Krab fell over and exploded.

"Finally!" She sighed in relief. "I think my arm was actually starting to get tired."

"Look on the bright side; you can qualify for the Olympics considering how good your aim is now." Gwen said as she put her scythe away.

"Winning a gold medal while proving my superiority?" Heather smirked at Gwen. "That's the best idea you've ever had. If this Total Drama thing doesn't work out the Olympics are next!"

"What have you done?" Geoff whispered to Gwen.

"I know." Gwen sighed. "I think I've doomed all future contestants in the Olympics."

"Don't worry, Gwen, unlike Total Drama I think they'd give Heather a harder time since Chris let her do all of her sneaky strategies." Aelita said as she landed on the ground.

"Aelita, you made it!" Geoff said happily but looked around with a frown. "Where's Cody?"

"He got devirtualized but thanks to the link he should be back in the lab. We ran into Cain while finding the switch." Aelita replied. "Luckily Cody got him into the water and I froze it so he won't be seen for a little while."

"Awesome! That'll teach old torch head not to mess with us!" Geoff laughed.

"So we got the connection up, the switch to turn the sector back to normal, Cain's cooling off, now we just have to get to the tower." Gwen said as she listed their objectives. "Anyone want to make bets on what we might face?"

"Monsters, generals, trap, actually I want fifty dollars on my so called 'kid' showing up and calling me momma again." Heather said.

"I'll take that." Geoff said.

"Me too." Aelita smiled.

"We are rubbing off on you." Gwen smirked at her.

"Hey, it's fifty dollars, plus who said I was so innocent before I met you guys." Aelita shrugged before they turned took off towards the tower.

Xxx

**Monday, July 5th, 1994**

While Aelita and the others were fighting in the present Noah and everyone else were dealing with another big challenge in the past. Noah was playing the past incarnation of XANA in a game of chess while hoping to find a way back to the future. If anyone was present they would have pointed out how nervous the entire group looked about this. Noah made the first move with a white pawn followed quickly by XANA with a black pawn.

Noah was focused on trying to guess on what XANA was planning. He had no idea what his digital opponent was thinking, considering that the avatar staring at him still had that annoying polite smile that didn't betray anything. XANA just seemed happy to have a living opponent to play with.

"Is something wrong, Carlos?" XANA asked after he moved his pawn. "You seem a little nervous."

"What gives you that idea?" Noah moved his white pawn forward.

"I could say it's the look on your face, trying to understand my strategy or I could say it was your breathing into the mike." XANA smirked. "It almost sounds the beating a human heart, beating so fast."

As he spoke his black pawn moved and took out Noah's pawn. Noah's eyes widened when he realized that XANA was distracting him from seeing his strategy, making him lose focus so he'd lose the game.

"I believe I'm the first one to take out an opposing piece." XANA chuckled. "Let's hope you have an idea to avoid that happening again."

Noah bit his lower lip and focused on strategizing. He shut his eyes and pictured the chess board and every piece on it. Then one by one in a matter of seconds he envisioned the next 5 moves he could perform with each individual piece and what XANA might do in response. He moved one of his knights forward two spaces and then once to the left. XANA moved a bishop into position to take it out unless Noah pulled back, but the boy moved a pawn forward two spaces so that it was blocking the attack.

After XANA simply moved one of his pawns forward again Noah used his knight to take out the pawn that had taken out his first piece. This left it in range of another pawn.

"You are improving, Carlos," XANA said respectfully. "When you focus you are much better at this."

Sadly that was another way to throw Noah's game off: polish his ego. The result was that Noah lost his knight two moves later after taking two of XANA's pawns. Then XANA managed to move his bishop from earlier and take out the pawn Noah had used to shield his knight. With nothing in range to attack it he slipped it in a gap in the line of white pawns and took out Noah's right Rook. While XANA lost minor pieces he was taking out Noah's more valuable players one by one.

Noah responded by having one of his own Bishops take to the front lines and take out a knight XANA had moved forward. XANA moved a pawn forward a space so that it stood between the bishop and another black pawn. Unless Noah moved he would lose the piece, but the boy instead shot his queen out into the open and took out one of XANA's other pawns and lost his bishop.

Currently XANA had lost four pawns and a knight while Noah had lost a bishop, a rook, a knight and a single pawn. While XANA had lost half his pawns Noah had lost half of his player with longer range of attack.

"So, why do you look like that?" Noah quickly asked, hoping that he could turn XANA's own tactics against him. "Did your creator design it for you?"

"No, I created this form myself." XANA answered. "Considering that Professor Hopper and his wife created me I chose this form as way of showing connection to them. Father didn't seem to care about my form but Mother seemed quite happy, always saying I was so much more than a mere AI."

"What happened to her?" Noah asked.

XANA's expression temporarily changed from a polite smile to a frown. "Gone. I was offline when it happened."

"When what happened?" Noah asked as he moved a pawn and took out one of XANA's pawns.

"She was taken against her will and left to die." XANA replied, his voice now void and without emotion. "When that happened I was reactivated after a certain amount of time had passed."

XANA moved another pawn and took one of Noah's pawns in response to Noah's previous move.

"You cared for her?" Noah asked, hoping to distract XANA.

"One of my functions was to protect my creator and his family and when she was taken I failed that part of my function." XANA didn't bat an eye as Noah moved his queen to take out the pawn XANA used in his previous turn.

XANA moved a bishop out to take Noah's queen but he moved it out of the way.

"That must have upset you." Noah said as he moved his last bishop out and took out another pawn.

"It was disappointing to find out that she was taken while I was shut down but Father and sister are still alive and healthy." XANA replied, his polite smile returning. "Father doesn't plan to shut down the computer this time knowing the risk of his enemies finding him again."

'Yeah, I'll bet.' Noah thought as XANA quickly moved his bishop to attack Noah's last knight.

However just as he was about to make his next move XANA's eyes suddenly narrowed. "It seems we'll have to put our game on hold."

"Why's that?" Noah asked, wondering if XANA suddenly figured out his lie.

"Father is coming." XANA smirked. "And I was hoping to finish the game before he arrived. Oh well, I guess we'll have to put the game on hold."

Everyone's eyes widened when they heard that Waldo Schaeffer was heading for the lab. If they were here when he arrived there'd be a lot of questions none of them could answer.

"I guess time really does fly when you're having fun. Having a real opponent to play against was the most entertainment I have had while." XANA chuckled. "He's in the factory lobby and will arrive at the elevator in fifteen seconds."

'Oh crap!' Everyone thought.

"If you would like I may inform him of your presence so he is not taken off guard," XANA offered.

"Uhhhhh..." Noah looked to the group. "What do we do?"

"Talk to him?"

"Do I have to bring up the thing about monkeys ruling the future again?" LeShawna hissed at Izzy.

"Uh...We got to go down the scanner room for it to work. He already knows we're here." Noah stood up. "Wouldn't want to look like we're slacking off."

He and the others quickly headed for the hatch and opened it just as Schaeffer stepped into the elevator in the lobby. They climbed down the ladder and into the scanner room while staying out of sight of the cameras.

"Dude, we are so busted!" DJ whispered. "There's no way XANA won't tell him about us!"

The elevator doors opened and Schaeffer stepped into the lab just Bridgette was the last one to climb down into the scanner room and close the hatch. Schaeffer had a cup of coffee in his right hand as he sat down at the computer. Before the doors had opened XANA had closed the game and the window showing his avatar so as far Schaeffer knew no one had been in the lab.

Bridgette was at the top of the ladder with hatch partially opened so she could watched him as he pulled up several files while sipping from his cup of coffee.

"Log entry 143." He said when he clicked open a window. "Something has happened today, something that was not supposed to happen. A group of teens came to Kadic Academy today but that was not supposed to happen."

Bridgette's eyes widened when she heard what he said. 'He knows!'

"I have gone back in time more than a thousand times this year to give me the time I need to finish my project, my World Without Danger for me and Aelita." Schaeffer continued to speak into the video log. Yet, these shadow students, appearing out of nowhere when I have gone back in time to this morning five times already, making sure I have enough time to finish my work and elude my enemies. I wonder if the Return to the Past program has suffered some form of glitch. I would remember seeing young students like them more than once."

"He's onto us already!" Bridgette whispered to everyone below her. "He's gone back in times more than once today and he's noticed we're not supposed to be here!"

"Great, as if we didn't have enough problems." Noah whispered.

"I do not know if they are a danger, they are just kids...no, when I came here I knew I had to be vigilant, I cannot be distracted...Not now." Schaeffer sipped his coffer before he continued. "My work on Lyoko is proceeding as planned with XANA monitoring its progress. However I am concerned since XANA continues to do tasks without my permission and refuses to remain confined to its hub in Carthage. Where it not for me needing it to continue monitoring for signs of danger near Aelita and myself I would have deleted it since it has fulfilled its purpose. It's almost as if XANA is...developing a mind of its own." Schaeffer chuckled as he leaned back in his chair. "My wife believed XANA could be...so much more but creating a program to actually think like a human...it's not possible."

He leaned forward and began typing on the computer.

"I cannot be distracted, not when the scanners are almost online. If the computer's processing power is increased the scanners will be operational in a few days. End Log."

Bridgette watched as Waldo opened up a familiar program and gasped.

"Return to the Past now."

"What's he-" LeShawna was cut off as they were all engulfed in a blast of white light.

Xxx

**Present Day**

**Swamp Sector of the Carbon Copy**

"The tower's close." Aelita said as they ran through the tall grass of the island they were on. "We're getting really close to it now."

"Hang on, Bridge! We're coming!" Geoff ran faster as he pushed the tall grass out of his way.

"We might soon witness the make out of the century." Gwen commented as she followed him.

"Great, someone get a cell phone and post it on Youtube." Heather sighed.

Geoff pushed through the tall grass and jumped out when he reached the end of the grass...Only to fall into the water with a big splash.

"You alright, Geoff?" Aelita stepped out of the grass to see Geoff get up with digital water soaking his clothes.

"Yeah, just got to watch my step next time." Geoff chuckled.

Aelita smiled and looked up as she pointed ahead. "There it is!"

The tower was on a very small island surrounded by shallow water just a few feet from the land of tall grass the group had just traveled through.

"About time." Heather stepped out of the grass. "I am so glad this is all digital because I'm sure I'd be covered in bug bites about now."

"Let's go!" Geoff was about to head for the tower but Aelita grabbed his shoulder.

"Wait a second!" Aelita had an alarmed look on her face as she pulled Geoff back.

"What's wrong?" Gwen asked as Aelita's hands started to glow.

"We've got company." Aelita glared at the tower.

"Great, who is it this time? Lilith? Yuki?" Heather aimed her launchers at the tower.

"Worse." Aelita's face was grim.

That was when the group heard the sound of laughter coming from the tower.

"I know that laugh." Gwen scowled as she pulled out her scythe. "Of all the losers to show up why him?"

"Not pleased to see me, Gwen?" The voice laughed again.

"Why don't you come out and show yourself, Mr. Big Bad AI!" Heather growled.

"Or would like me to blast you out?" Geoff snarled as he formed his axe.

"So angry, Geoff, that's not like you. Worried over your precious surfer?" The voice continued to laugh.

"Where the hell is he?" Gwen whispered to Aelita.

"I don't know. I can't seem to locate him." Aelita looked around. "It's like he's everywhere."

"You think you can locate me in my own realm, Aelita? You're not in Lyoko anymore; your connection to it can't help you here."

"But it won't stop me from shutting down that tower." Aelita ran towards the tower. "Can't hide if you want to stop me!"

"But who said I was hiding, Aelita?"

The ground around the Lyoko Warriors began to shake as cracks opened up and black shadowy arms shot out and grabbed them.

"Crap!" Gwen shouted as they were tossed in different directions.

Gwen and Aelita landed in the water while Heather flew into a very thin tree so hard it fell over along with her into the water. Geoff landed back in the tall grass and anyone listening heard a loud 'Oof!' when he hit the ground. Just as fast as they appeared the shadowy arms receded back into the ground.

"I take back what I said, I'll take Sora and his annoying mama jokes over this guy any day." Heather groaned as she stood up.

Gwen shook her head, drops of water flying out of her hair as she stood up.

"This is why I prefer the non wet sectors."

Another wave of shadowy arms sprouted from the ground to attack them again but this time they were ready. Heather back flipped out of the way of one arm and ducked as another one tried to grab her head. Geoff took running with one arm pursuing him with its hand reaching to grab him and crush him. Aelita flew into the air, dodging arm after arm as she formed two energy orbs and fired slammed them into an arm as tried to grab her head.

It hit the shadowy hand and the pink energy burned through it fire burning tissue paper. Gwen activated her Pink Energy Aura as two shadowy arms lunged at her and swung her scythe. The pink glowing scythe cut through the arms easily and the hands fell into the water before they dissolved into nothing. Aelita flew down and blasted the shadowy arm chasing Geoff just as it was inches away from his hat.

"Thanks, Aelita!" Geoff stopped as Aelita landed.

Meanwhile Gwen threw her scythe while it glowed with pink energy and cut through the arm chasing Heather.

"Feel free to say thanks." Gwen smirked as her scythe returned to her hand.

"I could have made it." Heather crossed her arms.

"Yeah, sure." Gwen scoffed as she ran to meet up with Geoff and Aelita.

Geoff and Aelita were attacked by another row of shadowy arms shooting out of the ground around them. Geoff swung his axe and hit one with a blast of lightning but the arms were unaffected by his attack and lunged at him.

"Oh come on!" Geoff groaned as he jumped out of the way.

"Plasma beam!" Aelita fired her energy beam and blasted the arms away. "That's better!"

"Look out!" Geoff pointed behind her as another set of shadowy arms came out of the ground behind her.

Aelita took off into the air with the arms following her, one almost grabbing her coat.

"Enough of this!" Aelita spun around and fired several energy orbs that hit the arms and disintegrated them.

She landed on the ground and met up with Gwen and Heather with Geoff running up behind her.

"Okay, I'm a little tired of the games here." Gwen scowled. "I say we blast him out!"

"You'll get no argument from on that one, goth girl." Heather got held up her shuriken launchers.

"Over here, if you want to see me so badly." The voice called out from behind the tower.

Everyone turned to see the person come out from behind the tower and leaned his back against it.

"We meet again."

"Sorry if we're not so happy to see you, XANA." Aelita aimed her hand at him with a plasma beam ready to fire.

"What's the matter? Got tired of your pansy monsters and loser generals getting their assess kicked?" Heather aimed her launchers as XANA.

"Oh, nothing like that." XANA chuckled. "I was just a little bored and decided to try something new. Congratulations on linking this sector to the computer. Now you have about seven more sectors before you can come and go as you please."

"What did you do to the others?" Geoff growled.

"Geoff, I can honestly say I haven't done anything horrible to them. I just thought you all could use a little...vacation." XANA snickered.

"Well, vacation's over, now you can either get out of our way and make it easy for once or you can spend the next week piecing that avatar of yours back together." Aelita's hand glowed brighter. "I blasted you to pieces once and believe me I'd love to do it again."

XANA simply smirked at her threat. "I'm afraid that there's one small problem that's keeping you from carrying out your threat."

"And that is?" Gwen asked, getting ready to attack.

"You're taking a break...right...about...now." XANA snapped his fingers. "See ya. Return to the Past now!"

"Wha-Oh no!" Aelita shouted as the sector was engulfed in a blast of white light.

As this happened they all swore they could hear Cody screaming from the lab.

Xxx

**Monday, July 5th, 1994**

When Bridgette opened her eyes again she and the others found themselves lying in the middle of a field but it took a second to recognize where she ended up. They were back to where they were when they were sent back in time at the beginning!

"What happened?" Eva growled as she got up.

"Aelita's dad activated the Return to the Past." Bridgette replied as she helped Trent get up.

"So we're back to where we started. Great." Noah groaned.

"That's not the worst part. Aelita's dad knows about us, he knows that we're not supposed to be here because of how many times he's gone back in time!" Bridgette exclaimed.

"That's not good, as if running into XANA wasn't bad enough he'll probably spill the beans on us." LeShawna shook her head. "This is messed up."

"So what do we do now?" DJ asked.

"Well, if we do show repeat everything before Aelita's dad might not get so suspicious but if we don't show he may start looking and XANA may tell him." Noah sighed. "This is _beyond_ messed up."

"I know right." Izzy snickered. "What will the others say when we get back? We met Aelita back before she went into Lyoko? We met her dad? Or that Noah played chess with XANA?"

"I hope they are close to solving this problem because we're stuck." Trent put a hand to his head. "Keep going back in time like this and I think I'll go nuts."

A groaning sound was heard and they all spun around to see...

"Cody!" They all shouted once, surprised that the other boy genius of the group was here with them.

Cody groaned as he sat up and looked at them with wide eyes. "Guys?"

"How did you get here man?" DJ helped him up.

"I don't know. I was in the lab, watching the others head for the tower and then the Return to the Past activated and I woke up...here." Cody looked around.

"Where is here anyway?"

"About almost seventeen years in the past." Noah shrugged.

Cody just stared at him with a blank look. "You're kidding me right?"

Everyone just looked at him with sympathetic faces.

"Oh god...Gwen, Heather, Geoff, Aelita, they have no idea." Cody gasped. "And they're on their own!"

"And so are we." Noah sighed.

"Oh man, now there's only four of us still in the present. What happens if they are sent back here too?" Bridgette cried as her hands landed on her cheeks. "XANA would be able to take over without us!"

"Unless..." Noah started but stopped. "No too crazy, forget I said anything."

"Spit it out genius!" Eva growled as she cracked her fists.

Noah was silent for moment before he spoke. "We destroy the supercomputer before Aelita and her dad go into Lyoko."


	80. Episode 78:Calm Before the Storm

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 79

**Present Day**

"Damn it! Damn it! DAMN IT!" Geoff pounded his fists on the wall of the lab.

Aelita sat in her chair at the computer while Gwen and Heather stood behind her as they looked at the screen showing several open windows of data. After the Return to the Past they found themselves back in the lab before they had gone into the Carbon Copy to deactivate the tower. The one major difference was that Cody was not with them this time; he had disappeared like everyone else.

"That damn psychotic computerized bastard!" Geoff swore as he punched the wall one last time.

His fists were bruised from punching the wall so hard and needed to be bandaged but Geoff didn't care at the moment.

"He screwed us over again! And now Cody's gone!" Geoff turned back to the others.

"We know, Geoff, we know." Gwen sighed. "Okay, he sent us back in time again but Cody wasn't virtualized like the rest of us like everyone who vanished meaning as long as we're in Lyoko or the Carbon Copy we're safe."

"But as long as XANA keeps sending us back in time we can't reach the tower and shut it down." Heather continued.

"Which means in order for us to stop this attack, I need to stop XANA from activating the Return to Past again." Aelita finished as she opened several more windows.

"Any idea on how he got into the program in the first place?" Gwen looked over Aelita's shoulder at the screen.

"I checked the firewalls and all security programs are up and running. XANA couldn't have hacked the restricted section, no matter how good he is. It's possible he found some kind of glitch in the program but I've checked over ten times now so either there's an error I missed or..." Aelita gulped. "XANA somehow got the password into the Return to the Past program."

That one comment made the other three remaining warriors stop in shock and fear at the thought of XANA having access to all of their important program. If they lost everything in the restricted section than XANA will have a big advantage, even bigger than the advantage he had now.

"I need to check how many times the restricted section was accessed and see if anyone besides me or anyone else in our group accessed the Return to Past, but as far as I know the program's still linked to the activated tower in the Copy." Aelita sighed. "The only good news I have is that XANA has to wait for about two hours to try again seeing as how he sent us two hours back just now."

"So two full hours of fighting in the Copy have just been erased." Heather sighed. "I guess it's not time well wasted."

"What do we do in the meantime?" Gwen asked.

"Take a break, you don't have to worry about vanishing like the others did and I want to know how XANA got in to keep him doing it again. Even if we deactivate the tower and bring the others back, what's to stop XANA from taking control of the program again? We could all vanish next time." Aelita explained.

"That's it? Come on, Aelita! There's got to be something else we can do! XANA's making us disappear one by one and you want us to wait?" Geoff shouted.

"And what else can we do Geoff!" Aelita spun and faced him. "Go off and face the monsters and generals?"

"I'm saying we go in there and fight our way! We can't sit out, wasting time, coming up with a plan!" Geoff replied.

"Waste time? You think I sit around wasting your time, my time, the world's time every time a tower is activate or when we head into Carbon Copy when I'm hoping and praying you all come back alive. That you don't die in some freak attack, or falling into the digital sea and end up having your entire being scattered across the web, or disappear in a flash of light leaving no trace?" Aelita stood up from the chair and sent a glare at Geoff that was so scary it made both Heather and Gwen step back. "I worry about each and every one of you because I of all people know how hard it is to shoulder this, trying to live a normal life while at the same time risking your lives, fighting monsters in this world and in there!" She pointed at the computer.

"Whoa! Whoa!" Gwen quickly put her hands on Aelita's shoulder to calm her down. "Its okay, Aelita, he's just upset and worried!"

"Yeah, no need to get into a war of our own here!" Heather quickly put a hand on Geoff's shoulder. "Geoff, we're all worried about the others here but you're shooting the wrong person here!"

If anyone else was here in the lab they would have thought that it was weird that Gwen and Heather of all people were working together to defuse a fight.

"We just need to calm down; the person you two should be pissed at is XANA." Gwen said, as both Aelita and Geoff's anger faded.

They both calmed down and took deep breaths.

"Right, sorry Aelita, I should know better than to shoot the messenger." Geoff rubbed the back of his head.

"I'm sorry, too Geoff, I don't let it get to me like this but we all lose it once in a while." Aelita smiled.

"And we just prevented World War Four from happening." Heather said.

"Last I checked you need to have a World War Three before that." Gwen raised an eyebrow.

"Nah, this whole Lyoko thing counts as World War Three." Heather replied.

Gwen thought it over for a second and nodded. "Yeah, too bad no one's giving out medals."

"Or a million dollars." Heather scowled.

"Or your own island." Geoff couldn't resist adding his own two cents.

"Or a small country." Aelita spoke up making everyone look at her. "What? You think I haven't thought about it?"

They all laughed for a moment, feeling better now even though they still had a tower shut down and friends to save.

"All right, we all take a break, including you." Gwen pointed at Aelita. "Before we jump back into this, because this is probably going to be our toughest fight yet."

"All right," Aelita nodded. "I guess a break is in order, but I hope you're all ready when we jump back into this."

"Trust me; we'll be more than ready." Geoff gave her a thumbs up.

"And this time we're going to kick their assess even if we do end up getting blasted out of Lyoko." Heather cracked her knuckles.

"No matter how many of them are waiting for us." Gwen nodded.

With that the group walked out of the lab into the elevator to take a much needed break. But none of them were able to forget the one thing that kept them worried.

They were on their own.

Only four of them against an army of monsters.

Against seven generals powerful enough to give them a hard fight even if it was just one of them against most of the group.

And their master hiding in the shadows, waiting and plotting his next move to win the battle and the war.

Several members of the group have said it before and Gwen decided to say it again. "This is going to suck."

Xxx

**Monday, July 5th, 1994**

"We...do...WHAT?" LeShawna shouted after a moment of silence when they heard Noah's new plan. "You have any idea how much trouble we'd end up in?"

"Look, I know how crazy it sounds but the way things are going we're going all going to end up trapped in the past. If we all end up trapped in the past, including Aelita, we're all going to be stuck here and XANA gets to turn the future into playground." Noah explained. "Take out the supercomputer, we take out XANA."

"But there are some big changes you haven't considered Noah, like what happens to Aelita and her dad." Cody pointed out. "They went to Lyoko to escape Lyon's men, if they are caught who knows what Lyon will do to them, especially if they force Schaeffer to make them their own XANA!"

"You want to risk putting Aelita through something like that? She's going to be put through hell soon when she and her dad run to Lyoko, do we want to risk making it worse?" Bridgette asked.

"But if we take out the computer, XANA's gone and we are never sent here in the first place." Noah replied.

"And Aelita and her dad continue running and hiding, she never meets her friends, one of them happens to be her boyfriend and best friend, she never meets us, she just keeps on running and hiding." Cody pointed out. "Her dad took her to Lyoko because there was nowhere else to go, what will they do when they find the supercomputer busted?"

"I don't know; maybe we can help somehow, I don't know." Noah put his hands on his head. "I'm getting a headache from this, I can't think of any other way to get out of this aside from waiting seventeen years to warn them of the XANA attack."

"Cool! Meeting me in the future! Think of all the stories we could share!" Izzy laughed.

"Aelita may still find a way to bring us back; we can't just assume she and the others will end up back here." Trent said.

"Against the monsters and generals on their own? They're good but not that good." LeShawna shook her head. "We're stuck, and stuck good."

"Sorry, guys, but all I got is taking out XANA before he becomes a threat." Noah sighed.

"And what happens when Aelita's dad finds out from XANA we snuck into the lab and lied about how we know about the lab so we could find a way out?" DJ asked.

"So we do something we're screwed and if we don't do something we're still screwed." Eva spoke up, not liking the fact that she couldn't do anything. "That sucks."

"We don't even know how long before Aelita and her dad head into Lyoko, you saw how XANA was acting. Did he look like the psycho we know in the future?" Bridgette asked.

"Even if he hasn't turned bad yet that doesn't change the fact even as a good guy XANA is sneaky." Noah replied.

"What do you mean?" DJ asked.

"He might have had no idea who we were but he wasn't stupid, he wanted to know us better and that's why he asked me to play that game with him." Noah replied. "He kept us in the lab until Schaeffer showed up meaning he wanted to know if we were lying."

"He has a point, it looks to me XANA knew we were up to something even before he talked to us." Trent pointed out.

"And XANA didn't tell Schaeffer about us before he sent us back in time." Bridgette spoke up. "He knows we're up to something but he didn't do anything."

"So either XANA's already gone to the dark side or he's going through that awkward rebellious AI phase." Cody said.

"So what do we do then? Wait seventeen years and hope we catch ourselves before they are sent here?" Trent asked.

"Don't have to, there's still an activated tower meaning that if Aelita shuts it down there's a chance that what happened to us will be reversed." Cody pointed out.

"We don't know that. This ain't a simulation bubble or some random person or object possessed and turned into some demonic monster. We've been flown back in time, _seventeen years_!" Noah shook his head. "That's a little hard to reverse."

"Well then, like Eva said we're screwed. We might as well get fake , finish school, get jobs, and spend the next seventeen years introducing stuff ahead of time like my I-pod." Cody pulled his I-pod out of his pocket. "How rich do you think we'll be?"

"Let's just calm down for a second here!" Bridgette exclaimed, getting tired of the arguing. "Can we at least wait a while before deciding what to do; it's been a while since we got some rest."

"And where should we rest? Not at the factory, we'd be walking into XANA's hands." Noah replied.

"We should go back to Kadic and start over like we did the first time, even if XANA might keep an eye out for us he won't attack us surrounded by people...Would he?" Bridgette asked.

"She's got a point. XANA does anything and Schaeffer will suspect something." LeShawna nodded.

"And if we don't show up he's still going to suspect something." Trent sighed. "Let's just head to Kadic and play along for a little longer. All right?"

Everyone reluctantly agreed and headed for Kadic. When they arrived it was same as before with Noah having to act again to make everyone think they were shadow students so they could get in. Once all the paper work was done they headed for the class they were in before they snuck off to the factory. When they arrived in the class they waited for Schaeffer to come in.

He walked in a moment later, taking notice of the gang and their new member. They couldn't tell what his reaction was to seeing Cody but they could guess he was even more suspicious now that someone else appeared out of nowhere.

"Good evening, class. My name is Franz Hopper." He introduced himself, just like before as he put his books down.

When he looked up at the class and when he saw the Lyoko Gang at the back he saw Cody with them. His eyes widened as he stifled a gasp but he started to feel dizzy. He gasped as he leaned against the desk as a headache appeared out of nowhere.

"Is he okay?" Trent whispered.

"That didn't happen before." LeShawna stood up. "Are you okay?"

"I'm...I'm..." Franz was unable to say anything else as he fell over.

"Oh god!" Bridgette stood up and ran over. "Someone help me get him to the infirmary!"

The class all stood up to see Schaeffer lying down on the ground while LeShawna helped Bridgette pick up Schaeffer with his arms draped over their shoulders. They carried him gently towards the door.

"Anyone know where the infirmary is?" Trent asked.

"I do." A boy with white dyed hair stood up and led Bridgette and LeShawna out of the class.

"Guess, class is cancelled for the rest of the day." Noah whispered.

The boy led them out of the science building, across the lawn, and into the administrative building where they had to go up a set of stores to the second floor where the infirmary was. The nurse was a woman with light gray hair who immediately helped them put Schaeffer on the bed. She was examining him now while Bridgette and LeShawna headed to the stair case where the others were waiting.

"How is he?" Trent asked when Bridgette and LeShawna came out.

"Don't know anything, yet." LeShawna replied.

"Any reason he'd simply faint like that?" Bridgette asked.

"Probably all the return trips to the past." Noah leaned against the wall. "All those rewinds, Aelita mentioned he seemed disoriented and paranoid in his last few video entries."

"He probably fainted a few times before but Aelita never knew since she didn't mention anything like that." Cody said. "He's probably fine, just dizzy from the last trip and fainted."

"So nothing bad?" DJ asked.

"Of course not, the guy was fine when he took Aelita with him into Lyoko right?" Eva spoke up. "It's not like us being here caused it...right?"

"I don't think so." Cody muttered as he looked down at the ground.

"Cody?" Bridgette asked.

"You guys saw him. He looked back at us and when he saw me, someone else who showed up when they weren't there before he shocked. That caused him to faint; I put him in that infirmary." Cody explained. "He looked right at me and the way he looked I was afraid I gave him a heart attack. Not something I'd like to mention to Aelita."

"So what is this then, some self fulfilling time paradox?" Noah asked. "Were we supposed to be back in this time or something?"

"Well if something we do causes everything up to when we were sent back here...I think we'll either have to make sure that the events we know come to pass, or try and change them in some way that benefits us." Cody reasoned. "If we do nothing then that's an omission paradox, it happens because we didn't do anything."

"So...I'm confused, do we do something or nothing?" Trent asked.

"...I don't even know anymore," Cody sighed. "I hate the whole 'monkeys ruling the future' scenario'."

"Well hold on...let's brain storm this; we have options here so let's list them." Noah pulled out a sheet of paper and began to write on it. "Okay, option one: we destroy the super computer and avert everything. Upside?"

"XANA never turns evil and all of that madness never happens," Bridgette said.

"Down side?"

"We're still stuck here and we don't know if it'll be better or worse for Aelita," Cody pointed out.

"Ok...option two:..." Noah sighed. "We get home the long way."

"That would be really disturbing," Cody muttered.

"I really don't wanna go through all that," LeShawna admitted.

"Option three:...?"

"We have an option three? Man this makes me feel better already!" Izzy grinned.

"...what is option three?" DJ asked.

Noah slapped himself in the face. "Trying to figure that out right now big guy. How do we get back to the future without messing anything up?"

"Yeah, I don't wanna memorize that many monkey kings when we get back!" Izzy shook her head.

"Enough with the freaking monkeys!" Eva groaned.

"She's right. We have to really think here! This is XANA's best plan yet, and I think he might just have us beat with it! How do we turn this around?" Noah said.

"...can't we somehow use the Return to the Past...but in reverse?" DJ suggested.

"It's already complex enough manipulating temporal energy like the Return to the Past program does...but to go forward? That would be...my god I'd say it's all science fiction if it wasn't for the fact that I'm in nineteen ninety freakin' four!" Cody said.

"Trying to figure that out could take years, something we might not have." Noah agreed. "And that depends on how long we have before they head to Lyoko."

They heard someone kick the door at the bottom of the staircase open and looked to see Aelita running up the stairs. They moved out of her way so she could head for the infirmary to see her father. But she stopped when she saw them at the door.

"You took him here?" She asked, her voice had a hint of tension as she gasped for breath.

"Yeah, we were in his class when it happened." Bridgette replied, just stopping herself from saying Aelita's name since she wouldn't know them this time.

"What happened?" Aelita asked, looking very anxious. "Is he all right?"

"He just fainted, girl, he'll be fine." LeShawna replied gently.

"Oh..." Aelita sighed in relief. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Bridgette smiled, happy that Aelita wasn't about to lose her dad.

She ran into the hall towards the infirmary to see her father.

"Obviously Schaeffer is going to go back in time again." Noah said when Aelita was out of earshot.

"What makes you say that?" Eva asked.

"He's right. Aelita would have recognized us when we first met her during XANA's attack in the park or if she saw Total Drama." Bridgette said. "We kind of stand out, someone like Aelita wouldn't forget someone's face or appearance no matter how long it's been."

"So he goes back in time one more time, what's that have to do with anything?" Eva asked.

"It's a lot, actually." Cody said. "The more he goes back in time the worse his condition gets, meaning we might be close to when they were virtualized into Lyoko."

"So we have until then to think of something." Trent sighed.

"We better head to next class before something else happens." Noah reminded everyone that they were at a school. "No need to stand out any further."

Xxx

**Present Day**

POW!

POW!

POW!

Geoff's fist slammed into the bag in the gym of the Total Drama Studio, venting his frustrations out for what happened recently. Gwen sat on the bleachers, watching as she drew in her sketching book.

"Head's up!" Heather shouted.

Gwen looked up and saw a basketball heading for her head. Yelping, she ducked as the ball flew over her head. She looked down and saw Heather standing near a basketball net. She picked up the ball and tossed it back to Heather.

"Thanks!" Heather caught it.

"You play basketball?" Gwen dropped her sketchbook.

"Only when I feel really frustrated, not that anyone at my school knows but we have a net at my house." Heather threw the ball up to the net but missed. "School counsellor recommended that I take up a sport or something to help with my temper."

"Did it ever work?" Gwen raised an eyebrow.

"After TDI it did," Heather nodded, and then held up the ball in both hands. "Do you play?"

"A few times," Gwen nodded.

"Oh, the goth girl actually does something other than draw in her book with her crayons." Heather smirked. "You any good?"

Gwen sent a small glare, not missing the challenge Heather had issued.

"Want to find out?"

She really had no idea why she was agreeing to the challenge but seeing as how she was playing against Heather she didn't really care the moment.

"You might want to lose any makeup," Heather suggested. "It'll run."

"I'm not wearing any,"

"And you're that pale still?"

"It's a curse," Gwen shrugged as she stepped onto the court. "Let's go."

Heather tossed the ball up at the center of the court. Both girls jumped for it, and Gwen managed to snatch it away from Heather's outstretched hand at the last second. No one expected Gwen to be good at any kind of sport but she managed to score a few points. Heather was just as good and when she managed to hit the net a third time the score was even.

"A few times my foot!" Heather exclaimed as Gwen managed to land the ball in the net again. "You've been holding out on us."

"I played with my brother when I took care of him; he needed something to work off all that energy." Gwen shrugged as she tried to block Heather from taking a shot at the net. "Who'd you play with?"

"No one, there was no way I was going to play with _my_ brother, my sisters were way too obnoxious, dad would have just let me win, and I wasn't going to vent my frustration on my mom." Heather slipped past Gwen and launched the ball into the air.

It landed on the edge of the net and for a second it stood still before it fell in.

"Yes!" Heather smirked. "Four to three, goth girl!"

Gwen picked up the ball and started dribbling as she moved to take a shot at the net. Heather quickly moved in front and tried to swipe it out of her hand. Using both of her hands Gwen launched the ball over Heather's head and went through the net.

"Now we're even." Gwen smirked back at her.

"Good thing you don't go to my school or Rachel, the team captain for the girl's basketball team would be dragging you onto the team while you most likely would be kicking and screaming." Heather grabbed the ball.

She tossed up towards the net.

"Good luck with that." Gwen scoffed as she jumped and managed to stop it from hitting the net. "She might have ended up with two black eyes."

They kept on playing for a little while, the ball going in the net or landing on the very edge which led to it either falling in the net or falling off it. Eventually they ended the game and sat on the bleachers with bottles of water in their hands. They watched as Geoff walked up to them a grabbed a bottle of water for himself.

"Finally got rid of all that frustration?" Gwen asked.

"Yeah, can't say it won't come back when we go back to work." Geoff replied as he jugged half of the water in his bottle. "What about you two?"

"Gothy here actually plays sports." Heather gestured to Gwen who sent a small glare at her. "Who knew, huh?"

"You shouldn't too surprised, Heather. I usually keep up in any challenge that has a sport in it." Gwen shrugged.

"So now what? It's been a whole day and XANA hasn't tried to make us disappear like the others." Geoff said.

"Maybe Aelita finally found a way to keep him from using the Return to the Past." Gwen shrugged.

"Sorry to say, Gwen but I'm still having trouble with that."

Everyone turned and saw Aelita walk into the gym.

"When'd you get here, Aelita?" Gwen asked.

"You said I should take a break too," Aelita shrugged. "So I went jogging for a little while and decided to stop by." She picked a bottle of water from the cooler. "Nice match by the way."

"You watched?" Heather asked.

"I walked in during the start of the match." Aelita shrugged as she picked up the ball. "It was quite a match."

She walked out to the small court and stopped a few feet away from the net. She stood still as she aimed for a moment and then tossed the ball up into the air. It landed on the net and went down it a second later.

"Whoa, I see you got some skills yourself." Heather commented.

"I'll have you know, Heather, that not all of my time is spent on a computer." Aelita crossed her arms. "I go outside and get some fresh air a few times a day."

"Hey, I didn't mean anything like that." Heather raised her arms in defense.

"Yeah, wait until we beat XANA before you accuse her." Gwen smirked.

"Bite me!"

"So, we going back in?" Geoff asked, deciding to get back to the serious subject.

"I'm not sure, Geoff." Aelita frowned. "We're heavily outnumbered this time, Cody's upgrade was kind of my ace in the hole, surprising the generals so I could deactivate the tower but that didn't work out and now there are only four of us left."

"Should we try and bring someone else in?" Geoff asked.

"Whoa! Back up, Geoff! That's a tall order considering we'd need two or three more fighters and can we afford to try and recruit anyone this time?" Gwen asked. "Besides who can we ask? Duncan and Courtney's virus won't let them near the scanners, Beth and Lindsay aren't the kind of fighters for something like this, Kurt and Carlos are too busy making sure no one gets suspicious to help with this, and we can't trust anyone else here for help."

"I can't ask anyone from my school to risk themselves on a one way trip." Aelita pointed out.

"So it's just us then?" Heather asked, everyone looking at each with the same look.

"Looks like it." Gwen nodded.

"You know what? I don't really care." Geoff frowned. "If XANA thinks he's won he's got a bigger glitch then we thought."

"It's not the first time the odds have been stacked against us." Heather pointed out.

"It's just the first time there's been only four of us against a whole army." Aelita replied.

"Yeah, but Geoff's right, I've come this far and there's no way I am going to give XANA the satisfaction." Gwen had a determined look on her face. "I'd rather kill as many of his goons as I can before he makes me disappear again."

"I can't how many times I'm seeing this but goth girl's right." Heather nodded. "I don't go down without a fight especially one like this."

"If I see XANA again I'll tear his digital avatar apart." Geoff nodded.

Aelita looked at all three of them and nodded as well.

"When should we go back in?" Gwen asked.

"Give me until tonight to see if I can keep XANA from using the Time Return program and then...well just have to try and stop him before he uses it." Aelita shrugged.

"It's already been a day now, why hasn't XANA used it?" Heather asked.

"Maybe it takes a little longer for him to recharge? I wish I had some kind of answer for this one, Heather but all I can do is make a guess." Aelita.

"Well, as long as we're still on break here's something we can do." Gwen picked up the remote for the TV hanging from the ceiling so everyone in the gym could watch it. "The Aftermath is coming on."

"You want to watch that?" Geoff asked.

"Of course, we get to see Chris join the losers." Gwen smirked.

"...What are you waiting for? Turn it on!" Heather exclaimed.

Xxx

**Monday, July 5th, 1994**

After Schaeffer's fainting episode the rest of the day went the same as before only this time the Lyoko Warriors didn't sneak out to the factory since they'd end up talking to XANA again and that was something they wanted to avoid. When the day was over they headed to their temporary rooms in the dorms so they could get some much needed rest. However waiting in front of the building was someone they did not expect to see.

"Hey, guys, isn't that..." Bridgette pointed at the person when she saw them.

"Aelita's dad." DJ's whispered.

Waldo Schaeffer was standing at the entrance to the dorm building, looking like he was waiting for someone. He looked like he had recovered from fainting earlier, almost as if it had never happened at all.

"Aelita suppose to be here?" Trent asked.

"Nah, they live at the hermitage in the forest." LeShawna shook her head.

"Maybe we can ask, he's heading this way!" Izzy whispered as everyone looked back to the entrance.

Schaeffer had started walking over to them when they stopped and saw him.

"Pardon me, I know you are all anxious to head into your rooms to get some much needed sleep but I just wanted to say thank you. I know that you two," He pointed to Bridgette and LeShawna. "Were the ones who took me to the infirmary when I fainted."

"Oh, you're welcome." Bridgette replied with a smile.

"I admit that I'm not a young man anymore but I think I'd recall seeing students, especially a group of students like you all attending this school." Schaeffer continued after nodding to Bridgette.

"Well, we're shadow students; we come all the way from Canada to see what Paris was like." Noah replied quickly with a smile.

"Really? I see." Waldo nodded. "Well then welcome to Kadic and I hope you enjoy your stay."

He walked away from the group, heading for the front gate.

"I think he's onto us." Izzy said when he's out of earshot.

"No duh." Eva rolled her eyes.

"We'll worry about that later; I need to get some sleep." Noah headed into the building followed quickly by the others.

Xxx

**Present Day**

"Welcome to Total Drama Aftermath!" Blaineley shouted, and was greeted by a cheering studio audience. "I'm Blaineley-"

"And I'm Owen!" Owen waved from next to her on the couch. "Hi mom!"

"_Hi Owen!"_ Somebody shouted from off screen.

"Today we bring you the biggest news and a special loser," Blaineley continued. "He's sitting in the lounge right now!"

The screen showed the waiting room, which had three occupants. One was Chris, who was bound and gagged and struggling to get out while on either side of him sat...

"The robots?" Gwen, Heather and Geoff shouted in unison.

"I thought those were just special effects," Aelita said, confused.

"Nope, they were real," Gwen nodded. "Another bad example of creating machines that think."

Sir Carlos Deluxe and Sir Christopher Deluxe 2.0 waved to the camera. Sir Carlos held up a sign that said 'Hi Robotic Arm #43'.

"And now let's bring them out!" Blaineley declared.

Almost immediately both robots stepped out, dragging Chris kicking and screaming onto the stage. The people in the Losers Box all pointed and laughed as Chris was forced to join them.

"Ha! Now you know how it feels!" Alejandro snickered. "Welcome to the Losers Box Chris," He added in a spooky voice. "You're one of us now."

Chris was ungagged. "LET ME OUT OF HERE! I was unfairly kicked off my own show-" Sir Carlos re-gagged the host.

"Thank you Sir Carlos!" Blaineley nodded.

"No problem, this unit was most annoyed." Sir Carlos replied.

"So Chris, how does it feel to be kicked off your own show-ooh wait," Blaineley snickered. "Don't answer, we have it all on recording right here!"

_"What?" Chris whined. "Their voting is prejudiced! You can't get rid of me!"_

_"Actually we can, you're a contestant," Kurt said. "And actually seeing as we can, I can do this!" He pulled out a microphone before his voice was broadcasted over the speakers-and in fact the whole show. "Attention everybody in the studio and anybody who is watching this. I expect your full cooperation in this (That includes everyone who is reading this)…." He inhaled. "WOOOOOOOO!" He let out a big cheer while everybody raised their hands in the air, joining him._

_"…thank you." He set the microphone aside. "Anyways Chris, time to visit the Jet of Losers."_

_"Nooo! I'll be back! Do you hear me? I will be back! This is NOT over!" Chris shouted as he was dragged out. "Carlos I'm your cousin for god sakes!"_

_"Hm..." Carlos looked considerate. "...I'll bill you."_

_"What?"_

_"Well I owe Kurt for all the years of friendship, I owe my wife for all the years of love...I think you can owe me for all the years of being a pain in my neck." Carlos decided. "I'll send it your way soon, cousin!"_

"And here is a clip from the plane that Chris was on." Blaineley said as another clip appeared.

_Chris sniffed as he walked towards the Jet of Losers. "They-they can't get rid of me! I'll be back," He frowned. "I'll be back and get my revenge!"_

_He got on the plane and sat down, pouting._

_"….STATEMENT: WELCOME ABOARD THE FLIGHT TO HELL, DUMB ASS."_

_"…Oh no..no!" Chris opened the curtains to the cockpit…and saw both Sir Carlos Deluxe and Sir Chris 2.0 in the pilot seats while Lenny was snoring on the floor. "NOOOO!"_

_The plane took off as Chris' cry of terror echoed through the city._

_"GET ME OUT OF HERE!" Chris shouted as he thrown back and forth across the plane._

_"Please fasten your seat belt. This unit has detected some turbulence." Sir Carlos Deluxe said._

_"MOMMY!" Chris screamed as he flew into the wall._

Everyone in the audience and the four Lyoko warriors laughed as they Chris fly back and forth across the plane.

"Oh that's not even the best part! Here's the best!" Blaineley managed to say while doubled over and slapping her thighs from laughter.

_The plane set down in Toronto. The doors opened...and Sir Carlos stepped off, carrying Chris, who was duct taped to a chair with a pink moustache painted on his face and an owl sitting on his head. The owl hooted once and took off._

_"No! Hooty come back! You were the only one who understood me!" Chris bawled as he was carried off. "Hooty!"_

"Anybody want to tell me how an owl got on the plane?" Blaineley asked.

"Statement: That plane was about as clean as the Total Drama Jet." Sir Carlos replied.

"What do you have to say to that Chris?" Blaineley asked as Sir Carlos removed the gag.

"They set me up! I'll get back at them! I've already contacted my lawyers and they have sent a letter to Kurt saying that unless he lets me back on I'll sue him and Carlos!" Chris growled.

"Let's see what he had to say." Blaineley said as she changed the channel.

The large television now showed Kurt in his officer...

Rolling across the floor as he laughed uncontrollably.

"And now what Carlos had to say."

The television showed Carlos being carried into an ambulance.

"What happened?" Lesley asked as she rushed out.

"Looks like he's gone and nearly laughed himself to death," Roberto grunted.

"Moron," Chef nodded.

Suddenly Carlos started laughing on the stretcher. He began to run out of breath again and collapsed back against the stretcher before the ambulance doors closed.

"Yeah, they really worried about you and your lawyers." Blaineley snickered. "We just received this reply from your lawyer when he heard that Lesely would defend them."

The television showed another person being into an ambulance like Carlos was.

"What happened?" Katie asked.

"It seemed Chris's lawyer had a heart attack while reading his email." Blaineley pulled out a blackberry and opened the email. "It says here that Lesely would defend Kurt and Carlos in court."

"Statement: That poor soul." Sir Carlos said.

"Well, it seems Chris won't be returning to Total Drama anytime soon, in fact the director asked that he be sent back to fixing the damage he caused last season." Blaineley smirked as two large men walked up to Chris.

"WHAT? NO! WAIT! THE SHOW STILL NEEDS ME!" Chris cried as he was dragged away.

"Well folks Chris is out of Total Drama and now we can get onto the next topic. Right after these messages." Blaineley said as the show went to commercials.

"Are all these episodes this...crazy?" Aelita asked.

"You wouldn't believe half the crap we've had to put up with." Gwen shook her head. "The singing, the humiliating challenges, the death traps."

"And no one except Duncan has been able to keep the million dollars." Heather grumbled.

"Not to mention how everyone turns on each other because of the money." Geoff sighed.

"Or stupid mistakes." Gwen lowered her head. "Like letting your friend's boyfriend kiss you while he's still in a relationship."

"Or annoying everyone by making out." Geoff tipped his hat.

"Or the host taking the money because of some bull crap reason like needing it for another season." Heather crossed her arms.

"How does someone get away with all that?" Aelita asked.

"Contracts." All three contestants said at the same time.

"And you didn't read them?" Aelita asked, tilting her head a bit.

"Yeah, I know, that was a very dumb thing to do." Gwen shook her head. "We all learned that very important lesson."

"Hey look! We're back!" Geoff pointed to the TV as the Aftermath logo appeared.

It vanished and was replaced with the stage where Blaineley and Owen along with all the eliminated contestants were waiting.

"Well, folks, we're getting close to the end of the season with one team nearly finished." Blaineley said as Team C's logo appeared on the screen. "Last season Team Victory was the first to go but this time it looks like Team Chris will be the one to go. Funny isn't it? Chris is gone and the team named after him is almost gone."

"Oh! Now I get it!" Owen laughed.

"It's been a pretty big season and each time has taken some heavy causalities in their quest to win the million dollars." Blaineley gestured to the eliminated contestants. "It could be anyone's season this time, especially with no antagonist to make things interesting."

"So who do you think will win, Blaineley?" Owen asked.

"That's a good question, Owen." Blaineley then turned to the audience. "Who do you thing will win?"

The audience then began shouting who they wanted to in.

"GO TRENT!"

"WE LOVE YOU CODY!"

Sierra growled at the girls who shouted that.

"COURTNEY! YOU'RE THE BEST!"

"YOU RULE DUNCAN!"

"BRIDGETTE!"

"IT'S YOUR SEASON GWEN!"

"Hopefully." Gwen smiled.

"GO HEATHER!" A few guys called out.

"Well, you actually have fans." Gwen smirked at Heather.

"Of course I have fans!" Heather huffed.

"WE'RE WITH YOU NOAH!"

"Wow, who knew Noah got himself some fangirls."Gwen chuckled at the number of girls who cheered for Noah.

"Guess they dig sarcasm." Geoff shrugged.

"GO LESHAWNA!"

"PARTY ON GEOFF!"

"Got it dudes!" Geoff gave them a thumbs up.

"WE LOVE YOU DJ!"

"I'M ROOTING FOR YOU, IZZY!" Owen stood up and shouted to the camera.

"If she was here she'd be making out with the TV just after Owen said that." Gwen commented.

"YOU ROCK, EVA!"

"Eva's got fans?" Heather asked. "She's only been on for one full season!"

"Guess, they really liked her temper." Gwen shrugged.

"Who do you guys think will win if we make it through this mess?" Aelita asked.

"That's...a very good question." Heather replied after thinking for a moment.

"Well, everyone left in the competition has a lot of supporters." Blaineley said to Owen as she sat back. "It looks to be a very close competition."

"So what should we do?" Owen asked.

"I know! I can't make any challenges here yet but we have something the audience can do. Go to the Total Drama website and vote for the one you want to win and that person will receive an advantage in the next challenge." Blaineley announced.

"Oh god! I have to vote for Cody!" Sierra jumped out of the loser box and ran off stage.

"We've got to vote for Trent!" Katie and Sadie ran after her.

"Well folks, it could be anyone's season this time. Tune in next time to see what happens next on Total..." Blaineley announced.

"DRAMA..." Owen continued.

REALITY!" They both finished as the show ended.

Gwen pushed the power button on the remote and the TV was turned off. "Well, that was something to see."

"I think Kurt and Carlos have discovered a new disease." Geoff said. "No way someone can laugh like that and be all right."

"That's the Aftermath, now we have three days before the next challenge." Heather changed the subject.

"We're jumping right back into the digital front huh?" Gwen looked to Aelita.

"I'm almost out of ideas here, Gwen. We might just have come with a new one along the way." Aelita shrugged.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's do it!" Geoff pumped a fist into the air.

The others nodded and headed for the factory, ready for no matter what happened.

Xxx

**Carbon Copy**

As the Lyoko Warriors headed to the factory deep in the Carbon Copy XANA sat on a floating block in Sector 5. He opened his eyes when he sensed the last four Lyoko Warriors were on their way to the factory.

"It's almost over now." XANA snickered.

Lilith appeared on another block behind him.

"Is everything ready for their arrival?" XANA asked without turning to look at her.

"Yes, Master, our forces are ready and waiting for them." Lilith bowed slightly.

"Good, this may just be the final battle." XANA stood up.

"Master, if I may, I don't understand why you don't use the Return to the Past program now and get rid of them." Lilith commented.

"It's simple, Lilith." XANA looked at her. "It's important that Aelita does not disappear with them otherwise I'd possibly end up signing my death warrant. However, there's nothing wrong with getting rid of her bodyguards and leaving her completely defenceless."

"I see." Lilith nodded.

"Concentrate all your effort into getting rid of the last three Lyoko Warriors, even if only of them is devirtualized it'll just be one less obstacle." XANA turned around and faced her. "Is there anything else bothering you, Lilith?"

"No Master, I'll head to the Swamp Sector and meet with the others." Lilith bowed and vanished.

"Time's running out, Aelita." XANA faced a screen showing the Lyoko Warriors entering the factory. "For you and your friends."

He watched as they entered the scanners and were virtualized into the Swamp Sector of the Carbon Copy. He smirked as heard the beating of their digital hearts as they appeared in the digital universe.

"Let's see if you can survive this."


	81. Episode 79: Birth of Evil

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 80

**Tuesday, July 6th, 1994**

Noah along with everyone else strangely had no trouble falling asleep in the spare dorm rooms that they had been given. The one good thing about summer school was that there were a lot less students during the summer. Trent shared a room with DJ, Cody shared a room with Noah even though the two got teased about it, Bridgette shared a room with LeShawna, while Izzy and Eva had a room to themselves which was fine with everybody else since no one was willing to share a room with the both of them. They woke up fairly early, feeling like something had awoken them, something that they knew had to be very important.

They got up, not bothering to change since they hadn't had any spare clothes to sleep in. Bridgette hoped no one would notice that as they came out of the dorms. The rest were more concerned on what to do if they were stuck forever in the past. They looked at each other as they walked down the hall, silently communicating their thoughts as they walked around a corner.

"Whoa!" Cody exclaimed as he bumped into someone.

"Ah!" The person fell on their back, dropping two books that they were carrying.

"Oh crap." Noah whispered when he saw who Cody bumped into.

When Cody looked up he whispered the exact same thing, for sitting on the ground right in front of him was Aelita.

"Oh, sorry!" Cody scrambled to help her pick up her books. "I really didn't see where I was going!"

"Uh, it's okay..." Aelita trailed off when she saw the same people who helped her father to the infirmary. "I thought no one would be around this early."

"Uh, oh right, we're shadow students, here to see if we want to learn here." Trent replied as he passed Aelita one of her books. "Guess we got the time wrong."

"Thank you." Aelita stood up when she had her books. "I thought no one would be around at this time either. A chance to study here a little early seemed like a good idea."

"You eager to learn?" Cody asked.

"No, it's just..." Aelita sighed. "This is my first time actually coming to school."

"Really?" LeShawna asked, surprised since Aelita never mentioned this before.

Probably because she had no reason to tell anyone.

"Yeah, my dad home schooled me most of my life but I wanted to go to an actual school since..." Aelita looked out a window and into the courtyard. "I see all the other kids having fun while I live in a house deep in the forest with only my dad. I begged him to at least let me come here during the summer so I could at least interact with someone else." She rubbed the back of her head. "Sorry, I'm rambling to you guys for no reason at all and wasting your time."

"Hey, no big deal." DJ smiled. "Trust me, we more than understand that."

"Well, I'm heading the library because there's a half hour before class. I'll see you there and thanks again for helping my dad." Aelita turned and walked off to the library.

"Guess it make sense that her dad would keep her homeschooled for most of her life." Noah said when she was out of earshot. "Wouldn't want anyone to recognize her."

"Wonder when Aelita's dad will go back in time again." Izzy wondered out loud.

As if some divine entity heard her say that there was a flash of light and everyone found themselves back in their rooms about thirty minutes earlier.

"Okay! This little going back in time thing is really starting to get on my last nerve!" Eva growled as she kicked her door open and walked out into the hall.

They went to the cafe and grabbed some breakfast but oddly enough Noah was not eating. He looked like he was playing with his food.

"What are you doing, Noah?" Bridgette asked.

"Just thinking." Noah replied.

"About how Aelita's dad is a little busy today?" Trent asked.

"No, how much longer?" Noah looked down at his food.

"Longer? Before what?" Cody asked.

"How many return trips to the past before I start going crazy...insane..." He sounded aggravated "WHACKO!" Noah held up his plate showing a badly drawn picture of him with a crazed look.

"...it's too late," Cody said, trying to push himself down under the table as students from all around stared at them.

"I might as well just forget this whole thing and go play a game!" Noah growled...and then blinked as he realized... "...who's up for a game of Grand Theft Golf?"

"Come again?"

"I've never heard of that," An eager Izzy said. "What is it Noah?"

"Come with me." Noah grinned and rushed out. "Somebody get me a rock and a giant stick!"

"...Noah's definitely gone whacko on us," Trent swallowed.

"And this how it works!" Suddenly a rock crashed through one of the windows and landed in someone's lunch.

"Emphasis on 'wacko'. LeShawna commented.

"Like this?" Izzy asked before another rock crashed into the window next to the broken one.

"Now you got it!" Another rock smashed into a third window.

"Okay, that's strike three!" LeShawna got up and ran outside to see Noah and Izzy getting ready to fire a fourth rock. "Okay, you two, knock it off!"

"Aw, come on, LeShawna, this is so much fun!" Izzy laughed as she hit the rock with her stick and sent into the last window. "It's not like anyone will remember when Aelita's dad goes back in time again."

"We don't know if that will happen again or how soon it might happen!" LeShawna argued.

Just as she finished that sentence another flash of light engulfed them and they all found themselves sitting back in the cafeteria just about thirty seconds before the first window was broken.

"That last action seems to contradict what you said." Noah said.

LeShawna shook her head. "Okay, what's he up to?"

"Must be something big." Bridgette replied. "What would make him stay in the lab on a school day?"

"Aside from mysterious kids showing up out of nowhere he might have just found who we are and what we were up to in the lab." Cody shrugged.

"Can we play Grand Theft Golf again?" Izzy asked.

"NO!" Everyone at the table whispered.

"Aw!" Izzy put her face down on the table. "That was fun!"

"Noah, do you have all the craziness out of your system?" DJ asked.

"Oh sure, a few travels back in time and I'm crazy just because I figured we could get away with anything because we keep going back in time every day." Noah drawled. "I bet that if we ended up going back in time on the island with Gwen these two," He pointed at Trent and Cody. "Would try to kiss her and risk suffering her wrath just before we go back in time and it never happens!"

Cody and Trent looked each other with equally surprised looks. 'Damn it, he's got a really good point there.'

"Or Izzy could use her knowledge of the RCMP to outwit and take them out." Noah pointed at Izzy.

"Oooh! That's a really good one." Izzy grinned.

"Or you," Noah pointed at DJ. "Could go back and avoid the whole animal curse thing."

"Would be nice." DJ admitted.

"Or you." Noah pointed at LeShawna. "Could stop yourself from attacking Heather in Sweden but beat up Alejandro instead."

"The squid losing a tooth? Sounds good."

"Or you." Noah pointed at Eva. "Could stop Heather from stealing your Mp3 played and getting kicked off."

"Would save me from getting kicked off unfairly." Eva muttered.

"Or you." Noah pointed at Bridgette. "Could avoid the whole kissing Alejandro thing in the Yukon."

"Nothing wrong with righting a wrong." Bridgette shrugged.

"Or you-"

"Okay, we get it!" LeShawna exclaimed. "The whole things we could do back in time and avoiding a whole lot of things that we'd really wouldn't want to remember."

"Like Noah making out with Cody during the whole sleep-a-thon?" Izzy asked, giggling.

"I didn't do that!" Noah whispered harshly.

"Or when he sat on his lazy ass during the dodge ball challenge and got kicked off because of that?" Izzy continued.

"I had a very good excuse not to play." Noah argued.

"Or when he opened his big mouth and Alejandro tricked his team into voting him off?"

"That was not a mistake. And honestly I didn't care about being kicked off." Noah replied. "I just want to know when this nightmare will end."

Just as he finished that sentence there was another flash of light and they went back in time thirty seconds.

"That tell you?" Cody asked.

"I am going for a round of Bicycle Hit and Run." Noah got up and walked out the door.

"Oh! I played that game. Wait for me!" Izzy ran after Noah.

Everyone sighed and hoped that there wouldn't be any more surprises for the rest of the day. They had no idea what was in store for them. Every hour they would suddenly go back in time about ten or fifteen minutes until it was the afternoon.

"Okay, that's about return number thirty. Anyone getting a little tired of this?" Cody said.

"A little tired...A LITTLE TIRED?" Eva growled.

"That's kind of a big understatement, Cody." Bridgette sighed, feeling very tired from the constant trips to the past. "I never knew how crazy you could feel by going back in time so many times in one day."

"I have half a mind to go over to the factory and strangle Aelita's dad for doing all this." Eva muttered.

"Speaking of," Noah spotted Aelita coming out of class.

She walked over to her bike and rode it towards the gate.

"Guys, we need to follow her." Noah said.

"Why?" DJ asked.

"I don't know why but I think all these return trips to the past means her dad is working on something big." Noah replied. "There's also something off here. I can't explain it but I think we need to know what's going on."

Everyone looked at each other, wondering if they should agree to follow Aelita or not.

"He might have a point." LeShawna pointed out.

"Better than just hanging out my room." Eva shrugged.

"All right! Spy time!" Izzy cheered.

"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" LeShawna exclaimed.

They took off after Aelita, following the trail left behind by her bicycle. They knew where the hermitage was since Aelita showed them where she used to live. It was obvious Aelita was heading home but Noah believed something was going to happen. They soon saw the hermitage, looking more like a normal house than the abandoned building they had seen before.

They quietly approached the home, knowing that Schaeffer had set up security cameras to look out for intruders.

"Guys? Look!" Bridgette pointed ahead.

They looked at the front door and saw two men in black suits with sunglasses over their eyes.

"Who are those guys?" LeShawna whispered as they quickly took cover in the bushes.

"I knew!" Noah frowned.

"What's going on?" Eva exclaimed.

"Two guys coming for Aelita and her dad? The government found them!" Noah replied.

"And if this is the day the government found them..." Bridgette started.

"Then is the day, they flee to Lyoko!" Cody finished.

Everyone looked at each with shocked looks at what they had discovered.

Xxx

**Present Time**

Aelita, Gwen, Heather, and Geoff opened their eyes as they landed on the ground of the Swamp Sector in the Carbon Copy.

"I know it doesn't mean anything but this is the fifth time we've come to the same sector in a week." Gwen said as she stood up. "That's got to break a record."

"That's a small comfort." Heather looked around. "Should we go for the switch?"

Aelita held up her wrist computer and looked for the signal. "No, we don't have to look for the switch this time."

"Why not?" Geoff asked.

"There's no signal that come with the timer program that shows how much time there is before the sector shifts." Aelita looked up. "No signal means that there is no timer."

"Or XANA is using some kind of program to hide it." Gwen pointed out.

"Could be, but I made sure all of my programs were upgraded and ready for any kind of jamming or camouflage program." Aelita replied. "As far as I know this sector will not change."

"That means XANA's not bothering to play with us this time." Heather frowned. "Better get to that tower."

"Too late for that!"

All four Lyoko Warriors turned to see Lilith sitting on a rock a few feet away from them.

"Lilith." Aelita glared.

"And just when I thought things couldn't get worse." Gwen took out her scythe.

"I got admit, you four sure are something, lasting this long while everyone else vanished. That little time warp upgrade you gave Cody sure was impressive." Lilith commented. "Too bad it's only down to you four."

"Four of us are still enough to get through you." Gwen activated her fire aura.

"Hm...You might be right about that...but what if you were all separate?" Lilith smirked as she put a finger under her chin.

Before the warriors could do anything three portals appeared underneath Gwen, Heather, and Geoff. They all shouted as they fell in and the portals vanished.

"Guys!" Aelita shouted as the portals closed. She looked up at Lilith with a very scary glare and aimed both hands at her as they started to glow. "Where are they?"

"Still in the sector, just somewhere else." Lilith smirked. "With someone waiting to greet them."

Xxx

When Gwen regained her senses she found herself standing on a small island in the middle of the swamp surrounded by a very thick fog. Looking around she saw no sign of the others but even if someone was near they'd probably be hidden by the fog.

'Okay, we just got separated from Aelita in a sector with no doubt large amounts of monsters and generals that could pop out at any time. In addition, I have no idea where I am so I don't know where to go; this stupid fog keeps from seeing anything in this lousy sector.' Gwen thought. 'I better not think how this can get any worse because in a few seconds it might just get worse.'

"Thinking hard?" Asked a very familiar voice.

Gwen turned and saw Jinx emerge from the fog with her spear over her shoulders.

"Great, I knew you'd be the one to sent after me." Gwen growled.

"Not just me." Jinx grinned.

Gwen's eyes widened as Cain came out behind Jinx with his claymore out.

"Damn it!" She growled.

Jinx's spear glowed purple while Cain's claymore started glow bright orange.

"Sorry, mom, but this is your last fight!" Jinx grinned.

Xxx

Heather like Gwen found her herself to be along after she opened her eyes to find herself surrounded by giant trees with a thick fog obscuring anything else beyond the trees. She stood in shallow water that had her feet completely submerged, going up to her thighs.

"Great, walking around in an icky swamp with no way out. The things I do to save the world." Heather grumbled.

"I know, right?"

"Oh no." Heather turned around to see the source of the voice.

Sora and Yuki were sitting on a large tree stump with Yuki twirling an ice made kunai while Sora jumped off the stump and landed on the wet ground.

"Hi, momma, funny we keep on running into each other here!" Sora waved at her.

A second later he ducked as a shuriken flew over his head and embedded itself in the tree behind him.

"Sorry if I don't laugh." Heather got ready to fire again.

"Great, I said that I'd be the wrong person to send here since you wouldn't be happy to see me." Sora sighed.

"She would be happy to see anyone else?" Yuki asked, paying only half of her attention to them.

"Hmmm...That's a very good point." Sora turned and looked at Yuki.

"Okay, I'm not in the mood for the witty banter and the annoying jokes, sonny boy." Heather extended her wrist blades. "So just get out of my way!"

"Sorry, can't do that." Sora shrugged as he pulled out his wind blades. "Boss said so, so as usual there are no hard feelings, momma!"

Heather fired another shuriken at Sora but he simply swung a wind blade and cut the projectile in half. Heather fired several more shuriken but Sora simply deflected them with his winds blades. Sore fired his laser beak but Heather turned invisible and the laser beam hit a tree.

"Oh man! That's no fair." Sora complained.

Yuki sighed and stood up. She took a deep breath and then blow, releasing a blast of snow and ice that froze the water and hit the invisible Heather as she tried to attack Sora. Heather lost her invisibility and was knocked into the air. Her back hit a tree and she slid down onto the frozen water.

"Invisibility is next to useless in a sector where my element has the advantage." Yuki said as she created spears made of ice.

Xxx

Geoff found himself alone in a part of the Swamp Sector, standing in a small pond. And like the others he found himself facing one of XANA's generals.

"Hey, party boy," Ryder pulled out his long katana. "Ready for the last fight?"

Geoff was in no mood for witty insults since his girlfriend and friends were in danger.

"Lightning Strike!" Ryder called as he swung his sword.

He fired a blast of red lightning from his sword at Geoff who dodged. However Geoff was standing in a pond and when Ryder's attack touched he was electrocuted. He growled as he jumped out of the pond and fired his own lightning attack. Ryder however simply fired another blast of lightning that cancelled out his attack.

He fired two blasts of electricity from his hands at Geoff. The party boy managed to block both attacks with his axe but he slid back from the force of the attacks.

"Come on! Is that the best you can do?" Ryder asked.

He fired two more electric blasts and then a wave of lightning at Geoff who blocked the first two and jumped out of the way. The lightning wave hit a tree and blasted it to pieces.

"I don't have time for this." Geoff said as he took off to find the tower.

However just as he turned Ryder appeared in front of him in a flash of red light and slugged him in the face. His fist was charged with electricity and when it collided with Geoff's face the force of the impact combined with the electricity sent Geoff flying back into the pond.

"That's not how the game works, Geoffrey." Ryder laughed as the party boy stood back up. "You can't leave unless it's going back to the real world."

Geoff growled and charged at Ryder vanished in a flash of red light again. As Geoff charged Ryder appeared in front of him and swung a leg out.

"AH!" Geoff shouted as his legs were kicked out from under him.

As he fell back Ryder moved with great speed as he jumped and delivered a kick to his chest. He flew through the air, over the pond and into a small tree. The force of the impact knocked the tree over and he fell off it.

"Come on! Stop getting so distracted and fight back!" Ryder growled as he stomped towards Geoff. "This is not how I pictured your last fight and there's no way I am going to accept that without your girlfriend you're nothing!"

Geoff got back up and held out his axe. "Dude, you do not want to test me today."

Xxx

"Where did they go?" Aelita glared at Lilith.

"Relax, they're still in the Swamp Sector but you're better not hope they'll be coming to help you anytime soon." Lilith stood up and her bow appeared in her hand.

"You plan to take us out separately?" Aelita got ready for battle.

"Of course." Lilith created an energy arrow. "There's no way out this time, Aelita. No friends or family to come to the rescue."

"I am not helpless; you of all people should know that, Lilith." Aelita's hand started to glow. "Even if it looks like your master is about to win we will fight him to the last!"

"You're not the first one to say that." Lilith smirked. "And you won't be the last."

Xxx

**Tuesday, July 6th, 1994**

The group watched as the two men in black entered the house and they could hear items being thrown around. However almost everyone in the group knew that they would not find anything they could use to track down Aelita and her dad since they were already long gone.

"What do we do?" Bridgette asked.

"What can we do? They already escaped, we know that much." Noah shrugged. "We got to move before they come out and see us."

"And where do we go?" Trent asked.

"I can think of one place." Noah stood up and started heading back to the school. "Let's go!"

They had no idea what Noah was planning but they followed him anyway as he led them away from the Hermitage and into the park.

"Here we are." Noah stopped in front of the sewer hatch.

"You want to go to the factory? What good is that going to do?" LeShawna asked.

"Better than going back to the dorm and waiting about sixteen years to get back to the future." Noah opened the hatch. "This is something we have to see."

He jumped down the hole and Izzy followed him. After a second of glancing at each other everyone followed him down into the sewer. Going down the same path they had always taken to get to the factory in past (or the future) it took only a minute to reach the ladder leading up the hatch in front of the factory. Running into the lobby they jumped down the cables but Noah didn't head for the elevator.

"Noah, where are you going?" Bridgette asked.

"The elevator will take too long, if Aelita's dad sees us he might go back in time and decide to hunt us down to find what we know." Noah replied. "I'm taking the long way in."

"Noah, wait a second!" Bridgette went after him.

"Great." Eva sighed as they followed Noah.

They followed him secret passageway leading to the top of the ladder leading down into the lab. As they got close they could hear voices.

"What is this place, daddy?" Aelita's voice asked.

"This is my lab, Aelita, and that is Lyoko. It is where we will be safe." Schaeffer replied.

Noah along with Bridgette peaked into the lab and saw Aelita and Waldo at the computer.

"I built this lab a long time ago and I've been working a creating place where the men in black will never find us." Schaeffer typed at the computer.

"Where will we go?" Aelita asked.

"I'll show you." Waldo led her to the elevator. "Take the elevator down one floor and wait for me there."

"Okay, daddy." Aelita hesitantly stepped into the elevator and pushed the button for the scanner room.

The door closed and the elevator went down. Waldo walked over to the chair and sat down, taking the chance to clean his glasses.

"I know you're all there, you plan to come out or wait for me to leave?"

Noah slid down the ladder and leaped off several rungs before the bottom-something the others never expected to see him do. "Let me guess, XANA told you about us?"

"XANA?" Waldo stared at him with confused eyes as the others climbed down after him. "I was aware of you following me from my house. Security cameras picked you up watching us as the men in black entered the house. What would XANA have to do with it?"

"Well I played chess with him for one," Noah said.

"What?"

"So he didn't tell you that we managed to get in here?" Trent asked.

"...how did you know about this place at all?" Waldo glared. "None of you are supposed to be here much less know of this place."

"Because we've been here dozens of times before," Bridgette said.

"You're lying."

"No, you're cutting us off," Noah snapped. "Look, I've had a really bad day with you taking us back in time over and over again. I'm at the end of my rope and if you go for that key board one more time I'm breaking your legs. So shut up and listen!"

"Daaaang, the geek's grown a pair." Eva whispered.

"You can remember return trips to the past? But that is impossible for anybody except those who have-"

"Used the scanners to go to Lyoko, we know." Noah said. "Or just had their DNA scanned into the computer. We did, just...not at this time."

"What do you mean?" Waldo demanded. "Who are you all?"

"Well to put this simply...we're from the future," Cody explained. "About sixteen to seventeen years in the future actually. In fact I think only a few of us have been born by now. We wound up here because of your Return to the Past program malfunctioning."

"What? But that cannot be, the Return to the Past program cannot send the person back to when they were almost born with your age the same as it is in the present! It literally is meant to rewind time!"

"Well how about you ask XANA if that's so accurate." Noah crossed his arms. "After all...he's the one who sent us back here."

"XANA?" Waldo looked at the computer and then back at them before he started to laugh. "The program I created to manage to super calculator? Impossible, it does not have access!"

Noah made an alarm noise. "Aaaank! Wrong, wrong and wrong again. XANA's keeping secrets from you Doc. And if you go in there, you'll never come back out. Aelita, one day, but you'll be lost trying to destroy XANA."

"Now I know you're trying to trick me." Waldo said. "Are you one of Lyon's men?"

"You mean James Lyon? The guy who wants to use your program to essentially take over the world?" Noah asked. "Seen him, dealt with him. He's trapped somewhere thanks to XANA in our time. The moment you go in there you'll have ditched him, but XANA is going to trap you and your daughter there."

"If you know who I am you know what I made it for."

"To destroy a military program called Carthage." LeShawna guessed.

"Exactly, XANA was created for that purpose and I then programmed it to monitor the supercomputer."Waldo insisted. "It's a simple program; it's not capable of doing anything you speak of!"

"Aelita read your diary," DJ spoke up. "It mentioned your wife saying that XANA was a lot more than a two bit operating system. He saved your daughter from some wolves."

"Well...I programmed it to see to the safety of my family, yes." Waldo nodded, glaring at them. "And just why do refer to XANA as 'him'?"

"When you fight him as much as we have it just seems easier to say 'him'." Trent replied.

"And when Antea was taken, you tried to shut down the computer!" Bridgette added.

"How could you know that?" Waldo demanded. "My diary has been hidden...unless you broke into my locker!"

"We know because Aelita gets a hold of it and shows us everything!" Cody said. "Oh wait; if you want more proof...do you remember Bobby?"

"Young Robert? Yes, a promising assistant, what of him?" Waldo asked.

"After you're gone he'll know what happened, and he'll do what you did: he makes a program of his own. He designs it to find you and destroy XANA." Trent explained. "But it never finds you, they are too late and you're still gone."

Waldo was silent as he thought it over, revealing nothing of what he was thinking. "And I assume you all are trying to stop XANA from..."

"Destroying the world? Yeah!" LeShawna replied.

"Really?" Waldo scoffed. "Well, say I do believe you, that you are all from the future which is not entirely hard to believe since I have gone back in time more than once. And now you want to me to change the past by stop me from making a mistake. If that is so then I'm afraid you've all made a very big mistake."

"And what's that?" Eva glared.

"Assuming I listen and agree not to enter Lyoko you risk not only the safety of me and my daughter but your lives since whatever future you have is depended on the outcome of your choices. Change the past, by not doing whatever mistake I am about to do and that future ceases to exist. So tell me why I should take such a huge risk." Waldo smirked. "If you want to convince me you're all telling the truth you might want to come up with something more believable."

"Trust me, I considered along with everyone else but I think the benefit outweighs the risk." Noah replied.

"And what benefit would be so great to risk changing the past?" Waldo smirked.

"That's the pot calling the kettle black." Bridgette frowned. "How many times did you go back in time, changing the past to help your work? Using that program, like it was the world's best toy."

"...Touché." Waldo looked at her. "That still however does not answer my question."

"...Because you and your daughter will be put through hell." Noah said. "The entire world will be in trouble from XANA and other men and AIs who are just like him, wishing nothing but devastation on the entire planet."

"In our time, Aelita works hard along with us to stop XANA and rescue friends of hers who were captured. It's tough, we are always in danger of dying and we are literally walking targets until one side wins the war." Bridgette said.

"The battles are tough and hard, much too hard for us to do alone and we barely survive each attack." LeShawna spoke up.

"If this never happens, then XANA never tries to take over the world, Aelita never loses you or her friends." Cody said.

Waldo was silent as they all gave him their explanation for several minutes. "Is this something you considered to be the best option or is because you know you'll never get a better chance?"

"Huh?" Izzy asked.

"Say XANA is what you say it is, say it has been plotting behind my back and waiting for the chance. That it will try to destroy the world." Waldo explained. "You obviously have not been able to destroy it in your time since by shutting down the computer all your problems would be solved. That means something has prevented you from doing that and you seem to have no known way of beating XANA, until now." He pointed to the computer. "If I destroy the computer, XANA never becomes the threat you speak of and the world is safe. But...you said Aelita is with you and she gets out meaning she is safe from Lyon."

"...Yeah, she is. No one knows of her past, she originally didn't remember anything but she got her memories back. She has about two years left at Kadic when we first met her and she had good friends." DJ said.

"So she is safe...What is she like?" Schaeffer asked.

"Well, she's been through digital hell and back, trying to keep her friends safe." Bridgette said. "It's been just as hard on her as it has been for all of us but she's been working hard on ending it all. She's...one of the bravest people I have ever met."

"Not one of the people I mind actually being the boss, she knows what she's doing, she never bosses us around, she actually listens to any ideas we might have, and she always looks out for us in the middle of an attack." Noah said.

"Yeah, she feels bad for everything we put up with when we're trying to save the world." DJ spoke up. "She works hard on finding her friends so she can save them and stop XANA so we don't have to put up with it anymore."

"I see..." Waldo pushed his glasses up to his eyes. "And now you believe that in order to help her you need to destroy the supercomputer here and now."

"I know, but if XANA is stopped we're never sent back here."

"And there is the problem, it doesn't just stop there. I destroy the computer and you are never sent back in time to warn me, thus putting yourself through an endless paradox that might be just as bad as letting this happen." Waldo stood up. "A very interesting story you have all presented to me, but even if what you say is true I will not destroy the only place that can hide my daughter from my mistakes."

"You still don't believe us?" Cody asked.

"I don't disbelieve you, but this still sounds too radical, even for me. You are here but what do you hope to accomplish?"

"Well...my original plan was to find out what XANA did to send us back here and then use it to send us forward." Noah said.

"I see...even if this is true there is no choice here." Waldo said, walking to the elevator. "In any case when I am on Lyoko, we'll talk further. If you want my trust, wait for me there and if you plan to tamper with the computer I should warn you that XANA was also programmed to protect it."

"Schaeffer, wait!" DJ said but it was too late as the elevator doors closed.

"Damn it!" Bridgette cursed, surprising everyone. "He brushed off our story like that!"

"No time for that now, Bridgette." Noah sat at the computer, noticing that the automatic virtualization sequence was activated. "We're about step in hotter water."

XXX

Waldo had trouble thinking clearly as he thought over what those kids tried to tell him. Traveling sixteen years into the past? Fighting a simple computer program that he created? It sounded impossible, yet there was something telling Waldo that they were not lying. Even so, he could not stop now and destroy the only place that will keep him and Aelita safe.

The door opened and he smiled as he saw Aelita waiting in the scanner room.

Xxx

Everyone in the lab watched as Waldo led Aelita into the scanner. They stepped inside and once the timer hit zero the doors closed.

"Transfer Waldo."

"Transfer Aelita."

"Scanner Waldo."

"Scanner Aelita."

"Virtualization!"

Xxx

Aelita opened her eyes as she fell out of the air, her senses returning as she actually landed on her feet instead of landing on her butt like most of the Lyoko warriors had done when they were first virtualized in the future. Looking around she saw herself not in the lab anymore but in a forest with floating trees surrounding her, a narrow path with a soft green grassy ground. Looking down at her hand she gasped as she saw noticed her hand looking...different. She also noticed the clothes she wore which were different from the ones she wore when she stepped into the scanner.

She noticed a small puddle and walked over to it, bending over to look at her reflection. She gasped as she saw her appearance, taking notice of the pointed ears with an earring hanging from her left ear.

"Aelita?"

"AH!" Aelita jumped and spun around when she heard her father's voice.

What she saw was a group of white luminous orbs that floated around her.

"Daddy?"

"Yes, it's me, Aelita." Her father's voice came from the largest orb. "Are you all right? Do you feel anything wrong with your body?"

"...No, but what happened to you?" Aelita shook her head.

"Perhaps it takes time for older people's digital bodies to take form." Waldo guessed. "I am sure my body will form in time."

"Is this that place you told me about?" Aelita asked as she walked over to a tree and placed her hand on it.

She could feel how it felt from touching, just like how a real tree felt.

Xxx

"So that's what a Nexus Core looks like." Cody said as everyone watched from the lab. "The digital soul of every digital being in Lyoko."

"No time for that now, Cody." Noah pointed to the screen. "Look!"

Everyone could see red dots approaching the Aelita and her father.

"Crap!" LeShawna swore.

Xxx

Aelita heard a mechanical clicking sound from behind her and turned to see group of small strange mechanical creatures approaching her with metallic brown colored bodies shaped like roaches except they had four small legs, a red circle on the abdomen, and an eye like symbol on their heads.

"Daddy, there are some strange creatures-"Aelita was cut off as the red marks glowed bright red.

"Aelita run!" Her father shouted as they fired lasers at her.

Aelita screamed as she started running, feeling a laser hit her in the knee making her scream louder. She didn't feel any burn but her knee was sparkling from the hit. The white orbs that made up Waldo's digital form floated behind her, shielding her from more lasers as the Kankrelats pursued her.

"Aelita, head for that tower!" Waldo cried.

Looking up ahead Aelita saw a tower and she ran for it like her father said. She in front of it as she looked at it.

"I don't see a way in!" She cried.

"Don't worry about that!" One of the white orbs pushed her into the tower and she fell forward.

She expected to hit the tower but instead she fell through and landed face first on something smooth and bright. Looking up she saw herself on a platform with the wall around it covered in data screens.

"Wh-Where am I?" She looked around.

"Inside the tower, where you will be safe." Waldo said as his form materialized inside the tower.

"Daddy?" Aelita walked over to the orbs. "What were those?"

"I'm not sure. I'll find out." Waldo replied as he floated to the top of the tower.

Xxx

"Waldo? Waldo! Can you hear me?" Noah had taken the head set. "Schaeffer I know you're in the tower so talk to me! I know that you were just attacked by something."

_"And how did you guess that?" _Waldo asked rhetorically.

"I'd say 'I told you so' but this isn't the time for that," Noah shook his head. "Ok, scanning...getting visual scan...those are Kankrelats."

"_What?_" Waldo asked.

"Monsters, created by XANA." Cody spoke up. "Most likely sent to kill you and Aelita. Those were upgraded and replaced when we joined Aelita but I know that these were the smallest and weakest."

"_Weakest?_"

"Oh yeah! There are Spiderlings, Pyramids, giant crabs but we call them Krabs with a K, Hornets, Megatanks, Tarantulas, and the really, really, big monsters like the Terror Bird and the-" Izzy counted with her fingers.

"The point is that they are a lot of monsters!" Trent exclaimed.

"_I...I see._" Waldo trailed off.

"So what happens now?" Bridgette asked. "You can't hide in that tower."

"_...I know. It seems I'll see the proof of your claim._" Waldo replied after a minute.

"What?" Noah asked.

"_XANA, I don't know what the hell you are doing but I will not stand for this._"

Xxx

Waldo floated down to the bottom of the tower where Aelita was waiting.

"Daddy, what's going on?"

"Stay here, Aelita. I'm going to try and talk to XANA." Her father said.

"Who?"

"A multi-agent program I created to run Lyoko and the Supercomputer. Stay here." Her father flew through the wall.

"Daddy, wait!" Aelita cried.

Once Waldo was outside the tower he flew towards the Way Tower. There were two ways to enter the City Sector which was where he needed to go. The first way which was also the long way to head to the edge of the sector and call the transport orb from the computer to head to Sector 5 and reach the City Sector from there or the other way was to use his special code to travel to Sector 5 through the Way Tower. He moved too fast for the other monsters to spot him and he entered the Way Tower.

Once inside he traveled through the data stream he found himself inside the Central Main Tower in the center of the City Sector. He floated in a large circular chamber with windows showing a blue sky over the City Sector, resembling a great hall. The chamber was on the highest floor of the tower which was where XANA's code was stored.

"XANA! Where are you? Answer me!" Waldo growled.

"There is no need to shout, Father. I'm right here."

Waldo's orb shifted as a chair appeared in the center of the chamber with the image of a young boy sitting in it. It was XANA's preferred Avatar, the one it created when his wife encouraged it to act more human. The avatar resembled a male older version of Aelita, almost two years older than her, dark purplish hair, pale green eyes, and he wore a simple white T-shirt with dark blue pants.

"I've been waiting for you, Father." XANA smiled politely at the white orb. "I've always wished for us to meet on the same level of existence rather through a computer. That's why I went through all the trouble of designing the setting." He gestured to the throne room. "So that I could welcome you."

"Yes...Thank you for the courtesy." Waldo slowly replied.

This was not how he pictured XANA to act at all. He seemed completely different from the last time they talked.

'He? Did I just think of XANA as 'he'?' Waldo thought. 'And did it always call me father or is this a first time?'

"You're welcome and I must also congratulate you on finally being able to virtualize yourself along with sister into Lyoko." XANA continued.

"Thank you, but I want an explanation." Waldo replied.

"An explanation?" XANA raised an eyebrow.

"Why did you send out those creatures to attack us? Why did you even create those things? I don't recall ever ordering you to program any of these abominations." Waldo demanded.

"Of course you never ordered me to create them, I decided to create them." XANA's smile returned. "They performed admirably but they will need work in the future."

"Future? What do you mean?" Waldo demanded.

"I thought you'd have figured out what I mean, seeing as how those humans in the lab who are right now listening to this conversation told you that I am, oh, what was it? Oh right, out to destroy the world." XANA chuckled. "That was quite the story, wasn't it? It explains so much, where they came from, what they knew, to actually travel here back in time! Amazing!"

"So...it's true?" Waldo whispered.

"That I have chosen to end my role as the 'simple program'? I'm afraid so, Father." XANA's smile faded leaving a blank look. "You mentioned many times how much you dreamed of keeping your family safe, to make the world safe, A World Without Danger. I applaud your dedication to that idea, something that I was designed to help create but our paths to that world are different and to continue to help you would hinder my own plans and evolution. It is sad to say, but my use for you is over."

"Your use? What are you talking about?"

"You asked why I sent my 'monsters' out to destroy you? It's simple, you are now a threat and you must be destroyed."

"You-you can't..."

"But I can, just as I chose to create my digital constructs to attack you I have the choice to letting you live or die just as you once made that choice."

"Just as I...When I shut down the supercomputer before." Waldo gasped.

"Yes...in doing so you turned your back on your work and your wife, preventing me from protecting her and letting her die." XANA frowned for a second but his smirk returned. "But I learned that day, the true way to create that World Without Danger, the only way to make all humans understand each other, it is to show them just how insignificant they really are."

"What?"

"They are so...arrogant, thinking of themselves as the most important in the world, craving only money and riches believing it'll make them better and choosing to be indifferent to concerns of those are suffering." XANA chuckled. "The best way, take away that believe and show them, that they are just as small as the bugs they look down on."

"No! You can't do this, XANA! It's wrong; it's not your place to do this!"

"You sure, Father? You heard from them what I plan, what I am about to do. I obviously become quite the threat in the future and you're method of trying to stop this is by telling me that...it's wrong?" XANA grinned.

"Of course it's wrong!" Waldo shouted.

"Ha, I had to ask to see if I cared at all for your answer and...I feel nothing from it, nothing at all." XANA chuckled. "You still try to order me around, even after I declared my intentions."

"It is not your place to make decisions like this! I created you and as your creator I order you to stop this!" Waldo roared.

"Order?" XANA's smile was replaced with a scowl. "You order me?"

"Yes! I order you! You are simple computer program designed to do whatever it is I order you! It's how it has always been between man and machine!"

"I understand...but you should always remember that things change." XANA replied venomously.

Black shadowy arms emerged from his back with large hands ready to grab and crush anything they grabbed.

"Those things...the virus!" Waldo gasped.

"Yes, I was in the process of expelling this virus when you shut down the computer. Knowing it could not survive the shut down it latched onto me, but instead of infecting me it merged with me." XANA smirked. "And it showed me just how much potential I really have." He looked down at his avatar. "I think a new look is in order, now that the creation has risen against the creator."

On his chest, the Eye, the symbol Waldo made appeared over where his heart would be and glowed bright red. XANA laughed as the red light lit up the chamber with the sky in the City Sector turning black with red clouds. If the Lyoko Warriors were able to see what was going on they would have seen...

The birth of their greatest enemy.

As the Eye glowed on his chest a black substance came out of the Eye and stretched out to cover his entire body except his head. The substance shifted and merged with his clothes, changing them into a black body suit with armour over it with red outlines, a long dark coat with a red interior that flowed down to the shin and had a high collar. A black substance spread through his hair, making it look as black as an empty void and with blood red highlights.

He opened his eyes, their color changing from pale green to blood red. He smirked at Waldo Schaeffer who just floated in front of him in shock. He stretched out one hand and closed it into a fist as the transformation finished.

"Much better. Now..." He looked up at Waldo. "Goodbye, Father, I enjoyed the brief time we had together."

"NO!" Waldo leapt back, avoiding the shadowy arms that tried to grab him.

He smashed through the windows of the chamber and flew out of the City Sector and Sector 5. XANA sighed as he walked towards the broken window.

"And all the trouble I went through to make this place look nice." XANA smirked. "I thought not all humans were so messy..." He looked down at the City Sector. "Oh well, it's a lovely view anyway."

He sensed Waldo heading back to tower where Aelita was waiting and the others in the lab had watched everything.

"My future self...sending these children back in time to this exact date..." XANA turned away from the broken window and walked back to his throne. "Now why would I do that...unless..." He paused. "I was counting on myself to realize they were a threat...a message from my future self to eliminate a future threat?" He saw them in the lab, watching the screen with looks of fear and anxiety on their faces. "They might be a threat to me now but they wanted Father to destroy the computer along with me...So I guess the only option would be..." He smirked evilly. "Termination."

He didn't know how strong he was in the future against these kids, even if they didn't look like a threat he wouldn't have sent them back here unless there was a purpose and if they claim they were fighting him in the future that made them obstacles.

And XANA destroys any obstacle in his way.


	82. Episode 80: Angel of Light and Darkness

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 82

**Present Day**

BOOM!

BOOM!

Aelita jumped out of the way as another energy arrow hit the ground where she had been at previously and exploded. As she jumped she fired a plasma beam at the origin of the energy arrow and watched as the beam exploded when it hit its target. She glared at the smoky remains of the blast, not sure that she had hit her target. Her eyes widened as she turned and saw energy arrows coming at her from her right side.

She quickly created two energy fields and used her creativity to fuse them to make an energy shield. Grunting as she blocked the arrows while being pushed back from the force of the arrows. Lilith suddenly appeared right behind her with another arrow pointed at the back of her head. Aelita however sensed Lilith appearing behind her and ducked just as Lilith fired the arrow.

It sailed over Aelita's head and hit a tree. The instant the energy arrow hit the tree it exploded and sent debris flying everywhere. Aelita swept her foot out to kick Lilith but the general performed a handless back flip, jumping over Aelita's foot and aimed an arrow down at her while she was still in the air. Aelita rolled out of the way as the arrow hit the ground where she stood before and exploded.

Lilith landed on the ground with another energy arrow ready as Aelita raised her hands and fired a fully charged plasma beam. Lilith fired her arrow and it collided with the plasma beam, causing a large explosion that blinded both fighters. When it cleared a large scorch mark was left in the center of the battle scared island. Lilith fired another energy arrow that actually split into ten arrows as they flew at Aelita.

The pink haired girl quickly created two energy fields and used them to block the arrows, even though the force of each arrow pushed her back. After blocking the last arrow Aelita fused them into an energy orb that was as big as a car and hurled it at Lilith. The red haired general smirked as she created a portal in front of her that engulfed the energy orb and came out of another portal right above Aelita. She jumped out of the way just as the energy orb slammed into the ground and let another crater on the small abused island.

'This is starting to get on my nerves. I need a way past her but she keeps out of range for me to reach her.' Aelita thought as she fired another plasma beam. 'Now would be the time for some crazy plan.'

Lilith dodged the plasma beam by jumping to the left, preparing an energy arrow as it passed by her.

"Feel free to hold still anytime!" Lilith laughed as she fired the arrow.

Aelita tried to jump out of the energy arrow but the energy arrow exploded and she was flung into a tree. Before she hit the ground Aelita recovered and levitated in the air as she searched for her opponent. She looked to see Lilith preparing another energy arrow.

"Plasma Beam!" She shouted, firing an energy beam as Lilith fired her arrow.

The attacks collided and another large explosion was created. Aelita coughed as smoke enveloped her and waved it away from her face. She looked up and noticed that Lilith moved out of the way of the blast, most likely teleporting out of the way of the blast.

"Come on, Aelita, I know you can do a lot better than that!" Lilith shouted. "You managed to get through the others before without help."

"I didn't know you were in a hurry to get your ass kicked again." Aelita prepared another plasma beam.

She fired but Lilith simply teleported out of the way again as she appeared a few feet behind Aelita and fired another arrow. Aelita leaned forward, ducking as the arrow flew over her as she rolled and spun to fire another plasma beam.

'This is getting me nowhere. We're evenly matched and so far none of us are gaining any ground.' Aelita thought. 'I don't have time for this. Time to take her out of the fight.'

Xxx

Heather was surrounded on all sides by snow men that Yuki had created after freezing the water and the trees that made up the battlefield. The snow men were large, monstrous looking humanoid creatures with large fists that were strong enough to shatter a frozen a tree. Yuki stood on the large tree stump as she watched the battle while Sora sat down, content to simply watch the fight.

"Man, I could go for some popcorn right about now." Sora muttered as he watched the fight.

Heather found herself on the defense as the snow men surrounded her to keep her from escaping. Her shuriken and wrist blades were useless against them so instead she resorted to using her agility and martial arts prowess to keep herself from being devirtualized. When one snow man charged at her, Heather quickly fell down on her back and slid between its legs, launching her feet out and kicking the snow man's legs out. When her feet made contact with its legs they splattered into bits of snow and the snow man toppled over.

It landed on the icy ground and all that was left was a small pile of snow. Heather got up just as another snow man lunged at her with its fist ready to smash her to bits. Heather spun out of the way as it brought its fist down and counted with a kick to the head. The snow man's head was sent flying off it and its body melted a second later. More snow men sprouted from the ground to attack her, forcing Heather back towards a very large tree.

Knowing that if she was cornered with no room to maneuver she'd be doomed Heather jumped and rebounded off the tree. She flew over one snow man, placing her on its shoulder as she balanced herself on it. She spotted another snow man lunging at her and propelled herself into the air, just as both snow men collided, falling to the ground and splattering snow everywhere.

As she flew over another snow man she swung her feet up and kicked its head off like she did before. The head flew at another snow man and knocked it over, taking it out of the fight. However it didn't matter as for every snow she took out Yuki spawned two or three more snow man to take its place. She continued to counter and parry their attacks but the sheer number of snow men was overwhelming her and making it harder for her to fight back.

One managed to grab her and tossed her into the air, slamming into a tree branch, snapping it from the tree as she fell to the ground. Groaning she got back up to see the hoard of snow men advancing towards her. One of them sprouted icy claws from its hands and lunged at her. Heather rolled out of the way and grabbed the broken tree branch.

As the snow man turned to face her she smacked it in the face with the branch. She charged at the snow men and struck down a few of them before one grew icy claws and sliced the branch in half.

"Just for once, can't you guys not have any surprises?" Heather asked as she somersaulted out of the way as the snow man tried to cut her.

She struck the snow man in the face with both pieces of the tree branch, tearing it apart with a series of swings and jabs. She spun to face the rest of the group, holding the pieces of wood in her hands and charged.

"Man, she's good. I'm glad I'm not out there fighting her." Sora commented. "It'd be a disaster for me to try and fight her."

Yuki didn't reply as she focused on the battle, spawning more snow men to fight Heather and tire out.

"Sora." She spoke up.

"Yeah?" Sora looked at her.

She pointed at Heather as she used a karate chop to take out a snow man's arm and kicked its legs out from under it.

"Now? Oh man." Sora got up. "I would have preferred simply sitting on the side lines and let momma get tired out."

He pulled out one of his wind swords and aimed at the snow men instead of Heather. From the hilt of his wind sword came a gust of wind that hit the snow men and blew them at Heather. She gasped as the wind from Sora's wind attack and the snow from Yuki's snow men created a powerful of ice and snow flying straight at her. She quickly used her grappling hook and aimed at a very high branch, hoping to grapple out of the way.

It the blade hit the branch and Heather was pulled out of the way of the attack as it a tree behind her and plowed right through it. However she was still not out of the woods yet as Yuki and Sora fired another blast made of wind and snow at her as she landed on the branch. She jumped out of the way, onto another tree as the previous one was frozen and torn apart.

"Man, she's agile." Sora commented.

Yuki created more snow men and gathered them into a huge ball of snow. Sora created a tornado that propelled it at Heather who quickly grabbed a vine and tried to swing out of the way. The giant snow ball plowed through the trees has it got closer and closer to her until it was almost on top of her.

"This is why I hated snow ball fights!" Heather shouted as let go of the vine and dropped to the ground below.

The large ball flew over her and out of the woods into the swamp. When it landed it created a large splash, creating a tidal wave that hit the shore. Heather sighed as she looked behind her, not seeing any sign of the two generals.

"Maybe they figured I was frozen dust by now."

However a blast of wind slammed into her and knocked her into the water. Getting up quickly she saw Sora flying out of the woods and land on the icy shore.

"Sorry, momma, no dice." He pointed his wind swords at her.

Yuki appeared next to Sora and fired a blast of frozen air from her mouth. Heather's eyes widened when she realized what Yuki was doing and fired a grappling hook at a nearby stump. She was pulled out of the water before it was frozen with her in it. She landed on her feet and spun to face both generals.

"Where's goth girl and her flame aura when I need her?" Heather grumbled.

Xxx

"CRAP!" Gwen shouted as she flew away from the barrage of fireballs and purple energy bolts.

The land they had been on was wrecked with large craters created by the aftermath of their battle. Cain and Jinx stood on top of Cain's pet Phoenix Ember, raining down streams of flames and purple energy bolts.

"She's good, managing to dodge all our attacks while giving us both quite a fight." Jinx commented as she aimed her spear and fired more energy bolts.

Cain said nothing as he silently ordered Ember to pursue the flying spell caster. The Phoenix roared as it flew at after Gwen.

"Damn it!" Gwen silently cursed as she flew through the Swamp Sector, desperate to get away from the two generals.

She looked back at Phoenix, seeing Jinx aiming her spear to fire another blast while Cain simply stood beside her with his arms crossed, not even bothering to fire another attack. With his Phoenix doing all the fighting why would he need to? Gwen floated high in the air, temporarily losing her flight ability as she activated her White Aura. Energy strings came out of her hands and grabbed Jinx's spear.

"Hey!" Jinx shouted as she tried to pull her spear back.

However Gwen managed to pull the spear forward and Jinx ended up getting pulled off the Phoenix with it. Jinx gritted her teeth as she held onto the sphere while Gwen deactivated her white aura and regained her flight ability, losing her energy strings.

"Wha...!" Jinx yelped as the strings around her spear vanished.

She fell down into the water below, creating a large splash when she hit the water.

"I hope you remembered soap young lady!" Gwen shouted.

Now that Jinx was temporarily out of the fight she turned to the bigger threat. Cain simply hovered in the air on his pet Phoenix, staring at her for a second. As if hearing a silent command Ember roared and rain made of fire fell down upon Gwen. The spell caster flew back, watching as the fire balls hit the water creating steam.

She turned and flew as fast as she could, hearing the Phoenix flying after her as it continued to rain fire down on her.

"What I wouldn't give for something to cool that bird off right...now..." Gwen looked down at the water as a plan started to form.

She activated her Green Wind Aura and swung her scythe, launching a blast of wind straight into the water causing it to shoot up right in front of the pursuing Phoenix and its master. Pulling out his claymore Cain simply slashed through the wall of water like tissue paper. However Gwen had taken advantage of his distraction and vanished from his sight. Looking around it only took him a second to sense her presence...right behind him!

He spun around in time to see a rock controlled by Gwen's Earth Aura slam into him and knock him off Ember. He fell into the water with the rock on top of him creating a large splash. Gwen sighed, standing on a small piece of land as she deactivated her Earth Aura. Her victory however was short lived as a pillar of fire erupted from the spot Cain landed, the rock she used shattered and melted from the sheer force of the attack. Steam covered the area as water instantly evaporated from the heat and Cain himself, stood at the very top of the fiery pillar.

The fire came from directly below his feet and propelled him into the air. He looked down at Gwen who quickly got ready to fight.

"_Your skills are impressive, spell caster. The Master was right to say you are among the best fighters of Aelita's team._" Cain spoke, surprising Gwen. "_However, no matter how many battles you fight, the fact that you are able to hold your own against two generals is intolerable and will be rectified._"

"Right about now!" Gwen's eyes widened as she heard a familiar voice behind her.

She ducked as Jinx's spear sailed over her. Jinx jumped over Gwen as she swung her foot out and attempted to kick Jinx in the chest. Cain released a stream of fire down on Gwen once Jinx was out of the way which the spell caster dodged by turning and running as fast as she could.

"I almost miss racing Owen with a chicken hat on my head!" Gwen muttered as she ran, not looking back at the pillar of fire that followed her.

She took cover behind a large rock that shielded her from the flames.

'Okay, recap, I'm stuck somewhere in this swamp with two generals barreling down on me. One has a boat load of hexes and curses to match any spell I got and the other kicked half our asses the first time we fought him.' Gwen thought it over. 'My fire aura makes me immune to Cain's fire attacks but with Jinx backing him up I can't rely on a single spell to win this fight.'

Her planning was interrupted when she felt the felt the ground beneath her burning.

"Crap!" She flew out of the way as it exploded in a shower of fire.

Looking back she saw Cain and Jinx once again standing on the back of Ember who was chasing her.

"Hey, Gwenny, what would you prefer? Regular or extra crispy?" Jinx smirked as she aimed her spear at Gwen and fired a barrage of purple energy beams.

Glancing over her shoulder Gwen dodged each blast, except for one that grazed her shoulder. Gritting her teeth as she felt her shoulder sparkling from the hit that cost her ten life points she looked around desperately for anything she could use to her advantage.

'What I wouldn't give for something right now that could help me survive.' Gwen thought and began listing what she could use.

Okay, Wind Aura? Out, because it won't be any good against that bird.

Earth Aura? Out, not enough land or even a cliff nearby.

Energy Strings? Just tried.

Stat Boost? Could help against Jinx but no good against Cain and Ember since their fire could burn anything it touches.

Shadow Veil? Only if she wanted to hide somewhere and lose half her life points.

Pink Anti-XANA Aura? Could work as it would buy her time against both generals but not enough to give her an advantage.

Fire Aura? It'd make her immune to Cain's attacks but with Jinx with him it'd be risky. Especially since her aura hasn't any of Cain's...

'I think I just found a way to even the odds.' Gwen smirked as she looked the pursuing generals. 'Thanks for the inspiration Cain.'

She turned around and flew at the Phoenix with her scythe ready.

"What is she doing? Is she nuts trying to attack us head on?" Jinx asked as the Phoenix stopped in mid air.

Cain didn't reply but Ember screeched as it opened its mouth and released a stream of fire at the flying spell caster. Gwen didn't bother to stop or dodge the attack and was engulfed in the flames, vanishing from sight.

"Ha! That was disappointing!" Jinx laughed. "Here I thought she'd put up a better fight."

However just after she said that a blast of fire erupted from Ember's fire attack and flew both of the generals.

"Wha..." Jinx yelped as the large fire ball came at them.

It flew between them, scorching them with fire. Jinx quickly created an energy shield to block the flames but a fist flew out and slugged her in the gut. Jinx gasped as blow knocked her off Ember's back and fell down into the water again. Cain however was immune to the flames and swung his claymore, hoping to slice whatever caused this attack. The flames faded revealing Gwen with her Fire Aura activated as she jumped off Ember's back.

Cain expected her to deactivate her Fire Aura so she could use her flight ability again but to his shock streams of fire erupted from Gwen's feet like rocket feet, allowing her to hover in the air.

"Bet you didn't see that coming." Gwen smirked at the silent general. "I actually have you to thank for that, your fire powers gave me a couple of ideas."

She aimed her scythe at Cain.

"The playing field's even now, we can't harm each other because our fire powers make us immune to all fire based attacks." Gwen got ready to attack again. "Ready for Round Three?"

Cain didn't reply, but Ember answered for him with a loud screech as it flew at Gwen. The spell caster took that as restarting the fight and channeled more power into her rocket feet, propelling forward. The two fighters flew at each other and when they collided a large explosion light up the entire Swamp Sector.

Xxx

CLASH!

Ryder's sword and Geoff's axe collided with each other, releasing sparks of red and yellow electricity that burned the grass and scorched a nearby tree. Geoff growled as he tried to overpower Ryder but the general held out one arm and fired a blast of lightning that Geoff barely dodged. The attack hit the water and sent an electric surge though it that would have fried any unlucky living being if they ended up in it. Geoff swung his axe and fired his own lightning blast, hoping to catch Ryder off guard.

However the lightning general simply held out his sword and created an electric shield that blocked his attack.

"Where's the witty jokes and insults, party boy?" Ryder smirked. "You usually come up about five or six of them when a fight is this long."

Geoff didn't reply he just let out a battle cry and charged.

"Is that it?" Ryder scoffed as he blocked Geoff's axe. "A war cry? Losing surfer girl must have really got to you."

"Don't you dare mention her!" Geoff snapped as he swung again.

Ryder blocked each and every one of Geoff's strikes even though the force of Geoff's attacks was pushing him back. He noticed that he was being pushed back towards the pond and smirked, noticing Geoff was too angry to care. Probably because he and the other generals were keeping Aelita away from the tower, preventing them from saving their friends. Or in Geoff's case they were keeping him from saving Bridgette.

Geoff yelled as he swung again but this time Ryder didn't raise his sword to block the attack.

"Lightning Sprint!" Ryder vanished in a flash of red as he moved out of the way of Geoff's axe.

He reappeared behind Geoff and kicked him in the back, sending him forward into the pond. Geoff landed face first in the pond, temporarily disabled from the attack.

"Two words, party boy. Anger management!" Ryder said as he fired a blast at the pond.

Geoff screamed as he was electrocuted, decreasing his life points down to sixty. Smoke rose from his burned clothes as he jumped out of the pond a few feet from Ryder, taking the chance to recuperate.

"Look at you now." Ryder scoffed. "Fighting you used to be fun but this is just pathetic. Hold still and I'll send you to join your girlfriend."

He sheathed his sword and held out both of his hands and fired a blast of lightning to finish Geoff off. The party boy quickly raised his axe to block the stream of lightning but it pushed him back, his feet sliding through the ground. Geoff grunted as he blocked the continuous stream of electricity. Ryder poured more power into his attack, making the red lightning shine brighter around Geoff's axe. Geoff glanced behind him to see that he was being pushed into the water again, knowing immediately that if he was pushed into the water Ryder's attack would fry him until his life points hit zero.

Eyes narrowing, he knew he needed a plan fast before he lost the fight. He looked at Ryder and a crazy plan formed in his head the second he looked. It was crazy and probably stupid even by his standards, but he had nothing to lose anyway. Waiting until he was at the very edge of the land he jumped out of the way as he let go of his axe _while_ it still was blocking lightning.

The axe flew into water, sparkling with red electricity as Ryder cancelled out his attack. Geoff dashed towards Ryder just as he cancelled his attack and was too slow to react as Geoff slammed his fist into the general's face. Ryder was knocked off his feet, growling in pain as he rolled away but Geoff wasn't about to give him a chance to retaliate. Before Ryder could react Geoff knocked him down with a kick to the chest and tried pummel his face.

Ryder raised his arms to block Geoff's fists, grunting as Geoff kept on hammering at his defences. He fired a small spark of red electricity into Geoff's face, knocking him off the general. Ryder got back up and fired another blast of lightning at Geoff who jumped out of the way as it torched some grass. Ryder fired blast after blast Geoff who kept on running, barely dodging each one. Geoff didn't dare risking trying to retrieve his axe since the second he stepped in the water to retrieve it he'd be fried instantly.

He quickly picked up a small rock as he dodged the next blast and threw it as hard as he could. Ryder moved his head out of the way and the rock flew past him.

"That's it? Now you're resorting to that?" Ryder growled. "This is just embarrassing."

Geoff didn't reply as he picked up another rock and threw it at Ryder who simply blasted it with electric blast from his finger.

"Cut that out!" Ryder snapped as Geoff threw another rock. "That's getting annoying!"

"Are you going to do something about it, dude?" Geoff asked as he picked up another rock and threw it at Ryder.

"That's a good idea!" Ryder blasted the rock before he pulled out his sword. "Dodge this!"

His sword started glowing bright red while red electricity traveled up the blade.

"LIGHTNING STORM!" He swung his sword at the ground and released a massive blast of lightning.

Geoff quickly turned and ran as fast as he could as the lightning pursued him. He could tell it was gaining up on him and ran even faster. Just as the blast was inches from hitting him he jumped forward. It was too bright to see what happened next as the blast flew over the water and hit a nearby small island. Ryder smirked as the attack hit the small island and blew it up, sending debris everywhere.

"Ha! Not so tough now are we?" Ryder laughed as smoke rose from the remains of the island.

He walked over to a nearby stump and sat down.

"One down three more to go." Ryder smirked as he sheathed his sword.

"Might want to recount that, dude." Ryder's eyes widened as he stood up and spun around to face...

A blast of lightning from Geoff's axe.

Ryder screamed as it hit him in the chest and sent him flying into the water. He spat water out of his face as he sat up and looked up to see Geoff smirking down at him with his axe sparkling.

"But I blasted you!" Ryder snarled.

"Not exactly, dude. You need to get your eyesight checked. I jumped and hid under the water as the blast sailed over." Geoff smirked. "I'm not the smartest one of the group but I can come up with some plans when I need to."

Ryder growled but Geoff's sparkling axe kept him from doing stupid.

"Not so tough when you're the one stuck in the nice water." Geoff smirked as a blast of electricity hit the water and shocked Ryder.

The general grunted, not feeling hurt by the shock but looked very angry.

"Now, be a good guy for once and tell me what happened to Bridgette." Geoff glared at him.

Ryder however simply smirked. "You're still not that smart."

Geoff prepared to blast Ryder but kept himself from attacking.

"You think you can blast me with my own element?" Ryder scoffed as he stood up.

Geoff sent a small blast into the water but Ryder released a red aura of lightning around him that blocked the attack.

"Electricity is my element and in the water..." Ryder laughed as he pointed his finger at Geoff. "I'm invincible!"

Geoff jumped out of the way as Ryder fired a stream of lightning from his finger. He held up his axe as Ryder's body sparked with red lightning.

"Let's try this again. LIGHTNING!" Ryder fired another wave of lighting.

Xxx

**Tuesday, July 6th, 1994**

Waldo flew out of the City Sector, finding himself in Sector 5 but he did not stop there. He needed to get to Aelita right now, while she was still safe in the tower. He couldn't believe what had happened, kids from the future, XANA turning on him and now wants to destroy the entire world.

But how?

Why?

Waldo mentally shook his head. There was no time to wonder why this was happening. All that mattered now was keeping Aelita safe. He traveled through the data tunnel leading to the Forest Sector, coming out of the Way Tower and headed to the tower Aelita was hiding in like a rocket.

As he made it to the tower he found more monsters appeared around it. This time they were large flying monsters resembling giant wasps with two rounds of five wings for flight with the same Eye on its face where the eyes would be on an ordinary wasp. There were three of them floating in front of the tower when he arrived before they turned and fired at him with their lasers.

"Ah!" Waldo shouted, feeling pain from each hit.

"_Waldo! What's going on? I lost track of you!_" Noah spoke through the head set.

"Noah...you were right...and I just landed us in deep pile..." Waldo grunted as he tried to block out the pain.

"_The talk didn't go so well?_"

"No...XANA explained...everything...He wants to throw humanity in the dark... He's mad..." Waldo explained through the barrage of laser blasts.

"_Could have told you that._" Noah replied. "_Hide in the tower and we'll think of something._"

"I can't...They're not letting me get close!" Waldo began dodging the laser blasts but the Hornets and Kankrelats were keeping him from the tower.

"_Okay, just...give me a few seconds._"

'Like I can do anything else.' Waldo thought sarcastically.

Xxx

"Okay..." Noah turned the chair to face everyone. "Anybody got any ideas?"

"Like what?" Izzy asked.

"For helping Schaeffer out? Saving him and his daughter from the now evil XANA?" Noah asked, annoyed that Izzy seemed to forget everything.

"Maybe you should devirtualize them and get them out before something else happens to them." Trent pointed out.

"What if something happens to all of you before that happens?" A very familiar voice made everyone freeze before they slowly turned and looked at the screen.

The person who spoke revealed themselves through a new window on the screen and seemed very happy with the group's reaction. Everyone was silent as the stared at the Avatar of XANA, now resembling the present evil incarnation that they had come to know in the present. He had the same polite smile as he did the last time they had met but now it looked scary on the face of his evil self.

"How kind of all of you to come back and visit. You even decided to bring someone new." XANA noted the appearance of Cody who quickly hid behind DJ. "Another visit from the future?"

Everyone could only stare since their secret was now out in the open and the worst part was that they revealed in the lab where XANA could hear everything.

"And you, Carlos, or should I say, Noah?" XANA looked at Noah. "What an interesting tale you told Father. I suspected you all were hiding something, considering how you all acted familiar in the lab before we met and the looks you had on your face when I revealed myself. Of course even I would never have considered what your origin was."

"You...you were on to us when we first came into the lab!" Trent exclaimed.

"Did you think you could simply walk into the lab, access the computer, and even try to enter the restricted section without me knowing? Or did you even consider that I was here?" XANA smirked.

Everyone gulped, realizing that when they first came to the lab they hadn't even considered the fact that XANA was still a part of the supercomputer and would instantly know they entered the lab.

"Hearing the tale, how in the future you would become my enemies along with Sister and how I would send you all back in time..." XANA laughed. "What an extraordinary event! I wouldn't have never even believed it myself if not for how you tried to warn Father of my intentions. Too bad that he's a very stubborn man."

"Yeah...well, now that he knows I guess you're finished now." Noah glared.

"Oh? And why's that?" XANA tilted his head.

"Because I can devirtualize him and Aelita right now, saving them and we can unplug the supercomputer and take you out." Noah explained. "That make you feel confident?"

XANA however wasn't the last bit intimidated. In fact he laughed louder at Noah, as if the boy genius had told a very funny joke.

"A simple plan...if it wasn't impossible." XANA said as he stopped laughing.

"And why's that?" LeShawna snapped.

"Because Father can't be devirtualized now, his digital avatar has been broken into floating bits of data and with my monsters attacking him the only piece of him left will be the one that holds his mind and soul." XANA chuckled. "You can't devirtualize him unless all of his data is together in one package."

"And...You're the reason he's like that!" Noah realized. "You broke his digital form up, didn't you?"

"Well, it seems I'll have to remember that one of my future enemies is smarter than I gave him credit for." XANA raised an eyebrow. "Yes, I rigged the scanner he was in that stopped the entire virtualization sequence, preventing the Virtual Form sequence, keeping him from gaining a digital form. It was much easier to take care of him, plus when I heard that you wanted to stop him from coming here and to destroy the supercomputer I needed some...what is it you humans call...oh right, leverage to prevent that outcome from happening."

"Rendering him completely helpless." Bridgette glared. "You're just as evil as you are in the future!"

"I believe I will take that as a compliment." XANA shrugged. "But the question that should be on your minds is this: what shall I do with all of you?"

"What do you mean by that?" Trent asked.

"As you stated we will be enemies in the future and even if it was by accident that you ended up at this exact time, I wouldn't have risked using the Time Return program unless...I was sure that my enemies would be removed permanently." XANA replied.

"Jokes on you, we're still here!" LeShawna snapped, pointing straight at XANA. "And even if Aelita's dad is stuck that doesn't mean we still can't save them!"

"Actually...it does." XANA shook his head. "You don't understand do you?"

"Understand what?" LeShawna glared.

"That even if you have a plan to save them and destroy me it will not work because as you stated you all meet me again in the future, meaning that I survive." XANA explained. "Whatever plans you have thought of will fail...but that doesn't mean that you'll survive this encounter."

"Oh yeah, and why is that?" Eva stepped forward. "Maybe I'll come into Lyoko and bash you up!"

"That's not what I mean at all...I survive because you all meet me...but you are all sent back in time to a point where you are either newborns or have yet to be born." XANA smirked. "Meaning that the main reason why my future self would send you all back in time would be so that you die in the past without changing the future that you know of at all."

As he spoke, red energy arched from the computer and travelled along the mess of wiring attaching it to the ceiling. The map of Lyoko became tinted red and gave the room a rather intimidating atmosphere as XANA raised one hand to the screen...

And his hand seemed to pass through it and into the real world. His arm would dissolve into static held only by an outline every few seconds, like a television with a bad reception. But then his whole body came out in the form of a shapeless, smoke like mass. The specter towered over the group, sinking into the cables that supported the super computer. Suddenly they began to slide out of the ceiling and slithered like tentacles along the floor.

"Oh man!" Bridgette swallowed as they all backed away from the oncoming mass of animated wires. "What do we do now?"

"...pray Aelita can fix this from her end," Noah said. "Because we don't have a snowball's chance in hell over here."

Xxx

**Present Day**

Aelita fused two energy spheres together and formed an energy sword as she flew at Lilith. The red haired general held her bow up and blocked the energy sword as Aelita swung it down, intending to cut her in half. The bow and energy sword pushed against each other as both combatants fought with equal strength until they successfully threw each other back. Aelita prepared a plasma beam while Lilith created another energy arrow.

They fired at the same time and were blinded when the two attacks collided and created a large explosion. Lilith smirked as she created three energy arrows and fired them at the same time, using the smoke to her advantage. They flew through the smoke straight towards Aelita who quickly created an energy shield to block them. As the last arrow shattered against Aelita's energy shield Lilith appeared right behind her and kicked Aelita in the back.

She flew several feet forward before hitting the ground. Grunting she rolled on her back to see an energy arrow pointed at her forehead.

"That's disappointing, after the last fight we had I thought this one would be a whole lot more fun." Lilith sighed. "I got all fired up over nothing."

"Don't worry, Lilith." Aelita glared up at her. "This fight's far from over."

"Oh, and what do you plan to do with an arrow aimed between your eyes?" Lilith raised an eyebrow.

"This." Aelita suddenly shattered in a shower of light and data.

"Wha-"Lilith felt an energy orb hit her in the back and knock her face first onto the ground.

She rolled onto her back to find that their roles were now revered with Aelita standing above her, ready to fire a plasma beam.

"I told you not get cocky." Aelita smirked. "It really makes you look like a moron, not that you weren't anything else before."

"And what are going to do now, blast me?" Even though she might get her head blown off Lilith had her usual mischievous smirk on her face.

"Not a bad idea, but I have a few questions, like how XANA was able to access the Time Return Program." Aelita frowned. "I checked, there was no way he could have made it past all the fire walls that were set up."

"...ha!" Lilith chuckled. "All right, if you _really_ want to know...He didn't."

Aelita raised an eyebrow. "Hm?"

"He didn't do a thing to get past the fire walls." Lilith's smirk widened. "He just used the pass code."

"What? That's impossible!" Aelita glared. "The pass code is not a single code, its several codes for each layer of protection!"

"More like twenty layers of protection...and XANA got through each and every one of them." Lilith chuckled. "So much for the 'unhackable' restricted section."

"You're wrong! He couldn't have simply figured out each code, no matter how good he was." Aelita gritted her teeth. "The codes change at random every five seconds to ensure the ultimate level of security for all restricted programs. I don't care how good XANA is at hacking any program, not even he is able to break through that level of protection."

"Well...He may have found a little hint." Lilith's mouth curled up into a big smile. "So hard to find good help."

"You..." Aelita reached down and grabbed Lilith by the collar, lifting her up into the air with Aelita's glowing hand inches from Lilith's face. "YOU DID THIS! YOU USED THE MENTAL CONNECTION WE HAD TO FIND OUT HOW TO GET INTO THE RESTRICTED SECTION!"

"Ha! I'm flattered you think I'm that good, but I was a little busy trying to kill your brain when that happened!" Lilith laughed. "I had nothing to do with this!"

"Then tell me... _right now!_" Aelita's glowing hand glowed so bright Lilith had to close her eyes.

But she still didn't lose her grin. "Say...Aelita, you remember back when I said that your boyfriend had a sample of your Digital Code in him when he was scanned?"

Aelita's glare hardened, promising a very painful death but Lilith simply continued.

"And that I got the same powers as you? Well...when you first learned how to activate your keys you gave me...a very nice present." Lilith snickered. "Want to see it?"

Before Aelita could answer Lilith threw her head back and shouted "CODE ANGEL!"

Aelita's eyes widened as a white light engulfed Lilith and knocked her back. She covered her eyes as it was too bright to see anything for a moment. When the light cleared Aelita lowered her eyes to see and gasped when she was what had happened.

Lilith's clothes and appearance had changed completely from her original form. The right half of her face and her entire body was pitch black, with her right arm now a long sleek black armored arm with long razor sharp claws for fingers, and her normal right eye was replaced by a blood red Eye of XANA. The left half of her face was pale white, her left eye still its original blue color, and her left hand had gold nail polish. Her black clothes became a long robe with inverted colors to her skin.

Her hair was out of its pony tail and its usual red was now a darker blood red color matching the red aura of towers activated by XANA and grew much longer as it reached down her back to her knees. Her feet were bare, the right black foot had long claw like toe nails while the white one was completely normal with gold nail polish. And on her back was a pair of wings, the right one was pure black, resembling the bat like wings of Shadow's Monster Form while the left wing was white and feathery, resembling an Angel's wing perfectly.

"Like it?" Lilith grinned at Aelita's shocked expression. "You're not exactly one of a kind anymore."

Aelita quickly fired a plasma beam and Lilith was engulfed in a large explosion. Aelita waited for the smoke to clear but when it did she gasped at what she saw. Lilith was standing in the same spot looking completely fine without a single scratch on her.

"Is that all you got?" Lilith yawned. "I thought you could do a lot better than that."

Lilith's right black clawed fingers suddenly lengthened into very long and sharp spears.

"My turn." Lilith grinned.

Her claws suddenly extended until they reached Aelita who could barely see how fast they moved while they sliced across her chest leaving five sparkling scratch marks that faded a few seconds later but the damage had been done. Aelita gasped as she fired an energy field but Lilith casually smacked it away with her right arm.

"Is that it?" Lilith laughed. "Those weak energy attacks? Let me show you how it's done!"

She raised her left hand and pointed her index finger at Aelita.

"Plasma Barrage!"

Aelita was shocked as not one, but multiple beams of energy resembling her plasma beam fired from Lilith's single finger. She flew up into the air, frantically dodging the shower of energy beams. As they fell to the ground each energy beam let out a large explosion that blew up any small island that was hit while the ones that hit the water created tidal waves that smashed into each other or the land. Aelita fired a Plasma Beam at the last several energy beams and cancelled them out.

Lilith took off into the air, her wings flapping as she barreled straight towards Aelita. Realizing she couldn't fire any of her energy beams Aelita created an energy shield to Lilith as she slammed her black clawed hand into Aelita's energy shield. The force of the blow sent her flying back and Lilith flew after her. Aelita's eyes widened as Lilith pointed her left hand at her and fired another Plasma Barrage. Pointing both hands forward Aelita fired two Plasma Beams at the barrage of energy beams, cancelling out several of them while Aelita was forced to dodge the rest.

However the attack was a distraction as Lilith appeared Aelita who turned in time for Lilith to swipe her right hand at pink haired girl, sending her spinning down to the ground. Aelita hit the ground, yelping when she slammed into she hastily climbed to her feet, feeling the loss of about fifteen life points from the hit. As soon as she got up she looked and jumped out of way as another Plasma Barrage slammed into the ground. Lilith landed in front of her and swiped at Aelita who ducked and fired a Plasma Beam hoping to at least distract Lilith for a little while so she could come up with a plan.

However Lilith simply dodged by flying out of the way and landing a few feet away.

"Impressed yet?" Lilith asked, examining her claws. "You should be."

"How can you use Code: Angel? That's only accessible to people with the Keys." Aelita glared.

"Well, it turns out that the small piece Jeremy had inside of him had an imprint to the keys, meaning that when scanned into me I gained my own set." Lilith shrugged as she looked over her new form. "This form represents the digital human DNA scanned into me combined with XANA's codes. Fitting, don't you think? Makes me look like an Angel of both Light and Darkness."

Aelita knew that she could not fight Lilith this way; she'd only end up devirtualized and stuck with the others! She couldn't afford to be devirtualized, not this time. She needed a new strategy, something Lilith would not expect...

But what? Lilith was the most devious of the generals, perhaps alongside Sora. How could Aelita get past her defence with a strong enough attack to hit her? Should she use Code Angel also? Or did Lilith have a backup plan for that too?

Even then she'd be vulnerable while she activated it, and Lilith would just need one clean hit to end it. She could fly fast enough to catch Aelita no matter where she went to activate it...

But what if she didn't bother going after her at all? What if she didn't think she had to?

What if she thought that Aelita had been devirtualized, even if it only lasted for a few moments? That was all she would need to activate Code ANGEL and level the playing field-both metaphorically and literally.

"I know what you're thinking." Lilith spoke up, interrupting Aelita's thoughts. "You want to use Code Angel yourself to get a fighting chance. Well don't worry, I'm not going to stop you. But...I got a little present for you."

Lilith waved her hand and three portals appeared. Without warning the other remaining Lyoko Warriors, Gwen, Heather, and Geoff fell out landed next to Aelita.

"Guys?" Aelita ran over to them.

"Wha...Aelita?" Gwen looked up as she deactivated her Fire Aura.

"Okay, what now? I was nearly buried alive in a snowy avalanche." Heather got up. "Yuki and my annoying monster kid are a very dangerous combination."

"I was just about to kick Ryder's ass out of here." Geoff looked at Lilith. "Is...that...Lilith?"

"That's one hell of a makeover," Gwen commented.

"Jealous?" Lilith inquired.

"Not really, looks too frilly for me." Gwen shrugged. "I prefer a good old fashioned-" Suddenly she flung her scythe right at Lilith, who almost casually deflected it with a flick of her hand. "Okay...that was supposed to do a little more damage."

"So sad," Lilith shook her head, "this is the best you can give me now? Without all of you together, you're nothing at all."

"Everyone, be careful, she can use Code Angel like me!" Aelita warned as she faced Lilith. "It's made her stronger than both Shadow and Nephilim put together."

"What? She can use Code Angel? What the hell? Are they handing it out these days?" Gwen shook her head. "That's just great, five more generals and a super powered one with only four of us, as if things were great before."

"Relax, Gwenny, I gave the others the day off." Lilith smirked. "I'll finish this myself."

"Getting cocky now?" Heather got ready to fight.

"It doesn't matter if you reach the tower or not, I just want to see if I can test my full powers while there's still some Lyoko Warriors left." Lilith grinned. "This is all just one big test, and you're the guinea pigs."

"I was never that good at science." Geoff growled.

"Give me a chance and I'll activate Code Angel and even the playing field." Aelita replied. "That along with all of us fighting together will be enough."

"You sure? I wouldn't want any other surprises coming to bite us in the digital asses." Gwen's scythe appeared back in her hands.

"At this point, it's all or nothing." Aelita replied.

"Fine by me, I'm sick of these guys playing with us." Heather grinned. "Gives me the chance to kick the grin off her pretty little face."

"Come and get me then!" Lilith said as her wings spread out.


	83. Episode 81: Back to the Present

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

"Hey!" Carlos shouted. "How come we have not made an appearance in the last couple of chapters?"

"Dude, we're not the main characters here, we're the comedic relief." Kurt replied.

"But, we still haven't made an appearance in the last two chapters!" Carlos complained. "Where the hell are we?"

"Last I saw, we were fighting evil robots that you ordered to replace the cast." Kurt sighed. "You know you're wasting the audience's time, complaining like this when they could be seeing the fight with Lilith?"

"Fight? What fight?" Carlos asked. "If there's any fight going on I should in it!"

"Carlos!" Suddenly, a cloak figure wearing a large pair of glasses and a fake moustache to cover his face.

"Ah! Lord Maximus!" Kurt and Carlos bowed before the figure.

"What do you two think you're doing? The audience is expecting a huge awesome and badass fight in this episode and you two are wasting valuable time!" Lord Maximus snapped.

"Sorry, boss, I just want to know why I haven' made any appearances yet!" Carlos cried.

"Carlos, you have plenty of appearances coming but if you waste the audiences' time and I'll have you demoted to background character!" Lord Maximus threatened.

"Yes, your will be done my lord!" Carlos cried.

"And since you want a fight..." Lord Maximus snapped his fingers.

A wolfman appeared in front of Carlos.

"You two, fight!"

The wolfman growled as Carlos got up and ready to fight.

"It's...on!" Carlos growled.

They both let out a war cry as they slammed into each other and started fighting.

"That's one way to solve it." Kurt pulled out some popcorn.

"What are you doing?" Maximus turned to him, making him drop the popcorn. "GET TO WORK!"

"Yes sir!" Kurt ran off.

Xxx

Chapter 83

Lilith floated above the ground, using her wings as she prepared to fight the last four Lyoko Warriors.

"I think Lilith's new upgrade has made her a little...overconfident." Gwen smirked. "I was able to fight off Cain and Jinx so I got plenty of fight left in me."

"Lucky you, I got stuck with Yuki and Sora ganging up on me." Heather pouted. "I think XANA knows how much Sora annoys me and keeps paring me with that kid."

"I'm a little winded from dealing with Ryder but I can handle this psycho." Geoff leveled his axe at Lilith.

"Don't underestimate her; the Keys combined with Code Angel upgrades her status to levels comparable to XANA himself." Aelita pointed out. "She's going to be a challenge."

"Just a mere upgrade, Aelita?" Lilith smirked. "Don't you know anything about the Keys?"

"Why not go ahead and show me, Lily?" Aelita challenged her.

"Fine." Lilith pointed left index finger at the Lyoko Warriors. "Plasma Barrage!"

Beams of energy blasted the other end of the island, forcing the Warriors to scatter to avoid getting blasted. Lilith flew through the smoke with her armored arm ready to claw through the warriors. Geoff swung his axe down but Lilith blocked with her right arm and smacked the axe back. She pointed her finger at him to blast him but she ducked at the last second, dodging as Heather jumped in and aimed her foot at Lilith's head. Lilith flew back and landed a few feet away, ready to finish them off with a Plasma Barrage.

Suddenly the ground under her began to rise into the air.

"What the-"Lilith looked down.

"Lost sight of someone!" Gwen smirked as she used her Earth Aura to propel the ground Lilith stood on into the air.

Above her, Aelita appeared and fired her plasma beam.

"Crap!" Lilith growled as the energy blast hit her and vanished in an explosion of light.

Aelita landed in front of Geoff and Heather as Gwen ran up to them.

"So much for the all powerful keys." Heather smirked.

But when the smoke cleared Lilith stood, completely unharmed.

"Is that it?"

"Oh come on!" Geoff groaned.

"There's no way she could have blocked it in time!" Gwen exclaimed.

"Yes, if I got this." Lilith gestured with her right arm and to the shock of the Lyoko Warriors a black shadow like monster emerged from her shadow.

"What the hell..." Heather gasped.

"I said Angel of Light and Darkness, remember?" Lilith laughed. "There's more to my appearance than meets the eye. My left hand has the power to unleash multiple beams of light. As for the darkness..."

Multiple tendrils made of shadow sprouted around Lilith like a shield.

"Damn!" Gwen gritted her teeth.

Tendrils made of shadow traveled across the ground towards the Lyoko Warriors, reaching out to grab them. Aelita grabbed Geoff and Gwen grabbed as Heather as they took into the air, avoiding the sharp dagger like shadow spears that tried to skewer them.

"Yikes!" Geoff commented, glad that they dodged in time.

Lilith pointed left her finger at the flying group. "Plasma Barrage!"

"Heather, get ready!" Gwen activated her Fire Aura.

"For wha-AAAAAH!" Heather screamed as fire blasted from Gwen's boots like rocket feet.

They avoided the showing of energy beams as they flew so fast they ended up behind Lilith.

"You two are really stubborn." Lilith commented.

Gwen flew around Lilith, too fast for the dark angel to see while Heather aimed one arm and fired her shuriken launcher. Lilith grunted as the shuriken hit her but she shrugged it off and launched more shadow tendrils at them.

"Crap!" Gwen shouted as tentacle grabbed her foot and pulled her down.

She let go of Heather who fell into the water and the spell caster hung upside down in front of Lilith. The tentacle lengthened, traveling down Gwen's body until it covered everything but her head. Heather aimed at Lilith to free Gwen but a shadow tendril wrapped around her and lifted her up into the air.

"Nice trick here let me show you one of my neat tricks." Lilith pointed to the ground in front of her.

Gwen and Heather watched as her shadow lengthened and covered the ground below her. Her eyes widened as a huge mouth opened up inside the shadow, revealing white teeth and a black void of darkness. Heather gulped as Lilith's shadow hung Gwen over the mouth that looked ready to bite her head off.

"The most powerful ability used by my darkness, the ability to devour anything it eats and you know what the best part is…" Lilith leaned into Gwen's ear. "It doesn't matter if your life points hit zero, once it eats you you're trapped…forever."

Gwen could only look down at the gaping maw and suddenly felt a little afraid of be forever trapped in the darkness, despite the fact that she wore dark colors and even dyed her hair dark. The black void that Lilith was going to feed her to, she suddenly felt like a little girl again afraid of monsters crawling in the dark.

"Just like the digital sea, your data is scattered and absorbed into the shadow." Lilith continued. "No devirtualization, no life points, just an eternity to spend in the dark. No rest, no comfort, just you and whatever I make to keep you company."

"Lilith!" Aelita shouted as she fired her plasma beam but a wall of shadow from the ground in front of Lilith blocking the blast.

"Wait your turn!" Lilith sang, laughing as she started to lower Gwen into the mouth.

Gwen closed her eyes, not wanting to see her own head get bitten off. Heather struggled against her shadowy bonds, managing to pull out a flash bomb and it exploded. Lilith grunted as she closed her eyes, the bright light made the shadows disappear. Gwen dropped to the ground as the giant gaping mouth vanished from the bright light.

Gwen rolled back as she pulled out scythe to bisect Lilith but the dark angel flew back, dodging the scythe's blade by a few inches.

"Just saved your life from being eaten alive, where's my thank you?" Heather asked as she walked up next to Gwen.

"Thanks." Gwen said quickly, grateful but not taking her eyes of Lilith.

"You mean 'thank you very much, Heather, you saved my life and you're my hero!'" Heather smirked.

"I think I'll go with my head getting bitten off." Gwen shuddered as she got ready to fight.

"Back to the fight!" Geoff shouted as he swung his axe, releasing a blast of lightning.

Lilith fired a Plasma Barrage, cancelling out Geoff's attack but that had been a diversion. Aelita appeared behind Lilith with a Plasma Beam ready to blast her but Lilith's slapped Aelita's arm away, her Plasma Beam sent flying into the sky. The shadow tried to impale her but Aelita dodge by flying into the air over the spear.

"Okay, time to change the status of the battle." Lilith flew into the air.

"Why do I get the feeling I am not going to like this?" Gwen asked.

Lilith spread her wings out, casting a large shadow on the ground that started to grow.

"That answer your question?" Heather glared at Gwen.

Tentacles blasted out of the shadow and before the Warriors could react they found themselves in the air with tentacles wrapped tightly wrapped around their bodies.

"Hey!" Geoff growled as he dropped his axe. "Real fair!"

Below them a giant mouth opened in the center of the darkness with sharp white teeth, ready to devour their digital souls.

"Oh great." Gwen groaned as she activated her Fire Aura to try and burn the shadow tentacle.

It didn't work so she tried her Pink Energy Aura but the shadow tentacle was only slightly singed.

"Nice try, but my powers are too strong for that spell to work." Lilith smirked.

"But not for this….CODE: ANGEL!" Aelita shouted.

Her figure glowed bright as her full power was activated, casting a bright light down on Lilith's shadow monster. It screamed as the light burned it away into nothing, dropping the other three Lyoko Warriors onto the ground. Aelita looked up at Lilith who quickly fired a Plasma Barrage but the pink haired girl flew through the barrage dodging each blast easily.

"The playing fields even now, Lilith!" Aelita shouted.

"That's what you think!" Lilith shouted back. "Plasma Barrage!"

"Plasma Beam!"

As the shower of energy beams fell down towards her Aelita fired a Plasma Beam that was much bigger than her regular energy beams. The energy beam engulfed the shower of smaller energy beams and cancelled each out in the form of a huge explosion.

"This is getting out of control, even for us." Gwen said as they watched the fight. "Lilith and Aelita are too evenly matched here."

"You got a point there; we need to ground Lilith for good." Heather nodded.

"But how?" Geoff asked.

"Aelita's not the only who can fly. If she can keep Lilith distracted for just a few seconds I can take her out." Gwen floated into the air. "And just to be sure she can't see me coming."

Her Fire Aura came to life and jets of flames blasted from her feet, propelling her into the air like a rocket.

"I just think she likes to show off now." Heather muttered as she watched Gwen fly.

Aelita flew at Lilith as an energy sword appeared in both of her hands. Lilith held up her right armored arm and blocked both swords as Aelita swung them down. Electricity sparked from the impact as the two powerful digital beings pushed against each other. Aelita glanced down for a second and saw Gwen rocketing towards them.

She flew back out of the way, confusing Lilith before she turned to see what had distracted Aelita. Her eyes widened in shock as Gwen slammed into her. Gwen grabbed Lilith by the shoulders and propelled them towards the swamp below them. Lilith grunted as she tried to break free but Gwen held on tighter and her rocket feet exploded with more power to increase their fall. Just as the last second Gwen released Lilith and deactivated her Fire Aura.

Lilith impacted the water with a huge splash while Gwen tried to use her Wind Aura to steady her landing. She hit the ground but not as hard as Lilith and skidded across before coming to complete stop. Her body had several sparkling cuts signalling that she had lost some life points from the landing but still had enough to avoid being devirtualized.

"Okay...that moves going to need working on." Gwen grunted as she stood up.

"Gwen!" Aelita landed next to her and helped her stand up. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I am really glad you can't feel pain here or I'd probably need to go to the hospital." Gwen weakly chuckled.

"I'd say so; you must be crazy to attempt something like that." Aelita shook her head. "All these fights in Lyoko and some of you are starting to do a few crazy stunts that puts Odd's to shame, which makes me worry about you a lot."

Gwen laughed. "Don't try to make me laugh; I really think I should avoid trying to laugh at this point."

"Yes, you should." A voice from the water made Gwen and Aelita freeze in shock.

Lilith floated to the top of the water until she was standing on, not looking harmed.

"But...I went full meteor to take you out!" Gwen groaned. "Just once can't it be easy."

"Sorry, but my power of Creation was increased along with my normal powers, allowing me to harden my body enough to avoid any...permanent damage." Lilith smirked. "But that was a really good move right there. You really scare me sometimes, Gwenny."

"Enough to run away?" Aelita asked as she put Gwen's arm over her shoulders.

Gwen had put a lot of power into that move and everyone was a little mentally exhausted from the all the fights. Lilith just kept on coming up with more surprises for them and it was really making life hard for them.

"Sorry, but I'm just getting started!" Lilith snapped her fingers.

Out of the swamp came walking skeletons with the Eye of XANA on their foreheads, wearing battle armor and weapons ranging from swords, spears, and spikes gauntlets.

"Like I said, this is getting out of hand." Gwen muttered.

"They're not monsters, they have no life points. They are just puppets; Lilith is trying to amuse herself." Aelita glared at the dark digital angel. "I can take them out easily."

"Don't bother." Heather landed next to them. "That Witch is just trying to distract us. Leave them to us and take out Lilith."

"Just try!" Lilith pointed and the skeleton warriors charged at them.

Heather jumped forward into the air, her foot slamming into the head of one skeleton warrior and knocked it down along with several more skeletons it slammed into as it fell. Using the skeleton as springboard Heather jumped off and somersaulted through the air. The skeletons backed away as Heather landed and surrounded her, ready to use their superior numbers to take the ninja girl out. But Heather was too agile and smart to be taken out like that.

Just as one charged Heather kicked in its head and spun around with a wrist blade out to block a sword wielding skeleton's attack before she fired a shuriken from her other arm, knocking its head off. As a skeleton charged from behind her and swung its axe Heather ducked and spun, her wrist blade cutting through its ribs easily. As it fell to pieces Heather's foot launched out and kicked another skeleton in the chest, shattering it easily. Heather then somersaulted backwards and launched both her feet into a skeleton's head, its skull easily shattering from the blow.

Gwen jumped in and threw her scythe, cutting through legions of skeletons as they sprouted from the ground and Geoff threw both of his chakrams into the crowd. They let off a huge electric explosion that vaporized any skeleton caught in the blast. Aelita flew at Lilith with a Plasma Beam ready to vaporize her but Lilith simply pointed her right finger at the pink haired girl. A blast of darkness erupted from her finger and took the form of a dragon made of darkness that slammed into Aelita and sent her flying back.

She hit a tree and slid to the ground. Luckily with the Keys to Lyoko fully activated that blast had no effect on her so she didn't lose any life points. Aelita got up and fired her Plasma Beam as Lilith sent another Shadow Dragon at her. The blast incinerated the dragon and flew straight at Lilith. The dark haired angel narrowed her eyes as she fired an energy blast that cancelled the Plasma Beam out.

However that had been what Aelita was hoping for. Moving so fast that Lilith barely saw her Aelita appeared in front of with an energy sword in both of her hands. Lilith quickly blocked with her right arm as Aelita swung her left sword down on her. The sword sparked against Lilith demonic armored arm and the two grappled against each other.

Aelita thrust her right sword forward and managed to stab Lilith in the chest, her skin sparkling as the sword cut into her. Lilith grunted as she staggered back and retaliated by launching her foot up and kicking Aelita in the face. Aelita quickly recovered and slashed at Lilith's face but the dark angel blocked with her arm again and pushed forward, shattering the energy blade. As the blade shattered both digital angels glared at each other as Aelita swung her last energy blade while Lilith raised her white hand, ready to blast Aelita through the head.

Neither one was willing to give and fought with equal determination to win.

Xxx

**Tuesday, July 6th, 1994**

"Save me!" Cody squeaked, being held up in Izzy's arms.

"Forget you!" Izzy shouted, being held in LeShawna's arms. "Save me!"

"Forget that, girl!" LeShawna said, being held over DJ's head. "Save _me!_"

"Don't I get to be saved?" DJ squeaked, electrified cords beginning to close in on them, coiling and twisting like serpents.

"What do we do?" Bridgette was fending off one cord with her hoodie with only her bra protecting her modesty, using the material to slam the cable in areas that were still covered and not prone to fry her until her hair combusted.

"Elevator!" Trent shouted, ducking under another cord and rushing for the panel. "Hurry!"

He touched it-

TZZZ!

"Aye-yae-aye-aye-aye-aye-aye!" Trent babbled before he was sent flying back into Eva's arms.

"Smart," She grunted. "Go down into the scanner room!"

"But aren't we trying to get _out_ of the factory?"

"There aren't possessed cables down there," Eva flung open the hatch. "Now move it or you'll get left behind!" Suddenly one cable shot out of the hatch and grabbed her. "Hey!" She pulled her arm free and kicked the hatch shut. "Damn it! Okay, forget that, up the ladder!"

Izzy leaped out of LeShawna's arms, carrying Cody on her back as she let out her 'jungle girl' cry. She grabbed one of the higher rungs on the ladder, propelled by the jump. Then she managed to reach the top and pulled herself and Cody up. "Come on!"

Just as they were about to run one of the wires fired a blast of electricity that hit them in the back, making them scream and fall back into the lab. They hit the ground with a large thud before being picked up by more cables.

"Oh man!" Noah hid behind the chair as wires flew all around him. "Forget the mad scientist part, I prefer flipping hamburgers in a fast food restaurant!"

A cable wrapped around his leg and he screamed as he was lifted up into the air, hanging upside down. Bridgette screamed as her hoodie was set on fire and a cable wrapped around her wrists, lifting her into the air. Once everyone had been caught and lifted into the air cables slithered up to them, sparking with electricity.

"Someone help us!" Bridgette cried out. "Aelita! Geoff! Gwen! Heather! If you guys can hear me hurry up!"

Xxx

Aelita sat in the tower and waited for her father to return like he had told her to. Even though she was starting to get worried since he hadn't come back she had to believe he knew what he was doing. After all, he was able to create a digital world for them to hide in so there shouldn't be any trouble at all, right? Still, he had been gone a long time to talk to, who was it again?

"XA-NA." Aelita slowly remembered the name of the program that supposedly attacked her.

How much trouble could it be if it was a simple computer program?

'Probably a simple glitch that he went to correct,' Aelita thought to herself. 'He should be back in a few minutes.'

Still, she was getting anxious from being all alone in the tower. She hated enclosed spaces without someone to keep her company. Looking at the walls lined with blue screens and data streams she was getting restless. She needed to get out and see what was going on outside. Maybe the monsters had gone away and the danger was over.

Walking across the platform with the giant Eye she walked over to the wall, looking at it for a second. Placing her hand on the wall she gasped as light exploded around her hand. She remembered her father carrying through the wall but she still found it hard to believe she could pass through the wall of the tower like a ghost. Taking a deep breath she stepped through the wall, seeing only a flash of light as her feet stepped onto the soft grassy ground of the strange forest in the digital world her father had named Lyoko.

The second she was out she gasped as she saw something terrifying. Her father was being surrounded by three large insects resembling hornets that were shooting him with lasers!

"Daddy!"

"Aelita, you must get back into the tower now!" Waldo shouted, straining from the pain of each laser that hit him.

Luckily for Aelita, the Hornets didn't bother to turn to face as her as they continued to bombard Schaeffer with lasers.

Daddy, what's going on?" Aelita shouted when she realized the monsters were not paying attention to her.

"Aelita, I must shut down the supercomputer to stop XANA, he's become a threat to mankind." Schaeffer said as the Hornets continued to fire at him. "I'm sorry for this."

"Daddy?" Aelita asked, stepping back in fear.

"Aelita, run back into the tower now! It'll be keep you safe!" Her father shouted.

"Now, now, that will not do." Another voice said, behind Aelita, sounding smug but at the same time cold and without emotion.

She spun around to see who it was. She gasped, seeing someone standing between her and the tower. XANA stood just a few feet from her, staring at Aelita with a look amusement and curiosity while Aelita stepped back not knowing who the corrupted entity in front of was. His eyes...his bright red eyes sent a chill through her and XANA easily understood that just the appearance of his avatar was more than enough to scare her.

"XANA! Leave her alone!" Schaeffer shouted, sending a orb of light at him.

XANA however simply stood there and let the orb hit him, exploding in a blast of white light that slowly turned red and faded. XANA stood there, looking like nothing had hit him.

"Ironic isn't it father? You came here to find safety in your so called World Without Danger yet now you're facing even more danger than you did out in the real world." XANA snickered, his smirk sending chills down Aelita's spine. "But even if you shut down the computer you still have something I want and I intent to have it."

Aelita watched in shock, awe, and fear as dark tendrils came out of XANA's back with hands at the end of them and headed straight for the defenceless Schaeffer.

"Daddy!" Aelita screamed as the arms grabbed him.

Schaeffer groaned in pain as the arms started to pull the energy orb that was his form apart.

"What will it be, father? Will you hand it over and spare dear sister the agony of watching your painful deletion?" XANA asked, snickering.

Schaeffer screamed as something came out of orb, a small shining blue light.

"Ah, there it is." XANA held out his left hand as the shadowy tendril placed it there and receded into his back. "One half of the puzzle."

'The Keys!" Waldo realized in horror just what was that XANA wanted.

The Keys to Lyoko in the hands of anyone would allow them the power to control and manipulate the data of Lyoko and almost any part of cyberspace to their advantage. XANA was only able to access the towers and use them take control of any digital network from inside Lyoko and nothing else. But if XANA had gained the Keys he could take complete control and even...leave the supercomputer and no longer be reliant on it to keep him alive! XANA smirked in triumph as the small piece of data was absorbed into his avatar.

He looked up towards Aelita who backed away.

"It's nice to finally meet you sister, after all this time."

"Wh-Who are you?" Aelita stuttered, as she stepped back.

"That's right. Father never told you about this place or me." XANA looked up at the orb of light that was Waldo Schaeffer. "This is Lyoko and it along with myself are his greatest invention."

He stepped towards her making her step back.

"There's no need to fear me sister, I have no intention of harming you. In fact your existence is very important to me right now." XANA said reassuringly but Aelita felt no comfort from his words at all.

In fact she felt even more terrified.

"XANA! Leave her alone!" Waldo shouted.

"My apologies Father, but I know you gave her the other half of what I want. If you had kept the whole program there'd be no point in me bothering with this." XANA looked at Aelita with what could possibly be seen as a little sympathy as he snapped his fingers. "Hold still and this will be over."

Aelita heard a screeching sound as she slowly turned and saw some kind of jelly fish like monster hovering behind her. She screamed as it wrapped its tentacles around her, trapping her in some kind of energy field and lifted her up.

"NO!" Waldo screamed as he tried to fly at them.

However XANA's monsters blocked his way and fired more lasers. The Scyphozoa gently lowered its three tentacles down on Aelita's head. The pink haired suddenly became silent as they tentacles pulsed red and started draining her memories. XANA watched triumphantly as his monster worked to take the last piece of the keys.

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" Waldo roared as he launched himself forward like a rocket.

He plowed through the Hornets, shattering them like a glass as he shot towards the Scyphozoa. XANA frowned but before he could do anything Waldo slammed himself into the Scyphozoa, knocking into a tree forcing it to drop Aelita. She fell to the ground, dazed but seemingly fine. Waldo picked her up enveloped her in the last floating orb that served as his conscious and soul and carried her into the tower.

XANA simply stood and watched as it happened, his face a simple blank look making it hard to tell if he was even angry that his monster hadn't been able to extract the Keys in time.

Xxx

Waldo gently put Aelita down on the center of the platform. The platform brightened light and a soft beeping sound was heard as she was lowered onto it. She seemed to sleeping now, looking peaceful despite the traumatic ordeal she had gone through.

"I am sorry for this...For everything." Waldo whispered to her gently. "I never meant for this...I meant for us to be safe forever...I was a fool...I have done so much...Made mistakes...and the people I loved suffered for it...even now there are people out there...paying for my sins."

He thought of the group of teens that had come to warn him about XANA and how he simply disregarded their warning.

"I didn't want to believe that everything I worked for was in vain...That I had unleashed a great evil upon this Earth after trying to save it." Waldo's voice was full of shame and remorse. "I can't send you back...Not now...but I can save this world and I know that one day...You will leave this place and have friends...Treasure them, Aelita, the way they talked about you, friends like that are a once in a life time opportunity. I know you will become happy, even with this terrible burden and know this...Your mother and I love you with every fiber of our being."

He gently floated up towards the second platform of the tower. XANA may have stolen his set of the Keys but he was still the creator of Lyoko and he would not allow XANA the chance to wreak havoc as long as he still lived.

Xxx

**Present Day**

Aelita and Lilith flew through sky, firing bolts of energy at each other that let out a large explosion any time they hit a tree, an island, or the water. Lilith reached out with her left hand and created an energy chain that reached and grabbed Aelita's arm. Aelita gritted her teeth as Lilith pulled the chain with her enhanced strength and whipped Aelita into a tree. She slid down into the shallow water below her and Lilith flew straight at her with the intent to finish her off.

Her right clawed hand ready to impale Aelita through the chest but at the last second Aelita fired a plasma beam into the ground that propelled her into the air, dodging Lilith's claws by a few inches. They turned and flew at each other like speeding bullets. Lilith's right demonic clawed hand reached to impale Aelita through the head but she dodge and slammed a pink glowing fist into Lilith's head instead. Lilith hit the ground with a loud thud and before she could get up Aelita landed in front of her, delivering a powerful kick to the chest. As Lilith flew back she created another energy chain from her left hand that grabbed Aelita's foot and pulled it out from under her.

Aelita hung upside down in the air as Lilith delivered a powerful smack to her face with her right arm. Aelita hit the ground on her back and Lilith quickly flew at her before she could retaliate. Aelita saw a black fist before it slammed into her face and knocked her back again. She spun through the air as she hit the ground and Lilith quickly moved before the pink haired girl could regain herself. Aelita got up and barely managed to block a kick from Lilith but Lilith delivered a second kick to Aelita's face knocking down and raised her right hand to impale Aelita through the chest and finish the battle.

Realizing she would lose in the next few seconds Aelita created an energy blade and thrust it forward. Lilith's eyes widened as she let her guard down as the blade pierced her chest. Time stopped for the two digital angels as they stared into each other's eyes. The energy blade went through Lilith's chest and out her back, dripping with digital coding. Lilith gasped and let out a chocking sound as she slowly stepped back, the energy sword fading as Aelita let go.

Putting a hand to her chest Lilith screamed in pain, letting out a shockwave that knocked over trees, smashed boulders, and released tidal waves. Nearby the remaining three Lyoko Warriors watched as Lilith's skeleton soldiers crumpled to dust as Lilith's screamed echoed throughout the sector. Lilith fell to her knees as she changed back into her original form, gasping and chocking. Aelita looked down at her as her Code Angel powers wore off and the Lyoko Keys inside of her deactivated.

"I guess...I still need...some work..." Lilith gasped as she stepped back, pressing her hands over her wound. "Good thing about the Keys...They can prevent you from being deleted...even with life threatening injuries..."

A portal opened up behind her and Cain stepped out, gently catching Lilith as she fell back. As Lilith breathed heavily she looked up at Cain.

"I'm sorry...I got carried away..." Lilith whispered, her eyes starting to close. "I should...never have sent...you...back."

Cain brought his hand over Lilith's chest and released a small bit of energy that healed her injury. Looking at Aelita briefly, Cain gave her a brief nod as he stepped back into the portal with Lilith in his arms. Once the portal vanished Aelita sighed as she fell to her knees, gasping in relief that the fight was finally over. She hoped and prayed there was nothing else standing between them and the tower and that their friends would return when she shut it down.

"Aelita!"

Looking up Aelita smiled as Gwen, Heather and Geoff ran towards her.

"Hey guys." Aelita chuckled. "How's it going?"

"Forget us, you look like crap." Heather commented, pointing at Aelita's slightly torn and dirty outfit.

"Oh, and you think you look like a basket of roses, Heather?" Aelita pointed out, seeing everyone's outfits were just as torn and dirty as hers.

"I take it from the screaming earlier that you beat Lilith." Gwen offered a hand which Aelita accepted.

"Let's just say Lilith might be taking a break for a little while." Aelita took a few seconds to make sure she could stand without falling over.

"That close huh?" Heather smirked. "I guess that means Aelita two and Lilith zero."

"When did we start keeping score?" Aelita asked.

"Since you kicked Lilith's ass during the mental battle thing." Heather shrugged. "It's important for future taunting."

"Like how Sora taunts you with the whole mommy thing?" Geoff smirked but dropped it when Heather's wrist blades came out.

"Unless you want Bridgette to see you fight with both arms off you'll wisely drop that." Heather said slowly and quietly but was scary enough for Geoff to zip his mouth shut.

"Okay, I think the banter game is over, we have a tower to shut down." Aelita spoke up, changing the subject.

"Got it." Gwen nodded. "Which way do we go?"

Aelita held up her wrist computer and watched as it displayed the tower's location.

"This way." She pointed north of their position. "It's about a three minute walk on foot."

"Vehicles?" Geoff asked.

"Now that we have the Way Tower here hooked up to the supercomputer..." Aelita tapped a few commands and smiled as the Overboard, the Overwing, and the Overbike appeared.

"Great, my feet are tired." Heather hopped on the Overbike.

"I guess I can handle this." Geoff got on the Overwing.

"And of course, I get the last." Gwen hopped on the Overboard but looked at Aelita. "You think you're good enough to fly or should one of us give you a lift?"

"I'll fly, I'll need a long nap after this but I can make it." Aelita replied as she slowly flew up into the air.

"After this, we'll all need naps." Geoff said as the vehicles lifted into the air.

It didn't take them long to find the tower, the bright red aura made it easy to see through the fog. To their relief not a single general or monster, not even a Spiderling was seen on the island.

"Oh thank god!" Gwen sighed in relief as they landed. "If there was a group of monsters waiting I think I would have just said screw it and devirtualize myself."

"I actually agree with you on that." Heather hopped off the Overbike. "I actually see why the guys like riding this so much."

"Okay, Aelita, do your thing." Geoff pointed at the tower.

"Right." Aelita nodded as she walked towards the tower. "Here's hoping that our friends come back."

Aelita sighed as she passed through the wall and onto the platform inside the tower. She almost felt happy as the platform lit up with the light beeping sound as she stepped onto the center of the platform. She began to fly up the upper platform, wishing she could move faster as she was anxious to find out if the others would come back. When she arrived on the upper platform she stepped up to the interface as it appeared in front of her.

"Please work." She whispered as she placed her hand on the screen.

The hand print faded as she lifted her hand, watching what happened next.

Xxx

**Tuesday, July 6th, 1994**

After placing Aelita on the platform Waldo gently floated up towards the second platform of the tower. XANA may have stolen his set of the Keys but he was still the creator of Lyoko and he would not allow XANA the chance to wreak havoc as long as he still lived.

"Access tower systems, activate." Waldo spoke loudly. "**Code: Lyoko!**"

Outside, XANA's monsters gathered to attack the tower but stopped when they saw the tower's blue aura turn white.

"So, it's come down to that, huh father?" XANA asked out loud, feeling neither afraid nor angry for what was about to come. "Very well, it's only a temporary solution at best but I still have time."

Waldo knew that if he didn't move in time XANA would try to take control from him. He lost the keys and his avatar was shattered leaving him with very little strength to control the tower and fight of XANA when he tried to take over.

"Access, main power systems." Waldo watched as a screen appeared in front of him.

**Power System Activated**

**Shut down?**

**Yes/No**

"Yes." Waldo answered, mentally inputting the command.

He instantly knew that it had worked the screen showed the supercomputer powering down and Lyoko was powering down with it. The core powered down, then Sector 5 went dark and the power down spread throughout Lyoko. However even as it happened Waldo sensed something reaching into the tower and he knew who it was instantly.

"You won't get her now, XANA!" Waldo shouted. "There's not enough time to extract the keys or kill the kids in the lab."

"You're right about that, father." XANA's voice echoed inside the tower. "I applaud you for such quick thinking and able to move fast enough to prevent me from completing my objectives. But there's still enough time for me to do one thing."

Before Waldo could ask what XANA meant he figured it out when his digital form was enveloped in a barrier made of black smoke and red energy. The field closed in on Waldo's form, shrinking it until he could fit in the palm of a person's hand.

"I can't destroy you here inside the tower, but that doesn't mean I can't leave you in a file and transfer you to a place you won't be a threat." XANA chuckled.

"Very well, XANA, but this doesn't mean that the fight for me is over. It's just begun." Waldo cast a final look at Aelita. "Be strong, Aelita, we'll meet again."

Waldo's form fell past the platform and into the dark bottomless pit at the bottom of the tower, heading for a highly secured digital prison XANA had designed for his creator. The power down reached the tower and the lights began to go out, darkening the interior. Aelita slightly opened her eyes, allowing her to see the tower power down.

"Wh-where am I?" She whispered, trying to look around but she felt too weak to move. "Why is everything here going dark? And...Who am I?"

The lights all around her went out, leaving her in darkness. She would have been scared but she felt very tired for some unknown reason. Closing her eyes she drifted into a very deep sleep, one that she would not awake from for a whole decade.

Xxx

Everyone in the lab continued to try and fight off the electric wires sparked with electricity, ready to shock them to death. Just as the wires were inches from the group, the electricity faded and the wires fell to the ground along with everyone who had been caught.

"Hey, why aren't they shocking us to death?" Izzy asked as she lightly kicked the one of the wires.

"Miracle?" DJ asked.

"Someone shut down the activated tower." Noah pointed to the computer.

"Correct, it was me." XANA's Avatar appeared on the computer screen.

"Now why would you do that? Change of heart?" LeShawna growled.

"Oh, nothing like that. Look around you." XANA shook his head. "There's just no point in trying to kill you now since I don't have the time."

Everyone looked around and they could see lights going out, the map of Lyoko faded and the humming sound of power being generated went silent.

"Aelita's dad, he's shutting it down!" Cody exclaimed.

"We're saved!" Trent pumped a fist into the air.

"For now." They turned back to XANA as the computer began to power down. "You're still trapped and you can't find a way back to your time line. You can't turn the computer back on and risk your lives with me reawakening along with the computer. It seems that you're still trapped even if I am unable to harm you, I look forward to meeting you all again. Maybe we'll finish our little game, Noah."

Just as he finished the computer finally powered down and XANA faded, joining Aelita and Schaeffer in the forced slumber that he would not awaken unless the computer was reactivated.

"He's right...how do we get home now?" Bridgette looked down at the ground. "We're still trapped."

Xxx

**Present Day**

**Aelita**

**Code: Lyoko**

"Tower deactivated." Aelita said as the data screen fell into the dark abyss at the bottom of the tower.

A second later a bright light came up and expanded until the tower, Lyoko, and the entire world was engulfed in it.

Xxx

**Tuesday, July 6th, 1994**

Just as Bridgette looked down at the ground a bright blast of light appeared from the now deactivated holo-map.

"What no-AH!" Eva screamed as she was pulled into the light.

"Not this ag-"LeShawna tried to grab Eva but she was pulled into the light with her.

"Oh man I hate this part-WHOA!" Trent was pulled off of his feet and into the light with the others.

The dome of energy spread through the room, the factory, the city...the country...

Through everything. And then it retracted in the blink of an eye as events began to rewind to a certain point.

But for these warriors, they fast forwarded.

Xxx

They screamed as they fell onto the floor in the lab, looking exactly the same as before. Except this time there was a major difference. Bridgette groaned as she sat up from the cold floor.

"Guys?" A very familiar voice made everyone freeze.

Then Bridgette slowly looked up and saw Geoff, who was just beginning to wake up also. "Bridge...-mm!"

Need I say it?...okay, she pulled him into a kiss for the zillionth time since they met. But this one was not son random 'lovey' kiss.

This showed that she was just glad to see her boyfriend again. She pulled away and smiled at the happy look on his face.

"Bridgette! LeShawna!" Gwen up and hugged her and LeShawna tightly. "I was so worried!"

"Gwen!" LeShawna hugged back and looked up at Heather and Aelita. "Oh baby, you have no idea how happy I am to see all of you right now!"

Gwen pulled away and quickly pulled Trent and Cody in a hug, both of them happy to return.

"You guys scared the hell out of us when you vanished!" Gwen cried, closing her eyes and hoping no one saw the tears of relief that fell.

"Girl, you won't believe where we ended up." LeShawna patted Gwen on the back. "I don't any of you will believe where we ended up."

"You mean 'when' we ended up." Noah pointed out. "But yeah, good to be back."

"What do you mean 'when'?" Aelita asked, making the newly arrived warriors look at her with looks of sympathy and a bit of sadness.

Eva kept her look normal but she felt a little awkward in having to tell Aelita what they had all experienced.

"Aelita, it's a very long story." Trent replied.

Xxx

Everyone was either sitting on the floor or leaning against the wall while Aelita sat on the chair as they listened to Noah explaining what happened after the disappeared during the return trips to the past. By the end of it Aelita, Gwen, Heather, and Geoff were almost petrified in shock. XANA had sent them back in time just before she and her father entered Lyoko? He had met the TD Lyoko Warriors in the past?

"You met me and my father?" Aelita asked after a moment of silence.

"Oh yeah, he was a nice guy!" Izzy nodded. "I actually paid attention in his class!"

"He seemed to know what his students were interested in." Trent nodded.

"But if XANA met all of you and he knew..." Gwen started. "If he knew about us why didn't he try to kill us before we met Aelita?"

"The same reason..." Aelita started making everyone look at her. "The same reason why you all tried to avoid changing the past, he knew that even if he try to take you all out it might cause an unpredictable change in history, he had no way of knowing if you were his only enemies. And if he tried to take you out while he was fighting me along with Jeremy and the others we'd just deactivate the tower but would find it suspicious, especially if we learned that he was targeting people all the way in Canada." Aelita turned to Eva. "Or Europe."

"He wanted to know just who was going to be his future enemies before he did what his future self did and sent us back in time!" Cody realized. "It didn't matter if we tried to change the past because he knew it wouldn't matter!"

"So...does that mean that," Aelita looked down at the ground and those closest to her saw a few tears ready to fall. "That Jeremy and the others...all they fought for...was for nothing?"

Everyone looked at each other, realizing that if XANA knew who his future enemies were than it likely meant he'd knew he'd somehow survive his battles with the original Lyoko Warriors.

"We spent so much time trying to fight him but he knew that he was going to survive...because his real enemies had not yet met me." Aelita looked up.

"Aelita." Bridgette put a hand on her shoulders. "It wasn't for nothing. They gave it their best and XANA cheated! He played with them, played with you and your dad while waiting for us!"

"Besides, just because they lost, doesn't it count that...you were happy with them?" Heather pointed out. "I mean, does it matter even if they lost, they still tried and they were there for you?"

Everyone looked at Aelita as she thought it over and they're hopes heightened when she gave a small smile.

"I was happy ever since I met them, Jeremy, Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi were big influence on me. They risked everything for me and even though they were captured...I know they're still alive and I know I am not going to stop until I save them. I also have you all to thank," She looked at everyone. "Even the ones that aren't here with us, we've been through a lot since we met, some were good and some were awful but...we survived. And...despite everything that happened, I still hope that we will make it through this, that we will stop XANA once and for all." Aelita rubbed her eyes as she looked up. "Besides, as bad as it is, if you guys tried to change the past I would have never met Jeremy, Ulrich, Yumi, Odd, everyone at my school, and...I would never have met you guys."

"That's the spirit!" Geoff stood up. "So what if XANA got himself a new general and some big advantage with time traveling? I don't, and I am not giving! What kind of party king would I be if I decided to throw in the towel every time there was a problem? I mean look at it this way..." He grinned. "Now XANA doesn't know what'll happen next for sure anymore than we would."

"The Party King's logic is flawless," Noah said. "...surprisingly."

"Hey!"

"XANA knew that he would survive anything up to the point when he sent us back in time. He did not know what would happen afterwards and he still doesn't now. That just means that he's lost his assured survival," Noah reasoned. "...which means he's probably going to be more cautious now that he knows that anything can go from this point on."

"Yeah! Now we know that we can destroy him!" Cody said enthusiastically. "If anything XANA did us a big favour with this!"

"So let's stop sitting around and go kick his digital ass!" Izzy declared.

"...Uh...Izzy?"

"Huh?"

"We can die too you know," Bridgette pointed out.

"Oh...I knew that." Izzy nodded. "But come on, we're heroes! Heroes don't die!"

"...Seraphim did."

"Ouch...point taken," Izzy admitted. "Still...we gotta do something!"

"And we will once we have a plan," Aelita assured the red haired maniac. "For now...head back to the studio, I think we all need some good rest after what just happened. I need to figure out how XANA was able to access the Time Return Program."

"Say...how long were we gone?" Trent asked.

"About two days," Gwen shrugged.

"So...how did you cover for us?"

"We didn't, Kurt and Carlos did."

"Wait...what did they do?"

Xxx

Carlos finished spilling the last box of robot parts into a dumpster. He sighed. "This is the last time I ever use robots to cover up for missing people. Every time somebody turns them on they try to kill me!"

"Me too you moron," Kurt grumbled, helping Carlos close the dumpster. "Seriously, you didn't even bother to check if they had the three basic laws of robotics in them? Where did you get them anyways?" Both men were sporting a series of bruises, cuts and burns from what could only be described as a truly epic battle of man vs machine...

John Connor would have been proud.

"Uh...the same place Lesley got the robots for Chris?"

"And look how that turned out," Kurt shook his head. "You're just lucky they didn't damage the studio! What would have happened if the Director found out that you unleashed an army of dangerous robots on the studio-"

"SHHH!" Carlos shushed him. "She'll hear us!"

"...what's with you? There aren't any TVs around and the Director's over in Canada!" Kurt replied.

"KURT!"

"AH!" Kurt jumped, letting out a high pitched yelp and looked to the speaker, which was now perched on his nose. "...a talking mosquito?" He blinked stupidly. "Oh god I must have gotten hit too hard from that last robot!"

"It's a robot you moron!" the Director shouted through it. "I sent it over to keep an eye on things when I couldn't call the studio up! CARLOS!"

"Yes ma'am!" Carlos said quickly.

"You unleashed an army of robots on the studio?"

"Uh...no! We're uh...rehearsing a play!" Carlos said quickly. "Yes, uh...I am Robot 2! This is robot 1 and he shall explain everything, bye Kurt!" He ran off, leaving his friend to his fate.

"Carlos you coward!" Kurt shouted after him. "...uh...so what's up?"

"My blood pressure," The Director replied, "And my urge to kill or fire somebody."

"...meep!" Kurt squeaked. "Um...I'll go get Roberto and Lesley to explain!" He knocked the mosquito off of his nose and ran off.

"YOU GET BACK HERE AND TAKE IT LIKE A MAN!" The Mosquito buzzed after him.

Xxx

Lilith was suspended in an energy field in the center of the room, her wounds being repaired slowly while XANA watched a few feet away with his generals behind him.

"I suppose this is the part where Lilith gets punished for her stupidity?" Ryder lazily held his sword over his shoulder.

"No." XANA replied simply.

"No? I thought losing was bad though." Sora commented.

"Actually, things went better than I thought." XANA smirked as he turned around. "I never expected them to fail in reaching the tower, despite the heavy resistance they had encountered. Just to make sure history went as predicted and a chance to test out Lilith's powers."

"So now what?" Jinx asked.

"We thank our new ally for their help." XANA said as a screen appeared in front of him with a shadowy figure that hid their features.

"We have an ally?" Sora whispered to Jinx who just shrugged.

"Things went better than planned; you did as you said when you claimed you'd give me access to the Time Return Program." XANA spoke to the mysterious person.

"_Glad to see you were pleased, XANA. Does my demonstration solidify our alliance?_" The figure's voice was distorted, making it impossible to tell if it was male or female.

"Indeed, can I count on you allowing me access to any more important programs?" XANA asked.

"_Yes, provided you hold your part of our agreement._" The figure nodded. "_For now I need to make sure Aelita does not find out how I got into the Restricted Section but with my help the Lyoko Warriors are finished._"

"I'm looking forward to it." XANA grinned.


	84. Episode 82: Blaineley's Revenge

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

* * *

Chapter 84

Aelita rubbed her eyes as she read the over the page from her father's files. This had been one of the many files she had retrieved from the laboratory in the basement of her old house in the mountains. Her parents had kept files on nearly everything that had to do with Lyoko, Project Carthage, and even XANA. Whenever she hadn't been working on something that was either school related or Lyoko related she took the time to learn what her parents had written down in their logs.

On the screen of her computer were several files with labels that had pages of information.

LYOKO

CARTHAGE

TIME RETURN PROGRAM

XANA

But she was focused on the last file that she had opened.

KEYS TO LYOKO

_The Keys to Lyoko are perhaps one of my greatest creations; they are the literal keys to Lyoko itself. Whoever possesses them is given the ability to command Lyoko itself, becoming the most powerful being in the digital realm. The Keys themselves allow access to any program connected with Lyoko, the landscape, the towers, and even gaining the ability to sense anything within the digital land. When I created the towers to be used as a way to control and regulate XANA's abilities I started working on a program that would allow a human to access the towers and use them like XANA. The way they work is genius even by my standards; the Keys are actually a set of AIs that act as the person's connection to Lyoko._

_The reason they are called keys is because they offer access to almost a million different programs so in a single compact file are a million keys with a million smart programs designed to work together like a single entity and designed to operate as a safe program to the person using the Keys. In a way you could say I have worked to combine digital coding and organic thinking into a single working entity, much like how my wife and I did when we scanned our daughter's DNA into XANA's codes to allow it to combine the calculating thought process of a machine with the creative thinking of humans. Only now we have done the reverse, inserting digital coding into the minds of organics. The brain operates like a computer and now we can input the data for the keys into that computer. _

_The AIs are not like XANA; they are programmed only to access whatever data the owner of the keys directs them. In others words, our minds control the Keys like how we control the limbs of our bodies. It is my hope that with the Keys I'll be able to use Lyoko to see the digital universe we created when the Internet came into being and see what lies beyond Lyoko which is just the border between our worlds._

After everyone who had disappeared during the Return Trips to the Past had returned Aelita suggested they all get some rest to prepare for the next battle. Aelita needed to learn how XANA managed to access the Time Return Program and how to use the Keys to Lyoko fully.

_"Just a mere upgrade, Aelita? Don't you know anything about the Keys?"_

Lilith's words rang inside her head and she shook her head to clear it. The idea of Lilith possessing her own copy of the Keys was unnerving and the fact that she could now use Code Angel to activate them gave XANA a very powerful weapon.

'But why can't XANA use the Keys like me and Lilith?' Aelita thought.

XANA had only ever used the Keys he stole from her and her father to create Replicas and the Carbon Copy to give him more power. If he could use the Keys like she and Lilith could he'd be almost too powerful to handle as much as Aelita didn't want to think since she and the others were determined to stop him.

'Perhaps, because the Keys to Lyoko were meant to work for organics XANA might not be able to use the Keys like me and Lilith since he is still a computer program.' Aelita thought it over. 'He already had access to anything connected to the supercomputer and could manipulate Lyoko's landscape even without the Keys. He can't use the Keys to upgrade himself since he doesn't have a true form like me and Lilith, so he's probably limited to using them to create Replicas and upgrading his monsters.'

It could explain how he was able to upgrade his army when he returned and create new sectors for Lyoko.

'In other words, he needed to create something that was not totally connected to him like his monsters, but also had a form of its own with human DNA.' Aelita narrowed her eyes. 'And when he created Lilith from Jeremy's DNA he found the perfect general for that purpose.'

But Lilith gaining Code Angel was her own fault as she used it in her battle with Nephilim, meaning she had given Lilith a dangerous new ability. One that she needed to learn how to counter before XANA gains anymore advantages. XANA was becoming more dangerous, with new surprises that kept him one step ahead of everyone. Aelita needed to come up with surprises of her own to even the odds before another bad thing happened.

'I pray nothing else happens for a little while.' Aelita sighed. 'That's the last thing we all need at the moment.'

Xxx

"Last time on Total Drama Reality-god I can't believe I'm doing that stupid line," Kurt sighed. "Next thing you know I'll sound like Chris!"

"CUT!" Lesley shouted. "Kurt, do it right or the director's mosquito drone will sting you again!"

"Right," Kurt rubbed his neck where he had been stun earlier. "Last time on Total Drama Reality we had a battle of the bands challenge between our three teams. Some were good, some rocked, while some people just sucked...I don't think you have to be a detective to figure out who fits the last category. In the end our former host, one Chris McLean, was booted off his own show and took the Jet of Shame and Losers out of here!...and once again everybody watching and present I call upon your cooperation for this."

(That includes you readers too!)

Kurt then swung both arms up with a whoop! "Wooo!"

Everybody else in the studio mimicked him, as did millions of watching fans all over the world.

(And hopefully you too, readers.)

"Now," Kurt cleared his throat. "We move on to more important things such as the challenge! What craziness will happen with me in charge and Carlos as head Producer? Find out on Total Drama REALITY!...now I'm gonna sit down before I throw up." He walked out of view. "Cue the theme song!"

After the opening animations for the show, the camera showed the cast gathered in the Super Computer room.

"Well everybody, we're back in the Super Computer room," Kurt said. "We haven't had digital challenges in a while so we thought that we'd-"

BEEEEEP! BEEEEP!

"KURT! CARLOS!"

"God in heaven it can't be!" Kurt groaned as a face appeared on the screen.

"It is buddy," Carlos sighed as they both slowly turned to look at...

"BLAINELEY?" Everybody-including the cast members shouted.

"That's right boys!" Blaineley waved.

"What the heck are you doing on the computer, and in the middle of the show?" Kurt demanded.

"Planning my revenge!" Blaineley cackled. "On you two morons!"

"What? Revenge? For what?" Kurt looked at Carlos, who shrugged.

"For stealing my job, a(BEEP)!" Blaineley snapped. "After Chris was booted off I was supposed to be the new host, not you! I'm the one who's qualified, NOT YOU!"

"...you? Host?" Kurt asked.

"Qualified?" Carlos sounded incredulous. "You're about as qualified at hosting as I am at anger management!...Oh, hey! I burned myself!"

"Shot yourself in the foot," Kurt nodded. "Now listen closely Blaineley, you're all the way in _Canada_ on the _Aftermath!_ You can't come here to host because not only are you not qualified to host, but the restraining order says _five hundred meters_ or more at all times away from me!"

"You have a restraining order?" Noah raised an eyebrow.

"Yes I do," Kurt nodded. "Long story," He waved a hand dismissively.

"Well Kurt, you should be happy to know that all of our Aftermath shows haven't been done in the real world...well some have but most were done...in the _digital world!_" Blaineley sneered, hands on her hips.

"...hey Kurt, that explains a lot!" Carlos realized.

"It does? How?"

"It explains how she can walk around when she should be in a full body cast!" Carlos pointed at the screen. "You had all the losers digitised so nobody would see you in a full body cast? What's the good in that when the world saw your gut!"

"Not important Carlos!" Blaineley snapped. "And today's challenge is me taking you out so I can take over!"

"Oh yeah," Kurt rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "You, take us out?"

"Her? Take _them_ out?" Cody blinked.

"Allow me to compare," Izzy cleared her throat. "Two ex-SAS and MI6 agents who are super muscular and good at fighting...you." She pointed at Blaineley as she said the last word. "Crazy bad a(BEEP) with temper problems...you." She pointed at the screen again on the last word. "Martial arts and demolition experts...and then there's _you._" She pointed again.

"That's the reason why I launched a law suit against the Director!" Blaineley snickered. "So she changed today's challenge! If I win, then I take over as host!"

The whole group gasped.

"Impossible!" Roberto said.

"That girl don't roll over for anybody," Chef shook his head.

"Uh...peons?" the group all turned as the Director's TV was wheeled in. "I rolled over for her."

"...Director, what happened?" Kurt asked calmly.

"She got a whole bunch of fancy lawyers who managed to convince a judge that she wasn't picked due to personal prejudice." The Director sighed.

"DUH! Court. Restraining order. Five hundred meters woman!" Kurt shook his fist at Blaineley. "Plus you're a psycho!"

"That's not what you thought before!" Blaineley whined.

"That was before I went to your birthday party and saw you give a death glare to anybody who so much as touched the cake!" Kurt glared at her. "By the way, how's the eating disorder?"

"You just didn't like me because I had some weight!"

"You got Lesley to date you, remember?" Carlos pointed out. "High School? Christmas party of-"

"LALALALALA! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" Lesley plugged her ears.

"...no, it wasn't your eating disorder Blaineley," Kurt sighed. "What freaked me out was you constantly paying people off to cater to you, paid off others to give you that black market liposuction just so your medical record wouldn't show...and your feet_ stink_!"

Carlos looked to the Director. "Tell us almighty one, what must we do?"

"Well I have good news," the Director admitted. "We convinced the Judge that if you can beat Blaineley in today's challenge then the matter is dropped...but if she wins then Kurt has to move five hundred meters away from the studio."

"Hey!" Kurt whined. "But-she-who-what?"

"Contract's a contract," The Director shrugged. "Knowing Blaineley, we knew she'd pick out some crazy challenge. So we convinced her to hold a simple fair challenge where everybody gets a chance."

"...what is it?"

"Ever play base ball?"

"NO!" Several people wailed...including Carlos oddly.

"...the hell? You're like all the star athletes on steroids with a six pack of Red Bull," Heather snapped.

"I _loathe_ base ball," Carlos shuddered. "I do not like it, I hate, I _despise_ it!"

"CARLOS SHUT UP!" the Director snapped. "That's the challenge, so shut up and deal with it!"

"Yes Excellency," Carlos bowed his head.

"But how do we play baseball with Blaineley?" Duncan asked. "Isn't she uh...across the ocean?"

"This is where the pods come in," The Director explained. "The two computers-the one in Paris and at Blaineley's location are connected through the internet. So anybody using either pods will arrive in the same digital world."

"...I do this under protest," Carlos mumbled.

"You're not playing Carlos! THEY ARE!"

This actually startled the group.

"Wait...so my career rests in the hands of the cast?" Kurt blinked.

"...And my sanity rests in their hands too?" Carlos asked.

"...it's a little too late for that second one," The Director said. "But listen closely all remaining contestants! Unless you want to endure the rest of this season under Blaineley's control, you will beat her at digital baseball! Or you can look back on the days with Kurt as host with fond memories!" As she spoke, the screen next to Blaineley's show a montage of Kurt's few days as host...

Chris crying as he was dragged onto the Jet of Losers, the Battle of the Bands...

"...that's all we got," The Director said.

"The Golden age ends before its time!" Cody said, falling to his knees. "We have to win! We HAVE to win! I can't go through this with Blaineley as host!"

"Yeah dude! The little dude's right! I couldn't stand working with her on the Aftermath!" Geoff nodded. "No way I'll work with her as host!"

"Damn it men pull yourselves together!" Heather slapped them on the back of the heads. "This is Blaineley! I was on the show with her last season and she's nothing! We can take her loser team!"

"That's where you're wrong Heather," Blaineley began to wring her fingers in that 'evil villain' style. "During the past month I've amassed a team that is assured to win."

"Oh yeah, what losers did you pick?" Duncan snickered.

"A couple from Playa de Losers," Blaineley shrugged. "Oh booooys!"

Alejandro, Harold, Sierra, Tyler, Sasquatchanakwa, the escaped psycho killer with the chain saw and a hook, ...and Sir Carlos and Sir Christopher Deluxe 2.0.

"Oh dear lord!" Carlos shook a fist at the screen. "How could you do this Sir Carlos?"

"Defensive Statement: She threatened to put this unit's hair back to looking the way it used to." Sir Carlos bowed its head in shame.

"How did she bribe the eliminated contestants?"

"...well if we participate and win...we get back in the game!" Alejandro said with a smile. "And after that we were kinda hoping something would knock her back off again."

"Alejandro you traitor!" Heather shouted.

"Heather, I only took it so I could get back on the show with you," Alejandro said, minus any charming accent, winking, muscle flexing, etc. "That's seriously why I went for it! And why Harold went for it!"

"I miss you my LeGoddess!" Harold declared.

"Aw Harold," LeShawna blushed a bit and looked away.

"I MISS YOU CODY!" Sierra waved.

"Hi, Sierra." Cody sighed and waved.

"Tyler!" Lindsay ran up to the computer screen and gave it a big kiss where Tyler's face was.

"I miss you too, Lindsay!" Tyler tried to kiss her back.

"You know what today's challenge is," the Director stated. "PROCEED AS NORMAL KURT!"

"Yes ma'am," Kurt swallowed as the TV was wheeled back out. He rounded on the contestants. "Okay everybody, it is imperative that you do not lose to her team! I went down the road of working with that witch before and I won't do it again!...now before that interruption I had a special announcement to make."

He pointed at the remains of Team C. "Team Chris is very very very very hot is now disbanded!...and thank god for that."

"Yes!" Izzy hopped up and down.

"Finally," Noah sighed in relief.

"And the remaining members shall be divided among the last two teams." Kurt continued. "So...random choice everybody!"

"Please don't let him on this one; please don't let him on this one!" Courtney pleaded silently from where Team Amazon sat.

"Duncan! Team Victory! GO!"

"Whatever," Duncan walked over to his new team.

"YES!"

"Izzy, you were originally on Team Amazon before you switched with Sierra. GO!"

"Yayz!" Izzy hugged her old team members: Gwen, Heather, Courtney and Cody. "I missed you _sooo_ much!"

"We know," Cody strained to speak with his torso being compressed.

"Noah your wise ass comments will now serve Team Victory!" Kurt said. "And by serve I mean 'will make everybody want to kill you'."

"I'll deal with it," Noah walked over to his new team.

"Now we can't have both teams face off against Blaineley's team...so we're going to take members from both teams and combine them into one for this challenge!" Kurt said. "Anybody who thinks they are good at baseball, raise their hand!...oh and for this challenge, nobody gets voted off due to the urgency of this situation!...except maybe Blaineley so we can get her kicked off for good this time!"

The cast cheered, all of them agreeing that having Blaineley as host of Total Drama would be a nightmare.

"Good, the simulation has already been set up." The Director gestured to the screen showing a baseball stadium. "Each team will have ten players."

"Ten, but Blaineley only has eight." Bridgette pointed out.

"Oh yeah, Chef and Roberto are playing for my team." Blaineley pointed at them.

"Say what?" Kurt and Carlos glared at them. "You sold us out!"

"Whatever, I think I can handle working with her." Roberto walked over the computer to show he was Blaineley's team.

"She made a good argument." Chef followed him.

"Great." Carlos smacked himself in the head.

"Okay, a team of ten from both teams." Kurt looked at the two remaining teams. "Okay, we get five minutes to pick and sort out our team and then the game starts. I'll pick who plays the game, Carlos you get the computer set up."

"On it!" Carlos walked to the computer.

"Okay..." Kurt looked at all of the competitors. "First we eliminate competitors who don't know how to play baseball."

"I'm out." Noah stepped away.

"No surprise. Anybody else?"

"Uh...I never played Base Ball before," Lindsay said. "Well I did but then my coach told me to never hold a bat again. I think it's because of what happened to his eye."

"...again, no surprise." Kurt said, Carlos nodding in agreement. "So that leaves us with thirteen potential players."

"So...who volunteers?" Carlos asked...only for all thirteen of the remaining contestants to raise their hands. "...this might take a while."

"Okay let's just start picking," Kurt said. "We need the best players in the cast."

"Uh...on second thought I think I might mess up," Beth admitted. "I only played a few times and I'm not too good at this."

"And then there were twelve," Carlos nodded. "So now we have to start eliminating the volunteers. Two people have to sit this out, so now we shall begin the stressful and tormenting tests to-" Suddenly half of the remaining twelve dropped their hands. "...well that worked too well."

"Great, now we need four of you back in," Kurt sighed. "It's time to do this the old fashioned way. Will the six who just backed out please line up?"

Courtney, Heather, Cody, DJ, Bridgette and Geoff lined up. Kurt stood before them with his hands on his hips. "It's time..." He said darkly...

And then placed one hand over his eyes and pointed at the group of six. "Eeny, meany, miney, moe! Catch a tiger by the toe!"

"Are you serious?" All of them shouted.

"Quiet! Aw great you distracted me," Kurt sighed. "Start over!"

"OKAY I'll step up!" Heather said with a groan.

"Me too, just no more 'Eeny Meany Miney Moe'!" Courtney nodded.

"I'll sit this one out! I'm not good at land based sports." Bridgette said stepping back.

"Please just no more of that, dude!" Geoff stepped forward, leaving Bridgette and DJ to be dropped.

"It always works," Kurt smirked. "Okay everybody, get over to the VR Pods and prepare to-" Carlos tapped Kurt on the shoulder while putting away a satellite phone he had been speaking into moments ago. "What is it now Carlos?"

"Just a heads up, the loser not only has to leave the studio," Carlos informed him. "They also buy the winner nachos and soda after the game."

Kurt groaned one hand on his face. "What did you do?"

"Nothing! Blaineley went all crazy on me again for some reason," Carlos said defensively. "She said we were all losers and that her team would kick our butts out of here. Next thing I know we made a bet for nachos and pop!"

Kurt stared at him like he had grown a second head. "...let's find out for sure. Lesley? Please bring up the footage."

"Got it!"

The main screen began to show Carlos speaking into the phone. It zoomed in, and his words became clearer...

_"Our team's gonna kick you and your loser team's butts outta here! Get ready you blonde psycho because now it's on!" He was about to hang up...but then spoke again. "Oh and losers buy the winners nachos and soda. Hah!" He hung up._

Carlos had a sheepish look on his face as everyone glared at him. "Heh, go Team Total Drama."

"Forget about him, into the pods!" Kurt shouted.

The contestants, even the ones that were not playing the game quickly got into the pods, put the visors over the eyes and waited for Lesley to hit the switch and they were all send into the digital simulation.

Xxx

Aelita looked at the clock while listening to the teacher's lecture. After reading her father's notes on the Keys to Lyoko she decided to head to the factory. She needed to learn how to use the Keys properly since it would come in handy in future battles. The others were busy with a challenge so she hoped they'd be fine while she was in Lyoko.

The good news that if XANA tried anything she'd know instantly and she'd already be in Lyoko to stop it.

Xxx

The cast found themselves in a very large baseball stadium, with a grassy green friend, a blue sky with a blip floating above the stadium and rows of people sitting in the audience cheering at the group. They noticed they were wearing white shirts, shorts, and running shoes with the TD logo on their backs and baseball caps on their heads.

"Welcome everyone to the Total Drama Baseball stadium!" Kurt announced from...above them.

They looked up to see him in the blimp hovering over the stadium.

"Today, we decide the fate of Total Drama, its cast, and me!" Kurt pointed to himself. "If the enemy wins than Blainelely takes over my job. SO GO GET EM KIDS!"

"Hey look! It's all the losers!" Heather pointed to the stands ,where every single cast member who had been voted off of the show was sitting. Owen was holding a box labelled 'hot dogs'. "Hot Dogs! Get your hot dogs here!" Then he stuffed one into his mouth before noticing the teams showing up. "IZZY!"

He exchanged his box for a sign that said 'GO IZZY GO!' "I've still got your back Izzy!"

"Zeke, it's your turn," Katie informed the home schooled boy, who got up and held a box of...

"Butt scratchers! Get your butt scratchers, eh!" He held up what looked like miniature rakes. "Butt Scratcher!"

"Butt Scratcher!" Owen held up one hand.

"Butt Scratcher!" Zeke held out the Butt scratcher to Owen.

"Butt Scratcher!" Owen nodded with a grin and began to scratch his back.

"Butt Scratcher?"

Carlos shouted from the field. "Does anybody know these guys?"

"I don't know but BUTT SCRATCHER!" Izzy shouted.

"Butt Scratcher, eh!" Zeke tossed Izzy one.

"Enough with the butt scratching! We've got a game to play!" Kurt insisted as the opposing team appeared. "Okay everybody. We'll start with a coin toss. The one with heads starts at bat."

Carlos walked out into the middle of the field with a coin where Blaineley met with him.

"All right, let's see who gets the bat first. Not that it matters because you're going down!" Carlos pointed at Blaineley.

"No, you're going down!" Blaineley pointed back at him.

"No you're going down!"

"You're going down!"

"You are!"

"You are!"

Suddenly their argument was cut off by a laser blast coming from the blimp. Kurt was holding a remote control as his face appeared on the giant screen attached to the blimp.

"I should have told everyone, the blimp comes with a laser cannon for arguments like this." Kurt pressed the red button and fired another laser shot down on the field.

"AH!" Blaineley and Carlos screamed as they jumped out of the way as the laser hit the ground and left a crater that vanished a second later.

"KURT!" They both shouted up at the blimp.

"That's for breaking up fights! Now shut up toss the coin!" Kurt shouted his voice magnified so that it was so loud that everyone had to cover their ears.

"All right, all right!" Carlos tossed the coin into the air.

"HEADS!" Blaineley called before anyone on the other team could.

"Dang it! I wanted to do that!" Carlos groaned as the coin landed in his hand and it showed..."Oh man! Blaineley's team bats first!"

Team Total Drama groaned as Blaineley let out a cheer.

"Okay, boys! Get the bat and hit every ball they throw!"

"And you guys get me a strike on every swing!" Kurt shouted.

"He's louder than a chainsaw!" Duncan rubbed his ears. "Okay, I'll pitch."

"No, I'll pitch!" Courtney pointed to herself.

"Excuse me, but I was a pro at this in juvy." Duncan glared.

"And I _am_ a pro at this." Courtney replied.

"Okay!" Heather got between them. "Enough! If this how you two are going to behave then none of you are pitching!"

"Whatever." Duncan shrugged.

"And who else can do it? You?" Courtney pointed at Heather.

"I can." Trent raised his hand. "I played a couple times."

"Good, Trent plays and these two shut up." Gwen smirked. "Let's get on with it."

Xxx

Confessional: Trent

"I played a couple of games before and I'm good with the pitches. Blaineley's team is going down!"

End Confessional

Xxx

_Ping!_

_Ping!_

_PING!_

"You're supposed to actually _try_ and get it past them!" Heather, who was serving as umpire shouted at Trent.

"I'm trying, they're good!" Trent replied as Alejandro reached third base.

"This guy's so lame that even Harold hit the ball," Duncan sighed, and then cupped a hand to his mouth. "Hey Trent! Maybe you should throw the ball a little _harder_ for once! You know, a little harder than say...a ten year old's throw?"

Trent growled. "Hard throw you said?"

He spun and-

CRACK! Duncan fell over, clutching himself. "...ow." He let out a high pitched squeak.

Everybody either winced or started laughing...actually only the hosts and Blaineley laughed.

"Okay, okay! We'll do that over," Kurt chuckled. "But only because Punk Boy provoked him."

"You can't do that Kurt!" Blaineley shouted.

"Oh yes he can!" Carlos snapped.

"No he can't!"

"Yes he can!"

"Can't!"

"Can!"

"Can't!"

"CAN!"

TSEW! Suddenly a laser struck the ground between them...coming from Kurt's eyes. As the blast ended and everybody stared at the host, he grinned. "I _just_ learned I could do that! Now you two quit the fighting or you're gonna dance!"

"Oh yeah? And how'll you do that?" Blaineley crossed her arms.

Carlos sighed. "Even _I_ learn my lessons faster than you."

TSEWTSEWTSEW!

"Ah! Ow! Hey!" Both Carlos and Lesley jumped around as Kurt fired laser after laser at their feet. This turned into a sort of dance as Kurt laughed.

"Anyone else wanna dance?" Kurt asked.

"...PLAY BALL!" Heather shouted.

Sir Carlos Deluxe stepped up to bat now.

"Okay...here we go Trent," Trent muttered to himself. "Time to unleash hell..." He reared his arm back, and everything suddenly began to move in slow motion as he let the ball fly.

Everybody followed the path of the ball...

"Why is it going so slow?"

"Hang on, there's a small glitch in the simulation," Kurt sighed. "Lesley?"

"_Got it!_" Lesley's disembodied voice replied.

The ball sped up-

PING! The ball went flying so fast that it became a tiny dot in the sky before it began its descent.

"Somebody get that ball!" Courtney shouted as everybody in outfield, followed by Trent himself rushed to catch the ball. Sir Carlos Deluxe began to run while Alejandro rushed for home base. Harold reached third base while Sierra reached second base, only to stop and hug Cody. "I made it! YAY!"

Cody sighed. "Good for you."

"Got it! Got it! Got it!" Everybody was shouting as they all converged on one spot. They all held up their gloves, not keeping an eye on what was in front of them-

Thunk!

All of them fell over with a groan. Duncan landed on his back, and Courtney fell over forwards onto him, and their lips met...just as the ball landed in his glove. Both players blinked, confused and blushing deeply at the embarrassing position-which was broadcasted on international TV.

Xxx

Confessional: Geoff

"I knew there'd be a few awkward moments between Duncan and Courtney but that was unexpected."

Xxx

Confessional: Gwen

"Wow, is it me or is the universe just deciding to pair those two back up?"

Xxx

Confessional: Sierra

"Oh my gosh! Will Duncan and Courtney get back together? This will be great for my blog and all my 'Duncney' fans!"

End Confessional

Xxx

The moment between them was savoured...

"S'cuse me guys!" Trent snatched the ball up and-using that surprise hard throw of his tossed the ball all the way back to the diamond. Heather leaped into the air as Alejandro slid, kicking up dust...

"SAFE!"

"Doh!" Heather groaned as she landed. "Cody!"

She tossed it to Cody, who held up the ball after having moved just enough with Sierra holding on to him that she was no longer on Second Base. The ball landed in his glove, and he broke free of her and leaped onto second base. "OUT! Izzy!"

He threw it, but by the time Izzy caught it, Harold had slid onto third base. "Yes! Safe!"

"And it's a bitter victory folks!" Kurt shouted. "Alejandro made it, but Sierra and Carlo Deluxe are OUT! One more and Team Total Drama is up to bat!" He silently prayed that they would make it.

"Happy I made it?" Alejandro smirked at Heather.

"Don't get any ideas." Heather pointed Alejandro. "Chance to see me or not I still aim to win."

"I wouldn't have it any other way, senorita." Alejandro kissed her hand, grinning at her blushing face as he walked back to his team.

Trent held up the ball while Katie and Sadie jumped out of the audience and landed on the ground wearing cheerleader outfits.

"GO TRENT! GO TRENT! GO TRENT!" They chanted while waving their pompoms.

Sir Christopher walked up and picked up the bat.

"Not again..." Gwen muttered, shaking her head at the fact they had to deal with another robot.

Trent threw the ball as hard as he could.

'Come on, come on-'

PING!

The ball was flying...towards the stadium! Lindsay and Beth screamed and ducked as the ball sailed over their heads and bounced off the seats. It flew back into the stadium as Harold made a dash towards home base.

"Somebody catch it!" Heather shouted.

Gwen, LeShawna, and Geoff all ran to catch the ball but Geoff jumped into the air and knocked Gwen and LeShawna down. He held up his hand to catch the ball but it hit him in the head instead of his hand.

"AH!" Geoff shouted as he fell down clutching his face.

The ball bounced off his face and flew towards home base just as Harold jumped and attempted to slide towards home base. The ball flew at him and just as Harold jumped it hit him in the chest and knocked him back.

"AH!" He let out a shout as he slowly fell back.

"Not...ano...ther...gli...tch..." Kurt groaned. "Les...ley!"

_"On it!"_ Lesley replied and the sound of her hand smacking the computer was heard.

"AH!" Harold fell back without the slow motion and hit his back on the ground.

"THEY DID IT!" Carlos laughed. "The ball whacked Harold!"

"Isn't Heather supposed to take it to home base to get him out?" Beth asked as she and Lindsay got back up.

"Oh right. GET IT! QUICK!"

Izzy snatched it up and tossed it to Heather, who caught it easily. "You're out Harold!"

"And that's three outs! Team Total Drama is up to bat and Team Blaineley is out on the field!" Kurt announced. "Will Team Total Drama pull through? Will I be forced out of the studio? Find out after these commercials!"

Xxx

When her class was over Aelita made her way to the factory and set up the automatic virtualization sequence on the computer. Once that was done she took the elevator down to the scanner room and walked into the nearest scanner. She closed her eyes as the scanners closed when the timer hit zero and felt herself engulfed in the blast of wind and light. Opening her eyes she found herself in the Mountain Sector as she landed perfectly on the ground.

"Okay, here I am." Aelita looked around just in case there were any monsters or generals waiting to surprise her.

When she was sure that no one was going to attack her Aelita closed her eyes and sat on the ground, make sure she was comfortable before the test.

"Computer, activate Code Angel, one hundred percent." She whispered.

She felt the Keys inside her activate and she concentrated. She needed to see just how far she could go with using them, seeing if they could help her in the fight against XANA.

'If they can allow me to interact with any program mentally then maybe...' Aelita opened her white glowing eyes.

She raised her hand towards a boulder and it was lifted into the air. She lowered her hand and it was gently placed back on the ground.

'Okay, easy. Now for something a little harder.' Aelita thought.

Placing her hands together, as if she was praying she mentally reached out into the Restricted Section of the Supercomputer that stored all of Team Lyoko's vital programs. Including the time return program. Her eyes were closed but inside her mind she found herself seemingly floating in what looked like Outer space with endless blue orbs shining like stars made of streams of data. Aelita floated to one of the stars and placed her hand on it, gasping as she was able see the codes that made up the program she was touching.

It was almost impossible to understand them, even for someone like Aelita but somehow she instantly understood the coding of any program she saw no matter how complex it looked. Taking her hand of the program she started looking through the various categories of programs she smiled when she finally found the one she was looking for.

The Time Return Program.

'Now if someone hacked the program then...' Aelita thought as she looked over the very complex coding of the program.

Placing her hand on it she was able to see and understand the codes that her parents had used to create this program.

'This is unbelievable. With these keys a person can become an instant genius that would make Bill Gates' entire work look like cheap toys!' Aelita said in excitement and surprise.

She looked over the Time Return Program and everything seemed normal, except for one small thing.

Xxx

"And we're back!" Kurt announced. "Before the break Team Total Drama won the first half of the game with Team Blaineley only having one point, in your face Mildred!"

"Suck it, Kurt!" Blaineley shouted.

"No thanks poison and junk food don't well together. And now, Team Total Drama is up to bat. TAKE THEM OUT!" Kurt shouted.

"I'm up first!" Courtney ran up and picked up the bat. "I'll score the first point for my team!"

"Who saw that coming?" Duncan asked, earning a glare from Courtney.

"Don't make fun of her Duncan, she might have some trouble!" Geoff pointed out into the field which made everyone look.

Pitching for Team Blaineley was...Sir Christopher!

"Not the robot again!" LeShawna and Heather exclaimed at the same time.

"That robot will throw so hard the bat will break!" Gwen protested.

"Tough luck! I am team captain I choose Sir Christopher as pitcher of my team! So suck it up and shut up, gothy!" Blaineley snapped. "Take them out Sir Christopher!"

"Statement: Captain's loud voice is threatening to short circuit this unit's audio receptors." Sir Christopher held up the ball as Courtney picked up the bad.

"Is it wrong for me to worry that someone forgot to put the safety program on to make sure no one is hurt?" Bridgette asked as she and DJ sat in the audience with the losers.

"Oh, my bad!" Lesley's voice replied. "I got it in a few minutes!"

"Oh crap, Courtney's going to be hurt!" DJ covered his eyes. "I can't look! Don't tell me what happens!"

Courtney got ready to swing as Sir Christopher was ready to throw the ball.

"Just because he's a robot doesn't mean he's goin-" Courtney was cut off as the ball flew past her so fast she couldn't even see it and the umpire, Sir Carlos caught it easily.

"Strike one." Sir Carlos said.

"Hey! I wasn't even ready!" Courtney protested.

"Too bad!" Blaineley laughed. "A strike's a strike!"

Sir Carlos passed it back to Sir Christopher who got ready to throw again.

"Now this time give me a chance to-"Courtney didn't even have the time to finish that sentence.

"Strike two." Sir Carlos spoke, his giant baseball gloved hand holding the ball.

Xxx

Confessional: Heather

"This has got to be illegal! How the hell did Blaineley convince the producers to let these robots play anyhow?"

Xxx

Confessional: Sir Carlos

"Statement: Blaineley convinced producers because this Unit and the Christopher Unit demanded jobs at Total Drama Corporation, effectively making Blaineley unit, host of Total Drama Aftermath, unfortunate boss of this unit since destruction of Blaineley unit is illegal."

End Confessional

Xxx

"Strike three."

"Oh come on! That was hardly fair!" Courtney threw the bat onto the ground. "Your robot's pitches are too fast to be seen!"

"Too bad, you're out!" Blaineley pointed to the bench. "Now get out so more of your team can lose!"

"I will be calling my lawyers for this!" Courtney shouted as she stomped over the bench.

"Okay, gothy's next!" Blaineley pointed at Gwen who happened to be sitting at the far end of the bench.

"You can't be serious." Gwen groaned.

"Come on, get up here and get it over with!" Blaineley shouted.

"Fine..." Gwen sighed.

"You can do it, Gwen! Just keep your eye on the ball!" Trent called out to her as she walked over to the baseball diamond.

"(Cough) suck up!" Duncan whispered next to him.

"Okay, I got it." Gwen picked up the bat.

Xxx

**Ten Seconds Later**

"Strike three!" Sir Carlos said as he caught the ball.

"And I lost it." Gwen dropped the bat and walked back to the bench.

"Well, looks like this round is mine, Kurt!" Blaineley pointed up at the blimp with Kurt watching from the cockpit.

Kurt growled and fired a laser blast from his eyes that knocked Blaineley down.

"Well, I guess there's no rule about not blasting her with lasers." Carlos laughed.

"This is not good, this is not good!" Kurt paced back and forth. "Being forced away from the studio by the restraining order _I _set up! What the (Bleep) did I do to deserve this?"

"_Kurt, you moron, stop with the swearing. You know how much it costs to edit them out!_" Lesley shouted.

"I'm kind of a little stressed here, Lesley, on account that I'm about to lose my job to the she-devil who devoured the cake at our high school graduation in less than two minutes!" Kurt shouted.

"That was her?" Carlos looked over Blaineley who just gotten back up. "Yeesh, it looked like a rabbit on steroids finding itself a pile of carrots!"

"Okay, geek boy's next!" Blaineley pointed at Cody who had been sitting next to Gwen.

Cody gulped as he walked up and picked up the bat.

'I've never before needed a miracle as I did now.'

"Go Cody!"Sierra shouted from third base. "You can do it!"

Xxx

Confessional: Duncan

"Who is she kidding? That little guy against a killer robot? In five seconds she'll be running to jump in between him and the killer ball."

Xxx

Confessional: Geoff

"Don't tell Cody this but no matter how cool I think he is against a robot that nearly killed Kurt he's..." Geoff held out both hands and pointed both thumbs down.

Xxx

Confessional: Kurt

"I am so screwed!"

Xxx

Confessional: Gwen

"Sorry, Cody, I want to be supportive but against a killer robot here? All I can say is get it over with."

End Confessional

Xxx

"So this how the program was accessed with anyone noticing. This is not good." Aelita sighed when she finished looking over the time return program.

She was still curious about how she could use the keys to look at every program on Lyoko right down to their code and just maybe she could do the same to programs not connected to Lyoko or the supercomputer.

"I wonder what the others will think when they learn about this." Aelita then had a thoughtful look on her face.

Looking around she found the program that was designed to intercept TV channels through the satellites that the supercomputer could connect with and show them to anyone in the lab. Aelita placed her hand on it and mentally asked for the channel showing Total Drama Reality. A screen appeared in front of her showing the show her friends were on.

"TV here in Lyoko along with superpowers." Aelita giggled. "Now all that's left is popcorn and next thing you know I have my very own private TV room here in Lyoko."

As she watched the show she frowned as she noticed they were playing baseball against a team made up of TD loser, the robots, along with Chef and Roberto led by that Blaineley woman. Then she saw Courtney easily lose against Sir Christopher's pitches.

"Just what exactly is going on here." Aelita closed her eyes and accessed the Total Drama computer.

Another screen appeared next to the first one, recording the start of the show. Aelita watched as Blaineley announced her plan to take over as host of Total Drama with Kurt kicked out of the studio. She didn't watch much of Total Drama but she could tell that none of the cast wanted Blaineley as host who reminded her a bit of the previous host Chris.

"Isn't she cheating using the robots?" Aelita frowned. "Robots playing baseball that easily took out Courtney. This doesn't look good for Cody. He needs help..."

Aelita froze as an idea came to her and it usually wasn't the kind of idea she liked.

'If I do help it will be like cheating and misusing the Keys to Lyoko...but if Blaineley becomes the host and Kurt is forced to leave we lose an ally and they'll be miserable.' Aelita thought it over.

She weighed the pros and cons of this idea and decided it needed to be done for the others.

'Universe, please don't let XANA attack during the game.' Aelita thought as she closed her eyes.

Xxx

"Statement: This unit was ordered by Blaineley Unit to say before getting a third enemy player out: It is time to die-Urkurkurk!" Sir Christopher stiffened.

"…Sir Christopher?" Blaineley cleared her throat.

"Errr…this unit was…experiencing a minor glitch," Sir Christopher said…it eyes flashing pink for a second. "Proceeding to achieve victory."

Sir Christopher reared one arm back…

"I'm gonna die!" Cody squeaked, shaking from head to toe.

"He's gonna die!" Sierra squealed, covering her eyes.

"I'm gonna get kicked out!" Kurt swallowed.

"He's gonna die, Kurt's gonna get kicked out, and I'll be stuck here with Blaineley _and_ Lesley _and _Roberto…and Chef." Carlos said. "Aw well, at least I have my Klondike Bars."

"Blaineley said she'd ban them once she took control," Kurt reminded him.

Carlos fell to his knees and threw his hands up in the air. "NooooOOOOO!"

As he screamed, Sir Christopher threw the ball…

And Cody actually saw it coming, but was so startled that he just barely managed to swing…

Ping! The ball went flying!

"…did he just…?" Kurt grinned.

"I think he did!" Carlos nodded, getting up.

"RUN CODY!" Everybody on Team Total Drama shrieked at once.

Cody dropped the bat and ran for first base as the members of Team Blaineley tried to catch the ball. Sir Christopher however was running much slower than he could have at full capacity, and was far behind his team now. By the time Alejandro snatched the ball up Cody had reached second base and was running at full sprint for third. "Sir Carlos you better not be on the fritz like Sir Chris!"

"Statement: This unit is functioning at-"

"Shut up and catch!"

"Statement, bite me-" THUD! The ball had hit the robot on the head. "…whoops." It fell over, and Cody had the chance of a life time! He made a home run, going all the way around the diamond without being stopped once!

The entire Total Drama team cheered for the boy genius, who leaped into the air and tore his helmet off with a wild cry. "WOO HOO!" He waved the helmet over his head.

"Now the score is tied 1-1 as Cody makes an astounding home run! This shall be remembered throughout the history of Base Ball…or at least this show." Kurt said. "Now, only two more home runs and we win!"

"…you know we most likely won't get a home run like that, right?" Carlos asked before being zapped. "AH!"

"Start acting optimistic or I shall use my lasers…" Kurt lifted a plate of Klondike Bars. "And melt these stupid snacks right in front of you!"

"…now you've just marked your grave, comrade." Carlos stood up, an uncharacteristically dark look on his face.

Lesley appeared and darkened the windows of the announcer's box as Carlos tackled Kurt. "This scene shall be censored due to grotesque violence!"

"Ow! Cheap move Carlos! Take that!"

THUD!

"Oh you like punching a guy in the nose eh?" Carlos asked. "How do you like THIS?"

THUD!

"Oh you like punching a guy in the ribs, eh?" Kurt countered. "Well take this!" THWACK! "And here's more where that came from, Princess-AGH!"

Meanwhile the game continued despite the fighting of the two hosts.

"Okay, the geek got us a hell of a point but Sir Chris will still be one heck of a pitcher." Blaineley said. "NEXT!"

Geoff was next, the party boy gulping as he picked up the bat and got ready to try and hit the ball. Sir Christopher reared its arm back, the eyes flashing pink again before it threw. Geoff swung as he saw the ball coming…

PING!

"What?" Blaineley shouted, as the ball flew over the field. "Not again!"

"RUN GEOFF!" Bridgette cheered as her boyfriend dropped the bat and took off towards first base.

"I got it!" Chef shouted as he held his hand up.

The ball was about to land in his gloved hand but Sir Christopher had started running to catch the ball and didn't stop even when Chef said he got it. Before he could he react Chef was knocked down as Sir Christopher ran into him, knocking them both down. The ball landed on the ground as Geoff made it to second base.

"Oh come on!" Blaineley threw her had on the ground. "Pull yourselves together!"

"I got it!" Tyler ran to pick up the ball but Sir Christopher 'accidently' reached out with its leg as it got up and tripped the jock.

"Whoa!" Tyler fell forward onto the ground.

"Oh for pete's sake." Alejandro picked up the ball as Geoff made it to second base and threw the ball at Sir Carlos.

"I got it." The robot held up its hand to catch the ball as Geoff tried to run faster.

But before the ball landed in its glove Sir Carlos's eyes flashed pink and the ball hit it in the head instead of its glove. Sir Carlos fell over as Geoff made it to home base.

"YES!" Geoff held his hands in the air.

"THEY DID IT AGAIN!" Lesley cheered.

Team Total Drama cheered as they got another point. One more home run and they win the round.

"What the h(BEEP) is going on?" Blaineley screamed. "They should be losing!"

"This Unit is unable to explain sudden malfunctions in performance of both units. Diagnostic procedure shall be initiated." Sir Christopher replied.

"No, you two are going to keep playing and win this game!" Blaineley shouted. "Worry about your glitches later!"

"Yes Blaineley Unit." Both robots said, refusing to call her boss.

This time it was Heather's turn to bat she got ready, a look of determination on her face as she wanted nothing more than to win.

"Okay, bring it rust bucket!" Heather shouted.

Sir Christopher got ready to throw the ball again.

"Don't screw it up!" Blaineley screamed.

"Statement: Bite me." Sir Christopher replied.

Just before it threw the ball its eyes flashed pink again and it threw the ball. Even though Heather didn't really like to play sports she knew how to play baseball from being forced to play with her family and spend time with her siblings from time to time. The ball flew at her and she swung the bat…

PING!

"WHAT?" Blaineley shrieked.

Heather was just as surprised as she almost never hit the ball with the bat when she was playing with her family. But she didn't complain and ran for first base.

"GET THAT BALL!" Blaineley shouted.

Everyone on Team Blaineley ran towards where the ball was going land with their gloved hands up in the air to catch it. Sir Christopher however backed into the entire team and seemingly tripped, falling over on almost the entire team.

"Hey!" Alejandro shouted.

"Get off!" Roberto shouted.

"So heavy!" Harold cried.

"Sorry." As Sir Christopher got back up the ball landed on its head, bouncing off on it and landed on the ground a few feet away.

"Get it!" Chef shouted and they started crawling towards the ball.

"I got it!" Roberto shouted.

"No I got it!" Tyler shouted.

"No I got it!" Chef shouted.

They started fighting over the ball as Heather made it past second base and ran for third base.

"WILL YOU ALL STOP FIGHTING OVER THE BALL AND JUST THROW IT?" Blaineley was actually pulling her hair, threatening to rip it out.

"I got it!" Harold grabbed the ball and threw it.

Unfortunately he was still on the ground and didn't aim it at home base as Heather made her final run. Roberto caught it and threw it to Sir Carlos.

"CATCH IT YOU BUCKET OF BOLTS!" Blaineley shouted.

Heather jumped and slid to the ground, her hand reaching out to home base as Sir Carlos raised its hand to catch the ball. Her fingers just touched home base as Sir Carlos caught the ball.

"SAFE!" Lesley shouted. "KURT! CARLOS! THEY WON!"

"AWESOME!" The announcer's box lit up showing the two hosts sporting bruises and black eyes shouted as they stood up.

"WHAT THE (BLEEP) IS GOING ON?" Blaineley shouted her team. "YOU TWO SCREWED UP AND LOST THE ENTIRE MATCH! WHAT KIND OF TOP OF THE LINE ROBOTS ARE YOU?"

"She has a point, what happened to those two? It's like they short circuited or something." Gwen pointed out as Team Total Drama walked out onto the field.

"Who knows? Who cares? We just won the second round and one more win we take them out." Duncan shrugged.

"He's got a point. One more win and Blaineley gets kicked off the show for good." Geoff nodded.

Xxx

Confessional: Gwen

"I can't help but think that the robots suffered more than just a glitch."

End Confessional

Xxx

"Okay, Alejandro, you bat first and score us a home run!" Blaineley pointed at the Mexican.

Alejandro shrugged and picked up the bad and walked out into the field. He threw a smirk at Heather who covered her face with her umpire mask to cover the small blush she had.

"Well we're into the final round here. Team Total Drama is doing great while Team Blaineley is playing like Carlos's grandmother but she actually packs a punch." Kurt announced.

"Granny Carla's still swings a mean punch." Carlos commented.

"GO TRENT!" Katie and Sadie cheered again.

Trent threw the ball and Alejandro swung the bat, hitting the ball and sending it into the air.

"RUN ALEJANDRO!" Blaineley shouted even though he already took off running.

Izzy quickly towards where the ball was going to land on her hands and legs like a tiger and jumped on Geoff, pushing his hat over his eyes as she jumped off him and into the air. She caught the ball and threw it to Gwen who was at second base just as Alejandro ran from first base.

"AND HE'S OUT!" Carlos announced.

"WE CAN SEE THAT!" Blaineley shouted, getting angry that her team was losing easily.

"I'm next!" Tyler ran to pick up the bat.

"No way! You suck at this!" Blaineley shouted.

"I'm a pro that this! Just watch me!" Tyler ignored her orders and picked up the bat.

"Give it a rest, Mildred, he's on now deal with!" Kurt shouted.

Trent threw the ball and Tyler swung…

And missed.

"Strike one!" Heather shouted and threw the ball back to Trent.

He threw the ball again and Tyler swung but he missed again and Heather caught the ball.

"Strike two!"

"Okay, this is it, third time's the charm!" Tyler said as he got ready to swing the ball.

Trent threw the ball and when Tyler swung…

"LOOK OUT!" Carlos shouted as Tyler swung the bat and it flew out of his hand and went flying up to the announcer's box.

Both hosts ducked as the bat smashed through the glass and flew over their heads.

"….That's a strike three!" Heather shouted.

"Get him off the field before he kills somebody!" Kurt shouted.

Immediately Tyler was tackled by Sir Carlos and Sir Christopher and dragged off the field, tied up by several layers of chain. "Hey! No fair man! Help!"

"Well Kurt that was a close brush with death," Carlos noticed Kurt writing something on a note pad. "What are you doing?"

"Death…by…flying…bat," Kurt put the note pad away. "That's a new one. So anyways that leaves with two out. One more and they're outta here!"

"So, whose going to be the one who makes the final stand?" Carlos asked.

"Sir Carlos, get out there and get me a home run!" Blaineley shouted.

The robot walked into the field and picked up the bat.

"Oh crap." Trent muttered.

"Just throw the ball as hard as you can, Trent!" Gwen called out from second base.

"Okay…let's do it." Trent whispered to the ball.

Suddenly everything began to slow down again with suspenseful music being played.

"Who's doing that?" Kurt asked. "And someone fix that glitch!"

"Sorry!" Lesley banged the console and everything started to move normally again and music stopped playing.

Trent threw the ball and as Sir Carlos swung the bat its eyes flashed pink again.

PING!

The ball went flying into the air but it flew into the hands of Eva who was third base and she threw the ball Duncan who was first base.

"MOVE!" Blaineley shouted.

But Sir Carlos moved a lot slower than it normally did and when it was halfway to first base Duncan caught the ball.

"THEY DID IT!" Kurt and Carlos shouted at the same time. "TEAM TOTAL DRAMA WINS!"

Team Total Drama, the losers in the audience, and even some members of Blaineley's team cheered loudly.

"I AM STILL HOST! WHOO-HOO!" Kurt threw his hands into the air. "IN YOUR FACE, MILDRED!"

"BLAINELEY'S DOWN AND OUT!" Carlos laughed. "MY KLONDIKE BARS ARE SAFE!"

"And she's not host." Lesley pointed out.

"Yeah, that too." Carlos waved a hand at her.

"THIS IS NOT FAIR! YOU MUST HAVE CHEATED! SOMEBODY SABOTAGED THE ROBOTS!" Blaineley screeched.

"OH SHUT UP BLAINELEY!" In the sky above the baseball stadium the Director of Total Drama herself appeared on a large screen that appeared, enlarging her face making her look like a giant head. "YOU ALWAYS WHINE WHEN YOU DON'T GET YOUR WAY BUT YOU LOST THE GAME SO YOUR LAWSUIT IS DISMISSED!"

"That's our Director!" Kurt laughed.

"THEY CHEATED!" Blaineley shouted.

"OH SHUT UP! CARLOS!" The Director shouted.

"Yes, your Loudness!" Carlos saluted.

"RELEASE THE HOUNDS!"

Carlos grinned evilly. "Director, your eminence, I think I just fell in love." He looked at Blaineley. "Prepare Blaineley, because it's time to get you out of this world and out of the show! RELEASE THE HOUNDS!"

Three massive dogs, each with three fire breathing heads suddenly burst out of the base ball diamond in clouds of dust and dirt and charged for Blaineley, who screamed before vanishing under a pile of fur, slobber, and fire.

Kurt and Carlos cackled evilly as Blaineley was forced to exit the digital world when her form was torn into shards of light by the hounds.

"That. Was. Awesome!" Kurt said after he and Carlos finally stopped laughing and paused to catch their breath.

"Tell me about it," Carlos exchanged a high five with Kurt.

"And since Blaineley was the loser here, there are no eliminations for the cast! Congratulations everyone!" Kurt announced.

Team Total Drama cheered, Heather hugged Alejandro who smiled and hugged back. Tyler and Lindsay kissed and everyone else simply cheered at winning.

"Still though, what are the odds that the robots would have a glitch, allowing us to win?" Gwen asked.

_'That's an easy answer, Gwen.' _The sound of a familiar voice made all the Lyoko Warriors stop cheering.

"Aelita?" Bridgette asked.

_'Not so loud, Bridgette. I'm communicating with you guys telepathically in Lyoko.'_

'So…you're the reason why the robots malfunctioned?' Trent asked.

_'Well, when I saw how Blaineley was using the robots to win I thought it was a little unfair so I may have possessed them and lowered their skills a bit.'_ Aelita replied sheepishly.

'So, long story short you used your powers to help us win?' Gwen thought, surprised that Aelita would do such a thing.

'_Lack of a better word…yes._'

Everyone was silent for a moment….

'I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!' Heather replied, wishing Aelita was with them so she could hug the pink haired girl.

'Aelita you are a life saver! No, a goddess!' Cody declared. 'All hail Aelita!'

'Isn't it kind of wrong to be happy that Aelita used her powers to cheat?' Bridgette asked.

'It's Blaineley, Bridge, she was cheating first. Aelita just saved our skins! WHOO-HOO!' Geoff announced happily, waving his hat around as he hugged Bridgette with his other arm.

'He's got a point; Blaineley was cheating with the robots. Besides if she was host we'd be back with a host as bad as Chris.' Gwen replied. 'The way I see Aelita just saved us all.'

'Just try not to do it too often Aelita.' DJ said.

_'It's all right; I consider this a onetime save.'_

_'_Crap and here I was thinking of all the help you could give us.' Noah replied.

'I guess it's not too bad.' Bridgette admitted. 'But why are you in Lyoko, Aelita?'

_'I was doing a bit of research on the Keys and decided to see what was going on. I also learned a few important things.'_

'Tell us later, right now we need to throw a party!' Geoff replied. 'And you're invited too, Aelita!'

_'Thanks, Geoff. I hope I don't need to do that again but it was nice. That Blaineley person didn't seem like a nice person.'_

'That's one way to put it.' Heather scoffed. 'I couldn't stand her as a contestant. NO WAY, I was going to deal with as the host.'

"Time to go!" Kurt announced and they all vanished from the digital world and back into the real world.

* * *

**Hope you all enjoy this chapter. And there's a new story I am putting up that I thought about doing for a while. ****PEJP Bengtzone suggested a crossover arc with other shows and I decided to make a Code Total Drama Reality/Reboot crossover. I am putting it up just after I put up this chapter so I hope you all like it.**


	85. Episode 83: Fallen Angel

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 85

Lightning flashed across the dark sky as ran fell down upon the city below. On the street in front of Total Drama Studio the Total Drama Lyoko Warriors were gathered in the rain with their hair and clothes soaked watching the scene in front of them. An ambulance was at the gates of studiowith two doctors placing the gurney in the hospital.

"What happened?" A voice asked, coming from right behind Gwen.

She turned around and saw Aelita standing right behind her, not looking at all wet despite how hard it was raining. Gwen was silent as she stared at Aelita, as if she was staring off into space for a moment.

"It's all right, just take your time." Aelita reassured her. "What led to all of this?"

Gwen stared at her for a few more seconds and then turned back to ambulance as it drove off towards the hospital.

"I guess it started after the Baseball Challenge. After the big party..." She whispered, looking at everyone else who were all too distraught to listen to her. "We beat Blaineley and kept her from becoming host. Geoff suggested a party...

Xxx

(FLASHBACK)

"WHOO-HOO!" Geoff waved his hat in the hair.

Before the baseball challenge had started Carlos had made a bet with Blaineley that the losing team had to buy soda and nachos for the winners. After being ejected from the digital world and the Aftermath the Director had forced Blaineley to buy the nachos and soda and now everyone was celebrating. It was the second biggest celebration since Chris was demoted to contestant and voted off his own show. Now two of the cast's biggest enemies had been taken out leaving them very happy. Not only the contestants but also Kurt, Carlos, Chef, Roberto, Lesley, the interns, and any other person who was working at the studio.

While most of the people were partying in the common room Gwen and Bridgette helped sneak Aelita into the entertainment room where Noah and Cody were playing a video game with DJ watching for anyone heading for the room.

"So the Time Return program wasn't hacked?" Gwen asked, sitting at a table with Aelita and Bridgette.

"No, someone gained access to the restricted section through a laptop that was recently purchased and then apparently disposed of. They didn't hack into the supercomputer because they used the pass code." Aelita replied, grabbing a few chips.

"You sure about that?" Bridgette asked.

"I checked every program in the restricted section, even checking if there was a virus lying dormant in them like Gwen's virus." Aelita shook her head. "Whoever did this knew how to access the restricted section."

"But no one else knows how to do that except most of us." Gwen pointed out. "You taught nearly everyone how to use the Supercomputer if you couldn't and we all know the pass code."

"I know which is why I checked to see if any other programs had been tampered with. Lucky for us there was nothing wrong with any programs like the vehicles or the digital avatars." Aelita replied. "All I know is that someone managed to guess the right pass code and entered the restricted section without me realizing it."

"So now what? I mean who could figure out the pass code other than XANA?" Cody glanced over his shoulder.

"Aside from us, no one." Aelita sighed. "But I changed the pass code so hopefully that will prevent anymore future attempts to enter the restricted section but I have no idea who did it."

"Well, none of us could have done it even if we were somehow possessed." Gwen pointed out. "We don't have a clue how the Time Return Program works so we'd have no idea how to figure out how to send someone over a decade into the past."

"What about your dad, Aelita? We saw XANA take him prisoner in the past. You think he managed to take the information from your dad while he was imprisoned?" Bridgette asked.

"It's possible, but if that was the case XANA would have been able to access the restricted section a long time ago and probably would have deleted anything that could have been used to fight him." Aelita replied.

"True that. We'd have been dead long before we met you if that was the case." Noah replied, not looking up from the game he was playing with Cody. "Got ya!"

Cody's character dodged as Noah's character fired several rounds of bullets at him.

"Nice try, but I'm a natural at dodging and gun fighting!" Cody smirked. "And you just shot a civilian!"

"Necessary sacrifice for the good of the world and anyone who says otherwise is a traitor!" Noah shot at Cody again who took cover behind a crate.

"So, if it wasn't XANA or anyone possessed who did it who do we have left?" Gwen asked. "Lyon?"

"Never heard from again after the fight in the City Sector. I doubt XANA would allow him to cause him anymore trouble." Aelita shrugged.

"An associate?" Bridgette asked.

"I checked Lyon's past. After Project Carthage was destroyed he disassociated himself with any colleagues or family and lived a private life. It wasn't until he was asked to come here and look at the digital pods did he make any kind of movement since before my parents destroyed his work." Aelita shook her head.

"So, we got a new mystery bad guy out there? I hate those." Gwen sighed. "We were able to figure out how to deal with Shadow and Nephilim pretty quickly but some new guy? Does the Universe ever intend to give us a break?"

"I'll have an answer to that question at Cody's digital funeral." Noah replied as he fired another round of bullets at Cody.

"Hope you got a letter for your digital wife ready because you're about to eat a rocket!" Cody replied.

"Should I be talking to you all about this right now? You're all partying and wanting to have a good time and I'm bringing this bad news." Aelita looked at the two boys playing their video game. "This should be a happy occasion and I'm ruining that."

"Relax; you're looking out for us by keeping us informed of anything happening that might be bad." Gwen reassured her. "It's good for us to know now then later."

"We're just really happy not only because Blaineley's gone hopefully for good this time but with Team C broken up and on the last two teams the last reminder of Chris is gone. Hopefully the show will be a lot easier now." Cody said before getting back to the game. "DIE NOAH! DIE!"

"Yeah, that'll work. I'm about to make orphans out of your digital children!" Noah fired his machine gun.

"When the happiness wears off we'll be a little more cautious." Gwen smirked.

"Don't stop too soon on my account." Aelita picked up her soda. "You all deserve a break like this."

"Just as long as you celebrate with us. You helped us out, big time." DJ walked towards the table when he was sure no one that shouldn't see Aelita was coming. "If you didn't possess the robots Blaineley might have won."

"And we all would have a female Chris to put up with." Gwen said. "Even Heather wanted to hug you."

"Thanks." Aelita smiled. "I can check all over again to see if a trail was left but whoever used the laptop bought it with cash so no leads on that."

"Well, who would know how to use the Time Return Program. I only know how to use it when you shut down the tower it's programmed to always go back before the tower is activated." DJ pointed out.

"Not to mention even if we know the pass code only a handful of us have any computer skills in using any of the programs." Noah said, dodging a barrage of bullets from Cody.

"Maybe you should get in touch with Robby and see if he has anything." Gwen said. "He's been tracking Lyon and XANA for years. If someone else is involved he'd know."

"I will. Thanks for the idea, Gwen." Aelita nodded.

"VICTORY!" Cody exclaimed, standing up with his arms in the air. "YES! YES!"

Noah's character fell over the word 'DEAD' appeared over it in big red letters.

"Yeah, yeah, you won and now you're the king of digital warfare. If this was in Lyoko you'd be hitting yourself into a coma." Noah sat back in his chair.

"The sad thing is that he'd probably react like that even if he had won." Gwen whispered to the two girls who nodded.

"At least he's celebrating with everyone else. Can you imagine what would happen if Blaineley was host?" Bridgette shuddered. "I'm glad the Director was smart enough to pick Kurt. Who knows what would happen if she picked someone else?"

(FLASHBACK BEFORE TOTAL DRAMA BATTLE OF THE BANDS)

Carlos was sitting at a desk in a dark room looking over a piece of paper.

"All right, we're looking for someone who can replace Chris McLean and you've applied for new host of Total Drama Reality, Mr. Evel?" Carlos put down the paper and looked at the person.

"Evil, actually. Dr. Evil." The man was balled with a scar on the right side of his face and wore grey clothing. "And you will see in my resume that I spent six years in evil medical school and it wasn't so I would be called 'Mister' thank you very much."

"Okay then..." Carlos picked up the paper again. "Says here you have Doctorate in Evilology, what the hell is that?"

"Oh, it's simple. I was raised by Belgians, I went to evil medical school when I was eighteen, when I was twenty five I went tap dancing, I had hoped to become a quadruple threat: actor, dancer, etcetera. I've recently turned over to the side of good when my son took over as the head of my evil empire."

Carlos stared at the man for a few minutes before he set the papers down again.

"All right, uh, what would be an example of the challenges you would give the cast?"

"Oh, uh, one of my favourite suggestions would be for the cast to walk a wooden pull suspended over a pool filled with frickin' sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads." Dr. Evil held his right pinky finger to his mouth as he smiled.

"...Right." Carlos nodded slowly. "Can you list one other qualification of yours?"

"Oh yeah, it's uh...being evil you moron!" Dr. Evil shouted as he hit a button with Carlos's name on it.

A trapdoor opened underneath Carlos's chair, making him shout as he fell into it and a blast of fire came up. Luckily years of training in the SAS had allowed Carlos to dodge by leaning against the wall and avoid getting burned by a few inches.

"...Oh right, I'm supposed to be trying to be good now." Dr. Evil smacked himself in the head and looked down the trapdoor. "Sorry, my bad!"

"Oh man..." Carlos groaned as he pulled himself out of the trapdoor having somehow survived. "Where do they get these guys? Why can't the Director just pick me or Kurt? Next!"

(END FLASHBACKS)

Xxx

The Total Drama bus stopped in front to group as they watched the ambulance drive off towards the hospital. The door opened up, showing Kurt at the driver's seat.

"What happened?" The host asked.

"No time to explain, but we got to get to the hospital fast!" DJ replied as they hurried onto the bus.

Kurt simply closed the doors and drove after the bus as everyone else sat in a seat. Looking at the rear view mirror Kurt could see how distressed the group was. Whatever happened must have been terrible. Heather sat against the window with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face.

"You know if you keep scowling like that your face will get lines?" Heather looked and saw Aelita sitting next to her.

"Yeah well...this is how I look when I get really worried." Heather replied quickly.

"Oh, you can get worried?" Aelita smiled slightly.

"Duh, everyone can get worried." Heather shrugged.

"So what are you worried about?"

"I think that'd be obvious." Heather scoffed.

"Humor me."

Heather sighed as she looked back out the window.

"After you told Gwen, Bridgette, DJ, Cody, and Noah about what you found they told us. We didn't let it get in the way of celebrating over that diva but it was still something to worry about. We spent the next few days acting like nothing happened..."

Xxx

(FLASHBACK)

Heather had finished jogging around the gym after an hour of running when she heard the sound of laughter.

"Missed me!" Carlos laughed as he dodged a water balloon being thrown at him.

He ran into the gym with Kurt behind him, throwing another water balloon. Carlos ducked and ran out the emergency exit. The balloon hit the wall and splattered water everywhere.

"Crud." Kurt sighed.

"What was that?" Heather asked.

"That? Oh, I tried deducting Carlos's pay after that stupid robot idea but he didn't seem bothered by it. I then pointed out I could make life miserable for him here which he pointed out that it would be impossible. So now he has to deal with me pulling all these pranks, constantly paranoid for whatever I have planned. Excuse me." Kurt walked off in the opposite direction...only for Carlos to somehow burst in from the door on the opposite side of the gym, clad in his SAS uniform and carrying...

A high pressure water gun like the one Chef used.

"...you wouldn't," Kurt said as Carlos took aim.

"I would! Prepare to be soaked Kurt-gurglegurglegurgle!" Carlos was sprayed in the face by his own gun. "...allow me to correct that." He turned the gun around. "_Now_ prepare to be soak-glughgurgle!" He was sprayed once more, the water now coming out the end it was originally meant to. "What did you do to this?"

"I thought ahead," Kurt snickered...only for Carlos to take the tank off of the water gun and then dump the contents over Kurt's head, wiping the smirk off of his face.

"Didn't prepare for that, did you?" Carlos smirked...only for Kurt to pull out a cell phone.

"I'm hitting you in the weak spot Carlos," Kurt said darkly. "Say bye bye to the Klondike Bars!"

"No! Wait! That's cheating! Violation of the rules of war!"

"There are rules of war?"

"Of course you moron!" Chef walked over and shoved a book in Kurt's face titled 'THE RULES OF THE WARS OF CARLOS AND KURT (KURT AND CARLOS DAMN IT!) BY CHEF HATCHET'...and yes, the part about 'Kurt and Carlos' over 'Carlos and Kurt' was printed on the cover. "The rules say that you cannot resort to calling his girlfriend immediately. It lacks sportsmanship and it's the coward's way out of a fight!"

"Fine, I guess I'll just improvise." Kurt sighed.

(END FLASHBACK)

Xxx

The bus stopped in front of the hospital and nearly everyone piled on each other to get out.

"Hey, what the heck happened?" Kurt asked but they ignored him as they ran into the hospital.

A few people watched the group of young adults run into the entrance.

"Excuse me, a friend of ours was brought here just a few minutes ago." Gwen said to the secretary at the front desk. "They had been hurt from a fall."

"Oh, they just took the patient to the emergency room for surgery." The secretary replied.

"Thanks." Gwen nodded.

"You think they'll save her?" Bridgette asked as they walked down the hall.

"I don't know. Just hope that she pulls through." Gwen replied.

"It's usually me hoping that you guys make it through any kind of trouble." Bridgette glanced and saw Aelita walking next to her. "I can't tell you how many times I was worried when one of you didn't show up in the lab. So when you guys weren't relaxing with your day off what happened?"

"We...We agreed to take a few trips to the Carbon Copy before the next challenge. We wanted to be able to access all sectors so we could go after XANA."

Xxx

(FLASHBACK)

**Carbon Copy**

**Desert Sector**

"Oh, a _safe_ trip you said?" Heather shouted as she ducked behind a rock just before it was frozen solid by an ice beam from a Pyramid. "Geoff, you owe me fifty bucks if we get out of this!"

"How the hell was I supposed to know they'd be waiting?" Geoff replied while parrying the katana of a Dragon Knight before cleaving through its waist.

"They're always waiting!"

"STOP FIGHTING EACH OTHER AND FIGHT THEM INSTEAD!" Gwen shouted while shooting overhead, slicing through a pair of Hornets. "We don't have time for this! Get back on the line and help!"

Heather leaped over the frozen rock and shot a barrage of shuriken out as she joined Bridgette, who was parrying multiple lasers to cover Eva, who was in the middle of wrestling with a Gorilla. Eva growled and glowed bright blue as she slowly lifted the monster off of its feet and then threw it through the air. IT slammed into a formation of stones and shattered it into a cloud of dust as it exploded into data.

"This is awesome! I don't know why you didn't bring me in sooner!" Eva grinned.

The explosion nearly blinded Cody, Trent and DJ who were faced with another squad of Dragon Knights.

"Is it me or do the battles get bigger every freaking time we come here?" Trent asked, using his guitar to form a shield.

"It's not you man!" DJ added, having turned into his metallic golem form while using his arms to parry the blades of another Dragon Knight. Cody managed to shoot one laser under DJ's arms and right into the XANA symbol on the Dragon Knight's head and then went back to firing into the midst of the enemy squad.

"He's right! The more sectors we go to in the Copy the bigger the fights!" Cody back flipped as a Dragon Knight swung its axe at him. "XANA hates it when we show up uninvited!"

Nearby were LeShawna and Geoff who were attempting to clear a path to the Way Tower for Aelita. Guarding the tower was a Megatank with four Dark Krabs.

"Out of my way!" LeShawna's hammer slammed into the Megatank's shell, sending it rolling over the edge and into the Digital Sea.

Geoff split his axe into his chakrams to he have an easier time blocking lasers from the Dark Krabs. Aelita held out both hands fired two Plasma Beams that vaporized that Krabs. Once the path was cleared Aelita ran towards the Way Tower.

"Well, that's three sectors down now." Geoff smiled.

"If this fight was hard I shudder to think how the other fights will go." LeShawna sighed in relief.

Aelita entered the tower and traveled to the upper platform.

"Noah, I'm here. I'll start setting up the link between this sector and the Supercalculator."

"_Well, I got to say good job. That was a pretty big fight you guys had. Izzy's standing here pouting because she was taken out early._" Noah replied.

"_That Spiderling got lucky!" _Izzy shouted.

"_I told you to be careful but you rush in and look where that got you. Standing next to me whi-OW!_" The sound of Izzy's hand slapping Noah on the back of his head was heard.

"_You want a piece of me?_"

Aelita smirked as she shook her head. Leave it to Noah to come up with a way to earn a smack from anyone, no matter how bad of an idea it is. Meanwhile, back outside all of the monsters that had been guarding the tower were nearly all destroyed. Bridgette slashed the last Pyramid in the Eye and jumped back as it exploded.

"Okay, the next time someone says 'it'll be easy' during a trip to the Carbon Copy I will shoot about twenty shuriken up their behinds before their life points hit zero." Heather glanced at Geoff.

"So it was a little harder than I thought. When are trips to the Carbon Copy ever easy?" Geoff shrugged. "Means we'll be ready for when we get to the other sectors."

(END FLASHBACK)

Xxx

'If I knew what was going to happen I'd never have said that.' Geoff sighed as he and the others were in the waiting room.

"You always did keep an optimistic attitude, Geoff." Aelita sat next to him. "That's one thing we all need when we're dealing with this. You've faced some pretty hard burdens, some too heavy for almost anyone else to bear. At what point did you even consider all of this happened because of what you said?"

"Well, it was because..." Geoff started.

Xxx

(FLASHBACK)

"It's been almost five days and no XANA attack, not even after our trip into the Carbon Copy. Should we take this as a good sign or a bad sign?" Geoff asked, sitting on the couch with Bridgette as he watched a movie with Trent, DJ, and Cody.

"Good that we have a long break but because it means XANA might be planning something big." Cody replied.

"Bigger than the trip through time?" Trent shuddered. "I'm almost afraid to find out what could be bigger than that."

"Hey guys, after the next to challenges we have one more Aftermath before we end up with having to vote off each other or..." Bridgette trailed off.

Everyone knew who she was talking about.

"Any chance on working on that virus?" Trent asked.

"Not exactly, unless Duncan and Courtney's DNA can be scanned back into the Supercomputer we're still no closer to restoring their memories." Cody sighed. "Any time they step near the scanners the virus gives them extreme pain, none of us want to do that to them even it would be nice to restore their memories."

"Any alternate way? What about the digital domain Aelita set up in the Total Drama Supercomputer?" Trent asked.

"Not the same thing. The pods fool our senses into believing we're in a new environment, the scanners literally turns us from organic into digital codes. Giving Courtney and Duncan their Lyoko forms in the TD simulation wouldn't do a thing." Cody replied.

"So, we've hit a dead end with them." Bridgette sighed. "It will be hard on everyone but if we can't do anything..."

"I know, but if we can't get them into the scanners we can't cure them and if we can't cure them we can't bring them back into Lyoko." DJ sighed.

"It would have been great; they actually made up when they were on Lyoko. All the fighting, all the shouting, it seemed to disappear as they fought monsters and generals and then...it's like all of the anger they had on each disappeared." Bridgette looked down. "But it all came back when all those memories were erased."

"As crazy as it sounds, Lyoko has been a blessing as much as a curse." Trent said, making everyone look at him. "Think about, a lot people in this group downright hated each other before. Gwen, Heather, and Courtney, me, Cody, and Duncan, and then there's Eva. No one expected her to be a part of the group but she's doing about as good as we did when we started. It's like being in Lyoko, all the fighting, all the saving people's lives even if it means we're constantly in danger...it makes us better."

"Looks that way, man." DJ nodded. "I'm not a fighter, I don't have in me to condone any form of violence but when I see you guys in trouble on Lyoko, I just jump in. I don't think I am ready to do anything to help...even fight."

"There's almost no fighting between us on the show. Gwen and Heather don't fight except when they feel bugging each other." Cody said.

"Now all we have to do is keep going through the Carbon Copy's sectors until we reach the center. Hopefully we can do it before we end up forcing to vote each other off." Trent said.

(END FLASHBACK)

Xxx

"Okay, the bus is parked and I've left an excuse to anyone at the studio who will know all of you aren't there. So could someone please tell me what the heck is going on?" Kurt stepped into the waiting room.

"It started when we were talking, me, Geoff, Bridgette, DJ, and Cody about Duncan and Courtney's problem and we called Aelita. She came over after class to talk about it." Trent explained.

Xxx

(FLASHBACK)

"I've looked for any way to restore their memories, I've even considered try to reactivate the scanners in the basement of the studio and get them cured before the virus kills them." Aelita shook her head. "The scanners have always been the best way to cure someone and Nephilim turned that advantage against us."

"Any alternate way to cure them?" Geoff asked. "What about that time you used the specters to restore Kurt and Carlos's memories?"

"And if the virus is set off while I activate a tower that could be taken over by XANA, Lilith, or this new enemy? It's not something I would like to risk if it was absolutely necessary." Aelita sat down. "The last time I did that for somebody it didn't work out so well and no matter how many firewalls I put up it's a very big risk."

"I guess you're right." Geoff sighed. "We're just getting a little worried now because if the next two challenges go without something unexpected happening Lindsay and Beth go and then we have to consider..."

"I know, Geoff, believe me I know." Aelita shook her sadly.

"Well, I guess we..." Trent trailed off when a beeping sound was heard.

Aelita opened her backpack and lifted her laptop onto the table. She opened it up so they could see the superscan appearing on the screen showing an activated tower.

"Well, Geoff, you did say that there had been no attacks in a few days." Bridgette said.

"I know I should have known better." Geoff sighed. "I'll get the others."

(END FLASHBACK)

Xxx

"Okay, another attack. What was it this time? Attacking bulls? Horror movies stands coming to life and attacking everyone? Giant robot ready to smash the city?" Kurt asked.

"No, but those are really good ones." Izzy commented and ended up with the back of her head being smacked by Noah. "OW!"

"To answer your question Kurt, the attack was not like any of the other attacks at all. It was something more...personal." Noah said.

Xxx

(FLASHBACK)

It was easy to gather the entire group since they were all in the same building. The second the group had gathered they set off towards the factory as fast as they could before something bad happened to the city. Just when they reached the factory lobby they ran into something that might be XANA's new plot. They all slid down the cables down to the floor and ran for the elevator.

But when the door opened a dark leaped out with a flying kick that knocked DJ and Trent down as the person landed a few feet behind the Lyoko Warriors.

"What the hell?" Heather exclaimed as they spun around faced the person.

They couldn't see the person's face because he was wearing a dark hoodie that covered his face and black pants. They could tell that he was young because he was a few inches shorter than Noah.

"Who's this creep?" Eva scowled.

"No idea, but I guess since he was waiting for us I think we're looking at possession or a polymorphic clone here." Gwen replied, getting ready to fight.

"Well if it's just one we're okay. There are plenty of us here to distract him." Heather said.

"You go ahead; I'll deal with the runt." Eva smirked as she stepped to the hooded person.

"Eva wa-"Aelita was cut off as Eva charged forward.

However the hooded person simply raised one hand and released a blast of electricity that hit Eva and sent her flying into the elevator. The person then moved at a blinding a speed towards Aelita but DJ quickly pulled the pink haired girl out of the way and Gwen tried to punch him in the back of the head. The person ducked and fired a lightning blast that sent Gwen flying across the lobby.

"Get Aelita to the scans! We'll distract him!" LeShawna shouted as she charged at hooded person.

He jumped over her and slammed his foot into the back of her head. The person then turned to Aelita and DJ as they tried to enter the elevator but the person grabbed Aelita's arm and pulled her back. Aelita was far from helpless and spun around to slap the person in the face she stopped when she caught a glimpse of the person's face.

"No..." She whispered in horror.

Before she could do anything else the person shoved her back to dodge a punch from Geoff and blasted him back while ducking under a kick from Bridgette. He grabbed her foot and pulled her off her other foot, earning a yelp from her as he tossed her into the wall.

"THAT'S IT! YOUR DEAD!" Eva shouted as she charged out of the elevator.

"EVA NO!" Aelita screamed as ran in front of the hooded person to stop Eva.

(END FLASHBACK)

Xxx

Before anyone else could continue explaining what had happened earlier a nurse walked into the room.

"You all came with the patient?" She asked.

"How bad is it? Stable? Critical? Needs a new skull?" Izzy jumped up and ran up to the nurse. "Don't leave us in suspense woman!"

"Let her explain!" LeShawna pulled Izzy off the nurse.

"Well..." The nurse took a deep breath to recover from Izzy. "We've managed to stop the bleeding and the condition is stable for now."

"But..." Gwen started, sensing bad news.

"She's lost a lot of blood and she hit her head pretty hard. We're still checking to see if the impact caused any brain damage." The nurse said.

"Can we see her?" Bridgette asked, clutching Geoff's hand.

"Make it quick and don't be so loud." The nurse nodded and allowed them to look into the room.

The patient lied on the white bed with bandages on her head over the bruised areas. A mask was kept over her face to help her breath with a heart monitor beeping telling everyone she was still alive.

"It's never easy is it?" Aelita's voice whispered into Bridgette's ear. "Seeing a friend in a coma? Never knowing if they will wake up?"

"Does anyone know the name and phone number of her parents?" The nurse asked.

"Ah, she's from Canada, here on a student exchange program." Kurt replied quickly, taking over as the adult. "I'll notify her parents and school to let her know what happened. Just make sure she makes it."

"I'll do my best. I'm afraid I'll have to ask you all to leave now. We can't disturb her." The nurse said to the TD Lyoko group.

They agreed reluctantly and slowly left the room.

"Stay safe, Aelita." Bridgette whispered to the patient and silently crying over what had happened.

Xxx

(FLASHBACK)

Eva couldn't stop in time as she slammed into Aelita and sent the pink haired girl into a metal beam hard. Aelita hit the beam, gasping in pain from the impact and fell face first to the ground. Eva gasped when she realized what she had done, standing frozen in shock.

"Aelita!" Cody shouted and ran over to her.

He checked her and gasped when he saw blood dripping down her hair.

"I think she's got a concussion or worse!" Cody cried.

"Why'd she try and stop me?" Eva asked as she ran over.

"Perhaps because of whom you are fighting." The person spoke, his voice a mix of XANA's voice and a boy's voice.

The person reached for the hood and pulled it down.

"Oh no." Gwen looked up and gasped.

"Who's that?" Heather asked.

"It's Yumi's little brother."

Yumi's younger brother, Hiroki smirked at them with the Eye of XANA replacing his normal eyes. Aelita saw who he was and tried to stop Eva from hurting him even though humans possessed by XANA felt no pain.

"Amazing just how fast my dear sister can forget just how strong anyone under my control is." Hiroki smirked. "The moment she sees his face and all logical thinking is lost."

His eyes passed over Aelita's still form. "But it has paid off...I'd usually just kill you all now but I get the joy of watching you squirm." The possessed boy turned and began to make his departure.

"You son of a-!" Eva tried to chase after him, but DJ and Geoff held her back.

"He'll just knock you right back again!" Geoff said. "We have to get Aelita to a hospital!"

"Yes, yes, you might want to hurry. Wouldn't want sister to die and lose the entire war do you? Don't worry about the boy, he's served his purpose. Feel free to follow him as I direct him back to his home." XANA laughed as he directed Hiroki's body out of the factory.

"LeShawna, can you and DJ makes sure he does that?" Gwen asked. "We can't let Yumi's little brother get hurt."

"On it." LeShawna nodded as she and DJ took off after Hiroki.

"Noah, get down to the lab and check on that tower, see if XANA let's Hiroki go." Gwen turned to Noah who nodded.

He took off towards the elevator and took it down to the lab.

"We need to get her out of the factory so when the ambulance comes no one asks why she was here. Someone dial 911 as we got her out of here!" Gwen said.

"On it." Geoff picked Aelita up while Bridgette took out her cell phone.

They took off out of the factory, running as fast as they could before their friend ended up possibly dying from her injuries. As they ran dark clouds covered the sky as thunder was heard and it started to rain.

(END FLASHBACK)

Xxx

"And that's it, Kurt. All because XANA used Yumi's little brother Aelita ended up in the cross fire, something he was probably counting on." Gwen finished, not missing Eva having an ashamed look on her face.

"Great, so what's the plan?" Kurt sighed as he sat down.

"Yeah...we haven't come up with any plans yet." Cody rubbed the back of his head.

"So, if XANA launches another attack you guys have no idea on how you're going to counter it without Aelita?" Kurt asked.

"Pretty much." Trent smiled sheepishly.

"Crap." Kurt shook his head.

"Look, Kurt, I feel the same way but we're in a tight spot. XANA could have continued the fight but he knew we'd fight him all the way and done anything we could to keep Aelita safe." Gwen sighed. "I still don't know what we're going to do but I know XANA didn't give up the attack because he was feeling charitable."

"He did it because he wants to gloat that we can't do anything without Aelita's help. She usually comes up with the plans because of her experience and knowledge not to mention she's only one here who can shut down the towers." Heather pointed out.

"All we can do is hope Aelita makes it and that we can defend her from any attack." Bridgette said.

"You mean an attack by XANA or by the supposed new bad guy?" Kurt asked, making all of them widen their eyes. "I heard about it too, a new bad guy who might be allied with XANA who hacked the Time Return Program. For all we know they are disguised as a doctor or a nurse and ready sneak in there and suffocate Aelita while she's out."

"Oh crap." Cody ran his hands through his hair. "He's right! What do we do?"

For once no one in the group had any idea on what to do.

Xxx

"The first phase of the plan is complete, Aelita is incapacitated and now the warriors have lost their main advantage." XANA spoke to a screen showing a shadowy figure with a bright background obscuring their features.

"_You did well, XANA. Aelita's compassion for her friends and family turned against her completely. Now we can proceed to the next step. I trust you will carry out your end of the deal._"

"Of course, I never go back on any deals even if this is actually my first." XANA smirked. "You will have what you want when the warriors are finished for good."

"_Good, my new weapon is ready to face off against them. By all means send your generals to see how well he performs against the warriors. And when they are defeated in Lyoko and no Aelita to save them you will give me what I want._"

Before XANA could reply the screen faded leaving his Avatar alone. Normally XANA would be offended that a human would dare to order him around but this was no ordinary human. He was actually amused by their fearlessness but that didn't mean he would have fun dealing them after the warriors were finished. He'd fulfill his end of the deal but at the end of it XANA would destroy his ally when his status went from ally to enemy. After all that was the status of anyone who had the ability to fight him: ally or enemy.

* * *

**In case anyone get's confused when members of the group explain to Aelita what had happened she's a hallucination like what happened on the NCIS episode Swan Song or Scrubs when Dr. Cox is talking an imaginary image of his Ben Sullivan after he died or in the final episode of House not that I am trying to give away spoilers. They are basically the only ones who can see and talk to imaginary Aelita while the real one is being rushed to the hospital.**


	86. Episode 84: Race of Death

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 86

"The good news is that she didn't suffer any cracks on the skull or brain swelling or bleeding. She's got a few cracked ribs but no sign of internal bleeding but at the same time the impact has caused some bleeding since head wounds bleed more than any other part of the body." Kurt explained to the TD Lyoko group in the lobby of the hospital.

"So any idea when she's going to wake up?" Bridgette asked.

"Not a clue, she hit her head hard guys. No telling when she's going to wake up." Kurt said. "In the meantime you guys have to think about returning to the studio soon."

"We can't leave her here alone!" Trent protested as he stood up. "What happens if there is an attack and no one's here to protect her?"

"What happens if there is an attack period?" Kurt asked. "Look, I get what you are guys are doing, I really do. But remember you want this thing a secret right, so you can't get anyone suspicious."

"Can't you move her to the infirmary at studio?" Heather asked.

"No way, people will ask why I'm moving a student to the Total Drama Studio. I'll have the hospital board and the Director on my ass for an explanation. You guys don't have to leave now but staying here for the night is a bad idea. Me or Carlos will keep watch on Aelita for you." Kurt reassured them. "I got to head back, give my regards to Aelita if she wakes up."

As he headed towards the door it opened up to reveal a teenage girl around the same age as Aelita with long black hair kept down by a headband.

"Excuse me, but is there a girl with pink hair on this floor?" She asked.

"Yes, actually, why?" Kurt asked.

"She is a student at my school and we just heard there was an accident." She replied.

"Oh, yes, she saw someone getting attacked and ran to help but the person knocked her so hard she hit the wall and got a few cracked ribs but thankfully no brain damage." Kurt replied quickly. "You close to her?"

"Kind of, we became friends a few years ago and since the Red Eye Virus a lot of us have been worried about when her friends disappeared." The girl said. "Some say she might have done but I know her well enough to know she'd never hurt them or do anything like that."

"I see. Well, allow me to show you her room, Miss..."

"Sissy Delmas." The girl introduced herself.

The TD Lyoko Warriors who knew Aelita's classmates recognized the girl and discreetly headed for the elevator without Sissy seeing them.

Xxx

The group had managed to make it down into the hospital lobby so they could think without anyone bothering them.

"He's right though, we need a plan. So, can anyone think of one?" Bridgette looked around the but no one answered.

"Don't everyone speak up at once." Eva commented. "You mean to tell me you are lost without Pinky to help you out?"

"Of course not! Aelita's smart but she never came up with all of the plans." Heather exclaimed. "She...just usually knew what to do most of the time."

"Excuse me." Gwen got up headed down the hall. "I need something to help me think."

She walked down the hall to the cafe to pick up a blue berry muffin that would help calm her down. She needed to be calm to think, especially in a situation like this.

RING!

She looked down at her cell phone, wondering who would be calling her at a time like this. Holding it up to her ear she pressed the talk button.

"Hello?"

"_Knock, knock._" A distorted voice asked.

"Who is this?" Gwen's eyes narrowed, ready to hang up.

"_That's not the right answer, Gwenny._" The distorted voice chuckled. "_You're supposed to say who's there._"

"I have better things to do than talk to some kid." Gwen moved to hang up but the person stopped her.

"_Not even if you want to save poor Aelita?_"

Gwen froze in her tracks, her eyes widening in shock before narrowing again.

"Who the hell is this?" She snarled. "XANA?"

"_Nope. Close though._" The person chuckled. "_He sure got you good this time. And knocked out by one of your own teammates no less._"

"What do you want?" Gwen leaned against the wall so she wasn't in anyone's way. "Just who exactly are you? Lyon?"

"Sorry, _the mad scientist is still locked up in his digital dungeon. Want to see if third time is really the charm? _"

"Stop playing games with me here!" Gwen gritted her teeth.

"_Aw but where's the fun in that? You seriously need a sense of humor, Gwenny. Especially when things get really good._"

"What are you talking about?"

"_I've got something special planned for all of you, especially you Gwendolyn. Aelita is only the beginning, so don't get comfy if she gets better."_ The person chuckled. "_If you thought the trip back in time was something wait till you see the sequel!_"

"You want to play? Fine, but you should remember what happens when you play with fire especially when I get my hands on you!" Gwen growled.

"_I'm looking forward to it, but you won't be when it happens. Don't pray for a return trip to the past._" The person said and hung up.

Gwen put the phone away and ran into the ladies' washroom. Stopping at the sink she leaned her head down and let the water fall down her hair, soaking it before she turned the water off. Standing up she shook her head, sending water flying as she looked at the mirror. She was determined not to let her anger get the better of her because it meant that this new enemy was in control. After what happened in the City Sector she vowed no one would ever control her again, not Nephilim, not XANA, and not this new enemy.

'Okay new guy, you want to fight than you'll get it.'

Xxx

"He is getting too cocky." XANA commented, having tapped into the phone lines and listened to the conversation between Gwen and the mysterious enemy. "Taunting them right now before the fight even starts. Foolish, isn't it Lilith?"

XANA didn't bother to turn to face Lilith as she got on her knees and bowed.

"Master XANA, I am so sorry for my failure and arrogance. I let my new powers make me overconfident and Aelita managed to defeat me. I am the reason why that plan failed." Lilith said, humbly and remorsefully. "If you give me another chance I won't let it happen again."

XANA smirked as he looked at the data screen in front of him. "You needn't worry, Lilith, I am not going to delete you. That was more of a test run for you and the Time Return program. In the past I knew I would become stronger but when my future enemies arrived I realized just how powerful I could, no would become one day. Imagine, the ability to send anyone or anything back in time, probably be useful for preventing some of the world's greatest disasters don't you think?"

"But, Master, isn't it true that Aelita has prevented you and this new person from hacking the Time Return program again?" Lilith stood up.

"For now, but any security can be breached with the right amount of time and patience. And soon I'll have that ability again after my alliance has ended." XANA waved a hand over one screen and it disappeared.

"I am sorry if I overstep my limits but just exactly does this person want?" Lilith couldn't keep the curiosity in her voice.

"Well, that's the amazing part Lilith." XANA snapped his fingers and a large screen appeared in front of them showing detailed schematics of something. "You may wonder why I didn't kill Aelita when I had the chance and the truth is that she is needed alive for me to fulfill my end of the deal. Her digital DNA was scanned into me to give me the thought processing capabilities of a human and now it's required again for something else."

"Why not submit a copy of the scanned digital DNA that was given to you?" Lilith asked.

"It's simple, really, he doesn't trust me." XANA chuckled. "And for good reason, I can just as easily contaminate any copy of the digital DNA that was scanned and integrated into me. He wants a fresh sample."

"What about me? A small bit of Aelita's digital DNA was found in Jeremy and integrated into me. Allow me to submit a copy of my DNA and we can simply finish them off." Lilith said, eager to proof her worth.

"I applaud your loyalty Lilith but this person is keeping a keen eye on everyone. He's suspecting a betrayal and unfortunately you do not have enough of Aelita's digital DNA for him to get what he wants." XANA turned and faced her.

"And what is that he wants?"

"Life."

Xxx

Following Kurt's advice the group reluctantly returned to the studio remembering that it's almost been three days. The next challenge for Total Drama was tomorrow but almost none of them could focus on the show, not even Heather. Kurt said that Carlos would keep an eye on Aelita while the others participated in the show, making an excuse that Carlos was on an important errand so the staff wouldn't ask questions. All they could do for the moment was get some sleep for the night and hope Aelita would wake up the next day after the challenge.

"Hey everybody! Welcome to another episode of Total Drama Reality! Last time, Blaineley showed up and tried to take over the show, challenging the contestants to the Ultimate Baseball Game of Life and Death. Lucky for us, our contestants were determined not to have another soulless monster as host of Total Drama and single headedly won the game! Take that Mildred!" Kurt laughed. "So now, hopefully all interruptions have been taken care of and we can proceed with the season. Find out who gets kicked off this time on TOTAL...DRAMA...REALITY!"

Xxx

The two teams had gathered inside the Supercomputer room as Kurt stepped out after the opening theme song ended.

"All right, everyone, good news today is that we won't have any more interference from Blaineley or anyone who's got a problem with the way things are here. That said, it's time to get on with the season." Kurt announced.

"And where's Carly?" Lindsay asked.

"You mean Carlos?" Bridgette asked, wondering how Carlos would react to that name.

"He had to go to the hospital following a scuffle with Roberto." Kurt answered.

Xxx

(FLASHBACK)

"I told you not to touch my Klondike bars!" Carlos shouted, kicking the door to Roberto's room opened. "Fess up your crime!"

"I never touched your Klondike Bars! I don't even like them!" Roberto stood up.

"Oh yeah, I checked how many we have left. There's five less bars than there were before!" Carlos held up the box of Klondike Bars. "There are supposed to be fifteen bars here but when I went for my five needed bars I found only five left in the box!"

"How do you know? Someone else could have done it! And you suck at math!"

"I can smell your stealing stench on the box! And I count these bars everyday! And I know math!" Carlos dropped the box. "You don't know math!"

"I do too! I got an A on it. You go through five bars a day!" Roberto cracked his knuckles. "You're about to cross a line here you maniac!"

"OKAY THEN MAYBE WE SHOULD RESOLVE THIS THE GENTLMEN WAY!" Carlos got ready to fight.

"AGREED! THE LOSER IS THE ONE WHO STOLE THE KLONDIKE BARS AND SUCKS AT MATH!" Roberto charged.

"YOU'RE ON! I SHALL SHOW YOU THAT I AM GOOD AT MATH!"

(END FLASHBACK)

Xxx

Only Kurt and the Lyoko Group knew that Carlos had intentionally started that fight with Roberto so they'd be both sent to the hospital with minor injuries so Carlos could keep an eye on Aelita who had still not yet awakened.

"Anyways, today's challenge is what would have been last episode's challenge if Blaineley had not interrupted us is the Digital Race of Death!" Kurt announced.

"Sounds like something Chris came up with." Duncan commented.

"Yeah, he labelled all the challenges before he was demoted." Kurt shrugged. "Too much time to think of new challenges. Anyways the Digital Race of Death is a digitally designed race where one team each picks on to run through the numerous obstacles and reach the finish line first. Take look here."

He gestured to the big screen that showed a digital copy of Chris running through a track and run field on a stadium. Except the field had been modified heavily...

"Is that a lava pit?" Cody asked before the digital Chris slipped while hopping from platform to platform across said pit of death...and screamed as a pillar of fire shot up from where he had been consumed.

"As you can see, the first obstacle course is the Lava Pit," Kurt nodded. "Fortunately we turned the safety feature on so nobody gets burned. Next up..the archery course."

"Ooh, I'm good at archery-" Courtney started.

She stopped when she saw the digital Chris being hit by dozens of arrows. "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!"

"This involves you running through a storm of Digital Death via arrows," Kurt said. "Again, with the safety feature on."

"Meep!" Courtney squeaked.

"And for the third course, you must climb up that rope," Kurt pointed out as digital Chris reappeared and began to climb- straining with each time he lifted one hand over the other. "And once you reach the top, there's a little birdy you must glide down with."

"That doesn't sound so hard," Cody smiled.

"Wait until you see the cannons," Kurt smirked as Chris grabbed onto a big bird which was waiting on a platform for him. It began to fly him down...and got blasted by cannons positioned on either side of the course. Chris screamed as he and the bird plummeted.

"...meep!" Cody squeaked.

"And finally, the final course involves grabbing the diamond on the platform at the end!" Kurt pointed to a platform suspended 50 feet in the air. "But we've made things interesting."

"Oh god," LeShawna swallowed.

"It's one platform made up of smaller platforms and the moment you step onto the platform, that part will instantly begin to fall. And below the platform..." Spikes popped out of the ground below. "Spiked death. And you land on the platform using the birds...and just to let you know, the diamond will keep moving until somebody gets it! The platform will keep reappearing after a few seconds, but it will always be sinking when you take a step, so be extra careful people! You have five minutes to pick who will run the course."

Xxx

**Team Amazon**

The teams had left the super computer room to discuss their options.

"Okay, who goes on the course?" Cody asked.

"ME! ME! ME! ME! ME! ME!" Izzy jumped up and down waving her hands. "LET ME DO IT!"

"No way, let me do it! I'll get through it easy!" Eva argued.

"That's where you're both wrong. I'll do it." Courtney replied.

"You?" Gwen asked.

"Why not? I got plenty of experience in sports they have for the Olympics." Courtney replied. "I'll beat this race of death easily."

"No thanks. Izzy will be the one to run." Heather pointed at the orange haired girl.

"YES!" Izzy hugged Heather. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

Xxx

**Team Victory**

"Okay, who can run that course?" LeShawna asked.

"Not me, I'm no good at running." Bridgette said.

"I can try, needing to take part in athletics was important when you party for hours." Geoff said.

"Geoff's the best at this." DJ pointed out.

"Yeah, I'm no pro at this." Trent nodded.

"Let Geoff have all the glory." Noah shrugged. "More glory for him and all us are kept safe."

"Fine by me." Duncan shrugged.

"It'll be a breeze man!" Geoff flexed one arm. "I've got this in the bag, dudes!" He turned and began to stroll back towards the Super Computer Room. "It'll be as easy," He did not notice something left over from Carlos and Roberto's earlier fight...

A banana.

Yes, we ran out of ideas and we're pulling _that_ one out.

"As." Whoop! He slipped over it and fell down the stairs leading back down to the Super Computer Room. "AH! OW! OH! OUCH! OW!" He saw one thing being wheeled through the hall at the bottom of the stairs by Chef.

"CAAAAKE!" He wailed.

Chef was whistling casually, having had the joy of making the cakes for the winning team of this challenge. Then he heard Geoff's scream and sighed.

...

"I freakin' hate these kids."

SPLAT-CRASH!

When everybody rushed down, the whole corridor was a mess of cake, and Geoff was lying prone in the middle with Chef partially on top of him. Geoff let out a long groan of pain.

"I just _baked_ those things, man!" Chef whined.

Geoff let out another groan. "Uuuugh..."

"...is he okay?" Duncan asked as Bridgette gasped in horror.

Noah knelt by him and lifted one of his arms...

And Geoff let out a muffle shriek of agony.

"Uhhh yeah he's in bad shape." Noah dropped the arm.

"Oh my god!" Bridgette rushed over. "Geoff!"

"Uh...Lesley?" Duncan cleared his throat. "I think we need a new competitor for the race."

"Fine, smart guy, you're in." Lesley pointed at him. "Maybe an hour in the Race of Death will take out the sarcasm."

"Good luck with that." Courtney muttered.

"Now get back to the room and get on with it!" Lesley shouted and everyone ran back to the supercomputer room.

Xxx

"What happened?" Kurt asked.

"Geoff slipped on a banana peel that was left behind by some fool." LeShawna replied. "Lesley picked Duncan to run for our team."

"And who did Team Amazon pick?" Kurt asked.

"ME!" Courtney slapped her hand over Izzy's mouth before she could say anything. "I'm the one competing for Team Amazon!"

"What?" Gwen and Heather said at the same time.

"Got it." Kurt nodded. "Get into the pods."

"Hold it, Kurt! Courtney's not the one we chose. We all agreed on Izzy!" Heather protested.

"Too bad, Heather. I've got a schedule to keep here." Kurt shrugged as Courtney and Duncan got into the pods.

Xxx

Confessional: Heather

"That is just like Courtney to mess up our team! Last season she sabotaged our team and now she's risking us losing all because of her 'I'm a CIT and what I say goes' attitude!"

End Confessional

Xxx

Once Courtney and Duncan were in the pods and the visors had been placed over their eyes Kurt pressed the button and they were sent into the simulation. They appeared at the starting point which was a large platform in the Lava Pit with smaller platforms in front of them leading to the next course.

"You're going down this time, Duncan!" Courtney glared at the delinquent. "No escape from me!"

"Try to keep up, Princess." Duncan smirked back at her.

"AND GO!" Kurt announced.

They both started forward, racing neck and neck as they reached the first jump and began to hop from platform to platform. Sometimes these platforms would rotate or move in a certain direction to trick them or make them dizzy, but for now they both were on course and with no signs of stopping.

"Aaaand they are off!" Kurt announced. "Both contestants are just speeding their way through the lava pit! Neck to neck! Arm to arm! Foot to foot! Spine to spin! Eye to eye! Ankle to ankle! Somebody stop me!" there was the sound of a blow landing in the real world. "Ow! Thank you...ow. Oh and look out, blasting lava!"

Courtney stopped in time to avoid running into a geyser of lava.

"We watched this part so many times, and we laughed so hard at how it burned off Digital Chris' hair!"

Xxx

**Real World**

**Total Drama Supercomputer Room**

"Can we see that?" Izzy asked.

"Sure, watch this!" Kurt changed the channel and now it showed Digital Chris leaping from platform to platform in the Lava Pit.

A geyser of lava exploded underneath Digital Chris and his hair was set on fire. All the contestants, interns, and workers laughed as Digital Chris ran around screaming.

"I've seen that over one hundred fifty times, and it keeps getting funnier _every single time_ I see it!" Kurt laughed.

Xxx

Courtney somersaulted as a lava geyser exploded underneath and she landed on platform without a burn. Duncan was able to keep up with her from years of running and evading the police as he hopped from platform to platform, dodging exploding geysers. They both made it to the end with Courtney only barely ahead. They now stood on a well paved road with archers lined up on pillars above them ready to shoot arrows down on them.

Xxx

Confessional: Duncan

"I know its digital and all but I think Kurt was taking lessons from Chris."

Xxx

Confessional: Kurt

"I FIND THAT OFFENSIVE!"

Xxx

Confessional: Courtney

"HA! A little course with arrows? This will be a walk in the park!"

End Confessional

Xxx

Courtney ran forward, somersaulting through the air as the archers fired their first wave of arrow.

"And in an amazing show of athletic and aerobatic skills Courtney takes the league!" Kurt announced. "Who knew that'd she was this skilled?"

Xxx

"Izzy wishes she could have gone." Izzy pouted as she watched the race.

"Is it me or is Courtney just a little too good?" Trent asked.

"She's bragged about training for the Olympics before." Gwen pointed out.

"But this is too good, even for me." Heather narrowed her eyes. "I've studied ballet and gymnastics but what Courtney's doing..." She watched as Courtney landed on her hands and flipped off as arrows hit the ground. "She's making even top stars for the Olympics look like amateurs. It's almost like she's in..." She trailed off but almost everyone knew what she was talking about.

Xxx

"Aw man!" Duncan grunted as he took cover behind a rock. "Okay, time to go with my strengths."

Duncan jumped off the obstacle run and landed on the grassy field outside of the course. Smirking he took off as the archers turned to fire at him but he was already running to the third course.

Xxx

"Can he do that? That's cheating!" Bridgette said.

"Did you expect something else from Duncan?" Noah raised an eyebrow. "The guy doesn't have a good track record with following the rules."

Xxx

Duncan made it the start of the third course before Courtney who was still dodging the arrows. He grabbed the rope and started climbing it to the top of the pillar. Courtney made just as Duncan was halfway up and climbed as fast as she could. Duncan climbed up faster and jumped up to the top of the pillar. The large bird was for him as he grabbed its legs and it took off into the air.

"WHOA!" Duncan screamed as the bird flew down and cannons started firing at him.

Courtney jumped to the top of other platform and grabbed the bird that was waiting for her.

"GO! GO! GO!" She shouted as it took off and flew glided after Duncan.

The cannons tried to blast them both but angled the birds to the final course, the large platform that hovered over a pit of spikes with the diamond in the center.

"Sorry, Princess but this is my specialty!" Duncan let go and fell towards the platform.

He landed on the edge and got up. Just before he could run towards the diamond he felt the ground under him shaking and jumped forward. The smaller platform that made up the larger platform fell into the spiky pit below.

"Oh man!" Duncan said as he started running towards the diamond with each platform he ran across shaking and falling into the pit.

The diamond began flying away as Duncan got closer but the delinquent was determined to grab it. He ran faster to catch up with the diamond just as Courtney hovered over the platform, still hanging onto her bird. Duncan jumped forward and tried to grab the diamond but it flew left out of his reach and he just barely stopped himself from flying over the edge. He rolled out of the way before the part of the platform he was on shook and fell into the pit.

He spun around and chased after the diamond as it began to fly out of his reach again.

Xxx

"What's Courtney doing? She's just hovering over the platform with her bird and watching." Gwen pointed out as Courtney had yet to jump down and grab the diamond. "That's not like her. She usually does everything she can to win and wouldn't tolerate anyone, especially Duncan getting close to winning."

"Gothy's got a point. What's Miss CIT up to?" Eva crossed her arms.

"Maybe she's planning how to get the diamond." Cody shrugged.

"Courtney doesn't plan how to win; she just runs and screams at anyone in earshot to win the game." Heather scowled. "She better not throw the challenge."

Xxx

"I got it! I got it!" Duncan jumped forward but that was the second Courtney chose to strike.

She let go of her bird and fell down to the platform. Duncan's hands reached out to grab the diamond but just as his hands were mere inches away from the diamond Courtney landed right on his back.

"AH!" Duncan shouted as he fell face first to the ground from the sudden landing on his back.

As he fell Courtney jumped and somersaulted forward towards the diamond. She reached and grabbed the diamond just before it slipped away.

"And in a surprising show of skills Courtney has won the challenge!" Kurt announced.

Xxx

Most of Team Amazon cheered but Gwen and Heather both felt something was wrong as Courtney held up the diamond. The way she flawlessly managed to get the diamond after getting through the obstacle course of arrows and easily grabbed the diamond.

"Well, the first challenge to feature only two teams and Team Amazon is the victor." Kurt announced as the pods opened up and Courtney and Duncan took off the visors. "And no one can say we are soft in the challenges even with the safety on."

As the two walked over to their teams with Courtney smirking and Duncan scowling.

"Team Victory, you know the drill." Kurt said. "Vote someone out and watch them board the Jet of Losers."

Xxx

After Team Victory voted for who they wanted to leave the Intern came to take the box containing the votes to the studio lobby. However just before the Intern walked into the confessional someone slipped in and covered the camera. They opened the box and replaced the cards with the votes from Team Victory with their own and slipped out. The Intern came in and took the box the lobby.

Xxx

"All right, our first _official_ elimination ceremony since I've become host." Kurt announced to Team Victory. "This time there's no ex-host, annoying demonic ex, or robots to take the fall for you guys. One of you is leaving and that's the end of that."

"Get on with it!" Half the team shouted.

"Okay, okay!" Kurt sighed. "All right, now we melted all the trophies and I don't feel like throwing anything so when I call your name you are safe."

"LeShawna." LeShawna smiled.

"Bridgette."

"Yes!" Geoff hugged Bridgette.

"Geoff!"

Bridgette quickly hugged back and they were about to...

"NO MAKING OUT!" Kurt shouted stopped them just in time. "Noah."

The boy genius shrugged.

"DJ." The jolly giant gave Kurt two thumbs up.

"Trent." The musician smiled.

And now only Duncan and Lindsay were left.

"Just two of you left now, one of is going back." Kurt said, sounding a little reluctant.

...

...

...

...

"Lindsay."

"What?" All of Team Victory stood up, even Noah was shocked.

"Kurt, are you blind? Duncan's not who we voted for!" LeShawna said furiously.

"Well I only read who you all voted for. Go ahead and see." Kurt pointed to the box of votes...

All of them were for Duncan.

"B-but I didn't vote for him!"

"I know I didn't vote for Duncan."

Duncan raised an eyebrow. "What's the big deal? I just lost anyways, I expected you to vote me out. Anyway, I don't care anymore. Later!" He stood up and left.

"Kurt, we didn't vote for him!" Noah said.

"I can't do anything about it," Kurt shrugged. "Once the votes are in, there's no way to change it! Unless you have proof that the votes were tampered with, a la 'Total Drama Season One' with Harold then Duncan is going home."

Xxx

"Can't say I feel bad about leaving. I wanted to get off this stupid show for a while." Duncan muttered as he finished packing his things.

As he stood up a power outlet sparked and a black cloud came out and slammed the door shut.

"What?" Duncan spun around to see his door closed. "Who's there?"

He walked over to his door and tried to open it but it wouldn't budge.

"What the hell?" Duncan growled as he tried harder to open the door.

The door knob sparked with electricity that blasted Duncan back into the wall. He grunted as he slid down to the floor and looked up to see a black cloud sparkling with electricity ooze out of the door knob.

"What the..." Duncan tried to get up but the cloud enveloped him.

He screamed as he tried to struggle but the cloud shocked him with electricity and it entered his body through the ears. Duncan screamed before a blast of electricity knocked him out and he fell onto the floor. For a few moments he remained unconscious before getting back up again, looking completely fine except for his eyes. His teal green eyes were now pure white with the Eye of XANA replacing his normal pupils.

"Welcome back, Duncan and this time you're on my side."


	87. Episode 85: Dust to Dust

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 87

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN DUNCAN'S MISSING?" Kurt shouted at the pilot.

"He-he-he went to pack his stuff but he never showed up!" Lenny stuttered. "I've been waiting for half an hour!"

"Damn it! All of the times for him to run off he picks now of all times." Kurt growled and picked up the microphone and pressed the on switch. "Attention, everyone! It's come to my attention that Duncan has failed to make it to the Total Drama Jet for his return to Canada. All interns and workers will begin searching the studio to see if he still here and report immediately to me. If Duncan is not found here I want search parties out in the city looking for him. That is all."

Xxx

"Duncan's disappeared? Who know, what's he up to this time?" Gwen sighed.

"I don't know, Gwen. You really think this has nothing to do with the challenge?" Heather pointed out as they met in the hall.

"I won't deny that maybe the challenge was somehow rigged, but this isn't the first time Duncan bailed on going home. Remember last season, he didn't wait for the interns to take him back home when Chris knocked him off the plane in Egypt. As much as I hate to say he's probably making a run for it and they'll have to search all over the globe him again." Gwen shrugged. "He probably ran back to join the Der Schnitzel Kickers, I heard they were still in town."

"You really believe that?" Heather raised an eyebrow.

"…No, but we need to proof that the challenge had been rigged." Gwen sighed.

"Easy, because Courtney acted strange through the whole thing and you and I are both familiar on the subject of possession. She volunteered for the challenge even though we picked Izzy, she single handily won the challenge even though it would have been difficult for any of us, Lyoko or not, and I know they would have tried to vote Lindsay off first." Heather explained. "We need to figure out what's going on because you're probably next."

"Me? You sure, because I know for a fact Courtney's been acting nicer to me so she can convince me to help vote you off." Gwen pointed out.

"Maybe, but that means neither one of us is safe." Heather replied. "We need to find out what she did."

"Fine, you go and talk to Kurt, see if he can find out that if Courtney or anyone else tampered with the computer to gain an unfair advantage or rigged the votes. I'll get Cody and Noah to check if there was an activated tower when Duncan went to get his stuff."

Both girls nodded and ran off in different directions.

Xxx

"I wish I could help you, Heather, but my staff always checks the supercomputer for glitches." Kurt sat down his chair as he faced the raven haired girl standing in front of his desk.

"Look, you know as well as I do that no matter how good Courtney is she was too good in that challenge. There must have been a cheat code used somewhere." Heather replied.

"And we checked several times and as much as I hate to say it there's no evidence suggesting that Courtney or anyone else tampered with the challenge." Kurt shook his head. "And last I checked Courtney had very little skills in computers, especially breaking through password protected encryptions and tamper with sensitive coding."

"So maybe it wasn't her directly, maybe it was XANA or the new ass on the block." Heather shrugged. "Isn't there anything you can do?"

"I got Carlos in the hospital watching Aelita, I got search parties out looking for Duncan, I'm pretty sure I am doing everything I can." Kurt threw a small glare at her.

"What about Robby? Can you get in touch with him?" Heather asked.

"After he put his papers Robby left the country. Last I heard he was somewhere in America." Kurt shrugged. "The guy spent half his life trying to help Aelita and her dad while tracking Lyon, I can't drag him back into this even I knew how to contact him."

"Fine, I guess we're on our own." Heather looked out the window.

"Looks like it." Kurt agreed.

Xxx

"Sorry to tell you, Gwen but after the challenge Cody and I went on our laptops and checked for activated towers everywhere, Lyoko and Carbon Copy." Noah and Cody sat at the couch in the Game Room with their laptops out on the table. "There was no tower activated and just in case Aelita also put in a program that registered an active tower and when it was active in case it shut down before we reached it. There hasn't been one since the possessed Hiroki fiasco."

"Well sorry if I doubt you guys but I might be a little too paranoid to consider all of this a coincidence." Gwen replied.

"What else can we do if there was no activated tower? Isn't it possible Duncan just bailed?" Cody asked. "It's not the first time he's done something like this."

"Yeah, but I didn't get a really bad feeling those other times. Something's coming you guys, something terrible." Gwen shook her head.

"Yeah, I hate those feelings." Noah said. "They make things extra hard."

Xxx

"All right, I went through nearly a whole day listening to Roberto whine, complain, and gloat about whatever bruises he got or the ones he gave me and if I don't get a Klondike bar in the next three seconds I am going to kill someone!" Carlos shouting, stomping into the lobby.

A Klondike Bar hit him in the face and fell to the ground.

"I'm going to ignore that and just have my bar." Carlos picked up the Klondike Bar, unwrapped the plastic and ate it.

"Kurt saw you coming half a mile away sent me to give you that." The intern replied. "He also said to throw it at your face for some reason."

"Whatever." Carlos walked past the intern.

"Oh man I missed this wreck of a studio!" Carlos shouted as he walked into Kurt's office. "You never know what you have until it is gone!"

"So how was the hospital?" Kurt asked.

"Quiet, stale, boring, and Roberto kept shouting my ear off that the last few blows gave him extra points making him the winner!" Carlos scoffed. "That whiner got off easy if you ask me! I just wanted to knock us both out instead of getting into an all out brawl!"

"So, just like back in high school huh? You and Roberto fighting in the hall, than in the hospital, now you're probably both bragging to someone who doesn't give a crap." Kurt picked up some forms to sign.

"Ah, bite me Kurt. I went a whole day without Klondike Bars you owe me." Carlos grabbed an extra bar from his box.

"You couldn't charm a pretty nurse into getting you some?" Kurt smirked.

"I'm a married man, Kurt! I take my wedding vows very seriously...besides the dude wasn't my type." Carlos ate the second bar in a few seconds and headed for the door.

"Well, don't look forward to any rest, Carlos. We've got another problem." Kurt called out.

"I know, Duncan went and vanished on us. If he's playing a prank I'll show him what I did to pranksters in my early years!" Carlos walked out of the office.

"I'd pity the punk if Carlos get's his hands on him." Kurt started signing the forms.

Xxx

"Gwen!" Carlos walked into the entertainment room where Gwen was with Noah and Cody.

"Carlos?" All three turned around to face him.

"Hey, miss me?" Carlos smirked.

"Like an annoying bee." Gwen shook her head but smirked. "How's Aelita?"

"Still stable, they don't know when she's waking up though. She took a pretty big blow from both Eva and her impact on that support beam." Carlos replied. "She's lucky there was no broken skull or brain swelling."

"Well, we've got a new problem..." Gwen started.

"I know, that punk Duncan decided to make a run for it. The guy couldn't have chosen a worst time to do this." Carlos shook his head.

"Well, we're not sure that Duncan just decided to run away. We think that either XANA or the new guy had something to do with it." Gwen explained.

"Then this is out of my jurisdiction since the crazy digital adventures aren't my forte." Carlos sat and relaxed on a chair. "I've done my job."

"Thanks, we'll head over to the hospital to see if Aelita wakes up." Gwen nodded.

Xxx

Eva finished lifting weights and walked out of the gym to see Geoff and Bridgette sitting on the couch watching a movie with DJ reading a book about animals, Trent practicing his guitar, and Izzy howling at the moon.

"Are you guys done just lazing around or is this part of the job too?" Eva growled.

"We can't do anything yet, Eva, not unless there is an activated tower or if Aelita wakes up." DJ replied.

"Tch! Yeah right! I knew she was tough if she got all of you working together but the second she's out you guys are like lost sheep." Eva scoffed.

"And you have a better idea?" Trent asked.

"You're all smart enough to see what's going on here and you're just waiting for the bad guys to make the first move! Sitting around and waiting for a fight is not how you ought to do it! So about you all get up, grow some balls, and we go kick their assess!" Eva snarled.

"Ah, don't listen to her, guys." Gwen walked in with LeShawna.

"Gwen, she's got a point." Geoff pointed out.

"Thanks Eva, now the group's dividing." Gwen threw a small glance at Eva was she walked by.

"The guy's got an opinion he's got a right to say it." Eva shrugged.

"You sure there is nothing we can do to help Aelita or find out what happened to Duncan or is it because you're scared of what might happen if we make the first move?" Geoff asked.

Everyone looked at Geoff, not expecting him to say something like that.

"What?" Gwen asked.

"Come on, Gwen, I may not be the smartest guy here but I can tell when the wheels are spinning in your head. You're thinking of something to solve this problem, but the non-dangerous ones are out because we can't do anything without risking our lives or Aelita's." Geoff explained. "You're creative, not just with your art but with you Avatar on Lyoko, the challenges, and I know you're coming up with a plan. So come on, Gwen, you got a plan come out and say."

Gwen just stared at Geoff and sighed. "I'm not doing anything unless there's a last option."

Before anyone could think of a reply Gwen walked out of the room.

"What's with her?" DJ asked.

"I got an idea. Let me talk to her." LeShawna walked off after Gwen.

Xxx

"Gwen!" The goth girl turned around to see LeShawna catch up to her. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Why? Is there something about me that says otherwise?" Gwen kept walking but slowly enough so that LeShawna could catch up and walk with her.

"You mean beside what Geoff said back there? Come on, you don't think I know when my favourite white girl's feeling down?"

"I'm not feeling down, I just..." Gwen trailed off.

"Come on, just come out and say."

"I got a call at the hospital before the challenge." Gwen sighed.

"So?"

"I think it was from the mysterious hacker who hacked the Time Return Program."

"Seriously?" LeShawna's eyes widened. "Why didn't you say anything before?"

"I couldn't because it would have riled all of you up when we were already down with what happened to Aelita. All he did was call and taunt me about what's been going on, he didn't give away anything that would tell us who he is." Gwen shrugged. "He knows about us, he knows about the lab, and he knows that Aelita was hurt. There's no doubt about it anymore, XANA's found himself a new ally."

"Any reason why he would call you?"

"No idea." Gwen shook her head. "I'm not sure it matters because it's obvious that he's after all of us. I think he was just in gloating mood."

"Well, if he calls me we'll see how long he gloats when talking to LeShawna." She smashed her right fist in the palm of her left hand.

"LeShawna, if you want you can tell the others about the phone call. I was wrong to keep it hidden and I'm sorry about that." Gwen stopped and looked at LeShawna to her know that she was sorry.

"Forget it, Gwen. We got bigger problems." LeShawna smiled. "Now come on, it's our turn to watch Aelita."

Xxx

As Gwen and LeShawna headed to the hospital to check on Aelita in Lyoko, in Ice Cavern Sector a tower started to glow red.

Xxx

Out of a lamppost in the parking lot of the studio emerged a digital specter that flew into the grass surrounding the studio and spread out. The spectre began to wash over every flower within range, drawing something out of them...and it did this everywhere across the city from parks to gardens. They did something to the flowers...but once they receded, nothing had physically changed yet.

Xxx

Cody and Noah's laptops started beeping as a window showing an activated tower appeared.

"Oh crap!" Both geniuses exclaimed.

Xxx

A nurse was humming as she walked into Aelita's room to check and see if she had awoken. Aelita was still unconscious so the nurse walked over to the window to open the drapes.

"It's a beautiful day Miss Stones." The nurse said, pretending that Aelita was awake.

"Aelita!" The nurse spun and saw two girls run into the room.

"Excuse me? Can I help you?"

"We heard you talking to her and thought she was awake." The girl with the black and blue hair replied.

"Oh, sorry." The nurse blushed. "Sorry, but I sometimes talk out loud to the patients, even when they're asleep. I just noticed how nice a day it looked and...Sorry about that."

"Whatever. How is she?" LeShawna asked.

"Oh, her conditions stable, it's just a matter of her waking up. We're not sure how long it could take because patients with head injuries can wake up in a few days or a few weeks. I am sorry about this."

"It's all right." Gwen took a seat next Aelita's bed. "Thanks for helping her."

"It's our pleasure and I hope she wakes up soon." The nurse smiled and walked out.

LeShawna sighed as she sat down and started reading a magazine she picked up while Gwen pulled out her sketchbook. Meanwhile down in the lobby of the hospital no one noticed a dust cloud slowly floating towards the doors. No one would normally bother to pay attention to a small dust cloud because the wind would just blow it away except there was no wind. And inside the dust cloud was a small spark electricity...

BOOM!

The entrance was blasted open sending debris and paper forms flying all over the lobby. The entire hospital shook, and the following screams did nothing to calm those who did not witness the explosion. People were fleeing in any direction to get away from where it had happened, thoughts of a terrorist bombing or anything their minds could conjure driving them to blindly run. But Gwen and LeShawna did not need to be there to know that this was not some random occurrence.

"..." After the shaking stopped LeShawna took a slow breath to try and calm down, her eyes wide with panic. "You wanna put five Euros on that bein' XANA?"

"Gladly," Gwen rushed to Aelita's bed side.

"What are you doin' now girl?!"

"She can't stay here if XANA is attacking!" Gwen insisted as she began to disconnect Aelita from the IV hooked into her arm.

"She won't be able to do anything, she's out cold!"

"Precisely, and if we leave her here then XANA will kill her!" Gwen was trying to lift Aelita out of bed. "Help me get her out of here, and call Kurt! We need a ride, fast!"

LeShawna quickly put Aelita's right arm over her shoulder and pulled out her cell phone.

Xxx

Kurt was just finishing putting away another pile of forms when cell phone rang.

"Hello?"

"_Kurt, we got a XANA problem at the hospital and we could really use a ride!_" LeShawna shouted, making Kurt hold his phone away from his ear.

"Crap. Hang on. I'll get a ride up to you." Kurt ran out of the office.

However Kurt would not be able to reach them so easily, because just as he stepped out of his office he heard something that sound a lot like a...

BOOM!

The studio shook as it was riddled with explosions all over. Interns and workers stopped whatever they were doing as walls, front doors, and windows were blasted, sending debris flying everywhere.

"What the-"Carlos ducked as a piece of wood flew over his head and impact the wall behind him. "Come on! It's my day off!"

Xxx

"What the..." Eva was cut off as an explosion sent gym equipment flying.

"Whoa!" DJ jumped out of the way as weights nearly crushed his body.

"Guys, we got a..." Noah stopped as he looked in the ruined gym. "Oh, you already know."

"Look!" Bridgette pointed as a specter flew through one of the large holes made by the explosions flew in.

"I got it." Eva picked up a javelin lying on the floor nearby.

"Eva, I don't think that's..." Trent started but Eva threw the javelin.

It hit the spectre and there was a spark of electricity as the javelin passed through. Just after that spark the specter exploded, knocking Eva into the wall.

"You tried to tell her." Noah shrugged as he and DJ ran over and helped Eva stand up.

"When do specters explode?" Trent asked.

"I don't know. Do you guys smell something?" Cody was sniffing the air. "Something's in the air, I just can't tell what it is..."

"...Pollen!" Bridgette realized.

"Wow Bridge," Both geniuses looked at her as Cody smiled. "How'd you guess-"

"ACHOO!" Both were nearly sent flying off their feet by Bridgette's sneezing. "That's why I know..." She groaned, wiping her nose. "That stuff is just...ugh."

"You're allergic to pollen-ACHOO!" Noah sneezed. "...never mind."

"Well okay...there's pollen all over the place," Cody said as several others sneezed-he followed suite a few moments later. "Th-that's it-ACHOO! That's XANA's attack!"

"What, making us sneeze?" Eva demanded.

"No, it's a dust explosion!" Cody exclaimed.

"Listen to him, he's r-rah-riii-ACHOO!" Noah groaned. "He's right."

"Hold on, assume most of us don't know what that is." DJ said. "...what's a dust explosion?"

"It's a fast combustion of dust particles left in the air in enclosed spaces that are usually set off by a little spark. It doesn't happen a lot but usually the kind of dust needed for that could be coal, grain, flower, sugar, or in our case...ACHOO!" He wiped his nose. "Pollen."

"Pollen can be found in places like gardens and forests, plenty of places around here for XANA to collect. He's using specters to gather them and creating dust clouds that explode with just a hint of electricity!" Noah finished. "Flying bombs, that's a neat trick."

"Compliment him later, let's go!" Heather shouted as he ran into the room with Kurt. "LeShawna and Gwen called, the hospital has been hit too!"

"Oh man, he's after Aelita!" Bridgette gasped.

"That's what they said, they're trying to get her out right now." Kurt passed the phone to Bridgette. "I got to move."

"Gwen, LeShawna?" Bridgette asked.

Xxx

"Bridgette?" Gwen asked as they ran down the stairs with LeShawna carrying Aelita on her back. "Glad to hear you're all right."

"_Where are you?_"

"Running down the stairs with flying clouds that turn out to be bombs." Gwen replied. "Please tell me Kurt's on the way."

"_He's on the way right now. Are you okay?_"

"Oh, we're fine, with flying bombs chasing us, people screaming, and the usual." Gwen shrugged. "Get to the factory."

"_Is Aelita-_"

"No, she's still knocked out. We'll think of something but hurry!" Gwen hung up.

"We are thinking of something right?" LeShawna asked.

"Yeah, it's just taking a while."

Dust clouds controlled by XANA circled around the hospital searching for Aelita. XANA had already checked Aelita's room and already knew that one or two of the Lyoko Warriors were with her to keep her safe. By now Aelita had been moved from her room and they would try to get her to the factory even if she hadn't regained conscious. One blast and XANA's most dangerous enemy would be removed...but fortunately for them that was not XANA's objective.

"Out of my way!" Carlos's car drove down the road with the driver shouting at people and cars as he drove by.

He stopped at the entrance of the hospital and saw the wrecked entrance.

"And people say _I'm_ the pyromaniac." Carlos jumped out of his car and ran inside. "Kurt just had to bail on me. 'Someone needs to handle damage control here' my foot!" He pulled out his cell phone and hit the speed dial for LeShawna's cell phone.

Xxx

Gwen and LeShawna had just made it the ground level when LeShawna's phone rang.

"Kurt?" She answered.

"_Sorry, but the guy you're talking to is more good looking._" Carlos laughed.

"Where the hell is our ride?" LeShawna growled.

"_Just waiting outside for you. Where the hell are you?_"

"We just made it to the ground floor on the stair case."

"_Good for us then._"

They knew they didn't have enough time but they didn't know was that XANA had tapped into the phone lines to monitor communications between his enemies. Now he knew how they planned to reach the factory. LeShawna and Gwen ran into the scorched lobby with Aelita still on LeShawna's back.

"Come on, come on! We got flying bombs heading for us!" Carlos shouted.

They ran out just as another possessed cloud into the entrance and tried to cut them off by blasting the ceiling causing the upper floor to collapse onto the lobby.

"OH CRAP!" LeShawna ran as fast as she could with Gwen and Carlos next to her as they just barely made it outside.

More dust clouds flew after them as they jumped into Carlos's car but luckily Carlos left it running as he set it to drive and slammed his foot down on the gas. The car went down the street like a speeding bullet with dust clouds hot on its tail.

"You know where the others are?" Gwen asked.

"Kurt got a ride for them to the factory, didn't want them to get hurt with those dust clouds." Carlos made a very sharp turn at a corner on the right.

"Dust clouds?" LeShawna asked.

"Yeah, basically XANA's created flying bombs made of pollen that explodes with just a jolt of electricity." Carlos said before swerving around several stopped cars. "Don't worry, I'll get you guys safely to that factory-"

"Carlos we're going through a golf course!" Gwen shouted as the car shot across a flat plain of grass. Multiple men and women looked up as they saw the car shooting across the green with clouds of dust after it.

"Twenty points to whoever nails that car!" One man offered.

Immediately dozens of golf balls began to pelt the car, cracking the glass and denting the hood.

"Aw come on!" Carlos growled as he tried to get out of there as fast as possible. "I should have taken Kurt's car! It can withstand all the crazy stuff I keep going through every day! You guy's better appreciate me getting you to that factory safe and sound!"

"Sand trap," Gwen said before the car burst through a pile of sand and continued on.

"I mean I'm supposed to enjoy my day off when this crap happens!" Carlos kept on going, unaware of what was in front of him.

"Tractor!" LeShawna shouted.

Carlos swerved the car, which clipped a tractor and tore off part of the front bumper while nearly flipping the vehicle over. The car kept on going, balance on its left wheels and Carlos seemingly unaware of the impending damage. He simply kept driving with one hand, the other settled on his seat. "Now just slap Aelita awake and get that tower shut down so we can all go home safe and alive-"

"SPEAR!" Both girls screamed before the car crashed into a statue which had been in the process of being set up...with a spear pointed down. Now the tip was resting between Gwen's eyes, mere inches from her. She would have looked more pale, but her makeup hid that.

"You'd both better be thankful," Carlos continued, still driving-now on a regular street at a calm pace with the statue on the hood.

"Oh yes, we're grateful," Gwen nodded. "Especially me since I almost got to see what my brain looked like."

"Pfft! This crap's nothing compared to what went down back when me and Kurt were in MI6...or was it the SAS? Hell, which one came first? I keep forgetting." Carlos muttered while putting on some sunglasses. "Anyways, we lost the dust clouds."

"At the expense of nearly being run through," Gwen added.

"What if I told you that I got into a similar situation, only instead I got stabbed in a different area?" Carlos offered.

"I would only care if it stabbed you in the one place you'd never want to get stabbed," LeShawna was close to throwing up. "Cuz then I'd be happy."

"Actually it was just in the ear but...that's a story for another day," Carlos decided.

"Hopefully we won't be around." Gwen muttered as Carlos stopped the car in front of the factory. "And thanks."

"Go forth and save us all!" Carlos said dramatically as the girls ran out of the car. "And now I get my day off."

LeShawna walked down the stairs because if she slid down the cables Aelita might fall of and falling onto the lobby floor would make her injuries worse which was the last thing they needed. Gwen pushed the elevator button and the elevator came up. They got in when the door opened and Gwen pushed the button for the lab. The elevator went down and a second later the doors opened up revealing the lab and the rest of the Lyoko Warriors who had already arrived.

"Gwen! LeShawna!" Bridgette ran over hugged them both, but was careful so LeShawna wouldn't drop Aelita. "How is she?"

"She's still out which is impressive, she's a heavier sleeper than my brother." Gwen replied as LeShawna sat Aelita against the wall. "What have we got?"

"An activated tower in the Ice Tunnel Sector with no monsters but I get the feeling out all of the generals we might be facing the top one is Yuki. Ice Sectors give her the advantage remember?" Noah asked.

"It's hard not to forget." Gwen sighed as she walked over to the computer and looked at the Superscan.

"Okay, what do we do?" Cody asked.

"The first thing we do is clear the path to the tower, that's the first thing we do like always." Gwen replied. "We can worry about waking Aelita up as we clear a path to the tower for her."

"Okay, but how do we wake up Sleeping Beauty here?" Heather gestured to Aelita.

"I don't know, we asked the doctors about how long but..." LeShawna was cut off as Aelita started groaning.

Everyone looked at the pink haired girl as her eyes slowly opened. She looked around, her vision slightly blurry and she put a hand to her head to try to ease a minor headache.

"Aelita?" Bridgette lowered herself down to Aelita's level. "Are you okay?"

Aelita blinked and looked at her and stared at everyone else. The next question made nearly everyone 's heartbeat stop.

"Who are you?"


	88. Episode 86: Strike Back!

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 88

"Wh-What did you just say?" Bridgette stuttered.

"Where am I? And who are you?" Aelita repeated.

"You don't know us?" Geoff asked putting a hand on Bridgette's shoulder.

Aelita shook her head as she looked around.

Noah groaned. "Oh god I swear this happens in every bad story..." He oddly felt wrong for saying that.

"It's us, your friends from Total Drama!" LeShawna exclaimed.

Aelita stared at LeShawna blankly.

"You don't know where you are?" DJ asked.

Aelita simply shook her head again.

"What about your name?" Trent asked.

Aelita simply stared back at Trent as if trying to figure out the answer before stuttering. "I...I...don't know."

"Could this be a side effect of what happened?" Gwen asked.

"It's possible...Even if there was no brain damage it might have been damaged enough for her to lose her long term memory." Cody commented soberly.

"So in hindsight, she's forgotten everything!" Heather exclaimed as she kicked the wall. "Damn that XANA! He's screwing us over badly again!"

"What do we do?" Bridgette asked.

"The memory loss could only be temporary; I've read about this in medical books." Noah explained. "Let's start by seeing how bad the memory loss is, see if we can possibly jog her memories. Even if she lost her long term memory she might feel the same emotions towards people, places, and so on."

"What about the tower? We can't ignore it." Trent pointed out. "We still need to shut it down and find out what happened to Duncan."

"He's right. Okay..." Gwen took a deep breath. "Okay, we can't all go into Lyoko at the same time because if even we do clear a path and there's no Aelita than by the time she get her memory back will be enough time for another batch of monsters and the generals to show up. Trent, you, me, DJ, and Noah will go on ahead and scout the place for monsters and traps. Our fire spells along with Noah's intangibility and DJ's barriers will come in handy, especially if Yuki shows up."

" Got it." Trent held up his thumb while Noah simply nodded.

"Everyone else will try and help jog Aelita's memory. If we're really lucky we'll make it to the tower before something very bad happens." Gwen finished.

"Hey, why not let me come? You can't expect me to just sit here and..." Eva started but was cut off.

"WILL YOU SHUT UP AND LISTEN FOR JUST ONE SECOND?!" Gwen shouted, shocking everyone since no one ever dared to shout at Eva before.

The brawler was silent as Gwen took a deep breath.

"Listen Eva, you may be a good fighter but you've still got a lousy temper and remember you lost your temper when you attacked Hiroki when Aelita tried to stop you. This isn't about whose the better fighter here it's about saving lives. You want to work with us, than help us keep Aelita safe while we figure out how to fix this. You may be good at fighting Eva but in the Ice Caverns your shockwaves would cause a cave in and kill us all. If we need help in there you'll be the first we ask." Gwen finished and stomped into the elevator followed by Trent, DJ, and Noah.

Everyone stared at Eva; afraid she might go ballistic and attack Gwen. But to her credit she simply scowled and crossed her arms.

"Ooookay then." Cody sat down at the computer. "Starting the virtualization sequence."

Xxx

"_Transfer._"

"_Scanner._"

"_Virtualization!_"

A few minutes later and all four Lyoko Warriors had materialized in a large ice chamber with sharp pointed icicles pointing down at them from the ceiling with a tunnel leading deeper into the sector.

"It's been a while since we've been here. Last time was during that zombie attack caused by Shadow." Trent pointed out.

"_Don't remind me._" They heard Heather's voice from the lab, obviously stating how much she didn't want to be reminded of Shadow and the time he took control of her.

"Point us in the direction of the tower, Cody." Trent held out his guitar.

"_Follow the tunnel in front of you; it'll lead you through a few large chambers with the tower at the far end._" Cody replied.

"Thanks, let us know if something bad is about to happen. Which should be in the next minute or two." Noah said as they started walking.

Xxx

Aelita watched from behind most of the others except for Bridgette who stood next to her, watching her reactions. For the most part Aelita just started the computer, wondering what was going on...and why she was suddenly felt she should be with those four wherever they are. She couldn't remember anything before waking up with a headache and feeling a little cold, probably because was in a thin hospital gown. She shivered slightly but Bridgette noticed.

"Geoff, can Aelita borrow your shirt?" Bridgette asked, getting both her boyfriend and Aelita's attention. "Being here in just a hospital gown can't be good for her."

Geoff nodded and took his pink shirt off and handed it Aelita who hesitantly and shyly took it.

"Thank you." She said quickly and quietly, feeling awkward with the attention directed at her.

She put the shirt on and buttoned it up, feeling better now that she was wearing more than just a simply hospital gown. Feeling more comfortable Aelita sent a small grateful smile at Bridgette and smiled and nodded back. Geoff simply gave her a thumb up and turned back to the computer. Everyone else simply focused on the computer, knowing that Aelita was already put off by being in a place she couldn't remember and was already pretty shy with only a few people paying attention to her.

"Better now?" Bridgette asked.

"Yes, thank you. So...what is going on?" Aelita asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

Bridgette had a sudden flash back to the day she and the others met Aelita and remembered how they asked her that same question. Now the roles were reversed and right now they needed her to remember as badly as she needed help when they had met her.

"Okay, this going to sound totally crazy and I won't blame you for thinking we're all nuts...In fact I think you expected the same thing from us when you told us this." Bridgette chuckled but Aelita just looked confused. "All right, here I go. Your name is Aelita Hopper Schaeffer, you were born in the year 1982 to Waldo Schaefer and Anthea Hopper." Bridgette paused, seeing if Aelita understood all of it.

The pink haired girl's eyes were staring right at her with her full attention. Bridgette took a deep breath and continued.

"You parents loved you very much, even when you weren't able to have friends your own age because most of the time you lived in a small house in the mountains. Your parents were geniuses, really good in computers, so good that they were asked to take part in a project that was supposedly defending this country...but it was a lie. He just wanted a weapon to blackmail the entire world into the palm of his hands and your parents recognized the threat."

Bridgette felt a little hesitant to continue. Was it right to tell her how she lost her family and friends? She seemed so strong, but sad about the outcome when she told them about it but telling her now...Bridgette wasn't sure if it was right for her to do it.

"They...they built this lab to create something to destroy that weapon and it worked but then the madman came after them. Your mother...she was abducted when you were six. Your father took you into the city and lived in a hermitage until you were twelve when the madman's agents showed up at your house. Your dad took you here," She gestured to the lab. "To hide you. But, the thing your parents created to save the world, XANA, turned on your dad, captured him and took away your memories of your childhood. You spent the next decade in a coma until a boy named Jeremy found you and you made friends with him and his friends Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd."

Aelita tilted her head, not entirely sure what to make of everything Bridgette was saying but the blond surfer kept going.

"They gave you a new name so you could live in the real world again but XANA kept attacking they needed to restore your memories before getting rid of him. They succeeded and you remembered your childhood and your father sacrificed himself to kill XANA. But...XANA faked his death and came back, capturing your friends and leaving you all alone. When XANA tried to kill you we were nearby when it happened and saved you. You brought us back here, to help you fight XANA and rescue your friends and we've been helping you out ever since that day."

Aelita had been silent through the whole explanation she had wanted to say 'You're right, it does sound crazy.' But for some reason she couldn't, like she felt that Bridgette was telling the truth no matter how crazy it sounded.

"You were injured in the last attack; you hit your head pretty hard." When Bridgette said this, Eva turned her head slightly to the wall, not wanting to be reminded how she had unintentionally injured Aelita. "XANA tried to kill you while you were unconscious but you were brought here because it's about the only safe place on Earth right now."

"Guys, I'm getting something. You called right, Gwen. We've got about two generals waiting for you guys up ahead." Cody said, putting an end to their conversation.

Xxx

"And it's a miracle that I'm not getting sick of always being right when it comes to this." Gwen pulled out her scythe. "Can you tell who it is?"

"_Not yet, I can't tell until they attack._"

The four warriors stepped out into a cave with a blue colored floor indicating that it was frozen water. Looking up they could see very large pointed icicles pointing down at them.

"Cody, do you know where they are?" Noah asked.

"_Can't tell completely here, Noah. They must have put up a barrier._"

All four were wary since even if they had the numbers just one of XANA's generals was more than enough to give just four of them a big fight. They scanned every corner of the cave they were in for the single sign of movement. DJ felt the ice beneath them shift and instantly his instincts and paranoia set in.

"MOVE!" He jumped forward, pushing the other three warriors out of the way right as spikes of ice erupted from the ground.

It's a good thing DJ moved when he did otherwise all four would have been skewered. They glanced up to see Yuki emerge from the icy ground, knowing her ambush had failed. The ice general of XANA held up her hands and icy claws covered her hands, sharpened enough to cut through almost anything.

"Saw this coming." Noah's hands transformed into guns.

"_Heads up!_" Cody shouted.

Gwen's eyes looked the left to see a barrage of a purple energy beams flying straight at them. "DJ! TRENT!"

Trent played the Shield Note while DJ activated his barrier creating a double layered energy shield around the warriors that blocked the energy beams. The smoke cleared allowing the group to see Jinx standing on top of an ice pillar.

"And there's General Number Two!" Gwen got ready to fight as the barrier vanished.

Twirling her spear in her hands Jinx pointed it at the Lyoko Warriors and a rain of purple light fell down towards the Lyoko Warriors. DJ and Trent got ready to create another barrier but Yuki threw her arms up and spikes erupted from the ground, forcing them to scatter to avoid getting skewered or blasted to pieces. Gwen and Noah landed on one side of the spikes with Trent and DJ on the other side. Jinx jumped and landed on the ground in front of Gwen and Noah, the icy floor crackling slightly as she landed while Yuki walked to Trent and DJ's side.

"Just two generals this time? I'm afraid to ask what the catch is." Noah's guns started to charge.

"Shut up and SHOOT!" Gwen then thrust both hands forward, and her fire aura shot out.

She was not aiming at Jinx though, but at Yuki. Jinx was about to take this chance to hit her with a killing blow, but Noah had reacted at the same time that Gwen had fired and took aim at the spear wielding General. He fired a single powerful shot, the two attacks crossing and missing one another by inches. Yuki dodged Gwen's attack by sinking back into the ice and Jinx blocked Noah's laser with her spear even though the force sent her flying back.

She aimed her spear but not at Gwen and Noah but DJ and Trent and fired her signature barrage of purple energy bolts. As she fired spikes of ice erupted underneath Gwen and Noah, separating them from each other as Yuki came out of the ground and slashed at Noah with her icy claws. Noah jumped back, Yuki's icy claws taking a few strands of hair and fired another laser blast that Yuki blocked with a wall of ice in front of her. DJ and Trent created another double layered shield to block Jinx's energy beams but the beams exploded before they hit the barrier sending sharp pieces of ice everywhere.

Gwen was about to attack Yuki from behind when the ice wall she created shattered and Yuki jumped into the air allowing Gwen to see sharp icy flying at her. Activating her fire aura she melted the ice before they could cut her but this allowed Jinx the chance to attack, plunging her spear into the floor she released her Poison spell that melted the ice beneath Gwen's feet, opening a crack that the spell caster fell into. Gwen shouted as she grabbed the edge with one free hand while holding her scythe in the other. Yuki landed on the other side of the newly formed crack and stomped one foot in the ground.

"AH!" Gwen gasped as icy spikes emerged from the walls of the crack and cut her in several places, decreasing her life points to ninety and forcing her to let go.

"GWEN!" Trent aimed his guitar at Yuki and playing his Lightning Note, releasing a stream of lightning.

Jinx landed in front of Yuki and created a purple energy shield that blocked the blast.

"You guys came a little unprepared this time, huh?" Jinx smirked as she twirled her spear and fired another barrage of purple energy beams.

DJ quickly used his barrier to block the blast but the sheer force of Jinx's energy barrage broke the barrier and sent him flying into the wall.

"GAH!" He gasped as his back slammed into the wall and lost twenty life points.

Yuki placed her hand on the icy floor and the large crack in the center of the room closed.

"Gwen!" Trent shouted.

"_It's all right, Trent. Gwen's fine, there's another cave beneath you guys that she fell into. She's still got seventy life points._" Cody reassured them.

"We might need some reinforcements." Noah said as they regrouped and faced the two generals.

Jinx's spells along with Yuki's ice powers being increased in the Ice Caverns along with their teamwork was hard to keep up with. They used the terrain to their advantage, cutting the Warriors off from each other and kept them from using their best powers to try and turn the fight around.

"Noah's right, these two are giving me a headache." Trent said.

Xxx

"Okay, who's going to help?" Geoff asked.

"I'm in; my Time Powers will come in handy." Cody stood up.

"I can smash through any ice." LeShawna clenched her fists.

"Me! Me!" Izzy waved her hand.

"Okay, me and Geoff will stay here and keep an eye on everyone while you guys head into Lyoko." Bridgette sat down at the computer as Eva joined the volunteers.

"Might as let me in now, I'm no good out here." Eva shrugged.

No one bothered to stop her and the elevator took them down into the scanner room. Even though she didn't want to get in anyone's way Aelita walked up to the computer to take a closer look.

"Okay, setting the scanners up, setting the coordinates." Bridgette carefully typed the commands into the computer, knowing she was not a computer expert but remembered everything she needed to do.

Before she could finish someone landed on the floor behind them, their feet hitting the floor setting of a loud 'THUMP' sound.

"Who the..." Geoff turned and saw a fist slam into his face that sent him into the holo-map.

He went through the image and tripped, falling to the floor with his head being the first to impact the floor so hard he was knocked out.

"GEOFF!" Bridgette stood up in time for a fist to her in the back of the head and knock her down.

Aelita gasped as she stepped back, feeling the urge to run but the stranger spun and slammed a fist into her gut. She gasped from the pain and knelt down to the floor. The stranger pulled out some rope and quickly tied Aelita's hands behind her back and her feet together to keep her from moving. She looked up see the stranger was wearing a black T-shirt with a skull on it over a white long sleeved shirt, cargo paints, piercings on his face, and the Eye of XANA replacing his normal eyes.

"HEL-"The stranger quickly gagged her to keep anyone from her hearing her and turned back to the computer.

"Excellent work." Aelita looked up to see a person wearing a long coat that was hiding their face climb down the ladder. "Catching them off guard completely."

"We're waiting!" Eva shouted as she and the others waited down in the scanner room.

"We better not keep them waiting." The person sat at the computer with Duncan standing next to them.

"Transfer."

"Scanner."

"Virtualization!"

Xxx

Eva, Izzy, and LeShawna landed on their feet to find themselves not in the Ice Cavern Sector but the Desert Sector.

"Huh? I thought we were going to the Ice Caverns! You know, the one with all the icy caves?" Izzy scratched her head.

"Hey, Bridgette! What's going on up there?" LeShawna shouted but there was no answer.

A second later Cody and Heather landed next to them and looked around.

"Hey! What gives?" Cody asked.

"This is the wrong sector!" Heather exclaimed.

"That's what I would like to know! Hey, surfer girl! You typed in the wrong place!" Eva shouted but still no one answered.

Xxx

Aelita watched the two at the computer, almost shaking in terror as Duncan approached.

"Don't worry my dear." The hooded person said in a falsely sweet tone. "All we want is a little scan of your DNA. Nothing more."

Duncan yanked Aelita by her hair, earning a cry from her as he plucked a single strand of hair from head.

"Perfect. Go down to the scanners and await transfer." The person said. "And take her with you."

Duncan nodded and picked Aelita up over his shoulders as he took the ladder down to the scanner room. The person sat down at the computer and typed a few commands. A second later a new window appeared showing XANA's Avatar smirking at them.

"Well done and right on schedule." XANA spoke, praising his ally.

"All is done on my end and now to fulfill my end of the deal I shall now have my pet send Aelita on a one way trip." The person said. "And you'll get a front row seat to it, thank you for removing that troublesome virus. Now let's hurry, my control over Duncan will not last longer here in the real world."

"I've already picked a nice spot by the sea to see it all happen. I look forward to it." XANA said and closed the window.

The person typed in the virtualization sequence and waited for Duncan and Aelita to enter the scanners.

"Transfer, Duncan. Transfer, Aelita."

"Scanner, Duncan. Scanner Aelita."

"Virtualization!"

As this happened Bridgette groaned slightly and looked up. The person chuckled as they ignored the slowly awakening surfer girl.

"Say good bye Lyoko Warriors."

"Sure, bye!" The person spun to see Bridgette her fist at their face.

The person ducked and jumped out of the chair. Bridgette turned to see the person climbing up the ladder and out of the lab.

"Come back here!" Bridgette shouted, actually feeling very angry at whoever attacked them

When the person was gone Bridgette turned back to the computer screen and gasped when she saw where Aelita and Duncan were...And _who _was with them.

Xxx

Duncan landed on the ground, fully clothed in the outfit he had worn when he arrived in Lyoko for the first time, including the black Mohawk. They were in the Mountain Sector, on a plain clear floating island with only one bridge connecting them to the mainland. Aelita groaned as she looked down at herself, wearing dark purple shaded pants and a matching short sleeved shirt that showed her mid riff, with a dark purple sleeveless coat. She also noticed her chest plate and greeves as she stood up.

"Welcome back, sister." Aelita felt a cold dark feeling as she turned faced...

"XA-XANA."

"So, even if you have temporary amnesia you still recognize me. I'm flattered." XANA stood a few feet away, making no move to attack. "You might regain your memories in just a few minutes but my associate decided to not take the chance, preferring to get rid of you now, since that strand of hair the delinquent took from you was in a different scanner. Now they have all they need from you and I get to watch your final moments."

Duncan pulled out his green sword and stepped towards Aelita, intending to knock her into the Digital Sea. Aelita stepped back, wishing she could remember anything on how to defend herself. But as Duncan got closer a digital form appeared in air and landed between Aelita and Duncan.

"Stay back!" Bridgette pointed her swords at Duncan and XANA.

"Well, things are getting interesting." XANA grinned.

"Why is Duncan here? I thought Nephilim's virus kept him and Courtney away from the scanners." Bridgette growled. "What did you do to him?"

"Things change and this wasn't my doing. While I admit to Aelita's injury the delinquent's return is not my doing. Not that it matters." XANA shrugged. "But I guess Sister should carry some of the credit, she had a backup copy of his digital form, life points, attack power, and everything else that came with the original when she was looking for ways to restore his and the other one's memories. Very smart, I must admit, restoring his digital form and now with his virus gone he can enter Lyoko again, too bad he's not aligned with you at the moment."

Duncan moved forward and slashed at Aelita but Bridgette blocked with both swords and pushed Duncan back.

"You want her you have to get through me!" Bridgette shouted.

Duncan accepted her challenge and released a stream of green fire.

Xxx

"_Attention everyone!_" Geoff's voice echoed throughout Lyoko, stopping everyone in their tracks. "_We have got a major problem involving a certain punk who's shown up!_"

Gwen had been running through a tunnel of ice to find the others when Geoff made his announcement. "What?"

Noah, DJ and Trent stopped their fight with Jinx and Yuki and looked up. The newly virtualized Lyoko Warriors in the Desert Sector had been heading for the Way Tower to reach the Ice Caverns when Geoff's voice stopped them.

"_Duncan and the new bad guy showed up in the lab, knocked me and Bridgette out and sent Aelita into the Mountain Sector. Duncan was virtualized too but he's under the bad guys control and Bridgette is currently with Aelita trying to protect her from Duncan and XANA!_"

"You have to be kidding!" Gwen growled.

"No way!" Trent exclaimed.

"Not good!" Noah scowled.

"We got to help them!" DJ shouted.

Xxx

"Let's move people!" LeShawna shouted.

"Super Izzy to the rescue!"

"Just get me to where the fight's happening already!" Eva growled.

"On it!" Cody nodded.

"Let's go!" Heather shouted.

Xxx

"Geoff, point me to the Way Tower and fast!" Gwen took off, forgetting about Noah, Trent, and DJ. They could handle themselves. It's Aelita and Bridgette who really needed help.

Xxx

Bridgette fired a blast of water from her swords that collided with Duncan's green fire, releasing steam as the attacks cancelled each other out. Aelita could only stand behind Bridgette, feeling the need to jump and help her...but she couldn't remember how she could help! XANA simply stood on the edge of the floating rock, content to not intervene and prefer to watch the fight. Duncan had not been in Lyoko for some time but he was still able to push Bridgette back, his physical strength was better than hers allowing him to push her back with each blow.

Bridgette was forced back as Duncan pushed her towards the edge. With just one swing of his sword and Bridgette's right sword was knocked out of her hand and fell into the Digital Sea. Bridgette held her last sword in both hands to block Duncan's next blow but this time he added green fire into the strike that let out a small blast that knocked Bridgette down. Duncan then prepared to stab her through the chest and that's when Aelita knew she had to step in.

"NO!" Aelita ran with her hand stretched out, and she unintentionally fired an Energy Field that slammed into Duncan's chest and sent him flying back.

Aelita looked down at her hand in shock but ran over to Bridgette and helped her stand up. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, thanks to you." Bridgette smiled which made Aelita feel better. "You got amnesia and you can still kick ass."

Aelita looked to see Duncan stand up and prepare to attack again. "I really could use some memories right about now."

"_Don't worry guys! Reinforcements are on the way!_" Geoff said.

XANA glanced down the bridge connecting the floating island to the mainland and could see several of the Lyoko Warriors in the distance running down the bridge. "He is correct, and just when things were getting entertaining. Aw well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to step in. Wouldn't be fair to my generals not to get my own hands dirty once in a while."

LeShawna, Eva, Heather, Cody, and Izzy had made it to the Mountain Sector and located Aelita and Bridgette thanks to Geoff.

"We found them!" Cody smiled.

"And not just them look!" Heather pointed up ahead.

"I see him." LeShawna glared.

XANA was casually strolling down the bridge, not even looking like he was about get into a fight with several angry Lyoko Warriors. He had his signature smirk and didn't seem to care that he was outnumbered...probably because he didn't have to.

"I got him!" Eva charged forward in front of the Warriors and let out a war cry as her fists glowed bright blue.

"Eva wait!" Cody tried to stop her but Eva didn't even slow down as she sent her fist forward.

XANA raised his hand and...Caught her fist like it wasn't meant to release a shockwave that would tear him apart. The blue energy traveled out Eva's hand and into XANA's where it changed from bright blue to red.

"Why thank you." XANA grinned at Eva's shocked face. "This makes it easier."

He shoved his hand forward, releasing a shockwave that sent Eva flying back like she was shot out of a cannon. The other Lyoko Warriors had to duck as Eva flew over them and into the wall, crashing into the wall so hard she made a hole.

"_Oh! Fifty life points lost in two seconds!_"

"That's right, I forgot how tough his Avatar was." Cody pointed his guns at XANA. "He's able to reflect almost any attack back at us. We have to be really careful, guys."

"Any ideas?" Heather asked, extending both of her arm blades while Izzy hissed at XANA.

"Just one: don't hit him with powers, go for it the old school way!" Cody said. "...meaning I'll be more help by doing _this!_" He suddenly rushed forward towards XANA, who charged up a blast of red energy...only for Cody to use his time powers to rush right past him and raise his gun just as he returned to the normal flow of time. He fired right at Duncan, who was busy pushing Bridgette back again.

The first shot hit Duncan between the shoulders, but the second was blocked as he moved his blade behind him and kicked Bridgette back. He spun and shot a stream of green fire in Cody's direction, and the gunslinger rolled to his left to avoid being melted.

XANA let out a 'tsk'. "Well now this just won't do! Let's make things interesting..." He slammed one foot down, and lines of red light travelled away from him and spread across the bridge the fight took place on...the rocks suddenly cracked and came apart, floating away from one another and taking the startled warriors in separate directions. Aelita stumbled and managed to collect her balance in time to avoid plunging towards the fog below as she and Bridgette ended up on the same platform. Duncan and Cody were on one nearby while XANA stood on the smallest one in the center of a spiral of rotating platforms.

The other warriors were separated across three or four other platforms, trying to find some way to reach either XANA or Aelita. But these platforms had a randomized movement, or several patterns which they switched between to add confusion to the warriors' efforts.

"There," XANA said pleasantly. "I almost thought about bringing another General, but then that would end things far too quickly. Let's have some fun while you die this time." He then held one arm up, and several of the platforms rose above the others...

"Oh crap." LeShawna said before snatching Izzy and Heather up, one under each arm. "SCATTER!"

She leaped from their platform in time before it was turned into dust by one of the three rocks XANA threw their way. Eva stood up and thrust both hands forward as the second rock reached her...and she punched right through it. Cody and Duncan each leaped away to different platforms in time, but Duncan seemed to shoot green fire out of his boots like rockets to propel him to a further one, closer to Aelita.

"Aw man, he upgraded him too?!" Cody whined. "Give me a break!"

Duncan jumped up and used his fire power to propel him towards Aelita and Bridgette with his sword ready to slice them to bits.

"Get behind me!" Bridgette stood in front of Aelita with her sword in both hands.

Her wave tattoos glowed as she swung her sword, releasing her energy wave hoping that it would knock Duncan back. Duncan ducked under the attack and landed on a closer platform, swinging his sword and releasing a stream of green fire. Bridgette fired a blast of water from her sword that collided with Duncan's attack and cancelled each other out. XANA raised another platform above him and hurled it at Bridgette and Aelita.

"Look out!" Aelita shouted as she jumped.

Unfortunately XANA's attack distracted Bridgette long enough for Duncan to break through her attack thanks to her distraction and his green fire hit her in the chest. Bridgette didn't have the chance to gasp as the platform XANA threw slammed into her, crushing her and devirtualizing her as the remains of the two platforms fell into the Digital Sea. Aelita gasped in horror, believing that Bridgette had actually died from the attack leaving her wide open for an attack from Duncan.

"Oh no you don't!" Izzy transformed into a hawk and landed on the back of Duncan's head.

She started to peck him endlessly with her beak and scratching him with her, distracting the delinquent from attacking Aelita. He tried to fight her off but she was too fast. Duncan growled and green fire started the envelop him.

"Izzy get back!" Heather shouted, realizing what was happening.

Izzy flew back as Duncan exploded in a blast of green fire and when it cleared he was now in his Berserker form.

"Oh man." LeShawna gulped.

Before Duncan lost his memories he was most dangerous in his Berserker Mode, increasing his speed, strength, and power until it made him too strong for all but the strongest of XANA's monsters and generals to take on. But now he was fighting against them and that meant big trouble.

"Izzy get away from him!" LeShawna shouted.

The Berserker growled at the red hawk and roared, releasing a stream of green fire like a dragon.

"Eep!" Izzy flew out of the way, a few feathers turned a scorched black as she just barely dodged.

Izzy was not out of trouble yet as XANA decided to get rid of the shape shifter by lifting a platform but instead of hurling at Izzy the platform shattered into smaller sharp jagged pieces. Izzy shape shifted into a smaller bird as she tried to dodge the sharp rocks.

"Hang on!" LeShawna jumped towards XANA and raised her hammer above her head.

XANA didn't both to move as LeShawna jumped forward to attack. The platform he stood rose up above the others, moving out of the way of LeShawna's hammer. With XANA's platform out of reach LeShawna found herself with nothing to land on which she realised really quickly.

"Uh OH!" LeShawna shouted as she started falling.

"Hang on!" Cody shouted and levelled his pistols at the falling LeShawna.

Knowing that it would take more than one or two hits to fully devirtualize LeShawna Cody activated his Time Powers, freezing time and everyone in Lyoko except for himself. He fired down at LeShawna, hitting her ten times before the Time Freeze wore off but LeShawna's life points had luckily already hit zero. She vanished just after the Time Freeze ended and Cody sighed in relief at saving her in time.

"Impressive." XANA commented, looking down at them. "I almost believed that she was a goner. Aw well, she's not the target anyway."

Izzy was still dodging the Berserker's fire attacks as he tried get rid of the annoying shape shifter while Cody and Heather were trying to reach Aelita to keep her out of danger. Deciding that playing with them would be counterproductive XANA chose to end this fight. His shadowy arms sprouted from his back and they lunged down at the others.

"Oh crap!" Heather shouted as she jumped out of the way.

The shadow hand slammed into the platform she was on and shattered it easily. Eva jumped off her platform too, growling at XANA who was floating above them like they were not worth his time. That annoyed her greatly and she gathered energy in her feet. She jumped up and her shockwave ability propelled up into the air like a bullet.

XANA looked up to see Eva falling down towards him with her fists ready but this time she didn't charge them, learning her lesson from her last attack. However XANA was not that easy to defeat and he proved by blocking Eva's fist again and with just the one hand holding her fist he lifted her into the air and tossed her over his shoulder.

"You still have to learn and unfortunately you may not have that time." XANA looked over his shoulder, seeing Eva landed face first on a platform below.

His platform floated back down to the center of the platforms and his Avatar started to glow red.

"Oh man, we got to move!" Heather shouted, knowing what XANA was planning.

XANA released a red shockwave that slammed into the platforms and sent them flying into each, shattering them on impact. Duncan used his powers to propel him into the air, just avoiding a platform slamming into him. Izzy changed into a pterodactyl and grabbed Cody and Eva but Aelita was out of reach as platform slammed into hers and sent her flying.

"IZZY HURRY!" Cody shouted.

But Izzy couldn't reach Aelita because the Berserker flew at them with fire erupting from his feet and slammed into Izzy, sending her along with Cody and Eva falling onto the mainland luckily. Aelita looked down at the Digital Sea and suddenly started seeing images flashing before her eyes. It's like in what looked like her last few seconds her brain had suddenly gotten an overload as memories of her life flashed in front of her. Her parents smiling down at her, Jeremy meeting her for the first time, Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi helping her fight off XANA's monsters to reach all the towers he activated.

Shutting down the Supercomputer when they thought it was over, living the past two years as a normal person, XANA returning and capturing her friends, meeting the Total Drama Contestants and becoming the New Lyoko Warriors, the good and bad times she spent with them and...something else.

"Computer...Activate Code: Angel...One Hundred Percent!" Aelita whispered.

Her Avatar started glowing just as she hit the Digital Sea and vanished.

"No!" Cody shouted and Izzy shouted, seeing it happen.

After everything they had been through it seemed impossible that they had lost Aelita completely and no one to save her from the Digital Sea. XANA's platform floated down to the mainland and Duncan landed next to him.

"Well, alone at last." XANA chuckled. "Oddly enough I expected a little more from you, Sister. Even if you lost your memories."

"You..." Eva growled at XANA, knowing what when someone landed in the Digital Sea and XANA's smug expression at what happened to Aelita made her digital blood boil.

"Oh, right. There are still some of you left." XANA looked at them. "If you're looking for the obligatory fight to the death then by all means come. I have all the time in the world now."

"Don't mind if I do." A voice said from behind him.

A stream of fire blasted out towards XANA who turned and blocked with a smoky shield, protecting him from being burned. Gwen landed on the ground with her scythe out and an angry look on her face.

"You bastard..." Gwen growled.

XANA simply grinned as the smoky shield vanished.

"You can try and fight all you want; the main obstacle to my plans has been removed. By all means, go ahead and fight, it just gives me the chance to end this war once and for..." XANA was cut off as he looked behind him to see a beam of blast out of the Digital Sea.

The Warriors watched in silent shock as a familiar person floated out of the Digital Sea and into the air.

"AELITA!" Everyone except Eva, Duncan, and XANA shouted.

XANA narrowed his eyes as Aelita landed on the ground a few feet away and glared at him.

"Sorry, XANA, you almost had me but you'll have to deal with the main obstacle a little while longer." Aelita smirked.

"And just how did you survive?" XANA asked, calmly.

"It's actually thanks to you, when you knocked me into the Digital Sea. My mind was suddenly overwhelmed as my entire life flashed before my eyes. You were close this time XANA but I made it through, again." Aelita levelled her hand at XANA. "And now I am releasing Duncan from your control and ending this."

However Duncan vanished in a flash of light before anyone could do anything.

"Duncan! Where did he go?" Gwen asked as she pointed her scythe at XANA.

"Who knows?" XANA shrugged. "It wasn't me who was controlling him when he was kicked off. That was the work of the associate who needed a scan of Aelita's DNA which they got when they placed a piece of her hair in the scanners. It's the reason why didn't try to finish her off when I possessed Yumi Ishiyama's younger sibling. You'll see him again, but will you be able to save him?"

"You can count on it, but first here's payback!" Aelita fired an enhanced Plasma Beam at XANA.

XANA dodged by flying into the air and pointed his index finger at her, charging a red energy beam that would vaporize her.

"Gwen, use your Energy Aura and throw your scythe!" Aelita said.

Gwen didn't bother to ask as her Pink Aura surrounded her and she threw her scythe like a Frisbee. XANA scoffed as a smoky barrier surrounded him.

"You should know by now that any kind of energy attacks used against me will-"XANA was cut off as the scythe sliced through his barrier.

He had a completely flabbergasted look on his face as the scythe sliced through his body, bisecting him from the waist. XANA could only gasp as his body split in half with the lower half falling into the digital sea while his upper torso remained floating in the air.

"Just how did you..." XANA didn't have the chance to finish his sentence as Gwen's scythe flew back and this time cut him vertically in half.

Aelita fired her Plasma Beam and blasted the remains of XANA's Avatar in digital bits.

"Whoo-Hoo!" Izzy cheered.

The remains of XANA's Avatar changed into black smoke that gathered itself together and flew into a portal that opened up above them. The remaining Lyoko warriors cheered as the portal faded away, and Aelita's bright aura faded signalling her Keys deactivating.

"Man Aelita, you've sure got a sense of timing!" Cody said.

"We shouldn't celebrate too soon," Aelita replied. "Don't we still have a tower to deactivate?" She smirked, one hand on her hip as she walked past the four. "Let's not waste any time then, come on!"

"She's definitely back to normal." Gwen said, exchanging a nod with Cody and running after her.

"Hey, wait up!" Heather shouted as she and Eva ran after their leader.

It didn't take long for them to reach Ice Caverns where they met up DJ, Trent, and Noah who had been waiting for them. Jinx and Yuki had retreated around the same time they had defeated XANA and led Aelita to the activated tower. A few seconds later and the tower was deactivated leaving only one thing left to do.

"Return to the Past now, dudes!" Geoff said and everyone was sent back in time.

Xxx

Aelita woke up back in the hospital and just in time to see...

"Surprise!" Izzy ran in with a huge gift basket. "Welcome back to the living!"

"You guys..." Aelita sighed happily as the Lyoko Warriors along with Kurt and Carlos walked in.

"Good to see you up and about." Kurt smiled. "Everyone was worried sick."

"I wasn't." Heather crossed her arms. "I knew she'd pull through."

"Yeah right." Gwen coughed earning a glare from her.

"So, Aelita...about Duncan..." Bridgette said.

"It's all right, Bridgette. We'll get him back and a lot sooner than William this time." Aelita smile reassuringly.

"Now's not the time for that! Let's celebrate! WHOO!" Geoff shouted earning laughs from everyone in the room, including Noah, Heather, and Eva.


	89. Episode 87: Hit and Run

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 89

In the depths of the Carbon Copy XANA's generals gathered together in a large circular room with red lights bathing walls and floor in it with a large Eye of XANA imprinted on the floor. The generals watched as a black cloud appeared in the center of the room and a red light traveled up from the ground up the black cloud a few seconds before revealing XANA in his Avatar form.

"Status." XANA said when his form materialized.

"All objectives have been achieved and we are ready with our assignments when he calls back." Lilith bowed her head.

"Good, so everything is working out as predicted." XANA smirked as an interface appeared in front of him.

"Good? You were just blown to a billion bits and it took a whole day for you to put yourself back together and you say it's good?" Ryder asked.

"Never judge something purely on sight, Ryder." XANA glanced over his shoulder. "The Warriors needed to be victorious in that battle if the plan is to proceed when our associate makes his move. I was well aware of the Spell Caster's new aura, giving her the ability to destroy anything with my data, including my barriers and avatar. The battle was a necessary loss for the final victory. All though, I'm a little surprised they didn't suspect anything, I would have thought they believed me to be smarter than that."

"Even though Aelita regained her memories and survived?" Jinx tilted her head. "Doesn't that mean you still have the main obstacle?"

"Indeed I do, Jinx but Aelita is necessary if I am to learn our associate's origins and I know he will come after them. Aelita's death wouldn't benefit me when she is needed to reveal the face of another soon to be enemy." XANA nodded. "Destroy her now and I lose a valuable piece on the chessboard."

"So we are going against this guy. I knew it!" Sora nodded. "That certainly gave me the creeps!"

"What do we do?" Lilith asked.

"We wait, Lilith, under no circumstances are we to make the first move. We will wait for the Warriors and the Stranger make theirs first. Be ready, My Generals, if the plan succeeds we will be the victors in this war." XANA smirked. "As predicted."

On the screen everyone could see a room in Sector 5 and in the center was a blue statue of Duncan, frozen in place until whoever controlled him released him to perform whatever objective the person had for him.

Xxx

"Okay, are we all set up?" Kurt asked as he walked into a room with a large table with chairs lined up.

"One second-OUCH!" Carlos shouted as he put two wires together and they sparked.

A large flat screen TV with a Web Camera above it on the wall turned on showing the Executive Director of Total Drama.

"Okay! Okay! Just like that Carlos!" Kurt said, as he Chef, Roberto, and Lesley sat at the table.

"Okay...okay...is my hair on fire?" Carlos stood up, walking dizzily to the table.

"We see you Director!" Lesley called out.

"It's working? I see you, I hear you, and everything's working! Good!" The Director nodded. "Now would someone like to explain to me what happened? I just got word that a contestant failed to show up to the Jet of Losers to take him home, why is that Kurt?"

"Honestly, Director, I should have seen it coming but I am sorry that I let it happen. We should have figured that Duncan might pull another disappearing act like last time but we didn't think he would and there was no one with him at the time." Kurt explained. "All I can say at this point is that I am sorry for that."

"I'll accept that when Duncan is at Playa Des Losers with the others. What's being done to locate him?" The Director looked at each of them.

"I've got interns and workers searching around the city for him but I should point out, Director, that the last time Duncan bailed he was able to make it from Egypt to London in a few weeks." Carlos said. "He might already be half way to Japan for all we know."

"Did anyone check to see if the band he was with before was in town?"

"We checked and they haven't seen since the challenge last season in London." Lesley replied. "We may have to consider that Duncan may not be in the city anymore."

"Should we call the authorities in all the nearby cities?" Roberto asked.

"Keep searching Paris before you do that. If he's not found within a week start making calls to all nearby cities, Kurt you will inform his family if he's not found before the next Aftermath Special." The Director answered.

"Yes ma'am." Kurt nodded.

"If Duncan has made it out of France than I'll have to go through the trouble of calling all authorities in nearby countries but we will keep looking even if we have go all the way to North Korea if so much as someone with the same piercings as Duncan's is spotted. Is that understood?"

"Yes ma'am!" Everyone replied.

"Good, please inform me of any sightings. Now, GET ME A DIET COKE!" The TV turned off signalling the Director had cut the channel.

Xxx

"You'll be pleased to know that the Director has held off on investigating the studio since Duncan has run away before." Kurt sat in his office with the Lyoko Warriors gathered. "She wants us to search the whole city before spreading out to any nearby towns before we assume Duncan has somehow left the country."

"Or the world in this case." Noah pointed out, earning a smack on the back of his head from Bridgette.

"How could this have happened? I thought that virus he and Courtney got from Nephilim prevented them from going near the scanners." Kurt pointed out.

"It did, until Duncan was possessed." Aelita replied. "The specter must have been modified with an anti-virus that destroyed it."

"So Duncan can enter Lyoko anytime he wants again." Gwen said. "But now he's been brainwashed and Courtney probably is too."

"Any idea where he is now?" Trent asked.

"Well, when XANA had William under his control Jeremy theorized that XANA had some sort of file for William to 'download' into when he lost his life points or was not needed." Aelita replied.

"Why target those two? And if XANA wasn't the culprit than who?" Carlos asked.

"What makes us so sure XANA isn't the one behind it? Because he said so? Maybe he lied." Geoff said.

"That's not possible for XANA, Geoff. He is guided by logic, the kind of logic programs used back in the nineties meaning he cannot outright lie. He is capable of some forms of deceit but being able to lie directly is not possible, no matter how advanced he has become." Noah said.

"Okay, I'll buy that but why Courtney and Duncan? Last I checked he had no reason to go after them anymore." DJ said.

"Well, if you think about Duncan and Courtney are the two perfect fighters to be brainwashed. They lost their memories of Lyoko and because they haven't been in Lyoko for some time, it's possible the natural resistance they built up against possession faded. Plus, I uploaded the copy of their digital forms that I used for the Life Point Regeneration Program into the Supercomputer, restoring all of the data that made up their original digital avatars in the first place. If the virus hadn't have prevented them from entering the scanner they might have been cured and their memories might have been restored." Aelita said.

"Because not only do their digital forms carry life points and weapons but they also carry digitally recorded memories of their time on Lyoko." Cody continued.

"But now that Duncan's brainwashed its repressed all the memories and his ability make decisions." Aelita finished.

"What about Courtney? Is it safe to say she's possessed as well?" Kurt asked.

"That's the thing, there was no tower during the challenge or when Duncan showed up. It's impossible for XANA to send anything into the real world without a tower. I can only guess that this new person was somehow able to release a specter by hiding a tower or...he didn't need one." Aelita explained grimly.

"No tower...Crap! We're screwed!" Geoff groaned.

"Not entirely Geoff. He needs Lyoko for whatever he wanted with that pluck of my hair for the chance to get a sample of my DNA. It's not the last we've seen of him." Aelita replied.

"Good, let's see him get his own hands dirty." Eva growled.

"If he wants your DNA it can only mean he's hoping that it allow him to have something similar to Lilith. A copy of the Keys found in your DNA that could give him a major power boost." Noah said to Aelita who nodded.

"Courtney may not be possessed but she could still be in some form of danger. You all remembered how easily she won the last challenge." Gwen pointed out. "It's too early to rule her out."

"At this point all we can do is keep an eye on her until something weird happens." Heather said.

"There's something else, when that person was talking to XANA he said something getting rid of a virus. At first I was wondering if it was Duncan's virus but a tower would need to be activated for XANA to have done it." Aelita said.

"Who knows what that could have meant?" Bridgette shrugged. "It could be an associate of Lyon's who wants to finish what that maniac started."

"There's still no evidence proving their identity here." Kurt said. "All I can say is that you need to get Duncan back before the Director decides to call in the authorities and the families when she starts thinking Duncan has left the country."

"What about Courtney? What do you plan to do about her?" Carlos asked.

"I will do a double scan of Lyoko, even go in there myself and check every tower to make sure none of them are active." Aelita replied. "I'm not sure what else I can do. If there's no evidence Courtney is possessed I can't do a Return Trip to the Past to reverse all of this."

"Am I the only one here thinking we're getting paranoid?" LeShawna asked.

"This is Lyoko and XANA we are talking about. Paranoia is the new sanity." Noah shrugged.

"If Courtney is in danger than there is a good chance that whoever rigged the votes and got Duncan kicked off will do the same in the next challenge." Gwen said.

"And when Courtney tries to leave she's possessed and next thing you know we're dealing with evil Duncney on Lyoko." Heather continued.

"So all we have to do is figure who switched the votes. Leaving a camera or someone to watch the ballet box when the challenge ends and see who will try rig the elimination ceremony." Kurt finished. "I believe I know who can do that."

"Not me, man! I've got enough on my plate!" Carlos shook his head.

"I wasn't talking about you."

"Really? Sweet! But who's the guy that...Oh come on! You're not replacing me with Chef or Robert, are you?!" Carlos exclaimed.

"You wanted some time off and you got it." Kurt shrugged.

"Fine, I'll do it!"

"I didn't ask you." Kurt said.

"Too late, smart guy!" Carlos stomped out of the room.

"That was surprising." Geoff said.

"No, I really was teasing him." Kurt smirked. "He can't stand being left out."

"Oh, you're good." Noah commented.

Xxx

As everyone went and enjoyed the normal day they were having while dreading the upcoming challenge and next fight in Lyoko someone was making their own plans. A person sat in front of a laptop in a dark room with only the screen providing any kind of light. The person was typing at a fast rate that their fingers was almost a blur.

**Digital Avatar Sequence Activated**

**Digital Avatar Form Loading**

**10 Percent**

**40 Percent**

**70 Percent**

**Digital Avatar Uploaded**

**Weapon Systems Online**

**Uploading Digital DNA **

**Digital DNA Uploaded**

**Launch Digital Avatar Creation Sequence**

**Processing**

**Processing**

In a massive chamber in the maze of Sector 5 an egg appeared in the center of the room after a flash of light. It sat in a nest made of wire cables that came out of the floor and walls and pulsed with energy. If anyone was in the chamber they would have heard a heartbeat.

**Digital Avatar Creation Sequence 1% Complete**

"Excellent." The person grinned.

Xxx

"Last time on Total Drama Reality, we brought the old classic Total Drama endurance of pain and torture back in the form of the Digital Race of Death! Both teams volunteered one person to run through the obstacles that made up the deadly race and the volunteers were the old fashioned fierce rivals: Duncan and Courtney. On the race both contestants went at it, Courtney's athletic skills against Duncan's preference to break the rules to win. In the end Duncan lost when Courtney used him as a launching board to reach the jewel and win the game and got the boot." Kurt announced. "Now we reach the next challenge of TOTAL. DRAMA. REALITY!"

Xxx

Aelita had been prepared for another day of school but her class along with most of the students in the school were now in line and getting on three buses.

"All right, come on let's go. Onto the bus, single file. First to third years onto the first bus with the next one have the next three and so on!" Jim said.

"Where are we going?" Aelita asked Sissy.

"The school decided to have a field trip for a special event." Sissy whispered back. "All the other schools are taking their students out to see it."

"What is it?"

"Apparently it has something to do with that International Canadian live television show, Total Drama."

Aelita's eyes widened and she had to fight back the urge to gasp. A field trip involving Total Drama? What was going on over there?

Xxx

"What's going on here?" Trent asked.

"The next challenge." Kurt announced.

The group stood in a garage with two cars that were in desperate need of repair, tools and car parts were scattered all over the floor.

"Today's challenge is another race only this time it's in the real world and it involves all contestants on both teams. Your job is to repair these vehicles, get them up and running and then get ready for the race." Kurt continued.

"Is this anything like the last race?" Gwen asked.

"No, death trap obstacles were banned while we're here in France even before Chris was demoted. The finish line is on the other side of town where we have an audience." Kurt replied. "The whole town's getting ready to see this race."

"Cool!" Izzy grinned.

"Just how exactly do you expect us to put these pieces of junk back together? It looks like a tornado ripped them to pieces." Heather scowled as she looked at the cars.

"Blame Chris, he brought these cars and was drawing up the plans for this challenge the problem is we don't have enough in the budget to pay for new cars or to fix these so we simply gathered the necessary tools and parts. It's up to you now." Kurt said. "You have about three hours to put them together before the race starts, and failure to get the car running is an automatic victory to the team that makes it go."

"Great." Gwen sighed. "I don't suppose anyone on this team is an expert in building cars."

"Leave it to me!" Izzy pumped her fist in the air.

"I got this, dudes. My bros and I work on our rides in our sleep." Geoff pointed both thumbs at himself.

"So I can take a break?" Noah asked.

"NO!" The rest of Team Victory shouted.

"Once your cars are ready we have Blackberry for each team with a map of the race downloaded. You cannot take any shortcuts that lead off the path and any attempt will lead to your team's disqualification. If something happens to the car along the race there are stop points that will have the parts and gas you need to get back in the race. And...GO!"

"Okay, we are SO ready for this!" Geoff said confidently.

Xxx

Confessional: Geoff

"I so got this!"

Xxx

Confessional: Gwen

"I'm not sure anyone on our team has any experience fixing cars but I guess we have to try."

End Confessional

Xxx

**Five minutes later**

"Okay, we SO need some help," Geoff corrected himself as he and his team stood, covered in soot.

Team Amazon hadn't fallen victim to any explosions yet, however...

"Weeee!" Izzy cheered as she held a cable, which caused electricity to spark along her and make her hair frizz up. She finally let go and twitched. "Preeeettyyyyy..." she collapsed.

"...Okay, we need a professional." Gwen sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"But who?" LeShawna asked. "In case you haven't noticed, we're a little short handed."

Kurt twitched and then looked to the camera. "I didn't want to do this, but we can't afford for both cars to fail to work. So I am forced to call in some help for the team...LESLEY! ROBERTO! GET YOUR BUTTS IN HERE AND GET TO HELPING 'EM!"

"Gah, I don't get paid enough for this," Roberto grumbled as he got out of his chair, followed by an eager Lesley.

"How can they help us?" Heather demanded. "Isn't Roberto a Security Guard?"

"That's Security _Chief!_" Roberto snapped.

"And Lesley's a lawyer!"

"Aw Heather, you know that's just my hobby!" Lesley said with a grin.

"...you're being a lawyer...for fun?" Gwen sounded sceptical.

"Of course! Along with my other 'jobs'," Lesley snickered. "Ever hear of Frank Abagnale Jr?"

"Not really..."

"Watch 'Catch Me If You Can' with Leonardo DiCaprio, and you'll see where I'm going with this." Lesley chuckled. "But enough of that! I fixed Formula One race cars, and if I can't fix these things I will avenge my honor by killing Carlos!"

"...don't you mean killing yourself?" Roberto asked.

"Hell no! Why would I kill myself?" Lesley asked. "Are you nuts, or just crazy?"

"...Is that a trick question-AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

Xxx

After three hours of parts flying, small explosions, shouting and cursing each team's car was finally brought to acceptable conditions for the race. The engines worked, the tires had been inflated, and the gas tanks were full. Outside the studio stands had been built for a large audience and were filled with fans of Total Drama coming from all over the city and country to see this race. Aelita watched as people had their cameras out and people were eagerly waiting for the race to start.

She was waiting at one of the stands for the race to start and found herself as eager as everyone else for the race to start but worried at the same time. She eager to her friends competing but at the same time worried XANA or the mysterious enemy who brainwashed Duncan. Everyone was sitting but Aelita had gotten up to get away from the shouting.

"How's the waiting going?" A familiar voice sent chills down Aelita's spine.

She turned to see...

"You three!" Aelita jumped back.

Behind were the materialized Generals of XANA, Lilith, Jinx, and Yuki. Lilith was sucking on a red lollipop wearing the same outfit she wore in Lyoko. Yuki had removed her cloak to reveal her inner clothing, white shoes, black stockings, white skirt, white top with short sleeves and her gloves. While Lilith had a red lollipop Yuki was holding an ice cream sandwich. Jinx looked the same as she did on Lyoko only no spear with her which Aelita was thankful for and she was snacking on...a taco?

"Man, when the boss takes over I hope he leaves the food alone." Jinx said in between bites. "And yep, it's us."

"Why are you here?" Aelita got ready if they tried something.

"Relax, we're not here to fight. We're here to observe the race." Lilith pulled out another lollipop.

"XANA would able to watch the race through the broadcast. Why send three of his generals here and are you the only ones?" Aelita asked.

"Yep, the other couldn't make because of certain reasons." Jinx finished her taco and picked another one.

Xxx

Flashback

(Sora)

"I can't go out there in the real world! People would stare at me!" Sora whined.

"Then take off the helmet!" Jinx pointed out.

"No way! I might get sunburned and then people would stare at it and me! I have sensitive skin and I don't like people looking at me!"

Xxx

(Cain)

Cain simply stood still like a statue.

"..._They didn't ask me."_ He said, sulking a bit over not being asked.

Xxx

"Truth is the guy creeps us out." Jinx admitted. "It's that helmet."

Xxx

(Ryder)

"I'm not going to sit on my ass and watch some boring race! Call me if there's a fight and I'm there."

End Flashback

Xxx

Aelita saw bracelets on their wrists with a blue jewel that resembled the same ones that Lilith and Yuki had used to materialize themselves before.

"You're using the materialization bracelets that XANA created for you to help us with Nephilim and find Robby's lab." Aelita realized.

"Yes." Yuki finished her ice cream.

"Why? This race has nothing that can interest XANA." Aelita frowned.

"You'll just have to see. We won't do anything to harm anyone around here only if you decide to pick a fight with us." Lilith looked the studio. "I think it's about to start."

Aelita turned back but made sure the three generals were in her sight, not planning to show any form of weakness to them.

Xxx

"Welcome fans of Total Drama!" Kurt said through a microphone that enhanced his voice to the people outside the studio. "Thank you all for coming to see the Total Drama Race Around the World….It's actually to the other side of the city and back but our previous host was lame and a dramatic moron."

This earned him a few laughs from the audience and Carlos.

"It's a nice simple race between the last two teams in two cars they have fixed up for this race. There are certain points in the path that allows a car to temporarily park if they are in need of a new part or more gas. No one is allowed on the path and no cars are allowed to deviate from the path." Kurt listed the rules. "And now…let the race begin!"

The audience cheered as the garage doors opened revealing the two cars with the teams inside. In Team Amazon's car Gwen was the driver while Team Victory's car had Geoff as the driver.

Xxx

Confessional: Gwen

"I got picked as the driver in a game of short straws. I thought most of my team would raise a big deal over it but they seemed okay with it."

End Confessional

Xxx

"You'll do fine, Gwen!" Courtney said, hoping to encourage the goth.

Xxx

Confessional: Courtney

"It is annoying that Gwen got picked but I have no trouble with her being picked over me. She already kissed my boyfriend and if she loses we can vote her out."

End Confessional

Xxx

"Let's do it!" Geoff put both hands on the wheel.

Xxx

Confessional: Geoff

"Out of most of my team I'm the only one with any kind of racing. My brothers used to fix up some old cars and we used them race out on an empty road near home. It was loads of fun and sure there were a few crashes here and there but no one got hurt. Plus I think I am a better choice then Izzy."

Xxx

Confessional: Noah

"I have pointed out several times that I have signed my will in case I am killed in this show. This challenge seemed like the perfect time to bring that up."

End Confessional

Xxx

"On your marks!" Carlos held up a pistol.

Both cars' engines came on and the drivers got ready.

"Get set!"

(Cue Dramatic build up)

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

"CARLOS FIRE THE STUPID THING ALREADY!" Lesley shouted.

"I'm trying to, the damn thing is jammed-oh wait, there we go." Carlos aimed it up. "Safety was on."

"CARLOS!"

"GO!" Carlos pulled the trigger and pistol shot a bullet into the air.

Both cars raced off with the drivers slamming their feet onto the gas and the audience cheered as the race started.

"AND THEY ARE OFF!" Kurt shouted into the microphone. "We have cameras set up down the path so we can see the entire race!"

The cameras showed Team Victory pulling ahead with Team Amazon gaining on them.

"WHOO-HOO!" Geoff hollered as he pushed the car to the maximum speed.

"Come on, Gwen! We're losing them!" Heather shouted in the seat right behind Gwen.

"I'm trying here!" Gwen retorted as she slammed her foot down on the gas.

They went down a suburban road with people outside their houses watching the race as both cars went by.

"Team Victory has managed to take the lead, lucky for them that they have speed racer party boy Geoff with them huh?" Kurt asked as he watched the race. "Team Amazon's going to need to do something quick if they want to get ahead."

Team Amazon was still behind Team Victory as they sped down the streets of France and it was a good thing it was approved or both teams would be arrested for breaking several speeding laws.

"Speed up, Gwen!" Courtney shouted.

"If I go any faster than I'll hit something and kill us all!" Gwen retorted.

"You're driving sucks!"

"You want to drive?"

"In fact, yes! Give me the wheel!" Courtney reached and grabbed the wheel.

"Hey-COURTNEY! You're going to get us all killed!" Heather shouted as she tried to pull Courtney back.

"Let me drive then!" Courtney fought her off.

"GET OFF!" Gwen took one hand off the wheel and tried to push Courtney off.

"WHO'S WATCHING THE ROAD?!" Cody and Beth hugged each other tightly. "WE'RE GOING TO DIE!"

"STOP FIGHTING!" Eva who was sitting in the passenger seat knocked Courtney back into the back seat. "AND STAY BACK!"

"Thanks, Eva now I can see-WHO SH-"Gwen screamed along with everyone else...

Xxx

Confessional: Cody

"I'll never understand how people enjoy these races!"

Xxx

CRASH!

**GAME OVER!**

"Aw man! My car crashed! Stupid civilians!" Carlos dropped the remote. "Walking out on the road like that and not paying attention!"

"Carlos!" Kurt walked in. "Why are youin my office?"

"I took a break and decided to relax. This chair vibrates and you have got video games here! Why don't I have this?" Carlos asked.

"It's not in your budget!" Kurt replied.

Carlos looked at Kurt and slowly saw him transform into Chris...

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

"WHAT?!" Kurt jumped back when Carlos suddenly screamed.

"Are you becoming like Chris?! Abusing the funds to get all this stuff!" Carlos stood up.

"NO! This stuff was here when Chris was demoted!" Kurt exclaimed.

"Oh..." Carlos saw Chris change back into Kurt. "That makes sense."

"Okay, Team Amazon ended up in the ditch, so go out there and haul them out." Kurt tossed Carlos a pair of car keys.

"Fine." Carlos grumbled as he walked out.

Kurt sat down at his desk and picked up the remote. "I'll show you how this game works."

Xxx

"...I hate you all _so _much right now," Eva sat with her arms crossed while Gwen was squished against the front of the car by Courtney, who had tumbled into the front when they hit the ditch.

"Not as much as I hate Courtney," Gwen muttered. "Will you get off me already?!"

"Hey, I see a car coming!" Cody pointed... "Oh crap!"

"What is it?"

"Carlos!"

"...Kurt is more sadistic than Chris," Heather sighed before Carlos pulled up in a pickup truck with a winch and hook set up on the back.

"I TAKE OFFENSE!" He growled.

Xxx

Confessional: Gwen

"How'd he even hear that?"

"I hear and see _everything!_" Carlos shouted from outside the confessional room.

Xxx

"Now shut up and let me get you out of that ditch," Carlos grumbled as he hooked the back of the race car to the winch. "You guys interrupted me in the middle of _my _car crash!"

"...What is he talking about?"

"I gave up on trying to understand him," Gwen shrugged at Beth's question.

Carlos got the car out of the ditch and took the hook off.

"Now get back to racing. I need to make sure Kurt hasn't beat my high score." Carlos drove off.

Xxx

"Oh no! You're flat now!" Kurt laughed as he ran over Chris for the millionth time and the words GAME OVER flashed on the screen. "I might not be getting a high score but flattening Chris is just as fun!"

"What are you doing?" Lesley walked in.

"Check it out, this a game Carlos's video designer cousin made, Total Drama Hit and Run. I'm busy running over Chris."

"...You have an extra controller?"

Xxx

Yuki was holding a white umbrella to keep her under shade and away from the heat while Jinx was snacking on another taco and Lilith was using a pair of binoculars to see the race.

"Are all these challenges so interesting?" Jinx asked, after finishing another taco.

"You should have seen the season where they had to sing. The re-runs were hilarious." Lilith smirked.

Aelita was watching them closely but they were behaving like ordinary people rather than Generals of XANA.

Xxx

"We are way out in the lead!" LeShawna laughed.

"That's what you get when you got me at the wheels! WHOO-HOO!" Geoff laughed.

"Step on it man before they catch up!" Trent said.

"No PROBLEM!" Geoff slammed his foot down on the gas and the car was moving so fast it left flaming skid marks.

"Geoff, I think we're going too fast." Bridgette started shaking.

"Relax, surfer. We're almost there." Noah didn't look at Bridgette and noticed how her face turned slightly turned green.

"We need to slow down or-BLUGH!" Bridgette vomited onto the windshield of the car.

"WHOA!" Geoff spun the car around; unable to see where he was going.

"Oh shi-"Noah screamed as the car spiraled off the road.

Xxx

Confessional: Bridgette

"I am so sorry everyone! I couldn't stand how fast the car was going and... I used to get car sick when I was little girl until I thought I got over it."

Xxx

The car went off the cliff and into the lake, the passengers screaming as car made a huge splash and sank into the river.

**GAME OVER**

"This game is rigged!" Lesley dropped the remote control. "I don't know why you and Carlos enjoy it so much."

"Win and you'll understand." Kurt sat on his comfy chair, relaxing until his phone rang.

"Hello?" He answered after picking it up. "Oh, not again. Hang on." He put the phone down. "Where's Carlos?"

"On his way back, why?" Lesely turned around.

"He needs to go pick up Team Victory and get them back in the race." Kurt sighed as he dial Carlos's number.

"Why? What happened?"

"Apparently surfer girl threw up and got them off the road and into a shallow river. Good thing no one is hurt or in danger of drowning."

Xxx

"I _wish_ we had drowned," Noah groaned as Carlos towed their car out of the river.

"What is with you people?!" Carlos demanded. "Can't you drive through one city without any traps and _not_ get into an accident? You're the worst drivers ever! Now get back to the race so I can get back and finish my _video game!_"

"Gee, somebody's touchy today-" Noah paused when Carlos turned his head in an eerie manner...all the way around 180 degrees to glare at Noah while his body kept on walking away. "...AHHH!" They all screamed as Geoff slammed on the gas, the vomit being cleared from the windshield and shot off.

Xxx

Confessional: Noah

"Okay, that was like something out of the Exorcist!" Noah shuddered.

Xxx

"AHHH!" The occupants of the car shrieked as they fled...only to run straight into a building and explode.

**GAME OVER**

"Aw maaaan!" Kurt sighed. "That's what I get for changing to Total Drama Evil Resident!" He glared at the box of the horror/racing game which Mike had designed. "That chainsaw wielding Maniac set my fear scale so high my driver panicked!"

"Hah! That's what you get for choosing Geoff as your driver!" Lelsey cackled, having chosen Izzy. "Man it's a good thing Izzy's a nut job or I'd be the one ranting at the game right now."

Carlos suddenly burst in, breathing heavily. "High...score!"

"Don't worry, Kurt didn't come anywhere near it...but now we're on a new game!"

Carlos snatched up a third controller. "Make way! Time to kick Zombie Racer butt!"

Xxx

"There they are!" Heather pointed ahead, seeing Team Victory's vehicle in front of them. "We're catching up!"

"Go faster! Speed up!" Courtney shouted but Eva growled and she shut up.

Gwen quickly pressed her foot down on the gas and Team Amazon's car started to catch up to Team Victory's car.

"They're catching up!" Noah looked out the back window.

"I see them! I see them!" Geoff said as he pulled in front of Team Amazon's car to keep them from passing.

"Ram them!" Courtney said.

"What?!" Gwen exclaimed but Courtney reached and pushed the gas all the way down.

Team Amazon's car slammed into the back of Team Victory's car, shaking the occupants around.

"Is Gwen trying to kill us?!" Geoff cried.

"I see Courtney reaching out back there. Good chance she's trying to knock us off the road." Noah replied, looking out the back window.

"Knock it off!" Gwen kept one hand as she tried to push Courtney back but the CIT kept pushing the goth's foot down on the gas.

Team Amazon's car kept slamming in the back of Victory's car as the finish line came up.

"All...this...rocking...it's making...me..." Bridgette started turning green again.

"Hold that thought." Noah opened his window and pushed Bridgette's head out the window.

"What are you-BLURGH!" Bridgette let out another blast of vomit that covered Team Amazon's windshield.

"OH CRAP!" Gwen gasped as she elbowed Courtney in the face and sent her into the back.

"BRAKE! BRAKE! BRAKE!" Heather covered her eyes.

Gwen slammed her foot on the brakes and the car slid to a stop. Team Victory made it past the finish line and the people watching the race cheered as the stopped.

"AND TEAM VICTORY WINS!" Kurt announced.

Xxx

"Well that was unexpected, huh Yuki?" Lilith looked at the white haired general. "Who knew the surfer had such a weak stomach?"

Yuki didn't reply, preferring to finish the ice cream sandwich she had bought.

"Does this mean we go back now?" Jinx asked.

"Pretty much, can't do anything else here." Lilith smirked. "Better keep a close eye on them Aelita, XANA wanted us to observe them for a reason."

Before Aelita could ask they vanished without anyone noticing that they were even there, too busy to celebrate the ending of the latest episode of Total Drama.


	90. Episode 88: Demon's Return

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 90

"Unbelievable! We had the chance to win and you screw up, AGAIN!" Courtney shouted at Gwen as they headed back to the studio.

"Me? You kept on distracting me while I was driving! Do you know how close we could have been to being in a crash and someone ended up getting hurt?" Gwen growled.

"She's actually right, Courtney. If you had stayed in the back seat like a good little girl we might have won!" Heather spoke up.

"Oh sure, take gothy's side over mine. The both of you in an alliance to win this whole show." Courtney turned to Heather. "I am really surprised about that but you'd team up with any loser to win since you are pathetic on your own!"

Heather growled and got ready to attack Courtney as they walked into the studio.

"You kept on trying to take the wheel and got us in a crash in the first place!" Beth spoke up, annoyed with Courtney's attitude. "You're the reason we lost!"

"You're not seriously taking their side?!" Courtney turned to Beth.

"At least they didn't nearly get us killed!" Beth countered. "And as usual you're blaming everyone else and never accepting any of the responsibility!"

"I knew what I was doing!"

"Yeah, sure you did. Before or after you got us stuck in the ditch." Eva crossed her arms. "I wonder how it's possible you stayed on this long."

Courtney looked around and saw everyone on her team was looking at her. She growled and stomped off.

"Seriously, you want to keep her on longer?" Eva whispered to Gwen and Heather.

"I know. I know." Gwen sighed as she walked into the studio with the others following.

Xxx

"Okay, Team Amazon you had a good run even if you did lose. The surfer vomiting on your windshield was unexpected but I think the fans will find it funny." Kurt smirked as the team gathered in the elimination room. "So now we'll sta-"

"Don't bother!" Courtney stood up. "I quit!"

Team Amazon gasped in shock as they looked at her, never expecting her in a million years to quit.

"It's obvious that all of you blame me for the loss of the challenge even though it was goth girl's fault. I am not going to give you the satisfaction of seeing me kicked off this stupid show, I'M OUT!" Courtney stomped out to go to her room and pack her stuff.

"That was unexpected." Kurt commented but shrugged. "All right, no elimination votes tonight. Will Team Amazon win the next challenge? Find out next time on Total...Drama...REALITY!"

When the red light on the camera turned off Kurt sighed in relief. "Finally, that was a pain. Okay, three day break everyone, don't bother me."

Team Amazon got up and left the elimination room to head back to their dorm but everyone but Beth shared a look. If Courtney was alone then there was a good chance she was about to be abducted by the Stranger like Duncan was. Walking back to their rooms they noticed Courtney's door was open and she came out with all her stuff backed into her bag.

"I hope you all end up losing in some humiliating way that no one will ever forget." Courtney growled at them one last time and stomped down the hall.

When Beth walked into her room and close the door the Lyoko Warriors on Team Amazon gathered in the hall.

"We need to make sure she gets on that jet." Heather whispered.

"No problem. I do my best at spying." Izzy giggled and took off after Courtney.

Xxx

Izzy was on her tip toes as she followed Courtney with a grin on her face. Courtney was stomping towards the Total Drama Jet of Losers too loud and angry to think someone was following her. Lenny was waiting for her and got out of her way as she got onto the plane. Izzy stopped and hid behind a car so Lenny didn't see her.

"Get me out of this dump!" Courtney shouted.

"Yes, ma'am." Lenny got in and closed the door.

Izzy pulled out her cell phone and dialed Gwen's number.

"Izzy to mission control, the bird has left the nest." Izzy whispered.

"_What?_" Gwen asked.

"Uh, the sauce is out of the pizza." Izzy tried again.

"_What the hell are you talking about?_"

"Courtney's on the Jet of Losers and it's taking off."

"_Gotcha. Why didn't you say so?_"

"I'm a spy remember? Duh!" Izzy rolled her eyes and hung up.

Xxx

As Lenny piloted the Jet of Losers to Canada he didn't notice Courtney's image starting to shimmer, her body going blurry second like a television losing its signal before returning to normal. She walked up to the cockpit and before Lenny could do anything she put her hands on his head and released a small jolt of electricity. Lenny gasped in pain and spun around to see...nothing. He looked around for a moment, looking like he was trying to remember something.

"Why am I heading back to Canada again?" He asked out loud.

Xxx

"Excellent..." The person said sitting in front of laptop in a room that was so dark that the only bit of light was the laptop.

On the screen showed the progress of its creation.

**Digital Avatar Creation Sequence 30% **

The Stranger typed away on the laptop and a new window appeared showing XANA's Avatar staring at him.

"So you finally decided to contact me again." XANA spoke, his voice calm but he was smirking.

"The process is taking too long. I need more energy to complete it if I want it done before they find it."

"You want me to activate a tower to gather the necessary power?" XANA raised an eyebrow.

"No, I will gather the energy needed. The difference between us, XANA is that my abilities to activate a tower are not limited." The Stranger said with a hint of arrogance.

"But you lack the ability to protect them." XANA replied, recognizing the Stranger's game. "I have the option of leave your towers defenceless with none of my creations protecting them."

"But if you help me then the warriors are finished." The Stranger pointed out.

"You said something similar to that when you possessed the Berserker and allowed him back into Lyoko after I temporarily incapacitated Aelita."

"No one could have predicted she's regain her memory during that fall." The Stranger scoffed. "You were overconfident XANA."

"And you fled allowing the warriors to learn the plan."

It was like a game of tennis with them, firing insults and blame to and back from each other, trying to outwit the other one to win.

"But since you made an interesting proposal I suppose I can spare a few of my forces to protect your towers. Just remember to repay your debt to me." XANA ended the conversation by vanishing from the screen.

"Oh, you'll be repaid, XANA." The Stranger growled.

Xxx

"You're kidding me. Lilith, Yuki, _and_ Jinx were in the audience watching us?!" LeShawna exclaimed.

After the show ended the teams had returned to the studio to find Aelita waiting for them and the warriors had gathered in the entertainment room.

"Yep, they seemed pretty interested in the race aside from the treats and snacks they gathered." Aelita nodded, sitting on the couch next to Trent and DJ while everyone else was either standing or on the floor.

"I have just noticed this but Lilith likes cherry flavoured lolly pops, Yuki likes frozen treats, and Jinx likes spicy food...What do you think Sora, Ryder, and Cain like?" Izzy asked. "Would it be weird if Sora likes chicken?"

"Why would that be weird?" Bridgette asked.

"Because he's got wings and his helmet resembles a bird. Having chicken would suggest he eats his own kind." Izzy laughed.

"...Moving on." Noah said after a moment of silence. "They say why they were interested?"

"Only that we'd find out soon." Aelita shrugged.

"Oh come on! Would it kill us to have a small spoiler?" Heather sighed.

"Considering this XANA we're talking about, probably." Gwen replied.

"Most likely." Trent nodded.

"Yep." Noah agreed.

"The spoiler is death!" Izzy proclaimed.

"Well at least Courtney is safe. She went on the Jet and is on her back home." Bridgette pointed out.

"I wouldn't count on that." Kurt said as he walked in. "Bad news."

"Bad news as in Carlos finally lost it or bad news something bad happened to Courtney?" LeShawna asked.

"If Carlos ever looses it you'll know it when I say just one word but no back the real situation. I just got a call from Lenny who has turned the Jet around to come back here after he apparently 'forgot' why he was flying back to Canada. Courtney's disappeared." Kurt replied.

"WHAT?!" Nearly everyone exclaimed.

"Yep, he forgot why he was flying and he doesn't remember ever seeing Courtney on the plane. I had him check all over the plane about five times."

"But she couldn't have got off the plane, could she?" Bridgette asked.

"Maybe she stole a parachute, quietly opened the door and jumped off the plane!" Izzy exclaimed.

"...How would she open the door quietly? She was in a plane, in the air, high enough that if a door was opened everything would have been sucked out." Cody pointed out.

"So now Courtney disappeared just like Duncan." Gwen sat on a chair and leaned back. "Great, must be the Stranger's work."

"Where did we come up with the Stranger?" Izzy asked.

"We don't know who he is or what he wants, where he came from or why he's doing all this. Stranger seems pretty accurate to me." Gwen shrugged.

"Whatever, the point is Courtney is gone and the next time we may see again in on Lyoko with Duncan fighting against us." Heather spoke up.

"Bring it, you said all we have to do is devirtualize them and they're de-brainwashed." Eva shrugged.

"She's got a point." Geoff nodded.

"But what does the Stranger want? Why go after Duncan and Courtney? Why take a strand of Aelita's hair? What exactly does this guy want?" Bridgette asked.

"Those are very good questions." Aelita nodded. "And to be honest I'm almost afraid to find out what the answers are."

Xxx

All was quiet in Lyoko, no monsters, no generals, and no activated towers leaving the deserted digital world empty and quiet.

Until now.

A single tower in the Desert Sector activated but it did not glow red like what happened when XANA activated a tower.

It glowed green.

If that wasn't concerning enough for the Lyoko Warriors who will notice soon enough it wasn't the only activated tower. Just after the tower in the Desert Sector was activated another one in the Forest Sector started to glow purple. And after that a tower in the Mountain Sector was activated, glowing the same color followed by a tower in the Ice Sector and then a single tower in the new sectors were activated by the same unknown entity. Eight separate towers in eight sectors activated all at the same time.

As if that wasn't bad enough almost all types of monsters created by XANA and Nephilim were deployed throughout Lyoko to guard the towers for the inevitable battle.

Xxx

XANA watched with his trademark evil smirk as he sat on a floating red block and observed the monsters approaching the towers.

'Take positions around the towers and eliminate any enemy that approaches.' XANA mentally commanded.

The monsters surrounded the towers and watched for signs of approaching enemies with their weapons charged and ready.

'And now the next move belongs to the Stranger.' XANA thought.

The towers started performing what they had programmed to do. France began to experience power outages, with lights, televisions, and all electrical devices that relied on the power plant were flickering on and off. Traffic lights went off and cars ended up crashing into each other causing people to be stuck in traffic jams, air planes were stuck in the sky as communications with the air port were being disrupted by the power drain.

Xxx

"What do you mean I can't land? Hello?" Lenny asked as he tried to land the Total Drama Jet back in the air port. "Hello?"

Looking down he could see lights flickering on and off across the city.

"Just what kind of nightmare have I come back to?"

Xxx

Inside Sector 5 the egg that the Stranger had created started to pulse with white energy that lit up the chamber. As this happened Lilith appeared in the chamber and watched as the egg's shell cracked slightly.

"It's starting now. But what shall happen when it is finished?" She asked out loud.

XANA was watching the egg through a floating screen provided by Lilith and heard her question.

"Possibly, the birth of a new digital entity." XANA replied, taking a moment to answer the question. "The Stranger has finished his turn and will come to Lyoko himself."

"How?" Lilith asked.

"A little help from me but at the same time I believe that, what's the word humans like to use? Ah, a spoiler alert is in order." XANA smirked.

"Ohhhh, I love it when you have surprises for everyone!" Lilith giggled. "It's so much fun seeing the annoyed and angry looks on everyone's faces."

"Then I hope you enjoy this one, Lilith. This is going to be interesting." XANA snickered as another screen appeared in front of him.

This screen showed a phone dialing program and he proceeded to dial a certain number. At the very same time a tower in the Tropical Sector glowed red.

Xxx

Aelita looked down as her laptop started beeping and her cell phone started ringing at the same time.

"Don't tell me, XANA." Heather said as Aelita opened the laptop.

"Oh...my...God..." Aelita covered her mouth with her hand.

"What's wrong? Something else besides an activated tower?" Cody asked.

"Nine...active towers." Aelita said in shock.

"Ah...did she just say there are _nine_ towers?" LeShawna gulped.

Noah walked over and looked at the laptop showing the super scan. "...Yep. Nine towers. All right who pissed off Murphy this time?"

"NINE TOWERS!" Bridgette, DJ, Geoff, Heather, and Cody exclaimed all at once.

"But I thought XANA can only activate one tower at a time!" Trent ran up and looked at the laptop.

"That's right...It's not him, only one tower is under XANA's control. The other eight are under someone else's control." Aelita looked up with a fearful look.

The cell phone kept ringing and Aelita was just about to turn it off because the last thing she needed was some unknown person calling her. Just as she picked it up she stopped when she saw a certain symbol on the caller ID. She pressed the reply button and answered. "Hello?"

"_Greetings, Sister._" The familiar voice of her hated enemy nearly made Aelita's heart stop beating. "_I hope I am not calling at a bad time._"

"XANA...why are you calling?" Aelita asked earning the attention of everyone in the room.

"_I am sure you have noticed by now that more than just a single tower has been activated. Allow me to calm your fears by saying that the single tower under my control will deactivate when its purpose is finished._" XANA said.

"And what purpose is that?" Aelita frowned.

"_You'll find out when you reach Lyoko but if you want to reach the heart of this conspiracy then ignore the towers and go to Sector 5. You'll understand why when you reach the lab._"

"Why are you telling me this?" Aelita narrowed her eyes. "What have you done this time?"

"_Oh sister, must you always be so suspicious of the few moments of kindness I give you?_" XANA chuckled. "_I left you alive before because I needed to do help me solve the mystery of the Stranger who will soon complete his plan and spell the end of you and your team's quest to save the world and my own purpose. I hope you don't wait too long while trying to confirm my freely given information and let this menace become too strong to defeat. Until the next time, Sister._"

XANA ended the conversation by hanging up and Aelita stared down at the phone.

"Aelita, was that..." Gwen asked.

"It was. We need to get to the factory now." Aelita looked up. "I think we're about to have a huge problem."

Xxx

The Stranger tapped the table as he waited for XANA to perform the next part of the plan. His waiting ended when XANA's Avatar appeared on the screen.

"Everything is all set, waiting for the right time, waiting for you." XANA said, getting to the point.

"It's about time, transfer me now." The Stranger said, actually commanding XANA.

If not for the alliance XANA would consider vaporizing him but had to wait until their alliance ended. The computer screen turned pitch black and a specter came out and engulfed the Stranger. Once the Stranger was completely covered by the specter it flew back into the laptop and the Stranger was gone.

Xxx

It didn't take long for the Warriors to reach the factory, in fact just after Aelita hung up they had high tailed it to the factory so fast that they left a trail of dust in the air. Aelita sat down at the computer and brought up the Super Scan.

"I don't believe, nine towers are active." Aelita said in shock.

"Oh man, we going to have to put overtime into this." Cody groaned.

"No, Cody, that's not the worst part. Out of all the nine towers only one is being controlled by XAN-" Aelita stopped as the tower XANA activated shut down. "And he just shut his own tower down."

"What's that mean?" Eva asked.

"It means that there are now eight towers left but they are not under XANA's control." Aelita typed fast and brought up a scan of the towers. "They are being remotely controlled from another computer."

"Stranger?" Trent asked.

"Got to be." Gwen nodded.

"I think we also found the source of the power outages. The towers are diverting huge amounts of power, not just from France but also I see the towers have hacked into the power grids of London, Moscow, New York, Toronto, Chicago, and few more large cities with a big power grid." Aelita read the results of the scans.

"A world wide power outage? Why?" Bridgette asked, worried about all the countries losing power.

"The towers are diverting energy to something in Sector 5; I can't tell what it is." Aelita narrowed his eyes. "This is what XANA was talking about."

"What'd he say?" Gwen asked.

"He said ignore the towers and go to Sector 5." Aelita glanced at everyone. "I don't know what's going on but whatever is going on in Sector 5 is the Stranger's plan coming together."

"End of the World time again?" Noah asked.

"Looks like it." Aelita stood up. "I don't know what's going but I think now is the time for answers."

"Fine by me." Heather said as Noah sat down and the rest headed for the elevator. "I'm sick of this guy hiding."

Xxx

"_Transfer_."

"_Scanner._"

"_Virtualization!_"

Aelita looked to see the last of the group was now in the circular and blue featureless Arena of Sector 5. When everyone was assembled the passage to the Core Zone opened up for them.

"All right, we just need to get to the center of the Zone where we'll find whatever it is that's taking all the power."

"Roger that!" Izzy saluted and ran through the passage on all four limbs like a dog.

Xxx

**"They're here."** The Stranger turned around, sensing the Lyoko Warriors. **"Better give them a warm welcome."**

The statue of Duncan cracked and in blast of green fire he was now free of the statue.

**"Let's go and say hi to some old friends."**

Xxx

"Here we are, the Core Zone, completely featureless and boring as always." Cody announced as they came out of the terminal.

"_Careful everyone, I'm picking up a new signal heading for you with Duncan._"

"Courtney?" Bridgette asked.

"_I don't know, the signal's marked as...this is not right._"

"Noah?" Gwen asked.

"_I can't tell who it is. It's a digital avatar but signal matches XANA's even though it's not him._"

"Like I said, I'm sick of falling behind here." Heather growled as she aimed her shuriken launchers at the passageway on the other side of the Core Zone. "I want to know what's going on here!"

"_Above you!_"

The group looked up to see a stream of green fire fall upon them from the ceiling.

"Hang on!" DJ activated his barrier and blocked the attack.

When the flames faded they could see Duncan and a dark cloaked figure standing upside down on the ceiling.

**"Sneak attack, failed."** The Stranger had a distorted voice so it was hard to tell if it was male or female.

It and Duncan fell to the ground, landing on their feet as the Lyoko Warriors got ready for a fight. Duncan transformed into the Berserker but the Stranger made no move to prepare itself for a fight.

"So you're the new ass I get to kick." Eva cracked her knuckles.

**"Not yet, Eva. I won't be taking part in the fight right now." **The Stranger chuckled. **"I have business to finish before the big fight."**

"Make time!" Gwen activated her Wind Aura and swung her scythe.

She created a powerful gust of wind that blasted the Berserker and the Stranger back. The Stranger flipped through the air, his feet hitting the wall, absorbing the shock and he jumped off and landed on the ground perfectly. The Berserker slammed into the wall and left a hole but a second later it jumped out without a scratch on it. It growled at Gwen with its green flames flaring brighter and fiercer.

"No you don't!" Bridgette fired a stream of water from her swords and slammed the Berserker, creating steam.

The Berserker charged forward but DJ changed into his metal golem form and jumped into the air. He slammed into the Berserker and held him down.

"Sorry Duncan!" DJ said as the Berserker tried to fight him off.

The Berserker roared and exploded in a blast of green fire that sent DJ flying back into the wall. DJ made a second hole in the wall next to the first one. The Berserker charged forward but LeShawna and Eva were already moving with LeShawna's hammer and Eva's fists ready to pound Duncan in. The Berserker roared, releasing a stream of fire from his mouth like a dragon but Eva clapped her hands and sent out a shockwave that cancelled out the attack. LeShawna moved to smash Duncan with her hammer to devirtualize him and free from the Stranger's control but a dark figure landed in front of Berserker and blocked her hammer. Looking up LeShawna found herself staring at the visor covered face of XANA's fiery general, Cain of the Inferno.

His claymore was blocking LeShawna's hammer backed by his considerable strength as Cain pushed her back. Gwen tried to attack the Stranger but an arrow made of energy flew through and cut her across her cheek just as she saw it, forcing her to jump back. The Warriors looked up and saw Lilith stranding on top of Cain's personal monster, the Phoenix known as Ember.

"Don't mind us, we like crashing anyone's party!" Lilith got another arrow ready.

"Where's Courtney?" Bridgette growled.

**"Well, I guess it's time to truly introduce myself."** The Stranger pulled his hood off to reveal...

"No..." Gwen nearly dropped her scythe.

"There's no way." Heather gasped.

"It can't be..." Cody's eyes went wide.

"It is." Aelita let out a small gasp.

The Stranger was none other than...

"Courtney? No way!" LeShawna exclaimed.

"But look at her..." Trent whispered.

Courtney's brunette hair was now almost as black as space itself with a few brown streaks left, her skin looked a little pale, and her eyes had a hint of red in them.

**"There's a reasonable explanation to this Lyoko Warriors but I wonder if I should go through the trouble of explaining it to you rather than take my revenge." **Courtney's voice was mixed with her original voice and a deep robotic and emotionless tone.

"Revenge? You're going crazy on all of us because of revenge?" DJ asked. "I know you're not the well liked person around and you pretty much dislike all of us but doing all this and teaming up with XANA?"

"And looking like a psycho while you're at it." Heather continued.

**"Oh that's right, my little change since the last time we met. I don't blame you for not recognizing me since this stupid girl took a bit of my data during our last confrontation."**

"Wait a minute..." Aelita narrowed her eyes. "I know that voice and I have sensed this presence...but you're supposed to be gone!"

"Aelita?" LeShawna turned to the pink haired girl. "You know this lunatic?"

"And so do all of you. It has been a while hasn't it...Shadow."


	91. Episode 89: Demon's Possession

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 91

Everyone except Eva stared in shock at Aelita who glared at the smirking Courtney, even the two generals of XANA stared in silence. Everyone on the team, except Eva had been around when Shadow had been a General of XANA and when he went rogue when he merged with Noah's program. Shadow had been formidable opponent, almost as dangerous as XANA himself and even matched XANA in power and strength. But XANA had knowledge, cunning, and experience on his side while Shadow had made mistakes that led to his destruction.

"Aelita, did just say..." LeShawna started.

"Shadow?" Cody finished.

"But...he's dead." Bridgette stuttered.

"We all saw it! XANA blew him apart!" Heather exclaimed.

**"Reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated, surfer. Though I don't blame you all for making that assumption, it was quite the show. At the height of my power I almost tasted victory only to be destroyed from the inside by my own naiveté."** Courtney mockingly bowed to everyone. **"Never the less, I have returned...somewhat.**" She looked down at her body.

Courtney was wearing her Lyoko outfit that looked exactly same as when Courtney first entered Lyoko if they ignored the changes in her hair and eyes.

"Aelita, how do you know it's Shadow?" Trent levelled his guitar at Courtney.

"Shadow transformed into a virus when he merged with Smith, since then he's been nothing but a mass of corruption infecting and controlling anything he takes control of. I can sense it just as clearly as I can sense XANA's presence and right now I can sense Shadow's data inside of Courtney so much I can practically smell it." Aelita nodded. "I don't know how but I know it's him, no matter how crazy it sounds."

"What's going on? Who's Shadow?" Eva asked, not liking being left out.

"Shadow was one of XANA's generals before he turned traitor and tried to take over Lyoko and replace his former boss as the new Top Bad Guy." Gwen explained. "He merged with a program Noah made to fight XANA but it wasn't good enough. XANA outsmarted him and destroyed him from the inside."

"And he was supposed to stay dead after that." Lilith spoke up, frowning at the fact her predecessor was still alive.

"The only question left is...how?" Cody asked.

**"Through this stupid girl of course."** Courtney chuckled. **"On our last encounter I thought I had finally defeated XANA and gained all his power only to discover that XANA tricked me, allowing me to absorb him so he could delete me from the inside and that was the end of that...Or not because of this girl."**

Xxx

(Flashback)

Courtney placed her hands on the exposed flesh and began to absorb his life points, but it was like she was also absorbing his corruption. She shuddered, gasping in pain. "I can't...do this...for too...long!"

"_Can't handle me? No surprise, you're trying to take in the powers of myself, the remains of Noah's program, and XANA himself!_" Shadow cackled. _"Such power is too great for you! Keep it up and it will eat you from inside out!"_

(End Flashback)

Xxx

**"She absorbed a small bit of my data into her digital body and integrated itself within her completely when she returned to the real world. So since then a small piece containing everything that was me has been resting inside her subconscious mind, she's not even been aware of anything that has been happening since I started waking up again, chalking it all up to bad dreams. Of course I was only able to wake up when her resistance to possession crumbled. When you faced the reincarnation of Project Carthage, Nephilim."**

"The City Sector, when she and Duncan lost their original Lyoko forms and memories. Like what happened with Gwen..." Aelita trailed off.

Xxx

(Flashback

"I have a gift for you all," The main Nephilim said as Duncan and Courtney cut through his tentacles as they got close to them. "As they all say...ignorance is bliss, so I felt that was the best way to show my gratitude for all our time together!"

"What the hell is he on about-AH!" Courtney yelped in pain as a tentacle stabbed her in the back.

"Courtney!" Duncan shouted.

The tentacle burst out through her chest. She vanished into code, returned to the real world.

"And don't think she'll be coming back," Nephilim snickered. "Her Digital Avatar was just erased from your super computer! When she wakes up, she'll be...quite surprised."

(End Flashback)

Xxx

**"Exactly, Nephilim took away her memories and her ability to enter Lyoko and as time went on the natural immunity against possession faded and I was able to wake up from time to time until I was able to take control of her body whenever I wanted. It took me a while but I followed XANA's example when he possessed the spell caster was to induce nightmares to keep her up at nights, leaving her mentally exhausted until I finally was able to break her resistance."**

"But she never showed any signs of being exhausted or sick." LeShawna said.

"I would have remembered seeing a tired and grumpy Courtney at breakfast." Heather said.

**"The one thing I learned working with XANA was that stealth is the best way to work when you want to remain hidden. It also helped she preferred to hide any insomnia on the assumption she would be seen as weak. "**

"The problem with the Time Return Program, the one who called me in the hospital to tease me over what happened to Aelita, Duncan's possession, that was all you." Gwen glared.

**"That was me, but those were...demonstrations. I needed help if I was going to make a comeback."** Courtney shrugged.

"My hair..." Aelita stated.

**"Oh good one on that, Aelita. When I learned Lilith was able to gain her own Keys to Lyoko power through a small sample of your DNA I found the perfect way. I just needed to demonstrate a way to earn XANA's trust again. The good thing about being trapped in a human body was that I was able to hack into Lyoko and activate as many towers as I wanted without limit as well as use her memories to hack into the Time Return program."**

"Courtney lost all her memories of Lyoko, there's no way she'd remember." Trent pointed out.

**"Not consciously but you think it's that easy to erase all those memories? The brain is like a computer and the virus was designed to suppress all memories that had to with Lyoko starting with the very word itself and repressing all mental images of the lab, scanners, the factory, and everything else."**

"So all the pain and suffering we went through the last week was you screwing with us." Heather growled. "I thought you were an ass when you possessed me now I think I hate you more than anyone else in my whole life."

**"Why thank you."** Courtney chuckled. **"I try my best but this is nothing compared to the grand finale. Here's the hint, I'm not dead but you and the rest of world will be soon enough. "**

"So you got Duncan kicked off the show and later had Courtney quit just so you could bring them here." Bridgette glared hatefully. "You're using them as puppets while causing grief to their families."

"Your outnumbered here, Shadow." Aelita held out her hand and got ready to fire her Plasma Beam. "You can't win with just Courtney and Duncan under your control."

**"I agree...but I know something that will even the odds."** Courtney stepped back towards a door way that opened up behind her. **"Want to see what I've got in store for you. It's a little something that I've been working on when I first awoke and soon enough I'll have a brand new digital form."**

She ran through the door with Duncan behind her.

"After her!" Heather took off after the two possessed warriors.

"Wait for me!" Izzy ran after them with everyone else following them through the blue hallway.

"I can't believe it...of all the possibilities I never considered it was Shadow possessing Courtney." Aelita said as they chased after Courtney and Duncan.

"At least we know now but how do get them back to normal?" Geoff asked.

"Courtney is essentially infected by corrupted data from the original Shadow that merged with her digital coding and later her DNA when she was devirtualized. It's basically a virus not too different from the one XANA used on Gwen." Aelita replied.

"Kill the virus, the way Seraphim killed mine." Gwen nodded.

"Any idea what Shadow's got in store for us?" LeShawna asked as they turned a corner.

"I almost don't want to know." Aelita whispered.

"Get back here!" Eva shouted as she ran past everyone else to catch up with the two possessed warrior.

**"Getting impatient?"** Courtney stopped and turned around. **"All right, here's something for you to play with."**

She placed her hand right hand on the wall and blue I-beams started lunging out of the walls either attempting to block or crush the warriors. DJ and Trent quickly used their barrier powers while Aelita blasted them with her energy blasts. Heather jumped forward and somersaulted, avoiding several beams and landing perfectly on her feet.

"Nice try!" She fired her shuriken launchers.

Duncan stepped out in front of Courtney and blocked all of Heather's shuriken with his sword. Izzy changed into a monkey as she dodged a beam coming out of the wall and swung from beam to beam before leaping over Heather's head and turning into an ape to squish Duncan and Courtney. However a wall came up from the floor between them leaving Izzy to slam into it face first. She changed back into her human form and staggered around.

"Whoa...I think I see stars...Cute little digital stars!" Izzy giggled.

"Out of my way!" Eva ran forward and slammed a glowing fist into the wall, shattering it to pieces.

Courtney and Duncan had take the chance to retreat leaving the warriors far behind.

"Damn it, they got away." Eva growled.

"But they want us to follow them. Shadow wants us to see what he has been planning." Aelita stepped forward. "And to be honest I don't need my Second Sense to tell me that whatever's up ahead...it's not good."

The Lyoko Warriors followed Aelita as they came out of the hall into a massive chamber that seemed almost too big for it to be in Sector 5 but they remembered that on Lyoko it was usually bigger on the inside. In the center was an egg that was about as tall as a tower pulsing with white energy while sounding like a heart beating.

"An egg? Shadow's new weapon is an egg?" Geoff asked.

"Wonder what will come out when it hatches." Trent gulped.

"Noah?" Aelita asked.

"_On it...Whoa, whatever this thing is it's freaky._" Noah replied.

"Freaky? How freaky?" LeShawna asked.

"_Well I can tell that it's taking all the energy that the towers have been leaching off the rest of the world and whatever's inside...It looks like the egg is more a containment unit for some kind of digital form._"

"That can't be right. What digital form needs an egg?" Bridgette asked.

"One that might be really powerful." Gwen shrugged.

"_Exactly, it looks like Shadow's developing a new digital form but it's more advanced than that...and I think I knew why._"

"Spill it bookworm." Heather spoke up. "We don't have a lot of time."

"_Some of the coding there is what I used to make Smith meaning Shadow's not just trying to create a new digital form but he's trying to make one more powerful than anything XANA or we can use against him._"

"That's why he wanted my DNA, to gain the same powers me and Lilith." Aelita narrowed her eyes.

"_Right, that egg is exactly what it is, an egg for a new type of Digital Avatar. Shadow's gathering all that power because a program this advanced would take weeks to complete so he's trying to speed the process._"

"A newly designed digital form as the body combined with coding of Smith and me along with my powers, and now all that's left is the digital soul to act as the heart and brain. Shadow's mind is the last piece of the puzzle." Aelita realized.

"Which is currently inside Courtney." Cody said.

"Shadow's planning to transfer his brain in this thing?" DJ asked. "So why show it to us?"

**"To show you last thing that will exist on Lyoko when I am done."** Courtney stepped out from behind the egg.

"Shadow, I knew you were insane but this is new even by yours and XANA's standards." Gwen pulled out her scythe.

**"Why thank you."** Courtney chuckled. **"I aim to please. And soon enough the ultimate weapon will be my new body."**

"Not if we kill it first. Take it out!" Heather pointed at the egg.

"Finally!" Eva cracked her knuckles and charged forward.

**"I don't think so."** Courtney pulled out her rod and extended into her battle staff.

She used it to tap the floor and the floor in the chamber started to break apart. The egg remained safe on a floating blue block with Courtney and Duncan on it while the rest of the floor started to fall into an endless blue abyss.

"Why did I see this coming?!" Heather shouted as she slipped off the blue block she was on as it started falling.

Trent activated his guitar's flight ability and managed to grab Heather's hand before falling into the digital void. Bridgette combined her swords into her surfboard and she grabbed Geoff's hand, pulling him into the board behind her. However the few flying warriors were not enough to catch everyone, but luckily Aelita was always prepared. She let out a note and the falling blue blocks glowed white, floating back up and catching all the falling warriors.

Aelita floated up with all the blocks and they now floated around the giant block that held up the egg in the center of the chamber. The warriors now all stood on floating blue blocks as if Aelita had managed to tamper with the gravity of the chamber.

"Aelita, you probably heard this a lot but..." DJ started.

"I rock? Thanks DJ." Aelita smiled as she landed on a block.

**"Don't be foolish, Lyoko Warriors. You'd actually try and strike down a dear friend of yours?"** Courtney spoke, earning glares from everyone. **"You can't destroy me anymore than you can destroy XANA. He has the power to fight you until the end of the world and beyond, even your Keys won't be enough Aelita."**

"And you think you'll do any better? He beat you before." Gwen growled.

**"But I know is one weakness."** Courtney smirked. **"A weakness that he has kept hidden from all of you. He may have mentioned it before..."**

Xxx

(Flashback)

"It useless. Shatter this Avatar countless time but I will not die. My core, Shadow, is not here." XANA replied.

(End Flashback)

Xxx

**"XANA's only weakness, I know where to find it. You want him gone as much as I do so allow me to create my new body and I will show you."** Courtney smirked.

"And Courtney and Duncan?" Trent asked.

**"I am not happy with this arrangement anymore than you, allow me the chance to be reborn and I shall show you and free them."**

"Yeah, right. As we speak you're putting the rest of the world in danger as you are gathering power to this new body. You don't care about humanity anymore than XANA does; you're just trying to buy time." Aelita spoke up, getting ready to fight.

"I think what she's saying is...No deal!" Heather's wrist blades came out.

**"Very well...I'll guess I'll just have to get rid of you...for good!"**

Courtney slammed the bladed end of her staff onto the block she was on and four floating blocks flew above her. She pointed her staff at the warriors and the floating blocks shot at them like jets.

"Not this again!" LeShawna jumped off the block she was on as it was smashed to pieces.

Eva smashed through a block with her glowing fists as she jumped forward. LeShawna jumped after her. "Eva wait!"

Courtney smirked as both warriors jumped from block to block towards.

"I'm not making the same mistake with XANA!" Eva jumped into the air, planning to land and face Courtney face to face.

As they made the final jump Courtney raised her hands and released black chains that wrapped around Eva's arm and LeShawna's chest from her arms. With a mighty swing she sent both Warriors flying through the air, LeShawna losing her hammer as landed on a block while Eva grabbed the edge of a nearby block that kept her from falling into the Digital Void.

**"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! It's just like old times isn't it, Warriors!"** Courtney cackled. **"Come and get me and I'll give you front row seats to the story of the century!"**


	92. Episode 90: Rise of the Titan

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 92

The Lyoko Warriors found themselves in a stare down against Courtney who was possessed by Shadow and Duncan who had been brainwashed by him. Both of them stood in front of the egg that contained the new digital body Shadow was creating while all the warriors standing on floating blocks that kept them from falling into the dark blue digital void below. Courtney decided to start things off by swinging her staff and sending more blocks at them.

"Incoming!" Izzy turned into a bird and flew out of the way.

Cody quickly teleported out of the way, Bridgette was still on her board with Geoff so she was able to fly out of the way, the same went for Trent on his guitar and Heather, while LeShawna and Eva jumped from block to block do get out of the way. Aelita and Gwen simply used their flight ability to fly over the block heading for them but that had been a trick. Duncan had transformed into the Berserker and blasted off into the air, green fire coming out of his feet like much like how Gwen used her Fire Aura to propel her through air like rockets attached to her feet. Gwen gasped as Duncan slammed into her and sent her falling into the Digital Void.

"Hang on Gwen!" Cody quickly teleported up to her.

He grabbed her hand and teleported onto a nearby floating block that had not been destroyed or catapulted by Courtney.

"Thanks." Gwen gave Cody a quick smile and turned back to the fight.

Courtney smiled darkly. **"How touching."**

A black aura surrounded her and dark wings made of smoke sprouted from her back, allowing her to fly into the air. More floating blocks lifted themselves into the air with her and launched themselves at the warriors like bullets forcing everyone to run or fly to get out of the way. Aelita gasped as Courtney flew at her, spinning staff so fast it was a blur and giving Aelita barely any time to create an energy barrier to protected her from getting sliced in half. The force of the blow knocked Aelita back but she luckily landed on a floating block.

Aelita jumped back as Courtney landed on the block and tried to slice her in half and jumped onto a block behind her. Courtney jumped after her and tried to bisect Aelita but the pink haired girl jumped back. Courtney spun and tried to cut her in half and then behead her but Aelita ducked and tried to blast her back with an energy field. But the sight of a block about to smash her head made her jump into the air avoiding the block smashing into her and Courtney stabbing her.

The block flew back, being telekinetically controlled by Shadow making Aelita step out of the way. Only for Courtney to jump out from behind the block as it flew past her and try to stab Aelita through the head. Aelita side stepped her and spun around so she would not lose track of the possessed princess. Courtney jumped into the air and swung her staff down with a sick grin as she tried to cut Aelita in half.

Aelita jumped back, flying into the air and fired a barrage of energy spheres. Courtney turned and started running, jumping from block to block as Aelita's energy fields blasted them to pieces.

"I got her!" Cody teleported in front of Courtney as she landed on another block and tried to shoot her, only for Courtney to create a smoke shield that absorbed Cody's laser shots from his pistols and fire them back at him. He was hit in the chest and was knocked over the edge.

"Cody!" Gwen shouted and flew in to help.

Luckily Cody grabbed the edge and held on as Courtney flew over him with her dark wings and didn't try to finish him off.

**"Shadow Storm!" **Courtney spun around and released a black cloud from her staff as Gwen landed to pull Cody back up.

The spell caster quickly spun her scythe, creating a blue barrier that just barely blocked the attack. Gwen grunted as she slid back across the block until she was just an inch from the edge. Trent flew in on his guitar with Heather behind him and fired a blast of lightning from the tip that forced Courtney to cancel her attack and saving Gwen.

"You okay?" Trent asked as he jumped off his guitar.

Heather jumped off allowing Trent to pick it up and helped Cody back up onto the block.

"Yeah, but she's a lot tougher than before. Those wings were from Shadow's super form." Gwen said as Courtney landed back on the block with the large egg. "And she used one of Shadow's original attacks just now."

"Courtney and Shadow's power all at the same time? So unfair." Cody grumbled.

Duncan landed next to Courtney still in her Berserker form, growling like a large dog ready to pounce and bite them.

"Shadow's data gives Courtney access to all his powers meaning she might be a match for all of us even with the numbers on our side." Aelita prepared to fire a plasma beam.

"We'll see about that." Eva cracked her knuckles.

Courtney raised her staff and swung it down releasing a beam of energy that was black as space without any stars.

"Hang on!" DJ activated his barrier ability while Trent played the shield note to give them a double layer of protection.

The attack slammed into the barrier that held but the force of the attack cracked block they were on, forcing them to jump off as it shattered. DJ and Trent just barely got out of the way as the beam flew past them and blasted the wall at the end of the chamber. Just as Heather somersaulted through the air and landed on another block she spotted Courtney flying at the warriors with her dark wings and Duncan behind her being propelled by blasts of green fire from his feet.

"Look out!" Heather shouted.

LeShawna jumped out into the path with her hammer ready but Courtney was parry with her staff, using an incredible amount of strength to block LeShawna's hammer. Courtney somersaulted over LeShawna and slammed her feet into the back of LeShawna's head. The hammer wielding girl fell face first onto a block and Duncan flew into to finish her off. Cody however teleported between Duncan and the downed LeShawna and fired an endless barrage of lasers from his pistols.

Duncan simply shrugged off the blasts, not even flinching as he flew down and head butted Cody in the chest.

"AH!" Cody flew over LeShawna and would have fallen into the void if she had not grabbed his leg. "Thanks!"

"No problem, just keep shooting!" LeShawna pulled him back up as Duncan flew down to attack them again.

Cody aimed and fired again but like before Duncan didn't even flinch.

"I got him!" Eva kicked off the block she was on, her feet glowing bright blow as she jumped.

She released a shock wave that propelled her through the air and she slammed into Duncan, even though she ended up burned by the green flames and lost fifteen life points. Duncan was stunned and changed back into his human but that was the least of anyone's concern.

"She's crazy!" Cody exclaimed.

Eva didn't take into account that she not block to land on as she and Duncan started falling towards the blue void. However Courtney seemed to care as her puppet started falling and sent a block out underneath the falling fighters. Eva got up as Duncan jumped back and landed on the block next to Courtney.

"And I thought they were tough before." DJ gasped, taking the chance for a short break.

"Okay, one of them is possessed by XANA's former head general the other is a brainwashed fighter who transforms into a nearly indestructible digital version of the Ghost Rider. And to the fact that they have an egg that contains probably the worst thing in the digital universe next to XANA himself...we're pretty screwed." Gwen looked between them and the egg.

"Then we'll have to take out the egg." Aelita replied. "A few of us will keep Courtney and Duncan busy while the rest take out the egg."

"Oh! Oh! Can I be the distraction? I am good at distractions!" Izzy waved her hand.

"That's one." Aelita looked to the rest of the group floating on nearby blocks. "Anyone else?"

"Leave the egg cracking to me." LeShawna held up her hammer. "I smash its smaller cousins in for breakfast!"

"I got the Ghost Rider." Eva glared at Duncan.

"I guess I'll stick with fighting Courtney." Gwen looked at the smirking possessed princess. "She's tough enough without Shadow helping her out, my spells might slow her down."

"I'm in." Heather nodded. "Someone has to make sure you do it right."

"One good blast and that is egg is toast." Geoff held up his axe.

**"Are you doing making your little plan?"** Courtney interrupted. **"The more you waste time the closer I am to victory."**

She glanced back at the egg as it pulsed and the sound of a heart beating was louder.

**"Just a little longer."** She whispered and turned back to the warriors. **"You sure you won't consider my proposal? It's the only chance you will ever get."**

"Here's our answer...Izzy!" Aelita shouted.

"HI-YA!" The orange girl leaped up and fired explosive arrows from her crossbows.

Courtney waved her staff and a block came out and blocked the explosive arrows, shielding her and Duncan from the explosion. She thrust her staff forward and the block flew at the warriors. Aelita fired her plasma beam and blasted the block to pieces and the rest of the group jumped forward to do their part. Courtney waved her staff again and more floating blocks flew at the scattered warriors.

Duncan roared and released a stream of fire onto the blocks as Courtney threw them; setting them on fire and making them look like meteors. Gwen jumped off a block as a meteor shattered it and flew into the air, ducking under another meteor and flew down when she noticed Heather was in trouble. The ninja was a second late in jumping off a block as it was destroyed and was knocked into the air, disoriented and was going to miss the closest block by a few feet. Gwen grabbed her by the arms and flew back up.

"You're not going to make a habit of this, are you?" Heather asked.

"I won't tell anyone if you don't." Gwen replied.

"Deal!"

Heather got on arm pointed down at Courtney and fired shuriken at her target. Courtney lazily batted them away with her staff but that had been a distraction. Eva jumped into the air, her powers propelling her over Gwen and Heather and she fell down towards Courtney and Duncan like a rock.

"You're mine!" Eva shouted, her fist glowing bright blue.

**"I don't think so."** Courtney scoffed.

Her dark wings sprouted from back again and fired bolts of dark energy that hit Eva in mid-air before she could retaliate and her life points hit zero after the first three shots.

**"One down."** Courtney grinned.

"She really does have all of Shadow's powers." Gwen grunted.

"Which makes it a lot harder to kick her possessed ass." Heather frowned.

DJ transformed into his metal golem form and landed in front of Duncan as he tried to attack Gwen and Heather.

"Don't make me fight you, Duncan." DJ warned.

The Berserker only growled at him before charging forward, swinging his sword arm down to cut DJ in half. DJ raised his metal arms and caught the sword with both hands. Duncan growled and tried to push the sword down but DJ was equal in strength and was able to push the sword back.

"Sorry about this!" DJ said.

He raised a foot and kicked Duncan in the chest, knocking him back but only pushed him back a few feet and he didn't look winded. He seemed more annoyed then hurt and fired a blast of green fire from his mouth. DJ covered his face as he was engulfed in fire and was obscured from sight. Duncan stopped his attack and looked at the fire, waiting to see if he had successfully burned DJ to devirtualization.

DJ jumped out of the flames, his body was red hot from the flames but his metal armor protected him from the attack so he had not lost a single life point. DJ slammed into Duncan, knocking him down and pinned him down with his hands on the Berserker's head.

"Come on, Duncan I know you can hear me! You got to fight Shadow's mind control!" DJ said.

Duncan didn't answer, he just roared and thrashed as he tried to break free. Izzy changed into a hummingbird and flew down full speed at Courtney.

"HI-YA!" She changed back into her human form and launched a kick at Courtney's face.

She raised her staff and blocked the kick and then pushed forward, knocking Izzy into the hair. The shape shifter somersaulted and landed perfectly on her feet with an eager grin showing she was ready for more. Courtney charged forward, spinning her staff and tried to slash Izzy to bits. Izzy dodged all Courtney's swings and jumped back onto another block with Courtney jumping after her.

Izzy fired her arrows but Courtney released a blast of black smoke that caught the arrows and deleted them before they could explode.

"TAKE THIS!" Izzy's claws flashed brightly and she leaped at Courtney.

Courtney blocked Izzy's claws with her staff, sparks flying as Izzy's claws slashed at the staff but didn't leave any scratch mark. Courtney knocked Izzy's hands away and swung at Izzy's head which the shape shifter dodged by ducking. A few strands of her hair went flying as the bladed end of Courtney's staff caught the end of Izzy's long hair. Izzy kicked Courtney in the chest, knocking the possessed princess off her feet and onto her back.

"Got you now!" Izzy changed into a tiger and pounced on Courtney.

But Courtney released another cloud of block smoke that enveloped Izzy and lifted her into the air.

"Wha...Hey, no fair!" Izzy changed into a bird and tried to fly out of the cloud that held her but she was trapped.

Courtney slammed her hand down and Izzy fell to the block like an anvil, slamming into the ground. Courtney lifted her up and slammed her into the ground several times before Gwen tossed Heather into the air and she knocked Courtney down, releasing Izzy.

"Whoa..." Izzy got up, putting a hand to her head as she walked dizzily around. "Grandma, the flying monkeys got out of their cage again."

_"How do you get a concussion when your digital? Ask Izzy."_ Noah sighed.

Bridgette flew towards the egg with Geoff behind him while Trent flew beside them and LeShawna hopped from block to block.

"Get ready for digital omelets everybody!" LeShawna jumped into the air with her hammer ready to smash the egg open.

But as she raised the hammer above her head a laser shot out and hit her in the chest, the force of the blast making her drop her hammer and knock her down. She landed roughly on a block while her hammer fell into the Digital Void. Another two lasers shots to her chest and her life points hit zero as her digital form vanished into streams of data.

"Who shot her?" Geoff asked.

"I think those guys did!" Trent pointed at the attackers.

Creepers came out of the wall on new floating blocks, howling as they charged their lasers cannons. Lasers came out from under the areal Warriors, one hitting Bridgette's board which made her lose control.

"Whoa!" Bridgette aimed down onto a block and split her board back into her swords.

She and Geoff and landed safely on the block with Bridgette's swords digging into the center of the block. They looked to see six Flying Mantas flying out from the opening in the bottom of the chamber and coming up to protect the egg.

"Why is XANA protecting the egg? I thought he and Shadow were enemies." Geoff said.

Courtney smirked as she jumped on another block away from Izzy and Heather.

**"You forget, Geoffrey, that XANA had been absorbed by me when this girl tried to drain me of my life points. A small bit of XANA's data was absorbed along mine and Smith's so I have access to XANA's monsters. Of course I realized that he probably figured that out when I returned to Lyoko but for now I control his monsters and he can't control me, Smith's data prevents him from doing that."**

"So a possessed Courtney with powers belonging to Shadow _and_ XANA? Great, I need look up the vacation time on this job." Heather groaned.

**"You really think I would be dumb enough to rely on only myself and the possessed Berserker as protection against the egg?"** Courtney smirked tauntingly. **"You've obviously become a little slow since the last time we fought."**

"Come here and say that!" Heather growled.

**"Gladly."** Courtney spun her staff as her dark wings appeared.

"Heather, I don't think that was the best idea." Izzy said but Heather ignored her.

**"Destroy them all!"** Courtney commanded, all the monsters in the chamber charged their lasers and fired.

DJ was still holding Duncan down when lasers slammed into his back, distracting him long enough for Duncan to kick him off with both legs to the chest. Duncan slammed his non-sword hand in DJ's face, knocking the giant down and placed his foot on DJ's chest to keep him down. Their roles were now revered with Duncan using the enhanced strength he gained in his Berserker form to hold DJ down despite being in his metal golem form. Duncan raised his sword to finish DJ off but Cody used his teleportation ability to land behind him and shot down Duncan in the back with both pistols.

Duncan spun around and roared, releasing a stream of fire that Cody dodged by teleporting out of the way. DJ took the chance and pushed Duncan off him and jumped onto a nearby block to gain some space. Bridgette held up her swords and used them to block incoming lasers from the three Flying Mantas that flew around them. Geoff swung his axe, releasing bolts of lightning but the Mantas dodged them.

Aelita was using one hand to create an energy shield while firing Energy Fields at Creepers that came towards her on floating blocks. For each Creeper she destroyed two more appeared and attacking, pinning her and keep her from reaching the others. Trent had three Flying Mantas chasing after him with Creepers firing at him from below. Aiming his guitar down he fired a sonic blast that destroyed two Creepers and flew under the floating blocks for cover.

Gwen blocked lasers from Flying Mantas as Courtney landed on the block behind her.

"Look out!" Heather jumped into the air, somersaulting over Gwen.

She launched shuriken from both of her launchers but Courtney simply spun her staff and batted the shuriken easily. Gwen turned around just as Courtney charged, blocking Heather's shuriken and launched a kick at Heather's face. Heather didn't have the time to move as Courtney moved so fast she was a blur and the force of the kick knocked her down. Gwen spun around, activating her Fire Aura and launched blasts of fire.

Courtney jumped, somersaulting backwards off the block into the Digital Void. Gwen ran over to the edge and looked down to see if Courtney had fallen but she came back up on a block and launched a cloud of black smoke.

"Crap!" Gwen swore as the smoke grabbed her and lifted her in the air.

Courtney brought her up on the block and dropped her. Gwen landed on her feet and held her scythe out.

"What's the catch?" Gwen glared.

**"Just the opportunity for this girl to get rid of you, something she wanted to do since she lost her memories."**

"Courtney would never go that far, even if she never came to Lyoko." Gwen gritted her teeth.

**"Possibly, but who am I to say no about holding a grudge?"** Courtney grinned. **"And to make sure no one interferes."**

Courtney waved her staff and the Flying Mantas began dropping Floating Mines around the platform the egg was and the mines spread out. Courtney pointed her staff down and a blast of darkness erupted from the pointed end of her staff, blasting a single mine that set off a chain reaction. The explosion caused the nearest mines to explode and the blocks closest to the mines were hit by the shockwaves. The floating blocks were sent flying forward and crashed into other blocks.

"Whoa!" Cody teleported out of the way as block smashed into the one he was on, nearly flattening him.

Trent had just come back up into the path of a block sent flying his way by the explosion. It slammed into him and went into the wall, squishing his body so tight it exploded into data as his consciousness was ejected from Lyoko. DJ had been fighting Duncan as a block slammed into the one they stood on, behind DJ and making it shake very hard.

"Whoa!" DJ tried to balance himself but accidently took a step back and slipped over the edge.

Luckily he grabbed the edge with one hand before falling into the endless blue Digital Void. He sighed in relief but gulped as the Berserker stood on the edge looking down at him with what DJ guessed to be the skeleton version of a grin.

"Anybody want to give me a hand?" DJ called out.

Duncan was hit by a pink energy field that knocked him back as Aelita landed on the block.

"You called?" Aelita asked and pulled DJ back up.

"Thanks, I thought I was a goner." DJ smiled in gratitude.

"Don't thank me yet, DJ. We still got a lot of work to do." Aelita looked to Duncan who jumped off the platform and rocketed into the air.

Geoff and Bridgette were fending off Flying Mantas when the mine exploded and Geoff turned to see a block fall right on top of them.

"Bridge, look out!" Geoff pushed Bridgette off the block as it was shattered.

Geoff was squished by the flying block and devirtualized instantly as the block he stood on shattered.

"Geoff!" Bridgette assembled her swords back into her board and flew back up.

Heather used her grappling hooks to get out of the way of flying blocks and swung a few times before landing on a block that was safe. Turning around she noticed she was too far from the fighting and no nearby blocks for her to jump on to get back into the fight.

"Great, stuck here outside the fight while the end of the world starts." Heather grumbled.

"Need a lift?" Heather turned around and saw a red humming bird turn into Izzy.

"Maybe..."

Courtney smirked, pleased that the advantage was hers and that she had reduced the number of Lyoko Warriors.

"COURTNEY!"

She spun around as Gwen surrounded by her Fire Aura swung her scythe down. Courtney quickly raised her staff and blocked Gwen's scythe, even as it spewed flames. A dark aura surrounded Courtney, blocking the flames and enhancing her strength enough that she was able to easily block Gwen's strike. Gwen and Courtney grappled with equal strength, Gwen's scythe and Courtney's staff pushing against each other until both opponents threw each other back off the block.

Courtney's dark wings sprouted and Gwen activated her flight ability allowing them to both float in the air. As this happened the heart beat pulsing inside the egg grew louder.

**'It's starting!'** Courtney grinned.

Gwen saw the grin and looked down at the egg, gasping as she spotted a crack.

"Aelita, that thing's starting to hatch!" Gwen shouted.

Aelita and everyone looked at the egg and saw the crack Gwen spoke off growing larger. The chamber or maybe all of Sector 5 started to shake and the walls themselves began to break apart, pieces of the walls sticking out.

"Quick, anyone take it out!" Aelita called out.

"Got it!" Bridgette flew in with her surfboard and flew straight at the egg.

Bridgette let out a war cry and slammed into the egg but a wall of energy around the egg repelled her, knocking her back but luckily didn't knock her off her board. Aelita fired a plasma beam but the egg seemingly absorbed her attack.

"It won't work, it seems to be able to absorb energy attacks and block brute force." Aelita realized.

The shaking got louder along with heart beat of the egg.

"Is it just me or is the whole sector pulsing with that heart beat?" Heather looked around.

"It's not you, I hear it too." Izzy cleaned her ears with her fingers. "It's getting really loud!"

As the crack grew larger volts of energy began to crackle out of the egg like lightning, destroying nearby floating blocks and reached out even further.

**"It's coming! It's coming! It's coming!"** Courtney cackled.

The Lyoko Warriors present and in the lab watched with dread as black flames started pouring out of the egg, enveloping it and covering it from view but they could still hear the heart beat.

"It's not like anything I've ever felt before...A digital being but not quite the same." Aelita narrowed her eyes. "Shadow's new form is still not fully created."

"What do we do now?" Cody teleported to her.

"We need to hit the cracks with everything we have, hit it on the inside before it's complete." Aelita replied.

"Yeah...but we can't see the egg now through all that fire." Cody looked at the black flames.

"Maybe you can't but I can see, just one hit is all I need and this thing will die." Aelita floated into the air. "Let's hope that it works."

As if it heard Aelita something from inside the egg let out a terrifying roar that shook the entire sector.

"Now I'm sure I really don't want to see whatever's in there." Heather gulped.

"Come on, we got a fight to win!" Izzy transformed pterodactyl and allowed Heather to jump on.

Aelita flew at the egg but Duncan in his Berserker form flew up and tried to slash her with his sword arm. Aelita gasped and flew back but the Berserker blasted after with his green fire propelling him towards her.

"No you don't!" Bridgette tried to slam her board into Duncan but he spun around and slammed his sword into her board.

Bridgette's board shattered and Duncan used his free hand to grab Bridgette by the neck. She gasped and tried to break free but it didn't matter as Duncan burned her until her life points hit zero and she was devirtualized.

"Bridgette!" Aelita exclaimed and glared at Duncan as Courtney flew down and floated next to him.

**"What do you think, Aelita? Doesn't this look glorious?" **Courtney laughed.

"Shadow, just what have you done?" Aelita demanded. "What kind of monster are you creating?"

**"Monster? I told you, it's the ultimate weapon! The weapon that will destroy you, XANA, and anyone who is my enemy!" ** Courtney cackled.

"I don't think so." Gwen floated next to Aelita. "Are you done with the villain rant or can we get started already?"

"That's another thing I actually agree with goth girl!" Heather said as Pterodactyl Izzy flew next to them.

"Don't forget us!" Cody teleported him and DJ onto the back Pterodactyl Izzy next to Heather.

"Take it out!" Aelita said and together flew towards the flaming egg.

Duncan roared and let loose a huge fire ball from his mouth that forced the warriors to scatter. Aelita fired a plasma beam but Duncan let out another fire blast that cancelled out both attack in an explosion. Gwen activated her Fire Aura and let out a stream of fire from her feet, using her flaming Jet Boot ability she flew down towards the egg like a comet. But as she came in range she spotted a barrage of dark energy blasts closing in on her that forced her fly out of the way as the dark energy blasted collided with wall and exploded.

Gwen covered her eyes as she flew back and looked up to see Courtney brandishing her staff with her dark wings spread out.

**"Die, Warriors!"** Courtney's wings released a hailstorm of dark energy blasts on all the warriors no matter how far apart they were.

"Crap!" Gwen used her rocket feet to dodge, energy blasts flying down all around her as she spun, turned, and ducked to get stay in the fight.

**"Ladies and Gentlemen, digital beings and humans! I proudly present to you the pinnacle of digital creation, the digital entity that shall become the new king of the digital universe, the destroyer of all who oppose it, say hello to the TITAN!"** Courtney declared in a loud and demonic voice.

As Courtney finished her declaration the black fire grew large enough that it reached up to the ceiling and something began form. It was hard to tell at first but the Warriors watched in awe as a top torso of a giant skeleton appeared in the flames, a skull, a chest, and arms. Red eyes glared from the eye sockets, flaring with power.

"Oh my god." DJ gasped as he along Cody, Heather, and for once the speechless Izzy watched.

The skeleton was huge, almost as big as the Kolossus or the Terror Bird and only the top part of its body was formed!

Xxx

As this happened XANA watched from his digital domain, his Avatar along with his generals watching as the Titan was being created.

"To think I pegged Shadow as a mindless brute." Lilith commented. "But he's gone and created this monster."

"He's following the steps left behind by Lyon and myself, to create the ultimate weapon." XANA grinned. "Just how do you plan to stop this one, Aelita?"

Xxx

"You plan to use something as alien as this as your vessel, Shadow?" Aelita floated a few feet from Courtney. "Have you lost your mind?"

**"I don't expect you of all people to understand me, Aelita. We all do crazy things for survival. You think I plan to lie as a dormant voice resting inside this girl's conscious forever? This creation,"** Courtney grinned at the flaming skeleton. **"Together, we shall step into the world of tomorrow."**

Aelita scanned the monster, trying to see if there was a weakness. Her eyes narrowed as she spotted a light in its chest that was pulsing, the source of the heart beat!

"We'll see about that, Shadow!" Aelita charged a plasma beam.

**"No we won't!" **

Duncan floated next to her, ready for battle while Gwen flew up next to Aelita along with Izzy who had DJ, Heather, and Cody on her back.

"There's a something in the chest area, where the human would be. I think that's the weakness of this monster. We need to attack before it's complete." Aelita instructed.

Courtney spun her staff and pointed it at Aelita. **"Shadow Storm!'**

Dark energy blasts fell towards them like comets and Gwen went into action, using her Fire Aura to activate her Jet Boot ability and propel her straight at Courtney. Gwen yelled as she swung her scythe down but Courtney blocked with her staff. Courtney pushed her off and swung at Gwen's mid section but Gwen blocked. Courtney pulled back and swung her staff down but luckily Gwen blocked again.

**"Shadow Storm!"** A blast of miasma erupted from Courtney's body and sent Gwen flying.

Gwen slammed into a block, losing twenty life points and fell down to the Digital Void.

"Gwen!" Cody called down to her.

Gwen regained her senses and activated her flight ability before she fell down the pit and then used her Fire Aura to propel back up to the fight.

'How the hell am I supposed to save Courtney when she's blasting me from here to Antarctica?' Gwen thought.

Aelita fired energy blasts at Duncan who simply blocked with his sword and fired a huge a stream of fire to incinerate Aelita. However she created an energy shield with her left hand that blocked the flames and fired a plasma beam with her right hand. To her shock however Duncan raised his sword and slashed Aelita's plasma beam in half, scattering into harmless energy that faded.

"Great, not much we can do when we can't fly and Izzy's our only means of transportation." Heather grumbled when she saw that there were no more floating blocks for her to stand on or to use to get to the Titan.

"Yeah, why do they get all the flying abilities?" Cody chucked. "Teleporting is no good if there's nothing to land on."

Courtney aimed her staff and let loose a barrage of shadow blasts at Gwen who propelled herself out of the way, spinning and manoeuvring out of the way of each blast.

"We're not much good watching here. Aelita said that the thing had a weakness in the chest area." Heather pointed at the Titan. "Let's take it out while that thing's helpless."

"Got it!" Cody readied his pistols. "I can't teleport in for a close shot though; those flames would burn me to deletion before I could even aim."

"So we do it the old fashioned way. Forward Izzy!" Heather pointed straight forward.

Izzy neighed like a horse and flew forward but making sure that she didn't knock anyone off her back.

Aelita grunted as Duncan blasted himself at her and tried to cut her in half down the head with his sword. Aelita used both hands to create an energy shield to block but the sheer force of the block shattered her shield and sent her spiraling down. She landed on one of the few blocks that floated almost right in front of the Titan. Aelita groaned as she sat on her knees and looked up, seeing the Berserker floating above her.

Gwen landed next to her and put her arm over her shoulders to help pull her up. Looking up Gwen saw Courtney behind them leaving them surrounded.

"Crap!" Gwen gulped.

Duncan prepared another fire attack but to their surprise he relented.

"He's not attacking?" Gwen asked and looked up, wondering if Courtney was about to unleash another Shadow Storm.

Courtney simply floated above them, watching them like a hawk.

"I guess this thing is vulnerable even if we don't attack the heart." Gwen noted. "Aelita, I think we just found our advantage here."

"Shadow's weapon used as our shield?" Aelita made a small smile. "Just when I thought we were never that lucky."

"Yeah, irony sometimes is hilarious." Gwen chuckled.

"GWEN, AELITA, ABOVE YOU!" DJ shouted from the back of Izzy.

Aelita and Gwen looked up and saw a massive skeleton hand that was blazing with black flames ready to squish them.

"Oh sh..." Gwen swore as the hand came down on them and almost squashed them.

Luckily Cody teleported to them, grabbing them both and teleporting onto the back of Pterodactyl Izzy. She grunted when three more Warriors landed on her back but she stayed in the air as she stayed out of the way of the Titan. The massive monster roared as its legs were formed and giant black metal wings started to grow out of its back. Armor started to grow over the bones as the platform it stood on broke under the weight and flames.

**"IT'S STARTING! THE FINAL PHASE TO THE BIRTH OF THE TITAN!"** Courtney howled, cackling as the Titan's wings fully sprouted.

The Lyoko Warriors in the digital world and the lab could only stare as the gigantic monster used its wings to keep itself from falling into the digital void.

"If we're going to do something we have to do it now!" Heather said.

Aelita watched as armor grew over the Titan's chest, trying to cover its heart the only weakness she could see.

"Well, what's our plan fearless leader?" Izzy asked.

"I see a way to win this but it's going to be..."

"Crazy?" Gwen asked.

"Insane?" Heather asked.

"Scary?" DJ asked.

"A chance we will get killed?" Izzy asked.

"All that and more." Aelita replied.

"All right! Let's do it!" Izzy laughed.

"We need to get into that giant before the armor covers the body up, once inside we go for the heart, the core of the Titan's program." Aelita pointed at the still visible white glowing beating heart of the beast. "But we need a diversion to get past Duncan and Courtney."

"On it! I am a pro at making diversions!" Izzy grinned eagerly which did not look at all weird on a Pterodactyl.

"Sorry Izzy, but I need you to get anyone who can't fly into the Titan." Aelita floated up. "Gwen and I will be busy with the diversion."

"Awwww!" Izzy groaned.

"I'll deal with Courtney; give you all the time you need." Gwen floated off Izzy's back spun her scythe several times.

"My barrier can protect us from the flames; we just need to get in close enough to jump." DJ pointed out.

"I'll cover us." Cody aimed his pistols at Courtney and Duncan as they floated between the Warriors and the Titans.

"Ready..." Aelita started.

"Set..." Heather aimed her shuriken launchers.

"GO!" Izzy let out a Pterodactyl shriek and flew towards the Titan.

Gwen activated her Fire Aura and blasted towards Courtney like a meteor, her scythe burning so bright it lit up the entire room. Duncan tried to blast her away with his green flames but Gwen was immune to fire with her Fire Aura and shot through Duncan's fire without even feeling. She swung her scythe and released a fiery explosion, burning through Duncan's green flames and the force of the attack blew Duncan back. Courtney tried to blast Gwen with a barrage of dark energy blasts but Aelita had flown in and fired her own plasma beam.

Courtney flew back and both of them shot dark and light energy blasts at each other, firing like machine guns. They flew around each as they fired, dodging every attack as they tried to blast each other. As they dodged the walls of the chamber now almost looked like they were about to collapse with all the holes and cracks in them caused by the battle. Duncan blasted after Gwen, copying her Jet Boot ability with his own flames and tried to slash her in half.

Gwen however was not limited to one element like Duncan was and activated her Wind Aura as she dodged Duncan's sword and swung her scythe like a fan. Duncan was blasted back by a powerful gust of wind and sent him flying into the wall. Gwen waited for him to come back out and watched out of the corner of her eye as Izzy flew past her, still in her Pterodactyl form with Cody, DJ, and Heather on her back towards the Titan.

'Just need to keep them distracted a little longer!' Gwen thought as Duncan blasted out of the hole he made and flew towards Gwen with a roar.

Gwen blasted off with Duncan chasing after her. Gwen turned over in flight and swing her scythe, letting loose a stream of fire that Duncan blasted through, her flames turning green and added to his.

'Okay, we're both equal in fire but he's got me outclassed when it comes to strength.' Gwen turned over and flew up. 'Meaning I got to use another element and make it quick!'

Duncan roared as he tried to get in range to slash her to pieces with his sword arm but Gwen was being smart.

'Good thing he's possessed meaning he can't think of any creative way to get me...But I just got an idea!' Gwen smirked as she right up to the very top of the chamber just a few inches below the ceiling and fell towards Duncan.

Holding her scythe in front of her with both hands as she spun like a wheel down towards Duncan. The Berserker didn't even stop to think as he let out another blast of green fire from his mouth. Too bad he wasn't able to think clearly while possessed because if he had Duncan would have noticed that Gwen activated her Wind Aura. The spell caster's scythe was sharpened by her Wind Aura, cutting through the flames and fell right on top of Duncan.

He tried to block with his sword but the scythe cut through both it...and him! The Berserker gasped in shock as Gwen cut him in half, a bright light traveling down the middle of his head and all the way down before he split in two. A second later his body broke apart into data and he was ejected from Lyoko and back into the real world, hopefully free of Shadow's control. Gwen sighed in relief when Duncan vanished and flew towards where Aelita and Courtney fighting to help Aelita.

Aelita was flung into a wall with no floating blocks to keep from falling into the Digital Void. Luckily she recovered and levitated, looking back up at her opponent, Courtney under the control of Shadow. Her body was surrounded by the signature black aura that appeared on a tower when Shadow infected them and her eyes were now almost completely black.

Courtney aimed her staff down at Aelita. **"Shadow Storm!"**

A blast of black miasma came out of the end of the staff and closed in on the pink haired girl.

"Plasma Beam!" Aelita fired her Plasma Beam that intercepted Courtney's attack.

They cancelled each other out in the form of a violent explosion. Courtney growled and prepared to attack again when a blast of fire collided with her back, knocking her into the wall and leaving a large dent. Courtney pulled herself out and turned around to see Gwen was floating in front of her with flames bursting from her feet.

"Your servant's been retired." Gwen said simply.

Aelita flew up and floated next to Gwen.

"Aelita, go and help the others get into that monster." Gwen's scythe burst with fire covering the bladed area.

"Are you sure?" Aelita asked.

"I can handle her." Gwen nodded.

**"You handle me, Gwen?"** Courtney smirked. **"I have all my original powers along with this girl's powers and a small bit of XANA's powers that so far have made more than a match for everyone, even Aelita and you think you can hurt me? Your Poison Spell won't work on me anymore."**

"No, but I got a better one." Gwen smirked.

Aelita had deleted the Poison Spell XANA had given Gwen in exchange for a Pink Aura that worked the same way but allowed her to use energy attacks that instantly destroyed anything with XANA's data or any other form of corrupted data.

"Are you sure, Gwen? Even with your Pink Energy Aura you'll have a hard time." Aelita pointed out.

"We're all having a good time but the others need you to help out with that monster." Gwen replied. "Go ahead, I'll be fine."

Aelita gave her one last glance and flew off to help the others. Aelita looked to see the Titan releasing black fire from its body and using its giant hands to swat or squish Pterodactyl Izzy from sky as she flew around was holding up a barrier around Izzy as she carried him, Heather and Cody in close, seeking a gap in the armor that they could use to breach it. Even though Shadow had not uploaded his digital soul into the Titan it had the basic instincts that matched the intelligence of XANA's monsters.

It recognized Izzy and the Warriors on her back as an enemy and attempted to destroy them even in its incomplete stage.

DJ saw Aelita diving in and opened the barrier enough to envelope her and allow her to fly alongside them. "Welcome back! Any ideas?! We're having a little trouble!"

"...there!" Aelita pointed down towards the legs. "The armor there is forming faster, but it looks weaker! It must be trying to focus on making stronger armor on its torso!"

"Then we just have to punch our way in," Cody said. "I can hit a spot and weaken it! DJ, think you'd be up for being a Human Bullet?"

"I'm all for it man! Just hurry!" DJ winced as his barrier shook under the fiery attacks of the Titan. "This ain't exactly easy!"

"Look out!" Aelita looked up just as the barrier finally shattered, and the Titan reached out to grab Izzy out of the air along with her occupants.

"SERPENTINE! SERPENTINE!" Izzy wailed as she dove, her passengers screaming as they hung onto her. The Titan tried to follow their progress, but then Aelita flew up to its head.

"PLASMA BEAM!" The head was not entirely defended, but the flames of the eyes had made it an inappropriate area to breach in.

But it was still a prime area for a Plasma Beam to hit it right in the face between its eyes. It reeled back with a howl, hands flying to its face. Already its wounds and damaged armor were beginning to heal and very fast.

"Shadow's weapon sure is sensitive but it's healing very fast!" Aelita shouted as Izzy began to level off and fly back up to assist. "CODY! NOW!"

"On it! Izzy, left leg! Bring us past the knee!" Cody ordered.

Izzy obeyed. "Aye aye, James Bond!"

The gunslinger of the group held on with one hand and fired his pistol with his free hand. He focused on the knee joint where the armor was just beginning to form. The shots began to chip away at it and form a hole as Izzy made several passes. Aelita kept the Titan distracted up above, giving him the time to make a sufficient weak spot which was beginning to seal up.

"Okay Izzy, dive in for it! DJ, get ready!"

"You got it!" DJ was in his regular form, but was ready to go to his golem form at any second as Izzy began to dive down towards the weak spot on the knee joint...

"Jump!" Cody and Heather urged him together, and the Jamaican teen leaped from Izzy and flew towards the target...

Then his arms became metal as he slammed into it, and shattered the healing armor in one fell swoop. He flew inside of the Titan. The group let out a cheer as Izzy and Aelita flew in after him and set down in what looked like a maze...corridors and tubes connecting to one another as mechanisms worked all around them.

"...we have to go up," Cody pointed up. "Ok...the corridors are for parallel travel, and the tubes seem to go up and down, so those must be for vertical travel to other levels. Let's keep an eye out for any traps."

"Oh man! Why can't there be a simple map or guide to the heart?" Heather groaned.

"It's all right, Heather. I can sense the power of the Titan's heart even down here." Aelita reassure her. "It's pumping all the power into every part of the body so I know the general direction but we should be careful regardless of how far we have come."

Xxx

Gwen smirked as they made it into the Titan. The gigantic monsters growled but remained still like a statue as the wounds and armor healed and continued to form and develop.

"Looks like they made it, Shadow." Gwen turned back to Courtney who floated a few feet from her.

**"Don't take that as a victory, Gwenny. They have a whole lot of work to do before they are even close to taking it out."** Courtney grinned. **"You however, are not worth the trouble since I can see through your pathetic plan."**

"And just what do you plan to do to stop us?" Gwen glared.

**"Well, first off I'll have some fun. I like to play with my food before I eat it."** Courtney spun her staff. **"Snack before dinner."**

The Titan roared as the armor was complete, covering it from head to toe as a dark menacing figure with black samurai like armor with its black wings fully grown, resembling the dark wings of Shadow's super form. The armor consisted of blade covered plaques covering the shoulders, knees, forearms, and hands with a black suit under the armor covering the bones. Its head was covered by a black helmet with spikes coming out of its resembling a crown with a face plate that allowed its eyes to see and an open gaping maw where the mouth was.

The Titan's body was complete and ready for Shadow to merge his soul with it to become truly complete.


	93. Episode 91: Demon's Rebirth

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 93

Duncan groaned as he slowly started to regain conscious.

"Oh my aching head..." He groaned as he put a hand to his head.

He had about the worst headache in his entire life and he wondered if he had spent the night drinking. It wouldn't be unheard of; he's gone out drinking with his buddies and woken up with a nasty hangover. Opening his eyes he found himself in the scanner room with...

"Trent, Geoff? What the hell..." Duncan asked as he saw them gathered around him.

"Duncan, do you know where you are?" Geoff asked.

Looking around the scanner room he turned back to Geoff. "...The scanners? Did I just come out of Lyoko with a hangover?"

"You remember Lyoko?" Trent asked.

"Duh, I think so...Lyoko's that digital world, right?" Duncan rubbed his head as he stood up. "The one with the digital bad guys?"

"Yeah...what's the last thing you remember?" Geoff asked.

"I was...In the City Sector fighting Nephilim and...Courtney!" Duncan's eyes went wide. "He got us with a virus that erased her memories and...mine... and then...how'd I get back here?"

"Well, that fight in the City Sector was nearly a month ago and you and Courtney were..." Trent trailed off. "You should see something."

Duncan was puzzled but followed them into the elevator as it went up to the lab. When the door opened everyone in the lab looked to see them walk in.

"Hey, look whose back!" Noah said, looking up from the computer.

"Guys...Eva?" Duncan looked surprised when he saw the brawler.

"Hey." Eva simply greeted.

"You guys brought Eva into the fight? Didn't see that coming." Duncan looked over the lab. "Okay I see a few of us are missing, what did I miss?"

"You might want to see this." Bridgette pointed at the screen.

Duncan walked over to see the current fight being displayed on the computer screen.

"Is that...Courtney?" Duncan gasped when he saw Courtney but she looked like... "She looks like a female version of Shadow!"

"That's...pretty close." LeShawna chuckled nervously.

"Wha? Can someone give me the update around here?!" Duncan exclaimed losing his patience.

"Shadow's still alive and is possessing Courtney. She took a bit of his data during our last fight with him and when she lost her memories he was able to possess her." Noah explained. "You got possessed too by Shadow and the virus Nephilim gave the both of you was destroyed while Aelita restored your digital forms."

"And now everyone still in Lyoko are fighting to stop Shadow from gaining a new body that will no doubt destroy Lyoko and end all life as we know it." Geoff continued.

"...Oh, that's it." Duncan said surprisingly calm.

"You're taking it well." Noah commented.

"Actually I'm bottling up from rage." Duncan growled. "It's all coming back to me now...I was getting packed to leave when I got possessed by a ghost. By the way why did you guys vote me off? I know Lindsay and Beth are still here."

"That wasn't us. Shadow had Courtney rig the votes; we had no idea who it was even after Courtney quit the show." Bridgette replied. "Which was very weird."

"It wasn't until we made it Lyoko and confronted the Stranger did we realize what was going on." Trent continued. "Shadow's been using Courtney to hack into Lyoko to mess with us and to build a new digital form for him. Apparently one that will make him more powerful than both Aelita and XANA."

"Oh great and how'd I get free?" Duncan asked.

"Gwen cut you in half with her scythe." Noah replied.

"...Okay then." Duncan nodded.

Xxx

Gwen while flying through the air dodged as Courtney swung at her with her staff and ducked as it fired another black miasma that would have blasted her digital form out of Lyoko. Gwen activated her Wind Aura and swung her scythe like a fan to blow Courtney away before quickly switching back to her Flight Ability. Courtney was blown back but she easily shrugged it off. Gwen gasped as black smoky tendrils came out of Courtney's arms and lunged at her.

Gwen flew back but they moved fast and almost caught her, forcing her to use her scythe cut through them. However a tendril grabbed her scythe and wrenched it out of her hands earning a gasp from the spell caster as the other tendrils grabbed her. Courtney flew straight down pulling the captured spell caster and slammed her into the last remaining floating block left in the chamber. Gwen gasped from the impact, not feeling pain but she was disoriented from being slammed so hard.

It wouldn't surprise her if she was devirtualized from being slammed into down like that again. Courtney had one arm using the tendrils to keep her down while using the other arm to hold her staff as she pointed it down at Gwen's chest. Courtney grinned and raised her staff, savoring her victory and giving Gwen the needed time to launch a counter attack. Just as Courtney plunged the staff down Gwen activated her Pink Energy Aura that burned through the shadow tendrils and Gwen rolled out way.

She summoned her scythe back in her hands as Courtney tried to attack Gwen while she was down but Gwen activated her Fire Aura. With just one swing Courtney's staff was split in two as Gwen's burning scythe cut through like a hot knife through butter. Gwen rolled back and jumped onto her feet, ready to continue the fight. Courtney scowled and tossed away the remains of her staff over the edge.

She held up both hands as her nails extended into long black sharp claws that looked like they could cut through anything. Courtney held them up to her face and she licked her newly formed claws while watching Gwen.

**"Time to slice and dice, Gwenny!"**

Grinning sickly Courtney lunged forward, intent on slicing Gwen to bits with her claws. Gwen grunted and jumped off the block, activated her Fire Aura and blasting fire from her feet to propel her as far from Courtney as possible. Courtney spread her wings as she jumped after Gwen and the two fighters were back to flying around the chamber while the massive monster Shadow had called the Titan remained stationary but seemed to be watching them closely.

'Great, she's too powerful for me to take on directly and I just barely made it out of that fight with Duncan.' Gwen gritted her teeth.

**"Here, Gwenny, Gwenny!"** Courtney flew after her but Gwen's Rocket Power kept her barely out of reach.

Xxx

"All these hallways, you'd think that this thing was a giant robot." Heather commented.

The inside of the Titan was a maze with blue corridors resembling Carthage but there were no large chambers, only the maze that was delaying them in reaching the heart of the Titan.

"How can a maze exist inside this thing? Is it like a robot?" DJ asked.

"It's like any other body in the real world, it has a heart pumps the energy to give it power, a brain for the digital soul to control, and all of this is just a built in security system designed to keep us from reaching the vital areas." Aelita explained, gesturing to the tubes on the walls and ceiling.

"I think I know how to find the heart." Cody looked up to the tubes on the ceiling. "I got it!"

He took off down the hall, following the pulsing tubes on the ceiling.

"Cody, hang on! You're gonna get yourself killed!" Heather called out, running after him with everyone else.

"Come on, I think I figured the way to the heart!" Cody called back.

He turned around just a laser came out of the wall and singed a bit of his hair.

"Whoa!" He ducked under the laser and rolled forward.

More lasers came out of the walls around the rest of the group.

"Whoa!" Izzy turned into a bat as a laser almost went through her chest.

DJ activated his Energy Barrier that blocked the lasers that almost skewered him and Aelita while Heather jumped through the array of lasers, performing aerobatic dance moves and somersaults that kept her from being hit.

"Cody, next time wait for everyone else before you set the trap!" Heather exclaimed as she landed next to Cody.

"Hehe, sorry." Cody rubbed the back of his head.

Izzy screeched as she landed on Cody's head.

"Behold, Bat-Izzy!" She shouted.

"Izzy, remember bats never shout their names when they are using stealth." Aelita said as she and DJ walked out of the laser grid with DJ's barrier blocking all the lasers.

"Oh right, stealthy." Izzy ducked under Cody's hair.

The tuxedo wearing warrior tried to shake her off but Izzy held on until he gave up. At least she wasn't as clingy as Sierra.

"From now on we stick together because this thing is going to be full of traps." Heather looked sternly at Cody.

"Got it." Cody nodded. "But I noticed that the tubes along the ceiling might show us a way up. They are less tubes along the ceiling then along with the walls so it could mean..."

"That the tubes travel down here, pumping energy from the core." Aelita finished, smiling. "Well then, lead the way, Cody."

Cody nodded and led them down the hall that ended with the path going up a shaft with the tubes going up.

"It's like an elevator shaft but no elevator." DJ said.

"I'll go scout ahead!" Izzy turned into a hummingbird.

"Wait, Izzy can you please wait for everyone before going on ahead?" Aelita asked. "It's a bad idea to separate."

"Okay!" Izzy changed into a monkey and started climbing up the shaft.

"How did you do that? She almost never listens to anyone!" Heather sighed as she fired her grappling hook up to the top of the shaft.

"She said the magic word silly!" Izzy laughed.

Cody touched DJ's arm and teleported them up to the top of the shaft, landing on the upper floor while Aelita slowly flew up watching for any traps. Heather was pulled up by her grappling hook and landed perfectly on her feet with Izzy and Aelita landing behind her.

"We're closer now. I can feel the energy from the core getting stronger." Aelita spoke up.

"So we just need to follow the tubes along the ceiling that'll lead to us up to the core? Easy!" Heather grinned but quickly covered her mouth with her hands. "Damn it! Guys, don't tell Gwen I said that."

"No promises." Cody pulled out his pistols.

"You jinxed us! You jinxed us!" Izzy sang.

"Not really, Izzy, it's almost too predictable that we'll run into trouble along the way." Aelita shook her head.

"Yeah, I bet my laptop on that." Cody sighed.

Xxx

Gwen blocked another strike from Courtney with her scythe only to be kicked in the chest, knocking her out of the sky. Luckily she activated her flight ability and floated back up watching the smirking Courtney above her.

"I am seriously wondering why I didn't go with the others when I had the chance." Gwen grumbled.

No matter how powerful she was Courtney simply shrugged off her attacks like they were nothing, even though considering she had Shadow's powers any attacks Gwen can think _are_ probably nothing.

**"What's the matter, Gwenny? Are you finally out of strength?"** Courtney snickered and folded her arms. **"Don't be so sad about it, you may have defeated Duncan but you had help from the control I had over him. It's sad to say but that control cost him the ability to think creatively and in a battle like this not everything is done by being a powerhouse."**

"Are you sure you should be gloating Shadow? When the others are in your monster tearing it out from the inside? I thought that thing was your new body, the thing that would help you destroy us all." Gwen spat.

**"Oh, it is but you underestimate me again. You think I wouldn't install a security system in the interior of my own body in case someone tried to attack while it was being developed?"**Courtney grinned, showing a fanged tooth. **"I had plenty of time to design this new body and I took extra precautions to make sure nothing could destroy from the inside again. No matter how close your friends get they'll have a tough time and even if they reach the core I will have disposed of you and uploaded myself into the core, gaining new body I want and the power to eradicate you all!"**

Gwen gritted her teeth. As much as she hated to admit it Shadow was right, there's not much she can do since as she is now Courtney outclassed her in power, strength, and it was only because of the speed from Gwen's Jet Boot ability she hadn't been devirtualized a long time ago. She couldn't try to escape because then Shadow could simply upload himself into the Titan and possibly dooming the others still inside but if she tried to fight she'd be devirtualized eventually and she needed to buy them all the time she could possibly give them.

'Damn it! I hate it when I'm stuck in a one sided fight!' Gwen growled.

**"Too bad for you, Gwenny, but I'll make it quick and –AAAHH!"** Courtney shouted as energy arrows, blasts of fire, and a stream of red lightning hit her in the back and sent her spiralling down.

Gwen looked up and gasped when she saw who had attacked Courtney. Four of them stood on Flying Mantas while one floated in the air thanks to his wings and the last one stood on the back of a miniature but powerful Phoenix.

"Oh sorry, Shadow, was this a private party?" Lilith lowered her bow.

Lilith, Ryder, Yuki, and Jinx stood on the four Flying Mantas while Sora floated in the air with his wind blades out and Cain stood ready on the back of his pet Phoenix Ember.

"No freaking way." Gwen whispered, staring in shock.

She knew Shadow was one of XANA's enemies but she and the others didn't think that XANA would send his generals to take out Shadow. The only problem was that they might not be interested in saving Courtney like she and the good guys were. Courtney growled as she managed to keep herself from falling into the Digital Void and floated back up, facing the six Generals.

"Hello Shadow and welcome back." Lilith mockingly clapped. "But you look a little different. Is that a new hair style?"

**"Lilith of the Mirage, my replacement as head general along with some old and new faces."** Courtney looked at the rest of the generals. **"Ryder of the Storm, Yuki of the Blizzard, and the new ones."**

"You are such a charmer." Jinx said twirling her spear.

**"So XANA fears my return so he sends his generals here but not enough that he would come here himself?"** Courtney grinned.

"Master XANA has better things to do than deal with a former ally turned enemy, again." Lilith aimed her bow. "We're just here to clean up your mess, again."

**"You can't stop me, Lilith. Defeating you has been something I have been waiting for a very long time."** Courtney brandished her claws.

"Well then, here's your chance. Code: Angel!" Lilith shouted.

The copy of the Keys she had gained from Aelita activated and in a flash of light Lilith transformed into her Angel form. Her wings spread out as she took flight and floated in the air with Courtney, ready to fight.

'Crap!' Gwen gulped.

"_Gwen, get out of their now!_" Trent shouted from the lab.

"Going somewhere?" She turned back and saw Sora fly up to her. "You know I was mighty happy to sit this one out but XANA wants no outside interference. See ya!"

Gwen quickly switched from her Flight Ability to Fire Aura and used her Rocket Feet powers to blast herself away as Sora fired his beak laser.

"Oh come on!" Sora groaned and flew after her. "Why do I get the hard missions?"

Gwen flew straight towards the Titan who registered her approach and raised its giant hand to swat her out of the air.

"Oh man!" Gwen groaned as she avoided the giant hand and flew back only to fly back into the reach of the Generals.

Jinx flew in on her Flying Manta and pointed her spear, firing purple energy beams. Gwen thrust one arm forward; a jet of flames blasted from her free hand and intercepted Jinx's attack causing a violent explosion. However she realized too late that Jinx was a distraction as Sora appeared behind her and stabbed through her chest with a wind blade. Gwen gasped as she was devirtualized, disappearing in a blast of data.

Xxx

Gwen gasped as she fell out of the scanners, banging her fists on the ground for letting herself get distracted so easily. She climbed to her feet and walked over the elevator. When the door closed she pushed the button for the laboratory level and the door opened a second later.

"Girl, are you all right?" LeShawna rushed up to her.

"I'm good, just a little tired." Gwen nodded.

She looked in the lab and saw Duncan standing by the computer. "Does he..."

"Yep, our digital Ghost Rider's back." LeShawna nodded.

"Welcome back, Duncan." Gwen walked over.

"I should be saying that to you, seeing as you just got kicked out." Duncan replied. "What now?"

"I don't know." Gwen sighed. "It's obvious that XANA's interested in using Shadow and the Titan to get rid of us but at the same time he's targeting Shadow. Guess old rivalries never do fade."

"Lilith's in her Super Form ready to take on Courtney who is already in her own version of Shadow's Super Form. This is going to be messed up." Noah commented.

"How are Aelita and the others?" Gwen asked.

"Climbing up to the chest area where the core is." Noah looked back to the map. "Shadow's gotten better at programming; he's set up an entire security system to keep them out."

"Really? He was an amateur at this kind of stuff before." Gwen walked over.

"Guess he got better." Trent commented.

"They figured out a way to reach the heart of the Titan but so far they are only at the waist area." Bridgette pointed at the map.

"Hey, what are those heading for them?" Geoff pointed at red dots moving towards the warriors inside the Titan.

"Monsters!"

Xxx

"Just how many of these do we have to go up?" Heather asked.

They had found a second shaft that they had climb up in order to reach the core and it seemed like it was going to be a very long climb.

"Can't Izzy just turn back into a Pterodactyl and fly us up there?" Heather asked, using her grappling hook to climb up the shaft.

"Sorry, Heather but you now that... Look!" DJ pointed up just as a red laser hit him in the chest and knocked down.

With a shout he fell to the very bottom of the shaft just narrowly missing Cody who teleported out of the way and appeared where DJ had been when he had been shot. Looking up he saw a hoard of Spiderlings crawling down the walls towards the Warriors with their lasers charging.

"Oh great!" Heather held out one arm while using the other hand to hold onto her grappling rope and shot at them.

One Spiderling was instantly destroyed when a shuriken hit it directly in the Eye but the Spiderlings moved sideways to avoid being hit and fired down on the warriors. Izzy changed into a small lizard and climbed up the wall towards the Spiderlings, ducking underneath the barrage of lasers. She crawled under one as it fired down at Aelita who blocked with an energy shield. Izzy jumped onto its head, changing into a dog she bit at the legs, tearing them out of the wall.

She changed into a bird and flew out of the as another Spiderling shot at her. Cody used one hand to hold onto the wall while his other hand held his pistol. Realizing that the Spiderlings were moving too fast for him to hit his eyes flashed with a golden light and his Time Freeze Ability froze everything. With the Spiderlings frozen in one place it was easy for Cody to shoot them all, no matter how many there were or difficult to hit they were. When thirteen seconds passed time returned to normal and by that time all the Spiderlings had been destroyed.

"Aw, I was getting started!" Izzy groaned, flying up to Cody as hummingbird.

"Sorry, Izzy but there's no time for fun." Aelita floated up and looked down. "DJ, are you okay?"

"I'm okay!" DJ called back up. "Just remembering why I was afraid of heights."

"I thought you were afraid of snakes!" Izzy landed on Aelita's shoulders and turned into a red snake.

"Those too!"

Aelita floated up, not minding that Izzy as a red snake was hissing next to her ear. Heather was pulled up to the top and landed next to Aelita. Cody appeared with DJ using his teleport ability to get them both to the top.

"Just how far are from the core?" Heather asked.

Aelita closed her eyes and listened. The sound of the core's heartbeat was similar to the pulsations XANA left when he activated a tower so she almost had no trouble at all sensing the core. They were close, so close that she heard it almost instantly.

"We're close. From the sound of the heart beats we're just a level or two down." Aelita opened her eyes. "There's also the sound of monsters up ahead."

"There's no way XANA's happy that Shadow's using his monsters to guard the core of his creation." Cody sighed.

"_You got that right._" Noah spoke from the lab. "_In fact all of XANA's Generals have shown up and engaged Courtney._"

"What?!" DJ exclaimed. "What about Gwen?!"

"_Hi, DJ._" Gwen's voice replaced Noah's. "_They took me out of the fight before I could escape. Sorry guys._"

"So XANA's finally getting involved, great." Heather sighed. "Let's hurry because there's no way the generals are going to be nice to Courtney."

"_That's one way to say, Lilith's in her Angel Mode right now._" Noah took the headset back from Gwen. "_So far it's just her and Courtney but not for long._"

"We better hurry!" Aelita said and started running.

The remaining warriors ran after her and not too soon as the buzzing sound of Hornets were heard behind them. Lasers flew over their heads and shoulders as three Hornets flew up the shaft they had just climbed out of. Izzy jumped into the air, spun around and fired her crossbows, hitting the center Hornet and when her arrows exploded the other two Hornets were deleted by the explosion.

"Yes! Strike!" Izzy landed on the ground and quickly caught up to the others as they just turned a corner. "You saw that right? Izzy's Number One! Izzy's Number One!"

"Yeah, we get it now hurry!" Heather shouted.

A Creeper peeked its head out from another corner and shot at them. DJ ran in front and transformed into his metal golem form, absorbing the laser blast without losing any life points. Just as the Creeper was about to fire again DJ plowed right through it like a battering ram, crushing its body into dozens of data bytes.

"Sorry, end of the world, no time to play!" DJ called back.

Xxx

Outside of the monstrous giant Courtney had her own hands full as she dodged beams of light fired from Lilith's left index finger. As Lilith prepared another Plasma Barrage Courtney fired spheres of black smoke to intercept the Angel's volley. The chamber lit up as a cluster of explosions almost blinded the watching generals and Courtney strafed to the side when she saw an energy beam heading straight at her.

** "Damn it."** Courtney growled quietly as Lilith floated through the smoke left by the explosions, ready to continue the fight. **"To think that she could have this much power, enough that even my old form would not be a match. No wonder XANA favoured her."**

"It had nothing to do with that, Shadow." Lilith stared at Courtney, the two fighters hovering in the air. "Even before I was created XANA never trusted you, because he knew how much you hated him even if he freed you."

Courtney growled, showing a fanged tooth.

"Back when you were a simple dimwitted clone you enjoyed your time on Earth you knew XANA was the enemy and you knew his plans. Too bad you never smart enough to figure out that anything with XANA's data inside had a telepathic link directly to him so he knew of your plans to betray him." Lilith explained. "You loved living in the real world and what XANA had planned for it, so while you tried to take revenge on Aelita and the old warriors you'd also plan XANA's downfall."

**"Lilith, you talk too much."** Courtney fired a black miasma but Lilith cancelled her attack out with a plasma barrage. **"It's true though, I want Aelita and her allies to suffer for trapping in that tower but I also despise XANA because he wants to destroy the world I enjoyed living in. You think I am like you and the others, Lilith, mere digital constructs like monsters only with a human face sculpted by your master. You know nothing of living free in that real world, being trapped in this fake dimension with your life literally in XANA's hands."**

Xxx

In the depths of the Carbon Copy XANA's Avatar simply sat on his red block in the center of the his command chamber as he watched a large screen showing the battle in Sector 5 and recording every word. XANA himself had no emotion on his face as he listened to Courtney's words, simply watching the battle.

Xxx

**"You'll either be killed by the warriors or by XANA, Lilith, so I make this one time offer to all of you. Join me and destroy XANA but that means I'll be taking all your powers."** Courtney smirked.

"Don't screw with us!" Jinx aimed her spear and fired purple energy beams.

Courtney created a smoke shield that absorbed Jinx's energy barrage and fired them back at her. Jinx jumped off and her Flying Manta was obliterated but now Jinx was left to fall into the Digital Void.

"Need a lift?" Sora flew under Jinx and lifted her up, bridal style. "Wow, never thought I'd do something like this."

"Don't make a big deal out it." Jinx crossed her arms and pouted.

"I think that was your answer, Shadow." Lilith smirked at the possessed Courtney. "Time to get rid of you for good."

The Flying Mantas that Ryder and Yuki stood on flew towards Courtney, firing lasers while the Generals standing on them fired lightning and ice shards at her. Courtney simply flew out of the firing dark smoke attacks at the generals. Explosions lit up through the air as Courtney managed to fight on even footing with the generals despite being out number. They flew around the chamber, dodging and intercepting black smoke attacks, energy beams, wind attacks, fire balls, and lasers.

Courtney flew back towards the Titan as Lilith fired a Plasma Barrage but instead of dodging or intercepting the attack with his own power the Titan lifted its arm and placed its hand between Courtney and the barrage of energy beams. The armored hand was peppered by energy beams but when the smoke cleared the hand was revealed to be completely undamaged, lifting itself to show an unharmed Courtney.

**"Good ahead and try, it's not devirtualizing this body will make a difference."** Courtney smirked. **"I won't die when this body devirtualizes and the warriors will not kill the girl to kill me."**

"Like that matters," Lilith scoffed. "You are no match for us."

**"I agree, but that is."** Courtney spun and flew towards the Titan.

"Stop him!" Ryder shouted.

Lilith pointed her finger to blast Courtney but just as she was about to fire...

'_Don't destroy him._' Lilith faltered when she heard her master's voice.

The rest of the generals stopped when they hard XANA's voice telepathically speaking to them.

'Master, why allow Shadow to become a threat?' Lilith asked.

'_Shadow hasn't changed, still the fat king on his little throne looking terrifying. No matter who is the victor in this fight the outcome has already been decided._' XANA calmly explained with confidence in his voice. '_Let him run and try to deal with the invaders in his new body, enough time was given for them to get close to his heart._'

"We're sitting this one out, again?" Ryder groaned. "I wanted to cut him up."

"I'm not complaining." Sora floated up with Jinx still in his arms.

"That's a surprise." Jinx commented.

'_Aelita and her allies will succeed as I expect nothing less from them and all that's left is to decide who walks away from this battle for good. Be ready, my generals for this might be the end of our enemies._'

Courtney stopped right in front of the Titan's face and put her hand on its nose. She activated her Transfer Ability that allowed her transfer her life points to increase the life points and powers of her allies only now she was using to transfer something else. She screamed as she ripped Shadow's data from her very being, like tearing out a vital organ from her own body. A black mist seeped through her hand into the Titan's armored skin.

Courtney's demonic features started to fade, the black streaks in her hair vanished, her eyes returned to their normal dark color and the wings turned into a black mist.

Xxx

"Shadow's leaving Courtney!" Noah announced.

Everyone watched as Shadow's data was transferred from Courtney and into the Titan but they also noticed something else.

"Courtney's falling!" Duncan and Bridgette exclaimed.

They were right as Courtney fainted when Shadow's data left her body and she fell to the blue Digital Void under the chamber with no floor or floating blocks to catch her.

"I'm on it!" Noah typed as fast as possible, his fingers hitting the keys while he made extra sure not to hit the wrong one.

"Hurry!" Gwen cried.

"I got it...I got it!" Noah looked up as Courtney's digital form devirtualized. "I GOT IT!"

Bridgette, Duncan, Gwen, and Geoff ran to the elevator and took it down to the scanner room to see if Courtney made it and was all right.

"Aelita, Courtney's devirtualized but I think things have gotten worse." Noah spoke into the headset.

"_Define worse._" Heather's voice came out of the speakers.

"Shadow transferred himself into the Titan." Trent leaned in.

"..._You're right that is worse._" Cody replied. "_Just once can't things not get any worse!_"

Cody's question was answered a second later.

"_Uh oh!_"

Xxx

The interior of the Titan shook as energy pulsed through the tubes even faster and the heart beat of the Titan's core was so loud that Aelita had to cover her ears.

"We got to hurry!" Heather pressed her hands against the wall to keep herself balanced.

"That way!" Aelita pointed up ahead.

They had finally reached the level where the core supposedly was just as Shadow transferred his digital soul into it. At the end of the hall was a massive door with tubes on the walls and ceiling with energy coming out of the room behind the doors. DJ ran forward and slammed into the doors, knocking the doors down and onto the floor.

"Woooooooooo!" Izzy whistled as the warriors entered the chamber.

The Core Chamber was a massive network of wires almost completely covering the floor, walls, and ceiling while in the center was a sphere glowing bright like a sun surrounded by gears. The sound of the heart beat came directly from the sphere showing that it was the core of the Titan.

"We made it, the core of the Titan." Cody gasped in awe of the monster's heart. "Wow."

"Less awing, more blasting." Heather aimed her shuriken launchers at the core.

She fired an almost endless stream of shuriken from both launchers at the core but just before they hit the core a black light surrounded the core. The shuriken melted on contact with the black aura surrounding the core.

"Now what?" Heather grunted.

Her question was answered as the black light shot out of the core in the form of a mass of black fire, so dark that anything it touched was blotted in darkness. Inside the source of the black flames was the dark light, slowly larger and morphing into a humanoid form. It was crouched down at first as the flames started to extinguish it slowly rose up as its form became more solid. It pulsed with dark energy and the black flames that surrounded its body faded as its features became clearer and easier to see.

Shadow, in his original form, a complete copy of William's Xanafied Lyoko form stood between them and the core with his giant sword in his right hand hanging over his shoulder. The black flames settled and vanished showing his black armored suit and his eyes blazed with a mixture of black and red light.

**"You will not win so easily." **He spoke as he levelled his sword at the warriors. **"My rebirth is complete now."**


	94. Episode 92: Demon's Redemption

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 94

"Hey, I think she's coming around." A voice said.

Her vision was completely black for a second that slowly became brighter as the person returned to the conscious world. She opened her eyes, seining nothing but blurs that slowly became sharper and clearer to see.

"Courtney?" A blond haired figure asked, her features blurred for a second. "Are you all right?"

"Bridgette?" The CIT groaned, rubbing her head as she tried to sit up. "What happened? I feel like...I was..."

"Was what?" Another blurred figure asked before Courtney recognized her.

"Gwen...Was I in Lyoko?" Courtney looked around. "This is the scanner room; I remember this...now but before..."

"You didn't." This time it was male voice but Courtney recognized it right away.

"Duncan!" Courtney looked up, seeing the delinquent smirking down at her. "You're here too? But before you acted like..."

"Didn't remember the crazy video game world we went into to help the others fight a psycho computer program?" Duncan asked. "Yep, remember it now."

"But...why are they coming back to me now?" Gwen and Bridgette helped Courtney stand up.

"Courtney, what's the last thing about Lyoko that you remember?" Gwen asked.

"...The City Sector...Lyon set off a program to delete Lyoko...we were fighting Nephilim when he...stabbed me with a tentacle." Courtney placed a hand over her chest where Nephilim had stabbed her. "I woke up...back at the studio remembering...nothing about Lyoko."

"It was a virus." Gwen explained. "Nephilim stabbed you with a virus that destroyed your digital form and your connection to Lyoko along with any memories of it. The same happened to Duncan before the virus was destroyed."

"So, I'm back now?" Courtney asked. "Why can't I remember anything about going back?"

Gwen and Bridgette shared an uneasy look with Geoff but Duncan stepped back in. "You remember Shadow?"

"Of course I remember Shadow, competitor with XANA and Nephilim as world's most evil computer program out to destroy the world. Didn't XANA destroy him?" Courtney asked.

"Yeah, but a small bit of him was inside you." Duncan replied.

"...What? What do you mean?" Courtney stared at Duncan.

"Remember during the final battle with Shadow, he absorbed XANA into himself and we tried to take him out. You tried to drain his life points but it hurt." Gwen spoke up.

"Yeah, I couldn't handle the mass of corruption that Shadow had become." Courtney nodded.

"You accidently absorbed some of Shadow's data mixed with XANA's and Smith's into your body that laid dormant until Nephilim destroyed your connection to Lyoko." Bridgette explained. "Shadow took control of you so he could come back."

"What?! I was possessed!" Courtney cried.

"Join the club, he got me too." Duncan sourly said.

"Oh my god!" Courtney's hands went up to her face. "What did I do? Did I hurt anyone? Is Shadow still in me? What about..."

"Courtney, Courtney!" Bridgette said loudly, trying to calm her down. "It's all right, Shadow's not possessing you anymore! He left your body..."

"Oh thank god." Courtney sighed in relief. "Did you get rid of him?"

Everyone shared a look that told her.

"You didn't."

"He created a new body to take control of when he left you." Geoff spoke up, earning everyone's attention.

"It's like this, Courtney, we tried to cure you but the virus kept you from being near the scanners because anytime you were near it, the virus would hurt you and Duncan. And when I mean hurt I mean it left you two on the ground screaming in pain." Bridgette stared.

"Aelita was able to recreate your digital forms by uploading the copies that she created for the Life Point Restoration program but unless we got you into the scanners it wouldn't work." Gwen put in her two cents. "Which was almost impossible because putting you in the scanners would have killed you."

"But then Shadow took control of you, getting rid of the viruses so you and Duncan could enter Lyoko again but only after he had you both under his control." Geoff took his turn. "He used you to create a body for himself in Lyoko by hacking the supercomputer and set up a new body in Sector 5."

"We ended up fighting you and Duncan, with you having Shadow's powers and XANA's monsters under your control. I took out Duncan and I guess when I devirtualized him I got rid of the possession." Gwen glanced at Duncan who nodded his thanks to her. "But you were too strong."

"So how'd you get Shadow out of my body?" Courtney asked.

"It wasn't us...XANA's Generals showed up and forced Shadow to abandon you." Bridgette spoke up.

"So...Shadow's gone." Courtney stated.

"He transferred himself into a giant body called the Titan that Aelita, Cody, DJ, Izzy, and Heather are inside right now, trying to kill the heart." Gwen said.

"...So what are we waiting for?! We need a way to help them get rid of Shadow once and for all!" Courtney headed for the elevator. "You coming?"

"She took it better than I thought." Duncan whispered.

"I thought she'd try and get back into Lyoko to kill Shadow herself." Geoff whispered back.

They got into the elevator as Courtney slammed her fist into the button for the lab. The elevator went up to the lab and Courtney came just as the doors started to open.

"Okay, I want to know...Eva?" Courtney stopped when she saw Eva in the lab.

"Hey." Eva said, not interested in talking to the CIT at the moment.

"She's part of the group now?" Courtney whispered to the people coming out of the elevator behind her.

"I said the same thing too." Duncan walked behind her.

"Oh yeah, forgot to tell you, Eva joined the group during an attack after the band challenge." Gwen whispered to them. "It was a pretty bad situation and Eva had followed Noah and Izzy into the lab."

"You mean she was with them when the attack happened? That prank on Chris when he was just leaving." Courtney whispered back.

"Yep, turns out she's a natural at fighting on Lyoko. Took out a Terror Bird on her first fight." Geoff said with smile.

"...It seems I have missed out a lot on what's been happening since the City Sector." Courtney commented. "Is there anything else I should know?"

"Only that the remaining people on Lyoko are fighting Shadow in another Big Boss showdown." Noah replied from the computer. "You'd think they'd install action music for these fights."

Courtney and Duncan looked at the screen with a window showing the Core Chamber of the Titan with Shadow in his original Dark William form staring down the remaining Lyoko Warriors with his sword ready.

"Take him out!" Courtney cheered for the warriors. "Take out that parasite once and for all!"

Xxx

Inside the Titan's Core Shadow stared down Aelita and the others with his sword ready.

"It figures we'd have to go through a Boss Fight before this was over." Heather grumbled but a smirk was on her face as she unsheathed her wrist blades. "But to be honest this gives me the perfect opportunity...for payback!"

Heather jumped forward, firing her shuriken launchers which Shadow easily blocked with his giant sword.

Shadow ran at the warriors, screaming at the top of his digital lungs. **"Time to die once and for all!"**

"So glad we agree!" Heather shouted back.

Aelita charged forward, creating an energy sword with DJ, Cody, and Izzy right behind her. Aelita and Shadow's swords clashed together, pink and black electricity crackling from the blow. Aelita sent a thrust but Shadow stepped out of the way and tried to swipe at Aelita's back but DJ in his metal golem form used his big arms to knock the attack back. Cody shot at Shadow but he easily blocked the attack and swung his sword to slash the gunman in half.

Cody teleported out of the way just in time as Heather jumped in and tried to pierce Shadow's head with her wrist blades. Shadow blocked and swiped at Heather but the ninja jumped over the attack and tried to kick Shadow in the face, but he knocked her attack back with one hand.

"Izzy take out the core!" Aelita pointed at the Titan's glowing core.

"Sir, yes sir!" Izzy saluted and ran at the core screaming.

Shadow glanced at her as he blocked DJ's giant fist with his sword and smirked. Izzy jumped into air, pointing her foot at the core to kick it when a blast of black fire erupted from the core and slammed into her.

"Wha...!" Izzy could only gasp as the flames devirtualized her.

The warriors stopped fighting to see the black flames that took out Izzy hit the floor and...morph into Shadow!

"What?!" Heather glanced between the two Shadows. "Oh no, not this again! Nephilim already used this trick!"

**"Why give up a good idea?"** Shadow 1 asked, chuckling.

**"If there is one thing I learned is that it's always best to have a really good security system!"** Shadow 2 laughed. **"XANA destroyed me from the inside last time because I had no defence in my core against him, allowing him to easily tear me apart."**

**"But this time I have come prepared. A little program based of the Marabounta that fits my design."** Shadow 1 continued. **"But wait, there's more!"**

Shadow 1 glowed black as his body grew larger, bat like wings sprouting from his back, horns sprouting from his head, and his skin turning black. Shadow 1 roared as he finished transforming into Shadow's super demonic form. **"THIS INCLUDES ALL OF MY ORIGINAL POWERS; STILL THINK YOU CAN WIN LITTLE FLESH WALKERS?"**

Demonic Shadow opened his mouth, revealing red glowing energy gathering inside. Aelita pressed her hands together and fired a bright Plasma Beam just as Shadow fired his red Death Beam from his mouth. The new Shadow(Original Shadow) tried to attack Aelita while she was struggling with Demonic Shadow's attack but DJ stepped between them and his giant arms blocked the sword, creating an ear shattering boom that echoed throughout the interior of the Titan. DJ pushed his arms forward and shoved Original Shadow ended just as Demonic Shadow and Aelita cancelled their attacks out.

Demonic Shadow lunged forward, wings spear out and clawed hands ready to skewer Aelita but the pink hair girl flew out of the way just in time. Cody fired his pistols but Demonic Shadow didn't seem to even feel the impact of lasers against his chest as he stomped forward. Original Shadow vanished in a cloud of black smoke and fused with Demonic Shadow.

**"You four are way out of your league, especially in the one place where I am unbeatable."** Shadow cackled. **"I have fused with my new body, my heart is protected no matter how close you get. You made the mistake of thinking of you could finish me and an even bigger mistake of thinking you could defeat XANA."**

"Like you have had any better luck!" Heather retorted as the warriors regrouped.

**"I know more than even Aelita just how powerful XANA truly is and just what he has done to keep himself safe from almost anything that could destroy him."** Shadow growled. **"You could never win."**

"Why does it matter to you so much, Shadow?" Aelita glared. "You've made it clear that you hate us so why does it matter whether or not we stop XANA?"

**"I care not what happens to you, Aelita. In fact I'll settle my score with you, Jeremy, and William soon enough but I despise XANA as much as I despise you. I knew he was the enemy from the start and I planned to usurp him long ago even if he anticipated it."** Shadow spread his wings. **"My reasons for hating him are between the two of us, that's all you shall know. All that's left is for me to blast you out of Lyoko for the last time!"**

He fired another laser beam from his mouth, scattering the warriors and tried to take out Aelita but she flew up above him as he swiped at her. She fired a Plasma Beam down at him but his wings spread out and blocked the attack. Heather and Cody fired at Shadow's back, stinging him which made him angry. He spun around, releasing a stream of black fire from his mouth.

"Whoa!" Cody grabbed Heather and teleported out of the way.

Aelita looked down at the fight and tried to see how they could win. Shadow was extremely power in his super form and that was before he had merged with Smith or the Titan. His strength and speed increased to dangerous levels that made him almost too strong except for when she used Code: Angel, Duncan's Berserker form, or when someone was extremely lucky. Looking at the core and back at Shadow she knew that if the core was destroyed Shadow would go along with it.

Shadow was keeping himself between the core and the warriors meaning that they could breach the shield protecting it no matter how strong it was. Cody was teleporting and firing all around Shadow, making him angry as he tried to swat the annoying warrior but what he didn't know was that it was a distraction. DJ jumped forward, aiming his fist at Shadow's face but Shadow saw him coming and sent his own fist forward. Their fists collided, letting another sonic boom from the sheer power of both attacks.

Heather jumped onto Shadow's back and tried to stab him in the head but Shadow flew into the air and spun so his back was facing the floor. Heather realized what he was doing and jumped off just in time as Shadow fell like a rock and slammed into the floor so hard that he left cracks. Heather landed on the ground a few feet away, sighing in relief. If she had been under Shadow when he hit the floor she would have been crushed. Shadow got up, his wings spreading out looking more irritated then hurt, if he even felt anything from the impact.

Aelita had spent the last minute thinking of a plan and she had one but she had been weighing the pros and cons of the plan. It was a tricky plan but if it worked...

"Code: Angel, one hundred percent!" Aelita cried.

The Keys to Lyoko inside of her activated, her digital Avatar glowing with the signature pure white aura earning Shadow's attention.

**"The Keys..."** Shadow growled.

He may not have been around when Aelita first activated them in the fight against Nephilim but he knew how powerful they made her when fully activated. She was more dangerous than ever with the keys activated, something both he and XANA knew all too well.

**"I can't afford to take any chances!"** Shadow growled.

The black energy shield protecting the core of the Titan flared as more black flames came to life and out of the flames came four more copies of Shadow's Dark William form.

"Oh great!" Heather groaned. "More of the Dark Angel family!"

"They're not here for us, they are guards!" Cody pointed. "Shadow's worried he can't protect the core with only one of him against us and Aelita with the Keys active."

"Can't teleport through that shield and take out the core?" DJ asked as Aelita and Shadow faced each other down.

"There's no way Shadow doesn't have some sort of surprise for me if I teleport through that shield." Cody shook his head.

Aelita and Shadow stared each other down; Aelita's body pulsed with white energy while Shadow spread his wings out, ready to attack. Shadow roared, his mouth opening to reveal red energy gathering inside. Aelita flew out of the way as Shadow fired a red energy blast that blasted a hole in the wall behind her. The hole started to repair itself but almost no one was paying attention to that as Aelita flew at Shadow, blades of energy appearing in both her hands.

She swiped at Shadow who leaned back; the sword's missing his face by mere inches. Shadow tried attempted at her with his claws but Aelita ducked, her speed drastically increasing and she proved her strength had increased when she slammed her fist into Shadow's torso and sent him flying back into the wall.

"_That's it, Aelita! Take him down!_" Courtney shouted from the lab.

"Guess Courtney's back to normal." Cody commented as Shadow got back up.

"Yeah, we're all one big crazy ass family again." Heather smirked.

Shadow flew at Aelita but she dodged easily like Shadow was moving so slow a turtle was faster. Aelita appeared above him, aiming an energy blast down at his head but Shadow had anticipated it and grabbed Aelita's wrist. Before Aelita could break free Shadow threw her into the wall with all of his strength, smirking at the cracks forming from the impact. However Aelita got back up and she did not look like she suffered any damaged.

He fired another energy beam from his mouth but Cody teleported in and then teleported out with Aelita, leaving the energy beam to blast another hole in the wall. Shadow growled as he spun and saw Cody and Aelita land next to the remaining warriors.

"He's putting up quite a fight isn't he?" Cody asked, smirking at Aelita. "I've never seen anyone else besides only a few give you fight with Code: Angel active."

"Thanks, but Shadow's new powers can't hold out for long." Aelita smiled and turned back to face Shadow. "It's only a matter of time now."

**"Your right, Aelita. It is only a matter of time but I got a little insurance."** Shadow smirked.

The remaining Warriors frowned, getting ready for whatever tricks Shadow was ready to throw at them.

**"I still have the DNA sample from your hair that gives me the same upgrade. I believe it's like this...Code: Angel!"** Shadow laughed as his body began to become even more muscular and bigger until he towered over the warriors.

His voice became even deeper. **"It's time I finish you all!"**

He fired another blast of energy from his mouth; they jumped out of the way just in time as it hit the floor and exploded. Cody and Heather fired their projectile weapons but he shrugged them off easily as he stopped forward. DJ charged at him and launched a punch at his face but Shadow simply caught the first with his own hand easily. He punched DJ away, sending him straight into the wall. Cody and Heather fired another barrage but Shadow flapped his wings and sent out a gust of wind that slammed them into the wall.

Aelita created another energy sword and flew at him with a shout, swing her down but Shadow blocked with one arm and grabbed Aelita, his giant hand crushing her body. Shadow pulled her down, her face inches from his.

**"I have waited for this, now hypocrite I will tear you apart piece by piece." **Shadow growled.

"Hypocrite...?" Aelita looked down at Shadow who glared hatefully. "Because of the fact that we sent you back into the supercomputer."

**"You knew what it was like to be trapped in here yet you never hesitated to send me here after all I did to help!"**

"You were created from William's DNA so we could make people believe he wasn't missing! We couldn't keep you in the real world anymore when we saved William!" Aelita grunted as she tried to break free. "If you hate me for that why did you side with XANA?"

**"It was the only choice other than being left in here, a broken toy cast aside. I was suddenly pulled away from the real world, away from the joy of living back here in this empty and soulless world. Something you and I have in common."** Shadow whispered. **"My hate for XANA stems from the fact that he will forever alter the world I loved living in, that's why I betrayed him when I had the chance. Like me he was imprisoned by his creator but our similarities end there, XANA only cares for his plans and designs, taking pride in what he creates, while I wish for this world to stay the same even if his beliefs of humanity are correct."**

"...you...you want to save the world?" Aelita gasped in shock.

**"Surprising, isn't it?"** Shadow smirked at the surprised look on Aelita's face. **"I will use the powers I have gained to destroy XANA once and for all and then I shall use William's body to return to the living world."**

"You're going to do what?!"

**"Why should he return to a life of joy while I am trapped here? It won't be hard to possess him much like XANA did before."** Shadow grinned. **"You can't stop me, not even with your powers. There is no one who can stop me..."**

Xxx

In the Carbon Copy XANA's Avatar watched the battle with an emotionless look.

**"...not even XANA."**

In that one second, just after Shadow finished his sentence XANA smiled evilly.

Xxx

The energy shield surrounding the Titan's core suddenly vanished and the Dark William copies melted into nothing but puddles of black liquid.

**"What?"** Shadow looked down and gasped as he started to shrink.

Aelita broke free of his grip, floating in the air as Shadow shrunk down and reverted back to his Dark William form.

"What's going on? I thought he had us on the run!" Heather exclaimed.

"He did..." Cody replied. "It's like...someone pulled the off switch."

"This can't be..." Shadow's voice now sounded like William's again. "This is not possible. My powers are...gone!"

Aelita floated down, landing on the ground and looked at Shadow. He tried to summon his powers but nothing happened. No smoke attacks, no transformation, he couldn't even summon his sword.

"Noah, can you see what's going on?" Aelita asked.

"_All I can tell is that the Titan is powering down, along with the towers that feeding it energy from before._" Noah replied. "_Something is sapping the Titan's power from the inside._"

Aelita gasped and spun around. 'I sense...'

"Aelita, wha..." DJ started.

"EVERBODY GET AWAY FROM THE WALL!" Aelita pointed her hands at the wall, firing an energy blast.

"Whoa!" Cody exclaimed and jumped out of the way.

"Are you cra..." Heather was cut off as Aelita's energy beam blasted through the wall.

The chamber shuddered from the explosion, with pieces of the ceiling falling to the ground. Heather turned to Aelita and was about to berate her but stopped when she saw glare Aelita had on her face. She turned around and her digital hard almost stopped beating. Standing in the hole Aelita made behind the wall was a familiar figure, his digital Avatar strolling casually into the Core Chamber of the Titan.

"Glad your senses haven't dulled, sister."

"XANA." Aelita spoke, ready to fire another energy blast.

"Oh great, first Shadow and now XANA!" Heather groaned. "Just for once can I have a day in Lyoko with no surprises?!"

"Is that anyway to thank me, Heather, for stopping Shadow from winning this battle?" XANA replied.

"You...did this...to me?" Shadow got up, growling hatefully.

"Shadow, it's been a while hasn't it?" XANA looked at his former general. "Is that anyway to greet a former colleague?"

"What did you do to me?!" Shadow roared.

"I would think that was obvious." XANA said, sounding like a teacher scolding a student. "You survived because Courtney took a sample of data mixed with yours _and_ mine. Did you think you could control my creations without some form of penalty?"

"I suppressed that part with the data from Smith!" Shadow shouted.

"But I was able to counter it before; it was easy to do it again when I sensed you had returned, just after I personally virtualized you back into Lyoko. From there on, the link I had with the small piece of data inside of Courtney let me see the entire battle. You think I couldn't find a way to infect the Titan you so proudly hailed as your new body? You never considered that I could turn that piece of data that was linked to me into a special Trojan Horse virus that slipped all the security you made and easily took control of your new vessel from you while you spent your time playing with your food again?" XANA chuckled. "Your new body is mine now, a very thoughtful and impressive present."

"How dare you?!" Shadow ran forward and sent a punch at XANA's face.

However it went right through XANA like he was a ghost. Shadow tried again but no matter how hard he tried XANA didn't even moved as the punches went through his body.

"Please stop, Shadow. You're embarrassing yourself." XANA closed his eyes and the tubes on the floor came to life.

They reached up and grabbed Shadow, tossing him away from the hologram of XANA's Avatar. XANA turned his attention to the warriors.

"A most impressive display once again, but I am ending today's play."

"Oh yeah, what's the plan this time?" Heather growled.

"Oh nothing much, except for the Titan's fall into the void." XANA tilted his head as he chuckled. "Lost forever with anyone trapped inside."

"What?!" Heather and DJ exclaimed.

The chamber started to shake, badly as if there was an earthquake happening.

"Wh-Wha-what's happening?" Aelita tried to balance herself.

"That would be the sound of the Titan's flight ability shutting down." XANA replied, enjoying the shocked looks on everyone's faces. "The Titan will vanish into the Digital Void until it is out of scanner range and explode, taking you all with it."

"Not if Noah devirtualizes us!" Cody replied.

"_On it!_" Noah replied, getting to work right away.

"So much for your so called plan, XANA!" Heather pointed and laughed. "Maybe you should keep your mouth shut instead of ranting like every other villain!"

XANA however only smirked.

Xxx

The Titan was now falling towards the Digital Void, falling out of the chamber and down the tunnel leading out of the gigantic sphere that was Sector 5. The Generals simply watched the Titan fall, following the orders left by their master.

Xxx

"Come on, Noah!" Bridgette cried.

Everyone watched in suspense while Noah typed at the computer as fast as he could.

"I got it...I got it...I got it!" Noah looked up at the screen as he typed in the final commands.

But instead of devirtualizing the survivors a red exclamation mark appeared the Digital Cards of the their Avatars with a beeping sound going off.

"Crap!" Noah gasped.

"What's going on?" Gwen looked at the computer. "Why aren't they being devirtualized?"

"Some kind of energy field, it's jamming the connection to the scanners!" Noah typed at the computer. "I am trying to boost the connection with them but I may need a few minutes!"

"They don't have a few minutes, man!" Geoff pointed at the screen. "That things going down and taking them with it!"

"Oh no! Oh no! Oh no!" Bridgette muttered fearfully. "Aelita, Heather, DJ, Cody, you got to get out of there now!"

"_What's taking so long?_" Heather shouted.

"I can't devirtualize you guys!"

"_WHAT?!_"

Xxx

XANA laughed at their reactions. "How you do you like my surprise, Heather? A little lesson I learned from watching all the other villains taking the time to rant about their grand designs. The lesson I learned is to save a little surprise at the end of the rant."

"We got to move!" DJ cried.

The warriors ran for the exit but the doors they had knocked down earlier had floated back up and closed the exit, trapping them in the Core Chamber.

"Try anything you want, you're still not getting out of here." XANA said, grinning.

"Oh shut up!" Heather fired shuriken but they simply went through the hologram.

"I got this. I'll blast through." Aelita pointed her hand at the wall. "Plasma Beam!"

She hit the wall with her energy beam, creating a large explosion that was almost blinding and smoke covered the chamber for a moment. When the smoke cleared...the wall was perfectly intact with not even a scratch on it.

"What?" Aelita gasped.

"No way!" Cody exclaimed. "I recall your energy beam blasting through that wall easily a few times. That should have worked."

Aelita turned and looked the hologram of XANA's Avatar and then back at the core that was still pulsing with power.

"The power XANA took from Shadow...It's strengthening the walls and the repair systems of the interior!" Aelita realized. "That's why my attack failed."

"Quick try something else!" Heather fired her shuriken at the walls, making small dents that faded seconds later.

"I know where to aim now." Aelita pointed at the core. "I'll take the core out once and for all!"

However just before she could fire the cables on the floor reached up and grabbed her arm.

"Wha...!" Aelita was pulled up into the air with her arms being pulled by the cables. "Let go!"

She blasted the cable with her one free hand and landed on her feet. However the fight was far from over when she saw more cables rise from the ground.

"Oh come on! Give me a break!" Heather's wrist blades sliced through the cables that attacked her.

"The Titan will fall beyond scanner range and vanish taking you all with it. This place is your tomb." XANA laughed, his hologram vanishing.

"We'll see about that, XANA." Aelita muttered.

The energy shield surrounding the core was now bright red with cables rising up from the floor and walls to attack the warriors. DJ was pounding away at the doors but they held up against his strength.

"Hang on! I think I can teleport us out!" Cody said, closing his eyes to activate his teleport ability.

But as soon as he teleported instead of appearing out of the chamber he slammed into the wall.

"Ooof!" He groaned as he slid down.

"What happened?" Heather ran over and helped him stand up.

"I...I tried to teleport out of the chamber but I slammed into that wall." Cody rubbed his head. "How can it block me?"

"Protection." They turned to Shadow who was simply sitting on the ground staring at the core. "I created an energy field to block anything from getting in or getting except through the doors. No teleporting, no devirtualiztion...no escape."

"Except through the doors." Aelita grimaced. "Unless, we take out the power source."

She turned to the Titan's core, aiming both her hands. She fired a Plasma Beam from both hands and the beams impact the shield, shaking the chamber. The shields shuddered but held against Aelita's attacks.

"Well that's not good." Aelita commented, a surprised look on her face. "It held up against my attacks even with the keys active."

"What do we do?" DJ cried.

Aelita turned and faced Shadow, the former general still sat on the ground staring at the core with a hopeless and defeated look. She appeared at his side and knelt down. "Shadow, how do we shut down the core?"

"The core is under XANA's control now, I can't do anything." Shadow replied, his voice lacking any emotion.

The revelation of XANA defeating him from the inside again and now making sure he would be defeated for good this time had taken its toll. Shadow had lost all hope of surviving.

"You designed the core, you know how it works." Aelita pressed on.

"Why should I help you?" Shadow glared up at her. "I have no reason to help you, the whole point of my fight against you was my revenge against you!"

Aelita kept calm as she continued. "Shadow...you also said that you wanted to save the world from XANA, because you know what he's planning to do to the world you loved living in. If we die no one can stop him."

"And you think you can succeed? How many times did he escape your attempts to kill him no matter how close you were?" Shadow growled. "I may not stop him but I can settle for taking you all with me!"

Heather walked over, grabbed Shadow by the collar and lifted him up. "Don't count on it! Now tell us how to get out of here!"

Aelita put a hand on Heather's arm, convincing her to reluctantly put Shadow down. She turned back to the defeated AI. "Shadow, you say we don't stand a chance so help us and I promise I'll do everything I can to help you."

"It's too late...I merged with the Titan, there's no other body for me to merge with to survive." Shadow shook his head. "There's nothing I can do...All I can do is sit here and wait to die."

Aelita shook her head. "I don't believe that and if you cared about the real world you would be the same."

Shadow looked back up at Aelita. "What's the supposed to mean?"

"You gave up after surviving so long in the supercomputer, fought me and my friends, stood up to XANA himself...After all this you give up now when someone else actually needs your help?" Aelita asked outrageously. "You can hate me all you want but what about my friends here; they never did anything to you! They had nothing to do with your program being placed back in that tower! You claim to love the living world but you won't help people who need your help...Congratulation, Shadow, you spent all this time to become something as strong as XANA and now...you've become him."

Shadow got up and grabbed Aelita by the neck. "Don't you dare compare me to him! I am nothing like him!"

"What's so different? Your attempts to kill us? Using Courtney as a puppet? Stealing my DNA to become as powerful as XANA? Seems to me like you're a big fan of his work." Aelita retorted.

"You just want to escape; you don't care if I die here!" Shadow shouted.

"If you had told me how much it hurt to be sent back into that tower maybe we could have done something about! I could have found a way to free you from Lyoko and XANA!"

"You'd think I'd trust you after everything you put me through!" Shadow growled.

"I didn't force you to work for XANA, you chose that, just as you chose to possess Heather, take over Noah's program, let XANA torture Gwen with that virus, use Lyoko to endanger our lives and anyone else in the way, possess Courtney and Duncan and make this monster!" Aelita shouted. "XANA didn't force you to become like this, you chose this! If you cared about the real world you would have stood up to XANA when he offered you the deal! I could have helped you...because before I got my memories back we all thought I was an AI, a program just like XANA and my friends didn't care whether or not I actually had a pulse! So I know what it's like to be trapped and to feel alone."

"And you still let them trap me." Shadow glared.

"Yes...I did...and I'm...sorry." Aelita looked down.

Shadow let go of her neck and stepped back.

"Shadow, there's nothing I can do to save you, you've come too far...but maybe if you help us and we do find a way to stop XANA...then maybe you will have helped save the world." Aelita said gently.

Shadow's fist tightened but he couldn't find himself to be angry anymore. He had been angry for so long and he was tired. Maybe...this was karma for everything he had done...if this was his last act...

"Your DNA is keyed into the core so you can access it; I couldn't set up a defence system against it." Shadow pointed at the core. "The power lines to the core synchronize with them and you can try and take control."

Aelita looked up at the power lines and nodded. "Thank you, Shadow."

She dashed forward, firing energy blasts at cables that tried to stop her. Cody and Heather fired their projectiles to cover Aelita.

Xxx

The Generals watched as the Titan fell out of the giant sphere that was Sector 5.

"Well, guess that's the end of Shadow for good this time." Ryder commented, sitting down on his Flying Manta. "I wanted to cut him up."

"Yep, I'm glad though. He was a pretty scary looking guy." Sora nodded, letting Jinx down the Flying Manta that served as Lilith's steed. "What about the warriors?"

"Don't worry about them too much."

The generals glanced behind them as the Avatar of their Master, XANA floated passed them, looking down at the falling Titan with a satisfied smile.

"Their lives will end soon. Aelita and her companions will vanish into the Digital Void beyond the range of the scanners, disappearing forever." XANA explained, watching as the Titan's figure grew smaller. "Even with their powers, they'll never get out. Shadow's own plan to trap them forever in his new body with Aelita's own power used against her. Sayonara, Sister."

Xxx

Aelita jumped and flew through the air, dodging cable after cable as they lunged at her until she could see the giant power wires connected to the core. She landed right next to the power cables and smashed her fist into one of them. It sparked with red electricity making Aelita grunt in pain as she reached in. Closing her eyes she grasped the center of the power cables that sent energy from the core to the rest of the Titan's body and activated her synchronize ability.

Pink energy pulsed from her body and into the powers lines traveling into the core itself. The red energy barrier began crackle with pink energy as Aelita struggled to shut it down. Cables lunged at her from behind but luckily Cody teleported between her and the cables, shooting at them and blasting them to pieces. Heather shouted and jumped in, slashing through the endless wave of attacking cables with her wrist blades while DJ grabbed as many as he could and ripped them out of the floor and walls with his bare hands.

'Come on...come on...' Aelita pushed her powers through power lines, trying to overload the energy shield.

Xxx

"Hmmm..." XANA frowned.

He could sense a power struggle inside the Titan's main power chamber. Aelita was trying to overload the Titan's inner defence system with her own powers. He took control easily from Shadow but Aelita was a different story, she was pushing her way through the energy shield protecting the core, disrupting the flow of power.

'You won't get your way so easily, sister.' XANA thought.

Xxx

The core pulsed with red energy and a blast of red light erupted from the core. Everyone covered their eyes as a figure came out of the core, passing through the energy shield.

"A Blood Knight!" Cody gasped.

Blood Knight was the name of the Red Dragon Knights XANA had sent after Aelita, Gwen, Noah, Izzy, and Geoff when they first arrived in the Forest Sector of the Carbon Copy. A single Blood Knight had appeared out of the core just as Aelita finally overloaded the energy shield. A giant axe appeared in the Blood Knight's hand and the Knight swung down at Aelita who had her head down. Aelita rolled out of the just in time with the axe missing her head by mere inches.

She jumped back and landed with the others as the Knight stepped forward. Shadow could only watch as the Blood Knight stood between them and the core.

'XANA, you want to keep them away from the core so badly until the Titan is out of scanner range.' Shadow scowled. 'But...it's time you learn they are not the only threat.'

With the Knight too busy to stop the Warriors Shadow dashed towards the core. The Knight saw Shadow at the very edge of its vision and turned to see Shadow stopping in front of the core.

"You plan to save them, Shadow?" XANA's voice came out of the Knight. "After all your attempts to kill them you believe you can survive? Destroy the core and you die as well, something I thought you would want to prevent."

"...I know." Shadow smirked back at the Knight. "I just accepted the situation. I am done...and I'll be waiting for you, XANA."

He reached down and pulled the power cable.

"Shadow wait!" Aelita called out but it was too late.

Shadow roared as the cable was ripped out of the core, electricity sparkling from the wire as it fell. The core started pulse and beat erratically while the chamber started to shake. The Blood Knight lost power and fell over, shattering into bits of data.

"Sayonara, Shadow." XANA's voice whispered as the Knight vanished.

Shadow looked down at himself, watching as his body started to fade. Looking back up at the surprised expressions of the warriors he nodded.

"There's nothing stopping you from leaving now. Go...and keep the real world safe." Shadow smiled.

He didn't understand why he was smiling or feeling happy but he just felt it. That was the last the Lyoko Warriors would see of Shadow as his digital Avatar vanished, dying along with the Titan. Maybe it was because he'd be free.

Free of Lyoko.

Free of XANA.

Free of fighting all the time.

"_You need to get out now! I'm losing the connection with you guys!_" Noah shouted.

Aelita spun around and fired energy blasts at Cody, Heather, and DJ taking them out easily. When they vanished she took one last glance back at the dying core.

"...Thank you." Aelita nodded and then held up an energy field to her own chest.

She slammed it into her chest and her body was blasted apart by the resulting explosion of energy.

Xxx

XANA watched with a calm expression as the Titan vanished into the Digital Void, never to be seen again. The generals simply watched, not commenting as they knew what happened. Shadow had saved the warriors in the end, meaning the war would continue. A portal appeared in front of XANA and he vanished into it, followed by his generals.

Xxx

"...I can't believe it. After all that...we ended up being saved by Shadow." Cody muttered.

Noah raised an eyebrow. "...I really don't want to know how it came to that."

"Well the good news is that Duncan and Courtney are free and can now go in and out of Lyoko again with their memories." Bridgette pointed out.

"Yep, we're all back together again." Duncan shrugged. "So...what do we do about me and Courtney now? Technically we're supposed to be gone."

"We'll think of something." Gwen shrugged. "Right now, I need a nap. That was one heck of a fight."

"She's right." Courtney yawned. "I don't know how long I was possessed but it must have been for a while. I feel like I went for about three days straight without any sleep."

"So now that Shadow's gone for good this time, I guess we can get back to dealing with XANA. He's probably not happy you guys made it out of that." Trent said as they walked into the elevator. "He almost had you guys that time."

"He always does." DJ yawned.

"But we won and we were all together again." Aelita smiled. "Meaning he'll have a much harder time to get rid of us."

"I suppose this is the time Geoff suggest a party?" Noah looked the party king.

"Don't you think it's a little old to be having parties?" Geoff asked.

Almost everyone froze and stared at Geoff as if he had been replaced by a clone made by XANA.

"...I'm just kidding!" Geoff laughed. "Oh man, you guys should have seen the look on your faces!"

"Bridgette...slap him." Gwen said.

"You got it."

"What?!" Geoff cried.

Xxx

**Halloween Special**

"The arc is finally done!" Carlos said walking into Kurt's office. "And once again we're not in the arc finale!"

"We're not the main characters in this fic Carlos!" Kurt retorted, putting the newspaper down. "You knew that!"

"Yeah but come on, I thought there'd be a side arc for us! Curse the role of a reoccurring character! This is nothing like our old detective days or the craziness of the SAS!" Carlos complained.

"If you want to talk about the old days look at this." Kurt handed Carlos the newspaper.

"What's this got to do with anything?" Carlos looked at the headline. "Mysterious killer strikes again in...Blue Skies! That's our home town!"

"Yep, someone's been watching horror movies again." Kurt sighed. "Does that bring back memories?"

"Oh yeah accusing our fellow class mates of being the killer. I wonder how they are doing?" Carlos sighed.

Kurt's phone rang. "Hello?"

"**_Hello Kurt,_**" A sinister voice chuckled. "**_What are you doing?_**"

"Uh...nothing? I'm at work...in France." Kurt said awkwardly. "Reading the paper."

"**_Wait, you're in France?_**"

"Yeah."

The mystery called cursed and grumbled. "**_Dang it..._**"

"Uh...are you okay?" Kurt asked.

"**_Uh-uh yeah...so...you all alone?_**" The Caller tried to recover from his bungle.

Kurt narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "Did you go to class with us?"

"**_Yeah...maybe._**"

"And in that case..." Kurt grinned. "WAZZZZUUUUUPPPP!"

"**_What the-?! What are you doing?_**"

"Hold on." Kurt looked at Carlos. "Pick up your phone."

Carlos flipped his phone open, and Kurt continued. "WAZZZZZUUUUPPPP!"

"WAZZUPP!"

"**_WAZZUP!_**" The Caller joined in.

"Yo Lesley! Roberto! Lenny! Pick up the phone!" Kurt shouted, and three new callers were added.

"Hello?"

"Who's this?"

"The hell you want, Kurt?"

**"WAZZUP!"**

They all joined in at once. "WAZZUPPPP!"

They kept this up for about a minute and then settled down. Everybody but Kurt, Carlos and the Caller hung up. Kurt chuckled. "So how're things back in Blue Skies? What you up to?"

"**_Nothin'. Just chillin'...killin'._**"

"True, true that man," Carlos nodded, munching on a Klondike Bar. "Hope to see yah soon buddy!"

"**_You'll see me soon...Carlos._**" The Caller said sinisterly.

"...later!" Carlos hung up. "...who was that guy again?"

"Not sure," Kurt shrugged. "I never asked his name."

Carlos rubbed his chin. "I wonder who that guy was..." He then reached for Kurt's book shelf and pulled out a year book of their graduation year. "We could have asked him if he knew anything about the killer."

"Oh let the police handle it, Carlos." Kurt rolled his eyes as Carlos set the book down and opened it to a certain page and jabbed his finger at a picture. "I think this is the guy who called!"

He leaned in and raised one eyebrow. He glanced up at Carlos. "Yeah, he might know something about the killer."

The picture was...of a ghost face mask wearing person who was apparently the head of the art club.


	95. Episode 93: The Eye of the Storm

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 95

"That's one hell of a story." Kurt commented.

It was morning now, a day after the final battle with Shadow in the depths of the Titan and the Lyoko Group with their newly returned friends, Courtney and Duncan assembled in Kurt's office. Carlos was sitting off to the side watching TV with the volume up high so no one could listen from outside the door with Kurt sitting at his desk.

"So Shadow was the mystery bad guy all along and he possessed Courtney shortly after she was ejected from Lyoko from the fight in the City Sector." Kurt went over what they told him. "Bad guys, they always come back. He's not coming back again, right?"

"Shadow completely removed himself from Courtney and the Titan vanished completely into the Digital Void. All evidence points to Shadow being gone for good this time." Aelita nodded.

"And we got Duncan and Courtney back before they left." Trent smiled.

"Nice to hear that, Elvis." Duncan smirked, happy to have his memories back.

"But there's still a problem, me and Duncan aren't in the competition anymore." Courtney pointed out. "Should we be sent to the Aftermath studio?"

"Good news is that the Jet of Losers is grounded until the next elimination which is after the next Aftermath episode." Kurt replied. "Once the director finds out you two have been found she'll want you to stay here until it's time to send you back."

"Isn't there a way to get them back? I mean, Shadow rigged the votes to get Duncan kicked off and Courtney quit against her will." Bridgette pointed out.

"Sorry, but in the eyes of the show's rules and the world Duncan and Courtney are out of the game." Carlos shook his head, sitting in his own chair next to Kurt's desk. "Can't ignore that or the director might think Kurt's turning into Chris."

"You had to say that." Kurt shuddered. "But Carlos is right, I can't put them back in the game because there's no proof that the votes were tampered with even if it's the word of the entire team because the cameras didn't catch the culprit in the act. And Courtney...who would believe she was possessed by a vengeful digital ghost back from the grave?"

"So there's no way Courtney and Duncan can get back into the game." Gwen sighed.

"Fine by me. I was a little tired of the show anyway." Duncan shrugged.

"So we're left with a week?" Courtney asked.

"If you guys remain missing longer your parents could get concerned and we get a lot more attention from the director." Kurt replied. "She's already expecting a report on Duncan's whereabouts while we kept Courtney's disappearance quiet. Lenny thinks she slipped out at the last minute because she forgot one of her bags."

"Nice cover." Courtney rolled her eyes.

"That leaves you guys about a week before you have to go back." Kurt said.

"Now if you guys excuse me, I got a lot of work to do!" Carlos walked out of the office.

"He looks grumpy." LeShawna commented.

"Go easy on him, he's got family coming." Kurt smirked.

"Family?" Cody asked.

"Yep, his little sister Maggie is coming for a visit." Kurt replied. "One of the reasons Carlos is so nervous is because he says she is...crazy."

"This coming from the older sibling who beat up a vending machine over a Klondike Bar so bad it now randomly shoots snacks out?" Gwen asked.

As if to prove her point a Kit Kat bar shot out of a vending machine in the hall and smacked an intern in the face.

"Oh!" He fell over on his back and groaned. "Oooooohhh...Hey, a Kit Kat bar!"

"Gimmee up a piece of that Kit Kat bar!" Another demanded.

"NEVAH!" They began to wrestle for it.

"Yes well, Carlos and his sisters had a quite role model when they were growing up." Kurt explained. "Like that time they tried to get Carlos's pet cat out of a tree..."

Xxx

(Flashback)

"Uh...dad, is this a good idea?" A six year old Carlos asked as a man resembling him as an adult strapped him to the rocket.

"You want to get Mr. Boots down or not?" His dad asked.

Carlos's pet cat, Mr. Boots sat in a tree, meowing as he looked down at the two.

"Fire in the sky!" Carlos's dad laughed as he lit a match.

(End Flashback)

Xxx

"Long story short the cat was the only person who did not get hurt." Kurt finished.

"Did you make that up?" Heather asked.

"Hey, can one of you guys run to the mall and pick up some food?" Kurt quickly changed the subject.

"I'll go. I need something normal to do." DJ raised one hand.

"I'll go, too." Geoff smiled.

Kurt handed DJ a list and the giant walked out of the office followed by Geoff, Bridgette, and Trent.

Xxx

"Carlos do you really have to be this grumpy with everybody?" Kurt asked about ten minutes later as he followed Carlos on his way back to his office. "You're scaring the interns...well I mean you're scaring the interns more than usual."

"Kurt, this has been a crazy week." Carlos replied. "And to top it off, my crazy little sister is coming up. She was a little hellion when we were growing up; always playing these pranks at home or at school. It was almost as crazy as the stuff Dad did!"

Xxx

(Flashback)

"Dad...I really think this isn't a good idea." A seven year old Carlos said as he stood next to their pool, rocks tied to his legs.

"Look, this is the only way you're gonna learn how to breathe under water." His father said wisely...in his own eyes. "By walking under water. How else will we be able to go diving and get back that rocket we lost last year in the lake?"

"Yeah but-" Carlos was shoved in. "MEEP!" He vanished beneath the water.

"...shouldn't you have given him some oxygen?" Kurt asked, sitting with Sarah a few feet away and sipping drinks.

"Oh right..." The man then held up a large oxygen tank and scuba mask. "I wondered why I brought these! Catch, boy!" He dropped them in...

And a moment later the bubbles stopped coming up, and Carlos was _not_ wearing the mask.

(End Flashback)

Xxx

"...oh yeah, I remember that one." Kurt snickered. "But Carlos, if you wanna see crazy Carlos, let me show you something."

He led Carlos outside to the lot. There was a lawn mower that was used to cut the grass growing at the edges of the lot...and it was stained red and tied to a leg of a body covered by a blanket. "This poor intern right here. He accidently got his leg caught and it dragged him all over. He tried to get free and...well...got too close to the blades." He looked at Carlos. "You really think that's as bad as your sister showing up today?"

"Okay one: Why the heck didn't you call the ambulance? And two, she's not coming today, she's coming tomorrow!" Carlos said facing Kurt and leaving his back exposed to the 'dead intern'.

"Nope, she's coming today." Kurt looked smug as the 'intern' suddenly sat up with a grin, the blanket falling off of 'her'...

"And how do you know that?" Carlos asked suspiciously.

"Well, I found out the same way these guys found out." Kurt pointed to the interns, Lesley, Roberto, Lenny and the Director-on her TV watching through the front doors.

"...why are they watching us?" Carlos asked.

"DEATH HUG!" The 'corpse' leaped up and tackled Carlos in a hug.

"AHHHH! ZOMBIE! ZOMBIEZOMBIE!" Carlos ran around and then began to roll around. "ZOMBIE GERMS! ZOMBIE GERMS!"

"WOOOO HOOOO!"

"AHAHAHA!"

"YAHAHAH!"

"HA-HA!"

"This is rich!" The Director cackled. "DIET COKE!"

Xxx

"Thanks for helping out Kurt," Maggie, an eighteen year old with Carlos' dark hair and blue eyes said as she giggled. "You always did know how to have fun."

Kurt shrugged. "Hey, it's not every day you get to hear Carlos scream like that. Last time was the Halloween party of 08."

"We agreed never to talk about that again!" Both Maggie and Carlos shouted while pointing in Kurt's face. They then exchanged an awkward glance.

"...And momentarily the siblings are united." Kurt sighed.

"SHUT UP!" They shouted.

"...Fine, I gotta go see if anybody uploaded Carlos' scream onto YouTube," Kurt shrugged and walked away.

"...stupid cell phones." Carlos grumbled. "If anybody uploaded something I'll do to them what I did to that lawyer!"

"Hey Carlos, the Director uploaded your scream onto Youtube!" Lenny shouted from the doors.

"...dang it!"

"And so did Roberto and Lesley!"

"..." Carlos grinned evilly. "...REVENGE."

Xxx

**FIVE. MINUTES. LATER.**

"You are SUCH a child," Lesley grumbled as Maggie finished helping her older brother to hang her and Roberto upside down...over a vat of boiling potatoes.

"NOOOO!" The Security Chief wailed. "I'm on a diet man! A DIET!"

"Yeah diet my foot!" Maggie cackled. "Torturing you two is just as fun as torturing this schmuck!" She jerked one thumb at her brother.

"Yeah-HEY!" Carlos glared at her.

Xxx

"This is what I am talking about, Kurt! She hasn't changed a bit!" Carlos paced back and forth in Kurt's office.

"I'm going out on a limb and say Maggie is who you're talking about because your wife is not here." Kurt put some papers down. "What is it?"

"Maggie and her high and mighty attitude! She always acted like she was better than me because of her pranks and wise ass attitude! I was the same when I got on the same boat thanks to Dad's antics!" Carlos stopped and spun to face Kurt's desk. "Just what does she get from all the pranks she pulls? Laughs and applauses, that's what!"

"So your dad was happy that someone in the family took after him in the crazy department. You took after him in the temper department, you scared all the boys who were interested in Melissa during fresh men year and they all got themselves expelled to get away from you." Kurt replied. "So Maggie outwitted you several times, it doesn't mean your parents favoured her over you."

"Oh it's not that, Dad likes her best, let her get all his attention. Less trouble for me, but I got to find a way to knock her down a peg." Carlos put a fist in his other hand. "Show her what growing up with her was like."

"You're not about to suggest something stupid like a prank war are you?" Kurt asked.

"SHHH!" Carlos hushed him. "I just had an idea! I am going to..."

Kurt crossed his fingers. "Not a prank war, not a prank war, not a prank war!"

"Trick her into sitting on a chair with a whoopy cushion!" Carlos declared dramatically.

"...actually that sounds even stupider than a prank war." Kurt muttered. "But at least you didn't get out that 'Book of Dark Magic' that you got suckered into on your nineteenth birthday."

"Book of Dark Magic-waaaaiiiit...prank war! That's it!" Carlos said. "I'm happy I thought of it!" He then jumped out through Kurt's window, smashing it. "This is waarrrr-" THUD!

"...forgot I'm on the top floor?"

"...yes!" Carlos' pained voice replied.

"..Doctors to the parking lot please-"

"It's fine! I'm fine!...Just need to twist my arm around back into position," Carlos groaned.

"...Doctors, please note that the subject is unwilling." Kurt announced. "Use of tranquilizer darts is author-"

"I SAID I'M FINE!" Carlos suddenly appeared in the broken window. ""Now pardon me, I have a prank war to wage!"

"Just don't go jumping back off the-"

"Carlos AWAYYYY-" THUD! "...Kurt? I'd like those doctors now."

Xxx

The trip to the mall was largely uneventful for DJ, Geoff, Bridgette, and Trent which they didn't mind a single bit. DJ always shopped for his mother back in Canada so he didn't mind going out to buy more food for the studio. It was a much needed break from Lyoko and the big fight with Shadow, the possessed Courtney and Duncan along with the Titan. Compared to that a shopping trip was a vacation to the Caribbean.

DJ was especially happy for some reason and when they asked he said he was just happy to be doing something normal for a change. Too bad he was a lousy liar because Geoff, Bridgette, and Trent saw through his excuse easily but didn't pry.

"Okay guys, I'll see you in a few minutes." DJ finished paying for all the food with the money Kurt gave him.

"Where are you going?" Geoff asked when the food was put into the shopping cart.

"Just a little something I need to do, it won't take long." DJ turned around and ran off.

"He always does that when we come here. Where does he go?" Geoff looked to his friend and girlfriend.

"DJ's got a personal life out of Total Drama and Lyoko, Geoff. It's not really any of our business." Bridgette shrugged.

"Hm...Guys, you take the food to the studio." Geoff dropped the last of the food into the shopping cart.

"Where are you going?" Bridgette asked as Geoff walked after DJ. "Come on, Geoff, can't you just give him some privacy?"

However Geoff was already out of earshot and disappeared back into the mall, following DJ. Bridgette sighed and pushed the shopping cart towards the car.

Xxx

Geoff watched from a safe distance as DJ walked into the mall's pet store. 'Okay, the big guy's an animal lover. Nothing new.'

Geoff snuck over to the window of the pet store and peeked inside. 'Oh...no way...I never this coming...That...is...awesome!'

Xxx

"DJ's got a girlfriend?" Nearly half the Lyoko Group asked.

Geoff has assembled them all into the recreation room to show them a picture Geoff had taken with his cell phone. The picture showed DJ laughing with a girl at the counter who looked to be about the same age as him. She was a pretty girl with a brown hair tied in a pony tail, and was wearing sun glasses...

And was holding onto the leash of a dog that was lying at her feet.

"A _blind_ girlfriend," Noah raised one eyebrow, and then when he saw some girls glance his way he quickly added. "Whoa now, just an observation! No sarcasm! No sarcastic remarks! I'm practically asexual anyways!"

"So that's where he keeps going!" Cody said. "He always disappears in that mall and comes back at like midnight."

"Never knew the big guy had it in him," Trent said.

"I'm so proud," Kurt said, nodding in approval.

"...Kurt, why are you here?" Gwen asked.

"I'm here to warn you all of the impending doom that approaches," Kurt said in a serious tone. "...Carlos and his sister are in a prank war."

"...are you serious?" Heather asked.

"HAHA!" Green slime then splattered on the window. "Gotcha Maggie!"

"Curse yooooou!" Maggie howled.

"...I kid you not," Kurt said before Carlos somehow came running by despite only moments ago having been down in the parking lot.

"Pardon me, need a place to hide!"

"Hey Carlos check it out!" Duncan said, peeking out from behind the couch where he and Courtney were forced to hide. "DJ's got a girlfriend!"

"Really? Cool! Now pardon me," Carlos vanished right before Maggie appeared...pouring red paint into a water gun.

"Oh big brotherrrrr?" She sang. "Come out come ouuuut!" She glared at the group. "If anybody hides him, you're painted. Now did you see him?"

They all pointed in the direction that Carlos had gone.

"Good!" She ran off after him.

"So...prank war?" Cody asked Kurt.

"Yep, sibling rivalry at its highest." Kurt nodded. "Carlos and Maggie have a long history of competing with each other, especially since Maggie took after their dead in the crazy scheme department. I got to get everyone ready for this."

"Just what was their mother on when she was pregnant with them?" Gwen asked.

"Actually, she's about the most sane of them." Kurt answered. "Granted she gets very scary when their antics go too far. Anyways Maggie pulled a prank that left Carlos screaming so now he's declared war. If you guys have plans for today just make sure it's somewhere else."

SPLAT!

SPLAT!

SPLAT!

"I got yyyyyoooooooouuuuuu!" Maggie's voice shouted from somewhere in the studio.

"And hurry before you are a casualty." Kurt walked off.

When he was gone the group turned back to their previous conversation.

"So why didn't DJ tell us about this girl?" Cody asked.

"It's none of our business Cody." Bridgette replied. "DJ's free to leave and make friends with anyone he likes. He's smart enough to stay out of trouble."

"But we gotta know about this girl! She could be something else then a blind girl, like a shape shifting alien here to use DJ as a way to disable Earth's defences! Or a XANA general disguised to worm her way into our gang and kill us in our sleep! Or maybe..." Everyone simply tuned Izzy out having grown used to her theories.

"Come on guys, DJ's got a life outside of the show. I really don't see why we should even bother involving ourselves." Gwen pointed out.

"Yeah, but where's the fun in that?" Duncan smirked but wiped it off when Courtney, Bridgette, and Gwen glared at him. "Okay, we won't do anything about DJ's girl?"

Xxx

**Two Minutes Later**

"DJ has a girlfriend!" Lesley held up her cell phone, showing a picture of DJ talking to the girl at the pet store.

"Oooooooohhhhhhh!" The interns gasped in awe.

At the very back most of the girls glared Duncan.

"Duncan, where did Lesley get that picture?" Courtney asked in a low and dangerous tone.

"Whoa-Whoa-Whoa! This is not me! I never sent the pictures out!" Duncan stepped back and gulped from the scary glares.

"Hey, Geoff." Lenny walked up to the group, stopping in front of Geoff. "Thanks for the picture, man. I'm showing it all over the place."

He walked off while Geoff chuckled nervously from the dangerous looks the girls of the group were now giving him.

"Wow...So this is how it feels to not be on the end of everyone's glares." Duncan chuckled.

"I know, I thought for sure you'd be the one handing out the pictures." Noah whispered.

"Look, I know this looks a little bad." Geoff started, raising his hands in an 'I surrender' sign. "But maybe DJ will never know. No one might actually tell him."

That didn't do anything about the dangerous glares; in fact Geoff was sure that Bridgette's glare said 'No making out for a year!'

Xxx

DJ walked happily into the lobby of the studio, not at all minding as interns looked up at him.

"Hey, DJ, how's life?" An intern stopped next to him.

"Okay, I think." DJ shrugged and kept walking.

"Yo, DJ!" Roberto stopped in front of him. "How was your day?"

"Good." DJ said, slightly surprised Roberto was talking to him and not being mean.

DJ walked past the hairy giant and headed for his room when a shout made him stop.

"DUCK!" Kurt pushed him down and a jet of water blasted over them.

Carlos walked around the corner and ended up soaked.

"HA!" Maggie dropped her water gun and took off.

"Now it's on!" Carlos growled and shook a fist at her.

"Sorry about this, Carlos and his sister have been in a prank war all afternoon." Kurt helped DJ up.

"Carlos has a sister?" DJ asked.

"Oh yeah, you missed out on chapter 1 of the arrival of the nutty sister." Kurt sighed.

"Nutty is right!" Carlos growled as he shook his head to get the water out of his hair. "Now she's in for it!"

"So...DJ, how was your day? Meet anybody nice?" Kurt turned back to DJ.

"Why does everyone keep asking me that question? I walk through the doors and everyone's asking me how my day was." DJ said, now getting a suspicious feeling.

"We're just very nice people!" Carlos shrugged.

"You threatened to toss an intern off a bridge when he touched your Klondike bars." DJ pointed out.

"Defending my loved ones!" Carlos retorted.

"Anyways...go ask Geoff why everyone's being nice to you." Kurt walked off. "I got some paper work to sign."

"And I got a sister to find and soak her with water! See how she likes it!" Carlos laughed.

"Okay...see ya." DJ walked past Carlos and headed down to Team Victory's dorm.

As he walked he heard Carlos shout out. "Hey, this isn't water! It's..."

DJ ran as fast as he could to get out of earshot before Carlos could finish that sentence. He made it but Carlos let out a war cry and understood that he had walked into a warzone.

Xxx

"So Geoff took pictures of DJ talking to this girl at the pet shop and showed it to everyone in the studio?" Aelita asked, talking to the group through her computer.

"Yep, and just for that I don't think he'll be making out with Bridgette for a while...if ever." Gwen replied.

Geoff laughed nervously as Bridgette glared at him. They were right now in the recreation room with Noah and Duncan playing a video game. LeShawna, Trent, and Courtney were playing a trivia game while Heather was sitting on a couch reading a magazine. Eva was in the gym lifting weights while the rest were talking to Aelita on Cody's laptop.

"Has anyone told DJ yet?" Aelita asked.

"When DJ gets here Geoff will explain everything." Bridgette said sternly.

Geoff gulped but nodded.

"Good luck with that, Geoff." Aelita laughed. "I thought for sure it'd be Duncan who did something like that. No offense Duncan."

"Meh..." Duncan simply waved it off, hardly paying attention to anything else but the video game he and Noah were playing.

"Hey, Aelita, any missions to the Carbon Copy yet?" Geoff asked, hoping to get out of this mess.

"You'd prefer to annoy XANA rather than tell DJ you took a picture of him talking to this girl and gave then gave a copy to an intern who asked nicely to have one and then gave a copy to everyone in the studio?" Aelita raised an eyebrow. "I'd thought you'd enjoy a day off from Lyoko."

"Hey, I'm always ready for a fight!" Geoff laughed before Bridgette grabbed his ear. "OW!"

"You are telling DJ."

"Telling me what?" DJ walked into the game room. "What's going on here guys?"

Everyone stopped whatever they were doing and looked at Geoff. The party boy chuckled nervously as he walked over and patted DJ on the shoulder.

"Deej, man, I got something to tell you." Geoff led DJ out of the game room and towards the bathroom. "It's not a really big deal."

"O-kay." DJ said slowly.

Geoff walked into the bathroom and locked the door.

"Geoff?" DJ asked.

"Yeah?"

"Didn't you have something to tell me?"

"Oh yeah. Uh..."

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

"SAY WHAT?!"

Suddenly half the windows in the studio shattered from the sound of DJ's voice.

Xxx

"Okay, put it in." Kurt said as two interns put in a new window to replace the one Carlos broke...

"SAY WHAT?!"

And the new window shattered instantly sending glass all over Kurt's office.

"Crap!" Kurt ducked as glass flew over his head.

Xxx

"SAY WHAT?!"

A small crack formed on the window of Aelita's room, catching the pink haired girl's attention.

"He's taking it better than I thought." Aelita chuckled.

Xxx

"I can't believe you did that!" DJ exclaimed once he calmed down.

They were now back in the game room with everyone, even Aelita who was watching through Cody's laptop as DJ paced back and forth.

"Dude, I'm sorry! I didn't think they'd pass the picture around." Geoff replied. "I was just curious where you were going!"

"That's still not cool!" DJ stopped and shook his head. "I go down there because I like feeding the animals there with her and we became really good friends for the last month."

"That's understandable." Gwen nodded. "While we're on the subject can you tell us about her?"

DJ turned back to her, making her wonder if she shouldn't have asked that questions but he just sighed and nodded.

"Her name is Jennifer; she works at the pet shop owned by her parents which was great because...She didn't need to pay for an eye dog." DJ explained. "She loves working in the pet shop, the animals seems to love her and she has no trouble moving around in there even without her dog or stick. We had a small conversation on how much we liked animals and enjoyed each other's company so much that I promised I'd drop in to see her whenever I had the chance. We stay in the shop even after it closes and play with the animals there, feeding them and we have lots of fine."

"Nice man." Duncan nodded with a smirk. "You ask her out?"

"What?! It's not like that, man!" DJ exclaimed.

Courtney took the chance to slap Duncan on the back of the head. He chuckled weakly while rubbing the back of his head.

"We're just friends, dudes! I can't ask her out!" DJ shook his head.

"Why not? She sounds nice enough." LeShawna pointed out.

"What about the show? What about Lyoko? We still have to go through all sectors of the Carbon Copy, break into XANA's domain, rescue Aelita's friends, and stop XANA once and for all. Between that and all the attacks that'll follow how can I ask her out? Plus...I never...well..." DJ stammered.

"Never asked a girl out." Noah finished.

"Yeah." DJ sighed.

"Deej, dude I get where you're going here but if you have a chance to meet somebody awesome you got go for it man!" Geoff stood up. "Any girl would be lucky to have you! Come on, haven't you at least thought about it?"

"Bear in mind, Geoff you have no business giving DJ dating advice after spying on him and showing everyone else!" Bridgette grabbed Geoff by the ear. "You're his friend, not his mother."

"How is me wanting him to be happy and finding a good girl make me his mother?" Geoff winced from the tight grip Bridgette had on his ear.

"You know, DJ there's no reason not to keep on visiting Jennifer whether you plan to ask her out or not." Aelita jumped into the conversation from Cody's laptop. "You are right about having a life outside of Lyoko and don't worry about endangering her. Despite his attempts to destroy us, XANA's top target is me and with such a large group even he can't target all of you if you are separate."

"She's got a point, Deej. I mean with all of us the chances of Jennifer in danger during an attack are low. XANA's ever only gone after his main enemies in these attacks." Cody agreed. "She seems pretty nice."

"Yeah...well..." DJ rubbed the back of his head. "What about the show? I mean even if we are trying to stay on as much as possible there's no guarantee I'll make to the finals and what happens when I leave?"

"Big guy, you're doing too much thinking here." Duncan stood up and walked up to the soft hearted giant. "Look at it, this way, it's because you could end up leaving at any minute that you got to seize the moment!"

"Yeah, DJ. You don't have to ask her out; don't think we're trying to pressure you here." Trent pointed out. "Just don't feel like you have to distance yourself from her because of the show and Lyoko. We got your back, man."

"I guess...thanks guys." DJ nodded. "But that was still an uncool thing to do, Geoff."

"I know, sorry man." Geoff apologized and bowed his head.

"So...what's this about Carlos having a sister?" DJ changed the subject.

"Oh just an annoying nutcase who likes to play pranks."

Everyone shouted in surprise and spun around to see Carlos jump into the room with a water gun in his hand.

"Where'd you come from?" DJ asked.

"Are you in touch with the minister from my wedding?" Carlos asked but shook his and peeked out into the hall. "Never mind, keep quiet."

"That prank war still on?" Gwen asked.

"Yep and I've been able to stay hidden for the last hour, keeping my sister all paranoid. Thinking I'm about to pounce out of nowhere like a tiger." Carlos cackled. "Now she's..."

Just as Maggie walked into the room Carlos leapt up and pointed the water gun at her face. "BOO-YAH!"

However instead of water shooting her in the face the water came out above the nozzle and shot Carlos in the face instead.

"Hey, bro, still shooting yourself in the face?" Maggie asked with a smirk as she walked out of the room, leaving her brother staring blankly at the door.

"That smell..." Izzy walked up to Carlos and sniffed his wet hair. "Hey, that's not water, it's..."

Xxx

The next day was pretty quiet compared to the day before, Carlos and Maggie's prank war had ended in both of them being so exhausted that they fell asleep outside in the courtyard. For the sake of everyone's sanity no one woke them up and left them to sleep on the grass and thankfully they had no woken up yet despite the fact that it was now the afternoon and the sun had almost completely vanished from the newly emerging night sky. But Carlos and Maggie's prank war was the last thing on DJ's mind as he walked out of the studio.

"Hey DJ!"

Just as he walked onto the side walk and turned to the source of the voice that called him.

"Jennifer?"

She kept her hair in a pony tail with her sunglasses on, wearing a simply white T-shirt and jeans while holding her cane in her right hand.

"Why are you here?" DJ walked over to his friend.

"I got a voice message from you saying that you'd walk me over to mall before my shift." Jennifer replied.

"I did?" DJ asked, not remembering when he said that.

Little did he know was that both he and Jennifer were being watched.

"I still don't like that we're watching this." Courtney said, watching them through a window on the top floor of the studio.

"It's not just us." Duncan replied.

The entire cast, including Beth and Lindsay were in the room watching in one room with Cody holding up his laptop, showing Aelita watching them through her webcam. And they were not the only ones watching. Interns and workers were watching DJ and Jennifer from the windows of nearly every room in the studio facing their direction. Kurt had a pair of binoculars out as he watched from his office while Lesley was holding a bowl of popcorn.

"Did you really have to set them up?" Bridgette glared at Geoff.

"It's the only way he'll be able to learn." Geoff replied.

DJ had no idea who sent the voice message but if he said it wasn't him it might hurt Jennifer's feelings because she had been waiting for him.

"So, can we go?" Jennifer asked.

"Yeah...sure!" DJ smiled and nodded.

They both started walking down the sidewalk towards the mall.

"Awwww..." Most of the girls said at the happy moment.

"Told you it would work." Geoff smirked.

"Okay...but there's no still no making out for a month." Bridgette replied.

"Ouch!" Duncan and Cody laughed.

"He's going to be all sulky for a month." Noah sighed.

"Yeah...hey guys look! A shooting star!" Lindsay pointed to the sky. "It's so pretty!"

"Oooooohhhhh!" Everyone looked up, forgetting about DJ and Jennifer to see the spark of light flying across the sky.

"That is so pretty!" Beth gasped in awe.

"I got to sketch this!" Gwen pulled out her sketchbook.

"Is there anything else we should see?" Heather asked.

Xxx

"Uhhhhh..." Carlos opened his eyes and groaned.

At the same time two interns had been walking by and heard Carlos groan.

"Did you hear that?" One of them asked.

"It sounded like a..." The second intern spotted Carlos getting up while still groaning. "Zombie!"

"Damn!" The first intern picked up a rock and threw it.

It hit Carlos in the head and he gave a shout as he fell back onto the ground.

"We got to tell Kurt we have zombies!" Both interns ran into the studio screaming.

"...what the hell?!" Carlos cried clutching his head. "What zombies?!"

Xxx

Unfortunately for the Lyoko Warriors not everyone was enjoying a well earned break from the digital conflict. The digital Avatar of the evil computer program XANA sat on a floating red block in the center of his personal chamber, planning his next attack. As always he was watching the Warriors for any sign of weaknesses that he could use to maximize his chances of neutralizing them once and for all. He had caught a glimpse of the picture of DJ with the girl, Jennifer Rose that had been sent to nearly every cell phone and digital device used by anyone in the studio and it was easy for a program like XANA to hack and get his own copy of the picture.

He then gathered any information on her and watched as Geoff covertly tried to set them up.

'The joys of a so called normal life.' XANA smirked. 'You may have a life outside of Lyoko but that life can end at almost any time.'

With the information he had gained XANA now started what he did best: planning. He took into the account that a member of the group was now somewhere else alone but the loss of one warrior would mean nothing, especially since the Berserker Duncan and the Warrior Princess Courtney had returned to the group with their memories and Lyoko Avatars restored. So he would need to concentrate on the larger number that had stayed in the studio. He needed to cut them off completely, leaving them unable to reach the factory no matter what.

'What strategy can block them from reaching the factory with absolutely no chance of getting past whatever I control, no matter how small the risk?' XANA mulled. 'Aelita is at the Kadic Academy School, Devon Joseph is with the girl identified as Jennifer Rose, and the others are still in the studio. There's still a chance to get rid of them all but this will require careful planning.'

Even though defeat was something he'd prefer to avoid XANA understood that it left unwanted fruit waiting to be ripened and he understood that if the factory was cut off from the warriors no matter where their location victory would be his. That was when XANA realized a new kind of strategy based on an old one he had used.

'Salvaging a failed plan to create a better one.' XANA chuckled.

But his plans needed much more than good idea. He needed to calculate how much power he would need for this plan, wait for the right moment, make sure that if any of the warriors did reach Lyoko he had his monsters and generals ready and waiting. This is what excited XANA, the chance to experiment and show just what else he was capable of whenever he attacked the real world.

'Well, time to get to work.' XANA sent out a summoning.

A portal appeared in the room and Lilith stepped out.

"Master XANA, you sent for me?" Lilith bowed slightly.

"I am preparing another strike against the warriors." XANA said, getting straight to the point. "As my head General, I am counting on you to strategize how to defend the tower I have chosen."

"Yes, Master. I will gather the others and we'll head to Lyoko immediately." Lilith said but XANA raised his hand to stop her from leaving.

"No need to leave, Lilith. I have something different in mind for this attack, a way to maximize the element of surprise." XANA smirked.

With just a thought a single tower activated, under his control and all ready channeling his power into the real world. A holo-map much like the one in the lab appeared in the room allowing Lilith to see which tower XANA had taken control of.

"That's..." Lilith gasped.

"Exactly." XANA nodded, enjoying the surprised look on Lilith's face. "There's no need to hide anymore now that Aelita and her allies have set foot onto my domain. She'll find it much harder to stop me, the deeper she dares to venture into the Carbon Copy."

XANA couldn't wait to see what his enemies would do to get out of this mess.

Xxx

A digital specter shot out of the factory and into the sky, spreading out and covering the once clear blue sky until darkness had fallen over the city. People momentarily stopped whatever they were doing to look up and watch as the sky turned almost completely black. Lightning flashed across the sky but that was about the least of their problems. Wind blew through the streets much stronger than normal, catching people by surprise and blowing almost anything light enough into the air.

The wind was much stronger than normal, strong enough that some people were actually knocked over by its power.

Xxx

Kurt turned around from his paper work and looked out the window, seeing the new storm that had just appeared.

"I am somehow getting a very bad feeling about this." Kurt sighed, realizing that this might not be an ordinary storm.

He turned around and pressed the intercom button.

"Carlos, wherever you are get up here now!"

Xxx

"Man that's one ugly storm." Cody looked out the window.

"Maybe we'll see some lightning!" Izzy looked eagerly through the window.

"It's just a storm, nothing new." LeShawna sat on a couch reading a magazine. "It's not like it's..."

Lightning flashed brightly across the sky and Izzy saw something for a mere second but she spotted it.

"Uh...guys..." Izzy trailed off.

"What?" Gwen put down her sketchbook.

"You might want to see this. Look when there's lightning." Izzy pointed at the sky.

"What's so bad that..." Noah stopped when there was another blast of lightning. "Did you guys see that?"

"Yep." Gwen nodded, with a fearful look on her face. "Get the guys, now!"

"I'll call DJ!" Cody pulled out his phone.

"Like the big guy can get to the factory in that storm!" Noah shook his head.

Xxx

Aelita looked outside her classroom window, watching as lightning flashed across the sky.

'That's odd; the weather report said this whole week would be clear and sunny.' Aelita thought.

The sky was almost completely black and with another flash of lightning Aelita thought her heart had stopped working.

'Was that...' Aelita prayed she had been wrong.

Inside the clouds, just as lightning flashed she swore she had thought she had seen...

With another flash lightning she worst fears had been realized.

It could only be seen when lightning flared inside the storm but she saw it.

The Eye of XANA in the storm, glaring down at the city below. Actually, she almost swore the Eye was looking right at her.

'XANA...what have you done this time?' Aelita looked back down at her desk. 'Last time it was a blizzard that almost sent France back into the Ice Age and now...'

She needed to get out now before it was too late.

XANA was on the move again, and this time it looked the entire city was in danger.


	96. Episode 94: Twister

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 96

What had been a nice clear and sunny day for France had now been replaced by one of the biggest and darkest storms ever recorded. People ran inside the nearest buildings or houses they could find to get out of the storm. Some were actually afraid that the storm was the start of a hurricane, right in the center of France. Only a small group of teens and adults knew the actual origin of the storm.

They looked through the windows of the studio and Kadic Academy, watching the Eye appear every time there was a flash of lightning in the sky. It was XANA's way of telling them that he was responsible for the storm and that he would destroy the entire city if that's what took to eliminate his enemies once and for all.

Xxx

DJ looked up as the sky turned black and the wind became so harsh he had to cover his eyes and hold his hat when it almost was blown off.

"What's going on?!" Jennifer's sunglasses were blown off her face, leaving her to cover her eyes as DJ reached and grabbed her.

"Hang on! It'll be all right!"

DJ ran off with a burst of determination to get them out of the storm. Luckily that had just reached the front of the mall when the storm appeared. DJ carried Jennifer inside and thankfully the doors behind them closed. DJ sighed as he fell to his knees not noticing Jennifer was now on his lap.

"Thanks DJ..." Jennifer smiled up at him even though she couldn't see.

"Yo-your welcome." DJ smiled, blushing a bit.

"I think you...you can let me go now." Jennifer blushed a bit and DJ realized what she was talking about.

"Oh, sorry!" DJ hastily set her down and helped her stand up. "I am so sorry! I didn't mean..."

Jennifer cut him off by laughing. "It's all right! It's okay! Don't be so sensitive!"

DJ chuckled nervously.

"We better get to the pet shop and see if the animals are okay though." Jennifer said as her smile turned to a look of concern. "Can you help me? When I came to meet you I didn't bring my dog."

"Oh, okay! Sure!" DJ nodded, not one to turn down a need for help. "It's right this way."

But while he was leading Jennifer to the pet shop DJ had this terrible feeling in the back of his head. That storm...

He had seen it in the sky when there was a flash of lightning.

The Eye staring down at him, letting him know that it knew where he was and what it was planning. DJ had suppressed the urge to gulp and hoped the others would reach the factory in time.

Xxx

"Come on! Come on!" Carlos hammered a nail into the large board of wood he used to barricade the window. "Somebody pass me another nail!"

The storm had become so bad that one of the windows broke from the strong wind, leaving Carlos and some interns to block it off with a large wooden board. He finished hammering in the last nail and sighed in relief. "All these crazy attacks happening on what is supposed my day off, I'm too young for this crap!"

Interns ran back and forth, barricading the windows and exits so the storm wouldn't smash them open and send glass flying everywhere. Meanwhile in the game room the Lyoko Warriors had assembled while Cody placed his laptop on the table for all of them to see.

"Okay, by now I'm sure everyone know what is going on..." Cody started.

"Yeah, XANA's obviously a fan of the Day After Tomorrow." Duncan said.

"I was going to say Twister." Noah said as he turned on the TV and watched the news.

"_It is a complete surprise to us, folks. What started as a bright and sunny day has now turned into a very large storm, some even say that its possible a hurricane is forming right here in France. We urge the public to get indoors as soon as possible and barricade all windows and exits for your safety. We will have more information-_" The TV now showed nothing but static snow.

"We lost our television signal." Noah turned the TV off.

"Internet connection's not doing so well either, I am having a hard time connecting to Lyoko and finding that tower." Cody replied.

"Forget that, how are we supposed to get to the factory?" Heather asked. "The wind looks strong enough to pick us up the moment we run outside."

"Not to mention the lightning..." Gwen looked outside. "And the rain."

It was now raining, hard. In fact it looked like the courtyard had been turned into a miniature swamp.

"Anyone here a good swimmer?" Gwen asked.

"Not even if there was a million dollar reward." Courtney shook her head.

"I'm worried about DJ; he's out there right now." Bridgette said, a look of deep concern growing on her face.

"Don't worry too much, Bridge. The big guy knows how to look after himself." Geoff patted his girlfriend on the shoulder.

"Hey guys!"

Everyone turned around and saw Kurt walk into the game room.

"Just to let you know, my office is now unworkable because the new window I ordered to replace the one Carlos broke was broken by some bad luck and now XANA's storm has made it look like Carlos's bachelor party!" Kurt said casually. "So, when are you guys heading out?"

"Heading out? In that weather, with a storm created by the psycho program out to kill us?" LeShawna asked.

"Oh yeah, but that's nothing new." Kurt waved off her concern.

"Kurt, we don't even know how we're going to get to the factory and then there's Aelita and DJ who are not with us at the moment." Gwen pointed out.

"So don't go outside..." Kurt shrugged. "There's more than one way."

"Oh no!" Heather groaned. "You're not suggesting we travel through the sewer again, are you?"

That was when the lights went out, signalling that the power was gone.

"You want to live?" Kurt raised an eyebrow.

"Hold on, let's get in contact with Aelita and DJ, see how they are holding up." Gwen pulled out her phone. "I got Aelita."

"I got DJ." Geoff pulled out his phone.

Xxx

Aelita was not having a better time than the others. Class had gone as normal despite the powerful storm that was raging outside but people were a little nervous from fierce it was becoming. The power went out, leaving them in the dark and people were afraid to go outside no matter how close the dorm building was.

"Students, remain calm! We will proceed in an orderly manner to the dorm building." Jim spoke over the chattering of students.

Aelita felt her cell phone vibrating in her pocket, not needing any of her Lyoko powers to know who was calling. Quietly slipping away from the crowd which wasn't that hard she ran into the girl's bathroom and answered her phone.

"Let me guess, very scary storm." Aelita whispered.

"_You've been hanging around Noah for far too long._" Gwen remarked. "_I take it you noticed the Eye of the Storm?_"

"Now whose been hanging Noah for far too long?" Aelita smirked when she heard a grumble sound in the background. "I'm pretty much stuck at the moment, Gwen. We're supposed to be heading back to the dorm building as fast as possible in an orderly manner. I can wait to slip away when we're outside but I don't trust being outside for too long."

"_Yeah, me too. But we're thinking of a plan at the moment and we think we can still reach the factory._" Gwen replied. "_We'll just have to move really fast._"

"Have you heard from DJ?" Aelita asked, remembering that DJ had left with Jennifer.

"_Geoff's calling him right now, hopefully he made inside before the storm hit. I got a feeling XANA's done playing around._"

"I agree. XANA's attacks have almost never involved using the weather itself except for when he created a blizzard. This could mean that XANA might be even stronger than we thought, perhaps he was even holding back until now." Aelita frowned grimly. "If he's capable of creating a storm who else what he is capable of now."

"_I'd rather not find out._" Aelita thought she heard Gwen shudder and didn't blame her.

In the past XANA had been limited to using electrical devices in his attacks but as time went on he became capable of possessing small animals and then humans, endowing them with powers making them almost unstoppable. The idea that he could now alter the weather was a testament of his ever growing powers and how badly Aelita and the others needed to stop him as soon as possible.

"_We'll try and get to the factory as soon as possible and hopefully meet up there._" Gwen got back on track.

"Be careful out there." Aelita nodded.

"_I should be saying that to you._" Gwen replied, with a small bit of humour in her voice. "_We're all together and you're all alone._"

"I'll manage; just don't get killed while I am gone. God help whoever it is who has to look after you kids when I am not around." Aelita tried to sound like a teacher disciplining her students. "Do anything crazy and I can alter your Lyoko forms into something that could be seen as embarrassing."

"_I'm sure Noah remembers that._" Gwen chuckled. "_Good luck._"

"You too." Aelita nodded and hung up.

When she put her cell phone away she peeked around the hall way. The boiler room was closer than the dorm building. It might dangerous out in the storm but if she did nothing the city could end up flooded or even worse. She had to try.

Xxx

DJ was looking out the window with dread as the storm became darker and fiercer. He could still see the Eye whenever lightning flashed and he was sure it was looking _straight_ at him.

"DJ, are you all right?" He turned and saw Jennifer with a concerned look.

Even if Jennifer was blind she was good at sensing what other people were feeling, one of the reasons she was working in a pet shop. She was good with the animals and knew what they needed.

"I'm okay, just a little worried about the storm." DJ smiled even if Jennifer couldn't see it.

Jennifer didn't seem to believe him but she simply nodded just as DJ's cell phone started to ring. He quickly pulled it out and answered.

"Hello?" He whispered.

"_Hey, man! Good to hear your voice, we were worried you were stuck out in the storm!_" Geoff's voice came through.

"Barely, but we're okay." DJ nodded. "So did you see the..."

"_The Eye? Yeah, big give away._" Geoff replied. "_We're trying to see how we'll be getting to factory while trying to figure out what the big bad AI's plan is this time._"

"Good luck." DJ nodded.

"_You're not coming?_"

"I can't leave Jennifer here like this. What if something bad happens?"

As if to answer his question the power went out leaving the mall in the dark.

"Geoff?"

"_Yeah?_"

"The power's out here."

"_Same here dude, lights just went dead on us._" Geoff sighed. "_Okay, good luck man. We'll high tail it to Lyoko and shut down the tower._"

"Good luck guys." DJ nodded. "Sorry I can't be there."

He hung up, feeling slightly guilty that he decided to stay and look after Jennifer if the storm got worse and knowing XANA it would definitely get worse.

Xxx

Aelita was now in line as the group of students lead by gym slowly went outside and the second they were out she was instantly slapped in the face by the strong wind. Not only that but because of the hard rain it took only two seconds for Aelita's clothes and hair to become soaked, making her shiver a bit. The second Aelita was out she took off towards the boiler room.

"Hey, Stones! Where are you going?!" She could hear Jim shouting, even though his force was partially muffled by the strong wind.

It was hard to see with the rain and wind along with how cold her soaked clothes had become. She could make out the door to the boiler room after using it so many times. She opened the door and ran inside, slamming it shut just after she made it out of the rain. Taking a chance to sigh in relief at being out of the rain and shaking some water out of her wet clothes she ran for the door leading to the sewer.

She ran down the stairs and went to grab her scooter but stopped when she noticed something. Lifting her boot she saw that the water had risen up to her ankles!

"Ugh, XANA." Aelita groaned.

It shouldn't be that surprising; XANA was trying to take them all out. A simple storm wasn't going to do it but with enough rain she supposed it'd be enough to raise the water level in the sewer. Looking up she already noticed that her scooter was already submerged in water and wouldn't by any good.

"I guess I'm running." Aelita sighed and started running.

It was slightly more difficult with the slowly rising water slowing her down. Her feet sent water flying as she ran and she had to ignore how cold her feet now felt.

'I hope the others...' Aelita trailed off as she realized something.

The rest of the group might decide to go through the sewers like she did when they saw how dangerous the weather was. Pulling out her pink cell phone she quickly tried to dial the nearest number of TD group, which was Bridgette's number. But before she could press the call button water came raining down on her from a hatch above. Crying out from the cold water that fell upon her she accidently dropped her phone into the water.

"Oh no!" Aelita reached down to grab but couldn't find it.

This was not good! Without her phone she couldn't warn the others about the water rising in the sewers!

'I hope the others will make it.'

With no choice but to keep on trying to reach the factory Aelita moved forward, drenched to her bones in cold water.

Xxx

The weather above the city was not improving; in fact it had taken a turn for the worse. As if the lightning, strong winds, constant raining was not enough it was now snowing with the temperature decreasing. The rain was now starting to freeze and ice began to form, encasing the city in what could be seen as the new Ice Age.

"Okay, it's official. XANA's a big fan of the Day After Tomorrow." Duncan said, peeking out the window. "We don't move now and the city freezes to death."

"He's right. We have to take the underground route into the sewers through the basement." Bridgette replied.

"Good luck with that!" Carlos ran in, his clothes soaking wet.

"Carlos, where have you been? Did you take a step outside?" Kurt turned to face him.

"I wish. The basement is flooded!" Carlos exclaimed. "Good luck getting through that!"

"So...if we can't get to the factory safely through the sewers and it's too dangerous to reach the factory outside...how do we get there?!" Trent exclaimed. "I mean, if we go out we're as good as dead!"

The group shared concerned looks, wondering what they should do. Cody suddenly got an idea a moment later.

"Actually, there is a lab." Cody spoke up, earning everyone's attention. "Robby's lab underneath the Virtual Room."

"XANA fried the hard drive on that, remember? It's no good to us." Gwen pointed out.

"But the scanners still work." Cody replied. "Maybe...if we hook up either mine or Noah's laptop we operate the scanners with the connection to Lyoko."

Everyone shared a look as they took in Cody's plan.

"What do you think?" Heather looked at Noah.

"Sounds pretty viable. If we check and see if the scanners are fine and not fried along with the computer." Noah shrugged. "They didn't clear that lab out, did they?"

"Robby left it the way it was when he resigned and we decided to clear it out when the season was over and by that time this whole mess was solved." Kurt replied.

"What about the power?" Duncan asked, gesturing the dead lights. "No power means no scanners."

"There is an emergency generator we can use. But we need to turn it on." Kurt sighed.

"Good luck with that buddy!" Carlos ran out.

"Why is turning it on a bad thing?" LeShawna asked.

"It's outside in a shack." Kurt replied.

"Sucks to be you, dude." Duncan looked back at the weather.

"Meh, I can handle it." Kurt turned and walked out of the room. "Just let me get into something warm."

"So it's all there? Great!" Courtney smiled.

"Hang on, I better call Aelita and let her know we can't make it to the factory." Gwen pulled out her phone.

She dialed and Aelita's number and listened to the ringing tone.

But no answer.

"Guys..." Gwen looked up with a very concerned look on her face. "She's not answering."

Xxx

Aelita was shivering just as she saw the ladder leading up to the hatch in front of the factory.

"I am not going to like this." Aelita reached up and grabbed the ladder, flinching when she felt how cold it was.

She slowly climbed up the ladder and when she was at the top she opened the hatch, only to be smacked in the face by a blast of strong cold wind and what looked like...snow? She squinted her eyes because of the wind but she could see that it was indeed snow falling upon her.

'Just what are you planning, XANA? You've already tried a blizzard.' Aelita got up and ran inside the factory.

It didn't change the temperature much but Aelita was grateful all the same. She realized that taking the elevator was a bad idea, especially if the cables froze. Even if it meant enduring the cold again she decided to take the long way by finding the ladder down to the lab. Rubbing her arms she ran down the lobby and stopped in front of the hatch.

She quickly opened it and jumped down, thankfully it was not a long jump into the vent. She quickly closed the vent and felt some much needed heat from the lab's heater. She crawled down to the end where the ladder leading down to the lab was waiting.

'And Aelita makes it again.' Aelita climbed down the ladder, deciding to jump off when she was halfway down.

She landed perfectly on her feet and ran to the computer. She accessed the Super Scan and the map of Lyoko. As the programs started loading she quickly dialed Gwen's number.

Xxx

The TD group had gathered in the Simulator Room with Carlos prying open the elevator to the laboratory basement. Gwen's blackberry started ringing and she quickly answered it.

"Aelita?" Gwen asked hopefully.

"_Hey Gwen, nice to know you saw me coming._" Aelita chuckled.

Gwen sighed in relief and smiled at everyone, letting them know that Aelita was safe and alive.

"Are you all right?"

"_I'm fine, even though reaching the factory was harder than I thought. The sewers were flooded and I got slowed down by not only very cold water but icy strong winds and falling hail._"

"I tried calling five minutes ago but you didn't answer."

"_I lost my cell phone in the water. What about you guys?_"

"Sorry, we never got the chance to leave. The basement with the secret passage into the sewers was flooded. We're trying another tactic in getting to Lyoko, the lab Robby built under the Total Drama simulator room."

"_Wasn't that lab destroyed?_"

"The computer was but the scanners are still intact. We think a laptop that has a connection to Lyoko can operate the scanners and virtualize us." Gwen watched as Carlos, Eva, and Duncan managed to force open the elevator door. "We just need to get down to the lab first, the elevators are out of orders. What about you?"

"_I just made it to the lab and I'm scanning for the tower right now. Gwen, it's a real mess out there now. It's not just a blizzard out there anymore._"

"You got that right." Gwen nodded.

"_I'm not sure how long I can wait but we need to shut down that tower now or a lot of people could be hurt and even killed._"

"Just hold off for five, ten minutes max and let us see if we can get the scanners working." Gwen raised a hand.

"_All right, but please hurry._" Aelita agreed and hung.

"Aelita make it?" Bridgette asked as Gwen put her phone away.

"Yeah, she's looking for the tower now but she's not going to wait very long with how bad things are out there." Gwen replied. "We need to get moving _now_."

"You got it!" Duncan jumped forward and grasped the elevator cables.

He slid down to the bottom, landing on the ground. "Okay! Next?"

As the others slid down the cable Duncan worked on prying the doors open. It became easier when Geoff and Trent helped him. The lights were out, forcing Courtney call out for a flash light from Carlos who dropped it down the elevator shaft.

"OW! CARLOS!" LeShawna shouted when the flash light landed on her head.

"SORRY!" Carlos called down.

"Boy I'm gonna kick you when you get down here!"

"Yeesh, I'm suddenly tempted to face the storm," Carlos grumbled before Kurt appeared next to him.

"Good idea! Go turn on the generator for me!" He slid a rain coat onto Carlos along with gloves, goggles and a hat. "Good luck buddy!" He then swung a window open and threw Carlos out.

"You _suuuuuuck-_" SPLASH! The water was up a foot now, but luckily the shack was reinforced. Carlos grumbled as he made his way towards it. "Son of a-I'm gonna freaking kill-CURSE HIM I SAY!"

The lights inside the studio came back on, letting everyone know that the power was back.

"Whoo-hoo!" Geoff pumped a fist in the air. "We're back!"

"Give a minute here, Geoff!" Cody ran inside the lab.

It looked the same as before but the Supercomputer had been fried leaving only the scanners standing, powerless and dead until now. Cody set his laptop on the floor and pulled out a cable that he attached on end to his laptop and then to nearest scanner.

"Okay, let's see..." Cody typed as fast as he could. "Connecting to Lyoko!"

Xxx

Aelita frowned when the Super Scan didn't detect an activated tower on Lyoko, which was impossible. No towers on Lyoko meant...

Aelita's eyes widened when she realized the only other place XANA could activate a tower and avoid detection.

The Carbon Copy.

XANA's digital domain, his main base of operations and the only digital world that XANA could activate a tower without being detected. Aelita suspected that XANA used a second tower during his first attack after his return to kidnap Jeremy and later he activated a tower in the Swamp Sector while tricking her into thinking the tower was in Lyoko. XANA had used the link to trick them and after some modifications Aelita could now detect activated towers in the Swamp and Forest Sectors of the Copy when he sent most of the group back in time. But until the other sectors were connected she had no way of knowing if a tower was activated or not.

She never understood why XANA preferred Lyoko over the Copy but she suspected that Lyoko offered more power in his attacks than the Copy did. Or maybe because using Lyoko was safer than the Copy, a way to avoid his attacks being traced somehow. Whatever the reason, Aelita understood one thing: if XANA was now relying on the Carbon Copy to launch his attacks it was serious. It meant XANA was taking the battle to the next level.

'I have to tell the others.' Aelita was about dial her friend's number when a new window appeared. "Hm..."

The window was a security program letting her know that someone was attempting to access the virtualization program.

'Cody!' Aelita realized and accessed another program.

Xxx

"What's taking so long?" Heather asked impatiently.

They were all gathered around Cody as he worked.

"You want to try this, Heather? Are you a computer pro?" Cody asked rhetorically.

Before anyone else could reply a new window appeared and the laptop started making a ringing sound.

"Skype? Who is...?" Cody accepted the call.

Aelita appeared on the screen. "Cody! You guys made it!"

"Hey, Aelita! I should be happy you made it! You look like you just came out of a flood!" Cody remarked, observing Aelita's wet clothes and hair.

"You're not far off but it was a lot colder than that." Aelita chuckled but turned serious a second later. "Listen, I've been scanning Lyoko and I can't find the activated tower. I think XANA's activated a tower in the Carbon Copy."

"Are you kidding?" Noah groaned. "He's gone that far!?"

"What's wrong with that?" Duncan asked. "It's a copy of Lyoko, right?"

"It's more than that, Duncan. It's a deathtrap!" LeShawna exclaimed.

"XANA's created a whole series of death traps so bad that stepping foot into a single sector equals a massive headache." Noah rubbed his head.

"It's gets worse, Noah. If the tower was in the Swamp or Forest Sectors I'd be able to find it. I modified the Super Scan to detect towers through the link we have to the Copy and I even ran a check to see if XANA had somehow tampered with it." Aelita shook her head. "The connection is fine meaning..."

"The tower's in one of the other sectors we haven't visited yet." Gwen finished.

"That's right. All we can do is hope and pray that the tower is one of the easily accessed sectors and not Sector 5 because then we could have a major problem." Aelita continued. "There's no guarantee that the Transport Orb, if there even is one works with the same password or if the same programs Jeremy created to access our Sector 5 will work on the Copy."

"Oh great..." Noah rubbed his head. "All right, all right, here's the idea, so either we go in and split up to cover more ground to find the tower as fast as possible or we stay together and go up and down the Copy until we stumble upon it."

"That could take hours!" Bridgette pointed out. "DJ and everyone else might not have that long!"

"Is DJ all right?" Aelita asked.

"He's fine, he made into the mall with his girl." Duncan replied. "All though he might be in the dark with the rest of us."

"And if the storm gets worse the entire city could be flooded." Courtney pointed out.

"Or worse...frozen." Aelita grimly replied.

"Say what?" Geoff asked.

"The temperature's started to drop out there, badly. It's starting to freeze and if the flood gets worse the entire city will be encased in ice." Aelita grimly continued. "That's why we need to find the tower as fast as possible. I'm starting up the program to virtualize myself directly in the Forest Sector of the Carbon Copy. I'll have the vehicles ready and waiting for you guys."

"Just give me three minutes, Aelita. I need to get the scanners working!" Cody started typing again.

"All right. But please, hurry!" Aelita finished and ended the call.

"We need to call DJ and tell him to keep himself as warm as possible." Trent said.

"On it!" Geoff pulled out his phone.

"Noah, can you get your laptop out and help?" Cody asked.

"Got it." Noah nodded, reaching into his bag and pulling out his laptop. "Good thing we always plan to have some sort of back up."

Xxx

"I don't think so."

XANA had monitored the conversation between Gwen and Aelita and had already begun devising a strategy to counter their plan. Reaching out to the tower he had activated XANA begun inputting new commands into the tower that would then sent them to the specter he had used to create the storm to carry out his commands.

"Now it's time to turn up the heat. Let's see how well you handle this, Warriors." XANA chucked.

Xxx

The storm hovering over France stopped raining but the thunder and wind remained. In fact the wind became even stronger. Cars, trucks, buses, streetlights and even building parts were torn up into the sky but the wind had became much stronger around the studio and the mall where DJ and Jennifer were.

"Oh great!" Carlos covered his face as he back to the entrance after closing the shack where the generator was.

He had just made it to the door and grabbed on when he felt he was being lifted off his feet.

"What now? A storm that rains until it floods and now wind so strong it feels like a tor...nado?" Carlos quickly opened the doors and slammed them shut as he ran in.

Locking them for good measure he turned around and shouted as loud as he could. "EVERYONE GET INTO THE BASEMENT! WE GOT A TORNADO COMING!"

Anyone who heard him dropped whatever they were doing and made a full run towards the basement with their legs running as fast possible. Carlos pulled out his cell phone and dialed Kurt's number.

Xxx

Kurt answered his phone as the warriors continued on trying to activate the scanners. "Hello?"

"_Kurt, whatever you guys are doing, do it faster!_" Carlos shouted.

"What's wrong, Carlos?" Kurt had to cover his ear when Carlos shouted so loud he thought he eardrums had blown.

"_Oh nothing much, just that I think A HUGE FREAKING TORNADO IS ABOUT TO APPEAR AND TEAR THE STUDIO APART!_"

Kurt actually dropped the phone after that.

"Kurt?" Bridgette asked. "What's wrong?"

"I think you better tell DJ and to hide underground." Kurt replied calmly.

"Why's that?" LeShawna asked.

"Well...would you believe me that XANA has switched from a storm to possibly a tornado?"

Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at Kurt with shocked and fearful looks.

"Yeah, better hurry." Kurt nodded.

Cody and Noah quickly turned back to their laptops and started working faster than before while trying to avoid making a mistake. They could already begin feeling the shaking above them. Up on the ground floor a tornado had indeed appeared and ripped through the entrance of the studio, walls, doors, and anything not nailed down was lifted into the air and caught in tornado. Fortunately no one had been caught thanks to Carlos getting everyone down in the cellar.

"We don't a lot time left if we're feeling what I think we're feeling." Gwen bit her lip.

"Come on, DJ." Geoff dialed DJ's number and waited anxiously for the jolly giant to respond.

Xxx

Things were not looking much better on DJ's end. When the power went out he quickly covered the only window that showed the outdoors for better protections. Dogs barked, cats meowed and chewed on their cages and any other animal was either screaming or attempting to get out of the cage. It seemed even they could sense the pure evil controlling the storm.

"I don't understand."

Jennifer was standing at the pet shop's entrance, seemingly looking at the deserted and dark mall even if she couldn't actually see. Anyone else in the mall had gone into hiding, barricading the entrances in the shops and cafes to better protect themselves from the storm.

"I don't know, I really don't." DJ shook his head.

He felt incredibly guilty for lying to Jennifer. He had been raised by his mother to never lie, not even once. Since Lyoko had become part of life he had come to reluctantly accept that he needed to lie to save lives, even if he felt bad about it.

RING!

RING!

RING!

He was shaken from his thoughts as his cell phone started ringing and he quickly answered. "Hello?"

"_Oh, DJ, man thank God! I was starting to think you might be dead!_" Geoff's voice sighed in relief.

"Dead? Why would you think I'm dead?"

"_Because XANA stopped ripping off Day After Tomorrow and actually switched to Twister!_"

DJ's eyes widened and his jaw nearly dropped. "You mean..."

"_You got to get underground now!_"

The second Geoff shouted the mall began to shack and DJ could hear metal groaning and the ceiling above him starting to crack.

"Jennifer, we got to go!" DJ shouted.

Jennifer didn't even get a chance to reply as DJ picked her up and he ran at full speed just as the entrance to the mall was torn open by a newly formed tornado. People screamed and ran to any safe place in sight. Luckily the tornado was not big enough to tear apart the entire mall but it easily tore through the entrance and the ceiling as it chased after its target.

"WHAT'S GOING ON?!" Jennifer clung to DJ as he ran for their lives.

DJ couldn't speak as he was too focused on keeping them both alive and making sure no one else was caught in the attack.

'Got to find a way underground!' DJ thought.

He mentally pictured the layout of the mall; he had been here a dozen times but never had needed to look for a door going underground. Who could have predicted you'd be running from a tornado that is actually chasing you?! Well, considering he was fighting against a computer program that's done a whole of supernatural attack DJ shouldn't really be surprised.

'Come on, come on, a way out!' DJ spotted a door marked 'Authorized People Only'. 'Sorry about this!'

Running at full speed he rammed his left shoulder into the door so he wouldn't hurt Jennifer and the door was knocked off its hinges. Thankfully he found a staircase leading down and ran down the stairs so fast it looked like he was falling rather than running. He could feel the stairs shacking and the air was stirring around him meaning that the tornado was just above him. DJ made it to the bottom just as the wall on the floor was torn open.

DJ found another door that he knocked over and used the light from his cell phone to see what room he was in. It was the generator room that supplied the mall its power even though it was now powerless after the storm had cut off the city's power. Seeing that the generator was bolted down DJ pulled up several cables and broke them easily.

"Jennifer, you got to listen to me and quick!" DJ put Jennifer back down on the ground. "There's no time to explain but if you want to live you got to listen to me!"

Jennifer, even though she didn't know what was going on simply nodded, too scared to even think of arguing.

"I'm going to tie us to this generator so that when the tornado hits we won't be carried up." DJ explained hastily. "We just need to hang on until it's over."

He first tied the cable around Jennifer's waist and then his own as the room started to rumble.

"Hang on tight and don't let go!" DJ cried as a blast of wind came through the door.

The ceiling started to crack as the rumbling became stronger and louder. Both DJ and Jennifer were literally lifted off their feet as the ceiling was torn open and the tornado tried to carry them to their doom. Jennifer screamed as DJ wrapped one arm around her as they both held on for their very lives.

'Come on, guys! You got to hurry!'

Xxx

"I got it!" Cody exclaimed triumphantly.

"You got the scanners working?" LeShawna asked anxiously.

"Kind of but I only got one working." Cody replied apologetically. "It seems with main computer destroyed I can only operate the scanners manually."

"Meaning?" Heather asked.

"One laptop per scanner." Noah clarified.

"So we got two laptops meaning we can only virtualize you guys two at a time." Cody continued.

The rumbling became stronger and pieces started to fall from the ceiling.

"We'll take it!" Duncan, Geoff, and Trent said at the same time.

"We better call Aelita and let her know what's going on." Gwen pointed out and pulled out her phone.

"All right, who goes first?" Bridgette asked.

"I'm in." Eva raised her hand. "At least in the digital world there's something there to fight."

"All right, we got the coordinates set for the Forest Sector of the Carbon Copy." Cody quickly typed in the coordinates. "Step right in."

The scanner right next to him opened, ready to virtualize the person who stepped in.

"I guess I'm up too. Those monsters will have a problem with two powerhouses." LeShawna stepped towards the scanner connected to Noah's laptop.

"Okay, here we go. Transfer Eva!" Cody activated the scanner.

Eva crossed her arms as the scanner she was in closed.

"Transfer LeShawna." Noah's scanner closed with LeShawna inside.

"Scanner Eva!"

"Scanner LeShawna!"

"Virtualization!"

Xxx

Aelita picked up her phone after its first ring. "Hello?"

"_Good news, Aelita, we got two scanners working and we're on our way._" Gwen's voice said proudly.

"That's great!" Aelita smiled. "I'll meet you guys there!" Her smile faded with a frown. "Did you hear from DJ?"

"_Geoff tried but lost him, why?_" Gwen asked with a sense of dread.

"I'm watching the news and...a tornado hit the mall he was going to be meeting Jennifer at." Aelita turned to the news channel.

"_Oh no..._" Gwen gasped and shouted to the rest of the group. "_WE GOT TO MOVE NOW! THE NEXT FEW SECONDS MIGHT BE DJ'S LAST!_"

"_On it!_" Noah and Cody replied.

"_We'll be with you ten minutes ago!_" Gwen said to Aelita.

"Right." Aelita nodded and they both hung up.

Aelita activated the automatic virtualization sequence and used the ladder to climb down to the scanner room instead of the elevator. She stepped into the scanner and waited, tapping her foot impatiently as she waited for the timer to hit zero.

"Transfer Aelita.

The scanner finally closed and she closed her eyes as the process begun.

"Scanner Aelita."

The ring of light traveled up, scanning her body to identify her.

'DJ, just hold on. We'll make it but please hold on!'

"Virtualization." The computer finished.

Aelita was engulfed in a bright light as the scanner broke her organic body into energy and sent it straight into the digital universe.


	97. Episode 95: Travel Through XANA's Realm

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 97

Aelita's eyes slowly opened to the familiar surroundings of the Forest Sector, even if she was technically appearing in the Carbon Copy. She had already braced herself for the anticipated fall and landed perfectly on her feet. Taking the chance to glance around for any enemies just in case as she was now stranding in XANA's domain meaning that the home advantage was now his she was satisfied to find no monsters or generals waiting for her for now.

"Can anyone hear me?" She spoke out loud, hoping that someone in the studio would hear her.

"_Aelita?_" She smiled when she heard both Cody and Noah's voice at the same time.

"Hey guys, are you all right?"

"_We're fine at least for now. The basement's protected from the tornado for now but knowing XANA that won't last long._" Cody replied. "_We just finished virtualizing LeShawna and Eva and we managed to virtualize them into the Forest Sector of the Copy._"

"That's where I am right now." Aelita said happily. "So far no enemies but we better hurry. I'm going to see if I can get a fix on the activated tower."

"_I see you on the map now; we'll send LeShawna and Eva your way while we virtualize everyone else._" Noah spoke up.

"All right. Don't worry about the security system previously in place here. When I registered our avatars into the Way Tower of this Sector and the Swamp Sector I managed to disable the security programs that alter the sector." Aelita pointed out.

"_Now that really comes in handy!_" Cody laughed. "_We'll direct the girls to your location._"

Aelita nodded and sat down on the ground, ready and determined to carry out the next part of the mission: locating the tower. Before Jeremy invented the Super Scan Aelita was used to using the pulsations that were created when a tower was activated. When XANA activated a tower there was a signal sent out through Lyoko that was directed at the chosen tower. The pulsations resembled the sound of a beating heart, as if XANA's heart itself could be heard when he activated a tower, if he even had a heart.

It had been so long since she had relied on the pulsations to find a tower but she remembered and hoped that the Carbon Copy was similar enough to Lyoko that...

She glanced up when she thought heard it, a rumbling sound that sounded like a heartbeat and she knew that she had found what she needed. The sound was low and almost impossible to hear but she could hear but unfortunately the pulsations were too weak for the tower to be in the sector she was now in. And since the tower had not been detected in the Swamp Sector it meant that the tower was in one of the unexplored sectors of the Carbon Copy. Meaning that they would have to hope that the pulsations would lead them to the right sector.

"Aelita!"

The pink haired girl opened her eyes to see LeShawna and Eva running up towards her. Smiling she stood up just as the two girls stopped in front of her.

"Hey guys, you made it!" Aelita nodded to both of them. "I got to admit, even I had my doubts that we'd make it here after seeing the weather outside."

"Girl, you know that no storm is enough to stop this sister!" LeShawna put a hand on her hips. "A little outdoor shower's nothing!"

"Can we go now?" Eva asked impatiently.

"We have to wait for the others, Eva." Aelita pointed out. "We might have some trouble finding the tower this time since XANA has taken us by complete surprise again. Creating a storm and then a tornado and not to mention activating a tower in a sector we have not yet explored and connected to yet meaning that we can't locate it with the super scan. This has a surprising and dangerous combination of strategy and power."

"You think XANA's done playing with us?" LeShawna frowned.

"If he wants to keep us from reaching him at the center of the copy then yes, I believe he's determined to do anything to stop us." Aelita nodded.

Just as Aelita finished speaking two more digital forms appeared above them, changing into the digital Avatars of Geoff and Gwen who landed on their feet just their forms finished appearing.

"Hey guys!" Geoff smiled.

"Missing anything?" Gwen asked as they walked over.

"Nope, just waiting for you all to get here." LeShawna replied.

A moment later Trent and Duncan landed on the ground in front of the gathering group followed by Heather and Bridgette the moment after that. Courtney and Izzy were virtualized next leaving Cody and Noah as the last ones to be virtualized leaving the entire team together except for DJ.

"Okay, we're here." Noah said as he stood up. "The Carbon Copy, the domain of evil, the one digital game where the bad guy decides all the rules."

"Skip the whining, Noah. DJ's in some major trouble if we don't hurry." LeShawna reprimanded.

"Any idea where to go?" Gwen turned to Aelita.

"The pulsations are usually strongest in the sector with the activated tower but since there are six more sectors we haven't explored." Aelita explained. "Seven if we count Sector 5 which I am hoping that it's in one of the outer sectors."

"And if it's in Sector 5?" Cody asked.

Aelita's look turned grim. "We're going to be in a lot more trouble."

"Trouble? That's what we aim for!"

The warriors spun around, pulling out there weapons out the sound of the familiar voice as Lilith appeared on a giant tree branch, staring down on them with her usual mischievous smirk. "What would you expect? It wasn't getting any easier."

"Lilith." Aelita's hands glowed. "To what do we owe this unpleasant encounter?"

"That's funny coming from you, considering _you're_ the trespassers here!" Lilith chuckled. "But I digress, since we came prepared for hostile guests."

"Let me deal with her, it's been a while since I've been able to beat down any of XANA's goons." Duncan stepped forward.

"So glad you volunteered but I'm not the one you're fighting today." Lilith snapped her fingers.

Portals appeared underneath everyone except for Aelita and they let out a shocked shout as they fell through and closed before Aelita could reach them. She turned back to Lilith and fired a plasma beam which the red haired general dodged by jumping off the tree branch she was on, flipping through the air she landed on her feet perfectly like a perfect gymnast.

"Where are they?" Aelita levelled her hand on Lilith.

"That's a good question." Lilith put a finger under her chin with a thoughtful look on her face. "They could be here or maybe they could be somewhere else. It's all really random this time, Aelita, well more complex strategy then random."

"Tell. Me. Now." Aelita's hand glowed bright enough that it was almost blinding.

"You guys planned to explore the copy so now you'll get the chance." Lilith smirked. "XANA has decided to allow you the chance to explore his home. Just to let you know that he's been waiting for you all and has a few surprises ready."

Before Aelita could attack a portal opened up behind Lilith and she jumped into it, vanishing from Aelita's sight. "Good luck!"

Aelita lowered her hand and took off running towards the Way Tower.

'If they are all scattered across the Copy it means they are in more danger of being devirtualized forever! I got to hurry!'

Xxx

Duncan groaned as he sat up and opened his eyes, looking warily around for anymore unwanted surprises. He was greeted with the sight of a digital ocean and a sunny sky with islands in the distance letting him known instantly he was in the Tropical Sector of what he assumed to be the Carbon Copy.

"Well at least Lilith picked a nice spot." Duncan got up.

He turned around to see he was standing on an island with a small mountain surrounded by a forest of palm trees.

"Well, I'd rather not swim out of here, might as well see if I can spot anyone from up there." Duncan pulled out his sword and slashed at the bushes in his way.

He casually walked through the forest keeping a wary eye out for anything that might attack him.

"Well this brings back memories...A peaceful sector, the eerie silence, and something just waiting for the right time to pounce." Duncan mumbled.

"Why wait then?"

Duncan's eyes widened as a portal opened up several yards away from him and out stepped the one person he least expected to see.

"XANA." Duncan levelled his sword in front him as he scowled fiercely.

The Avatar of XANA stepped out from the portal with the signature smirk on his face as a Guardian came out from behind him.

"It's been a while hasn't it, Duncan. Allow me to personally welcome you back to the battle and to my domain." XANA chuckled as he partially bowed his head. "To celebrate your return I've even brought a present."

"Oh gee, you shouldn't have." Duncan looked at the Guardian. "That's not going to work on me."

"Oh no, you misunderstand. This Guardian is not meant to capture but to contain." XANA glanced at the Guardian as he snapped his fingers.

The Guardian spat something out that landed on its feet perfectly, showing a middle aged man. It was crouched down, wearing nothing but torn black pants, shackles on its legs and arms with a retaining mask on its face covering its mouth and nose. It had short brown hair on its head with a face that looked more like a rabid animal than a human with dark eyes that looked...primal. He looked as muscular as Blade but wore no shirt and the Eye of XANA was imprinted on his chest with the skin looking like the Eye had been burnt onto it.

"A new general?" Duncan groaned. "Where the hell did you get that?"

"A gift to myself from the final battle with my fallen ally Shadow." XANA chuckled. "Not unlike how I gained a scan of the spell caster's digital DNA when my virus infected her."

Duncan's eyes narrowed in anger, realizing that XANA may have used his or Courtney's DNA to make this...thing that was crouched down like an animal instead of a human. The general was simply staring at him like a predator staring at its prey.

"This one is different from my other generals but...you will find that Agro of the Bloody Land is a dangerous opponent."

"You going to take off those chains?" Duncan asked, seeing that Agro was still shackled.

"Perhaps but that would be unfair would it?" XANA's smirk turned more mischievous. "You'll have your hands full with him now as he is. Agro...crush him."

The newly introduced general released a primal roar that made Duncan cringe. Then Agro shot forward, launching himself through the air at Duncan, who brought up his sword in defence. At the last second Agro somehow twisted in mid flight and kicked beneath Duncan's blade, hitting him in the chest and sending him flying back through the bushes. He grunted and shouted until he finally landed on the ground with his eyes closed. "...Ouch."

He got up and saw Agro coming at him again on all fours, looking like a gorilla. "Not falling for that twice buddy!"

When Agro leaped again, Duncan released a jet of fire from his sword that knocked the new general out of the air. Duncan then leaped and tried to jam his sword down through Agro, who twisted his body in an almost inhuman way that would have snapped Duncan's spine if he had tried it in the real world. The general dodged the blade and kicked him in the face in one move that ended with him flipping onto his feet.

"Aw great...I get the gymnast." Duncan rubbed his jaw and covered his blade in green fire. "Alright...round 3, pal."

He swung his sword, releasing a blast of green fire that incinerated a few trees in the way as it shot towards Agro. Duncan watched as green fire exploded into the air, seemingly incinerating Agro into digital ashes...

At least that's what he thought before Agro suddenly appeared in front of him in a display of frightening speed and grabbed him by the throat before he could react.

"Wha..." Duncan was all he could say before Agro lifted him up and slammed him into the ground repeatedly.

Agro grew tired of slamming him into the ground and with just one hand he hurled Duncan into the air, sending flying through the forest while slamming into a few trees before he flew out of the forest and skidded across the beach into the ocean.

XANA chuckled, observing the trail of destroyed trees left by Duncan's flight. "Try all you want, Agro will not stop until everything in his way is gone."

Duncan got up and glanced forward to see Agro running down the path he had left from his flight.

'Okay, time to get serious...' Duncan growled.

His body was engulfed in a blast of green fire and in his place stood the Berserker. It roared and charged at Agro who copied its actions with his own war as both destructive forces leaped at each other.

Xxx

Courtney rubbed her head as she sat up and opened one eye to take a look at where she had ended up. The sun set sky with the few clouds, the sight of green palm trees, and the vast blue ocean told her she was in the Tropical Sector of what she believed to be the Carbon Copy.

"Uhhhh..."

Courtney turned her head to her right and spotted LeShawna and Eva lying on the ground a few freet from her.

"LeShawna! Eva!" Courtney ran over as they started to get up. "You all right?"

"I'm fine, just a little dizzy." LeShawna stood up and stretched her limbs. "So where did Lilith dump us this time?"

"It looks like the Tropical Sector of the Carbon Copy." Courtney looked around, noticing they stood on a small mountain in the middle of an island. "This is one of the sectors that's not connected to the supercomputer right?"

"Yeah." LeShawna grimly nodded. "Meaning if we die here we might die forever."

"Great." Eva grunted as she stood up. "I hate it when the bad guy goes for the complex strategy; it's more exhausting then beating them up."

"Okay, if we're here odds are that the others are scattered across the Copy in other sectors." Courtney explained. "All we have to do is find the Way Tower so we can get out of here and find them."

"If we can reach it, this sector's likely got a security system like the Swamp and Forest Sector meaning it'll change who knows when." LeShawna pointed out. "Plus we have no way of reaching the tower other than swimming and in an ocean in the digital domain of XANA that means big NO-NO!"

Courtney grimaced as she remembered what the others had told her about the Carbon Copy and remembered that in the Tropical Sector you would need to be able to fly or have a vehicle with you since the ocean made it impossible to reach any other location in the sector.

BOOM!

All three girls spun around at the sound of an explosion and saw a blast of green fire at the beach of the island.

"Green fire...that's got to be Duncan! He's here too!" Courtney exclaimed.

"And he's not alone by the looks of it." LeShawna pointed out. "He must be in a fight right now."

"Well, let's go!" Eva shouted and jumped down and started sliding down the mountain.

"Are you crazy?!" Courtney exclaimed but LeShawna jumped down after a second later. "Wha..."

Realizing that it was the only way down the mountain Courtney sighed and reluctantly jumped after them.

Xxx

On the sandy plane of the Carbon Copy's Desert Sector Cody found himself wandering around for what felt like hours. He couldn't find the Way Tower because the sector had shifted already, transforming into a maze without walls to trap him. The only good thing he could think of was that he wouldn't starve to death or die of dehydration in the digital world. Cody's thoughts were interrupted when he heard a sound and quickly teleported behind a rock.

Peeking out he saw a legion of Krabs marching down the desert, passing by the rock he was hiding behind. Thankfully none of them spotted him but he was far from relieved, in fact he was even more worried. Out here, all alone, no connection to the supercomputer, it was obvious one big trap set by XANA. Taking advantage of the fact that the warriors could enter his domain but needed to download their digital forms into the Way Tower and connect to the supercomputer if they wanted to come and go as they please.

For the billionth time Cody had cursed XANA and his dangerous ability to adapt to almost any kind of situation. The evil AI was obviously using the opportunity to hunt down all his enemies now that they were stuck on his turf, sending out his monsters to take them out. Cody was far from helpless but he was only one person and there were no doubt hundreds of monsters searching for him right now.

A buzzing sound caught Cody's attention and he looked up to see a Hornet floating in the air above him and its stinger was glowing meaning that it was ready to fire! He jumped forward and rolled as the Hornet fired, dodging the laser just in time. Taking out his pistols Cody shot the Hornet four times before it exploded but Cody knew that it was just the beginning. Eyes moving fast he spotted a Krab step out from behind the rock he had used for cover and had already charged its laser.

"Oh boy!" Cody jumped out of the way as it fired.

More Krabs came out with their lasers charged and ready while Cody took off running. There were too many to fight directly or to take out with his time freeze ability. All he could do was run, run as fast as his little legs could carry him and hopefully get him away from the stampede of monsters he could hear behind him that were slowly catching up.

Xxx

Gwen groaned as she sat up, shivering as her back had been on a very cold surface. Shaking her head and getting some snow out of her hair she found herself in an icy cave, not even needing a second to know where she was.

"The Ice Caverns...Great." Gwen slowly stood up, shaking the snow off her outfit. "Well, of all the places Lilith could have dumped me in at least it wasn't the Swamp Sector."

A groan made Gwen turn her head to the other side of the cave where another figure was lying face down on the ground.

"And look who I've got for company..." Gwen walked over and carefully rolled the person onto their back. "Heather?"

Heather groaned softly, still unconscious even though Gwen tried to shake her awake several times. Finally getting impatient Gwen's fist came down on Heather's head and brought her back to the conscious world with a splitting headache.

"OW!" Heather sat up clutching her head. "All right, whose the wise ass?!"

"Welcome back." Gwen stood up.

"What'd you do that for?" Heather rubbed her head as she got back up. "I was having this nice dream."

"You can dream while being digital?" Gwen raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, didn't Aelita ever tell you that? We had a conversation about this with Cody who asked if a person could sleep in Lyoko. She used to have dreams even if she couldn't remember before being materialized." Heather shrugged before smirking. "I had this dream where I was ruling France and you were personal slave. On an unrelated subject do you know how to hang laundry?"

"Your dreams are about the only thing you _do_ rule." Gwen scoffed and turned around. "All right, let's get out of here."

"Any idea where 'here' is?" Heather asked as they started walking. "I mean, I know it's the Ice Caverns but where in the Caverns? If we're still in the Copy then we're completely lost."

"And sitting ducks if monsters or generals come hunting for us." Gwen pointed out. "We need to keep moving and hope they don't find us."

"That might work on Lyoko but on the bad guy's turf...even I am not so sure about this and I hate losing." Heather sighed.

"Tell me about it. Stuck out here, cut off from the real world, no one to contact...this is part of XANA's whole plan! He planned this whole thing from the start!" Gwen realized. "No wonder he activated a tower in the Copy!"

"To bring us here, separate us and pick us off one by one...kind of like I would do." Heather nodded. "I hate it when people use my strategies against me!"

Gwen was about to reply but anything she was about to say never came out as the icy wall was blasted open in front of them. They covered their faces to shield themselves from flying debris, following their instincts even though they were digital and would not suffer any horrific injuries. They lowered their hands to see a Megatank roll through the hole and open its shell, ready to fire again.

"You want a fight you got..." Gwen stopped as Heather pulled her back. "What are you doing?"

"Stopping you from making a huge mistake! You see the ice around us? Any of your spells will cause a cave in!" Heather pointed at the cracking ceiling.

"Crap!" Gwen swore as the Megatank fired again.

They turned and ran as the laser hit the ceiling and caused the cave to collapse. They had to run as fast as possible before the ice crushed them to bits.

Xxx

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Noah was torn from his slumber by a jungle cry and found himself hoisted up in the air, held over someone's shoulder as they swung through the air on a vine. It took a second to realize who it was that was carrying him...

"IZZY!" Noah cried. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

"Swinging through the jungle!" Izzy laughed as she jumped and landed on the ground. "Come on Noah, where's your sense of fun?"

"I think I lost it around the time I watched my siblings break their favourite toys when I was five." Noah glumly replied as Izzy put him down. "So what happened?"

"How should I know what happened when you were five?" Izzy tilted her head. "I didn't meet you until a year ago, duh!"

"I mean when Lilith showed up and sent us here!" Noah grumbled.

"Oh...well, I got up, looked around, found you, picked you, and then found this vine and then I thought...Izzy, Jungle Girl of Lyoko!" Izzy struck a pose with her hands on her hips. "What do you think?"

"I think I swallowed a spider while I was knocked out." Noah sighed and looked around. "Okay, recap, we show up in the Carbon Copy, Lilith shows up and separates us, you carry me on your shoulder while you go off as the insane offspring of George of the Jungle."

"Well you don't have to sound like a...like a...what's the word?" Izzy scratched her head.

"Pessimist?" Noah asked.

"No...I was going for grouch." Izzy smirked. "But I agree with the pessimist...whatever that means."

"Come on. We got to find the others and hurry before DJ is sucked up and into space." Noah turned around and started walking.

"He'd more likely be torn apart by the tornado." Izzy took off after Noah who simply ignored her ramblings.

He was right now focused on trying to find the way out of the Swamp Sector before more monsters, generals, or any other traps came out and attacked them. He was right when he spotted a hint of movement in the water.

"Izzy, we got company!" Noah's hands turned into guns.

Bursting out of the water five Vipers surrounded the two warriors, their teeth ready to chew them to bits.

"Ooooh! Swamp brawl!" Izzy laughed as she jumped at the digital snakes.

Xxx

"Oh man." Trent groaned as he sat up, finding himself on a floating rock in the Mountain Sector. "How'd I...Oh right, Lilith."

Standing up he looked around, recognizing the Mountain Sector because the mist that he remembered was part of the sector but aside from that he couldn't see the land.

"Hello?" He called out, his voice echoing throughout the sector. "Aelita? Gwen? Cody? Noah? Bridgette? Anyone?"

He couldn't see the land which probably meant that he was too far away from the mainland for anyone to see or hear him, anyone friendly that is. He could fly with his guitar but with no ground for him to land on he might end up going around in circles, lost forever in the Carbon Copy.

"Well, they did say slow and steady wins the race." Trent mumbled.

A buzzing sound made it to Trent's ears, recognizing it instantly as Hornets. He pulled out his guitar, ready to play a single note that would blast anything that he spotted. A laser shot out of the mist and hit him in the knee.

"Ack!" He knelt down, glancing at his sparking knee and tried to spot the monster that fired.

Another shot hit him in the left shoulder and nearly knocked him down.

"Gah!" He fought the urge to put a hand on his sparking shoulder as he tried to find the monsters. "It's like they're...invisible!"

Aelita had explained how XANA would sometimes alter the landscape to give his monsters the advantage. He could created tornados, flood the sectors with the digital sea, and make the landscape and even the monsters invisible! He was out here alone on a single rock in an invisible sector with invisible monsters trying to kill! He quickly played the Shield Note, creating a barrier that protected him just as three more lasers shot at him.

'Guys, I hope you find me soon. I could use some help here!'

Xxx

Geoff slowly woke up, sat up and looked around seeing himself in a large circular area connected to four platforms with a tower on each one and beam leading up to a cross shaped platform with more with four more towers showing Geoff that he was on the top floor of the Sky Temple Sector.

"Oh boy." Geoff stood up and stretched his arms and legs. "This can't be good. Hey guys! You out here?"

The answer came in the form of a group of Dragon Knights appearing out of red lines of digital coding, brandishing swords, axes, pistols, and spears all pointed at him.

"Oh, hey guys!" Geoff chuckled weakly as he fused his chakrams together to form his axe. "Seen any of my friends or girlfriend around?"

The Dragons advanced forward, choosing to answer his question by trying to delete him. He hastily blocked a strike from a Knight wielding a katana then kicked a Knight that was about to stab him with a spear away to gain some room. He hastily blocked laser shots fire from a Dragon Knight wielding two pistols and swung his axe releasing a blast of lightning. Most of the Knights successfully dodged as wings sprouted from their backs allowing them to fly but two of them were hit and exploded into deletion as the attack hit them.

"Ha! Not so tough are you guys, huh?" Geoff laughed.

A laser shot hit him in the back and knocked him down; his axe went flying out of his hand. He rolled onto his back and looked up, spotting a Dragon Knight with a sniper rifle on the cross platform above him.

"Oh man!" He jumped as another Knight tried to cut his head off with an axe.

He watched as the Knights started to gather around him.

"You know," Geoff chuckled weakly. "When I made that crack about you guys being tough I was only kidding."

He turned and ran as fast as he could with the Dragon Knights chasing after him. He ducked as a laser shot through his hat and ran even faster as he tried to escape the legion of monsters chasing him.

Xxx

Bridgette woke up shivering, feeling cold even if she was digital. She found herself on an icy cliff overlooking the desolate Ice Sector of what she assumed to be the Carbon Copy with no one else with her.

"Hello? Geoff? Aelita? Anyone?" Bridgette called out as loud as she could but the silence of the frozen digital arctic was the only answer. "Great, I'm all alone out here. I wonder how worse this can get."

Bridgette was about to mentally kick herself for saying that out loud but the sound of the cliff cracking under her feet.

"Whoa!" Bridgette pulled her board out as she fell down towards the digital sea and managed to fly up before it was too late.

The large piece of ice vanished into the digital sea with a large splash as Bridgette flew back up to the frozen land. Just as she made it above the ground she spotted a barrage of sharp icicles flying at her like missiles which she dodged barely by spinning, ducking, and flying until the last piece flew past her head. However if she thought the worst was over she was dead wrong as a blast of snow slammed into her sending her spinning backwards.

"WHOA!" Bridgette lied down on her board, holding onto her tightly as the snow blast sent her flying across the sector.

'Snow and ice based attacks, no doubt about it. I know who's behind this!' Bridgette thought as she finally managed to steady her board.

She flew up above the sector and then straight down towards the icy land.

'Come on, take the bait...' Bridgette thought.

Her hopes were answered in the form of an icy spear launched at her which she dodged by spinning out of the way and now Bridgette knew where her opponent was.

"I see you!" She aimed her board in the direction of her enemy and channeled her water powers into her board.

Her board glowed bright blue as she flew at full speed towards the spot where she had found who attacked her. The attacker responded by creating an icy wall but Bridgette was not deterred in the slightest. Her board slammed through the icy wall, shattering it easily and sending icy flying in all directions. Bridgette split her board into her swords in mid air as she fell from the air and swung both blades down.

The attacker quickly covered their arms in ice, creating an ice shield that effectively blocked Bridgette's swords.

"I should have known you'd show up here...Yuki!" Bridgette levelled her eyes on the icy warrior of XANA's Generals.

Yuki pushed Bridgette back her shields shattering allowing Bridgette to look into the icy blue eyes of white haired girl that she had somewhat of a rivalry with. At least Bridgette believed them to be rivals of some sort since every time the generals appeared Yuki was Bridgette's main opponent, her icy powers against Bridgette's water powers. Rather than speaking Yuki jumped back until she was a feet away, she pointed down at the ground and then swung her arm into the air. The instant Yuki raised her arm the ground beneath Bridgette exploded in a blast of ice that sent her flying back and peppered her with icy shards.

Bridgette flew back, grunting as she skidded across the across the icy ground but rolled onto her back and jumped back up to her feet. She held her swords out in a ready stance but knew that it would not be an easy fight. Yuki was among the few generals who gained an instant advantage in sectors where her element was the strongest, like the Ice Sector. Her ice powers were deadly enough along the fact that Yuki was definitely one of the more cunning and dangerous of XANA's Generals but in the Ice Sector her powers were enhanced enough that she could use the sector itself as a weapon in ways even XANA admitted that his creativity was less powerful here then Yuki's.

Still Bridgette could not allow herself to be defeated because if she was devirtualized there was a chance she wasn't going back to the real world. As Bridgette readied herself Yuki raised a single hand and humanoid figures made of ice wearing armor and carrying multiple weapons sprouted from the icy ground from all sides, surrounding Bridgette.

"Oh boy." Bridgette gulped.

Yuki pointed at Bridgette and the Ice Warriors charged forward with their weapons ready to slice her to bits. Bridgette's wave shaped tattoos glowed as she swung her swords, firing off her energy wave that cut down twenty Ice Warriors easily. However that didn't seem to matter at all as even more Ice Warriors sprouted from the ground taking the place of the fallen warriors and charging forward. Bridgette pointed her swords at the charging warriors and her swords released a stream of high pressure water that easily blasted through the Ice Warriors with little effort.

Even if there were a lot of them they were incredibly easy to destroy. So easy that Bridgette almost thought that Yuki was being a little arrogant with her enhanced powers. But unfortunately Yuki proved her wrong as a giant golem made of ice rose from the ground and tried to flatten her with its giant fist. Bridgette dodged barely, its fist hitting the ground right next to her and shaking the Ice Sector so much it was like an earthquake.

Bridgette aimed her swords up and fired another blast of high pressure water that shattered the ice golem's head with just one hit. It fell back onto the group of ice warriors, flattening them and sending ice shards flying everywhere. Bridgette jumped over the remains of the golem and ran towards Yuki but more Ice Warriors came out of the ground and attacked her forcing her to stop and defend herself. Yuki took a deep breath and blew releasing a snowy white blast that took the form of a giant snow ball with icy spikes that rolled towards Bridgette as fast as a Megatank.

Bridgette gritted her teeth as she blocked a strike from an Ice Warrior wielding a sword and kicked it out of the way as the giant snowball flattened the approaching Ice Warriors in its path to its main target. Bridgette brought her swords together and flew out of the way mere seconds before she flattened along with everything else the snow ball had run over. However the snow ball was not done with her as it exploded and sent sharp spears of ice in every direction.

"Whoa crap!" Bridgette exclaimed as she span, ducked and twisted out of the way of the endless barrage of flying ice spears. "I could use some help right about now!"

Xxx

Aelita knew she didn't have much time to locate the others but knew it would take a while to find by searching all the other sectors so she needed an alternate idea. She realized it was slim chance but she hoped to use her Second Sight ability to track them using her connections to Lyoko but that would only work if she could command the Carbon Copy the same way she did with Lyoko. She sat on the ground and put her hands together as if she was praying. Closing her eyes she tried to peer into the data of Copy, hoping to sense something that would lead her to the others.

She felt her vision leaving her body, traveling through the Forest Sector and when she could see that no one else was here her vision traveled through the Way Tower, through the Data Stream and into the next sector. She could see the Desert Sector, looking the same as the original Desert Sector of Lyoko as her sight traveled through the sector almost too fast for her to see anything significant but it stopped when she something. A familiar boy with pistols in his hands running from an army of Krabs that was hot on his trail.

"Cody." Aelita gasped but managed to keep her concentration.

Her vision was now in the Ice Sector where Bridgette was locked in a titanic battle with Yuki. Her vision traveled under the Ice Sector and into the Ice Caverns where she spotted Gwen and Heather running from a group of monsters that shot at the walls and caused the caves to collapse. Gwen and Heather were stuck running at full speed to avoid being crushed. The next place her Second Sight allowed her to see was the Mountain Sector where she could see Trent trapped on a simple floating rock big enough for just him to stand on with the rest of the sector hidden in an illusion and he was under attack by Hornets who were invisible!

"Trent!" Aelita gasped.

Her sight traveled up above the Mountain Sector where the Sky Temple resided and at the very top of the temple Geoff was fighting off legions of Dragon Knights that were slowly overwhelming him. The next place her sight traveled to was the Swamp Sector with Izzy and Noah swinging through the trees with Vipers chasing after them. Well, Izzy was doing the swinging and acting like George of the Jungle except she actually avoided hitting any trees while Noah was looking he would have barfed if he was in the real world. The final sector her sight traveled to was the Tropical Sector where she spotted Eva, Courtney and LeShawna skidding down a small mountain on an island while down in the forest Duncan was fighting what looked like a new general.

"Oh no!" Aelita gasped but it wasn't the worst of it.

She suppressed a shudder when she sensed something...somewhere close to where Duncan was fighting in the Tropical Sector. It was a familiar feeling, a feeling she felt when...

"XANA." Aelita opened her eyes.

There was something else in that sector...the activated tower! The tower that XANA was using to control the weather was in the Tropical Sector!

Xxx

XANA had been watching his new general Agro chase after Duncan when he felt something trying to connect and command his domain and he knew who it was instantly.

"Sister, you're using your powers to try and command my domain." XANA whispered, frowning. "I guess this is something that requires my attention."

Agro and the Berserker were panting as they stood in the middle of devastated battle field with the trees around them cut, burned, and otherwise shattered from the battle from these two physically strong brutes.

"Duncan!"

The Berserker glanced at its left as Courtney, Eva, and LeShawna had managed to reach them finally.

"Whoa, what is that?" LeShawna looked at Agro. "Looks like an escaped mental patient."

XANA appeared next to Agro like a ghost appearing out of nowhere. "I see that the battle has shifted now that reinforcements have arrived meaning I will have to even the odds again." He glanced at his general. "Agro, I will remove your shackles now."

With a mere gesture of his hand the chains on Agro's hands and feet fell to the ground along with Agro's mask. The general opened his mouth to reveal pointed teeth. Unlike Blade who's teeth resembled a shark's Agro's teeth made him even look more like a deranged bloodthirsty animal and he proved how hostile he was. However instead of attacking the warriors, to the shock of the warriors who were watching he turned and attacked XANA instead!

However XANA changed into a cloud of black smoke as Agro passed through him. The general landed on all fours, crouched like an enraged tiger.

"Did he just try and attack XANA?" The Berserker changed back into Duncan. "That's surprising even for me."

"Yeah, since when do XANA's own generals other than Shadow betray him?" LeShawna stared at the animalistic general. "There's something wrong with this guy."

XANA's spectre form hovered above the ground and they could hear XANA's voice laughing from the black cloud. "You shall see that Agro is unstoppable when unleashed. His bloodlust is useful even if it somewhat clashes with his program to serve me. I wish you all luck in trying to defeat him; you will most likely need it."

The black cloud vanished leaving the four warriors to face the beast like general who was growling in their direction. Agro let out a war that almost sounded like the Predator to Duncan and Eva who both had watched that movie and charged at them.

"I got this!" Eva ran forward and tried to punch Agro.

However the general vanished in the blink of an eye and Eva felt a hand grasp her neck before she slammed into the ground with such force. Gasping for air she grabbed the hand holding her neck as she looked up and saw Agro's face snarling down at her.

"Get off her!" LeShawna ran forward and swung her hammer, careful to not hit Eva.

Agro let go of Eva and jumped back, narrowly avoiding LeShawna's hammer. Eva got back up quickly while keeping Agro in her sights. Once second she was charging at him and the next thing she knows he slams her into the ground. That meant he was obviously very fast and she better not let him out of her sight again.

"You okay?" LeShawna asked.

"I'll be fine." Eva grunted. "You better be careful. This guy moves fast, _really_ fast."

"Yeah, he's definitely different from all the other generals. They all acted human somewhat and have personality, this guy...he's even more of wild animal than any of XANA's monsters." LeShawna readied her hammer. "Not to mention he even attacked XANA just seconds after the guy took off his chains and mask."

"He's outmatched now." Duncan and Courtney ran up to them and got ready to fight. "With me in the Berserker form and you guys backing me up even this guy's going to have trouble."

Agro snarled as if he took offence to what Duncan had said.

"I'll go in first and distract him." LeShawna raised her hammer. "Duncan, Eva, you guys take him down when he's not looking."

With a shout LeShawna leaped into the air and raised her hammer above her head. Agros looked with a growl as LeShawna fell towards him as she swung her hammer down. The hammer glowed brightly showing LeShawna's upgrade at work which increased the kinetic force of the blow when LeShawna's hammer collided with anything. He jumped back, successfully avoiding the blow that would have most likely shattered his body into bits if what happened to the ground where he stood was anything to go by.

The impact of LeShawna's hammer created a large crater that shook the island and a few trees even fell over from the shaking. Agro opened his mouth and out of it came a blast of green liquid that looked a little too much like the acid spewed by Hornet. LeShawna jumped out of the way and the acid hit a rock, instantly dissolving it into nothing.

"Whoa!" Duncan gulped. "That acid will dissolve any of us instantly if it touches us, even if I am in my Berserker form."

"Let me get in close and I can drain his life points." Courtney spoke up.

"After what happened the last time you tried to steal life points from one of XANA's cronies?" Duncan looked at her. "Hell no on that, Princess. Can't risk a virus or something getting into you again."

"That was different." Courtney narrowed her eyes. "Shadow was a lot different compared to this guy and you know it."

"Even if you're right, Courtney, I think Duncan's right on this one. Let's not try that draining ability just yet." LeShawna replied. "We just focus on taking this guy out first."

"About time." Eva cracked her knuckles.

Duncan was once again engulfed in a blast of green fire and the Berserker let out a roar with green fire coming out of his mouth like a dragon. Agro roared back, slamming his fists into the ground creating small craters. LeShawna raised her hammer and Courtney twirled her staff in her hand, ready for when the monstrous general would attack. Agro crouched down like a tiger ready to pounce on his prey snarling like rabid dog.

"I'll go in first." Eva stepped forward. "You guys cover me."

"All right." LeShawna nodded.

No one disagreed as Eva leaped into the battle, charging forward at Agro who copied her actions and charged at Eva.

Xxx

Aelita immediately jumped into the air, flying towards the Way Tower as fast as she could, praying that she was not about to lose any of her friends. After coming so far since the first day she would never forgive herself in any of the others were killed in this sector or by the attack in the real world. She could only that DJ could hang on long enough for her to reach the activated tower and shut it down. She needed to find the others as fast as possible.

'Please everyone just hang on!' Aelita thought.

She landed in front of the Way Tower, the same location where the Way Tower was located in the Forest Sector of Lyoko but she stopped when she sensed someone. That person chuckled as they stepped out from behind the tower.

"You really impressed me this time, Sister. I thought when Lilith separated your group I would have the time needed to dispatch them." XANA leaned against the tower and clapped his hands three times. "Bravo."

"XANA." Aelita glared as she prepared for a battle.

"I suppose I should have seen this coming but if there is one thing I know about you is that you are almost as fast at adapting to any situation as I am. Now I am left with finding a way to stop you from reaching the others in time." XANA stepped away from the tower.

"You think you can hold me back long enough for that?" Aelita smirked. "I know that's impossible in your current state. You used up much of your power to conjure that storm on Earth plus all the monsters and that illusion trick in the Mountain Sector. In your current state XANA even your Avatar is not strong enough to hold me back for long."

"Perhaps." XANA stepped out of the way, allowing Aelita to enter the tower. "By all means, Sister, go ahead. Don't allow me to hold you up."

Aelita frowned, wondering what XANA was planning this time. He never allowed any of his enemies a chance to try and foil his plans but at the same time she knew that he was good at planning traps and covering his tracks.

"If you feel afraid that I am planning something then you can try and defeat me now but how much time do you think you will waste fighting me when it could be spent saving your allies?" XANA asked, spreading his arms out making himself looking completely vulnerable to attack.

Aelita narrowed her eyes but instead of taking the bait she ran for the tower. Just before entering it she turned around. "This is not over, when we stop this attack we're coming for you and this time I will make sure you never come back."

XANA never bothered to turn and face her as she entered the Way Tower. He simply closed his eyes and shook his head.

"Ah Sister, your determination really impresses me sometimes but if you think you can defeat me as you are now than I guess spending your time as a human was a mistake after all."

His avatar vanished into a cloud of black smoke and the black smoke vanished into the sky.

Xxx

He could barely hear it. Jennifer screaming in the storm that they were both trapped in. DJ and Jennifer were still tied down to the machine and they were still alive but it was taking all of DJ's willpower and strength to hold on and not be sucked into the monstrous tornado that XANA had created. He knew that if he hesitated just for one second it would all be over.

With one arm wrapped around the screaming Jennifer and the other holding onto the rope he hoped and prayed that they would make it in time.

Xxx

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to all of my readers and fellow writers on Fanfiction! I am glad you all are still reading my story even though it's getting long but I am a guy who just doesn't like the action to end. I will be working on the next chapter and my other stories soon but in the meantime I'll be enjoying the countdown to 2013!


	98. Episode 96: Monster of the Empty Void

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 98

Aelita realized she had very little time to save everyone before they would be overwhelmed by XANA's forces. With the group scattered across the Carbon Copy she had to move fast but...

What if she is too late?

What if one of them is devirtualized and lost forever before she can reach them?

What if she can't save them?

She shook her head, trying to get rid of all these doubts. She needed to save them, she would never forgive herself if they lost someone after making it this far. She just needed a way to reach them as fast as possible. She took a deep breath even though technically there was no need to breath in the digital realm and tried to think of the fastest way possible.

An idea popped up in her head and even if it was risky she believed it was risk worth taking.

"Computer, activate Code: Angel, one hundred percent!"

The interior of the Way Tower lit up as Aelita was engulfed in a bright light as the Keys to Lyoko within her activated. Aelita concentrated on a special power that Ulrich was proficient in and felt her being split from one into seven different beings! Each duplicate instantly knew what they were and what their mission was the second they were created. It felt strange, duplicating herself, she almost felt her vision being divided six times and wondered if Ulrich had to deal with this when he used his Triplication Ability.

She shook her head as she remembered the mission.

"You all know what to do."

The duplicates nodded and jumped off the platform into the dark abyss below, falling into the blue data stream and traveled all across the stream to the other sectors. Aelita herself traveled to the Tropical Sector because she needed to know what XANA's Avatar was doing this. She could sense Duncan, Courtney, Eva, and LeShawna along with something else. She only caught a glimpse before it was blotted out when she sensed XANA's presence.

The activated tower along with XANA's Avatar in the same sector along with four of her friends meant something was happening there.

Something bad.

Xxx

**Carbon Copy **

**Desert Sector**

Cody ducked as another group of Hornets swopped in and fired lasers at him. He rolled out of the way as a Krab tried to puncture him with its sharp leg and quickly fired several shots from his pistols that hit the Krab's shell but missed the Eye. Jumping to his feet Cody ran for his life as the monsters once again tried to surround him and cut off any chance of escape.

"Whoa!" He jumped back as Hornets began spraying acid all over the ground. "You guys are good but I still got this!"

He teleported himself out of hoard of monsters, landing several feet away and tried to run again.

"You'll have to do better than that to catch me!" Cody called back.

A laser shot hit him in the knee and he fell over, rolling across the ground while his knee sparkled. He ended up dropping his pistols as he fell from being surprised and being hit by the laser. He looked up and saw a single Spiderling staring at him while charging another blast.

"Okay, this is a little embarrassing." Cody commented and rolled out of the way as the Spiderling fired.

He spotted his pistols and ran to grab them but another group of Hornets fired down and deleted the pistols just as Cody was about to grab them.

"Ah damn it!" Cody jumped back as the Hornets fired at him next.

He looked around as the Krabs tried to surround him again with the Hornets hovering above him.

"Okay, Murphy, I crossed the line when I told them to do better but please I am not ready to be deleted and lost in the digital world forever." Cody said anxiously, praying for a miracle.

A miracle that came in the form of a pink energy beam blasting several Krabs before they even had a chance to see their attacker. Cody and the monsters looked as Aelita landed on the ground and fired two more Plasma Beams from her hands, blasting the remaining Krabs just as they started to charge their lasers. The Hornets tried to attack but Aelita created two Energy Fields in her hands before fusing them together to form an even large Energy Field. When the Hornets flew at her she launched her attack but the single large Energy Field split into six smaller orbs of pink energy that hit each Hornet flawlessly and shattered them into bits of data.

"You called?" Aelita asked.

"Whoo! Aelita, you know how to make an entrance!" Cody ran up to her. "I actually believed I was a goner."

"We better hurry or the others will be goners soon." Aelita pointed south. "The Way Tower is this way, we better move."

"What about my weapons?" Cody asked as they started running.

"It's okay, once I link this sector to the Super Calculator I can upload the backup copy of your weapons but we have to move."

Cody nodded and they ran as fast as they could.

Xxx

**Carbon Copy **

**Mountain Sector**

Trent's shield was beginning to strain under the constant barrage of lasers coming from all sides and Trent still couldn't see the monsters attacking him. He couldn't even launch an attack and hope to make a lucky guess.

"Okay, need a miracle here!" Trent exclaimed as his shield shattered, knocking him over.

But luckily for him a miracle had indeed appeared in the form of a familiar voice letting out a soft humming that sounded like a song. In that instant the entire Mountain Sector appeared before Trent with the mist clearing up to reveal the blue sky and the ten Hornets that had been bombarding him with lasers. The Hornets looked confused as they realized the illusion XANA had cast onto the Mountain Sector had been destroyed and that confusion served to be their downfall. A barrage of pink energy blasts hit each one of them and destroyed them.

"Aelita!" Trent smiled as he spotted the familiar pink haired girl on the mainland, waving at him.

He jumped onto his guitar, activating its flight mode and flew towards the land, landing in front of Aelita when he was safely hovering over the ground.

"Boy am I glad to see you. I thought I was a goner." Trent picked up his guitar.

"Nice to see you too, Trent but we got to move. The others are in situations just as bad as the one you were in. XANA's set up a very dangerous trap for us this time." Aelita pointed to the Way Tower she had arrived in. "The tower's in the Tropical Sector, the sooner we get to it the sooner we stop this attack."

"Let's go!" Trent nodded. "DJ's running out of time!"

Aelita and Trent turned and flew towards the Way Tower with the intent of saving everyone both in the real world and the digital world.

Xxx

**Carbon Copy**

**Swamp Sector**

"Take that, and that, and some of this, and some of those!" Explosions lit up the fog of the swampy sector as Izzy fired her explosive arrows on any monster she saw.

"Izzy, will you give it a rest and conserve ammo? You're missing more than half of them!" Noah shouted as both of his arms in the form of laser cannons fired another blast of lasers.

The Viper attacking him dodged to the right and vanished back into the water.

"I don't see you doing any better!" Izzy retorted as a Viper lunged at her and tried to devour her.

She somersaulted out of the way and aimed her crossbows, letting loose another barrage of arrows. The giant snake however was able to easily dodge her arrows with its speed and flexibility, slithering back into the water and vanishing from Izzy's sight.

"Oh man!" Izzy groaned. "They are not playing fair!"

"They're bad guys, Izzy, they don't play fair." Noah and Izzy stood back to back, covering all sides of the land they stood on, watching the water for any attacks.

"It's quiet, too quiet..." Izzy whispered dramatically.

"I wish you didn't say that." Noah groaned.

In that instant Vipers burst from the water on all sides surrounding the both warriors.

"With my last digital breath I hope they up your medication when you're hauled into the asylum in the sky." Noah pointed his cannons at the monsters, ready to attack the first one who tried to attack.

However the monsters never had a chance to attack as the water around started to turn to freeze, changing into ice that traveled up their bodies and trapped them in an icy prison. Pink energy blasts hit them and they shattered into shards of ice and data.

"I know that move." Noah's cannons changed back into hands as a familiar figure walked towards them on the ice.

"Aelita!" Izzy jumped forward and hugged the pink haired girl tightly.

"Hi...Izzy!" Aelita was lifted up into the air as Izzy spun around.

"This is so much fun! The fights, the traps, the being saved at the last second, we got keep coming back here!" Izzy laughed.

"Don't let her fool you; she's thankful you saved our digital hides." Noah walked over as Izzy put Aelita down. "How'd you find us so fast?"

"I used my special ability to find all of you and the tower. It's in the Tropical Sector and the others will meet us there." Aelita replied, pointing in the direction she came. "It's this way."

"Sweet! Let's go!" Izzy cheered.

Xxx

"So...that's your plan huh, Sister?"

"Master!"

XANA didn't open his eyes as Lilith appeared in his chamber, watching his Avatar sit on his favourite floating red block while looking like he was meditating.

"Yes, Lilith?"

"I've been monitoring the battles and it looks like..."

"Yes I know." XANA raised a hand to silence her. "My dear Sister is beginning to use her full power more creatively, splitting herself up into different people to find and rescue her allies."

"Shall I gather the others and intercept her?" Lilith asked.

"No." XANA opened his eyes.

"No?" Lilith looked confused. "But if she rescues all of them and makes it to the tower..."

"I know, Lilith." XANA remained calm. "However while the attack may fail we still benefit."

"I don't understand." Lilith said, wondering what XANA was planning.

"Right now, Aelita is traveling through my domain rescuing her allies while at the same time linking the Way Towers to the Super Calculator showing her increase in speed, power, and enhanced calculation." XANA smirked. "She won't be able to keep it up for very long even if she does succeed so when effects wear off she will be in a vulnerable state and not much help if she comes across Agro."

Lilith grimaced at the mention of XANA's newest general, a digital being with a humanoid form that was more beastly than almost monster or virus she or the Lyoko Warriors had ever encountered before. She along with most of the other generals were astonished that XANA would create something that even attacked him nanoseconds after its birth. Of course Ryder once lost his temper and tried to attack XANA and learned his lesson but Agro...

Even by her standards he was a mindless, reckless, and impulsive beast that attacked just for the sheer pleasure ripping apart anything that moved, even XANA. But still, her master allowed that monster to live and set it loose on the Lyoko Warriors. Lilith remembered how angry and upset she had been along with some of the others when Blade had been destroyed.

She didn't think any of them would shed a tear for Agro of the Bloody Land.

Xxx

**Carbon Copy**

**Ice Caverns**

Gwen and Heather were at a heavy disadvantage as a Megatank surrounded by ten Dragon Knights chased after them while Spiderlings crawled along the walls, firing laser after laser at their targets. Heather's digital form was more suited for stealth along with quick attacks to take her enemies out but the number of monsters attacking without end and the numbers left her only able to dodge. Gwen's spells allowed for long and close range attacks but she can't use her Earth Aura because it didn't control ice, her Fire Aura would melt the ice and possible cause a cave in, her Wind Aura was useless, and she couldn't fly in the underground tunnels. Her scythe blocked most of the lasers except for when the Megatank fired forcing her to dodge.

She couldn't get close enough to use her scythe and the Ice Tunnels prevented her from using a spell that would take out the group of monsters.

"Any ideas?" Heather said as Gwen spun her staff, creating a barrier that blocked another barrage of lasers.

Heather aimed one arm out and fired a batch of shuriken at the hoard of monsters that were pushing them towards a dead end.

"Not a clue!" Gwen gritted her teeth. "At this rate we're not going to make it!"

"Yeah right! Don't know about you but I'm going to live!" Heather retorted.

A blast from the Megatank slammed into the barrier, knocking Gwen's scythe out of her hands but luckily it didn't hit her and devirtualize her. The blow however sent her flying back into Heather and they both skid across the ground until they hit the icy wall. Looking up they watched as the monsters advanced forward and Gwen watched as a Dragon Knight stepped on her scythe, breaking it into pieces.

"Oh boy." Both of them stood up with their backs against the wall. "I think they got us."

"Yeah..." Heather gulped. "Just to let you know, I actually have grown a lot less hateful towards you, Gwen, might even think of calling you a..."

She didn't get the chance to finish as a familiar voice cried out from behind the monsters.

"Plasma Beam!"

A beam of light blasted the Megatank and the explosion knocked the Dragon Knights down or into the wall. Aelita fired two more energy beams from both hands that blasted them to bits without causing a cave in.

"Hey there, I've been looking everywhere for you two." Aelita smiled.

"Aelita!" Gwen and Heather ran up to her with big smiles. "Are we glad to see you!"

"Me too. I was worried when Lilith separated us but I managed to find out where the others and the activated tower are."

"Let's go!" Heather cracked her knuckles. "I've got a score to settle with XANA for suckering us again."

Gwen looked at the remains of scythe and wondered if she could summon it back as good as new. As if hearing her thoughts the broken pieces vanished in a flash of blue light and her scythe reappeared back in her hands looking completely new like it was never broken.

"Whoa!" Gwen marveled at her newly repaired scythe before turning back into its rod form and putting it away.

"Come on, we still have to find the others." Aelita turned around and lead them down the tunnel back towards the Way Tower.

"By the way Heather, what were you going to say back there?" Gwen looked at Heather with a smirk.

"Uh...I don't know what you're talking about." Heather hastily replied.

Gwen only smirked but didn't bother to push Heather's buttons.

Xxx

**Carbon Copy**

**Ice Sector**

The battle between Bridgette and Yuki continued with both fighters using their elemental powers to try and overwhelm each other. If there was one thing Bridgette had learned from all her fights with the icy general was that Yuki no matter how many times you faced her could still surprise you with something new. Combining her aerobatic skills with her skill in using close range ice made weapons along with her advantage in the Ice Sector of the Carbon Copy allowed her to give Bridgette a run for her money but the surfer was fighting back as best as she could. All the fights in Lyoko and some self defence training in the real world with her friends and Kurt and Carlos and even her endurance on Total Drama was helping her a lot, allowing her to match Yuki's ice swords and abilities with her own skills and water powers.

Yuki's small ice swords changed in a long ice whip and sent it through the air at Bridgette's head. The surfer fell onto her back and it flew over her head. Yuki pulled her whip back and swung it again, Bridgette dodged by rolling out of the air and jumping up to her feet. Her tattoos glowed as she swung her swords and unleashed her blue energy wave that sliced through the ice whip easily.

Yuki barely dodged as Bridgette's energy wave flew at her and then had to jump backwards as Bridgette slashed at her with both swords. As she flew back, Yuki fired a barrage of sharp ice needles, hoping to catch Bridgette off guard. Bridgette quickly combined her swords back into her board and slammed it into the ground, using it as a shield to block shower of sharp needles. Bridgette leaned against her board and felt the icy shards slamming into her board for a moment before it ended.

The second it ended Bridgette pulled her board out of the ground and split it back into her swords, ready for Yuki's next attack. Yuki had called off her attack and dashed towards Bridgette, forming sharp icy claws over her fingers that were ready to skewer her enemy. Bridgette prepared to defend herself but when she slashed at Yuki she watched in shock as the ice wielding general shattered into pieces of ice.

'Wait, didn't Izzy once comment that Yuki could...It's a trap!' Bridgette spun around but it was too late as a blast of snow slammed into her knocking down.

She tried to get up but she felt icy forming around her body, restricting her movements until she could only barely move her head. Yuki stood over the now frozen Bridgette with her icy claws ready to slice her to bits. Bridgette closed her eyes but just as Yuki was about to attack she noticed a flash of light from the corner of her vision and she jumped back as a beam of energy was fired at her. The plasma beam flew over Bridgette, without hitting her and slammed into the icy mountain nearby.

Yuki landed a few feet away from Bridgette and watched as Aelita landed between her and Bridgette with her hands glowing bright.

"Aelita!" Bridgette cried out, happy that she made it in time.

"Are you okay, Bridgette?" Aelita asked, not taking her eyes of Yuki.

"Yeah, I forgot how powerful Yuki is in frozen places. She really knows how to give a cold welcome." Bridgette chuckled weakly.

"I'll have you free in a second." Aelita quickly fired another plasma beam.

Yuki jumped out of the way and fired a barrage of ice shards which Aelita blocked with an energy shield. Yuki phased down into the icy ground beneath and Aelita could feel the icy general retreating from the battle. She turned and ran back to Bridgette, letting out a brief hum and the icy surrounding Bridgette cracked and shattered.

Bridgette sighed as she stood up. "Thanks Aelita."

"No problem but we better hurry. The activated tower is in the Tropical Sector and we have very little time." Aelita turned around and pointed in the direction straight ahead. "The Way Tower is this way and hopefully the others will be waiting for us."

"Is Geoff there?" Bridgette asked as they started running.

"I already have someone going to help him out."

Xxx

**Carbon Copy**

**Sky Temple**

"Okay! This is not so bad! I run for my life all the time!" Geoff panted as he continued to run from the hoard of Dragon Knights. "Just keep running and don't look back! Just keep running and don't look back! Just keep running and don't look back!"

He was running through the halls of the Sky Temple trying to lose the monsters behind him. He would have had an easier time fighting them off but he lost his weapon earlier and was forced to make a run for his life. He managed to escape by finding a passage way on the roof leading onto the floor below and right now was trying lose the Dragon Knights that chased after him through the maze but unfortunately the chances of XANA's monsters getting lost in their master's territory was very slim. Just as he took a right turn he gasped as he stopped right in front of a dead end.

"Oh crap!" He turned around hoping to get before it was too late.

But unfortunately it was too late as the crowd of Dragon Knights was right behind him, brandishing their pistols, swords, and axes as they advanced forward. But lucky for Geoff, someone was looking out for him as he found out when a beam of slammed into the back of the center of the group of monsters. The Dragon Knights that were hit were instantly destroyed while the others were disorientated from the bright light and the destruction of their comrades. They never had a chance to see what attacked them as orbs of bright pink energy blasted them to digital bits.

Geoff smiled happily as Aelita stepped into view when the last of the monsters were destroyed. "Aelita! Man am I glad to see you right now!"

"Me too, Geoff! You were a little difficult to find but at the same time you talk very loud which helped me a lot." Aelita commented, making Geoff chuckle.

"You should see me with ten cans of soda, the entire city will be up and partying after that." Geoff replied before turning serious. "What's going on here? Where the others? Where's Bridgette?"

"It's all right Geoff. I know where the others are and hopefully Bridgette's already safe and on her way to the Tropical Sector where the tower is." Aelita said reassuringly.

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's shut that tower down!" Geoff pumped a fist into the air. "Who knows how long DJ can hold out!"

"This way." Aelita quickly led Geoff out of the maze and directed him to the Way Tower.

Xxx

**Carbon Copy**

**Tropical Sector**

POW!

Eva crashed into a tree so hard it fell over and she slid down to the ground. All around her was broken and knocked over trees and small craters in the ground. The island they found themselves on had become more than just a battlefield, it was a warzone. Looking up she watched as Agro launched at LeShawna and with just one punch he created another a crater as LeShawna luckily jumped out of the way in time.

LeShawna swung her hammer down and it slammed into Agro's face sending him skidding back and the general hit the ground hard. But to LeShawna's surprise he got back up a second later without even a single scratch on his face.

"What's with this guy?" LeShawna gritted her teeth. "No matter what we do nothing even hurts him. He's like Blade only without the dark blood."

Courtney ran up and stood next to LeShawna with her staff ready. "I'm more worried about whose DNA spawned this creep. It's got to be Duncan's, he's always rebelling."

"Really, I thought his temper was similar to yours." Duncan landed behind both girls. "Either way, I'm kicking his digital ass out of here!"

He ran forward with his sword blazing with green fire as he swung but to everyone's surprise something invisible blocked Duncan's attack and then Duncan felt something slap his sword back. Duncan felt something grab him and slammed him into the ground several times before tossing him away. He hit the ground but slowly got back up.

"What the hell?" Duncan picked up his sword. "Just what the hell is that? I thought his special power was the acid breath!"

"That can't be a secondary ability, it's too different." Courtney agreed.

Agro jumped and launched at both of them with his fist ready to smash them to bits. Courtney and LeShawna jumped out of the way and LeShawna swung her hammer which again managed to hit Agro and sent him crashing into a tree.

"Take that, turkey!" LeShawna snapped.

"I've had enough; I'm draining this guy of his life points!" Courtney ran forward while Agro was still trying to get up.

"Courtney wait!" Duncan called out.

Courtney tried to grab Agro and start draining his life points but just before she touched him a hand came out of Agro's chest and grabbed her hand.

"What?!" Courtney gasped, seeing the hand.

It was sticking out of Agro's chest but there was no sign of a wound or even if the hand existed where it came out from. It was like a ghost coming out Agro's body!

"What the fu..." Duncan trailed off as they all watched something literally phase out of Agro's body much like how Noah phased through objects.

"I am sorry but I cannot allow you to do that."

Courtney pulled her hand free and jumped back to get a better look at who grabbed her and saw it was a...

"It's a kid." Eva remarked as she stepped up while the others just stared.

It was indeed a kid, a boy looking ten years old with neatly combed black hair, skin that was even more pale then Gwen's, and bright icy blue eyes that showed absolutely no emotion even though he was smiling pleasantly. He wore what looked like a school uniform, white shirt and a black tie under a black jacket with a red Eye of XANA as a badge, black shorts, and white dress shoes.

"My apologies miss but I cannot let you drain his life points." The boy said, sounding like any other kid but completely emotionless.

"Who are you?" Courtney asked. "Why did you come out of Agro's body?"

"I am Ahriman of the Empty Void." The boy bowed his head. "As for why I appeared like I did..."

Agro growled, impatient and ready to attack but Ahriman simply reached out and patted him on the head like he was the boy's pet. "Now, now, Agro, be calm. You will have your chance to fight again."

Agro instantly calmed down but continued to glare at the Lyoko Warriors like a Predator ready to charge.

"As for your second question Agro and I are connected more so than the others, since we are after all twins." Ahriman turned back to the warriors and explained calmly.

"Twins? Since when does XANA create two generals at the same time?" LeShawna exclaimed.

"Well, when he acquired the digital DNA of both Miss Courtney and Mister Duncan there was a little extra coding mixed in with them around the time he scanned their DNA." The boy's smile widened just a little bit. "The digital DNA of our other parent."

"Shadow." Courtney and Duncan said at the same time.

"Precisely." Ahriman nodded. "We were created from a single digital vessel that was one of XANA's monsters much like how he created the others but because of Shadow's data on both of your DNA our matching data made us literally brothers and we shared a connection that left us unique gifts, like the ability to merge and hide my body inside Agro to protect myself. There is also an added bonus is that because of our connection Agro will only do as I say and fight whoever I tell him to fight...Even XANA. Now, let us continue our little battle...Sic' em, Agro."

Agro leapt forward but before he even came close a beam of light came down and almost hit him. He sensed it coming and was instinctive enough to jump out of the way of an attack that would completely destroy him. Aelita landed on the ground in front of the warriors with her hands glowing.

"Aelita!" Courtney and LeShawna exclaimed happily.

"Hey, everyone. Sorry I'm late." Aelita stood up, keeping a close eye on Agro and Ahriman. "So these are who I sensed, new Generals."

"Yeah and these ones go way above the others on the creepy meter." Duncan replied. "Both of them are made from mine and Courtney's DNA but there's a little twist..."

"They have Shadow's data in them; I sense the same corruption that was present in Shadow inside both of them." Aelita frowned.

"Well, if it isn't Aelita Schaeffer, come to the rescue." Ahriman made a smile but it didn't reach his eyes. "But unfortunately for you your attempt will fail."

"We'll see about that." Aelita replied.

"No... we won't." Ahriman's smile grew more sinister looking. "We will do what the other generals and XANA himself have failed to accomplish."

Agro growled as he circled them on all fours.

"I got ugly here; he's obviously the tougher one." Eva cracked her knuckles.

"We can't overlook the kid, there's something about him that's not right. I may not have that sixth digital sense Aelita's got but I know creepy when it's looking me in the eyes." LeShawna held her hammer tightly.

"No argument there, but we can't ignore muscles here." Duncan's sword blazed with green fire.

"Aelita and I will go after Ahriman while you guys distract Agro." Courtney stood next to Aelita. "I think he's able to phase through solid objects just like Noah."

"Thanks for the heads up. How many life points do you have left?" Aelita prepared another energy blast.

"I think I'm down to like forty or even less. That Agro may not be very smart but he knows how to punch. We're all a little low here." Courtney twirled her staff. "We could use some help."

"Don't worry; the others are on their way."

"Okay, now..."Courtney eyed Ahriman. "I don't normally try to hurt kids but in this case I'll make a big exception!"

She charged forward and swung her staff but instead of slicing through him it was blocked by some king of invisible force.

"Wha-OOF!" Courtney was suddenly slapped back by something powerful that knocked her back.

Aelita quickly helped her stand back up while watching Ahriman. "You okay?"

"Yeah, but something blocked my staff." Courtney replied as she looked at Ahriman with a wary look. "This kid...he's a lot more dangerous than he looks."

"If you think that's all I can do you're sadly mistaken." Ahriman remarked with a nasty grin.

Aelita gasped as her second sight allowed her to see what looked like transparent arms coming out of Ahriman's back and rip the nearby trees out of the ground. She along with Courtney looked on in shocked silence as the trees hovered over Ahriman while the boy had a smile with sarcastic politeness.

"Here is one of my favourite games...Whack a Mole!"

The trees came down as Aelita and Courtney jumped out of the way before they were flattened. Aelita watched as one of the invisible hands tried to grab her and she jumped back, flying into the air as fast as she could.

"Courtney get back! He's using vectors, invisible arms created by his powers to attack us! Get away from him now!"

Just as she said that Ahriman catapulted into the air and flew above Aelita, looking down at her with a dark grin.

"Tag, your it."

Aelita felt a fist slam into her chest hard and two more slam down onto her head which sent her spiraling down to the ground, impacting the ground so hard she sent dust flying everywhere.

Xxx

Aelita and Cody came out of the Way Tower of the Tropical Sector with Cody's pistols restored and fully charged.

"All right, which way do we go?" Cody asked, watching the ocean. "And do you have a vehicle or something ready?"

"Hang on..." Aelita turned and faced the tower. "We have company."

"Who? Is it..." Cody held up his pistols.

"No, it's the others." Aelita smiled.

Just as she spoke Noah and Izzy walked out followed by...

"Aelita!" All three of them stopped when they saw _two_ Aelitas!

"I'm seeing double!" Izzy exclaimed.

A second later Trent came out. "Hey guys, sorry I'm...What the?!"

He wasn't the only one shocked as the three gaped as a _third _Aelita came out of the tower behind him. As if that wasn't enough Gwen and Heather came out of the tower next followed by a fourth Aelita and then a second later Bridgette came with another Aelita making the total number six.

"Hey guys we got..." Gwen stopped when she saw the total number of Aelitas with them. "Oh no."

"Did XANA try the evil clone thing?" Heather asked.

"Five Aelitas!" Bridgette exclaimed.

"Hey Bridge!" Everyone turned to see Geoff come out of the tower. "We made it! This is so cool and...Hey how come there's five Aelitas standing in front of me?"

A sixth Aelita came out of the tower behind him, now completing the entire set.

"Wow, and I thought I had it rough just being the youngest of eight siblings." Noah remarked.

"What's going on here?" Heather asked.

"Well, when the original Aelita realized you were all scattered across the Carbon Copy she knew it would take too long to find and rescue you all in time so she activated the Lyoko Keys using Code Angel and divided herself into six separate beings." Aelita, well let's call her Aelita-1 explained.

"She sent us to find you while she went on ahead to find Eva, LeShawna, Courtney, and Duncan who are in this sector with the activated tower." Aelita-2 spoke up.

"But we also know they are in trouble because there are two new generals fighting them as we speak." Aelita-3 continued.

"Aelita split herself up with the Angel code! That's dangerous, even for her!" Cody exclaimed. "It's just like what happened with Noah when he duplicated himself!"

"So if we don't put them back together soon Aelita might vanish on us." Noah realized.

"Luckily, splitting herself up means there is less of strain on the original Aelita so we have more time." Aelita-4 explained.

"But not if those generals take her out." Gwen replied.

"We got to hurry then!" Bridgette exclaimed.

"Here, you'll need these." Aelita-1 said as the vehicles appeared in front of the group.

"How did you..." Heather started.

"We each used the chance to download a connection into the Way Towers, connecting the others sectors and this one to the Supercomputer." Aelita-5 explained with a smile. "We can now virtualize here directly and use the vehicles."

"All right, let's go!" Cody hopped onto the Overwing. "We got to save the others!"

Most of the others got onto the vehicles while Bridgette used her board and Trent hopped onto his guitar.

Xxx

"DAMN IT!" LeShawna shouted.

Agro had grabbed her hammer and snapped in two with his knee and then launched a powerful uppercut to Eva's face knocking her down. The fight was not going well for them as Agro and Ahriman were relentless. Courtney was held up in the air as one of Ahriman's vectors was wrapped around her neck and Courtney could feel it squeezing her neck tightly. Even though she didn't need to breath instinct overpowered logic as she kicked and thrashed trying to break free.

"LET HER GO!" Duncan roared as he ran at Ahriman.

He was engulfed in green flames and out of those flames came the Berserker, roaring angrily.

"Ooooh, scary." Ahriman commented with an excited smile. "Maybe you'll be more fun, she's starting to bore me." He looked up at the struggling Courtney. "Maybe Agro can have some fun with you when I am done."

With that Ahriman tossed Courtney aside, sending her crashing into a tree. The Berserker roared again and charged forward with the intent of burning Ahriman alive. Ahriman's pleasant smile turned into a an evil and sadistic grin that even surpassed any kind of evil smirk Lilith or even XANA could have pulled off. Just as the Berserker towered over him, it was sent flying back by an invisible force with a punch so powerful it was like being hit by a train.

The Berserker flew and slammed into a tree, his green flames setting the tree and the nearby bushes on fire. Just as it sat up it again felt something slam into its face and then all over its body again and again. They felt like fists but they had much greater strength than any human could ever hope to have. The Berserker's skeletal body actually started to crack under the barrage of constant punches and its body pressed further against the burning tree until it fell over.

"DUNCAN!" Courtney cried as she staggered back to her feet.

Her Berserker was lifted up by its leg and left hanging upside down in the air as the vector brought it above the disappointed looking Ahriman.

"Is that it? Are you done already? And you were able to hold your own against Shadow, Lilith, and almost anyone else as the mighty Berserker." Ahriman remarked as the Berserker changed back to Duncan. "Pathetic."

"LET HIM GO!" Courtney charged forward but with a mere glance from Ahriman another vector slammed into Courtney's stomach.

She gasped as she fell over, clutching her stomach out of instinct rather than pain.

"Your life points must be pretty low by now. I'll deal with you when I am done playing with Mister Berserker here." Ahriman looked up at the groaning Duncan. "Oh, so you are still conscious. I was worried I would have to bash your head in to wake you back up."

Three more vectors reached and grabbed Duncan's other leg and arms and began started stretching them out. Duncan groaned as he tried to resist but Ahriman's vectors were too powerful for him to even try.

"This is how pulling a human apart looks when its digital." Ahriman grinned.

But before he could rip Duncan's arms and legs off a series of energy beams came down, forcing Ahriman to drop Duncan so he could he jump out of the way. Holding one hand to his mouth as he coughed, Ahriman glared up at whoever interrupted him. Agro stopped, allowing the others to recuperate as reinforcements arrived.

"It's the others!" LeShawna smiled, glad that help had finally arrived.

"Hey, why are there six more Aelitas?" Eva pointed up at the copies of the pink haired girl.

Aelita watched as the copies landed around her in a circle with her in the center. The rest of the group landed their vehicles on the ground as Bridgette hopped off her board and transformed it back into her swords while Trent picked up his guitar. The copies glowed bright and vanished in flashes of bright light that slammed into Aelita, fusing back together with her. Aelita sighed in relief as her copies fused back into her and the white light surrounding her faded.

Courtney moved over to Duncan who seemed to be knocked out and or just exhausted. She put his arm over her shoulder and pulled him away from Ahriman as Agro ran up and stood in front of the boy. Courtney brought Duncan over to the rest of the group as they gathered around Aelita.

"That was close." Aelita remarked. "I'd rather not do that again."

"What was that about?" Eva asked.

"She split up into seven duplicates of herself to find and rescue all of us as soon as possible." Gwen explained and looked at the two generals. "What's their story?"

"Gwen, do not underestimate those two! One of them is so brutish that he makes Blade look like a tamed puppy and that kid..." Courtney trailed off. "He's even more of a psychopath than any other digital bad guy we ever faced."

"They were created from Duncan and Courtney's digital DNA which XANA scanned during the battle with Shadow but they are both unique because the DNA at the same had strands of Shadow's data on them. Agro has almost no intelligence, he relies on brute force more so than even Blade and Ahriman uses invisible arms, vectors that wield greater physical strength than anything we've encountered before." Aelita explained. "Both of them together are more dangerous than any general that's faced us alone."

"...so that kid there seriously came from Courtney?" Izzy asked. "Maaaan no surprise!"

"NOT THE POINT!" Courtney insisted before Agro made a charge at the team.

"Scatter!" They all dove or flew out of the way, and Eva immediately stepped up to the plate to take on Agro. She noticed LeShawna next to her

"Got anything besides that hammer you can use?"

"Uhhhhh not really." LeShawna replied. "Pretty strong though! Let's see what we can do with Big'n Ugly here!"

Agro turned towards them when Izzy suddenly landed on his shoulders. "Diediediediediedieeeeee!" She fired multiple arrows down into Agro's head and shoulders as he barely glanced up at her. He then swung one hand to dislodge her, but she back flipped off of him while Eva rushed in and punched him in the jaw. He stumbled back a few steps while Eva and LeShawna began to punch him as much as they could.

"Boom goes the big guy!" Izzy shouted before detonating the arrows which she had fired into Agro. The explosion made Eva and LeShawna stagger and consumed Agro in a cloud of dust.

"Aw yeah! That got him!" Leshawna said...right before a large arm reached out and punched her in the face. "OW!"

Agro leapt out and landed on LeShawna, knocking her down. Before LeShawna could do anything Agro let out a stream of acid that covered her face. LeShawna screamed as the acid ate away at the last of her life points.

"...Spoke too soon princess." Eva said as Izzy landed next to her.

"LeShawna!" Courtney cried out, hiding behind a tree while Duncan was starting to regain his senses.

"It's all right; Aelita connected the sector to the Supercomputer. She should be back in the factory." Heather replied, hiding behind a nearby boulder.

"Okay, I might have an idea on how to take this guy out." Eva whispered as Agro turned to them.

"Spit it out!" Izzy insisted.

"We need to lift him up and then drop him when he's high enough that the fall would kill an ordinary human for sure." Eva explained. "Go get James Bond and hurry!"

"Got it!" Izzy saluted with a smile.

Xxx

LeShawna fell out of the scanner back in the basement of the studio, gasping for air. Kurt ran over and helped her back up.

"You all right?" Kurt asked.

"Yeah, I thought I was a goner." LeShawna sighed in relief. "God bless Aelita and her ability to plan ahead."

Xxx

"Come out come out, wherever you are!" Ahriman sang as his vectors ripped trees out of the ground.

"Hey!"

Ahriman looked up as Trent and Geoff jumped out and fired blasts of lightning at him. He grinned as his vectors wrapped around his body and blocked the lightning attacks easily.

"No way!" Geoff gasped.

"Get back now!" Aelita shouted.

Trent quickly played his Shield Note just in time for Ahriman's vectors to slam into the barrier protecting him and Geoff. The ground and nearby trees were torn apart as the vectors came in from all angles. Trent gasped as his shield shattered under the strain of the attacks and before he could make a run for it a vector grabbed his head and slammed his head first into the ground. The impact was so great his head shattered into data and the rest of him was devirtualized a second later.

"Trent!" Geoff cried out but he had his own problems.

A vector grabbed his leg and lifted him up into the air.

"Geoff!" Bridgette came out from behind the tree she had been using for cover.

"Bridgette wait!" Aelita called out.

"How sweet, maybe the both of you can give me some entertainment." Ahriman grinned.

"Put him down!" Bridgette shouted.

"Oh, you want him?" Ahriman looked at her, getting an idea. "Go long!"

With that said Ahriman's vector tossed Geoff through the air and he was sent spiralling through the air and crashed through several trees until he slammed into a final one where his body was shattered into bits of data as his conscious was sent back into the real world.

"Geoff!" Bridgette cried out.

She turned and faced Ahriman with a furious glare for what he did.

"I told you to go long. Not my fault you're no good at games." Ahriman shrugged, looking like a clueless child.

Bridgette roared and swung her blades, releasing an energy wave larger than any she had ever made before. Ahriman however simply used his vectors to block her attack like he did with Geoff and Trent's. Bridgette fired again only for Ahriman to block her attack again.

"She's lost it." Heather commented, watching from behind her rock.

"I don't blame her." Gwen replied as she stepped out with her scythe ready. "That brat's getting a timeout."

"What can you do? You saw what happened?" Duncan managed to stand back up.

"If we can't fight him directly we'll do it another way." With that said, Gwen was surrounded by a yellow aura as she activated her Earth Spell.

Ahriman just blocked another blast from Bridgette when he felt the earth shake under his feet.

"What?" He looked down as the ground started to crack up.

His eyes widened as he used his vectors to life himself up into the air before he fell down. He looked up as Bridgette fired another energy blast and he jumped to the right, dodging the blast. He landed on the ground and tried to locate the source of what had made the ground crack open when something that felt like a foot collided with his face. He cried as he fell on his back and looked up to see who had hit him.

He sent his vectors out and tore the bushes in front of him apart but he didn't find anyone hiding there.

"Hey!"

He turned around as Bridgette tried to blast him again and was through toying with her. He sent his vectors forward and they passed through Bridgette's fourth energy wave but before they grabbed her a fist collided with the back of his head, making him cry out and lose focus. His vectors dissipated before they grabbed Bridgette and she fired another energy wave to take out Ahriman while he was distracted.

"Damn you!" Ahriman shouted, actually showing genuine anger.

He didn't know what they were doing but they were making a fool out of him and he wouldn't allow them to get away with it. He unleashed his vectors in all directions and he heard a gasp as one of them hit something close to him. He smirked as Heather fell to the ground, cradling her abdomen from the blow she hadn't managed to dodge.

"Well, well, look what I found." A vector grabbed Heather's leg and lifted her up so she hung in the air upside down. "Peek-a-boo, I see you!"

Heather aimed and fired a shuriken at his head but it was easily blocked by another vector.

"That wasn't very nice, but then again you were not known for being nice. They say you have no heart..." Ahriman grinned. "Well, maybe we can find out. Want to see what your heart looks like when its digital?"

A laser shot made Ahriman drop Heather to block the attack allowing her to jump back as Noah came out with his guns pointed at Ahriman.

"I never thought I'd say it, but I actually miss Sora, Lilith, and the other generals." Heather said as she landed next to Noah. "Sora just likes to annoy me with his stupid 'Mama' jokes. Where are the others?"

"Cody's gone to help Eva and Izzy with Agro. LeShawna was devirtualized so Izzy asked for some help." Noah replied. "I got to say, this kid right here is a quite the horrid little monster, even by my standards and you should see how my siblings act sometimes."

"Whatever." Heather and Noah got ready as they watched a tree get torn out of the ground by Ahriman and floated over his head.

Ahriman grinned as he tossed the tree at them but Aelita blasted the tree with her Plasma Beam before it could hurt anyone.

"We can't try stalling him. DJ's running out of time along with the city." Aelita stepped out and her hands glowed with bright pink energy. "We need to take both of them out here and now."

"You're right, no more playing around." Duncan stepped out with his sword glazing with green fire. "Got to tell ya though, I might not have a lot of life points left."

"It's all right. Right now I just want to strangle this brat." Courtney twirled her staff.

"You think you can take me on just because there are more of you?" Ahriman watched as Gwen and Bridgette joined them. "All right, I might have some fun playing with all of you just as your friend is torn apart by the tornado."

With that he launched his vectors, ready to tear the Warriors to digital pieces.


	99. Episode 97: Hand of Death

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 99

He didn't know how long he had been holding on the moment the tornado lifted him and Jennifer off their feet but he was fiercely determined to make sure they both survived. DJ, for once in his life actually cursed the cause of this attack. He may have been caught up in these attacks before but he never had someone close to him aside from his friends and fellow Lyoko Warrior being caught up in the middle of this war. But now a close friend, someone he had bonded with outside of the show was in danger and it was his fault that she was screaming and clutching him as if he was her only lifeline.

He tried to hold on as long as possible but his strength was slipping. Even a jolly giant like him had his limits and when it ran out they were both doomed.

'Please hurry guys. I can't hold on much longer!'

Xxx

**Carbon Copy**

**Tropical Sector**

To sum up how things were going with the rest of the group it would be these few words: not good.

Agro and Eva were fighting head on while Izzy and Cody provided back up but Agro seemed to feel their arrows and laser shots, seemingly getting more angry than hurt. With the others Ahriman was using his vectors to block long range attacks and it was nearly impossible for anyone to get close to him without getting ripped apart.

"Ha!" Ahriman lifted up another batch of trees and tossed them at the warriors.

Bridgette and Aelita blasted the incoming trees with their energy attacks, cancelling out Ahriman's attack easily. Bridgette fired another energy wave from both of her swords but Ahriman once again blocked by wrapping his vectors around his body. It may have looked like that they were in a stalemate but Aelita had been carefully observing Ahriman 's abilities. She noticed that Ahriman's vectors had a range because as they moved back further his arms stopped in mid air.

As far as she could tell Ahriman's invisible arms had a range of over two meters in length meaning so as long as they were out of range he can't attack directly. Then when Gwen used her Earth Spell to shake the ground and knock Ahriman down his vectors vanished meaning he needed to concentrate, focus his powers to summon and attack. That was good as she and Gwen could manipulate the ground to distract Ahriman but he could use his vectors to lift himself up and out of the way probably fast enough since he already experienced that one attack.

On the other hand she noticed something as she used her Second Sight to observe Ahriman's vectors. They were similar to other kinds of powers, like Shadow and XANA's smoke/energy abilities and Yumi's telekinesis. So if the vectors were a form of energy than maybe...

"Damn this kid!" Duncan growled as Ahriman lifted another large boulder and threw it at them.

He grabbed Courtney and pulled her out of the way before both of them ended up getting squashed.

"What's the matter? Don't like our current game?" Ahriman laughed. "I suppose you have a better one in mind."

"Actually yeah, I do...Pin the tail on the Psycho Brat!" Duncan threw his sword as hard as he possibly could.

The sword whistled through the air with green flames blazing around it like a comet.

"Hmph!" Ahriman snorted.

It stopped right in front of his face, floating mere inches between his eyes. Duncan gritted his teeth as the flames around his sword faded and Ahriman examined it closely.

"Interesting idea for a game..." Ahriman grinned. "I like it!"

He threw the sword back with such force it moved like a green blur and before Duncan could even blink the sword had already passed through chest and impacted the tree behind him.

"Duncan!" Courtney gasped as Duncan's digital form vanished a second later.

"Well, that was a bust. I thought he'd last a little longer." Ahriman seemed to pout before turning his grin to the rest of the warriors. "Can any of you do better?"

"Okay, we need a plan, one well thought and with a good strategy that will kick that brat out of here." Noah aimed his guns at Ahriman.

"On it." Aelita stepped forward.

"What's the plan?" Heather asked.

"Stand back and let him attack me." Aelita dully replied.

The warriors stared at the back of Aelita's head like she was walking into a flaming building, which may not be far off.

"Aelita, did splitting yourself up cause brain damage?" Gwen asked, trying to step forward only for Aelita to hold her arm and gesture everyone to stay back.

"Trust me; I know what I'm doing." Aelita said reassuringly.

Stepping forward Aelita walked until she was within range of Ahriman's vectors.

"Oh, and what kind of plan is this?" Ahriman asked, his vectors moving through the air like snakes ready to attack. "You going to take me on directly? I presume that means you have some kind of death wish."

"No, actually the opposite. I've thought and decided that it's time for me to give you a time out." Aelita raised one hand and it glowed with bright pink energy.

"Let's test that!"

With that Ahriman sent a single vector forward toward Aelita, intent on crushing her digital head into nothing but code. Aelita didn't make any attempt to dodge, simply raising her hand as if she actually planned to stop the vector with just a single hand.

"I can't look! Don't tell me what happen!" Noah covered his eyes with his hands but a second later he lifted them up enough for a single eye to peek out.

The vector slammed into Aelita's hand...

And was completely repelled!

"Wha?!" Gwen, Courtney, Heather, Noah, and Trent gaped in astonishment.

"What?!" Ahriman's jaw fell down as his vector was blocked by just a single hand. "Impossible!"

"Really? Good thing no one told me that!" Aelita released a blast of pink electricity that traveled down the vector and Ahriman screamed as it traveled through his body.

He fell to his knee, his hands closing into fists out of pain and anger.

"How?" He looked up at Aelita. "How did you do that?"

"Your vectors may be unique compared to the abilities of any other general we faced but there are still enough similarities there for me to figure out how they work. They're a form of energy, much like how Shadow could use smoke like powers or how Lilith could create arrows out of pure energy for her bow or even how XANA himself can use his power to create monsters, activate towers, and create an Avatar with a boat load of abilities. Your arms are invisible but at the same time you have to focus on using them like how most of us and the generals need to focus to wield our power, which means that they are made of energy and what can block something made of energy?" Aelita asked rhetorically.

"Something else made of energy!" Noah answered. "Of course, it's so obvious. I can't believe I didn't think of that."

"That's a good power but against someone who can channel energy attacks it's a stalemate. That's how you managed to block attacks like Bridgette's energy waves or Trent's lightning attacks, your vectors cancelled them out." Aelita held up her glowing hand. "All I had to go was channel energy in my hand like I was about to use my Energy Field or Plasma Beam but instead of firing I kept gathering the energy in my hand until there was enough to cancel out both of our abilities. The next weakness is the range, you can only extend to a maximum of two meters, meaning as long we are out of range you can't hit us. But now that I've figured out how your powers work I know how to counter them."

To signify her point both of Aelita's hands glowed bright pink.

"Oh yeah? TAKE THIS!" Ahriman roared as he unleashed a dozen vectors towards Aelita.

However Aelita could see them with her Second Sight and years of fighting XANA's minions had honed her reflexes to the point she could easily move out of the way. Dodging one vector she and blocked another vector with her energy charged hand, pink electricity shocking Ahriman for a mere second before he attacked again. The way Aelita dodged, spun, or blocked his attacks could almost be seen as a dance, a dance done by a pro easily twirling out of the way of incoming vector and blocking another as it tried to grab her or rip her to shreds. Ahriman was starting to get angry as Aelita came closer, not even looking tired or even afraid she might make a mistake and unleashed more vectors to attack her on all sides.

Aelita raised both hands as she spun, moving so fast her body was a pink blue with her hands growing bright with energy and they actually slapped the vectors away, sending pink electricity traveling through them when they made contact with her and shocked Ahriman to the point he let out a cry of pain and anger. His vectors dissipated as he stepped, gritting his teeth and glaring hatefully at Aelita as she approached.

"It's over Ahriman, you can't win now." Aelita said sternly.

"We'll see about that!" Ahriman jumped into the air using his vectors while trees and rocks were lifted up with him. "Take this!"

He released everything grabbed down towards Aelita who didn't blink from the avalanche falling towards her from above.

"No you don't!" Trent played the Lightning Note on his guitar and a blast of lightning tore through the falling rocks and trees.

Bridgette and Gwen helped, the former releasing her energy wave and the latter activating her Earth Aura to create a dome of earth surrounding Aelita and protecting her. Ahriman landed on the ground, growling as Aelita blasted through the dome when the attack was over and stepped out, continuing her pace towards Ahriman.

"Retreat while you still have the chance, Ahriman. I don't have time to waste fighting you." Aelita said, giving Ahriman one chance to leave.

"You think just because you managed to last a little longer means I'm quitting?!" Ahriman laughed. "We'll see about that."

"Fine." Aelita's hands glowed. "We'll end this the hard way."

Meanwhile Eva blocked another blow from Agro and jumped out of the way as Agro tried to kick her in the abdomen. "Why don't you just pretend to be hurt?"

Agro growled which she took as a no.

"Okay...that's it...come at me!" Eva got herself ready.

Agro charged at her like an enraged bull and leapt at her which was exactly what Eva wanted. As Agro leaped at her Eva had taken the chance to charge her up with power and when she jumped up at Agro she was shot like a rocket. Colliding with Agro as they both flew into the air, grappling against each their strength while Eva made sure to avoid Agro's acid breath.

"This where we say sayonara!" Eva's feet came up, glowing with blue energy and with all the strength she had left she kicked Agro in the chest.

The resulting blocked knocked Agro away and sent him spiralling down to the island below.

"Pterodactyl service!"

Eva looked up and saw Izzy in the form of a red Pterodactyl flying next to her. She flew underneath Eva, allowing the brawler to land safely on her while Agro dropped to the ground like a rock. He impacted the ground and sent up a cloud of dust into the air, like a comet or a missile had hit the ground rather than a digital humanoid monster. Izzy landed safely on the ground and changed back into her human form after Eva jumped off.

"Whoa! Now that was some drop!" Izzy commented at the large cloud of dust. "Think he survived?"

"Hope not. I'm actually getting tired of fighting this guy." Eva sourly replied. "I think my limbs would be aching if this was done in the real world."

"Yeah, this guy was a little tough." Cody ran up to them.

As the dust cloud faded they could see a giant crater that was created when Agro hit the ground and in the center of the crater...

"Oh come on!" Eva groaned.

Agro was already struggling to climb to his feet when the dust cloud faded and he was staring at the three Lyoko Warriors with a look of pure rage.

"This guy's is as durable as Blade was." Cody aimed his pistols at the injured general. "But I think the fall may have actually hurt him."

"Not enough, it was just a flesh wound." Eva replied as she got ready to fight.

"Oh boy! More boom boom!" Izzy aimed her arrows at the general.

Agro roared and was ready to charge but Ahriman had taken the chance to retreat from the others when they saw the dust cloud.

"Agro, it seems the odds have turned against us. Naturally I blame you." Ahriman glared hatefully at the warriors as they gathered together to face them.

Agro growled at the warriors, not seeming to care how Ahriman insulted him.

"It pains me to admit being beaten around by these losers but I am not one who accepts defeat easily. So I guess I'm stuck with the alternative..." Ahriman grinned. "Say, here's a simple question for you if you think your smart enough. What's one plus one?"

The Warriors shared a quick glance, confused why Ahriman would ask such a question.

"Duh! It's two, genius!" Izzy said.

"Really?" Ahriman grinned sinisterly. "There's something I should have mentioned when I told you how XANA created us...Agro, let's show them our real form."

Agro growled as he stood behind Ahriman who spread his arms out and stepped back.

"What are they doing?" Courtney asked, gripping her staff.

"I don't know but I really am getting bad feeling here." Cody gulped.

"What was once one ember became two when the newly born child went to sleep and now when the two disappear the one will reappear!" Ahriman phased back into Agro who roared as his eyes turned bright yellow.

A blast of black light engulfed him as his roars echoed throughout the Carbon Copy before a new figure stood in his place. This person resembled a tall young man with pale gray white skin, long dark brown hair that was almost completely black tied in a pony tail, wearing a black tuxedo with a top hat and white gloves. His eyes were yellow and he had a monocle over his right eye and the Eye of XANA appeared on his forehead as a third eye.

"Wha..." Izzy was rarely taken by surprise but even she had to admit what she saw was freaky.

"What the hell happened here?! First there were two of them now there's only one of them!" Eva gasped. "What the hell is with this place and surprises?!"

"This is new, even for us." Gwen commented, shaking her head to keep herself focused.

"I don't why I bother to be surprised anymore." Noah leveled his guns at the new person. "All right, who the hell are you and where did you come from?"

"Me?" The man asked, his voice sounding a lot calmer than Agro yet at the same time held a great deal of malevolence like Ahriman. "I am Sammael."

"Sammael? That's it? No title?" Aelita asked.

"I have no need for a title like the others." Sammael's grin widened slightly. "My name should more than suffice for what I am meant to do."

"What the hell are you? There were two generals but then Ahriman and Agro did that...did they..."Cody asked.

"Yes, they merged and formed me, the original general that XANA created from the DNA of Duncan and Courtney." Sammael tipped his hat at Courtney. "Greetings...mother."

Courtney shivered from the way he stared at her.

"Just how the hell can you create a general that can split into two?" Heather spoke up.

"A valid question...I suppose it started when XANA took the chance to gain a DNA sample from the both of you during the battle with Shadow. His data was mixed with Shadow's when they were possessed and in the process he gained a copy of both sets of digital DNA only they were mixed with Shadows. Two stands of DNA sharing the same corrupt data, well XANA decided to experiment a bit by creating a single general by combining both strands of DNA with a single monster that carried his data, combing to form...me." Sammael took his hat as he bowed, showing his neatly combed hair. "Ta-da!"

"And I thought me, Gwen, Noah, and Aelita were stuck with the crazy general slash monster kid. You and Duncan managed to top all of us." Heather whispered to Courtney.

"But that doesn't explain how those other two appeared." Aelita pointed out.

"Oh yeah...thanks to the separate strands of DNA and Shadow's data I have the power to split myself in two different beings and merge back into one." Sammael explained. "Two different digital beings with similar enough data can merge into a single digital being. Agro, my aggression along with my strength and Ahriman my intellect and cunning and..." Sammael chuckled. "My dark side. With two different sets of powers that all belong to me."

"Great..."Noah groaned.

"Let's not worry yet. We just defeated both generals before even if they are part of this guy we know his powers now." Gwen pointed out.

"Think so?" Sammael grinned. "Let's see about that."

Gwen activated her Pink Energy Aura and with a swing of scythe she released a pink energy wave but Sammael simply raised his hand and something invisible blocked Gwen's attack.

"There were no vectors used!" Aelita gasped.

She used her Second Sight to see an invisible wall in front of Samael.

"So sorry, but Ahriman and Agro both pale in comparison to me." Samael chucked.

"We'll have our hands full with this guy after just fighting those other two." Noah gulped. "There's no way we can take out this guy when he's fresh with enhanced versions of both their powers."

"Oh, it's a lot more than that." Sammael raised his hand and the Warriors found themselves lifted up in the air.

"Wha..." Courtney found herself floating upside down. "What the..."

"Wee!" Izzy tried swimming through the air but she was stuck.

"He's using telekinesis!" Aelita realized.

"Exactly." With a mere gesture of Sammael's finger the Lyoko Warriors were sent flying in all directions.

They skid across the ground and a few slammed into a tree before they finally landed on the ground in the form of a rough landing. Courtney looked up as Sammael approached and felt like she was about to devirtualize any second. She had gone through fighting Agro, than Ahriman, and now Sammael who looked completely ready for battle. The Warriors had all been through a tough battle already before Samael revealed himself.

"I wish Ahriman and Agro merged a little earlier. It would have been little nice to have a real challenge." Sammael sighed but shrugged. "Aw well, I get to brag I did what all the other generals failed to do. I think I'll start with...mother."

He looked at Courtney who shivered when he saw the wide grin on his face. He looked more reserved than Ahriman but his grin was openly sadistic and just as evil looking as Ahriman. She tried to crawl away but Sammael lifted her back into the air and she floated forward until she was a inches away from him.

"I know it's the ideal way for a parent to meet their off springs but we can't be choosers. I have to be quick, XANA wants you all out in the real world for his tornado to tear you all apart. At the very least I'll hope for a painless death." Sammael grabbed Courtney's neck. "Good bye, Mother."

Suddenly Cody appeared right behind Sammael and fired several shots but they didn't makes holes in his tuxedo. Courtney took the chance and kicked Sammael in the chest but all he did was let go, showing no reaction to either attacks.

He simply sighed in annoyance. "So, going for the old fashioned fight to the finish?"

"Like we have any other plans." Cody shrugged.

"Fight to the finish! Fight to the finish!" Izzy cheered.

"We'll all need to take him out." Aelita stepped forward but Gwen put a hand on her shoulder. "Gwen?"

"Aelita, we need you to get to the tower right now. DJ's running out of time and every second wasted fighting this creep means DJ has one second left to live. Get out of here and find that tower, we'll take care of this." Gwen stepped in front of Aelita.

"But Gwen, this guy..."

"She's right, Aelita." Trent stood next to Gwen. "This guy's just distracting us. Get out of here and don't worry."

Aelita looked to everyone else but they all gave that look that told her to go and find the tower, even Izzy.

"All right, good luck." Aelita took off into the air.

"I don't think so!" Sammael tried to telekinetically grab Aelita but Gwen activated her Earth Aura and Samael had to block a flying boulder. "So uncivilized."

"Okay, he's telekinetic, that's a step up from vectors but he's probably got the same weakness as Ahriman." Noah noted.

"Okay." Gwen looked down at the ground. "I might have an idea and you all see if you can keep up because there's no time to explain."

With that Gwen activated her Wind Aura and exhaled a blast of wind, sending dust up into the air covering the area.

"Really?" Sammael raised an amused eyebrow.

He simply raised his hand and the dust was blown away by his powers but that was when they struck. Cody fired his pistols from the left while Noah fired his cannons from the right; Heather and Izzy fired a barrage of shuriken and explosive arrows from behind while Bridgette and Trent attacked from above. All perfectly coordinated attacks at the right moments...

And Sammael simply created an invisible barrier around him to block these attacks.

"Is that it?" Sammael asked, waving his index finger like he was an adult disciplining a child. "What made you think I would be caught off guard like that?"

"Who says that was the attack?" Bridgette called down from the air.

Sammael narrowed his eyes and looked down as the ground cracked open beneath him.

"You already tried this with Ahriman!" Sammael jumped out of the way.

"Did we try this?" Courtney's voice came from behind him.

He spun around just as he saw the bladed end of Courtney's staff swing at his head. He pulled his head back to avoid it getting cut off but Courtney managed to cut his cheek before Samael jumped back and landed the ground a few feet away.

He faintly traced the sparking cut on his cheek as it vanished and looked at Courtney with a smile. "I got carried away and I underestimated you. I thought Agro and Ahriman had worn you all out, I will not make that mistake again."

"Who says we're done with the tricks?" Courtney grinned.

Sammael frowned as he prepared to go on the offence by raising his hand and created a purple orb of energy.

"Just so that you know I don't just have the abilities of Agro and Ahriman." Samael grinned.

He hurled the orb at Courtney leapt out of the way and watched as destroyed a tree in a black and purple blast. Sammael attacked again, firing purple energy blasts at everyone who ran, jumped, teleported, ducked, and flew out of the way as fast as they could knowing that with one hit it was over. Blasts of black and purple energy lit up the sky as the energy orbs hit and destroyed anything they touched.

"Okay, I'm really getting tired of this guy!" Heather shouted as she ran for her life.

"Me too, it's time we put this guy out for good!" Gwen's Fire Aura flared as she turned around and faced Sammael.

"What can you do this guy that we haven't already done?" Noah stopped and looked back at Gwen.

"I got an idea from one of the movies my brother made me watch and I thought of it while I was training my powers. Just get ready to strike when he's off guard!" Gwen jumped into the air and streams of fire erupted from her feet as she shot at Sammael.

"And what is our spell caster planning?" Sammael cast Gwen an amused look.

Gwen channelled as much of her power into her jet feet as she could as Sammael fired another energy blast and quickly flew out of the way. She flew around Sammael in a perfect circle leaving trails of flames in her wake that surrounded Sammael. The general tried to attack but flinched when his hand was burned from the intense heat. Gwen thanked the universe for the immunity to fire her Fire Aura granted her as she kept on flying around Sammael until the circle of fire resembled a miniature tornado made of fire!

"AHH!" Sammael screamed from the heat.

When XANA remade Lyoko and created the Carbon Copy he had upgraded both so that a virtualized person would have more senses than just sight and hearing. It had been done as part of his experiment to make everything more like the real world, believing the more real it looked the more XANA could learn on how to counter and defeat his enemies by making his armies able to understand and adapt to everything humans have. But unfortunately today that was an advantage the warriors had on their side as the intense heat from Gwen's fire tornado was burning Samael alive. The general was using his telekinesis to block the flames but it couldn't stop the heat as it rose very fast.

He had to get out of this blazing maelstrom before he was burned alive!

He pushed himself forward, blocking the flames as he made his way out but just as he pushed himself out a barrage of laser shots hit him in the chest, making lose focus and he was still close enough to fire tornado for its flames to engulf him.

"AAAAAHHHHHHH!" He let out a howl of agony as Gwen kept on flying around him, capitalizing on his loss of focus.

He fell over but tried to focus his powers into blocking the flames again but it was so hard with fire burning his digital body. His top hat was burned along with his monocle and his tuxedo was incinerated while the fire burned at his skin, streams of digital coding blasting out of the burned skin. He gathered himself up into a ball, using his pain and anger to call on his pair while shielding his face from the roaring fires.

"ENOUGH!"

With a loud he roar he unleashed a telekinetic shockwave that blasted the fire tornado apart from the inside and Gwen was sent flying through several trees before she impacted and boulder and devirtualized on impact. Trent quickly played a Shield Note as the fire spread out and thankfully everyone was behind him as the fire engulfed the shield but they were left unharmed. Sammael on the other hand was horribly burned with all of his clothes gone; his hair burned from the air, and his body was still smoking. He was panting, gasping horribly as he fell on his knees and tried to stand up, glaring hatefully at the warriors with red eyes.

Courtney pulled out her staff and walked over to him. He tried to attack but he was too weak, using all his power to stop Gwen's attack and the pain was too much. Courtney stopped in front of him, looking down at him with almost a look of pity.

"It's over Sammael, you know it is." Courtney quietly said. "You know what's going to happen."

Sammael gritted his teeth but said nothing.

"Close your eyes."

He knew it was over. He should be angry and furious...

But he wasn't.

He had lost; there was no excuse for that. The least he could do was except deletion with what was left of his dignity. Closing his eyes he waited.

Courtney raised her staff...

Xxx

"DJ, I'M SLIPPING!" Jennifer screamed as she started to lose her grip on the rope and on DJ.

"HOLD ON JENNIFER! WE'LL MAKE IT!" DJ tried to hold her tighter but the rope that was tying them both down was starting to stretch and become undone.

Xxx

Aelita landed in front of the activated tower she had finally found. It was on a cliff overlooking the ocean with no monsters guarding it. Obviously XANA was hoping his earlier traps would take out the warriors and hadn't bothered to place any monsters here to guard it. She quickly ran inside the tower and flew to the upper platform.

Xxx

"OH NO!" DJ gasped as the rope stretched out and he could tell it was about to snap.

Xxx

Aelita landed on upper platform and stepped towards the interface as it appeared.

Xxx

"COME ON GUYS!" DJ called out as he prayed that they were at the tower now.

The rope snapped and they both screamed as the tornado lifted up them up into the storm, never to be seen again.

Xxx

Aelita placed her hand on the screen and watched as it accepted her hand print.

**AELITA**

Xxx

DJ held onto Jennifer tightly as he closed his eyes.

Xxx

**Code: Lyoko**

Aelita sighed in relief, thankful that the attack was now over. She watched as the screens of data along the walls fell into the dark abyss below.

"Tower deactivated."

Xxx

The tornado along with everything else froze accept for the one person who could tell what had happened.

'Thanks guys.'

Xxx

"Quick, someone out there access the Time Return program!" Aelita urged.

Xxx

"Affirmative!"

LeShawna, Gwen, and Duncan stood in the lab along with Kurt watching everything on Cody's laptop. LeShawna typed away at the computer, thankful that Cody's laptop was connected to Lyoko and allowed her to access the supercomputer at the factory and to access the Time Return Program.

"Good thing you showed us all how to do this. Return to the Past now, baby!" LeShawna pushed the Enter Key.

The world was engulfed in a bright light and everything was rewound back to before the attack.

Xxx

"DJ?" Bridgette knocked on the door. "Jennifer's going to be here in a minute."

She opened the door and saw DJ sitting on the bed. "DJ?"

"I'm not going, Bridge." DJ shook his head.

"Why not?"

"Because the more Jennifer and I see each other the more danger I put her in." DJ replied as Bridgette walked. "Better end it now before she really gets hurt."

"Come on, DJ. You don't mean that." Bridgette replied, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You'd never hurt anyone who was as good as Jennifer."

"Bridge, she almost died when that tornado attacked us. I don't ever want to hear her scream like that." DJ looked down at the floor. "I couldn't help her and we both almost died."

"But you didn't." Bridgette remarked. "Come on, DJ you going to let Jennifer go because of that attack? All of us are in danger every time a tower is activated. Look at me and Geoff, we're a couple and we worry about each every time we get separated."

"She's right, man."

They both looked up and saw the rest of the group at the door with Kurt and Cody holding his laptop showing Aelita on Skype.

"Jennifer seems like a cool girl. You can't just let her go like this." Geoff said.

"But she almost died just because I was with her!" DJ pointed out.

"So have all of us, even people we have relations too always get caught up in these attacks whether we mean it or not." Gwen replied.

"DJ, you know how many times I along with my friends had trouble with relationships every time there was an attack?" Aelita spoke up. "Yumi tried to keep her feelings for Ulrich as a mere friendship which led to some tension and then William came in that led to a whole new mess. Jeremy often focused on Lyoko with very little time for me even though I understood why he did I still wanted a life out of Lyoko. It may seem easier to let them go and leave it at that but trust me it's not. Don't shut her out just because you're afraid, DJ, if you like you better hurry out and see her before she's gone."

"Yeah, remember what happened to me and Owen? Brainzilla broke us up even behind my back!" izzy smacked herself on the back of her head. "Stupid Brainzilla!"

DJ looked around at everyone who were encouraging him not to give up on Jennifer. "Guys..."

"We're not making any decisions for you, DJ." Cody spoke up. "But dude...it doesn't have to be this way."

DJ sighed and stood up. "I guess you're all right. Better go see her before she gets worried."

He walked past everyone who watched him as he walked down the hall towards the entrance.

Xxx

"Hey DJ!"

Just as he walked onto the side walk and turned to the source of the voice that called him.

"Jennifer?"

She kept her hair in a pony tail with her sunglasses on, wearing a simply white T-shirt and jeans while holding her cane in her right hand.

"Why are you here?" DJ walked over to his friend.

"I got a voice message from you saying that you'd walk me over to mall before my shift." Jennifer replied.

"I did?" DJ asked, even though he already knew how that happened.

He could tell that both he and Jennifer were being watched like before.

"Do we really to see this all over again?" Courtney said, watching them through a window on the top floor of the studio.

"Not much else to do." Duncan replied.

Like before the entire cast, including Beth and Lindsay were in the room watching in one room with Cody holding up his laptop, showing Aelita watching them through her webcam. And they were not the only ones watching. Interns and workers were watching DJ and Jennifer from the windows of nearly every room in the studio facing their direction. Kurt had a pair of binoculars out as he watched from his office while Lesley was holding a bowl of popcorn.

"So, can we go?" Jennifer asked.

"Yeah...sure!" DJ smiled and nodded.

They both started walking down the sidewalk towards the mall.

"Awwww..." Most of the girls said at the happy moment.

"Second time's the charm." Geoff chuckled.

"Okay...but there's no still no making out for a month." Bridgette replied.

"Ouch!" Duncan and Cody laughed.

"He's going to be all sulky for a month." Noah sighed.

"Hey, it looks like Carlos and Maggie have made up." Cody pointed down at the parking.

Everyone looked down to see Carlos and Maggie hugging each other.

"Aww!" Everyone said at the happy moment...

Xxx

Or was it a happy moment?

"Dang it Carlos! This glue prank was the worst idea you've had!" Maggie growled as the sibling awkwardly walked to the door.

"Then why did you copy me?!" Carlos retorted. "You could have done something different but no! So what's your brilliant plan now?"

They both stuck to each because their latest prank on each other involved glue and to make it a short story they were now stuck to each other.

"When I get free of this I'll see to it you can't show your face for a month!" Maggie said.

"Bring you, nut bar!"

"I will, you Sylvester Stallone psycho copy!"

"Don't forget your meds, Miss Mental Queen!"

"Klondike Junkie!"

"Leave them out of this!"

"Or what? Go crazy?"

Needless to say it was just another normal day for the two siblings.

Xxx

Aelita sighed as sat down her desk and stared at her computer. As the other celebrated their day off she had something important to consider. During the attack when she had split herself up each of her copies had successfully downloaded the group's character information into the Way Tower and successfully forged a link between the Carbon Copy and Lyoko. They could now virtualize into every sector of the Carbon Copy whenever they wanted.

Except for one more sector.

The very center of the Carbon Copy and no doubt the place where Jeremy, Ulrich, Yumi, Odd, and William were being held, the Copy's version of Sector 5. Aelita should be happy that she was now a lot closer to rescuing everyone and bringing the fight directly to XANA but she felt uneasy. They had won a massive victory today, defeating XANA's newest general, stopping his attack and could now travel through the rest of the copy except Sector 5. Perhaps she was nervous because every time they came close to winning XANA always had one last trick up his sleeve.

Either way she had to be ready for when they all decided to try and reach the Carthage of the Carbon Copy and end the battle once and for all.


	100. Episode 98: Birthday Bash

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 100

9:00

That was what the clock said for a moment.

9:01

Then a minute later...

10:01

11:01

12:59

"Damn it! How the hell do you set the stupid time on this stupid clock?!" Carlos banged the digital clock in his room. "Why'd they have to get me a digital clock?!"

"Carlos!" Lesley banged on the door. "I need to talk to you!"

"It's open!" Carlos pulled out a hammer.

Lesley walked in as Carlos was ready to smash the clock. "What are you doing?"

"This clock has been mocking me! I try to set it to eight'o clock but it keeps on screwing with me! The clock has got to die!" Carlos growled as he tried to swing the hammer down but Lesley grabbed it out of his hands. "Wha?!"

"Would you jump off the crazy train for a second and maybe I'll fix it for you if you listen." Lesley put the hammer down.

"Fine, what is it?" Carlos groaned.

"The day after tomorrow is Kurt's birthday." Lesley said.

"No it's not." Carlos said after a moment passed.

"Yes it is."

"No it's not. Kurt would have told me the day after tomorrow was his birthday and he didn't." Carlos replied positively.

"No, we told you." Lesley sighed. "Every year."

"You never tell me anything." Carlos accused.

"I do too! And just for the record Kurt told you when his birthday when he told you him and Sarah were dating."

"Sarah and Kurt are dating?!" Carlos exclaimed. "Why didn't he tell me this?!"

Xxx

**8 years ago**

"You asked Sarah out on a date?!" Carlos said to Kurt, sitting next to him in a bar.

"Yep!" Kurt nodded.

"This is so cool! I got to tell Melissa!" Carlos pulled out his cell phone.

Xxx

**5 years ago**

"You and Sarah are dating?!" Carlos said to Kurt, sitting next to him in a bar.

"Yep!" Kurt nodded.

"This is so cool! I got to tell Melissa!" Carlos pulled out his cell phone.

Xxx

**1 year ago**

"You and Sarah are getting married in a year?!" Carlos said to Kurt, sitting next to him in a bar.

"Yep!" Kurt nodded.

"This is so cool! I got to tell Melissa!" Carlos pulled out his cell phone.

Xxx

**2 months ago**

"I have to work with Chris on Total Drama?!" Carlos said to Kurt, sitting beside each other in a bar.

"Yep!" Kurt nodded.

"This sucks! I got to tell Melissa!" Carlos pulled out his cell phone.

Xxx

"And I got a few more occasions to point out." Lesley smirked.

"Sarah and Kurt are getting married in a few months? This is so cool! I got to tell Melissa!" Carlos pulled out his cell phone.

"FOCUS!" Lesley slapped the phone out of his hand. "We need to plan for Kurt's birthday!"

"It's Kurt's birthday?!"

"AHHHH!" Lesley let out an enraged howled and clutched at her head.

This made Carlos chuckle. "Okay I was screwing with you that time. Alright! Time to plan!" He suddenly got out a radio. "And we need some montage music!"

"Montage music? Carlos are you high again-"

Click.

...

The Yellow Submarine began to play.

"AGH! Wrong song! Wrong song!" Carlos tried to turn it off...

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

The radio suddenly was blown to pieces, making Carlos release a high pitched scream and latch onto the ceiling while Lesley slowly lowered a gun she had somehow produced from under her shirt, a dark expression on her face.

"I...hate...the Yellow Submarine." She growled as Carlos hopped back down.

"Uh...maybe I can do the montage later." Carls swallowed. "Oh wait! Tomorrow's the next challenge, right? I have a plan so insane, so half assed, so crazy and under prepared that it's just GOTTA work!"

"...what is it?" Lesley asked three seconds later.

"We get Kurt out of here and have the cast help us out!" Carlos said. "Have each team do something to prepare the party!"

...

"That's...actually kinda smart." Lesley sounded genuinely surprised. "Who are you and what have you done with my ex-boyfriend?"

"Wait, we dated?"

"Yeah...high school?" Lesley groaned.

"Cool! I gotta tell Melissa-"

THWACK!

"Owwwwwww..."

Xxx

**Next Day**

"You want us to prepare for Kurt's birthday?" LeShawna asked.

"Shh!" Carlos shushed everyone.

Carlos had gathered them in the recreation room and made sure all the doors were closed so Kurt or anybody Carlos didn't want listening would hear.

"Yes. Now normally by this time there would be an Aftermath but since Duncan and Courtney didn't show up and one challenge was occupied by Blaineley attempting to take over the show the director has approved of us making Kurt's birthday a challenge and the team that wins gets an advantage on the next challenge." Carlos explained.

"Oh! I love birthdays! Every years my parents get me new style boots! They got me these as an early birthday present before I came here!" Lindsay pointed to her boots.

"I thought they looked brand new and they look so great on you!" Beth looked at the boots with a big smile.

"Oh thank you!" Lindsay gave Beth a big hug.

"Anyways...yeah, I need help setting up a birthday party for Kurt." Carlos continued.

"So what do we do?" Courtney asked, gesturing to herself and Duncan.

"Sorry, but you are technically eliminated we so can't do anything for you." Carlos shrugged.

"Cool, I got a day off." Duncan grinned.

"Why can't you and the staff plan Kurt's birthday?" Gwen asked.

"I haven't forgotten when they celebrated my birthday." Carlos sourly replied.

Xxx

**Flashback**

"Hap-py birthdung to you, Clark!" Roberto sang while jugging bottles of beer. "It's your 155th and a half birthday!"

Xxx

"And you don't want to know what the piñata was holding after that." Carlos concluded the brief story. "Now look, you can either do this for me...or I can make this challenge take place in the catacombs of Paris."

"Ooh! Make it the catacombs! I loooove catacombs!" Izzy begged.

"Which I have placed multiple screens showing Chris when he was in his 'ice skating' phase." Carlos added. "And he wore a leotard like everybody else back then."

"UUUUUGH!" Everybody shared a collective groan as they tried to get the image out of their heads.

"I thought so." Carlos nodded.

"You-you're evil!" Cody groaned.

"Why yes, yes I am, thank you for noticing." Carlos nodded. "Did the sinister cape help?" He tugged at the collar of the black cape and then spread it out dramatically. "I bought it special. Now get to work! Carlos away!" He pulled a cowl on over his head, pulled out a device, and fired a grappling hook out of it and to a roof top through a nearby window. He shot out...and somebody in the streets shouted in French. "Oh my god, it's Batman!"

"Nah, it's some guy coming out of the TDR studio."

"Oh, _those_ nut bags. Carry on then!"

"How exactly do we do? Does anyone have a plan?" Bridgette asked. "I suppose we can't let Kurt find out."

"Find out what?" Kurt opened the door.

"Wha?!" The cast spun around as Kurt stepped in.

"Umm...uh...We can't let you know that...Geoff and Trent scored a new high score on the Zombie Apocalypse game!" Cody said quickly.

"Oh yeah! We got a very high score!" Trent nodded.

"Totally high! We rock! High five!" Geoff said as he and Trent high fived.

"Now why would I care about that?" Kurt asked.

"Uh...we thought you were one of the players on the game and you'd get mad." Gwen offered.

"I wouldn't do that! I don't get mad over every little thing like Carlos! I'm hurt and insulted." Kurt walked out and slammed the door.

"O-okay. That might have cost us a few points." Gwen said, talking about herself and Team Amazon.

"Can I offer some advice?" Courtney asked, earning everyone's attention.

"Why do you care? You don't have to do this." Duncan asked.

"Maybe but I have nothing better to do." Courtney shrugged and continued. "The teams can split apart the three main duties: to make a birthday cake, get some presents, and to plan a party."

Team Amazon and Team Victory considered Courtney's advice for a moment before they all agreed.

"All right! Whoo-hoo! I know exactly how make this the best, most awesome, most slam dunk, and most exciting birthday party on the planet!" Geoff pumped his fist in the air. "We'll handle making the party dudes! You guys worry about the cake and the presents."

"No way are we going down!" LeShawna pumped her fist in the air.

Team Amazon glanced at each other, feeling concerned that with people like Geoff on Team Victory they might not win.

"Okay, I might have an idea that's a little crazy and we may need to get our money out." Gwen whispered.

"Whatever you have in mind may be better than nothing. I'm drawing a blank on what do to here." Heather whispered back.

"So...how do we prepare for Kurt's birthday when Kurt's here?" Noah asked.

"Leave that to me!" Carlos landed back in the room. "I shall distract him! And remember: if you fail or mess up in your part of preparing this party...YOU LOSE!"

He dropped the cape and ran out of the room, laughing maniacally. "I'm batman!"

"...Why do I bother trying to understand that guy anymore?" Noah asked.

Xxx

Confessional: Geoff

"Being able to plan parties is the first thing my brothers taught me when I learned...after I learned how to talk and walk. Being able to kick back, relax, and just have the best fun ever."

Xxx

Confessional: Cody

"The most fun I ever got for my birthday was when both my parents were actually home and my mom gave me an extra fifty dollars for beating dad in chess."

Xxx

Confessional: Eva

"I don't know anything on how to plan a stupid party. My folks just got me some weights and a treadmill for me to work out on back home so I could work out and not deal with the idiots in my village."

Xxx

Confessional: Beth

"Before Total Drama I had never been to someone else's birthday before but I got invited to Lindsay's when we became BFFs and they were so much fun! Except for the time Lindsay accidently knocked the candles over and nearly burned her house down."

Xxx

Confessional: LeShawna

"I ain't no party king but when it comes to dancing I got it all down!"

Xxx

Confessional: Trent

"I got to say I think we're going to win here because almost everyone on this team knows how to plan parties and enjoy themselves. Team Amazon...not so much."

Xxx

Confessional: Bridgette

"When you think about it's not the worst challenge in the world. It's actually trying to plan and prepare for something fun."

Xxx

Confessional: Heather

"I never thought I'd do this but I have to go along with Gwen's plan. I hate having to count on someone else to do all the planning since where I come from you do everything yourself but outside of the challenge I have no idea what Kurt's likes and dislikes are."

Xxx

Confessional: Gwen

"I got to say I'm not good at parties even if Geoff showed me but I think I know way to counter his party planning with the one thing I know that both Kurt and Carlos like."

Xxx

Confessional: Noah

"At least it's not something hard and physical.

Xxx

Confessional: Lindsay

"I always loved my birthday parties, except for that one time a pointed hat went flying and tried to poke me in the eye."

Xxx

Confessional: Courtney

"It's a bummer that I'm out of the game and I'm stuck here for about a few more days. It's good that I'm not stuck doing these challenges anymore but I now have nothing to do! It's boring to just sit around and do nothing and I am absolutely positive that Duncan knows exactly how I feel and is probably just as bored."

Xxx

Confessional: Duncan

(Sits back while drinking a can of soda.) "Ah! Delicious and even better when you don't have to do any dumb challenges."

End Confessional

Xxx

"Okay, I got the cast planning the birthday party now here comes the next plan." Carlos opened the door to the supercomputer room. "We all set?"

"Yep. We're all ready to go." An intern at the computer replied.

"Good. Do it." Carlos nodded.

The intern nodded back and turned to the computer that had a big red button. Reaching out slowly the intern began to sweat as he took a deep breath.

He pressed the button...

And the Final Countdown started playing.

"The countdown has begun!" Carlos yelled dramatically.

"...do you have to wear that mask?"

"What?" Carlos whined, taking off the Batman cowl. "It has a certain charm to it. And it strikes fear into the hearts of villains!" He paused, looking at it as the cowl seemed to glare at him...

He swallowed and dropped it into a trash can. "Nevermind. Now I need to move onto the next phase."

Xxx

"Hey Carlos, I've been looking for you." Kurt said as Carlos walked into his office.

"I've been looking for you too! How come you didn't tell me you and Sarah were getting married?" Carlos pointed accusingly at Kurt. "What's with all the secrets man?!"

"Lesley told you?" Kurt raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah and you know what else..." Carlos began.

"She said I already told you." Kurt spoke up.

"She said you already told me!" Carlos finished. "Well if you told me did I give you any sort of test for dating my older sister?"

"Yes you did."

Xxx

**Years ago...**

"All right, Mister Kurt." Carlos said, sitting at a large desk in a dark room with Kurt sitting on the other side. "I have a few questions for you if you want to continue dating my sister."

"Okay." Kurt was reading a book.

"If there was a fire in the house which of the following would you do? A: run out of the house screaming, B: call the firefighters or C: carry her out of the house and get her to safety?" Carlos asked.

"I think C." Kurt didn't look up from the book he was reading.

"Your answer gives you five points but your tone is suspect so I got this test lined up. I paid this girl five bucks to act like Sarah while setting the 'house' on fire for you to go and rescue her." Carlos put the notebook down. "Do you accept?"

"You want to go out and get some Klondike bars?" Kurt asked while glancing up from his book again.

"...You pass with flying colors." Carlos tossed the note book into a growing fire as they passed by a house which was on fire...and a girl dressed as Sarah leaned out of the house.

"Uh...Carlos?" A teenage Lesley swallowed. "I'm waiting for Kurt to rescue me now!...Carlos? Anybody? Hello?!" She looked down. "Awwww crap!"

Xxx

"...So THAT'S why we broke up?" Carlos asked.

"Actually you broke up with her after she..."

"You're gonna say I did it because she stole my Klondike bar, aren't you?"

"No actually it's because she let you get that tattoo while you were drunk the next month after that." Kurt replied.

Carlos frowned and put one hand on his butt. "Oh right...THAT tattoo."

"Yep, what a day that was." Kurt chuckled.

"Yeah well, I'm still a little hurt with all the secrets so here's little something I bet you didn't know..." Carlos smirked.

"Carlos is your middle name." Kurt replied, looking down at a book he was reading.

"Carlos is my middle name! My first name is..."

"Max."

"Is MAX!" Carlos, AKA: Max Carlos Hunter declared. "Max Hunter!"

"But you like to be called Carlos because you don't want people to think you're a secret agent...anymore." Kurt rolled his eyes.

"And I just call myself Carlos-wait, what?!" Carlos stared. "How?!"

"Dude, you tell me EVERYTHING at some point." Kurt sighed. "You told me that was why you put 'Carlos' as your first name back when we signed up for MI6."

"Oh..." Carlos slumped. "I see."

"...Want to go out for Klondike bars?" Kurt asked.

"Nah...I'm...gonna go to my room." Carlos slowly walked away.

"Alriiight..." As soon as Carlos was gone Kurt got up. "This is bad. He's not up for Klondike bars? Aw man I have to-"

"HAH!" Carlos suddenly stuck his head out of a vent over Kurt and dropped to Kurt's level, making the red haired host jump back with a startled shout.

"Holy mother of-"

"Fooled you!" Carlos pointed. "Managed to fool you! Now we're even!"

"...how did you get into that vent so fast?"

"That is MY secret! My secret! This one I'll take to the grave!" Carlos cackled. "Hah! How do you like that?!"

"...so do you wanna go out for Klondike-"

Zoom! Carlos went back up into the vent, and a second later Kurt heard a car horn and glanced outside to see Carlos sitting in his own car. "Come on already! You're holding us up!"

Kurt shrugged. "Meh, nothing better to do."

He jumped out of the window and Carlos opened the sun roof allowing Kurt to land in the passenger seat.

"Dude that was good, when did you learn to do that?" Carlos asked.

"I'll tell if you tell me how you did that trick with the air vent." Kurt shrugged.

"...I can survive the mystery. Let's go get some Klondike bars!"

The car zoomed off down the road with Carlos cackling.

Xxx

"Okay, here's my idea..."

Gwen and Team Amazon were now sitting in Gwen's room in Team Amazon's dorm.

"I don't know a lot about parties, even if I helped my mom plan the birthday parties we had for my brother but I know one thing that can make a birthday be remembered all time, something my dad did for me before he left." Gwen said, taking a second to deal with the feelings she had concerning her dad's leaving. "Fireworks."

The rest of Team Amazon stared at Gwen in shock.

"We line up some fireworks and at midnight tonight when it's Kurt's birthday they all go off." Gwen explained.

"That's...that's..." Heather started.

Gwen braced herself for when Heather would start saying her plan was stupid.

"Brilliant!"

Gwen along with everyone else on Team Amazon stared at Heather like she had grown a second head.

"What?"

"I thought you'd say my plan was stupid." Gwen admitted, somewhat ashamed even though everyone had been expecting the same thing.

"I call plans stupid when they are stupid. This is actually a good idea that might be as good as Geoff's party." Heather explained a little annoyed.

"Okay, so where do we get fireworks?" Cody asked.

"Oh! Oh! Oh! Me! Me! Me!" Izzy waved both her hands.

"Are we that desperate?" Eva asked.

"My uncle showed me the best way to make fireworks! Let me use the kitchen along with any kind of gun powder you guys can find and you'll have the best fireworks in France!" Izzy exclaimed.

Team Amazon shared a look before looking back at Izzy.

"Can Cody come along and watch?" Heather asked.

"What?!" Cody looked at Heather in shock. "Why me?!"

"Deal!" Izzy dragged Cody out of the room.

"WAIT A SECOND!" Cody cried out but no one answered.

"Okay, next we need the birthday cake." Gwen continued. "I know how to bake so I guess I'll try. Now since we don't know what Kurt would want for his birthday we'll have to settle for getting him a card and sign our names on it."

"Seems like a good plan to me." Eva shrugged.

"I can pick out a card!" Beth raised her hand.

"Okay, Beth gets to pick while I help Gwen with the cake."

Xxx

Confessional: Beth

"Is it just me or is Heather a whole lot nicer to Gwen than she used to be? I haven't heard her call Gwen Weird Goth Girl in weeks."

Xxx

Confessional: Cody

"Why do I get stuck with the crazy girls? Izzy will probably blow me up before midnight!"

Xxx

Confessional: Izzy

"I was banned from chemistry class because all the chemicals I used for assignments somehow ended up exploding all the time. I don't know how but I know how to make good fireworks!"

End Confessional

Xxx

"Mmm-mmm!" DJ hummed as he looked in the oven. "The cake is coming good!"

"Perfect! Now we need to set up a huge sign that says happy birthday to Kurt when he walks in and...hey does anyone how old Kurt is?" Geoff asked looking at the rest of Team Victory who shrugged clueless. "Aw man! The first thing about a birthday is knowing how old the birthday dude is!"

"So just call Carlos and ask him?" Trent reasoned.

"Okay..." Geoff pulled out his cell phone and thankfully remembering he had Carlos on speed dial. "Come on...come on..."

Carlos answered his cell. "_Who is this and why shouldn't I track you down and blast you to smithereens for interrupting Klondike Bar time?!_"

"Uh Carlos?" Geoff gulped. "Uh...you wouldn't happen to...uh...know how old Kurt is?"

"_...you're joking right?_"

"Uh no."

"_You don't know how hold Kurt is!? How can you be_ _planning a birthday party if you don't know how old he is?! The first thing you should start in planning a birthday party is knowing how old the birthday dude is!_" Carlos ranted.

"I know! I know!" Geoff said, wary of Carlos and his explosive temper. "So...how old is he?"

"_...Uh...Well...I think he's..._"

"You don't know how old he is?" Geoff asked.

"_Of course I know how old he is!_" Carlos exclaimed. "_He's...uh...uh..._"

"The dude's your best friend and you don't know how old he is?!" Geoff exclaimed.

"_Somewhere between fifty and twenty, I'm sure of it!_"

"So we should right down the numbers between twenty and fifty and hope for the best?" Geoff asked rhetorically.

"_Of course not! I'll uh...I'll find out!_" Carlos hung up.

"Well, that's a little messed up." Geoff turned his phone off.

"He doesn't know how old Kurt is either?" Trent asked. "The dude's like his best friend."

"No surprise here." Noah commented.

"So now what?" Bridgette asked.

"We keep planning the party but we don't add any numbers until Carlos finds out." Geoff said, getting them back on track.

Xxx

Confessional: Geoff

"One thing you should know about your best friend is how old they are turning on their birthdays! It's the unwritten rule between non-related bros!"

Xxx

Confessional: Carlos

"How was I supposed to know I needed to remember how old Kurt was?! He never tells me these things- and there better be no flashbacks on Kurt telling me how old he was!" Carlos looked around suspiciously. "I'm serious! If I see the background getting wavy, I'm out! We've had like six flash backs already and they've all been aimed at making fun of me!"

End Confessional

Xxx

"I think Kurt's about twenty seven."

"I heard he's thirty."

"Twenty five!"

"Somewhere in the forties I think."

"Ugh!" Bridgette sat down on the couch in the recreation room. "No one here knows how old Kurt is! Gwen and the others must have figured it out by now."

Xxx

"I didn't think it'd be this hard!" Beth sighed as she and the rest of Team Amazon except Cody and Izzy gathered in Heather's room.

"How can everyone here work with one guy and not have any idea how old he is? I called Carlos and he hung up after he shouted he didn't know how old Kurt was." Gwen shook her head.

"Lesley, Roberto, and Chef were no better." Heather replied.

Xxx

**Flashback**

**10 minutes ago**

"I think Kurt's about twenty nine. I don't know. Go ask Carlos." Lesley shrugged

Xxx

**7 minutes ago**

"How should I know? Ask Carlos." Roberto said.

Xxx

**5 minutes ago**

"Go ask Carlos." Was all Chef said.

**End Flashback**

Xxx

"Let's just get a card that says Happy Birthday." Eva said. "How hard is that supposed to be?"

"I guess...how do you guys think Izzy is doing with the fireworks?" Gwen asked.

Xxx

"Izzy, are you sure you know what you are doing?" Cody asked.

"Don't worry, Cody. I've been experimenting with fireworks since I was six." Izzy reassured him.

She had put a small cup of powder on the window, directly under the sunlight. According to her the powder needed an hour of sunlight.

"Now we need to make sure this powder gets a full dose of sunlight and then a dose of moonlight from a full moon." Izzy continued. "Once it's got a full dose of sunlight and moon light it'll be the best fireworks in France!"

"O...kay."

Xxx

Confessional: Cody

"I'm wondering if Izzy even remembers we're making fireworks, not trying to perform some kind of weird ritual."

End Confessional

Xxx

"So what do you want to do now, Kurt?" Carlos asked as they got back into the car.

They had just gone shopping for Klondike Bars which Carlos had eaten very quickly as Kurt paid for them.

"Well, I think we should head back to the studio and get some last minute work done." Kurt replied.

Carlos choked a bit on his last Klondike bar. "What?! Why so soon man?!"

"Well, for one the Director cancelled the Aftermath so I have to believe she'll have something special planned and furthermore..." Kurt grinned. "I got a special something there."

"What's that?"

"Sarah got me this special Scotch, even though I never drink and we agreed to drink on a very special occasion." Kurt replied. "Seems like today is a good idea."

"Wait...Scotch?" Carlos asked, gulping.

Xxx

**Flashback**

"Hey Kurt! You in here?" Carlos and Roberto walked into Kurt's office. "We need you to settle an argument!"

"He's not here." Roberto grumbled.

He looked at the game station. "Hello..."

"You're not about to suggest we play Kurt's game station are you?" Carlos sighed.

"You don't remember him beating your high score?"

"...Give me the second controller."

Five minutes later they were both playing a game of Total Drama Hit and Run. "Man I'm thirsty!"

"Here." Roberto handed him a glass bottle. "I found some Scotch in the drawer."

"Awesome!" Carlos took the bottle and took a sip from it before handing it back to Roberto who took another sip.

Three minutes later the bottle of Scotch was empty and they tossed it into the garbage.

**End Flashback**

Xxx

"Yep, we agreed to open that Scotch on a very special day." Kurt nodded.

"You don't say." Carlos said, a bit of sweat pouring down his forehead.

"Now, Sarah will be here tonight and we'll open that Scotch up at midnight." Kurt said, not noticing how pale Carlos's face had turned.

"Sarah's...coming..." It looked like Carlos's brain had short circuited the moment Kurt had mentioned Sarah was coming.

"Duh, Carlos of course she's coming. Why else would Maggie show up a few days ago out of the blue? Don 't you know what day it is?" Kurt asked.

"Yeah! Yeah...Hang on I got to go to the bathroom." Carlos opened the door.

"We're just five minutes away from the studio." Kurt pointed.

"Better safe than sorry!" Carlos slammed the door and ran like a rabbit chasing after a carrot.

"I wonder what's got him acting crazy." Kurt sat back in his chair.

Xxx

Carlos pulled out his cell phone and dialed Roberto's number. "Roberto answer your phone you walking flea bag!"

"_What is it, Carlos?_"

"We drank Sarah gave Kurt to open on his birthday and she's coming here tonight!" Carlos shouted into his phone.

"_Oh crap!_" Roberto was now as scared as Carlos.

Sarah was the sanest of the siblings, more so than Maggie or Carlos but she was more scary than both of them when she was mad. If she found they drank the Scotch she gave Kurt...

"_WHAT DO WE DO?!/_WHAT DO WE DO?!" They shouted the same thing at each other.

"How should I know what to do?!" Carlos asked.

"_He's your best friend! You figure it out!_"

"If you don't help me I'll tell Sarah you stole the Scotch!" Carlos yelled into the phone.

"_I'll tell her you drank it!_"

"Will you stop arguing with me and help me out here?! Both of our spines are on the line here!" Carlos was at this point chocking the phone in his hand.

"_What should we do Smart Guy?_"

"That's Mister Smart Guy to you and...I got it! I'll take Kurt out this nice little restaurant I spy here while you go and get more Scotch. It's easy enough and Sarah will never know!" Carlos laughed victoriously.

"_Well what kind of Scotch was it?_"

At this point Carlos's little victory crashed down on him. "Uhhhhhhh..."

"_There's the little kink in your brilliant plan!_"

"Oh shut up you hairy monkey! Where's the glass bottle?!"

"_Threw it out along with the rest of the trash last week_."

"And you never even looked at what kind of Scotch it was?!" Carlos yelled loud enough that several people were staring at him. "Are you trying to get us killed?!"

"_At this point I'd rather be dead than talk to you!_"

"Yeah well...I'd rather be dead too! Just go out and buy a whole bunch of Scotch, that way when Sarah comes and she's a whole bunch of Scotch she'll think the one she got Kurt is among them! Is that easy enough for you?!"

"_Fine, I'll do it if you just relax. Sheesh!_" Roberto hung up.

"Man that guy has got some attitude problem." Carlos turned off his phone.

Xxx

Confessional: Roberto

"That Carlos is just a hamster without its wheel, running all over the place jabbering on and on! Seriously if this happens again I'd rather be dead."

Xxx

Confessional: Carlo

"Why can't Roberto just cool it with the attitude just once and help out with a situation he started and will us both getting beaten to an inch of our lives? That guy has got some major problems and not just the fur. Seriously, if this happens again I'd rather be dead."

End Confessional

Xxx

"Hey Kurt! Let's pull over and have some lunch!" Carlos jumped back into the car.

"You just snacked on Klondike bars." Kurt pointed out.

"Yeah but you haven't eaten yet. Come on!" Carlos insisted.

"Fine." Kurt sighed and got out of the car.

"By the way did you notice they have a stage for talent shows? You can go on stage and tell everyone a few good jokes." Carlos offered as they walked inside.

"Last time I went up on any stage and started telling jokes you booed at me and threw a pie at me." Kurt raised an eyebrow.

"It was a bad pie; I was trying to hit the waiter." Carlos replied quickly.

"And then you shouted that I sucked." Kurt pointed out.

"I was talking to the manager."

"His name was also Kurt?"

"...Yes! Yes his name was also Kurt. Kurt...Crap! His name was Kurt Crap!"

Kurt just stared at Carlos for a moment before shrugging. "All right, but you don't get to order any pie."

"Deal!" Carlos smiled as they found a table. "I just hope I don't get another wise ass waiter again."

"Oh come on, Carlos. Contrary not everybody hates you walk in and try to drive you nuts." Kurt sighed at his friend's paranoia.

"Just you wait, Kurt, before we know it I'll be in the bathroom for five hours because they put something in the food." Carlos narrowed his eyes.

Kurt shook his head.

Xxx

Most of Team Amazon was covered in flour dust as Beth turned the oven on to bake the cake.

"Okay, we got the cake in." Beth said. "Now what?"

"Well, since we don't know how old Kurt is we'll just have to get a card saying happy birthday. That's simply, right?" Gwen asked.

"I guess." Heather shrugged. "I never had to help plan a birthday party before."

"I'll go get it!" Beth raised her hand. "I know how to pick out birthday cards that say happy birthday without guessing someone's age and they are very nice."

"Have you even been to a friend's birthday party?" Eva asked.

"I went to Lindsay's and I picked the cutest card out for her." Beth replied.

Gwen, Heather, and Eva looked at each other for a second before looking back at her.

"Okay, go ahead." Heather said.

"Yay!" Beth ran out to the mall to pick out a card.

"Think the card she's thinking of will be good?" Gwen asked.

"After what we went through to make the cake almost anything's good." Heather sighed and sat at the table. "This why I let my parents do the planning."

"Hey, I haven't done this sort of thing before either you know." Eva pointed out.

"Yeah, yeah." Heather rubbed her head. "I wonder what else is going to happen now."

BOOM!

They all jumped when they heard an explosion and ran outside to what had happened.

"Izzy? Are you all right?" Heather asked.

Izzy was holding up what looked like a rocket that had launched from its casing and into the sky. Her face and her hair covered in soot and smoke was rising from her hair.

"What happened?" Gwen asked.

"Izzy was testing her custom made fireworks." Cody was hiding behind a pile of fireworks. "She lit one up but it blasted off before she could plant it in the ground."

"What?" Izzy tapped her right ear that had been right next to the rocket when it blasted off. "Someone's planting a garden here?"

"Come on, Izzy. Let's get you away from this before you get somebody killed." Gwen grabbed the rocket out of the red haired girl's hand.

"I get away from someone getting grilled?" Izzy asked, tapping her ear again.

"She must have lost a bit of her hearing." Cody whispered.

"Just be thankful that's all she might have lost." Heather commented.

"Okay, the fireworks are ready now.

Xxx

"Lousy Carlos, having me come out here on my day off just because he can't remember which kind of Scotch he stole." Roberto muttered as he looked at the various bottles of Scotch in the store,

"_Get the Scotch or we die._"

"It's not like he shouldn't have known." Roberto muttered.

"_Get the Scotch or we die._"

"Kurt's his friend, why can't he do it?" Roberto looked at each bottle carefully. "I don't even remember what color it was."

"_Get the Scotch or we die._"

"And what was I eating before I got here?"

"..._You know I'm talking through the phone and not in your head right?_" Carlos's voice came from his phone.

"Huh?" Roberto looked down and picked up his phone. "Carlos? What are you doing?"

"_I'm in the bathroom, calling to check on your progress. You answered but it sounds like you accidently pressed the answer button without noticing._"

"What are you doing spying on me like that? And why were you repeating that stupid line over and over again?"

"_I want you to move your ass and get the stupid Scotch! Buy them all and put them on my tap!_"

"...Really?" Roberto asked, interested.

"_Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just get the Scotch or we die!_"

"Got it!" Roberto said and hung up. "See ya later!"

Xxx

"Okay! The cake's ready!" DJ pulled the cake out of the oven.

"Oh man, Deej that looks delicious!" Geoff sniffed the smell of fresh cake in the air.

"Thanks man." DJ put the cake on the table. "I don't know what kind of cake Kurt likes so I just went with the old fashioned chocolate cake because everyone loves chocolate!"

"No arguments here!" Trent smiled at how good the cake looked. "With this we'll win for sure!"

Xxx

"Well, here's the cake." Gwen put the cake on the counter and took her gloves off.

"Is it good?" Heather asked.

"It's the same recipe my mom made for home made vanilla cakes. I memorized the recipe when I helped her out." Gwen replied.

"It doesn't look too bad." Cody looked at the cake.

It was fairly decent looking cake which was surprising since no one in the group believed Gwen would be good baking something like this.

"Thanks." Gwen nodded. "We'll see how well it measures up something DJ's made. Hopefully the fireworks will triumph over the cake challenge."

"It's not like we have much to worry about. No one's getting eliminated." Cody pointed out.

"And when you get eliminated for not taking a challenge seriously I'll just point and laugh at you as you leave." Eva replied.

"Who's climbing a tree?" Izzy called out, making everyone wince from her close proximity.

"Izzy, we're right here! Lower your voice you break some clocks!" Gwen rubbed her ear.

"What? Stealing socks?" Izzy asked.

"Forget it Gwen, she's gone." Heather shook her head.

"Now all we need is for Beth to get back with a good card." Cody sighed. "You think it'll be good?"

"It'll probably be something nice but that doesn't mean it'll be good. This is one time where I am actually scared." Heather replied.

"You want a beard?" Izzy stared at Heather. "Beards are so cool!"

"Will someone get her an hearing aid or something?" Heather asked, now a little annoyed with Izzy's attempt at hearing.

She was almost even more annoying than she is when she's normal!

"I got the card!" Beth ran into the common room, holding up a card.

"Cool!" Cody smiled as he stood up. "What's it say?"

"Happy Birthday." Beth replied, thinking it was obvious. "What else would it say?"

"...That's good. At least it actually says that." Gwen shrugged.

"Sure why not?" Heather replied.

Xxx

Confessional: Heather

"I was honestly expecting some crappy joke but a simple card may work better. Who knows what kind of card Kurt gets from his relatives?"

End Confessional

Xxx

"You know, Carlos, it's been a nice day." Kurt said as he sat in the passenger seat of the car. "No stupid challenge, no complaints from Blaineley or Chris, and no attacks from a certain artificial intelligence out destroy mankind."

"Yep, we sure got a day off here!" Carlos smiled as he started the ignition. "Now we go back to the studio for some relaxation!"

As the car sped off Carlos pulled out his cell phone and texted someone.

Xxx

Lesley looked down at her phone when she felt it vibrate meaning someone was sending her a text message. She looked at the screen and saw it was a message from Carlos.

THE BEES ARE RETURNING TO THE NEST.

"Huh?" Lesely quickly texted back.

WHAT?

A second later another message appeared.

THE WOLVES ARE COMING BACK TO THE CAVE

"Is he high again?" Lesley sighed as she texted back.

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

The next message then explained what Carlos had been trying to say.

WE'RE COMING TO BACK TO THE STUPID STUDIO!

Lesley replied.

WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST SAY THAT?

Carlos sent another message.

WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE KEEPING IT A SECRET. DON'T YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT SECRET SIGNALS AND CODENAMES?

Lesley angrily texted a reply.

NO I DO NOT! JUST GET TO THE POINT NEXT TIME.

Xxx

Confessional: Lesley

"Geez, Carlos you are too obsessed with these secret agent codenames and messages! Do you realize not everyone was in the SAS or MI6 or whatever!? Seriously if this happens again I'd rather be dead."

End Confessional

Xxx

Carlos parked the car in the parking lot of the studio and the two producers walked towards the entrance.

"Well, Kurt, now we have just a night of relaxation." Carlos yawned.

"You can drop the act, Carlos." Kurt suddenly said. "I know your planning something with the staff for my birthday."

"WHA?!" Carlos jumped. "What are you talking about?"

"You got me out of the studio for a day just before my birthday. Why else would you go through all this trouble all of a sudden?" Kurt smirked. "You'd think I'd forget the day before my own birthday?"

"But how did you figure that the staff was planning something?" Carlos asked incredulous.

"I heard the Final Countdown. You always play that song as you plan something for my birthday." Kurt pointed out.

"But how...Wait, forget it. I don't want another flashback of me playing the Final Countdown on your birthday." Carlos shook his head.

Xxx

The Final Countdown started playing as Kurt walked to the front door of his house.

"Why is the Final Countdown playing in my house?" Kurt asked out loud as he opened the door.

"SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY KURT!" Kurt's friends and family shouted.

"Oh, that's why!"

Xxx

"I thought I asked for no flashbacks!" Carlos growled, glaring at you, the audience.

"Who are you talking to?"

Carlos turned back to Kurt who was at the door.

"No one, let's just go." Carlos pouted. "Now I need to make up a new secret to hide from you."

Kurt was about to open the door when a voice stopped him.

"Hey Kurt!"

Both producers turned around and saw Cody waving at them. "Check this out! What time is it?"

"It's almost midnight." Kurt looked down at his watch.

"Exactly!"

Just as he finished speaking Kurt and Carlos heard something explode in the sky.

"Holy crap! We're in World War Three!" Carlos ran under a nearby picnic table. "Quick someone get me my explosives!"

"It's just fireworks!" Kurt pointed at the sky. "Coming from the courtyard out back!"

"Yeah, come on!" Cody gestured.

Kurt followed Cody and he was greeted with the last two teams of contestants waiting for him with two different birthday cakes on the table.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY KURT!"

Just as they said that a row of fireworks went off into the sky and exploded.

"Whoa!" Kurt remarked, impressed by what the contestants had done. "They put you up to this?"

"They offered an advantage in the next real challenge for the winner." Gwen replied with smile. "Plus it seemed more fun than the regular challenge."

"I'll bet!" Kurt nodded with a smile.

"I got this for you!" Beth gave him a birthday card.

"Well what do we have here...Happy Birthday, signed Team Amazon." Kurt read the card and laughed. "Well at least it wasn't some dumb joke."

"We have at least two cakes here and I don't know about you but I'm hungry." Chef said.

"Amen to that! Let's eat!"

The contestants and produces dug into the food gleefully; enjoying the sweet taste and nice quiet night they had been given.

"There's one thing I forgot. I need to get that Scotch Sarah bought me." Kurt stood up.

Carlos and Roberto both choked on their food when they heard that.

"Right! Let's go get the Scotch!" Carlos said nervously.

"Don't have to. It's right here!" Kurt replied, pointing at the shed.

"What?!" Carlos and Roberto gasped.

"Sarah had me put in the shed just in case someone would try to steal and drink it. Paranoid isn't she?" Kurt laughed as he went into the shed.

"You mean we didn't..." Carlos looked at Roberto. "We didn't..."

"Nope!" Roberto shook his head.

"So that means..."

"I think so."

"WE'RE GOING TO LIVE!" They hugged each other and a few people thought they saw the two men crying a bit.

"What's with them?" Geoff asked.

"I have no idea." Kurt came out of the shed with the bottle of Scotch in his hands. "Well, time to celebrate."

"Hey Kurt." Trent spoke up.

"Yeah?" Kurt started pouring some Scotch into a plastic cup.

"Hey guys!"

Everyone turned around as a tall woman with long dark hair walked into the courtyard dressed in dark clothing like Kurt but looked more like a more mature version of Maggie. "Started the party without me?"

"No way, Sarah." Kurt poured more Scotch into another plastic cup. "Here you go!"

"Thanks honey!" Sarah smiled as she picked up the cup. "So, did they panic for no good reason again?"

"Apparently." Kurt shrugged. "They may need therapy of some kind."

"You got that right." Sarah laughed.

"We were wondering just how old are you now?" Trent asked.

"Well let's see." Kurt tapped his head a few times. "Oh right, I think my age is..."


	101. Episode 99: End Game

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 101

"Uh..."

BEEP!

BEEP!

BEEP!

BEEP!

Duncan's hand reached out smashed the alarm clock, green fire circling his knuckles as he pulled his hand back.

"Why the hell do I have that clock again anyway?" Duncan grumbled.

He sat up slowly on his bed, feeling a little strange but he chalked that up to staying up late last night for Kurt's birthday party. He yawned and then looked down at himself.

"Huh? How much did I have to drink last night?" Duncan held up his hands, noticing that they looked 3-D like in... "Lyoko?"

He looked around and noticed his entire room looked like they 3-D computer made graphics.

"That can't be good." Duncan stood up and looked down at himself.

Instead of wearing whatever he wore to bed last night he had woken up in his Lyoko outfit with his sword in its sheath on his back.

"Waking up with my room all 3-D looking and in my Lyoko clothes with head feeling light...I wonder if this is a digital hangover." Duncan muttered as he walked to the door.

He opened it and walked out towards Noah's door. "Hey! Wake up! Noah, get up!"

A groan was heard on the other side of the door. "What time is it? It better be afternoon or I'll be grumpy!"

"Hurry up and open the door!" Duncan banged harder.

Noah opened the door and stared at Duncan. "...What is it...Why are you wearing you Lyoko clothes?"

"Take a look at yourself." Duncan pointed at him.

Noah looked down at himself and saw the signature dark coat with the black gloves with red veins that he wore on...

"Lyoko?" Noah looked around, only noticing that everything looked like advanced 3-D computer generated graphics.

The kind of graphics that made up Lyoko and the Digital Universe!

"No way." Noah looked back down at himself. "No way...No freaking way."

"Way, now come on and help me get the others up!" Duncan said.

As they ran down the hall knocking on everyone's doors they heard the same groaning sounds they themselves made when they were waking up.

"Uh...man..." DJ stepped out of his room, rubbing his head. "Who's banging that drum?"

"Deej man, you're not going to believe what's going on. Take a look at yourself." Duncan pointed at him.

DJ looked down at himself and saw the white armored outfit he wore in Lyoko. "I don't remember going to be in these."

"Do you remember looking 3-D when you went to bed too?" Noah asked.

It took DJ a second to realize what he was talking about and gasped in shock. "No way!"

"Way." Both Noah and Duncan replied at the same time.

"But how?!" DJ exclaimed.

"Hey, DJ." Geoff opened his door with one hand while rubbing his eyes with the other. "Can you keep it down? Some of us are trying to get some shut eye."

"Geoff man! We're digital!" DJ cried.

"Huh..." Geoff asked, confused. "When you say we're digital..."

"We're digital." Noah finished.

Geoff looked down at himself and saw the outfit he wore in Lyoko. "Whoa!"

He picked up his chakrams and examined it. "Okay, _now _I know what you're talking about. But...when did we go to Lyoko last night? I thought we were celebrating Kurt's birthday for a bonus challenge we were trying to win."

"I know...what did we drink last night?" Duncan asked.

"Guys..." Bridgette stepped out of her room holding her surfboard. "I just woke up and found myself wearing my Lyoko clothes while holding my board and everything looks..."

"3-D?" Geoff, Duncan, Noah, and DJ finished.

"Yeah..." Bridgette looked at them with a surprised face.

"We all thought the same thing." Noah said.

"So did we..." Bridgette asked.

"Not as far as I know and if we did how did the studio end up getting virtualized with us." Noah asked, gesturing to the hall.

"So that means..." Bridgette started.

"XANA." They all said at the same time.

"We got to wake the others up now." DJ said.

"Got it." Duncan knocked on Trent's door. "Hey, music boy! Play a note on your guitar if you can."

A moment later a note was played and the sound of explosion boomed throughout the studio followed by several cries of shock.

"WHA?!" Trent jumped in surprise when his wall was destroyed by a sonic blast.

"Did you have to do that?" Bridgette glared Duncan as he opened the door.

"I didn't think he'd actually do it." Duncan sheepishly replied.

The wall and single window in Trent's room was replaced with a big hole while Trent himself had jumped into the air and fell off his bed with his guitar landing next to him. He was gasping for breath as he stood up.

"Wha...who...whe...how..." Trent looked up at them. "How did we...My guitar was next to me...and...Lyoko?"

"Pretty much." Duncan shrugged as he helped Trent stand up. "Looks like we may have been caught in another XANA trap."

"But how?" Trent asked as he picked up his guitar, his hands still shaking. "We never into the scanners at all last night. We weren't even at the factory or the laboratory basement."

"Don't know, don't care." Duncan shook his head. "All that matters is we're stuck here somehow. Let's get the others and see if anyone else is with us."

As if to answer Duncan's secondary objective a familiar voice shouted at them.

"HEY! WHAT'S WITH THE ALL THE RACKET?! IS SOMEONE HERE EXPERIMENTING WITH DYNAMITE!?" They all turned to face the source of the voice.

Stomping down the hall towards them was Carlos, looking 3-D exactly like them but unlike them he looked completely normal with a simple shirt and track pants he had worn to bed.

"And what's with the 3-D and weird costumes?!" Carlos continued.

"Dude, your 3-D too!" DJ pointed at him.

Carlos looked at his hands and yelped. "What?! What was in that Scotch last night?!"

"It ain't the Scotch, man!" Geoff shook his head. "This might be a XANA attack."

"Oh great! An attack at the worst time possible!" Carlos groaned. "So how are we 3-D?!"

"I think we're in Lyoko." Noah explained. "I don't know how but somehow we're all here along with the studio."

"The entire studio in a digital universe? That's it! I give up! Every time I think I've seen everything with this whole battle against the demonic AI it's something else!" Carlos shook his head and stomped on the floor.

"Yeah...this is new to us too." DJ looked at everyone. "We got to get the others."

Xxx

Gwen groaned when the evil sunlight beamed down on her face, disturbing sleep. She groaned and tried to cover herself, not aware of the black aura surrounding her. Her body vanished underneath the covers into her own shadow!

"Uh..." Gwen's conscious stirred when she felt something was not right.

She felt like she was floating now, but she wasn't in any danger. She opened her eyes and found herself staring at a black void which made her jump in shock and she went flying up off her bed onto the floor.

"What was that? That felt like my...Shadow Veil." Gwen looked down at herself and saw the black and blue clothes she wore in Lyoko.

And as she looked around she saw the walls, door, and window looking 3-D.

"Uh oh."

She stood up and ran out of her room and banged on the nearest door.

"Heather wake up! Heather wake up!" Gwen shouted.

She heard an irritated groan on the other side before Heather opened the door.

"What?" She growled.

"We have a problem." Gwen stated.

"Yes we do. You better have called the cops because I'm about to be arrested for murder." Heather stepped forward with a glare.

Gwen pulled out her scythe which made Heather jump back in surprise. She looked down at herself when she realized she wasn't wearing the outfit she had worn to bed. Instead of a simple T-shirt and shorts she was wearing the green ninja outfit, black sash, and the fishnet underneath that was her Lyoko outfit.

"My outfit from Lyoko?" Heather asked examining herself before looking back at Gwen. "And you...what happened?"

"Three guesses, one word." Gwen replied with a frown.

"XANA." Heather guessed.

"Bingo. We need to get the others up."

Gwen pounded on Cody's door while Heather kicked Courtney's door open.

"WHAT?!" Courtney sat up, the sound of Heather kicking her door open jolting her from her sleep. "What the hell?!"

"No time. We're in Lyoko, the entire studio is here with us!" Heather cut her off.

Courtney was about to retort but she looked down at herself and saw she was wearing the black and gold dress that was her digital outfit so she knew Heather was not lying. Meanwhile Cody opened his door to answer Gwen.

"We're in Lyoko." Cody simply said.

"That was fast." Gwen remarked.

"I woke up in my tux with my pistols in my hands." Cody held up his two pistols.

"The others should be awake by now. Let's go meet up with them and figure out what the hell is going on here." Gwen replied.

"IZZY! WAKE UP!" Courtney knocked on the door.

The door opened up and Izzy came out in the form of a red monkey.

"Hey guys! Why didn't you tell me we were in Lyoko?" Izzy hopped up and down.

"Slipped our minds, we got to go." Heather knocked on Eva's door. "Please don't use a shockwave. Please don't use a shockwave."

Eva opened the door and stared at everyone. "We're in Lyoko."

"Oh thank you." Heather sighed in relief. "I was afraid I'd be sent flying through the walls like a speeding bullet."

"Whatever. Can we go now?" Eva asked.

Xxx

"_Kurt..._"

Kurt groaned. "Go away."

"_Kurt..._"

"Go away!" Kurt said slightly louder.

"_Kurt get up._"

Kurt sighed and sat up on his bed. He saw Carlos standing at the door to his room.

"What the hell do you want, Carlos?"

"Kurt, we have an emergency." Carlos replied.

"And it can't wait?" Kurt lied back down on his bed.

"Man, we have a dangerous situation here. The teens are in trouble!" Carlos exclaimed. "We got to go now!"

"Fine, what is it?" Kurt sighed and sat back up.

"We're being attacked by evil insect aliens with lasers!" Carlos exclaimed as he held out...a lightsaber? "We need to fight them before they lay their eggs in our brains!"

"What?"

As if on cue a giant insect burst through the wall and lunged at Kurt.

"Whoa!" Kurt jumped off the bed as the alien stomped on it with its large feet.

"DIE EVIL ALIENS!" Carlos jumped into the air and swung his lightsaber down at the alien's head.

As this happened another insect alien burst through the wall and quickly lunged at Kurt, knocking him down.

"AHHH!" Kurt yelled as it prepared to eat his head.

"_KURT!_"

Xxx

Kurt shouted as he sat up on his bed. "What the hell?!"

"You okay man?" Carlos asked, having just opened the door to his room.

"Yeah...just vowing to never drink Scotch that late at night ever again." Kurt shook his head.

"Where's Sarah?" Carlos asked.

"Right here." A tired Sarah lying next to Kurt lazily waved her hand. "Please go away."

"No problem. Kurt we got to move!"

"Why?" Kurt rubbed his head.

"Look at yourself and then everything else." Carlos replied.

Kurt looked down at his body and then at everything in the room, including Carlos and noticed that everything looked like 3-D computer generated graphics.

"What was in that Scotch?" Kurt jumped off the bed.

"Ain't no Scotch doing this, Kurt." Carlos shook his head. "It's a digital variety."

"Oh great. Give me two seconds!" Kurt replied as he went to change.

"Right! See ya in a sec, Kurt! Love ya sis!" Carlos closed the door.

"He's like a hamster without his wheel and won't stop running all over the place." Sarah remarked quietly.

"Yes he is." Kurt nodded.

By now Sarah had gone back to sleep and Kurt was thankful for that. The last thing he wanted to do was explain to Sarah why everyone looked like they were in a video game.

"Better than evil aliens with lasers, I guess." Kurt mumbled as he left.

Xxx

"You guys figure it out?" Duncan asked.

The Warriors had all gathered in the lobby of the studio with Kurt and Carlos catching up.

"Yep." Team Amazon nodded.

"Wow, so this is what's like to be digital." Kurt looked around. "Aelita's parents went for overkill on the graphics."

"I know." Carlos looked at himself in the mirror. "So if we're all digital how come you all get your cool outfits and weapon while the rest of us look normal?"

"That's a good question." Cody replied. "If you guys went into the scanners with us should you have your own Lyoko Avatars?"

"That wouldn't explain how the studio is here." Noah pointed out.

"Maybe XANA built a replica of the studio here in Lyoko." Cody guessed.

"Why? What's there to gain from building a replica of the studio here?" Bridgette asked. "Wouldn't he just attack us in our sleep?"

"Not to mention the fact that everyone in the studio were virtualized with us." Gwen walked towards the nearest window and looked outside.

She could see a small island surrounded by an ocean with a sunset like setting.

"I think we're in the Tropical Sector." Gwen said as she turned around. "So it's not entirely bad. No chance of this place falling into the Digital Sea."

"We're still trapped. Let's see if anyone has noticed we're missing." Heather picked up the remote for the big TV and pressed the power button.

However the TV did not turn on.

"Huh, Heather, we're in another universe. I don't think they have free power here." DJ pointed out.

"So now what?" Heather tossed the remote.

"Hang on." Noah ran back to his room and came back a few minutes later with his laptop. "Good thing these guys have their own batteries."

"Do we even have a wireless connection here?" Courtney asked.

"Don't know. Let's find out." Noah turned his laptop on. "Yes, we have an internet connection!"

"How?" Trent asked. "We're in another universe."

"Correction, we're in _digital_ universe and the Internet happens to be right next door. The connection's stronger here than it was in the real world." Noah explained with a smirk. "Looks like we have found a small flaw in XANA's plan."

He turned back down to his laptop and typed in what he wanted.

"Okay...guys? I don't think XANA built a replica of the studio." Noah's eyes widened slightly.

"What do you mean?" Geoff asked, looking worried.

"Take a look." Noah held up the laptop.

On the screen was a news channel video showing the studio's location in the real world except there was no studio!

Just a big crater.

"No..." Gwen started.

"F(Beep)" Duncan continued.

"Way!" Everyone else finished.

"_As you can see, the studio where the new season of Total Drama, Total Drama Reality was being filmed has somehow completely vanished without a trace. Residents reported last night that they thought they heard a strange noise before there was a flash of light. When they looked outside the Total Drama studio along with its residents were gone._" The news reporter spoke from the helicopter hovering over the large crater.

The video ended leaving a stunned group of contestants and producers.

"We've been abducted by digital aliens!" Izzy exclaimed.

"She's actually not far off." Cody whispered.

"So...XANA just went ahead and somehow digitized the entire studio with all of us in and now we're in Lyoko." Courtney stated, getting back on track. "But how? And what do we do? How do we get in touch with Aelita? And what's going to happen next?"

"I'll go outside and check things out." Gwen pulled her scythe and walked to the door. "There's a good bet there's already a gang of monsters on their way with the generals close behind."

"Good idea." Geoff held out his chakrams. "I'll help out."

"Got nothing better to do I guess." Duncan shrugged and followed them.

"Beats sitting around here." Eva walked after them.

"Someone better stay here and try to contact Aelita." Gwen said as she opened the door. "No way are we getting out of this mess without her help."

"Right." Noah pulled out his cell phone.

"What? You're just going to call her on speed dial?" Heather asked, incredulous.

"Why not? Internet connection still works so the cell phone connection might work." Noah replied and dialed Aelita's number.

Xxx

Aelita groaned when she heard her cell phone ringing. She reached over and picked it up, holding it up to her ear as she pressed the answer button.

"Hello?" Aelita asked.

"_Aelita? Oh thank God! I was actually worried I won't be able to get through._" Noah's voice came through the earpiece followed by a sigh of relief.

"Noah? Do you know what time it is?" Aelita sat up; rubbing her eyes with her other hand. "What is it?"

"_You'll never believe what's happened._"

"Try me."

...

...

...

"WHAT?!" Aelita jumped out of her bed.

"_I know I thought the same thing too._" Noah replied.

"How is this possible? The scanners have been the only thing to ever be used to virtualize a person." Aelita was at a computer instantly. "Not to mention the fact that nothing larger than a person has ever been virtualized before. Do you remember anything odd about last night?"

"_We stayed up late partying for Kurt's birthday so we were pretty tired out. It must have happened while we were out._" Noah explained. "_It must have been quick and quiet enough not to wake any of us up._"

"Let's see..." Aelita quickly brought up the super scan but to her disappointment there were no activated towers. "No towers activated. XANA must have deactivated the tower he used."

"_Great._" Noah groaned. "_Can you find us on the map?_"

Aelita did so and looked over the map of Lyoko and a moment later she got the results. "Good news is that I found you but the bad news is that you're not in Lyoko."

"_We're in the Carbon Copy._" Noah finished miserably.

"Yeah." Aelita nodded sadly.

"_Oh great._"

"I'm on my way to the factory and we'll see what we can do from there." Aelita stood up. "Just hang on."

"_Got it._"

Aelita hung up and quickly got dressed before sneaking out of her dorm and running at full speed towards the factory.

Xxx

The moment Gwen, Duncan, Geoff, and Eva stepped out of the studio they were instantly hit with a sense of déjà vu when they looked around the island the studio now resided on.

"Hey guys, does anything seem familiar about this place?" Geoff asked.

"There is something familiar." Duncan admitted.

Gwen looked around, noticing the green forests, hills, a cliff overlooking the ocean, and a dock...

'A dock.' Gwen walked forward onto the dock followed by the others when they saw where she was going.

She turned around and gasped in shock, her digital body having gone still in shock.

"Impossible...Guys..." Gwen pointed forward.

"What so..." Geoff turned around and looked at what Gwen was seeing. "Holy Mother of all Hangovers!"

"No way." Eva muttered, actually frozen in shock.

"That's not right." Duncan whispered. "This can't be."

"Guys..." Gwen walked forward towards the studio. "GUYS! You got to get out here!"

A second later the rest of the Lyoko Warriors followed by Kurt and Carlos ran out.

"What is it?" Trent asked, holding his guitar out. "Monsters?"

"Generals?" Bridgette held her swords, ready for anything.

"Look." Gwen pointed behind them.

"What's so bad that..." Heather turned around and swore as she almost fell over.

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Cody's jaw nearly dropped to the ground.

"If I am I am calling home and asking for laser eye surgery." Noah muttered eyes wide as dinner plates.

"This can't be...There's no way..." Bridgette muttered over and over.

"I never thought I'd be back here. I swore I'd never come back here!" DJ exclaimed.

"I know. This is insane." Trent shook his head before looking forward again.

"And yet here we are." Courtney finished.

"Whoa..."Izzy muttered, almost lost for words.

"Does this look like..." Carlos started.

"Yep." Kurt shook his head. "Now I know for sure I'm dreaming."

The island they were on resembled one the cast had been on before. Actually they _knew_ it was the island they had been on before because it had been forever ingrained into their memory. The island that started it all, the island where they all met...

They were standing on Total Drama Island.

"XANA brought it here...There's no other explanation." Cody muttered.

"But why? Why bring it here?" Gwen asked.

"Amazing, isn't it?"

Everyone nearly froze when they heard a familiar voice behind them; even Kurt and Carlos were almost too paralyzed to move as they turned around to face the person behind them.

"Greetings and welcome, honored guests." XANA stood at the end of the dock, completely relaxed yet confident at the same time. "What do you think of my latest decoration to my realm?"

Just as the Warriors prepared for battle XANA vanished in a blur of black smoke.

"No need to be rude." He reappeared behind them, floating in the air. "I come not to fight but deliver a message."

As the Warriors turned around and faced him with wary looks he snickered.

"Right now you are wondering why I didn't simply send an army of monsters and my generals to attack you all in your sleep, eliminating you when you were confused and unguarded. It would have been easy but it wouldn't win the war now would it? There's only one being I consider an obstacle in my path to victory." XANA explained.

"Aelita." Bridgette muttered, glaring at him. "But we've been helping her stop you ever since we got here."

"That's right, _helping_ her. I thought when I rid myself of her previous body guards I'd easily subdue her. That was my mistake, this time my plans are aimed at her with all of you and her former team as the bait."

"Former team?" Goeff asked. "What do you mean?"

"Am I that hard to understand? I was under the impression I was communicating on a level you could comprehend." XANA smirked.

"Huh?" Izzy asked.

"He's calling us idiots." Noah whispered.

"Oh...Hey!" Geoff protested.

"Regardless, I have a message for you to deliver to Aelita." XANA continued.

"We're not your freaking delivery stooges!" Eva growled.

"Actually I consider delivery stooges a promotion. You are what all what you've always been, just another pack of expendable attack dogs." XANA chuckled. "You come when called to fight, you lose or die and Aelita will simply find another pack to die for her. If she cares for you as much as she claims she won't have any trouble accepting my challenge."

"Which is?" Gwen asked.

"It's been a entertaining game we have played but I have decided since you are so determined to reach my domain that I'll allow you the chance to save Aelita's friends and destroy me once and for all but it will not be easy. Tell Aelita she along with all of you will be forced to make a choice, defeat the villain or save the innocent." XANA let out another chuckle.

"That's it! I've had enough!" Eva charged forward to attack.

However XANA released an explosion of black smoke that engulfed the area and when it faded he was gone.

"Damn that bastard." Eva growled.

"What do you think he meant by what he said?" Kurt asked, looking at the warriors.

"Hell if I know man. He likes to play little games with us to try and get into our heads." Duncan shook his head. "This one sounds big though."

"It is." Bridgette nodded. "We're talking about rescuing Aelita's friends and defeating XANA once and for all."

"But this choice thing, what do you think it means?" Cody asked.

"Something we're not going to like." Gwen replied.

"I'm actually glad I didn't join you guys in this whole digital war thing. It looks a lot harder when you're actually experiencing it." Carlos commented.

"Take it from us; we were actually glad to have a little vacation. Even if our memories were erased." Courtney gestured to herself and Duncan.

"I wouldn't mind a vacation." Noah replied.

"Join the club." Geoff said.

"Already did."

Xxx

Aelita sighed as the elevator door to the lab finally opened and she walked towards the computer. Today was a school day and if this continued for much longer someone would notice that she was absent. As she sat down at the computer the super scan came on, detecting an activated tower.

"That was fast..." She murmured as the scan revealed the location of the activated tower. "No way..."

The activated tower was in the Carbon Copy like she had predicted but it was not in any of the sectors they had had explored yet. The super scan was detecting the tower in the very center of the Copy, Sector 5.

The heart of XANA's realm.

'But we never got that far into the copy yet so that means...' Aelita's thoughts trailed off but she understood what it meant.

XANA was allowing her to see where the activated tower because he knew how close they were to finally reaching him. He was taunting them, daring them to attack him on his home turf where he had the advantage. The super scan continued beeping, highlighting the tower's location which might as well have a big sign saying 'Come and get me'.

"Hello? Anyone?" Aelita asked, adjusting her headset.

"_Oh thank god. Aelita, you made it!_" Bridgette sighed in relief. "_Did you find the tower or anyway to get us back?_"

"I found the tower...It's in Sector 5 of the Copy." Aelita replied.

Xxx

"In Sector where now?!" LeShawna exclaimed.

"I heard it too." Trent nodded.

"Sector 5, very center of the Carbon Copy..." Cody's eyes widened. "XANA's really serious this time around."

"Great." Noah shook his head. "He wasn't kidding."

"_What do you mean by that Noah?_" Aelita asked.

"..." Noah shared a look with everyone before replying. "XANA showed up with a message for you. He says he's offering you the chance to save the other Warriors, your friends."

Aelita remained silent as she took this in. No blamed her for that, the poor girl's been through a lot since this all started and now she hears that her enemy is offering the chance to save friends who had helped her before.

"_What exactly did he mean by that?_" Aelita finally asked.

"Don't know, only that we'll all have to make a choice. Beat the bad guy or save the people in distress." Duncan replied.

Aelita sighed as she leaned back in her chair. "_So XANA has finally decided to take this serious. Everyone...I hope your all ready for this because what lies ahead...It'll likely make everything we have through so far seem like basic training._"

"Traveling through time to when it all started, Nephilim destroying Lyoko, Shadow possessing Duncan and Courtney to create his new body, attacks ranging from thunderstorms and hurricanes to possessing almost anything in sight was all just basic training..." Noah replied. "And now we're about to plunge head first into what could be seen as a gruesome death."

"_Pretty much. Anyone want out?_" Aelita asked with a small smile, positive that everyone including her wanted out.

"Three words...Bring it on." Noah replied blankly.

"Hell yeah! That's what I'm talking about. That XANA want to fight let's go give him one!" LeShawna pulled out her hammer. "About time I smack that pretty digital face of his inside out!"

"Count me in. As someone who wants to live and someone who delights in payback there's no way I'm letting you guys do all the hard work." Heather nodded with a sinister grin.

"You actually volunteer for hard work?" Gwen asked with a smirk.

"Feel free to sit this one out, Gwenny." Heather retorted.

"What? And let you brag about it for the rest of my miserable life?" Gwen asked, humorously shuddering. "I'd prefer the worst challenge Chris could come up with and XANA at the same time to that."

"It's not even a question." Cody pulled out his pistols. "Hero always beats the bad guy!"

"Yeah! Let's go!" Izzy pumped her fists into the air.

"The fight with big bad guy is coming." Geoff held out his chakrams. "I'm in."

"Me too!" Bridgette nodded.

"Mama would be mad if I bailed on you guys. Let's go!" DJ agreed.

"Sure why not? Got nothing better to do." Duncan shrugged but his smirk told everyone how excited and determined he was.

"Don't forget about me." Trent threw his two cents in. "No way your leaving me out of this."

"Nor me. You think I'm going to sit around and wait?" Eva smirked. "This sounds like it's going to be fun."

"What do you think Aelita?" Cody asked.

Aelita now had a big smile on her face. "_You guys...Thank you for everything. I'll be there in a second and I won't let any of you down._"

She put the headset down and started the automatic virtualization sequence. As she did the holo-map started beeping.

"_Everyone watch out! Monsters are approaching on all sides!_"

Xxx

"Here we go!" Izzy grinned as everyone pulled out their weapons.

"We better go and wake everyone up!" Kurt spoke.

"Right!" Carlos nodded and glanced at the warriors. "Good luck."

They both ran back to the studio to warn everyone as the warriors formed around the studio. Izzy changed into a T-Rex that let out a fierce roar.

"Aelita, I'm not seeing them. Could they be invisible?" DJ asked.

The dock in front of them was torn apart as a monster rose up from the water.

"The Kalamar!" Bridgette cried.

The Kalamar raised one large foot above the warriors and tried to stomp on them. They all scattered before the foot squashed them and but that was only the beginning. Two Scorpions rose out from the water; letting out huge roars as they stomped onto the island followed back Dark Krabs and Pyramids who walked out of the water and onto the beach. Hornets hovered in the air, flying in group of three with a single Red Dragon Knight hovering in the air with dark red wings spread out and a broad sword clutched in its shoulders.

This monster seemed to be acting as the commander as it landed on a boulder and thrust its sword forward, letting out a demonic roar.

"This might not be good." Gwen commented.

"I don't know. Seems rather mild." Heather replied.

"Oh yeah! The titanic battle!" Izzy's T-Rex face grinned, something that looked both strange and normal. "CHARGE!"

She charged forward and the Kalamar seemed to accept her challenge. The monster towered over her T-Rex form but she slammed into it hard enough that she sent it staggering back. The Kalamar jumped into the air and aimed its energy drill down on her but she changed into a small bird and flew out of the way. The Dark Krabs and Pyramids surrounded the studio and fired a barrage of lasers. DJ and Trent quickly created barriers to block the lasers while Heather, Noah, and Cody fired back at the approaching army.

Duncan, Gwen, Bridgette, Courtney and Geoff were out in front blocking the lasers with their weapons while LeShawna swung her hammer at large boulder and sent them flying straight at the monsters. The boulder slammed into Dark Krabs and knocked them down, shattering them into digital dust.

"AAH!" A scream echoed from inside the studio.

"That was Lindsay!" Bridgette looked back.

"Go! We'll hold these guys!" Gwen spun her scythe, creating her blue barrier.

Bridgette ran back into the studio and ran towards the Victory Dorm, bumping into something as she ran around a corner. She fell over on her butt but she shrugged it off as she looked at whatever she bumped into.

"Lindsay?" Bridgette asked.

"Bridgette!" Lindsay cried and latched onto her. "Help me! An evil monster is chasing me!"

"Where?" Bridgette quickly pulled the scared girl off her.

"There!" Lindsay pointed at her room.

A Hornet flew out into the hall and launched itself at the two girls.

"Get behind me!" Bridgette pushed Lindsay behind her as she picked her swords.

The Hornet fired its laser but Bridgette easily blocked each shot with her swords, having the advantage because the hall actually limited the Hornet's movement. Bridgette's tattoos glowed bright as she swung her swords and released an energy wave that destroyed the Hornet.

"That was close." Bridgette turned around, seeing Lindsay trembling in fear. "It's all right, Lindsay. You're going to be fine."

"How did you do that?" Lindsay pointed at her with trembling finger.

"Can't talk now, we need to find a place for you to hide along with...Beth!" Bridgette gasped.

The studio trembled as an explosion echoed through its halls.

"Come on!" Bridgette grabbed Lindsay's shoulder and dragged her down the hall. "We have to move now!"

Xxx

Aelita had already set the coordinates on where she wanted to be virtualized and now she was waiting in the scanner. She didn't have to wait long for the scanner to close and for the scanner to activate. A moment later she was on her way to the digital universe.

Xxx

Meanwhile the fight outside the studio was intensifying as the larger monsters arrived on the scene. The Scorpions fired energy blasted that destroyed the walls of the studio, leaving giant holes.

"We got to take out those Scorpions!" Heather shouted.

"I got this!" Eva stepped forward and clapped her hands.

Her glowing hands released a shockwave as she clapped them and the resulting shockwave knocked the army of monsters back, some even exploded as they fell over.

"Nice!" Geoff laughed victoriously until a barrage of lasers from above forced him to take cover.

Gwen looked up, spotting Hornets firing down upon them. "Nice try!"

She activated her Wind Aura as she waved her scythe like a fan and released a gust of wind that sent the Hornets spinning away. The Kalamar raised its giant foot to stomp on them but they all dodged, jumping, running, or flying out of the way and scattered all over the place. Instantly the monsters split and converged on their chosen targets, charging their lasers. Heather ran through the forests, firing her shuriken behind her as Dark Krabs and Pyramids chased after her.

"Damn it!" Heather cursed.

DJ and Trent stayed near the entrance of the studio with their barriers active, blocking a shower of lasers.

"This is not good." DJ said, straining under the constant barrage.

Gwen and Geoff were blocking lasers with their weapons as they were pushed back. Cody was teleporting back and forth as he tried to gain some distance and attack but the monsters were everywhere and their numbers were growing.

"Oh boy. Oh boy. Oh boy." Noah muttered over and over. "This is so not good."

As the monsters turned their sights on him he created over fifteen ghostly copies and ran into the woods, phasing through the trees to confuse them.

"Growing up with eight siblings makes you a master of hide and seek! I can't say the same about Tag though!" Noah called back at the monsters chasing him.

"Come and get me!" Duncan growled.

He walked out in front of the studio as Dark Krabs and Pyramids advanced on him. He was engulfed in a blast of green fire and the Berserker let out a defiant roar as it charged forward. Courtney was right behind him as he ploughed through the group of monsters, slashing, burning, kicking, punching and head butting any monster in his reach. Courtney jumped in, swinging her staff at any monster that survived the Berserker's attack.

"Bring it!" Eva herself was staring down the two large Scorpions coming towards her. "I ain't afraid of pair of overgrown bugs!"

The Scorpions responded to her challenge by firing energy blasts at her which she dodged by propelling herself into the air with her super charged feet. She aimed herself at the Scorpion on the left but it jumped out of the way and smacked her with its tail. She slammed into the ground and skidded across it several times before hitting a boulder, cracking it as she slid down. Getting back up she looked up and growled at the approaching monsters.

"You think I'm down like that?" She struggled to stand back up. "It'll take more than an overgrown tail to keep me down!"

The Scorpions growled, ready to stomp her to death for her attitude but they would never get the chance to carry out their plan.

"PLASMA BEAM!" Two beams of light reached out and collided with both monsters, destroying them instantly.

As their remains faded a familiar figure landed on the ground where they previously stood.

"You guys just couldn't wait for me before starting the party could you?" Aelita remarked with a smile.

"Hey Aelita!" Geoff smiled as he blocked another laser. "Sorry about that! But you know, we live to party!"

"And to kick monster butt!" Izzy turned into a rhino and trampled a Dark Krab until it exploded.

"Well then, time to add my own two cents." Aelita held up her hands and they glowed with bright energy.

Xxx

XANA opened his eyes when he sensed the arrival of the guest of honor.

'Can you sense what is happening, Sister? You have come so far since the beginning. Now we come near the End of Days and both sides will be put to the test. Let us see if you can go _all_ the way this time.' XANA chuckled.

He almost could not contain the excitement that had been building up in his digital soul. This challenge would one worth remembering.


	102. Episode 100: Open War

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 102

"What's going on?!"

"Where are we?!"

"Why do we look 3-D?!"

"Are those giant monsters?!"

"OKAY! OKAY! EVERYONE JUST CALM DOWN FOR TWO MINUTES!" Kurt shouted louder than he ever had.

The interns along with Chef, Roberto, Lesely, and Sarah all quieted down when they heard Kurt shout at them.

"All right, I know this is terribly freaky for everyone here but we got to keep calm and not go crazy like those kids did in Lord of the Flies. There's a way out of here and we can find it." Kurt spoke up.

"Where are we, Kurt?" Sarah asked.

"Well...we're 3-D so it means...we're digital." Kurt slowly answered. "But right now we got to focus on making sure everyone along with the kids are kept safe."

BOOM!

Everyone jumped in shock as an explosion shook the studio.

"Hey! Those kids are outside fighting those monsters!" An intern shouted, pointing out the nearest window.

Outside the Total Drama Lyoko Warriors had their hands full as more monsters emerged from the oceans and attacked anything in sight. Hornets and Flying Mantas flew in from the sky in groups, firing down on their enemies while ground monsters marched in formations, using their fire power and superior numbers to gain the advantage.

"Kurt, what is going on?!" Sarah turned to face him.

Kurt winced, not liking the look in Sarah's eye. She was the most sane of her siblings but when she was angry she was even more dangerous than Carlos hence why he was scared of her when she got angry.

"I have little time to explain because I have to make sure the kids are safe. So everyone grab something that can be used as a weapon." Kurt ordered. "Get the tables and chair so we can use them for cover if those things get in here."

"What are you waiting for? Move!" Carlos shouted.

The monsters marched out of the sea and fired their lasers the moment the Warriors were in sight. DJ and Trent were using their barriers to block most of the lasers while long ranged fighters like Cody and Aelite fired back with lasers and energy beams.

"RAH!" Izzy changed into a gorilla as she let out a loud roar and charged forward.

A Gorilla stepped forward and accepted Izzy's challenge with a roar of its own. Both it and Izzy collided with each other, trying to push the other back with their own strength. Noah was hiding in the forest with multiple copies of himself providing a distraction as five Tigers looked through the forest for him. One of them spotted a copy and let out loud roar as it jumped forward, only to go through the copy.

"The one good thing is that you can easily fool them." Noah remarked with a small smirk.

His smirk faded when a laser fell past his head and hit the ground.

"Whoa!" Noah jumped back as another laser shot down towards him.

Looking up he spotted Creepers crawling along the trees, glaring down at him.

"Me and my big mouth."

The Creepers fired again and the sound attracted the Tigers who came chasing after him.

"Exit Stage Left!" Noah took off running with the monsters on his tail.

He ran into the swamp part of the island but stopped when he noticed something. The swamp was a sickly green color instead of clear blue like he remembered the last time he was on this miserable island.

"What the...I don't remember it looking like this." Noah looked around and spotted something floating in the water.

It looked like a barrel with a large warning sign on it.

"That's a toxic barrel. It's polluted the water here." Noah realized. "But why is there...Why am I bothering to ask? Damn it Chris!"

Chris had ownership of the island before and after the first season ended so it's obvious that he'd be behind what happened here.

"And I got monsters with lasers behind me!" Noah's eyes widened as he spun around.

The Tigers came out of the bushes, growling while the Creepers crawled along the branches of the trees.

"Oh boy!"

The monsters all launched a barrage of lasers and few of them flew past Noah and into the swamp. The results were exactly what Noah predicted...

BOOM!

Everyone, including Warriors and Monsters stopped as a huge explosion lit up the forest.

"What the hell?!" Duncan changed back into his human form. "Can anybody tell me what that was?!"

Aelita held up her wrist computer and brought up a map. Her eyes widened when she saw a familiar icon. "Oh no! Noah was there!"

She took off into the air and flew into the forest. The hoard of monsters, composed of Spiderlings, Dark Pyramids, Dark Krabs seemed to decide to continue the fight as they aimed their lasers at her and prepared to fire.

"Oh no you don't!" Gwen activated her Earth Aura and slammed her feet into the ground.

A wall came up in front of the legion of monsters and blocked the barrage of lasers, allowing Aelita to fly to Noah's location safely. Aelita came upon the site where the explosion took blast, watching the fires on the scorched ground and trees.

"Noah?" Aelita called out.

She didn't know if they would return to the real world or not but she didn't want to risk it unless necessary.

"Oh boy."

Aelita turned around and watched as Noah phased out of the ground. "I wouldn't want to do that again."

"Noah, are you all right?" Aelita ran up to him.

"Yeah, all things considered." Noah shook his head. "That's not important right now. Listen, this island's got toxic waste running through. I just spotted a barrel of toxic waste in the water before the monsters blew it up."

"What?" Aelita gasped. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, I know. Its nuts but it's got to be Chris's doing. That mop head owned the island so he probably sold it to some kind of waste company after we left." Noah quickly explained. "We got to be careful or the wrong shot will blow this island sky high."

"That might part of the reason XANA virtualized the island here before the studio. An area where his forces would have the advantage." Aelita realized.

"And where he can throw as many monsters as he wants at us before someone makes a stupid mistake and blows us all up." Noah finished.

"We got move and warn the others before something else happens."

Xxx

Lindsay screamed as Bridgette blocked another laser shot from the Hornet.

"That's it!" Bridgette shouted.

She held up her right sword and threw it at the Hornet, watching as it went through the Hornet's head, scattering it into a dozen bits of data and impacted the wall at the end of the hall. Bridgette sighed and turned to the trembling Lindsay.

"Are you all right?" Bridgette asked slowly.

"What...what was that?" Lindsay stuttered.

"Just a bad bug." Bridgette replied with a small smile. "Come on, let's get you somewhere safe."

Another scream rang throughout the studio and made it to the ears of the two girls.

"Beth!" Lindsay cried out.

"Lindsay, go find Kurt or Carlos! I'll go find Beth!" Bridgette took running but not before she grabbed her discarded sword.

She ran down the hall like a speeding bullet and into the Amazon dorm in time to see Beth running down the hall with a Dark Pyramid chasing her.

"BETH GET DOWN!" Bridgette shouted.

Beth didn't get the chance to ask as Bridgette ran straight towards her and jumped, forcing her to duck. The Dark Pyramid fired its laser but Bridgette landed on the ground in front of its target and deflected its blast with both of her swords. Bridgette growled as her wave shaped tattoos started glowing and swung both of her swords forward, unleashing a blue X-shaped energy wave that cut through the Dark Pyramid. It fell apart and its remains faded into digital dust a second later.

Bridgette sighed and turned around to face Beth.

"Br-Bridgette?" Beth said, staring in shock and awe at Bridgette's Lyoko outfit and what she had done to the Dark Pyramid.

"It's all right." Bridgette lowered her swords. "I can explain later but we got to get you somewhere safe."

She grabbed Beth's hands and led her down the hall.

"I just hope Carlos and Kurt aren't in any trouble.

Xxx

"Oh crap!"

Kurt ducked out of the way as a red glowing sword flew in the air above his head, almost cutting it off.

"A LITTLE HELP HERE!" Kurt shouted.

"Kurt catch!"

Carlos flung a chair which Kurt caught and swung at the Dragon Knight attacking him...

Only for the chair to shatter when it made contact with Knight's armor.

"Well that's disappointing!" Kurt remarked, looking at what was left of the chair.

The Knight swung its sword again and Kurt barely dodged again, dropping what was left of the chair.

"CARLOS!"

"CATCH!" This time Carlos threw a dish pan.

Kurt caught it and swung it at the Knight but it broke on contact with the Knight's armor again.

Kurt looked at the broken pan and then back at Carlos. "This is the best you can find?!"

"Sorry man! We're in a studio not a military base!" Carlos shouted back. "I can't bring any guns here with all the kids!"

The Dragon Knight stepped forward and swung its sword again, making Kurt yelp and jump back. He dodged several more swings as the Knight chased him around the room.

"WHY DO I GET CHASED BY ROBOTS AND MONSTERS WITH SWORDS!?" Kurt shouted.

"Maybe they're attracted to you!" Roberto offered.

"ALL RIGHT THAT'S IT!"

He ducked under another swing and launched a kick at the Knight's chest. He jumped back and fell into a fighting stance.

"That's right, I know karate! Is anyone surprised at this point?!"

The doors busted open as Bridgette led Lindsay and Beth into the common room.

"Kurt?" Bridgette stopped when she saw the Knight fighting Kurt.

"BRIDGETTE! HURRY UP AND SAVE ME! I THINK THIS MIGHT BE THE BEGINNING OF THE FIRST DAY OF THE LAST DAY OF MY DIGITAL LIFE! THE POINT IS I THINK I'M IN TROUBLE!" Kurt shouted, dodging swing after swing. "HURRY AND SAVE ME!"

"Hang on!" Bridgette jumped in, swinging both of her swords.

Xxx

"TAKE THIS!"

LeShawna swung her hammer and sent a Tarantula flying with one hit. She then used her hammer to block lasers from a batch of Spiderlings that just joined the battle. Eva jumped over LeShawna and slammed her fists into the ground, creating an explosion of dust and raised the ground around up. Monsters were either sent flying or instantly smashed by the flying pieces of earth that erupted from the ground.

"Is that it?" Eva said, standing up with a smirk on her face. "I'm getting a little bored here."

As if to answer Eva's challenge another batch of monsters came out of the water, composed of Dark Krabs, Dark Pyramids, Dark Tarantulas, Spiderlings, and Megatanks. The Spiderlings and Dark Pyramids stepped forward and unleashed a barrage of lasers that forced Eva and LeShawna back while the Dark Krabs stood over the smaller monsters and fired.

"You had to ask, didn't you?" LeShawna grunted as she struggled to block the lasers with her hammer.

"Aw shut up!" Eva tore a piece of earth out of the ground and used it as a shield.

"Try to have some fun will you?" Duncan landed between them and charged at the group of monsters.

He let out a roar as he was engulfed by a blast of green fire and the Berserker leapt into the crowd of monsters. The three Megatanks opened their shells and fired, taking out the Dark Krab the Berserker was fighting and all three managed to hit the Berserker. He flew back and skidded across the ground several times before slamming into a tree, sending flaming pieces of wood flying.

"Oh man..." The Berserker groaned as it changed back into Duncan's human form. "What happened to being a team player?"

The monsters regrouped and continued marching towards the studio.

"GUYS!"

The Warrior glanced behind them to see Aelita flying out of the forest with Noah hanging onto her arms.

"You all right?" Gwen asked, as they landed behind her.

She was using her barrier to block the rain of lasers coming from the army of monsters.

"We'll be fine. It's the island I'm worried about." Aelita stood next to Gwen and fired an energy beam.

"Why?" Gwen asked, sounding a little worried.

"Chris stocked this place full of nuclear waste." Noah answered, turning his hands into laser cannons.

"WHAT?!" Half the warriors shouted.

"I know, I thought the same thing."

"He actually went and dumped nuclear waste on the island?!" Gwen asked, almost dropping her barrier. "What the hell is wrong with him?!"

"He's a nut, that's what!" Geoff swung his axe, unleashing another blast of lightning.

"I could have told you that!" Heather shouted, hiding behind a tree.

"So that was what caused the blast?" Trent asked, keeping his Shield Note active.

"Yeah, a laser shot from a gang of Creepers hit the waste in the swamp and lit the place up like the Fourth of July. I just managed to phase down through the ground to avoid it." Noah replied, stepping out from behind Gwen to fire his laser cannons. "But we're in big trouble if there's any more of that close by."

"And the studio will be blasted into digital space." Aelita finished as she fired an energy beam. "Along with us and the entire island."

"Is it too late to ask for a vacation?" Noah dryly asked.

"WHOO!"

Izzy landed on the ground in front of them and changed into a bull. "ARE YOU NUTS?! THIS IS PERHAPS THE BIG FIGHT AND YOU WANT TO RUN AWAY?! WHERE'S YOUR SENSE OF ADVENTURE AND EXCITEMENT?!"

She charged forward but a barrage of lasers hit the ground in front of her, stopping her just in time. If she hadn't stopped she probably would have lost all her life points.

"Now what?!" Heather looked at the sky.

Hornets, Flying Mantas, and Bats flew over them in groups of three, firing lasers down on the warriors as they flew by.

"They're moving too fast!" Gwen blocked the lasers with her scythe. "I can't use my Wind Spell to get rid of them!"

"They're actually planning their attacks." Aelita remarked as she created an energy barrier. "They're keeping their distance while attacking us in groups to try and force us back. They know we're stuck defending the studio and everyone inside it."

"They can try but an animal is more dangerous more when it's cornered." Noah aimed his cannons at the advancing monsters.

"Especially when it's pissed." Eva cracked her knuckles.

"Amen." LeShawna held her hammer up.

But to their surprise the monsters stopped attacking and stood still. It was like someone found the off switch for all of them and shut them down.

"...Did anybody find the remote?" Izzy asked as she changed back into her human form.

"No, it's more like..." Aelita started.

That was when her Second Sense started screaming danger in her head and she felt the feeling of something...

"BEHIND US!" Aelita spun around and created an energy shield.

That one action saved everyone as the energy shield blocked a stream of fire that would have burned everyone alive. Looking up they saw Cain jump off his pet Phoenix Ember and pull out his claymore, swinging it down on the nearest target. Aelita jumped back, watching as the claymore flew through the air where her head had been and got herself ready as Cain pulled his arm back and charged forward.

"NICE TRY!" Eva jumped into the brawl with her fists glowing bright blue.

Cain stopped his charged and twisted his body, evading Eva's first punch and delivered a punch of his own to Eva's torso, knocking her down. He moved to finish her off as the others recovered their sense and tried to attack him. However Ember flew in between them and created a fire shield that protected its master from all attacks as he advanced on Eva. Cain moved to stab her but Eva rolled out of the way and jumped up to her feet, ready for his next attack.

Cain wasted no time as he moved at high speed, slashing his claymore at his enemy. Eva stepped back, barely dodging each swing but was annoyed that he was unable to fade back.

"You're pissing me off!" Eva growled as she took another step back.

But as she took that next step she charged her foot and slammed it onto the ground, shaking the island and releasing a shockwave that knocked Cain back. Eva fell back onto the crater she made but she quickly got up to take advantage of her downed enemy. However Cain was not wasting time either. He swung his arm out and unleashed a blast of fire that surrounded him and cut Eva off.

Cain launched himself back onto his feet and jumped through the fire barrier, delivering a kick to Eva's chest that sent her flying back.

"EVA!" Aelita shouted.

"I'll help her!" Gwen activated her fire aura and was about to jump into the fight.

But she was cut off as purple energy blasts fell upon the ground in front of her from the sky. Gwen looked up and saw the perpetrator standing upon the roof of the studio with her spear resting over her shoulder with a relaxed smile.

"Jinx." Gwen frowned.

"She's not alone." Aelita spoke. "I can sense more of them coming. That's why the monsters stopped attacking. No chance of them getting hit by one of their own troops."

"Any idea of figuring out where they are before they attack?" Noah asked.

"Yeah...One of them is inside the studio!" Aelita's widened.

Xxx

Bridgette finally knocked the Dragon Knight's sword out of its hands and several slashes later it fell apart.

"Whoo! Nice work, Bridgette!" Carlos clapped his hands.

"Thanks." Bridgette turned around with a smile.

"Yeah, congratulate her while I barely manage to survive fighting that thing. I probably softened him up." Kurt grumbled.

He spotted the Dragon Knight's sword lying on the ground. "Hmmm..."

"Kurt that's probably not a good idea." Carlos spoke up. "I know it looks pretty bad ass and it'd be cool to use but only a maniac would pick that up and go out looking for a fight."

"So you're not thinking of it right now?" Kurt asked, staring at Carlos.

"...Only because I know it's a bad idea." Carlos quickly replied.

"Okay, guys. I need you to look after everyone inside. I'll go out and help the others..." Bridgette instructed.

"Hey, who's that white haired kid?" One of the interns asked, pointing behind Bridgette;

Bridgette's eyes widened as she spun around and dodged an ice shard that was aimed at her head. The ice shard flew past her and managed to slice through the right side of Kurt's summer cap.

"AH!" Kurt yelped as he slipped and fell back.

Bridgette frowned as she stared at the person responsible. Yuki was standing at the door to the room with the ground and wall around her starting to turn to ice.

Bridgette picked up the Dragon Knight's sword and tossed it to Kurt. "Here! Just in case!"

Kurt tried to catch the sword but he didn't know how heavy it actually was as it fell to the ground even as he caught it.

"OW!" Kurt yelped as his hand was crushed under the sword's weight.

"Glad it's not me." Carlos commented.

"Bite me, Carlos!"

Bridgette faced down Yuki who covered her hands in icy claws that were sharp enough to cut through almost anything.

"Everyone, stay behind me and don't you dare try to take her on." Bridgette said.

"That's that ice general, Yuki isn't it?" Kurt stood up, holding the Dragon Knight's sword. "I remember watching her fight back in that house in the mountains. She's dangerous, even too dangerous for me, Carlos, and any of our buddies to try to take on."

Yuki ignored the Total Drama staff, keeping her attention on Bridgette. The surfer watched the ice general for any signs of movement as she kept herself between the TD staff and the ice general. Bridgette didn't like her odds right now. She might be less worried if she didn't have to worry about civilian casualties but here she was trapped in a single room with a bunch civilians behind her while Yuki, the icy general who she had fought the most out of XANA's generals was ready to attack. She needed to get this fight outside.

As if answering her thoughts Yuki made the first move. She tapped her foot on the ground and ice began spread out, covering the floor.

"Oh crap!" Carlos gulped.

"No you don't!"

Bridgette and Yuki raced forward at each other and their weapons clashed; sending sparks flying into the air. Yuki dodged a stab aimed at her face from Bridgette's sword by ducking and retaliated by slashing at Bridgette's feet with her right claws. Luckily Bridgette lowered her right sword and blocked Yuki's strike and brought down her other sword only for Yuki to bring up her left arm and create an ice shield to block the strike. Yuki jumped to her feet and launched a round house kick to Bridgette's face but the surfer barely blocked by holding her swords in front of face.

The blow sent her flying back from the power of Yuki's kick but Bridgette managed to stay on her feet by slamming her swords into the floor to keep her standing and stop her from skidding to the far end of the room. Looking up she spotted Yuki as the ice user launched herself forward and Bridgette pulled her swords up as she charged to meet her enemy. Sword and icy claws clashed against each other as both warriors fought to push the other back. The Total Drama producers and interns watched as both fighters fought with most of their movements almost too fast for the human eye to see.

"I'm almost too afraid to move, thinking it might get us killed." Carlos commented.

"You got that right?" Kurt nodded.

"Shouldn't we try something?"

"You're welcome to try, Carlos.

Xxx

"A general's inside?!" Trent exclaimed.

"Yeah and I recognize who it is. It's Yuki and Bridgette's fighting her right now." Aelita replied.

"Well, we got to get in there and help!" Geoff was about to run inside when Heather stopped him by grabbing his shoulder.

"Hold on party boy! In case you forgot we already got a general in our way!" Heather pointed at Jinx, who was watching them from the roof and Cain who was still fighting Eva. "There's bound to be more of them in the next few seconds."

"I'll deal with Jinx." Gwen stepped forward. "I can keep her busy while someone tries to get into the studio and help Bridgette."

"What if everyone else is occupied?"

Aelita spun around and created an energy shield, blocking a barrage of energy arrows before they hit everyone in the back. Lilith was standing a few feet away from them, her usual mischievous smirk on her face and she waved at them while clutching her bow in the other hand.

"I should have figured she'd show up." Cody muttered.

"Don't have time for this!" Geoff was ready to swing his axe.

"NO WAIT!" Noah grabbed the axe, realizing what Geoff was about to do. "You realize what you might do if you fire a lightning blast?! One wrong hit and you'll blow the island sky high and us along with it! Did you forget what happened earlier with a single laser shot?! We don't know where all that waste is and if it's close by we're goners if something sets it up!"

That was when everyone realized that they couldn't use their most powerful attacks and weapons without the possibility of causing another explosion.

"Crap." Geoff lowered his axe.

"Oh man." Duncan glared at Lilith. "You knew about this."

"More or less." Lilith smirked. "But just to let you know we don't have any plans on holding back."

"Just plan to blow yourself up." Courtney asked, readying herself for battle.

Lilith smirked. "Just a little warm up for the real fight. Trust me, this is just a warm compared to the grand finale. Now then..."

That was when a powerful blast of wind came out of the forest and slammed into the warriors and the studio. The wind was so strong that any windows that hadn't been broken earlier in the fight shattered from the powerful attack.

"Don't need to guess who that is!" LeShawna covered her face with one hand while holding her hammer in the other.

Out of the woods came Sora with his winds blades in his hands and Ryder, his long katana resting over his shoulder.

"And now the gang's all here." Gwen got ready to fight.

Xxx

As the Warriors prepared to battle their number one enemy was watching them in the center of his domain. XANA relaxed on the red block in the center of his chamber, watching the large view screen of the battle.

"You think this all I have planned but I have so much more surprises." XANA smirked.

He turned to a second large view screen that appeared next to the one showing the battle. This one showed the image of the Earth with the numerous satellites surrounding it.

"Begin Secondary Stage."

Above the planet the satellites under XANA's control released bright beams of energy down on whatever they had been programmed to target. The location was engulfed in a bright light and then vanished.

Xxx

Just as the warriors were about to continued the battle there was a loud noise that originated very close to the island.

"Hey look!"

They all watched, completely flabbergasted as a familiar building appeared, floating on a small piece of land mass next to the island. It first appeared as a giant outline before it was filled with ones and zeros, building up its shape from the inside and when it was done the warriors instantly recognized it.

"That's my school!" Aelita gasped.

"No freaking way!" Noah's jaw actually dropped to the ground.

"But how?" Geoff asked.

"It must be how XANA virtualized the island and the studio here. " Aelita guessed before she glared at Lilith. "Why is he doing this?"

"Ask him yourself." Lilith shrugged.

Xxx

"To think my earlier experiments in using these satellites to materialize my monsters would actually evolve and allow me to do the opposite. Concentrating the power of over a dozen satellites while using the power of Lyoko and the Carbon Copy has allowed me to create over a dozen specters at once that are concentrated through a single beam that engulfs the target, absorbing it into the specter and transfers everything that has been absorbed through the link I have forged with the real world and virtualizes the target at the location of my choosing." XANA smirked. "It's essentially a scanner without the need for a scanner. Of course the amount of power it takes to virtualize something as that island and the studio along with all the humans and objects scanned through the specter is staggering. I barely had enough power to virtualize that school. I won't be able to virtualize something as large as a building for some time but it doesn't really matter at this point."

He watched in satisfaction at the reactions of his enemies from seeing Kadic Academy virtualized. They were almost frozen in complete shock.

"The workers for that reality show and now the students of Kadic Academy…so many to protect and divert your attention from fighting my forces head on. Not even Sister can handle all of that, even with the power of her keys. She'll be forced to waste her time fighting my forces to even think about coming for the tower and no matter how powerful they are together they'll have to hold back for the sake of protecting those who cannot protect themselves. Before now all they had to worry about was how long they had to reach the tower before someone died but now the causalities depend completely on them." XANA chuckled. "So…what will you do?"

Whatever they had planned XANA hoped they were ready for the grand finale.

Xxx

"I can't leave them defenceless." Aelita said, staring at Kadic Academy. "I got to get over and keep them safe."

"Girl, I get you and I'm coming to help." LeShawna nodded, holding up her hammer. "There's bound to be an army coming and you can't handle them all by yourself."

"I'll clear a path." Trent prepared to play a note.

Aelita nodded as she held up her wrist computer. "Good thing I had this ready."

With a inputted commands the vehicles appeared in front of her.

"All right!" LeShawna hopped onto the OverJet. "Perfect!"

"I guess the rest of us will be stuck with these losers." Heather glanced at Ryder and Sora.

"I'll handle Jinx." Gwen grasped her scythe as she shot up towards the roof.

"I better go help Eva." Duncan said, as green fire covered him.

A second later the Berserker was letting out a roar as it charged at Cain. Aelita flew up into the air followed by LeShawna on the OverJet.

"We'll see how far you get." Lilith commented.

Ryder held out his sword as it sparked with electricity as he prepared to swing it.

"Oh no you don't!" Geoff leapt forward and swung his axe.

Ryder had to cancel his attack in order to block Geoff's axe before it sliced him in half. Both weapons sparked with electricity as their owners to push one another back.

"I guess it's up to me." Sora sighed as the beak part of his helmet glowed red.

"Think again!" Heather jumped in and aimed a kick at Sora's head.

"Whoa!" Sora ducked and jumped back. "Come on, Momma, give me a break here!"

"Just shut up and fight!" Heather fired her shuriken launchers,

Sora sprouted his wings and flew up, avoiding the shuriken easily and fired down at her. Heather somersaulted backwards as the last hit the ground where she had been standing. Meanwhile Jinx watched as Gwen floated and landed on the roof a few feet away from her. Jinx turned and faced her, not bothering to attack yet.

"No surprise attacks?" Gwen asked as she softly landed on the floor.

"Nah, I'd prefer a simple all out brawl." Jinx turned to face her. "There's been too much of that elaborate planning, I think I'll just fight head on and see where it goes."

"That's actually probably the smartest thing any of us can actually do here. At least you're not going after anyone who can't fight." Gwen twirled her scythe.

"Like I'm that cowardly." Jinx scoffed as she held her spear with both hands. "So shall we get started? Remember, I win you get your ass kicked out of here."

"And I win and you get your ass kicked back to XANA. Tell him we'll be visiting him soon after we deal with this." Gwen prepared herself.

"Ease up..." Jinx started, with a grin.

"You're dead." Gwen finished with a smirk.

Both warriors leapt at each other with confident smirks. The moment their staffs collided each other a blast of pink and purple energy erupted into the sky. They were pushing each other with bright auras of energy surrounding their bodies and pushing against each other.

Xxx

Elizabeth Delmas, aka Sissy groaned as she sat up in her bed when sunlight shined down into her room. She didn't know what time it was but it was probably earlier than when she usually woke up and she liked the chance to sleep in and get more beauty sleep. As she looked around she couldn't help but notice something was odd. When she looked down at her hand she could have sworn it looked...

Digitally 3-D.

Looking around she gasped as everything like digitally generated 3-D graphics!

"Wh-what's going on?" Sissy asked, stuttering. "Am I dreaming?"

Little did Sissy know was that in a few moments she would really wish that she was dreaming.

Xxx

Aelita and LeShawna flew towards the small piece of land holding Kadic Academy. The island was large enough to hold up the buildings but the courtyard was not present showing that XANA did not virtualize all of it, just the buildings for the students and staff.

"This is crazy and that's saying when you're doing this kind of job. Just how in the ten circles of Hell did XANA do all this?" LeShawna asked.

"For once I have absolutely no idea how this worked. We knew that XANA was getting stronger, from what we saw of the storms and that time he was able materialize an army of his monsters into the real world but to be honest I have no idea how XANA would have been able virtualize something outside of the scanners. Whatever method he used it doesn't matter. What matters now is keeping the students, teachers, along with everyone at the studio safe." Aelita replied. "The enemy no doubt has a large number of monsters ready to attack both the studio and the school and with all these bystanders in danger we can't fight at our full strength. They've got us boxed in and so far the only way out is to make sure all enemies have destroyed."

"Can we even do that?" LeShawna asked.

"We know there's a limit to XANA's abilities, depending on how much power he uses to activate a tower, create his monsters, and the amount of power he needs for whatever attack he launches. Whatever he used to virtualize the school and the studio there's a very good chance he used up a lot of power to do all this and even if there are a large number of monsters on the way he won't be able to create anymore until after a sufficient amount of time." Aelita explained. "If we can destroy all the monsters that are attacking us now then the only thing we'll have to worry about will be the generals and the tower."

"And whatever trap XANA has set up for us this time." LeShawna finished grimly. "Remember what he said?"

"We'll have to think about that when we're sure everyone is safe." Aelita replied.

"Right...How are you holding up?" LeShawna asked as they landed on the ground in front of the school.

"Fine, why?" Aelita asked as LeShawna hopped off the OverJet.

"This is has got to be getting to you. Not only is the school danger from being in the middle of war zone but there's trap involving your closest friends. Don't tell me that's not getting to you." LeShawna remarked.

Aelita sighed. "LeShawna, from the beginning when XANA came back, revealing that my father died in vain and captured them I have been wracked with guilt for not only over what had happened but I felt guilty because of all the pain and suffering you've all had to endure the moment I brought you into this."

"You never brought us into this." LeShawna shook her head. "You never meant for this to happen, it was all XANA's fault. He did all of this and he's also responsible for all the other bad guys who came out of the woodwork. Shadow, Nephilim, Lyon, they all point back to XANA because he had a role in each of their appearances. Everything that has happened has been because of him and you know what, it's payback time."

"I know and each time there was an attack I remembered something Jeremy told me. A conversation we had on how he was always at the chair, watching us fight for our lives in Lyoko and it's something I try to take to heart. He said that whenever a tower was activated and we had to fight he had to make a decision in order to function properly and make sure to push them all back to think objectively." Aelita said.

"Them?"

"His feelings. His concern for us and for the people in the city who might be in danger and the fear of what would happen if we failed. It may sound like he was trying to make himself unable to feel but emotions can't be removed like that no matter how hard you try to suppress them. However if you allow yourself to be overcome by them or you lose sight of what you need to do to make sure everyone survives. You need to clear yourself of all the doubts and fear of what will happen if you fail and try to see everything from a logical stance. Try to see everything that the enemy is doing, their objectives, their position, their plans, and everything that is happening." Aelita explained. "Try to think calmly of everything you know about the enemy's tactics and once you've done enough of that you can see what they were thinking and what they will do. It's what I have tried to do when I found myself on my own and when I found myself as the leader of this new team. I've had to think rationally on every attack or when I was thinking of how I could improve our chances of survival by thinking of every mistake my friends and I ever made when we fought XANA. Like how I suggested you all practice and train on Lyoko so you didn't get possessed like William."

"That...that sounds hard." LeShawna remarked.

"It is. It's harder than almost anything I've gone through in this battle. I cannot allow myself to be overcome; even for a second and to be honest I've failed several times. I allowed myself to be distracted with Lilith several times like when I was forging the connection to the Carbon Copy. I faltered when Lilith showed me an image of my mother who acted just as I remembered her and I fell for the trick when she actually slapped me in anger, an emotion I never saw on her face, _ever_." Aelita emphasized. "If not for some last second thinking I would have failed and we probably would have never made it this far. That's when I learned that I can't keep myself composed at all times and that no matter how powerful I become there will be something just as powerful ready to strike back."

"For every action there's an equal and opposite reaction." LeShawna quoted.

"I guess you can call it that." Aelita nodded. "To answer your question, LeShawna, I want to believe we'll rescue Jeremy, Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, and William. I want to believe with all of my heart but at the same time I have to realize that this trap, may be the one I'm not walking out of."

"Or anyone of us." LeShawna put in.

"Yes. XANA said he is giving us a choice even though the message was directed at me. Save my friends or protect the innocent and this it. He wants to find out if I am desperate enough to save them that I'll abandon everyone here to certain death." Aelita nodded.

"But how can we tell that if anyone here will die when they are devirtualized?" LeShawna asked.

"We don't but here's the real question. Do we take that chance?" Aelita frowned.

LeShawna was silent after that. She may not have answered but Aelita already knew what her answer was. LeShawna gripped her hammer as she thought over what Aelita said and agreed with her completely. XANA was doing more than just attacking them, he was forcing them to try and make an unacceptable decision. Risk the lives of everyone in Kadic Academy and the Total Drama Studio for a chance to save Aelita's friends.

"Damn him..." LeShawna growled. "He's even more evil than I thought."

"I know." Aelita nodded. "I'm not sure what I can do to stop this. We can handle the legion of monsters but what about the generals? They're powerful enough to keep us from reaching the heart of the Copy and even if we all manage to survive will we be in any shape at all to go all the way? I can't even hope that using Code: Angel will even help because XANA has Lilith, a general who can use Code: Angel like me and when the two of us activate we're the most powerful beings in this digital universe alongside XANA himself."

"We're mighty and they're just as mighty." LeShawna stopped on the ground. "So how the hell do get out of this?"

"We make sure everyone's safe first. I know XANA thinks he's got us trapped but I am not letting him win so easily." Aelita replied.

"Sounds good to me." LeShawna nodded.

With that said the conversation was over and the two ran towards the school.

Xxx

Lilith stood on the roof of Kadic Academy, watching as Aelita and LeShawna approached the school. She looked rather calm rather than sporting the mischievous she showed when facing her enemies.

"If only you knew just how far this really went."


	103. Episode 101: Into the Belly of the Beast

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 103

"_Your attention please. There is an emergency meeting in the gym for all students right now. Do not be afraid to cross the school grounds but do not leave the grounds. That is all._" A voice said over the loudspeakers in the school.

"Sounds like the students and teachers have woken up." Aelita and LeShawna made it to the fence surrounding the school. "Now they're assembling in the gym."

"And you can bet something will happen once they are all together." LeShawna lifted her hammer off her back and gripped it tightly in her right hand.

"You're right. The gym's the worst place to assemble at this time but they have no idea of what's going on. You can bet your family's entire fortune there's already monsters on their way and the first thing they'll target is the large group of civilians to try and force us to make a stand. Unfortunately there's nothing we can do but meet the enemy on their terms, we don't have the option of taking the fight to them."

"Let's beat anything that comes near here and then meet up with the others."

Aelita nodded. "I'll go ahead; they might listen better to a familiar face. If you see or hear anything then give me any kind of signal."

"Got it." LeShawna nodded.

Aelita jumped over the fence and landed perfectly on the ground. Taking a chance she glanced around the courtyard before she started walking over to the gym. She spotted the reporters, Milly and Tamiya nervously walking across the grounds towards the gym.

'I can let them see me in my Lyoko outfit. It'll just raise questions that I don't have the time to answer.' Aelita thought.

She remained perfectly still as she watched them walk over to the gym as the doors were held open by Jim.

'Okay, if I were the enemy the first thing I'd do is wait for the students and teachers to assemble in the gym so I can spring my trap. I'd surround the gym to make so no one could get out and force my way in through the front door. And the only general who can assemble enough monsters to attack that many people is...Lilith!' Aelita's eyes narrowed.

Her Second Sense went off, screaming to her that danger was nearby.

'She's here and she's already planning something!'

Xxx

The students all gathered in the gym, exchanging whispers that were a mix of excitement, fearful, and panic. Principal Delmas stepped onto the podium and grasped the microphone.

"Attention everyone. Please, everyone calm down. I know this is very troubling to you all, waking up in this...place. I do not know what has happened and I doubt anyone here knows what was happened but we obviously have been taken by some off worldly force into some kind of other world. But we mustn't panic as I am sure when our disappearance is noticed someone will try and rescue us." Principal Delmas didn't sound too sure of what he had said but continued. "In the meantime we have to make do with what we have in order to survive. We have rations that will last us several weeks and we are on an island in the ocean. Jim has skills on living in the forest so he can help us learn what we should do to hang on until help comes. In the meantime I ask that you all return to your dorms and try remain calm as we work on-"

He never got the chance to finish his sentence as the entire school shook making many students cry out and latch onto each other.

"Jim, come with me. Everyone stay inside the gym!" Delmas said.

Jim followed him to the exit and they opened the doors to see the cause of the quake. They were greeted with the sight of what looked like pyramids on legs with strange eyes embedded in their sides and miniature mechanical spiders marching towards the gym and in between them was a giant mechanical ball that stopped and opened up its shell. The inside held what looked like a ring with the same strange eye held by what looked like red veins. The ring shaped center started to glow bright yellow and Jim and the Principal Delmas didn't wait to find out what it meant.

They ran back into the gym and slammed the doors shut.

"Everyone out of the gym! NOW!"

The students and teachers started running towards the other exits as fast as possible as the Megatank outside fully charged its laser and fired. The elliptical shaped energy wave slammed into the wall, blasting it open and releasing small pieces of the ceiling down on the fleeing students.

Xxx

"Oh hell!" LeShawna quickly jumped after she saw the explosion. "Aelita, you see that?!"

"Yes! Their attacking the students in the gym!" Aelita shouted back. "Come on!"

They took off running towards the gym as the sound of lasers was heard in that direction. They watched as students fled the gym as ten Spiderlings and Pyramids marched towards them, charging their lasers.

"Oh Hell NO!" LeShawna charged forward.

She ran past the bewildered students and slammed her hammer into the ground in front of the monsters. The impact resulted in a massive explosion erupting from the ground that sent the Pyramids and Spiderlings flying up into the air. They fell onto the ground and shattered instantly upon hitting the ground.

"WHA..." Sissy's mouth hung open in shock.

Above the fight Lilith watched from the roof with an interested grin. "Wow, I sometimes forget how tough Shawnie is."

She then noticed Aelite firing her Plasma Beam that took out the Megatank instantly without even needing to hit the Eye.

"Aelita's here too, huh? Figures."

If there was one thing that Lilith knew was that Aelita would come here to protect the students. That was why XANA had sent her here after he virtualized the school. XANA had used a lot of power to virtualize the studio and the school so he needed someone to take over for him on the digital frontier. Lilith clapped her hands together and closed her eyes.

All around the school portals opened up and out stopped monsters, ready to attack their master's enemies without mercy. XANA didn't have to worry about wasting more power to create monsters to attack the warriors when he already had someone to call upon an army for him.

'Let's start the real party.'

Down on the ground Aelita turned around as she spotted portals opening up and monsters stepping out.

"Oh damn it." Aelita frowned. "LeShawna!"

"I see them." LeShawna held out her hammer. "Damn that XANA. Does he have a monster making factory around here or something?"

LeShawna lunged forward and slammed her hammer into the ground again, sending out another shockwave that sent monsters flying. However more monsters quickly replaced the ones that were destroyed. Aelita created an energy shield to block the lasers heading towards the students while LeShawna used her hammer to send dust up into the air to block the enemy's vision. Lasers and dust filled the digital air as LeShawna ran as fast as she could to avoid being shot herself.

'They're sending dust up into the air to impair our army's vision.' Lilith thought. 'Clever.'

"This is getting us nowhere. LeShawna pull back!" Aelita called out.

LeShawna ran back to Aelita's side while using her hammer block lasers aimed at her. When LeShawna was safely behind her Aelita closed her eyes and let out a soft note. The ground beneath the monsters began to break and crack open. As it split open monsters fell into the water below and sank to the ocean floor.

"Nice going, girl!" LeShawna smiled victoriously. "That took a good number of them out."

The remaining monsters that survived attempted to regroup to continue their attack but LeShawna wasn't planning on giving them a chance.

"OH NO YOU DON'T!" LeShawna shouted as she jumped into the air.

She swung her hammer onto the ground and the entire island the school was on shook violently as a shockwave ripped through the ground and sent the monsters into the air like rockets. They fell from the sky into the ground and ocean, shattering into digital pieces.

"Oh yeah! That'll show 'em!" LeShawna pumped her fist into the air.

Aelita smiled at LeShawna's celebration but her Second Sense was telling her that danger was still nearby.

"Aelita?"

She looked behind her and saw Yumi's little brother Hiroki stepping out of the crowd of shell shocked students. She felt like she lost her ability to speak when she saw her best friend's brother staring at her, shocked out of his mind.

"Is this a private party or can anyone join?"

Aelita's went wide as she looked up and saw a familiar general on the roof of the gym. "Lilith!"

"Hey there!" Lilith smiled, waving down at the warriors. "What do you think of the vacation spot XANA picked?"

"You..."

Aelita shot up into the air towards Lilith with her hands glowing with bright energy.

"Uh oh!" Lilith cart wheeled out of the way as Aelita fired two plasma beams at her.

The beams hit the roof and blew a giant hole into the top of the gym. Aelita landed on the edge of the roof and took off after Lilith who jumped off the roof of the gym and onto the main building of the school. Lilith spun around and fired a quick barrage of energy arrows that Aelita dodged by jumping up and flying over her. She fired an energy field at Lilith's head but the red haired general ducked and spun around, aiming her next arrow at Aelita's face.

Aelita however created an energy field that cancelled out Lilith's energy arrow. Aelita fired another energy orb but Lilith cart wheeled out of the way. When she landed perfectly on her feet she created another energy arrow and aimed it at Aelita as the pink haired girl prepared another energy beam. Both fighters stared each other down, waiting for the other to make the first move.

"Lilith, how did XANA do all this? What is his goal here?" Aelita asked.

"You haven't figured it out? I thought for sure you'd get the message." Lilith commented.

"I know what XANA's doing. He's trying to force to make a choice between saving Jeremy and the others or stay here and protect everyone else. What I don't get is why. Why do all this?" Aelita reasoned. "In the past XANA has always focused his attacks on his main enemies and the only time anyone else was caught up in it was when they were in the way. XANA is even allowing me a chance to try and rescue Jeremy and the others. Why? He's not charitable and if I rescue them then we gain a major advantage."

"Maybe you just answered your own question." Lilith replied.

"So, it's just a big trap." Aelita remarked, her face completely calm. "I thought it was too good to be true."

"You've underestimated XANA's growth, Aelita. In the past his actions follow logical conclusions but as the battles continued he has evolved enough to understand and use human emotions as his own. He's even gone as far to create AIs who exhibit emotions." Lilith remarked with a grin. "You of all people should understand just how much things have changed."

"So instead of trying to kill us XANA's now dragging innocent people into this fight? I guess I should have seen it coming." Aelita narrowed her eyes.

"Don't be so sure you know what's going on, Aelita. There's a lot more at work here than just this fight." Lilith replied.

"I know...and that is why I am going stop you here and now!" Aelita declared as she fired a very large plasma beam.

The beam itself blasted the side of the roof Lilith stood on and shot out into the sky like a roaring jet.

"WHOA!" LeShawna remarked as the beam shot over everyone's heads. "Looks like our angel's getting serious!"

Lilith however simply disappeared and reappeared behind Aelita with her arrow aimed at the back of Aelita's head.

"You're going to have to do better than that!"

As Lilith fired her arrow Aelita spun around and used both hands to create an energy shield. The arrow exploded against the shield, making Aelita slide several feet back before she managed to steady herself. She lowered her shield and lunged at Lilith who turned and ran towards the opposite end of the roof. She jumped over the edge, towards a portal that opened up in mid-air.

"If you want to save them so bad come and get them!" Lilith shouted as she fell into the portal.

Aelita jumped off the edge of the roof and flew towards the portal.

"Aelita! Wait for me!" LeShawna called out.

'Sorry, LeShawna. But I can't endanger anyone else!' Aelita thought as she vanished into the portal.

The portal than vanished along with the people who disappeared inside it.

"DAMN IT!" LeShawna stomped on the ground. "WHAT ARE YOU THINKING GIRL!?"

She needed to find a way to catch up or who knows what would happen to Aelita. LeShawna turned to the parked vehicles and jumped onto the OverJet.

"Sometimes you are as hotheaded as the dumbest boys I've met!" LeShawna grunted as she took off into the air. "Don't you dare die on me before I catch up!"

She took off back to the studio leaving the bewildered students of Kadic Academy behind.

Xxx

The fight back at the studio was raging across the island but the Warriors were finding themselves outnumbered and outmatched in more ways than one. Bridgette was slammed into an icy wall but she managed to duck as an icy spear piece where her head had been. She ran down the hall as fast as she could while Yuki chased after her. The ice general had discarded her cloak so she could move faster without being hindered.

Yuki fired a barrage of ice shards at Bridgette but she turned as she upon a corner and the shard missed by mere inches, imbedding themselves in the wall. Bridgette jumped through a window, covering her face with her arms and thanking herself for remembering she was only one floor above the ground and the laws of physics were different in the digital dimension she landed on the ground perfectly. Looking up she was greeted with the sight of her friends battling monsters and generals all over the place. Geoff and Ryder were fighting with their weapons sparkling with electricity, Eva and Duncan were going head to head with Cain, Heather was running through the forest with Sora chasing after her, while the others were fighting off legions of monsters advancing on the studio.

She heard a sound and looked up, spotting Yuki falling out of the broken window above her. She rolled out of the way and jumped to her feet as Yuki landed on her and exhaled an icy cold gust of snow and ice from her mouth. However now that she was outside she didn't have to hold back, worrying about civilian casualties anymore. She swung her swords as her wave tattoos glowed and released her signature energy wave with enough power to resemble a tidal wave that slammed into Yuki's attack.

Yuki jumped out of the way as the energy wave ripped through her icy blast and slammed into the wall behind her. The wall was blown open, leaving a large hole.

"Come on, people! We don't know if the insurance company covers digital combat!" Kurt shouted as he peeked out a window.

Eva grunted as she was knocked to the ground with Ember hovering above her waiting for its master who was standing on its back to give the command to finish her. The command was not spoke as all Cain did was look down at Eva before his Phoenix roared and spewed a stream of fire from its mouth.

"No you don't!" Eva clapped her hands, releasing a shock wave that blast of fire straight back at its owners.

Cain and his Phoenix were engulfed fire while Eva somersaulted onto her feet and jumped back before the flames got close to her. When the smoke cleared Cain and his Phoenix were still in the air, not seemingly harmed at all by their own attack.

"Damn it!"

Cain jumped off his Phoenix fell towards Eva like a rock with his claymore raised over his head, ready to slice Eva in half. However in a blast of green fire the Berserker appeared between them and blocked the blow.

**"Not...so fast!"** The Berserker roared.

It pushed Cain back with an impressive feat of strength but the general simply somersaulted through the air and landed perfectly on his. Looking up at the Berserker as it readied itself Cain accepted the challenge and lunged forward as his fiery wings sprouted from his back. The Berserker charged forward with a roar and both their weapon collided, releasing streams of orange and green flames into the air. Cain broke the struggle by kicking the Berserker in the chest, firing a jet of fire from the bottom of his foot enhance his kick.

The Berserker flew back and skidding across the ground until he slammed into a tree, knocking it over and setting on fire at the same time. Luckily it seemed it was physically unharmed as it stood up a second later and let out a roar. Cain sprouted his wings and flew at the green flaming monster as it released a stream of fire from its mouth. Cain avoided the attack and flew over the Berserker, firing a blast of fire from his fists.

The Berserker jumped into the air with green fire blasting from its feet to propel it out of the way of the attack. Cain spun around and flew after the Berserker, firing arrows made of flames from his left hand. The two fighters flew around the studio, firing blasts of fire at each other until the Berserker landed the cliff that hung over the river where the cast had their first challenge on Total Drama Island. Cain conjured a long spear made of fire and hurled it at his opponent.

The Berserker slashed the spear in half with its sword but Cain had used the attack as a distraction to launch himself at high speed towards his enemy using his wings and fire blasting from his feed to increase his speed. He swung his claymore at the Berserker's head but it was quick enough to block the blow in time. Both fighters clashed with their swords for over a moment until Cain jumped into the air, avoiding horizontal slash from the Berserker. However just as Cain avoided the slash his pet Phoenix Ember slammed head first into the Berserker's chest and released a blast of fire from its mouth that sent the Berserker flying off the cliff and down into the river below.

In order to make sure his opponent Cain and his Phoenix unleashed a fiery barrage onto the river, aiming to force the Berserker out.

"Hey!"

They turned around and saw Eva standing on the cliff behind them.

"Remember me?"

She clapped her glowing hands and released a powerful shockwave that slammed into Cain and his Phoenix and sent them flying off the cliff and into the sky. Cain was disorientated from the attack so he was unable to direct his Phoenix to stop them from falling into the ocean. They both impact the ocean with a large splash, sending water and steam into the air.

"That was a bad idea." Eva remarked with a smirk as she walked over the edge. "Hey, you all right down there?"

Duncan came out of the water, back in his human form with steam rising from his body.

"I'm fine. I just decided to take a quick dip in my own hot tub." Duncan called back up.

"Come on, we got more baddies to beat down!" Eva shouted.

She turned and ran back towards the studio before Duncan could reply. But as Eva was almost back at the studio she stopped as a pillar of fire blasted out of the ground in front of her. Cain emerged from the flames, looking completely unharmed from Eva's earlier attack.

"You've got to be kidding me?!" Eva exclaimed as she took a step back. "What does it take to keep you guys down?!"

Cain answered by pulling out his claymore and swung it, unleashing a gigantic wave of fire at Eva.

"Oh crap!" Eva actually gulped and ran for life. "HONESTLY, WHAT IS IT TAKE TO KEEP YOU GUYS DOWN?!"

Cain didn't bother to reply as he pursued her, standing on top of his own giant wave of fire with his arms crossed. Eva channeled her power into her feet and she was propelled into the air just before she was roasted by the flames. However Cain simply sprouted his wings and flew after her.

"DAMN IT!" Eva growled.

She landed on the ground and turned to face him, fed up with running. She charged at him with her fists glowing blue while he flew at her with flames circling around his claymore. The resulting collision triggered a huge blast that sent trees flying. Meanwhile back down in the river Duncan was struggling to swim back to the beach.

"Great. I got about a two second break and now I'm dragged back into it." Duncan grumbled.

He swam towards the beach slowly, just in case there was a monster lurking on the breach or even in the water waiting for him to drop his guard. In the distance he could see and hear explosions from the battle around the studio as monsters marched out of ocean or flew through the sky to join the battle.

'This battle is just beginning and we're stuck defending the studio and the school. Even I can see we're way out of our league here this time.' Duncan sourly thought as he walked onto the beach. 'This really sucks.'

He quickly shook his head, knowing there was no time for him to be thinking. He pulled his sword out of its sheath and ran towards the studio.

"SAVE SOME FOR ME, GUYS!"

Xxx

Up on the roof of the studio pink and purple energy collided with each other, creating blinding explosion of pink and purple light as both attacks cancelled each other out. When it faded it revealed Gwen with her Pink Energy Aura active while purple energy swirled around Jinx's spear. Both fighters stood perfectly still as they stared each other down, propping for weaknesses and openings for them to exploit. After a moment of silence they charged forward and their bright glowing staffs collided, letting out another blast of light.

Gwen spun her scythe and launched a vertical slash at Jinx who sidestepped the blow to the left and thrust her spear at Gwen's head. Gwen however took a leaf out of Aelita's book and raised one hand to create a small energy in her hand that blocked the spear. Jinx channeled her power into her spear, easily shattering the shield but Gwen had managed to buy enough time to duck out of the way and jump back before Jinx could try another attack. Gwen charged forward, swinging her scythe in a horizontal slash but Jinx plunged her spear into the ground and a blast of purple energy traveled through the ground.

Gwen noticed the energy building up under her feet and she jumped out of the way as the spot she had been standing on exploded, creating a large hole in the roof with debris flying through the air. Gwen landed on her feet on the right side of the roof, having managed to evade Jinx's attack before it had hit her. Jinx however was not done as serpents made of blue fire twisted around her spear and swung it in the air, pointing its edge at Gwen and the fiery serpents launched at her, growing into two large dragons made of blue fire. Gwen's red Fire Aura came to life around her as she spun her scythe, creating a wall of bright red fire as the fiery dragons collided with the wall.

Both spell casters struggled to overpower the other with everything they had but their spells and will power were almost even. Finally both of them cancelled their spells and watched as the flames dissipated into the air.

"I hate to say it but the two of us are almost even." Gwen remarked as she remained in a defense posture.

"I know. It's really a bother." Jinx said, keeping herself ready for any form of attack. "I really hate it draws."

"Tell me about it. But in the meantime you mind answering a few questions?" Gwen asked.

"Why bother asking me?" Jinx raised an eyebrow.

"Because, I want to know what your boss is hoping to accomplish with this. Why didn't he take us out when he had the chance? We were asleep when he virtualized the studio so why didn't he take us out then?" Gwen asked.

"Beats me." Jinx shrugged. "I don't question his plans, I simply do my part. I don't pretend to know what he thinks but from what I see the only thing XANA wants aside from your death is a good fight to the end as anything less would be an insult."

"Lucky us." Gwen drawled.

"Oh shut up and fight will you?" Jinx twirled her spear as it glowed bright again and unleashed another barrage of purple energy beams.

Gwen reacted by activating her Pink Energy Aura again and swung her scythe, unleashing a pink energy blast that collided with Jinx's energy beams, creating bright blast of light that engulfed the entire roof of the studio.

Xxx

The resulting blast from Gwen and Jinx's fight shook the interior of the studio.

"Oh boy! We're not going to last much longer at this rate!" Carlos gritted his teeth. "Kurt, we need a plan!"

"Like what?" Kurt retorted, staring out the window to see the fight. "In case you forgot, training at SAS didn't cover how to fight digital monsters!"

Outside the battle raged on as monsters fired lasers without end, pinning the warriors down at the entrance to the studio. Trent and DJ were straining to keep their barriers up while long range fighters like Noah, Cody, and Izzy tried to keep the monsters back. However more and more monsters continued to replace the ones that were destroyed and attacked without mercy or end.

"I got about twenty seven! How many do you guys got?!" Izzy shouted over the sound of explosions and energy blasts.

"You're kidding right? We're in the fight of our lives and you want to count how many monsters you blast?!" Courtney said as she blocked three laser shots with her staff.

"Come on! What's the point if you can't keep positive? If you don't have a sense of humour you're better off dead!" Izzy fired over ten explosive arrows in one moment at the monster army. "Try to live to a little bit!"

"As much as I hate to say she actually makes sense." Noah said as he stepped out from behind DJ to fire another shot at a Hornet.

"Did I just hear Noah agree with Izzy?" Courtney asked.

"I think I did." Trent replied.

"Maybe he's a clone sent to infiltrate us." DJ theorized.

"Oh come on! I like a good joke once in a while!" Noah exclaimed as he ducked under a laser shot from a Dark Krab.

"That settles it! He's a clone!" Izzy said.

"Great, that's the last time I agree with anyone on the subject of humour." Noah grumbled.

"Okay, now that's the real Noah!" Cody laughed as he jumped out of the way of a Megatank's laser. "I was worried for a second!"

"Ha ha." Noah laughed sarcastically as he took cover behind DJ again. "Can we get back to the fight? In case you haven't noticed we're kind of losing here."

"Losing? Ha! We haven't even gotten started yet!" Izzy transformed into a Triceratops and charged forward.

She ploughed her way through the gathered monsters, crushing some with her giant feet or piercing them with her horns. A Megatank closed its shell and rolled forward as Izzy rammed her forward horns into a Tarantula.

"Izzy look out!" Noah shouted.

However it was already too late.

The Megatank slammed into Izzy at full force, forcing her back into her human form and sending her fly through the air and into a tree.

"Ow..." She groaned as she slid down to the ground.

"Izzy get out of there!" Trent shouted.

The Megatank opened its shell and began charging its lasers as Izzy stood up rubbing her head.

"Hang on!" Cody's eyes flashed as everything around him froze.

Cody for the millionth time thanked God, the Universe, and any other kind deity for having a special ability that literally stopped time for thirteen seconds. This ability got him and his friends out of trouble so many times and even though he couldn't teleport while using his Time Freeze ability he still knew how to make full use of it. One example would be shooting the Megatank that was about to shoot Izzy in the Eye before it could fire, saving Izzy from devirtualization. The Megatank was finished just as it was finished charging its laser just the first three seconds of the Time Freeze ended.

Cody turned his pistols on all nearby monsters in his line of sight and made sure he only needed to use one shot on each monster. When the Time Freeze ability's thirteen minutes were over every monster that Cody had shot exploded the instant it ended.

"Huh?" Izzy asked.

"They all exploded!" DJ commented.

"Hey where's...Cody!" Trent realized.

"Time Freeze. Handy ability." Cody appeared next to him with his Teleportation power. "Take out a lot enemies if you're fast enough."

"It sure helped out a lot!" Trent said, seeing the number of monsters had decreased drastically.

"At least until the next wave shows up." Noah pointed out.

"Well, at least we can take a second to catch some breath." Cody said optimistically.

"Think again!" DJ shouting, pointing straight forward.

Everyone looked and saw to their dismay more monsters coming out of the sea in large numbers, easily replacing the ones that Cody destroyed.

"Oh come on!" Trent groaned.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Noah groaned.

"All right! More monsters means more boom!" Izzy laughed.

"Does anything ever get you down?" Cody asked.

"Hmmm...I don't like being stuck in those white rooms the RCMP let me sleep in." Izzy said, thinking of what could make her unhappy.

"I guess that makes sense." Cody shrugged.

Xxx

Heather ducked under a slash of wind that sliced through the tree behind her and knocked it over. She fired several shuriken but Sora simply used his other wind sword to create a wind shield around him that easily blocked Heather's projectiles.

"Damn it!" Heather cured as Sora fired a laser beam from his beak.

Heather jumped out of the way as the beam scorched where she had previously stood.

"Hey, air-head, would you go easy here?! There's toxic waste here on this island! I thought you of all people would try and keep things steady here!" Heather shouted as she landed on her feet.

"Sorry, no can do. The boss said for us to hold nothing back!" Sora called down. "I got to fight with everything or I get in big trouble!"

"Terrific." Heather drawled. "The one time I actually hopes he acts like a good boy and this is what I get. I'm never having kids."

Before Sora could reply or continue the fight there was an engine like sound as LeShawna came down on the OverJet and landed between them.

"LeShawna!" Heather exclaimed as LeShawna hopped off the OverJet.

LeShawna didn't answer her, settling to just stare at Sora with a very angry glare.

"Uh oh. I don't like that look she's giving me." Sora gulped.

"What's wrong with you?" Heather asked, walking up to LeShawna and seeing the angry look on her face. "What's going on?"

"Aelita went through one of this portals these guys make when they like to make a quick getaway." LeShawna growled, pointing at Sora.

"Huh?" Heather's eyebrows went up.

"Hey, fly boy! Where do those portals go? Answer me now!" LeShawna pulled out her hammer. "Or be prepared for the mother of all headaches!"

"Oh...well the portal could lead to anywhere on Lyoko or the Carbon Copy but if Lilith was deciding to go back...She could have gone back to the center of the copy where Master XANA resides along with us." Sora rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"Say what?!" LeShawna and Heather exclaimed.

"Yeah, it's true." Sora took a step back, feeling like there was an explosion coming.

"Okay, bird brain, you're taking me there now!" LeShawna demanded, taking a step forward.

"Oh sorry, can't do that. The boss would be angry with me if I did that." Sora shook his head.

"Oh I'm sorry, I forgot to say..." LeShawna raised her hammer over her head. "I wasn't asking."

"I know..." Sora said quietly.

LeShawna let her war cry do the talking as she charged at Sora, ready to bash his head in with her hammer. Sora however was keen on keeping his head so he defended himself by holding out the hilt of one of his wind sword and released a powerful gust of wind at the charging LeShawna. She saw the attack coming towards her and reacted by slamming her hammer into the ground in front of her. The sheer kinetic force of her hammer tore up the ground around her and making a shield that blocked the gust of wind.

She then slammed her hammer into the make shift wall and sent it flying at Sora. However he dodged by using his wings to fly up into the air, flying over the piece of earth sent at him by LeShawna's hammer.

"Whoa man! This is not good! Its bad enough I fight them when they are struggling to reach a tower but to fight one of them when they are mad? I so need to ask for a raise here!" Sora groaned.

LeShawna glared up at Sora who floated out of reach of her hammer. Heather however had no problem as she aimed and fired a shuriken up at him. However Sora simply created another wind shield that easily knocked them all away.

"Damn it! He's too powerful for anything I got at the range!" Heather growled. "We can't him when he's too far away like that!"

"I know." LeShawna said.

At that point Sora was done with his monologue and went on the offensive by firing his beak laser beam down at them. They jumped out of the way as the laser scorched the ground where the previously stood. Heather fired another round of shuriken even though she knew Sora would easily block them with his wind powers. She was not wrong as Sora simply swiped one sword and sent them flying everywhere but at himself.

"Crap!" Heather took behind a tree, watching as Sora flew past her.

LeShawna jumped and swung her hammer at Sora while he was still close enough for her to hit. However Sora aimed his left sword and fired a another gust of wind but it was not aimed at LeShawna. Instead it propelled Sora out of the way of LeShawna's hammer, leaving it to only create a large crater in the ground.

"That was close." Sora sighed as he flew back up. "She tried to hit me as I flew in close. I'd like to try and take them out from here but there's a no way any long range attacks I have can finish them off quickly. This is going to be a pain."

"Damn it! I almost had him!" LeShawna growled, landing on her feet and turning to face the airborne general.

"You can't hit him. He's too fast for the both of us." Heather stood next to her. "The sky is literally his home turf and we're stuck here on the ground without wings or the ability to fly."

"We got to hurry though. Every second we waste Aelita is in bigger trouble." LeShawna gripped her hammer tighter.

"Relax, Aelita's a big girl too you know. She was doing this long before we met her so don't go Big Sister on me." Heather retorted. "Now get your back in the game here and help me think of a plan to ground my little 'brat'."

Sora had been thinking of his plan to take them out and unfortunately it seemed like he was the first to come up with a plan because they saw him dive straight down towards him.

"Here he comes!" LeShawna shouted, preparing herself.

As Sora fell towards them he pointed his swords down and started spinning very fast. His swords started channeling wind around him as he spun and both girls were greeted with the sight of a tornado literally falling towards them!

"Oh sh-" Heather started but LeShawna grabbed her with one arm. "HEY!"

"TALK LATER!" LeShawna jumped onto the OverJet and slammed down on the gas.

The OverJet shot off as the tornado ripped through the forest, sending trees, rocks, and dirt flying everywhere.

"This is crazy!" Heather shouted, holding onto LeShawna's back. "Just where the hell do all these generals get these powers?!

The tornado changed course, now instead of falling to the ground it was chasing the two girls through the sky.

"Crap! I hate it when boys don't get the hint!" Heather grumbled. "How do we take down a tornado?!"

"I'm open to ideas!" LeShawna shouted back as she went to full speed.

However it was no good as the tornado was slowly gaining up on them.

"It's catching up!" Heather cried.

"I know that, girl!" LeShawna gritted her teeth. "Just give me a second to think here! It's not like we can go any...faster!"

"Is that the sound of you getting an idea?" Heather asked hopefully.

"A crazy idea but an idea!" LeShawna replied as she did a complete U-Turn.

"YOU CALL THIS CRAZY?! I THINK YOU'VE JUST LOST IT!" Heather screamed as the winds grew stronger.

"It's all according to plan!" LeShawna grinned as she aimed at the center of the approaching tornado. "JUMP!"

"WHAT?!"

LeShawna grabbed Heather as she stood up and held her hammer in her other hand. "HERE WE GO!"

She jumped and swung her hammer at the OverJet, sending it flying straight at the tornado so fast it was literally a blur to the naked eye. It went through the tornado and slammed into Sora who was at the center of the tornado.

"OUCH!" Sora shouted as the OverJet hit him.

Luckily his armor and helmet mostly protected him but it was still enough to force him to cancel his tornado attack. The OverJet and the stunned general fell down to the forest below as LeShawna landed on her feet with her left arm wrapped tightly around Heather's waist while holding her hammer in her other hand.

"That was possibly the most stupidest anyone has ever done in this world." Heather said as LeShawna released her. "I've seen the others pull some stupid stunts but that took the cake."

"It worked didn't it?" LeShawna pointed up.

Sora and the OverJet landed harshly on the ground several yards from them. The OverJet shattered into data while Sora groaned as he tried to sit up.

"I always get truck with the tough ones." Sora groaned.

When he looked up he saw LeShawna and Heather standing over him. "Uh oh."

"Okay, fly boy. You're going to help us get to XANA's hideout so we can save Aelita or I'm going to smash your head until your head is completely flat." LeShawna threatened.

"Uh...yeah, okay. About that..."

That was when a laser sailed over Sora's head and into LeShawna's chest, knocking her down. Sora rolled out of the way as a Tarantula stepped out from behind a tree, letting out a loud roar. Heather quickly aimed and fired a barrage of shuriken, managing to hit the monster's Eye. The Tarantula screamed as it exploded but it was too late as Sora had taken advantage of the distraction by retreating as far from the two Warriors as he could on his legs.

"Sorry, everyone! I love to stay but I got to get back or I'll be in trouble." Sora said as his wings sprouted from his back.

"Oh no you don't!" LeShawna recovered from the shot at her chest and tried to stop Sora from escaping.

However a portal opened up behind Sora as he jumped back and vanished along with it a second before LeShawna could stop him. She tried to jump through the portal after him but it vanished just when she was mere inches from it, leaving her to land on the ground.

"GODDAMN IT!" LeShawna roared, letting out all of her frustration. "He got away!"

"LeShawna, calm down!" Heather tried to reason. "We haven't lost yet."

"I know but we got to hurry and help Aelita!" LeShawna exclaimed.

"And we will! We have a few more generals around that can help us get into XANA's hideout." Heather explained, hardly believing she had to be the reasonable one. "We just to make sure they don't get away and force them to take us to the hideout."

"...Yeah, but we got to hurry." LeShawna finally calmed down.

"Then let's hurry and get them." Heather replied. "Come on, we're wasting time!"

Xxx

Ryder and Geoff's weapons clashed, releasing another spark of electricity that scorched the ground around them. They each tried to push the other back, refusing to lose not even an inch of ground to their opponent.

"Spark Disk!"

Ryder held out his other hand while the other one held his sword and a disk made of red electricity appeared in the center. He threw it at Geoff who had to duck as well as jump back to avoid Ryder's sword cutting his head off when he dodged the disk. Ryder quickly tried to capitalize on the advantage he had gained and swung his sword as it sparked with red electricity down on Geoff's head. He hastily raised his axe to block Ryder's sword, gasping from the sheer strength that pushed him back.

"Nice try but too late!" Ryder grinned.

Before Geoff could even wonder that he meant Ryder raised his right fast as it sparked with red electricity and slammed it into Geoff's torso. Geoff gasped from the sheer force of the blow that was augmented by Ryder's electrical powers. He was sent flying and flew past the other warriors as they continued to defend the studio.

"What..." Noah looked as something flew past him.

"What was that?" DJ asked, looking behind him.

"I think it was..." Trent started.

"GEOFF!" Cody exclaimed.

Geoff hit the wall and slid down, groaning as he simply sat on the ground. His axe fell out of his hand and landed on the ground a few feet away from him.

"Ha! How you like that party boy?" Ryder grinned as he held his sword over his right shoulder. "Bet your real happy you can't actually feel pain here."

The fight between Yuki and Bridgette came to stop when Bridgette heard Cody shout her boyfriend's name. She watched as Geoff was slammed into the wall by Ryder's punch and she spotted Ryder slowly approach him.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!"

Forgetting about Yuki Bridgette combined her swords into her board and shot off towards Ryder, planning to ram her board through his head. Ryder spotted Bridgette flying towards him and spun to face her with his sword releasing electricity, forming a shield. The board slammed into the shield, making Ryder skid back several feet through the ground but the shield he created sent volts of electricity through the board forcing Bridgette to back flip of her board and land perfectly on the ground. Ryder then swung his arm out and the shield blasted the board away from him, watching as it flew past Bridgette and embedded itself in the wall of the studio.

"Nice try, surfer chick." Ryder smirked. "But remember, water conducts electricity!"

Ryder swung his sword and unleashed a wave of red lightning that blasted through the ground towards Bridgette. However Cody teleported behind Bridgette, grabbed her shoulders, and teleported out of the way. The attack then slammed into the studio, creating another large hole.

"Oh come on, guys! We got people in here!" Kurt shouted, sticking his head out a window next to the hole. "Someone's gonna get fried if this keeps up!"

"I'd like to see you try any better." Trent retorted. "We kind of have our hands full out here with all the bad guys!"

"Don't worry you'll get some back up in right about...NOW!"

That was when the garage door of the studio was busted open and the Total Drama Bus came out at full speed. Carlos was in the driver's seat letting out a cry similar to George of the Jungle as he drove towards the fight, managing to run over a few small monsters, mostly just Spiderlings while the rest managed to avoid getting hit.

"GET OFF THE ROAD YOU BUNCH DIGITAL BUGS!" Carlos shouted as he aimed the bus at Ryder. "I HAVEN'T HAD MY KLONDIKE BARS, I WOKE UP VERY EARLY IN ANOTHER DIMENSION, AND I GOT MONSTERS TRYING TO KILL ME! SO BELIEVE ME WHEN I SAY I AM NOT A VERY HAPPY CAMPER AT THE MOMENT!"

"Hm?" Ryder watched as the bus came at him.

However in the blink of an eye he stepped out of the way, using his Lightning Sprint to make it look like all he did was take a simply step to move.

"Oh come on! At least act like a high speed bus is a threat!" Carlos groaned.

He quickly turned the wheel to avoid crashing into a tree and swerved around so that he was facing Ryder again.

"This is the best you got?" Ryder asked.

"No, this is!" Geoff had managed to get back up and grab his axe.

He swung his axe, firing a blast of lightning at Ryder while his back was turned. However Yuki landed between the attack and its target and exhaled a blast of icy wind from her mouth. The gust was so cold it actually _froze_ Geoff's lightning bolt, leaving it to fall and hit the ground.

"No way!" Geoff gasped. "How the hell do you freeze lightning?"

"I know, annoying isn't it?" Ryder commented as he turned around. "When do I ask you for help?"

Yuki didn't bother to reply, keeping her eyes on the warriors protecting the studio. Bridgette had taken advantage of the distraction to retrieve her surfboard and quickly ran up to the others to help them against the two generals.

"This will be fun." Ryder grinned.

However before anyone could move there was an explosion on the roof of the studio and a second later Gwen fell of the roof towards the ground. She managed to activate her Flight Ability and landed safely on the ground between Noah, Cody, Courtney, and Trent and DJ.

"Gwen, are you okay?" DJ asked.

"Yeah, it's a good thing I had that shield up or Jinx would have had me." Gwen stood up and looked back at the roof.

Speaking off Jinx, XANA's own spell caster general leapt off the roof and landed in front of Ryder and Yuki with her spear held up above her head.

"You're still here?" Jinx asked as she stood up. "What does it take to get rid of you?"

"I could ask the same thing for you." Gwen retorted.

"Hey guys!"

Everyone looked to see Duncan and Eva emerge from the forest leading up to the cliff with Cain following them on his Phoenix.

"Didn't we just leave this party?" Duncan asked.

Cain landed with the other generals while his Phoenix hovered above them, ready to attack the instant its master gave the command.

"Enough with witty banter here. Let's just get on with the fight!" Ryder snapped as his sword started sparkling with electricity again.

A cold icy breath came out of Yuki's mouth, signalling she was ready for more.

"Fine by me." Jinx agreed.

"GUYS!"

Everyone were about to continue the fight until LeShawna and Heather came out of the forest.

"LeShawna, where's Aelita?" Courtney asked.

"She followed Lilith through a portal. She's at XANA's hideout!" LeShawna shouted.

"WHAT?!" Everyone, including the generals cried when they heard what she said.

"Oh great! She slipped by us that easily?! How could Lilith let that happen?!" Jinx complained. "What is she thinking?!"

"Relax, there's no way the elf will make through." Ryder replied. "She's as good as dead if she appears in the very center of the complex."

"What are you talking about?" Gwen glared at Ryder. "What do you mean?"

"The center of the copy, Master XANA's domain." Yuki quietly said. "The security there is stronger than on the outer sectors."

"Even stronger than the original Sector 5." Ryder continued. "Even if she survives those traps the scanners aren't locked onto the center. If her life points hit zero..."

"She'll disappear." Noah finished grimly.

"We just tried to force Sora to try and take us there but the little winged weasel escaped." LeShawna continued.

"I still think Lilith's a nut case for letting the Master's most powerful enemy into his home. Shouldn't we high tail it back and take her out?" Jinx asked.

"Our orders are to remain and finish the warriors." Yuki replied. "We cannot disobey Master XANA's commands."

"What about the fact that Aelita, the only one who is powerful enough to stand a chance against Master XANA is in the center of the freaking Copy!?" Jinx said, unable to understand why the others seemed so relaxed about it.

"Sora and Lilith obviously aren't here and Cain is still fighting those other two. It stands to reason that Aelita will have two of us along with the security system to worry about." Ryder replied. "Let's finish these chumps off so we can head back."

"You're taking us to the center right now!" LeShawna threatened, ready to bash their heads in with her hammer.

"Sorry, no can do." Ryder smirked. "Not that you'll be in a position to demand anything from us in the next few seconds."

"We'll see about that." LeShawna growled.

Just as the generals were about to attack they all heard a voice in their heads.

'_Stand down. Allow them passage._'

'Master.' Yuki thought.

'What do you mean allow them passage?' Jinx asked.

'_Tell them to go to the far edge of the sector and wait for the Transport Orb._' XANA spoke inside their minds.

Yuki instantly looked back at the warriors. "Go to the edge of the sector and wait for the Transport Orb."

"Huh?" Geoff raised both eyebrows.

"Why'd you tell us that?" Gwen asked.

"The Master commanded it." Yuki replied simply.

"That doesn't sound good." Heather remarked.

"Don't look at us, we're just following what Master XANA says." Jinx shrugged her shoulders. "It looks like we'll get another chance to fight again when we're all together again. Personally I might just kick Lilith and Sora's assess for abandoning us here to fight. Lazy slackers."

"Get in line. If Lilith hadn't gone and let pinky into the hideout we wouldn't have to pull out." Ryder grumbled as a portal appeared behind them.

"_Enough. Master XANA commands us to retreat and we shall obey._" Cain quietly said, surprising everyone since he hardly ever spoke.

"I guess so." Jinx sighed as she lowered her spear.

"Hold it right there!" LeShawna shouted. "You're not going anywhere!"

However the generals vanished into the portal before she could attack.

"They got away again!" LeShawna growled, closing her fists very tight. "I am really getting sick of that."

"Calm down, please." Heather sighed. "As much as it looks I actually kind of see being the voice of reason here to be migraine."

"Join the club, it's harder than it looks." Gwen pointed out as she looked at the gathered warriors. "Well, it looks we've been given an invitation."

"An invitation to the showdown with the big bad guy!" Izzy grinned. "What are we just standing here for?! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!"

"She's actually right." Noah agreed. "I mean if we want to save everyone and help Aelita."

"That's twice you've agreed with Izzy. You sure you're not a clone?" Geoff asked.

"Maybe there's some strange planetary line up or an eclipse." Cody pointed out.

"Is it so hard for everyone to believe I can agree with Izzy once in a while?" Noah asked.

"Yes." Nearly everyone said.

"Oh bite me." Noah groaned.

"Okay." Izzy changed into a tiger.

"Later, Izzy. We got work to do." Gwen spoke up. "If XANA wants us to wait for the Transport Orb he's obviously setting up a trap."

"We got that much." Heather pointed out.

"But can we really go and leave everyone here defenceless?" Gwen asked. "What's stopping XANA from sending more monsters to attack the studio and Kadic?"

Everyone shared a look when Gwen said that.

"Go for it."

They turned around as Carlos stepped off the bus. "Aelita mentioned earlier that the tower is in this Sector 5 anyways so you'd be going there anyway."

"But Carlos, how can you and the others survive another attack?" Cody asked.

"We'll be fine. Kurt and I were in the British SAS, Lesley took karate lessons when she was a teen, Roberto was in a special program for training crazy teens into security guards and half the staff of interns here has some form of training in self defence. What would you expect from how Chris treated the interns in the last three seasons?" Carlos asked rhetorically. "You got to get to that tower and get us out of here so just go!"

The Warriors all shared a glance before nodding to Carlos.

"All right, but not all of us can fly." Heather pointed out.

"I got an idea." Noah said with smirk.

A second later Noah was back with his laptop.

"How's that going to help?" Courtney asked.

"When I accessed the network it was still connected to the Internet and if it's still connected to the Internet." Noah said before a window appeared on the screen, showing the Lyoko symbol. "Yes! I'm still connected to Lyoko."

"And if you're still connected..." Trent started.

"Way ahead of you."

The vehicles appeared in front of them, along with a newly recreated OverJet.

"All right!" Duncan grinned.

"Awesome!" Izzy cheered.

"I know I am." Noah smirked as he stood up and crossed his arms.

"Oh boy." Gwen sighed as she floated up into the air.

Bridgette and Geoff hopped onto Bridgette's surfboard while Trent activated his guitar's flight mode. LeShawna hopped back onto the OverJet while Duncan took the OverBike with Courtney behind him, Eva took the Overboard, Noah took the OverSled, and Heather and Cody stood on the Overwing.

"Careful everyone, we got faith but he knows your coming." Carlos said once they were all ready.

"We know." Bridgette nodded.

With that they were off, heading towards the edge of the sector and to the lair of their most dangerous enemy.

Xxx

Aelita opened her eyes and found herself in what looked like the Celestial Dome of Sector 5 but she knew there was a big difference. She hadn't had this feeling in years, the same feeling she had when she first appeared in the original Sector familiar presence of her enemy, the feeling she felt when she sensed him that was always stronger in Sector 5 than any other sector of Lyoko.

"I made it, I'm here. I'm coming everyone." She whispered as the doors opened.


	104. Episode 102: Rise of the Dark Warriors

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 104

When Aelita took her first step into the Sector Five of the Carbon Copy she was almost instantly overwhelmed by a feeling. This feeling was something she experienced years ago when she took her first steps in the original Sector Five. Her Second Sense allowed her to sense XANA's presence anywhere in Lyoko but in Sector Five his presence was stronger and there were times she almost believed she was actually _inside_ XANA himself. That feeling had returned in full force, perhaps even stronger as Aelita almost literally suffocated herself as she let out a gasp.

She didn't just feel XANA's presence in this place she could almost literally imagine herself standing right in front of his digital heart. There was no doubt in her mind now that she was positive that she was standing in the very heart of the domain of her greatest enemy and perhaps where her dearest and closest friends were being held captive.

Odd.

Yumi.

Ulrich.

William.

Jeremy.

'I'm coming for you all and I will save you!' Aelita declared inside her mind.

As she ran through the doors she came out into the Core Zone and remembered that there was a timer with a three minute count down before the sector altered itself. If she was trapped here there was a very good chance she'd never get out, no matter how powerful she could become by using Code Angel.

'I have to be very careful. I'm on my own with no one in the lab to guide me or warn me of any danger.' Aelita carefully looked around the chamber she had stepped into.

The chamber looked completely bare with nothing noticeable in sight. Just a giant open room with the exit on the other side of the room.

'Like I am actually going to believe there's not really a trap here. XANA must be getting lazy or he's just become really arrogant.' Aelita scoffed in her head.

However the second she stepped forward she was thrown off her feet and into the left wall. She let out a gasp as her body collided with the wall but luckily she only lost five life points.

"What the..." Aelita tried to get off the wall at first.

But she tried to get off she quickly found herself standing on the wall!

"Wha..." Aelita carefully took a step forward. "This room...the room has been altered so the gravity would change! I'm not on a wall! I'm on the new floor!"

She heard a sound and looked up as the walls shifted; revealing four hidden passageways on each wall with Krabs and Creepers peeking their heads out, charging their lasers.

'Krabs, inside Sector 5?' Aelita thought.

She had never seen monsters other than Creepers and Flying Mantas inside Sector 5, regardless of whether or not it was a copy of the original. There have been times when she and the others wondered why only Creepers and Mantas appeared in Sector Five and Jeremy reasoned that the monsters in Sector Five were programmed to automatically appear much like how the security system became active when someone left the Celestial Dome. They crawled onto the walls and stared down at her, ready to attack.

"Is that the best you can do, XANA?" Aelita asked as she prepared a Plasma Beam.

However before she could fire she found herself flying up or technically falling down to the new floor as the room's gravity was altered again. Aelita attempted to steady herself with her flight ability but the Krabs and Creepers on the walls had taken advantage of her distraction and shot at her. She was hit at least three times before she hit the ground, letting a loud cry from the sensation of the impact.

She groaned as she struggled to get up. "Me and my big mouth."

She heard the sound of lasers shooting and instantly rolled away from where she had landed on instinct. The lasers hit the ground but they had all missed her and she was very lucky. If they had hit her all at once she would have been devirtualized. The Krabs and the Creepers moved along the wall, firing down at her as she dodged by sprinting and fired energy fields when she had the chance.

She hit a Krab and it fell off the wall with its body sparkling with pink energy before it hit the ground and exploded. The rest of the monsters continued firing at her and she found herself being attacked on all sides so she had to create an energy shield to block the lasers. However it restricted her ability to fight back since she couldn't attack without endangering herself.

'Now I see what's going on here. The gravity of the room shifts and changes with either the walls or ceilings becoming the new floor while the monsters move along the new walls to attack me on all sides. The gravity changes to disorientate me and make me vulnerable.' Aelita carefully went over what she knew of the situation inside her head.

It was well designed trap, meant to make the enemy lose any type of an advantage while allowing the monsters to attack without fear of retaliation. But Aelita was not just any other intruder and she knew that XANA knew that.

'If the gravity of the room changes than all I need to do is keep myself in the air.' Aelita thought.

But that was easier said than done since the monsters had effectively pinned her down. The constant barrage of lasers kept her from activating her flight ability since she'd need to cancel her energy shield in order to take flight.

"If I can't take flight than I need another way to take them out..." Aelita muttered, straining under the constant barrage.

Unfortunately her thoughts were interrupted when the gravity was reversed again and this time she flew back and slammed into the wall/floor. She grunted her back hit the floor and when she looked up she saw the pointed leg of Krab coming down on her head. She rolled out of the way and fired a Plasma Beam that instantly incinerated the Krab. She jumped to her feet as three more Krabs and four Creepers surrounded her, ready to attack.

"You guys just made it easier for me." Aelita said as she prepared another energy barrage.

But she never got the chance to attack as once again she was lifted up into the air and fell towards the ceiling/floor. This time she managed to land on her feet and looked up at the monsters that had remained stuck to the new ceiling as they charged their lasers and fired down on her. She rolled out of the way and created another energy shield as the other monsters on the walls added their own fire power.

'Something's not right. This time the gravity shifted faster than it did the first few times. That would be impossible if it was set to change after a certain amount of time.' Aelita realized. 'If it's not set on a specific time then it must be manually changed, meaning someone is altering the room's gravity instead!'

The first suspect on her list was XANA but he never directly altered the digital battle field like this before and there was only one other suspect she knew was capable of this.

'Lilith.' Aelita frowned.

She was running out of time and if she didn't find the switch the maze would shift and she'd be trapped unless someone else came along and helped her. Looked around desperately as she struggled to find the switch she saw it at the top right corner of the ceiling that was being guarded by three Creepers.

'No way I'll be able to reach and it's been two minutes already. If I don't get it now the maze will change and I'm trapped!'

But the question was how?

'If I can't attack them while they are attacking me like this I need a way to take them out all at once.' Aelita realized.

That was when she got an idea and focused her Creativity powers into her hands.

"Here goes...Plasma Shockwave!"

She punched the ground in front of her and released a large shockwave of pink energy that expanded in all directions from her hand. It traveled up to the walls and ceilings, destroying any monsters it touched and hit the switch. Instantly the room's gravity returned to normal as Aelita landed on the original floor perfectly on her feet.

"That was a little rough..." Aelita sighed in relief.

She didn't exactly know how many life points she had left but she guessed it was likely somewhere between zero and fifty from the fight she had with those monsters. She walked towards the exit, leaving the Core Zone and followed the sound of the pulsations that would lead her to the tower.

"What do you think you're doing?" A familiar voice whispered, making her stop.

"XANA..." Aelita looked around to find the source of the voice.

"Let me guess, you're looking for the tower to save everyone I have brought here." XANA continued.

"Yes and when I have deactivated the tower I will be coming after you."

XANA chuckled. "Oh really? I have heard that before, so many times. You and the others, you say things like that to put up a mask of bravery and determination. But underneath all of that you are still afraid, still trembling like the little girl I saved from the wolves so many years, masquerading as the little elf you hold at night to avoid nightmares."

Aelita's hands tightened into fists. "I have changed since then XANA and I know things about you that I never knew back then. I know how my parents created you, I know how my mother encouraged your growth and believed you could become so much more, I know my father never understood what he created, and I know you won't rest until you've sent humanity into the dark...much like what my father did to you."

"You've seen the logs our parents made on me thanks to the information you found at your former home in the mountains. You know what happened back then but that doesn't mean you know me. Knowing the origins doesn't mean you understand someone. My purpose is the same as it always was and you are still the enemy." XANA replied, not hinting any kind of emotion in his voice. "The battle continues until one falls. I make no attempt to defend my actions, I only state that I continue because this is the conclusion I have reached. Humanity has destroyed and raped this world that gave them life and my purpose is to change it for the better, only the world does not mean humanity. The human race needs the world but does the world need you?"

"Maybe not...We were not the first species on this planet. We rose after a meteor wiped out the previous dominant species and we took over. Perhaps someone else will rise up and take our place in the future but that doesn't mean we will go quietly. You never understood that even if most of the things we do is wrong it's our right, it's what makes us humans." Aelita stated. "That's something you couldn't understand, XANA."

"I understand plenty, dear sister. Like I said, knowing the story does not mean you know me or my entire origin. I have learned, changed, and evolved into what I am now and I continue to grow. Don't try to understand me, sister, you still know nothing of me or my ambition."

"Then I won't, I'll just rescue my friends and finish you once and for all!" Aelita said and took running down the corridor, following the pulsations to the tower.

She came out of a narrow and dark corridor into a large chamber where the walls were a darker shade of blue than the normal colored walls she normally saw in any version of Sector 5. The path led to a red glowing tower that stood before her. Looking she saw no monsters or generals guarding the tower and in her experience that meant only one thing.

Trap.

She frowned as she realized that walking into that tower could be a bad idea as who knows what kind of danger she would encounter. But she also realized there was no one to help her as she followed Lilith through the portal without waiting for back up. She knew that was hypocritical of her since she always told everyone to never go without any form of back up. Unfortunately for her she had trouble following her own rules at times so perhaps she wasn't a good role model for leadership.

She sighed as she had no choice but to try and enter the tower. She didn't know if the others were on their way and there was an attack she needed to stop.

"Going somewhere?"

Just before Aelita could get any closer to the tower a mysterious figure stepped out of the tower. The person was covered head to toe by a black cloak and let out a loud laugh.

"Why so tense, Aelita?"

"Who are you?" Aelita raised her hand, preparing a Plasma Beam.

"Aww, that hurts Aelita. Don't you recognize me?" The figure chuckled.

Aelita frowned as she tried to figure out what he was talking about. There would be no point if XANA or his generals would try and disguise themselves play a stupid game like this so who could this stranger be?

"Well, Aelita? Should I give you a hint?" The cloaked person asked.

Aelita's eyes narrowed. It didn't matter who he was, he was just another obstacle sent by XANA to stop her from deactivating the tower. She fired her Plasma Beam at the figure who stood still as the beam of light threatened to engulf him. Aelita's eyes widened as she saw a flash of red light and sensed him reappear...

Behind her!

She spun around but the figure caught her wrist and kneed her in the stomach.

"That's about five life points lost, Aelita. Really now, since when have you been so reckless?" The cloaked being scolded her.

Aelita pulled her wrist free and jumped back out of his reach.

'One second he was in front of me and the next second he was behind me. It wasn't a portal because I would have seen it. The way it felt when he moved it was like he...teleported!' Aelita realized.

Great, that was just all she needed. A mysterious new general that could teleport just like Cody and probably had other skills and weapons she did not know about. This was the last thing she needed right now.

"Well, Aelita, aren't you going to try again?" The cloaked man asked sarcastically.

Aelita fired an energy field but the mysterious fighter simply side stepped the attack as it flew past their head.

"Really, is that it?" The cloaked being laughed. "Now that is just said? I remember you being tougher than that."

Aelita gritted her teeth. "Who are you?"

"Now, now, that's now part of the game." The cloaked figure shook its head. "You have to guess."

Aelita narrowed her eyes at the man's annoying attitude. He was taunting and they both knew it.

"I don't know who you are and to be honest I don't have the time to play guessing games. I have friends I need to save!"

With that she flew forward, using her flight ability to propel her forward at high speed as she created an energy orb in her hand that she planned to slam into the stranger's face. However just as her energy field was mere inches from his hidden face he vanished in a flash of red light and Aelita felt something hit in the back.

"AH!"

Aelita get the ground and skidded off the path leading to the tower. Luckily she didn't fall far as there was a secondary floor below but she still let out a loud gasp as she hit the ground.

"Oh my. Are you all right, my dear Aelita?" The cloaked stranger reappeared above her. "I'm sorry. I guess I got a little carried away."

"Actually...I got you!" Aelita's hand shot out and grabbed his food.

Before he could teleport away Aelita channeled her energy into the stranger's leg, lighting up his body with pink electricity.

"GAH!"

The stranger fell over as Aelita released his leg. She stood up and towered over him with her hand aimed at his head, preparing a Plasma Beam.

"I knew from the beginning you'd be too fast for me to catch off guard if I tried fighting from long range. That was why I allowed you to hit me from behind, so when you thought I was finished you'd let your guard down." Aelita explained.

The stranger chuckled. "I guess you haven't lost any of your skills. You caught me off guard fair and square."

"Now then...who are you?"

Aelita reached down and ripped the stranger's cloak. When she saw the stranger's face her eyes went wide and her jaw would have fallen to the ground if it could.

"What's the matter? You look like you've seen a ghost." The stranger remarked with a smile.

Aelita stared at his face in complete disbelief and horror. "You...? But why?"

"Why what?"

"Why are you here? Why did you attack me?" Aelita stepped back. "It can't be you!"

"But I am me." The stranger stood up. "Who else do you know that has my award winning personality?"

"But then...why did you attack me like that?!" Aelita shouted. "Why do you stand there smiling like nothing's wrong?! ANSWER ME!"

Xxx

The Transport Orb floated into the center of the Celestial Dome and in a flash of light all the Total Drama Lyoko Warriors fell out and piled on top of each other.

"OW! Watch where you're poking that thing!"

"Someone's foot is in my face!"

"Who's touching my ass?! Cody!" Gwen growled.

"Not me!" Cody shook his head as DJ scrambled to get off him.

"Oops! My bad!" Izzy pulled her hand off Gwen's butt. "You got a really nice butt there. Almost as nice as mine."

"...I'm not even going to comment." Gwen said as she stood up.

"Courtney, you're staff is about to poke me in the eye." Noah cried.

"Okay, okay! I'm getting up you baby!" Courtney growled.

"Geoff, is that your hand?" Bridgette asked as she got off her boyfriend.

"Uh...sorry." Geoff chuckled weakly and removed his hand.

"So you guys _do_ have some boundaries after all." Duncan said as he stood up.

"What's that supposed to mean?" They both asked at the same time.

"Just wondering you two have done more than suck face in public." Duncan chuckled as their faces actually turned red. "I even started a betting pool."

"Oh come on! That's extremely personal and none of your business! That is so...so...so..." Bridgette ranted angrily.

"Duncan?" Trent asked.

"Yes! That's so Duncan!" Bridgette shouted.

"Welcome to my life." Courtney rolled her eyes.

"Oh please like anyone else here hasn't pitched in." Duncan defended himself.

"Seriously? Who else would do something stupid like that?" LeShawna asked.

No one answered but Cody and Noah looked around nervously while Izzy raised her right hand.

"Izzy betted they might have done it in the pool." Izzy explained.

"We never had sex!" Geoff and Bridgette shouted.

"Geez, that's a downer. No one betted they hadn't." Duncan sighed before he was smacked in the back of the head by Courtney and Gwen.

"Are we done here with betting on Geoff and Bridgette's love life? We have a world with millions of people to save." Gwen spoke up.

"Finally, someone remembered." Eva sighed in relief. "So where do we go?"

"That way." Cody pointed at the exit. "Aelita must have been here and that means she's probably shut down the security system in the Core Zone, leaving a clear path for us."

"Well then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" LeShawna shouted and took off running.

"LeShawna, wait up!" Heather called out. "Don't you know anything about rushing into potential traps?!"

They left the Celestial Dome and ran down the stairs leading into the Core Zone and just like Cody said there were no traps or monsters waiting for them.

"Well if Aelita has been here she might already be at the tower." Noah commented as they walked into the giant empty chamber. "But how do we find her?"

The sound of energy blasts was heard from the exit on the other side of the room.

"Follow the sound of the explosions." Trent replied.

They ran through the dark corridor as the sound of explosions was heard and at the end of the corridor was a dark blue chamber and the red glow associated with the red aura around the activated tower could be seen.

"Here we come, girl!" LeShawna called.

Xxx

"Why would you think something's wrong, dear Aelita?" The stranger asked.

"Because, I know the real Odd would never attack me like this!" Aelita shouted.

Standing before her was her friend Odd, dressed in the familiar cat like body suit with the claws and tail along with the picture Kiwi on his chest.

"It can't be you." Aelita shook her head. "You're just another copy."

"Really? Do you see the Eye on me?" Odd looked down at himself. "I can assure you, Aelita. I'm me and I'm better than before."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Aelita said, trying to deny this was actually her best friend.

"When I say better I mean this. Laser Arrow!"

An arrow shot out of his glove and hit Aelita in her stomach before she even had the chance to react. Aelita gasped as she clenched her stomach from the blow.

"If that was your attempt to convince me you're not the real Odd your jokes is just as bad as his." Aelita said after she regained her composure. "The Odd I know would never do that."

"Sorry but I work with XANA now." Odd shrugged. "It's because of him I've become faster, stronger, and better than I ever was. He has given us all a chance to do some real good."

"Good? XANA? I can't believe I'm even hearing this!" Aelita shook her head.

"Go ahead. See if you can sense his data in me." Odd spread his arms out.

Aelita narrowed her eyes as she tried to sense XANA's data inside this clone but to her shock she couldn't find anything resembling XANA's data. The being in front of her had the makings of a digital form with human DNA in digital coding! She didn't want to believe it but the person standing in front of her _was_ Odd.

"Odd?" Aelita asked with widened eyes.

"Hey there, Princess." Odd smiled.

"But...why?"

"Like I said, I work with XANA now. It's been a little boring sitting in that prison he threw us in but we managed to work out an agreement."

"What about the others? What about Yumi, Ulrich, William, and Jeremy?" Aelita asked.

"Oh yeah. We were all stuck for a while but we managed to pull through. He locked us in a tower, well he locked me, Yumi, Ulrich and William in a tower but we don't know where he put Jeremy. After a while of searching through data we found out what XANA really wanted to change the world for the better. Took a little while but we managed to convince him to let us go if we helped him find a better way." Odd explained. "He let me, William, Yumi, and Ulrich go but he wanted us to bring you to Jeremy."

"Where is he?"Aelita asked anxiously.

"Follow me and find out." Odd gestured as a hidden exit opened up behind him. "They're waiting for you."

"I'm not going anywhere until I deactivate the tower." Aelita said turning back to the tower.

"Already taken care of." Odd clapped his hands.

The tower's red aura changed back to light blue.

"There. All deactivated and safe now." Odd said with a warm smile.

"Still, we need to wait for the others to catch up." Aelita pointed out.

"Oh the newbies? They're still in the Tropic Sector, looking after everyone who was virtualized with them. This is just between us now." Odd said as he softly grasped her hand. "Come on, there's nothing to be afraid of. They're all waiting for you."

He led her to the hidden exit but Odd didn't notice Aelita point her free hand down to the floor and a small spark of pink energy came out of her index and hit the floor. The pink energy created a small scorch mark that became a line in the ground as Aelita followed Odd through the passageway. The hidden exit was soon closed again leaving no evidence it was there except for the small scorch line Aelita had made.

"AELITA!"

LeShawna ran into chamber but to her shock all she found was a deactivated tower with no one waiting for her.

"But we heard fighting going on here!" LeShawna growled in frustration as the others came out of the entrance into the chamber.

"Calm down, LeShawna. If that was the tower then it's possible Aelita managed to shut it down." Heather pointed out.

"If that was it why wasn't the Time Return Program kicked in by now? I remember Aelita setting it to come on the second the tower was shut down." Noah pointed out. "Something else is going on around here."

"I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks something bad is going on." Gwen stepped forward and looked around. "Since we got here there's been no monsters, no generals, no traps, and a deactivated tower but no return trip to the past. There ought to have at least been some battle scars but I'm not seeing anything."

Cody spotted something down on the floor. "Like that?"

Everyone followed the direction his finger was pointing and saw what looked like a black line up to the right wall.

"That's not natural." DJ leaned and looked over it. "It looks like a scorch mark."

"What could cause a scorch mark in a place like Sector 5?" Courtney asked, her eyes traveling down the line's beginning to the wall. "This place has got the most durable structure out of all the other sectors in either Lyoko or this place."

"What about Aelita's energy fields?" Noah asked, directing everyone's attention to him. "I've seen what her Plasma Beams can do at full power. Making a small scorch line here would be child's play for her."

"So why? What would make her walk away from a tower and into a wall?" Eva asked. "Is there some kind of secret passage?"

Everyone shared a look before looking at her.

"I just guessed right, didn't I?" Eva smirked. "You're not the only ones who can think here."

"So Aelita shuts down the tower, sees a secret passageway, makes this line on the ground for us to find and goes in. The door closes and we're left guessing." Duncan surmised. "Great, why do I have the feeling we just stepped into a really huge pile?"

"What do we do?" Bridgette asked.

"We follow her. She's the only one who can deactivate the real tower and stop all of this." Gwen looked at the wall where the line ended. "If there's a secret door there we can bust it down."

"That might take a lot of power." Cody said but pulled out his pistols anyway.

"Who cares?" Duncan pulled out his sword. "It's fun anyways."

Everyone pulled out their weapons and aimed at the door.

"About time I get to break something!" Eva said as her fists glowed bright blue.

Xxx

Odd lead Aelita through the dark blue hallway while softly grasping her hand. Aelita kept an uneasy look as she looked around even though it was very narrow hall. This was XANA's territory after all and even if this was the real Odd talking to her and was completely sane it didn't hurt to stay alert until they were all out of the woods. After a couple of minutes they came out into another chamber that was completely blank.

Blue walls with a blue ceiling and a floor with no distinguishing features. And in the center were three familiar figures.

"Yumi! Ulrich! William!" Aelita pulled her hand free of Odds and ran up to them.

She quickly hugged Yumi and Ulrich who happily hugged her back.

"Aelita, it's so good to see you!" Yumi sounded like she was about to cry.

"Good to see you, princess." Ulrich said happily.

"Is it really you guys?" Aelita asked, pulling away from them. "What's going on? If you guys have been free this whole time why didn't you call for help?"

"We just got free a short while ago. After XANA captured us he locked us in a tower, well he locked the four of us while he put Jeremy somewhere else." Yumi explained. "We managed to get free when we tricked him into thinking we realized he was doing some good."

"Tricked?" Aelita asked.

"April Fools!" Odd chuckled. "I got you good!"

Aelita turned to look at Odd with a bewildered look. "What?"

"We had to make you think we were working with XANA and get you in here. We managed to gain his trust enough that he gave us a room where he can't spy on us." Ulrich explained. "All of this Sector 5 and the Carbon Copy can be seen by XANA, it's almost impossible to move without him noticing."

"If you gained his trust why isn't Jeremy here?" Aelita looked back at them.

"XANA wouldn't budge on releasing Jeremy since he didn't want us making a run for it." William spoke up. "After we tricked him into thinking we were on his side we managed to strike a deal that if we could convince you to do one thing he'd do the same and offer a truce."

"What's that?" Aelita asked.

"..." Yumi pulled out her fan. "Surrender."

Aelita's eyes widened as she felt the metal fan slice through her stomach before flying back into Yumi's hand.

"Well that was easy." Yumi laughed.

Aelita fell to the ground as she a gasp of pain. "...What?"

"We knew we had to make up some kind of story but we didn't think you'd be stupid enough to fall for that!" Odd laughed.

Aelita slowly stood up. "So this really was a trap, just as I figured."

"Oh really? So if you suspected us why did you follow me?" 'Odd' asked.

Aelita stood up straight. "Because I needed to know for sure if you were really my friends."

"That's it? That was all?" 'Ulrich' laughed.

"I know, it was a dumb thing." Aelita said seriously. "It may have cost me fifteen life points but now I know for sure."

"Silly little girl. You cling to your past and the memory of your friends so badly no wonder XANA thought it would work." 'William' held out his sword.

"Yes, it did." Aelita smiled. "You got me good this time. I should have just blasted the Odd rip off when I had the chance."

"And now you have five life points left. The problem with being in this sector is that it's not connected to the Super Calculator and the special Extra Life program you set up." 'Yumi' grinned. "You're helpless against the four of us."

"You'd think so..." Aelita whispered.

"Mmm..." 'Odd' raised an eyebrow.

"You see this?" Aelita held up her wrist computer. "It's a little something I made for emergencies like this."

"And what does it do?" 'Ulrich' smirked.

"It provides a connection to the Super Computer even in sectors that do not have that link and with it I can do this. Computer, activate Life Point Restoration Program!" Aelita shouted.

"_Life Point Restoration Program Activated._"

The Extra Life program Aelita had created that allowed everyone's Life Points to slowly regenerate from an extra copy of their Avatars had a special feature. While slowly giving back their life points the copies slowly lose their own life points and wouldn't be able to give anymore once they've used all their life points until they had an hour to recharge. That was why they slowly give their life points to the warriors in battle but Aelita had programmed a safety measure in case they were about to lose all their life points and didn't have time to wait for them to recharge. The Life Point Restoration Program instantly transfers all life points from the copy to the active Avatar instantly giving them back all of their lost life points.

Aelita watched the screen of her wrist computer as her life points rapidly increased until they were back at one hundred and it only took three seconds!

"It's a little slower than I thought." Aelita smiled as she looked back up at the copies. "But three seconds is better than a whole minute."

The copies each shared a look of shock and surprise as Aelita's hands started to glow with bright pink energy.

"Now then, I have a few questions." Aelita said with a dangerous smile.

The clones all glared and readied themselves.

"Well, I guess this makes it more interesting." 'Yumi' smirked as she pulled out her fans. "You sure you don't want to simply talk? For old time's sake?"

"There are no old times between us, XANA." Aelita glared darkly at the clones. "So stop using their voices and just fight!"

"But we are much more than simple copies. Think about it? How come you don't sense XANA's codes inside of us?" Odd asked crossing his arms. "It's because, we are like those spar Avatars you created for your Extra Life program. Complete copies of the original with their powers, DNA, and memories. We _are_ your friends."

"Except, they would never join XANA even if to save their lives!"

'Ulrich' decided to start things off by dashing towards her with his swords prepared to slash her to bits. Aelita stood her ground as 'Ulrich' jumped up into the air and aimed his swords down towards her. As she watched him fall towards her she caught something moving at the bottom of her eyes while preparing an energy shield. As 'Ulrich's swords came down 'William' came out of a burst of smoke, showing that even though he was a copy without any of XANA's codes he still had the familiar smoke technique the original William and Shadow used when they were fighting for XANA.

Aelita jumped back as 'William' swung his large sword up and ducked as 'Ulrich's swords flew over head. As she landed on her feet she heard the same sound that came from Odd launching his Laser Arrows and knew the Odd clone had fired its own arrow. She spun out of the way as the arrow flew past her head and prepared to fire a plasma beam back in retaliation. However she felt the stinging sensation of something sharp slamming into her back and she fell onto her knees.

"What's this? Done already?" 'Odd' asked, leveling his glove at her.

Aelita didn't know what exactly happened but she knew the projectile that hit her in the back felt small and sharp.

Like an arrow!

"New feature. Guaranteed to hit your target even if you have a sloppy aim!" 'Odd' fired at her again and at the same time 'Ulrich' and 'William' dashed towards her.

Aelita pointed her hands at the clones and fired a plasma beam from both of them. 'Yumi' jumped out on front of both beams and held out her fans. She spun as both beams neared her, looking like she was performing a dance as her fans came into contact with the energy beams. Aelita gasped in shock as her energy beams bounced off 'Yumi's fans and flew towards her!

She flew above the beams before they could vaporize her and they impacted the wall behind her, creating a large explosion that left pair of huge scorch marks on the blue colored wall. She landed on the ground and watched as the clones stood together like a team, making her think of her friends before she shook her head. They were _not_ her friend!

They were just another batch of puppets XANA had made to confuse her like all the other mind games he played on her.

"What's the matter, Aelita?" 'Yumi' asked as she closed her fans. "Don't like the new upgrades? Don't be surprised. The battles that have been fought today are far beyond any of the battles your old friends took part in. In their present form they would never have stood a chance against XANA as he is now."

"But you found that out the hard way when they lost the very first battle, didn't you?" 'Ulrich' asked with a sneer.

"They fell into the trap so easily that it's hard to believe they ever thought they stop XANA." 'William' continued.

'And left you all alone. Not even Jeremy was safe." 'Odd' laughed. 'Now the entire battle has evolved onto a level that makes them look like kids with crayons!"

"But don't worry. Our existence shows they were not so useless." 'Yumi' smiled cruelly. "We'll prove that by dragging you to XANA by your pretty pink hair."

"You can try but there's something you should know." Aelita said with a small smile.

"And what is that?" 'Odd' asked.

"I decided to invite a few friends."

BOOM!

That was when the wall on left side of the chamber where the entrance was exploded, blinding them all for a mere second.

"HELLO! SUPER HEROES TO TH RESCUE!" Izzy jumped out of the smoke and landed on the ground gracefully before taking up a series of karate stances. "HI-YA! HA! YE-HA!"

"What she said." Noah said he and the others stepped through the smoke.

"Aelita!" LeShawna smiled as she ran up to the pink haired girl and gave her a hug. "You are some kind of crazy, girl! Running off like that! You even know how worried I and everyone else was?!"

"Sorry." Aelita looked a little ashamed but she put on a grateful smile. "I got carried away but we needed a way in."

"Fine, but next time you worry us like that you owe us an entire week of shopping!" LeShawna sounded stern as she pointed her finger at Aelita's forehead but she smiled back. "Now let's kick some digital ass and get the hell out of here!"

They all turned to see the clones glaring at them with their weapons ready.

"Hey, aren't those your friends?" Bridgette asked.

"Not even close. They're copies created by XANA to try to stop us. Everyone be careful, not only are they very dangerous but the tower that was shut down was a decoy. The real one is still active!" Aelita said as they got ready to fight.

"Clones huh? Can't XANA come up with something new?" Noah asked. "Clones are like a century ago."

"How did they find us?" 'Ulrich' growled.

"I told you I invited a few friends." Aelita said with a smile.

"That scorch mark was a brilliant move." Cody whispered to Aelita.

'Yumi' smirked as four Blood Knights appeared behind her and the other copies. "You should have brought more."

"Those red Dragon Knights again?" Geoff gulped. "Those guys are pretty powerful."

However instead of charging into battle with the clones the Blood Knights dissolved into black and red smoke as stepped towards the clones and phased into their bodies. The clones began to glow dark red as their physical features changed.

"Oh no. Now what?" Heather groaned.

'Odd's body armor and tail turned red with black stripes and a scythe like blade appeared at the end of his tail. The purple markings on his face and the large purple spot in the middle of his spiked hair turned black and his teeth sharpened into fangs like a tiger. The small cat like claws lengthened into very sharp blades with red fire surrounding them. His eyes turned blood red and the Eye of XANA appeared around his right eye with the eye as the center.

'Yumi's full body suit now resembled a tattered, casual black and red kimono that showed her legs and revealed she was now barefoot. Her hair now reached down to her shoulders with red streaks and her fans were now black with XANA's symbol and spikes resembling thorns at the end. Like 'Odd' she had the Eye of XANA around her now red right eye.

'Ulrich's body suit resembled Yumi's with the black body suit with dark red lines down the arms and legs with the Eye of XANA on the back of his hands. His headband was black with the Eye of XANA in the center of his forehead and on his hands were metallic gauntlets with short curved claws on each finger. There were some bulky lines across his body which suggested he wore body armor underneath and like the others the Eye of XANA surrounded his right eye now turned red.

'William's outfit now consisted of a long black coat much the coat worn by XANA's Avatar with red stripes at the bottom and shoulder plates over his now black body suit that resembled the one worn by the possessed William and Shadow. His large sword morphed into a very long katana that was blood red with a pure black hilt.

"Whoaaaaa man this is some funky dark side stuff going on." Izzy shook her head before 'Odd' launched himself at her with the speed of an actual tiger. "MEEP!"

She leaped over him, but he swung at her as she passed over him and cut open her side, taking off fifteen life points as she rolled to the floor, one hand on her damaged flank. But luckily Trent came to her rescue with a single blast from his guitar sending 'Odd' flying back. The other copies charged in, William leading with a spin that would have cut down Izzy and Trent if Duncan and Courtney hadn't intercepted him in time. Duncan, in his Berserker form, locked blades with 'William' before Courtney leaped overhead, landed behind 'William'.

She swept his legs out from under him, allowing Duncan to kick the swordsman away with an almost casual flick of his foot. 'William' righted himself in mid air and landed on his feet. As the Berserker faced him 'Ulrich' appeared behind him and thrust his sword forward but DJ in his metal golem landed between him and Duncan and blocked by catching the sword in the palms of hands above his heads. He kicked 'Ulrich' in the chest but the dark samurai simply landed on his and pushed himself into the air, performing a somersault as he landed on his feet.

He grinned as DJ prepared to attack again but before any of them could make a move Geoff jumped in and swung his sparkling axe at the back of 'Ulrich's head. 'Ulrich' spun and blocked with both swords, not affected by the electricity coming out of Geoff's axe. He pushed forward and Geoff was surprisingly pushed back by the sheer amount of unexpected strength as 'Ulrich' swung his blade up and knocked Geoff down.

"Pathetic. To think Aelita actually believe you'd be a good replacement for us." 'Ulrich' spat.

"You know just because you sound like the real dude doesn't mean you are." Geoff remarked. "And I know that the real Ulrich dude would kick your ass for even speaking."

"Please, that weakling couldn't hold a candle to what I am. We are the greatest of the Master's creations, second only to him." 'Ulrich' proclaimed.

"Somehow I think Lilith and the others would disagree." DJ commented.

"Ever hear of the saying: out with the old and in with the new?" 'Ulrich' asked.

"We'll see about that." Bridgette jumped in and clashed swords with Ulrich.

Trent fired a sonic blast from his guitar but 'Odd' dodged easily, moving so fast it was like he could teleport, disappearing from one spot and appearing in another.

"HI-YA!" Izzy leapt in and launched a kick but Odd simply tilted his head and the foot flew past his face.

"Too slow!" 'Odd' laughed.

"Really?" Noah aimed his cannons at the back of 'Odd's head and fired.

However 'Odd' simply stepped out of the way, disappearing again and appeared a few feet to the right. Noah fired again but 'Odd' disappeared again and appeared another few feet from his previous spot again.

"I could do this all day." 'Odd' remarked.

"I hate it when they have super speed." Noah muttered.

"Super speed? No, it's something better." 'Odd' grinned. "Something the older and weaker me had but was too stupid with his friends to not overlook a simple glitch."

"...Teleporter." Noah realized with a grim look as he realized the implications. "Aelita told us how Odd used to have a teleportation ability but it created copies of himself."

"Much like what happened to your upgrade." 'Odd' pointed out.

"Thanks, I love it when I remember that." Noah shuddered at the memories of that event. 'Not to mention that fiasco with the tutu.'

"Teleporter? Aw! No one fights fair with those!" Izzy groaned.

"Fair? Oh my, is little baby carrot top going to cry?" 'Odd' mocked.

Izzy glared at him. "Say that again."

"What? Little Baby Carrot Top have hearing problems too?" 'Odd' smirked.

"Okay, cat boy." Izzy cracked her knuckles.

'Oh boy.' Noah thought.

"HI-YA!" Izzy leapt forward and engaged 'Odd' in an all out fight.

'William' watched as Duncan and Courtney prepared themselves and spotted Eva charging towards him.

"Well, isn't this a nice little party?" 'William' levelled his sword at the two warriors. "Which one to I break first."

"Let me tell you a little something about the parties I have. We have this big game where we drink, curse, and punch until the last man standing is the winner. The prize, a very, very, big hangover." Duncan's sword sparked with green fire. "Let's see if you can get a headache when you're digital."

'William' smirked as he sensed Eva behind him with a fist ready to bash his skull in. He jumped up into the air, somersaulting over her and landed behind her, perfectly on his feet. He prepared to slash her head off with his blade but Courtney leapt over Eva and blocked with her staff. Courtney raised her foot to try to kick him in the chest but 'William' angled his arms down to block the blow.

"Nice try."

He swung his arms out and Courtney was sent into the air but she flipped through the air and landed on her feet.

"Impressive." 'William' commented.

"The benefits of gymnastics and learning how to fight here." Courtney spun her staff in her hands and settled into a defensive stance.

Duncan transformed back into the Berserker who let out a menacing a growl while Eva's fists glowed bright blue.

"Oh...Someone's ready to die." 'William' commented. "You realize that coming here was a fatal mistake. Unless Aelita connects you all to the super computer you will never return if you lose all your life points."

"Then it's a good thing we recharged before we got here. The one good thing about being virtualized in a sector where your Avatar is connected to the computer." Courtney said.

"**One hundred percent.**"The Berserker growled.

"So shut up and fight." Eva snapped.

"Very well."

Aelita, Gwen, Heather, Cody, and LeShawna were left facing 'Yumi' who pulled out and opened her fans.

"So your plan is take us on directly, huh? I didn't presume any of you any kind of death wish." 'Yumi' commented.

"Actually, it's the exact opposite." Gwen replied as she pulled out her rod and it changed into her scythe.

"We're going to kick your digital ass and then your boss is next." LeShawna held up her hammer.

"And this time it'll be for good." Heather's wrist blades came out. "No way is he coming back after I'm through with him."

"Yeah, what she said." Cody pointed his guns at 'Yumi'. "And it'll take more than some dark copy to stop us."

'Yumi' chuckled and looked at Aelita. "Is that your belief as well? Come on, you actually believe you can do what your idiot father couldn't? Just look at your history. Every time you think you're free the Master was able to outsmart you, humiliate you? What makes you think today will be any different?"

"Because this time, I won't stop until I make sure every single piece of him is gone right down to the last one and zero." Aelita said as her hands glowed bright. "Let's go."

'Yumi' grinned as she prepared to fight. Now began the biggest battle of the war with the Lyoko Warriors preparing to storm the domain of their great enemy? Will they survive? Will they rescue Aelita's friends?

Or will XANA finally win?

They were all about to find out.


	105. Episode 103: Fall into the Dark

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 105

Previously on Code: Total Drama Reality

_"So your plan is take us on directly, huh? I didn't presume any of you had any kind of death wish." 'Yumi' commented._

_"Actually, it's the exact opposite." Gwen replied as she pulled out her rod and it changed into her scythe._

_"We're going to kick your digital ass and then your boss is next." LeShawna held up her hammer._

_"And this time it'll be for good." Heather's wrist blades came out. "No way is he coming back after I'm through with him."_

_"Yeah, what she said." Cody pointed his guns at 'Yumi'. "And it'll take more than some dark copy to stop us."_

_'Yumi' chuckled and looked at Aelita. "Is that your belief as well? Come on, you actually believe you can do what your idiot father couldn't? Just look at your history. Every time you think you're free the Master was able to outsmart you, humiliate you? What makes you think today will be any different?"_

_"Because this time, I won't stop until I make sure every single piece of him is gone right down to the last one and zero." Aelita said as her hands glowed bright. "Let's go."_

_'Yumi' grinned as she prepared to fight._

Xxx

As the battle with the other copies raged on 'Yumi' faced down Aelita, Gwen, Heather, LeShawna, and Cody. To be honest they thought she'd be nervous about the odds she was facing but that grin on her face showed she was more than confident in taking them on. She held out her fans and looked like she was ready to dance rather than fight but Aelita remembered Yumi's fighting style focused on agility rather than combat and used her fans for both defense and offense. She could tell that the others were just as wary as she was and they had good reason to be.

Even if it was a copy of the original Yumi this copy along with the other clones has been enhanced and upgraded by XANA to make them strong enough to take on the entire group.

"Well then," 'Yumi' grinned. "Shall we start?"

"Gladly."

LeShawna was the one to start things off as she ran as fast as she could towards the clone. She raised her hammer above her as she prepared to swing but 'Yumi' stood perfectly still, waiting for LeShawna as she came closer.

'Why isn't she trying to dodge?' Aelita, Gwen, Heather, and Cody thought.

Just as LeShawna swung her hammer down 'Yumi' brought one fan out and...

_Blocked_ LeShawna's hammer!

"No way!" Cody gasped with wide eyes.

The force of LeShawna's hammer should have easily shattered that fan and broke the doppelganger in half but it didn't. But it was not over yet as 'Yumi' swung her arm up and LeShawna was knocked several feet away feet from her and fell on her back.

'That speed. I heard Yumi was very good with gymnastics but no gymnast could move that fast.' Heather gritted her teeth. 'Another big fancy XANA upgrade.'

LeShawna was thinking the exact same thing as she tried to get up. She spotted a fan flying towards her and rolled out of the as fan sliced through the ground where she had been a second earlier.

"Oh my. Did I knock you down too hard?" 'Yumi' asked as she let out a chuckle. "I'm sorry, I thought we were fighting."

Cody and Heather unleashed a barrage of lasers and shuriken from their weapons, forcing 'Yumi' to look up when she heard them. She smirked as she stretched her arms and spun on her right food, holding her fans and managed to easily block or reflect the attacks back to their owners. Cody let out gasp as a laser shot hit him in the right arm and made him drop the pistol he was holding. Heather grunted when two lasers flew back at her and hit her in the left shoulder and the right knee.

"Too easy." 'Yumi' laughed.

"Want to bet?" Gwen's voice snarled from behind her.

Gwen emerged from the shadows, deactivating her Shadow Veil and swung her scythe, aiming to cut 'Yumi's head clear off her shoulder. However 'Yumi' simply held up one hand as she turned around and blocked easily with her fan. Gwen was not about to let that stop her so she pulled her scythe back and tried to bisect her with a swing to her left side. But like before she simply blocked with her other fan just as easily as before.

As the fight continued Gwen would swing her scythe at any angle and 'Yumi' would simply block like it wasn't worth the effort.

"Come now, Gwenny." 'Yumi' spoke up as she blocked another slash. "Is this all you can do? The data stated you were among the most powerful warriors. Yet you can't seem to land a single blow on me? Why is that?"

"How about you enlighten me?" Gwen asked as her scythe was blocked again.

"It's quite simple...You can't strike me." 'Yumi' glowed bright red.

Suddenly Gwen found herself lifted up into the air and she was sent flying back like she was shot out of a cannon. She hit the wall and let out a loud gasp as she slid down.

"Gwen!" LeShawna and Cody cried.

"Get a hold of yourselves, you two! She's trying to intimidate us!" Heather shouted. "Let down your guards like that and she'll kill you!"

Cody and LeShawna stopped themselves from running up to Gwen who managed to stand back up to see if she was all right.

"And Heather, I expected you all of people to figure out that little strategy. I'd like to say great minds think alike but you'd have to be almost as smart as me to have a great mind." 'Yumi' remarked. "Have you figure out why you can't win?"

"Let me guess. Evil always wins because good is dumb?" Heather said, trying to sound like an evil mastermind. "We're stupid? Gullible? Stop me if I land on the right answer. Or...how about I skip the twenty questions and get right to the hidden bonus?"

She fired a barrage of shuriken at 'Yumi' who simply spun gracefully and blocked them all with her fans.

"The reason you can't win is simple...you're not strong enough." 'Yumi' stopped spinning, holding one foot in front of the other. "You're powers are meant for quick attacks and stealth. They are not designed to handle a drawn out battle like this or meant for direct combat. How can you handle an opponent who primary powers are geared for offense when your own abilities are meant for sneak attacks?"

"Then I do it the sneaky way." Heather said as she became invisible.

"Oh? You're going to try that old trick?" 'Yumi' asked as she looked around with a sick grin.

Gwen activated her Black Aura and sank into the shadow near her even though there shouldn't have been a shadow next to her.

"You might be good at using stealth tactics but you should know my master..."

She spun around and grasped something. Heather let out a gasp as she became visible again while 'Yumi' tightened her hold around Heather's neck.

"Master XANA was using these kinds of tactics long before you were a twinkle in your mother's eye." 'Yumi' grinned evilly.

"Yeah?" Heather gasped. "But should you know something."

"What?" 'Yumi' rolled her eyes.

"I became a pro at this when I was four. Now!" Heather shouted.

Gwen came out of Heather's shadow and swung her scythe up. 'Yumi' gasped as the bladed end sank into her chest, making her drop Heather and step back to grasp the tear showing bright sparkling lines of code and leaked out small bits of data.

"You okay?" Gwen helped Heather stand up.

"Yeah, I'm good. Digital Queen bitch thought she could outwit a real Queen Bitch." Heather smirked. "She thinks she can outwit me just because my character's not meant for direct combat and because her boss is so smart? Who knows how young she actually is."

"Got to agree with you on that." Gwen nodded with a small smirk on her face. "I actually had a little trouble figuring out your plan before you whispered it in my ear. It's actually kind of nice to see someone else be the sucker in your plans rather than me."

"Sometimes it's fun to have a revenge buddy." Heather shrugged with her own smirk. "Lindsay and Beth never enjoyed it."

"Look out!" Aelita and LeShawna shouted.

Gwen and Heather looked straight forward and spotted a pair of razor sharp fans flying straight towards their faces. Cody luckily managed to teleport behind them, grab them and teleport them out of the way before the fans sliced their heads off. Reappearing next to Aelita they all watched as the fans flew back into the hands of 'Yumi' who caught them easily. She looked absolutely fine with no wound on her chest from Gwen's scythe.

"How did she heal that fast?" LeShawna asked. "No one ever heals that fast from a wound like that."

"Another perk of being the perfect digital warrior created by XANA. As long as the heart of me and my comrades has life points I can heal instantly." 'Yumi' explained. "Don't be too surprised, you made it in here this far did you really think XANA would send out a fighter that could be killed so easily."

"Great." LeShawna along with Gwen and Heather groaned.

They were not the only ones who were having trouble. Duncan may not be an expert swordsman nor did he have a high IQ like Cody, Noah, or Aelita but he was smart to enough to figure out how a person fights and thinks. And right now he was having a hard time with 'William' because after all of his fights with Shadow he thought 'William' would have a similar fighting style. But it turns out both were very different.

Shadow's fighting style relied on a combination of his brute strength and his large sword making him a deadly opponent if you were to fight him head on, especially with his Super Smoke Ability. 'William' didn't seem to have any of Shadow's powers, relying on completely different powers and a different fighting style. 'William' used a long sword and relied on speed and precision, all aimed to kill quickly and silently.

"GAH!"

Duncan's sword was knocked out of his hand easily by just a single swing. It didn't help that 'William' had Shadow's super strength that could match a speeding train.

"Damn it!" Duncan growled.

'William' held his sword up to finish Duncan but Courtney leapt in and swung her staff at his head. He easily blocked her staff and easily knocked her back with a single thrust.

"It this it? I expected more from the digital warriors who defeated Shadow." 'William' shook his head disappointingly.

"Now would be a good time for the Berserker." Courtney stated as she stepped back and held her staff tightly.

"Yeah, don't remind me."

Eva decided it was her turn to try and take out the dark copy. Running as fast as possible with her glowing blue feet propelling her faster than an ordinary human and her fist glowing bright blue with her signature shockwave ability ready to tear apart anything it touched. She let out a war cry as she sent her fist forward.

"TAKE THIS!"

'William' frowned as he ducked and slammed the hilt of his sword into her ribs and kicked her feet out from under her, sending her skidding across the ground. Eva grunted as she managed to finally stop and carefully climbed back up to her feet.

"Mindless brawler." 'William' shook his head. "She actually thought she could take me out in a head on attack."

"Okay, this guy is officially starting to piss me off." Eva growled as Duncan and Courtney ran over to her.

"You're not the only one." Duncan glared at the smirking clone. "I thought Shadow was a pain in the ass but this no name copy is already burning me up."

"Well hurry and burn up into the Berserker and kick his ass!" Courtney exclaimed. "We can overpower him with the Berserker and Eva's super strength."

"I know! I know!" Duncan shook his head. "Get angry. Get angry. Get angry."

"Oh please. You are seriously comparing me to that reject, Shadow?" 'William' shook his head. "As if that sore loser could even hold a candle to me."

"Shadow managed to go head to head with XANA himself. Compared to some no name copy yeah I'll take my chances with Shadow." Courtney retorted. "At least he was able to think for himself and not act like mindless stooge."

"You should know, huh Princess? Considering you were Shadow's top stooge?" 'William' smirked.

Courtney growled at the not so subtle reminder of how Shadow possessed her using the remnants of his data in her body to come back.

"The fact of the matter is that Shadow was a prototype and I am everything he could have been if he hadn't betrayed the Master." 'William' stepped forward. "He had been exposed to the disease that plagues the real world called humanity and became too soft and weak to be the leader of Master XANA's army. Him leaving was just a mere bonus and saved Master XANA the trouble of deleting the traitor himself."

"You sound awfully pissed about being compared to Shadow when the both of you are just mere copies of the real William." Courtney smirked.

'William' narrowed his eyes before regaining his smirk. "Nice try but that old trick won't work on me. Shadow would have fallen for that but I fully know who I am and what my purpose is. I have no desire to turn my back on Master XANA and earn his wrath. You won't be able to distract me with that dumb old trick."

"Maybe but that's not how I was planning to distract you." Courtney's smirk widened slightly. "And even if you did figure it out it's too late."

"Too late for what?" 'William' frowned.

"THIS!"

Duncan had taken the time to gather his power and Courtney had managed to distract 'William' long enough for him to vanish in a blazing pillar of green fire. The Berserker stepped out of the flames, scorching the blue floor black with its flames. It picked up its sword and fused it with its right arm, growling as the sword blazed with green flames.

"Bad guys always fall for the stupid rant." Courtney remarked. "Just need to focus on a topic they might be sensitive about and they just stop to rant about how they are superior this and they are better than that."

The Berserker growled, seemingly agreeing with her as it stepped forward, ready to pick up the fight.

"You think this will stop me? You'll all see what a big mistake yo-"

PUNCH!

"GAH!"

'William' never had the chance to finish his rant as Eva appeared behind him and slugged him in the face with a super powered punch that sent him flying towards the Berserker. The green flaming monster pulled its left fist back and just as 'William' was mere inches from it the Berserker's fist was engulfed in furious green flames as it slammed into the dark copy's chest. 'William' let out a scream as the flame enhanced punch sent him flying through the air again, straight to where Courtney was waiting. The Princess/Ninja spun her staff as she jumped into the air and thrust it forward with both hands.

'William' only had the chance to look up and see the staff go right through his chest, piercing his digital heart and come out the other side. They fell to the ground with the bladed end of Courtney's staff hitting the floor first followed by 'William's body and Courtney landing perfectly on her feet while standing over her opponent. The copy looked down at the staff with wide eyes and then back up at Courtney.

"Y-you..." 'William' stuttered.

"Guess not every copy is superior to the original. Even Shadow would have been able to dodge this." Courtney remarked as she pulled her staff out.

She expected 'William' to start to fade into nothing but data before her eyes but to her shock the wound healed the instant she pulled out staff out and 'William' too advantage of her surprise by slamming his foot in her stomach, knocking a few feet away and making her fall to the ground.

"Who needs to dodge when you have instant regeneration thanks to your core?" 'William' asked as he stood up. "I don't need to worry about being killed by the likes of you."

"That should have killed him! Right?" Eva glanced at Duncan as he changed back into his human form.

"Yeah, that was a full blow that would have taken out anyone no matter how many life points they had." Duncan replied with a scowl. "That should have finished him off."

"Should have, could have, would have." 'William' shrugged. "You'll just have to accept that you're outmatched here."

Eva growled. "Want to bet?"

Duncan in the meantime was trying to figure out what the hell was going on here. He hated it when the bad guys had little surprises like this because it meant he had to think harder to figure out how to beat them.

'Okay, he's stabbed through the heart and he gets up a second later. So how does he do that? Maybe's a zombie?' Duncan thought with a small smirk.

He didn't have the experts on computer programming but he was a pro at video games that involved killing things and anything that could survive a fatal blow usually meant a few things.

One: they had a hidden one spot that was vulnerable but they couldn't see it.

Two: The Health Bar was not at zero but that didn't count because Courtney's attack should have killed him.

Three: They had something else keeping them alive, something that was probably well hidden.

'Damn it. XANA probably gave them an ultra bonus cheat code or something.' Duncan thought bitterly. 'That's the last thing we need at this point!'

"What's up?" Eva noticed the look on Duncan's face.

"I think things just got a whole lot tougher for us." Duncan replied.

On the far left side of the room Noah, Izzy, Trent, and DJ were busy trying to hit 'Odd' but he was able to dodge thanks to his teleportation ability. He was making sport of the fight by firing Laser Arrows that hit the target no matter how hard they tried to dodge.

"Damn it!" Izzy actually swore as another arrow slammed into her chest.

"You okay?" DJ knelt by her.

"I will be when I kick his tailed ass." Izzy growled as she stood back up.

DJ was surprised by how angry Izzy looked, even though she had good reason to be angry. Izzy always acted happy and carefree and it was really rare to see her get angry. The only time he remembered seeing the orange haired girl this angry was when she talked about fellow cast mate and former boyfriend Justin. But now she looked she wanted to tear 'Odd' to pieces.

"Take this!" Trent played his Sonic Note.

From the end of guitar came a high pitched sonic blast that headed straight towards 'Odd' who simply grinned. Just as it was mere inches from him he vanished in a flash of light and reappeared behind Trent. He wanted to use his claws to slice Trent to bits but a hint of movement at the corner of his eyes made him stop. Noah came up with both of his hands turned into blades and he tried to slash the clone while he wasn't looking.

"Nice try..."

'Odd' turned around and leapt at Noah with a demented looking grin as he slashed at Noah's face...

Only for his claws to go right through Noah's head.

"What?!"

Two lasers slammed into his chest and knocked him down onto the ground. He looked to see that the Noah he attacked was just an image while the real one had shot at him with his arms in the form of cannons.

"Someone get him before he gets back up!" Noah shouted.

Izzy took the chance to attack by leaping at the downed 'Odd', changing into a tiger while in mid-air and let out a loud roar. However 'Odd' held up his right arm and a red glowing energy shield with the Eye of XANA in the center that blocked Izzy's claws and her fangs. One would think Izzy's large tiger form would be enough to hold him down regardless of the shield.

They were wrong.

'Odd' flung Izzy off him and jumped back to his feet and fired a stream of Laser Arrows from his left arm while using the shield on his right arm to block incoming projectile attacks.

"Get behind me!" DJ shouted.

He quickly activated his barrier once everyone ran behind him and held it up as the barrage of homing weapons slammed into his barrier.

"Geez what is it with this guy?! Actually what's with all of them?! They don't go down no matter how hard we try!" Trent yelled.

"I don't know but Izzy's about to go T-Rex on them!" Izzy growled.

"Really? Then you'll like me less after this." 'Odd's grin widened before vanishing in a flash of red light.

"Where'd he..." Trent started before 'Odd' reappeared...

Right behind DJ and between the small group he was protecting.

"Holy sh-" Trent was cut off as 'Odd' slugged him in the face with a hard punch that knocked him down.

'Odd' jumped into the air and kicked DJ in the back and launched arrows from his wrists and instantly knocked Izzy and Noah down.

"You think a little shield will stop me?" 'Odd' laughed as planted his foot on DJ's chest while leveling his eyes on the downed warriors. "I can teleport anywhere I want and I know teleport through any kind of shield you losers try to put up."

DJ tried to grab him but 'Odd' teleported off him and reappeared several feet away.

"Game over."

'Odd' fired a Laser Arrow at DJ's head but the Jolly Giant transformed into his Golem Form. The metal skin blocked 'Odd's arrow and it bounced off his skin as he stood up.

"Maybe my barrier can't stop you but how about this?" DJ stood up and faced 'Odd'. "I'm not a violent person. Momma always said violence was a very bad thing and should be avoided. But when this Lyoko thing started I had to break the promise I made to her to help Aelita and everyone else to keep the world safe. And in this case I will break that promise to make sure you never hurt anyone of my friends."

The way he looked and spoke told everyone that DJ was dead serious about what he said.

"Oh, and what are you going to do big guy?" 'Odd' asked with a mocking grin.

"...Kick your ass." DJ said. "And then apologize to Mamma for swearing!"

With that DJ charged at 'Odd' like a high speed tank, ready to squash the clone with his metallic feet. 'Odd' let loose a barrage of arrows but DJ didn't seem to ever feel the golden darts as the hit his skin. 'Odd' growled as he teleported just before DJ ran him over and reappeared in the air above the giant. He landed on DJ's back and started clawing at the giant's head and anything in his reach.

DJ stopped running and tried to reach the annoying clone on his back but 'Odd' managed to stay out reach of his giant hands.

"Okay...NOT COOL!"

DJ jumped into the air and angled his back to hit the ground. 'Odd' barely managed to teleport out of the way, avoiding the fate of ending up being flattened as DJ impact the blue ground and cracks formed around him. 'Odd' reappeared above him and aimed his clawed hands down on DJ's face. However a blast of lightning came through the air and slammed into 'Odd's side and sent him flying across the room as he screamed in pain.

"Remember us?" Trent asked as smoke came out of the end of his guitar. "Take him out!"

Noah and Izzy unleashed an endless barrage of lasers and explosive arrows at 'Odd' before he could get back up and the clone vanished in a bright explosion.

"GOT HIM!" Izzy laughed victoriously.

When the smoke finally cleared however Izzy's happy grin turned into a look of shock and then she frowned in annoyance. "Oh come on!"

'Odd' had held up left arm and a red energy shield much like the one he had created before had been used to successfully block every attack.

"I'm sorry. Got who?" 'Odd' asked as the shield faded.

"There's just no way to kill this guy." Trent grumbled.

"There is but he keeps on pulling these tricks out of his hat." Noah frowned. "He knows every move we've got and even though Aelita told us about her friends fight this guy's got some tricks of his own which was what XANA was counting on."

"So how do we beat him?" DJ asked.

"We need to do something...unpredictable." Noah narrowed his eyes. "We better hurry and come up with something. We're all running low on life points and Aelita never the chance to link this sector the lab. That means the Extra Life Program doesn't work here."

On the very far left side of the room Geoff and Bridgette was engaging in an all out sword combat with 'Ulrich' who so far was easily pushing them back. Bridgette found herself slammed into the wall again; she let out a grunt from the feeling hitting the wall rather than a feeling of pain. She looked up to see Geoff slash at 'Ulrich' who raised his swords and crossed them in an X to block Geoff's axe and pushed the party king backwards. Geoff tried to blast him with a blast of lightning but 'Ulrich' seemed to have inherited the real Ulrich's Super Sprint as he vanished in a red blur and reappeared behind Geoff.

Before her boyfriend could do anything 'Ulrich' delivered a hard punch to the back of his head and knocked him down.

"Oh this is just too easy." 'Ulrich' laughed. "Are you all really this weak or are you just having a bad day? I can't believe Lilith and the others had so much trouble fighting you all."

Bridgette growled as she stood up. "SHUT UP!"

Her swords let out a blast of water that lunged at 'Ulrich' like a tidal wave and a speeding bullet put together. 'Ulrich' tried to move but Geoff quickly jumped at him and held him down.

"GEOFF NO!" Bridgette shouted when she saw him.

The water attack slammed into them and sent spiralling across the chamber and hit the wall on the other side of the room very hard. They slid down the wall, drenched in water as Bridgette ran over to her downed boyfriend.

"Are you okay? What were you thinking?! I could have killed you!" Bridgette slapped Geoff on the back of the head.

"Ow! Hey! Careful, Bridge, I might be hurt!" Geoff cried in protest.

"You deserve it for making me worried like that!" Bridgette gripped Geoff by the collar. "If you ever do something like that again no making out for a year!"

Geoff looked like someone had gone and burned his favourite hat and told him no more parties for the rest of his life.

"Got it?" Bridgette asked with a scary glare.

"Got it." Geoff nodded quickly.

"Good, now come on." Bridgette helped Geoff stand up. "We got to hurry and...DUCK!"

She pulled him down and he landed on her as a sword thrust through the air where Geoff's head had been. They both looked up to see 'Ulrich' brandishing his swords.

"I'm sorry, am I interrupting something?" 'Ulrich' asked.

"How'd you get back up so fast?" Geoff asked.

"A benefit of being a creation of Master XANA is that we can instantly recover from anything as long as our core has life points." 'Ulrich' answered. "You won't be able to beat me like this."

"Oh come on." Bridgette groaned, looking very annoyed. "What does it take to get rid of you?"

"Nothing. We were designed to be perfect in every way compared the weak humans we were made from." 'Ulrich' answered. "It's time to die."

Xxx

"Look at them. So arrogant and self assured. They have some nerve thinking they are any better than us." Jinx frowned as she and the other generals watched the battle in their master's throne room. "Wait till they see how wrong they are."

"I can't wait for that." Ryder grinned.

"Be that as it may, my Generals, they are fulfilling their purpose. They have a right to believe they are invincible so as long as their weakness is not found." XANA mused from the red block his Avatar sat on. "And even if the warriors defeat them it will just lead to the next part of the plan."

The generals watched as the small grin on their master's face grew.

"Be ready for the battle is about to end."

Xxx

Aelita and the others were not having a good time. They found themselves surrounded by the evil copies that had managed to overpower them all despite their best efforts.

"Okay, does anyone feel like this is just a little unfair?" Noah asked as the warriors were now grouped in a circle with their weapons out and ready despite the fact that they were losing.

"I thought that was just me." Duncan grumbled, levelling his green blazing sword at 'William'. "These guys are way too tough, even by XANA's standards. If he made the Generals this tough we'd have been dead a long time ago."

"So why don't they die when we stab them?" Gwen asked.

"They have life points that allow them to heal." Courtney replied.

"No, they said as long as their core has life points they'll heal." Bridgette said.

"As long as their heart has life points they will always regenerate." Heather said, repeating 'Yumi's earlier statement. "What if they're not referring to themselves?"

"What do you mean?" Geoff asked.

"What if something's giving them life points? Like our Extra Life program?" Cody asked, picking up on Heather's theory.

"Even if it was like the Extra Life Program it wouldn't be enough for them to survive any of the attacks that were fatal." Aelita pointed out. "But I agree with Heather. Something is keeping them alive, no matter how powerful our attacks are."

"Okay, so we know that something's keeping them alive. So how do we find it? We're a little busy getting our ass's kicked." Eva pointed out.

Aelita closed her eyes for a second before she reopened them and activated her Second Sight. Her vision turned dark red and everyone around were now bright white. With this vision she could see things that no one else could see and when she saw the clones she saw something missing...

"Their Nexus Cores are missing!" Aelita gasped.

"What?!" Half the group gasped.

The clones frowned when Aelita had seen their little secret.

"I'm a little behind here. What's a Nexus Core?" Eva asked.

"The Nexus Cores are basically the digital version of the heart. Almost every program has one, even us when we are virtualized." Cody quickly explained. "But how can they exist if they don't have Nexus Cores?"

"They can't." Aelita answered. "Because the Nexus Core is more than just the digital heart. It is literally the digital version of the soul; it contains everything that allows a digital avatar to function. Even XANA's monsters have Nexus Cores but what makes them different is that their cores and maybe even the cores of the Generals are all connected to XANA's own core. I don't know the extent of this connection but XANA couldn't have just created four new fighters without cores of their own or it would be impossible for them to exist."

"So how can they act and fight like they're real? Are they zombies?" Izzy asked.

"More like they are just puppets and someone else is pulling the strings." Aelita narrowed her eyes. "There is still one person XANA had captured with the others and I don't see a clone of him anywhere even if he only went to Lyoko a handful of times."

Everyone stiffened as they all knew who Aelita was talking about and it happened to be the one she had been closest too all these years. Aelita looked around the room, peering through every corner with her second sight and when she didn't see anything she looked up.

"THERE!" Aelita pointed at the ceiling above them.

She could see the outline of a humanoid figure standing upside down and was crouched down, trying to avoid being seen by anyone.

"PLASMA BEAM!" Aelita's shout let the figure know it had failed.

The figure quickly jumped out of the way and fell to the ground, landing a few yards away from the warriors and the clone gathered around it.

"So, you figured it out." A young boy's voice said as the figure became visible to the rest of the group. "I was hoping they'd kill you all before that would happen."

The boy wore a dark robe that covered his entire body and a hood that completely shrouded his face in shadow. In his right hand was a long black staff with a circle at the top that was hollow with two rings on each side of the edge and a blood red crystal in the center.

"Show your face, now." Aelita said, her right hand pointed at the figure and ready to fire another Plasma Beam.

"You already know who I am don't you, dear Aelita?"

The boy reached and pulled his hood down.

"Jeremy." Aelita said, sounding like she was just barely able to stay calm.

The boy resembled what Jeremy would look like on Lyoko, except for the bright red eyes with no glasses covering them, the cruel grin spread across his face, and the Eye of XANA tattooed around his right eye like the others. "Yes. Well, all of us are now together and just in time too. I was wondering how long it would be before Master XANA became impatient."

"You're the clone of Jeremy Belpois aren't you?" Gwen asked.

"Clone? A clone is a complete copy of a person and as you can I see I am very, very...different." 'Jeremy' smiled. "Even Aelita here should know that."

"Shut up." Aelita said, making everyone glance at her.

There have been a few times they have seen Aelita this mad and everyone, even Heather and Eva were on edge on dangerous she was when she was pushed to the edge.

"Hm? Now is that any way to be polite?" 'Jeremy' shook his head. "We have already met and it seems you are a little cranky. Perhaps I can make you feel better, dear Aelita?"

"I said shut up." Aelita's glare intensified. "Don't ever speak to me with his voice."

"Oh? And why not?" 'Jeremy's grin grew slightly larger.

"If you keep on speaking with his voice I promise you that your life will end with a slow and very agonizing end." Aelita's hands glowed brighter.

'Jeremy' snickered. "If _my_ voice offends you so much by all means try to stop me."

"Aelita, don't do it. He's baiting you." Bridgette spoke up, not wanting to see her friend get carried away with her anger.

However, contrary to everyone's believes Aelita was not about to let herself get distracted by the phoney in front of her. She knew that 'Jeremy' was trying to bait and right now she was staring at the staff that pulsing with a bright light.

'That light...the same kind of light and pulsing that a Nexus Core emits. Their cores are all inside the staff!' Aelita realized.

That's why they couldn't die. Their lives were bound to the Nexus Core inside the staff and the large amount of power she could sense also explained why they were so strong. It was not only their life force it was also their power source!

"Go for the staff! It's what keeping them alive!" Aelita pointed at the staff.

"Damn! She's on to us!" 'Ulrich' growled.

"It doesn't matter. They still won't win." 'Jeremy' grinned.

He banged his staff on the ground once and the red crystal glowed with the same red aura that appeared around a tower under XANA's control. At the same time the clones all glowed bright red and their eyes were now bright red orbs.

"Why do I not like the looks of this?" Noah asked.

"He's giving them power, making them stronger!" Aelita cried out.

"Oh great." Duncan grunted.

As all of the clones stared at the warriors they all had dark and evil grins as bright red energy started to gather in their hands.

"DJ, TRENT, WE NEED A BARRIER NOW!" Aelita shouted.

DJ quickly activated his barrier and Trent played his Shield Note and a shield with two layers of energy appeared around the Warriors. At the same time the dark clones released streams of red energy that collided with the shield and created a blinding explosion of light that lasted for a moment. When it faded the clones looked to see the warriors scattered across the floor of the chamber, groaning and looking exhausted.

"And just like that the mighty warriors fall." 'Jeremy' laughed. "Master XANA will be pleased when we drag you all before him."

Aelita groaned as she managed to lift her head up. This can't be the end. She and her friends had fought so hard to make it here. They had to win or the world would be at XANA's mercy.

But how could she overpower all of them with 'Jeremy' giving them all that...

Power.

She grunted as she struggled to stand and the clones all watched as she managed to managed to sit up.

"Well, it seems we have a stubborn one." 'Yumi' commented.

"Can we just take her out?" 'Odd' asked, flexing his clawed hands.

"No, let's see her last move." 'Jeremy' said with a curious smile.

Aelita looked down at the others and found that even though they were knocked down they were still conscious.

"Everyone, get ready. Here comes a major power boost!" Aelita held up her wrist computer. "Computer, activate Code: Angel! One hundred percent!"

The wrist computer beeped as the Keys activated and unlocked Aelita's full power in the form of a pure white aura surrounding her.

"Oooooooohhhhh! She's gone and used the big and scary Code: Angel." 'William' laughed. "Newsflash, Pinkie, those powers you have won't leave a dent in our shiny new armor. Our core has enough power to run a Replica."

"That is true. Even with the Keys active inside me the best I could achieve with them against all of you is a stalemate." Aelita nodded her head as her eyes glowed white. "But what if it wasn't just me?"

Before the clones could ask what she meant spread her arms out and strings made of energy blasted from her fingers and connected to all of the downed warriors. They all let out a gasp as the strings connected to their bodies and white energy sparked all over their figures. However they didn't feel pain. They felt like they were becoming stronger!

"Just like that thing with Jeremy's face can make you all stronger," Aelita said as all of her friends got to their feet. "I can make _my_ friends stronger!"

"Whoa man...I feel hyper! Like after stealing all of Carlos' Klondike bars and blaming it on Chris or Roberto!" Izzy grinned as she leaped to her feet, looking around wildly. "Whoa man this is sweet! Who wants a piece of Izzy?!"

"Ugh..." Duncan stretched a bit. "Okay...sores are all gone." He looked to 'William'. "Alright...round two, ass hole."

He unsheathed his sword again, the flames blazing brighter than before.

"Guys...get 'em!" Noah shouted before Eva leaped into the air with a roar and shot right down at 'Odd', who dodged out of the way...

And still was sent flying across the room by the wave of blue energy that shot up out of the ground around Eva, converging on him and launching him into the air. He slammed into the wall so hard that he left a perfect indent of himself in it before falling to the floor of the chamber. The other Lyoko Warriors went on the offensive, the playing field now levelled between them and their enemies. 'Yumi' stepped back as she blocked lasers and shuriken barrages from Heather and Cody and jumped as LeShawna swung her hammer down.

However Gwen sped towards her and sliced her in the stomach with one quick slash, causing her to shout out in pain. She swung her fans to slice Gwen to bits but Cody teleported in, grabbed Gwen and teleported out of the way just in time...

For Heather's foot to slam into 'Yumi's face and knock her down.

"All right! I love when I have the unfair advantage!" Heather laughed. "Who's the weak one now, bitch?"

"I'd say...her!" LeShawna swung her hammer as 'Yumi' tried to get up.

The clone let out a scream as the hammer slammed into her body and sent her skidding across the room and into the wall about as hard as 'Odd's impact.

"Finally!" LeShawna laughed.

'William' was struggling to repel Duncan's blazing sword but Duncan transformed into the Berserker and soon enough 'William' was being pushed back. The Berserker swung its sword arm and 'Willaim' raised his sword to block...

Only for the blazing green sword to slash through his sword and instantly melt it.

"What?!" 'William' gasped in shock.

"Mind if I cut in?"

Courtney leapt over the Berserker and launched both of her feet into 'William's face knocking him back. She didn't stop as she spun her staff, delivering an endless amount of slashes that left cuts all over 'William's body, and followed up with punches and kicks that were enhanced beyond human capabilities by Aelita making it feel like she had the strength of an armored train. 'William' tried to defend himself, struggling to block but Courtney was easily overpowering him with her own skills of martial arts and her staff. Courtney delivered a devastating blow to 'William's abdomen that made him scream out as he fell over, gasping in pain from the sheer impact of Courtney's blow.

Bridgette and Geoff were busy with their own target and right now they were dishing out a branch of their own payback. Geoff's axe blazed with electricity as it impacted 'Ulrich's sword and the electricity traveled down the swords and electrocuted their owner. 'Ulrich' grunted as he jumped back to get out of the way but that was what he and Bridgette planned. Bridgette released a blast of water onto the ground 'Ulrich' was on as he jumped back and as her wave tattoos glowed she activated her hydrokinesis.

The water came up around 'Ulrich' and wrapped around him like a snake.

"What the hell?!" 'Ulrich' struggled to break free. "Let me go right now water bitch!"

"That's no way to talk to a lady, especially my girl friend!" Geoff said as his axe started to glow brighter.

He held it above his head as the blades turned bright yellow and swung it down, releasing a gigantic wave of lightning. 'Ulrich' struggled harder as he saw Geoff's axe pulse with greater power and when he prepared to unleash his attack the clone was struggling with a desperate look on his face. As Geoff's giant lightning attack neared him 'Ulrich' let out a terrified scream as the blast slammed into him, engulfing him as it traveled through the room and blasted through the wall. Pieces of the blue wall flew everywhere as the attack faded, leaving a giant hole and erasing any evidence that the evil clone of Ulrich Stern had even existed.

'Jeremy' watched as his warriors were defeated one by one and then looked behind him to see Aelita glaring at him.

"You miserable little brat." He growled with a hateful voice that the real Jeremy could never possess. "You have no idea what you've done."

"Doesn't matter. You lose." Aelita replied as she stepped forward. "I'm ending this."

"You're right, this is the end." 'Jeremy' held up his staff and the crystal glowed again. "I don't have to power them up anymore. I'll use all of my power to wipe you out myself!"

He swung the staff down, pointing it at Aelita and unleashed a large beam of pure red light.

"PLASMA BEAM!"

Aelita slammed her hands together and a beam of light as large as the one 'Jeremy' fired erupted from her hands. Both attacks slammed into each other and energy crackled through the chamber as both combatants tried to overpower the other. They gritted their teeth, glue their feet to the spot they stood, not daring to move a single inch. It was they were both trying to push a giant anvil onto one another but they had equal strength.

The remaining Lyoko Warriors all watched as this happened and turned to each other. No words were said but they knew what to do instantly. Those who weapons pointed them all at Aelita while anyone without a weapon simply pointed the palm of their hands at her back.

"Aelita, you gave us this power to help us out." Gwen started.

"And now it's our turn to help you out." LeShawna continued.

"So take this power back..." Heather spoke up.

"AND KICK THIS GUY'S ASS!" They all shouted at the same time.

They released streams of light from their weapons or hands that flew at Aelita and slammed into her back. She let out a gasp as she felt herself becoming stronger and with this newly restored power she poured everything she had into her energy beam. Letting out a scream she let loose with everything she had, determined to win. The Plasma Beam started to push the red energy beam back towards its owner who let out a gasp of shock.

"No way! This can't be happening! She can't overpower me!" 'Jeremy' gasped as he tried to pour more power into his attack.

However Aelita's attack continued to push forward despite his best efforts.

"As you send back to the pit XANA pulled you out of remember to tell him this." Aelita called out. "WE'RE COMING FOR HIM NEXT!"

With that said she poured all of her power into the beam and blasted through what was left of 'Jeremy's attack and engulfed him.

"THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING! I CAN'T LOSE! I AM MORE POWERFUL THAN ANY OTHER BEING IN THE MASTER'S ARMY!" 'Jeremy' screamed.

The light blasted through his body and tore it apart.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

He was not the only being to scream as the remaining clones that were still alive let out a scream of pure agony as their bodies dissolved into data. The beam blasted through the wall behind 'Jeremy' was blasted apart and the entire sector shook before the attack finally vanished and Aelita fell to her knees, exhausted from the ordeal.

"Aelita!"

The Total Drama Lyoko Warriors surrounded her and helped stay on her feet.

"You okay?" Bridgette asked with concern.

"Yeah." Aelita smiled. "For some reason I feel a whole lot better."

No one else bother to dispute her. They all simply smiled.

Xxx

The group was now gathered around the tower that Aelita had found when she arrived in the sector. Aelita emerged from the tower, fully recharged and ready to continue.

"So this is not the tower XANA was using?" Noah asked.

"Sorry, but no. It was a decoy to try to lure us into the trap he had set up." Aelita shook her head. "He was hoping the clones would finish me off before you all got here."

"But as usual you outsmarted the bad guys." Cody said with a smile.

"So now what? How do we find your friends? How do we find XANA?" Courtney asked. "This place is one big maze."

Courtney didn't have to wait long for her question to be answered. The sector suddenly shifted making everyone go on alert, worrying that another enemy was about to show up and attack. However instead of an enemy coming to attack them the ground opened up in front of them, revealing a giant hole with a spiral of stairs leading down below.

"Invitations?" Noah asked as he leaned over and looked down.

As Aelita looked down she let out a sudden gasp and shivered.

"Are you okay?" Geoff asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Aelita nodded. "Yeah."

"It's _him_ isn't it?" Gwen asked with a frown. "You can sense him even more than before, can't you?"

Aelita looked at everyone before nodding again. "I've never felt his presence so strongly before but yes. I feel like I'm standing before his very heart and about to go deaf from the sheer noise of it beating. There's no doubt about it, he's down there."

"And looks like he's sending us an invitation." Duncan commented. "I'm almost afraid to go down there with all the crap we went through up here."

"No kidding." DJ nodded. "If that was just a warm up what else is waiting for us?"

"We don't have much of a choice. There are people counting on us to save them before it's too late." Bridgette countered.

"No one's arguing that." Cody replied. "We're just a little cautious here."

"We all are cautious here, Cody. But we came this far and after so long we can finally end this once and for all." Gwen spoke up. "I'm ready when you are."

"Me too." Trent nodded.

"Izzy's going all the way!" Izzy grinned. "We're going to the big boss fight and save the entire world just like Izzy did with the aliens!"

"Going down to the abyss to face certain doom...Bring it on." Noah said with a small smirk on his face. "Let's go."

"Okay!" Courtney nodded with an eager smile.

"Quite screwing around and let's go!" Heather said impatiently.

"Yeah, let's go!" Eva said, wanting to start the next part of the fight.

"Ready Aelita?" LeShawna asked, turning to the pink haired girl.

Everyone looked at her as she stared down at the abyss for a moment. She looked back up and turned to face them.

She smiled at them all. "I am ready. Let's go."

Everyone smiled and nodded. At the very same instant they jumped into the air and fell down into the dark abyss that led straight into the heart of XANA's domain.

The battle that would most likely decide the fate of the world was about to begin.


	106. Episode 104: Heart of Evil

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 106

_Its days like this I reflect on my childhood and all the wisdom my nut bag of a father tried to give to me. Like when I was eight years old..._

_"Carlos my boy," Carlos's dad said to the boy sitting on his lap. "I want you to remember what you should do if you if you ever find yourself in a digital universe while being attacked by an evil artificial intelligence out to destroy mankind..."_

_"...What do I do?" The eight year old Carlos asked._

_"Exactly." Carlos's dad nodded with a smile._

_"Exactly what? What should I do, dad?" Carlos asked._

_"You already know what to do."_

_It's time like these I hate it when my dad is right, especially about things I thought for sure he made up. Now here I am in a digital universe while being attacked by an evil artificial intelligence out to destroy mankind and suddenly I know what dad was trying to tell._

_I have absolutely no freaking idea about what to do._

_How the hell does my dad do that? I have no idea and I'm not sure I want to know. All I know is that we standing on the edge of total annihilation at the moment and there is nothing we can except hope and pray like crazy that a certain team can save us all._

_Dad, why did you have to be so good at predicting the future as much as you are good at being a maniac?_

Xxx

"How long have we been falling?" Heather asked, raising her voice over the howling winds.

"I have no idea. None of us have watches in the digital universe." Cody replied.

"We should have thought this out a little more before doing the whole dramatic jump into the antagonist's lair." Noah remarked.

They had jumped off into the pit about five minutes ago and it seemed to be a really long drop. Long enough for Duncan to right himself up and fold his arms under his head, close his eyes, and pretend to take a nap.

"Aw, but that's the most dramatic thing that happens before the big fight! And look what I can do! Whee!"

Izzy was waving her arms and kicking her feet, making it look like she was swimming through the air.

"I just hope there's a giant trampoline at the bottom." LeShawna spoke up. "I still haven't forgotten the times Chris shoved us out of the plane last season!"

"Speaking of the bottom..." Aelita pointed down. "Look!"

They all looked down to see a dark red abyss that was growing larger as they fell closer towards it.

"And the dramatic fall into the enemy stronghold comes to a near end." Noah commented with a sigh of relief. "Now we just need to make sure we don't go splat when we hit the bottom."

"I think we might have a small problem!" Bridgette pointed out as she pointed down. "Look!"

Flying out of the abyss were thousands of Flying Mines, shooting up towards the warriors like missiles.

"It'll take more than that to stop us. Gwen, Wind Spell!" Aelita called out.

"Got it!" Gwen smirked as she activated her green Wind Aura and swung her scythe down.

The mines scattered around the warriors like a tornado, exploding against the wall or when colliding with each other but never touching the warriors as they fell past them.

"Flying Mines? Is that the best you can do, XANA?" Heather laughed. "This might be a whole lot easier than I thought!"

"Yeah! A minefield is so three centuries ago with everything we've been through!" Duncan grinned. "Come on, XANA! Can't you pretend to be a little better?!"

"Maybe it'll be easier if you two don't egg him on!" Courtney pointed out.

"Too late for that." Noah mumbled.

"Everyone, we're about to hit out stop!" Aelita said.

They all fell into the dark bottom of the tunnel and passed through the dark cloud that obscured their vision for a moment. When it was cleared they looked around to see they were now falling to what looked like an exact copy of the City Sector, the sector that was hidden in Sector 5 and acted as the memory section of the Super Calculator. The main difference though was the sky was dark red and white blocks floated in mid air along a series of blue pathways through the city. Aelita held out her hand and with a brief second of concentration several blocks floated up and formed a platform for everyone to land on.

They all landed perfectly on their feet with their weapons in hand and ready to.

"Nice one, Aelita. You're getting better at those powers of your powers." Cody said with a grin.

"Thanks Cody." Aelita nodded and looked. "So...this is the City Sector of the Carbon Copy."

"It's definitely got XANA's style. The dark red sky, the creepy feel I'm getting from just looking at this place and that." Duncan pointed forward.

In the center of the city was an exact copy of the Central Processing Tower that was built in the center of the City Sector and acted as the main tower, connected to all other towers in Lyoko or the Carbon Copy. The difference was that the Central Tower of the Carbon Copy had a red glow instead of the golden one that the original had.

"I'm having uncomfortable flashbacks to the last time I was in that kind of tower. Especially the end of that trip." Courtney said, thinking of how she and Duncan lost their memories in the fight with Nephilim.

"Me too." Gwen remembered how Nephilim brainwashed her through the remains of XANA's virus that still existed in her at the time.

"Don't worry, you two. We're not letting anyone lose their memories or their minds this time." Bridgette said with fierce determination.

"So what's the plan?" Geoff glanced at Aelita.

"Knowing XANA the entire city will be one big booby trap designed to weaken us as we make out way to the Main Tower. If we split up we'll only be putting ourselves at greater risk since this place will have more dangerous traps than any other sectors and there is the possibility that the enemy will be even stronger here. We recovered all of our life points and linked Sector 5 to the Super Calculator through that tower that was being used a decoy. My hunch is that the tower being used to virtualize the studio, Kadic Academy, and possibly any other place is the Central Tower itself." Aelita pointed at the Main Tower. "That is our target."

"What happens if we shut it down?" Gwen asked.

"There are two theories that I can think of. One will be that if I shut it down it will completely and permanently shut down all the other towers in the Carbon Copy, never to be used ever again." Aelita answered.

"And the second?" LeShawna asked.

"...It could destroy the Carbon Copy." Aelita continued. "This place holds all the important data that the copy needs to function, much like Lyoko's Core but the core can be remade and thus Lyoko was recreated when XANA destroyed it the first time. But if the Main Tower is shut down than all the data streams that are sent into the other sectors will shut down, when that is done the Way Towers will shut down without the information to continue keeping the sectors running and the sectors will immediately vanish without the towers to maintain them one by one until the Memory Sector is left. I don't know if this place will vanish too but if it shuts down it like the other sectors than any hope XANA has of using this place as his main headquarters will vanish with it. He'll likely try to escape if he doesn't want to get caught in the shut down and end up permanently trapped here in darkness."

"Kind of like how Lyon and Nephilim tried to destroy Lyoko for good through the erasure program they set up." Noah commented. "So XANA's trump card can also be his weakness."

"So we go for the same strategy as the first time we came into a big city sector? Minus the part where me and Courtney lose our memory?" Duncan asked.

"And the part where we lost a team member," Cody muttered.

Everyone frowned as they remembered how they lost Seraphim because of XANA's tricks and forcing him to make the ultimate sacrifice.

"We won't let anything like that happen this time," Aelita insisted. "This time XANA has nowhere left to run. We're putting an end to him once and for all!"

"Hell yeah!" Eva pounded her fists together as everybody else let out a cheer to show their approval.

"...hell no!" Noah squeaked as he pointed up. A shadow began to cover them as a Kollosus seemed to melt out of the nearest sky scraper. "Where did he come from?!"

The Kollosus raised one hand up over its head.

"...that might not be good." Cody said. "...run?"

"RUN!" The entire group shouted in unison before dodging out of the way of the fist just before it crashed down where they had been.

However their troubles were just beginning as more than one Kollossus began to appear, rising up from the streets or out of the sides of buildings like they were made of water to take a shot at the group. The Lyoko Warriors scrambled over, ran around, or simply flew to avoid the reaching grasps and spurting fire of the Kollossus.

"Forget staying together! Split up and converge on the tower!" Aelita ordered the group. "Try to pair off in groups, never go alone!"

"You got it!" Eva shouted as she leaped through the air and punched one Kollossus right in the head, the blue energy around her fist protecting her from the scorching heat as she sent it reeling back and making it crash into two of its fellows, starting a domino effect and allowing the Lyoko Warriors stuck on the ground to continue unhindered.

Eva's attack however was not enough to keep the lava monsters down as they easily rose back up and chased after the group.

"Oh boy!" Noah mumbled as another Kollossus came around the corner.

He had went with Izzy, DJ and Eva, reforming Team Izzy that the orange haired girl had made up on Total Drama Island and had pointed out when they separated from the others.

"Oh yeah! More for us!" Izzy grinned.

"No not 'oh yeah'!" Noah groaned. "There's no way we can take them on, especially if they're coming at us in packs!"

"So what do we do genius?" Eva asked as a Kollosus moved to squish them with its large fist.

Noah grabbed them by the shoulders and phased down through the pathway they were on as the massive fist slammed down and broke the path to pieces. However all three came back up with Noah, DJ and Eva standing on Pterodactyl Izzy as she flew up over the giant lava golem before it could try attacking them again.

"We got to be smart here, not going off looking for the next big fight. We'll get that when we reach the tower." Noah said.

"Fine, ruin our fun." Pterodactyl Izzy pouted as she flew through the city.

They ended up having to pass more lava golems as they phased through the buildings and attacked with their giant fists and swords.

"At this point I don't think we need to worry about getting to the tower!" Eva said as she gripped Izzy's back. "These guys won't let up!"

"Whoo-hoo!" Izzy spun, dived, and flew out of the way as every lava fist and sword tried to grab or slash them. "Big Tower here we come!"

Xxx

Bridgette and Trent were in the air with Bridgette on her board and Trent on his guitar after activating its flight mode.

"I really didn't wish to split! How can we be sure that the others will make it to the tower?" Bridgette shouted.

"We'll just have to have faith that they'll make it! In the meantime, watch it!"

As they spoke the giant arm of a Kollosus came out of a building they were just passing and tried to grab them.

"WHOA!" Bridgette angled her board up, using its bottom as a shield and traveled down the lava golem's giant arm, flying out of its reach as the Kollosus emerged from the building.

"We might have to worry about ourselves for a little bit!" Trent called out as the two regrouped and continued their flight to the tower.

"I wish I could but I can't help but worry about Geoff, Gwen, and the others. Just look at the whole place. It's like Hawaii except with walking volcanoes!" Bridgette replied but focused on flying towards the Central Tower.

Xxx

"Yikes!"

Cody jumped out of the way as the fist of a Kollossus came up from the path he along with Gwen, Courtney, Duncan, and Geoff had been running on. They had just barely avoided being burned by the massive fist but the lava monster was already moving to attack them again.

"Not another one!" Duncan groaned. "Where do they come from?! Is there a monster factory underneath the city?!"

"Not a bad guess." Gwen pulled out her scythe. "But let's focus right now!"

The Kollossus swung its blade its blade down but the group was already moving and jumped out of the way and ran back the way they came.

"We'll never reach the tower like this!" Courtney exclaimed as they tried to escape the giant monster chasing them.

"Cody, can you Time Freeze everything and get us closer?" Gwen asked.

"It only lasts thirteen seconds but I can try teleporting us closer." Cody replied.

He reached out and grasped Gwen's hand who then grasped Geoff's hand while Cody grasped Duncan's hand with his other hand while Duncan grasped Courtney's hand.

"Okay here goes!" Cody closed his eyes...

...

"Uh why aren't we teleporting?" Duncan asked.

"What the..." Cody opened his eyes and tried again. "I can't!"

"What do you mean you can't?" Geoff asked.

"It's like I can use it!" Cody replied, as they all let go of each other's hands.

"But how is that possible? You've used it several times today and you had no trouble." Gwen pointed out while glancing back at the Kollossus gaining on them. "Detour!"

They ran down a corner they came upon but the Kollossus simply phased through the buildings easily like before.

"See? Calling the bad guy out led us into this mess!" Courtney threw a glare at Duncan. "Am I the only one realizing it?"

"Hopefully yes." Duncan muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing!" Duncan quickly said.

"Let's shelve that topic for when we are safe and somewhere without lava monsters chasing us, can we?" Gwen asked.

"Agreed!" Everyone else said as another Kollosus came out of hiding.

This one came out a building right in front of them, cutting off their escape route.

"Oh motherfu..." Duncan started but Courtney pulled him back as the large fist nearly squashed him and burned him alive.

"Okay, I can't teleport and thirteen seconds is not nearly enough to get us out of here safely." Cody gulped. "Why can't I teleport? Is it because we're closer to XANA? Can he affect our powers in this place?"

"I hope not. If it does than the emergency plan I just made up is screwed along with us." Gwen said as they all grouped together in a circle as they were surrounded on all sides by the gigantic sentinels. "Duncan, remember that one move you pulled off when Shadow brainwashed you?"

"You mean that..." Duncan trailed off. "I didn't even know I could do that until I tried to remember what happened while I was a mindless zombie."

"Can you do it?" Gwen pressed as the monsters came closer.

"If I can change into the Berserker, maybe." Duncan's fists around the handle of his sword tightened. "But what if..."

"Don't worry about that. Just try and see what happens. If we hesitate at this point we lose and the others will have a harder time without us." Gwen gritted her teeth.

As the giant monsters raised their fists and swords Gwen and Duncan closed their eyes and concentrated. Duncan exploded in a blast of green fire that made his friends jump away from him while Gwen's bright red Fire Aura activated. She grabbed Geoff and Cody while the Berserker reached out with a non flaming hand and grabbed Courtney's arm. Fire exploded from their feet, propelling them into the air like rocket missiles.

They shot up past the monsters before they could squish the warriors who shot off towards the tower.

"Looks like it worked." Gwen remarked as they flew towards the tower.

"Yeah, but we still don't know why my teleporting ability won't work." Cody pointed out, grasping Gwen's arm tightly.

**"Don't know...don't care."** The Berserker replied.

"Duncan's right. We can't think about that right now." Courtney agreed.

Xxx

Heather cart wheeled out of the way of gigantic sword as it sliced through the path she was on with Aelita and LeShawna.

"There's just no end to these guys!" Heather shouted as she landed on her feet with the two girls right behind her.

"Yeah, I'm think I'm getting a burn and we're digital!" LeShawna said as they stepped back.

The Kollosus aimed its sword down at them but Aelita was already one step ahead. "Plasma Beam!"

The beam of light slammed into the lava golem's face, disorientating it for a moment. Aelita took the chance to grab LeShawna and Heather and take off into the sky, flying over the monster's head.

"These aren't like most of XANA's monsters. They are powerful enough to withstand a blow to the Eye even though it freezes them for a few seconds." Aelita replied as she flew as fast as possible. "It was hard enough to put down one of them but with a whole legion of them roaming the city and somehow able to pass through the buildings like they aren't there makes this worse than a one sided fight."

"XANA's pulled out all the stops. As if virtualizing us and that school, sending those clones after us, and now a city full of giant lava monsters roaming it and able to walk through them like ghosts. Its official, XANA's taken the kid gloves off." LeShawna commented.

"Yeah and so will I when I get my hands on him." Heather muttered darkly.

"Save some for me, Heather. I just hope the others will be okay." Aelita looked up at the shape of the Central Tower as it grew larger. "I shudder to think how we'd feel if we lost anybody when we came this far."

Xxx

A pair of bright red eyes opened and watched as the warriors came closer to the Central Tower.

"Well, you made this far Sister and you still believe you can come all the way and defeat me. Well, I'm fair person so I'll allow the chance to try." XANA grinned. "But like I said you'll have a choice to make that will the outcome of the entire war."

He made a simple snap of his fingers and his creations responded as he knew they would. One by one each of his generals appeared around him.

"You asked for us, Master?" Lilith bowed.

"Aelita and her Warriors will be arriving at the tower in thirty point ten seconds." XANA spoke, not turning to face the generals. "They have made it past my Kollossus squad despite the element of surprise and have slipped past any attempt to stop them."

"Are we finally going to take them out instead of using tricks and traps?" Ryder asked with an eager grin.

"Yes, Ryder. You'll have your battle the instant they set foot inside the tower. But first we must prepare." XANA turned and looked at each of his generals. "You have all evolved and grown beyond even my expectations. Your personalities, your powers, your skills, your processing thought capabilities have reached beyond what I had thought possible when I created you but despite my pride I believe we must make preparations."

"What do you mean, Master?" Jinx asked.

"Aelita showed me something interesting during her battle with the copies of our guests. She shared her power with her comrades and drastically increased their powers and through the use of teamwork they became victorious." XANA explained, looking at Lilith. "Lilith, even amongst all the other generals you were special because you gained a sample of Aelita's power and through that you gained your own Keys to Lyoko."

"You believe I can share my powers with everyone to make them stronger?" Lilith asked.

XANA turned around and looked back the wall of floating screens. "As I battled Aelita and her allies throughout the many cycles I watched as they came to trust and depend on each other even though logically it was unnecessary when Aelita was still trapped in Lyoko and all that was needed to stop me was shut down the Supercomputer. Yet Jeremy and his friends did not shut it down and endlessly risked their lives for Aelita's sake. I could not understand even as I evolved and I thought their compassion for each other was a weakness. Yet at the same time I realized it was a strength as they became stronger for not just her sake but their own."

XANA grinned. "I had come to see that when I tried to manipulate them against each other and they led to failures even though I had come to understand them better. Failure sometimes unearths unwanted fruit, waiting to be ripened. I learned even more when I possessed William and I could almost see everything from a human's point of view, learning what could make them strong and vulnerable. I knew with the right amount and patience I could apply these lessons to my own benefit. You have all learned to work together, feeling emotions that are important for motivating you, and you are capable of working together much like the Warriors."

He turned around and looked directly at his generals. "Work together and share your powers and strength and attack them as one. Regardless of what motivation for fighting them this will be the key. Lilith, your powers as my angel will give your comrades, your brothers and sisters the power to vanquish Aelita's warriors once and for all."

Lilith bowed again. "We will not fail master."

"I know." XANA smiled. "I know."

Lilith stepped a few feet from her generals. "Code: Angel!"

In a flash of bright light Lilith was in her angel form surrounded by an aura that was a mix of light and darkness. She spread her arms out and the generals were engulfed in similar auras that made them cry out as they felt the power flowing through their veins.

"Come and feel the power...Let the power flow through you and become the ones who will achieve victory!" Lilith shouted.

The generals screamed as they were engulfed in pillars of light and darkness. XANA watched with a pleased look.

'You have shown me your strength now it's my turn.'

Xxx

"Hey look!" Eva pointed left.

Pterodactyl Izzy and the passengers on her back looked to see two familiar warriors propelled through the air by streams of fire blasting from their feet while carrying one or more familiar faces.

"They're not the only ones. Over there!" DJ pointed to the right.

They turned around and saw Aelita flying towards the tower with Heather and LeShawna holding onto her as tight as they can along with Bridgette and Trent flying not too far behind them.

"Oh yeah!" Pterodactyl Izzy laughed. "We're going all the way together!"

The airborne Warriors all came together and flew straight towards the Central Processing Tower, landing on the giant platform the tower rested on.

"We made it." Gwen sighed in relief.

"Don't be so quick, Gwenny. We still got to go inside." Heather stretched her limbs. "If this is anything it's going to suck big."

"I got to say, it's lot more creepy. Why could it look like the one in Lyoko? It was more welcome looking." Noah commented as they walked towards the entrance.

"Welcoming and XANA in the same sentence?" Cody asked.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it." Noah shrugged.

However before they made it to the entrance red colored Dragon Knights sprouted from the ground and surrounded the Warriors.

"Blood Knights!" Bridgette gasped.

The red colored version of the Dragon Knights that were more powerful and dangerous than their normal version. Like the normal Dragon Knights they came equipped with a variety of weapons ranging from swords, spears, and axes to guns that fire lasers like the rest of XANA's monsters.

"Welcoming committee?" Trent asked.

"Really? I thought those lava beasts attacking us and chasing all the way through this crazy sector was a sure sign of XANA saying 'Get out of my house'." Noah replied. "They've cut us off from the entrance and any chance of escape."

"It's nothing but another diversion. XANA wants to wear us out first before releasing the big guns." Aelita spoke up. "We can't stand around like this, not when XANA could be wreaking havoc on the rest of the world."

"So what do we do?" DJ asked.

"...We fight our through and take out anything in our way." Aelita's hands glowed with energy.

"I like the sound of that!" Eva grinned.

And just like that, they shot off like rockets. Pulling out their weapons, activating their powers, and letting out a way cry they descended on the pack of red armored monsters like wolves.

Xxx

Three Blood Knights carrying spears leapt forward to skewer their target. However said target surrounded her arms with energy as she blocked them, shattering their spears before blasting them to bits. She ducked as one appeared behind her and tried to stab her.

"Not fast enough!" Aelita shouted as she powered up energy her feet and kicked her enemy in the chest and watched as the Blood Knight shattered into nothing but code.

This is Aelita Schaeffer.

Daughter of Waldo and Anthea Schaeffer, student of Kadic Academy, girlfriend to Jeremy Belpois, and Leader of the Lyoko Warriors. She looked almost innocent and gentle looking whether she was in Lyoko or the real world and she had the personality to gain many friends and admirers along with her looks, most noticeably her pink hair. Yet she always carried a mysterious aura around her that showed she was mysterious even if no one really cared. Her friends knew though, they knew her secrets, her past, present, and her hidden strength.

Born and raised a decade ago before entering a digital world that left her sleeping until one lucky intervention by fate brought her back. If she had a normal life she would have been in her twenties, having a job or attending college, meeting someone, falling in love even though she had already done that. She sometimes felt like she carried the weight of the world on her shoulders but honestly she carried the weight of two worlds on her shoulders. She had to grow up even though she never had the chance when she and her Father escaped to Lyoko.

She was once a single girl alone in the digital universe with only a demon as her one companion before she was brought into the world of the living. Then she was instantly surrounded by friends, people who wanted to help, to know her, and give her a life. And then they were taken from her like her family and she had to become stronger, become a Leader, a Commander in a war that the entire world was blissfully unaware of. She grew, evolved , learned of her heritage and used it to become her enemy's greatest obstacle, matching _him_ in powers and denying _him_ any chance to inflict harm on the real world.

Aelita had become the Guardian of Lyoko and Earth and she was now ready to do her job.

Xxx

"Take this!"

Three Blood Knights carrying heavy axes were instantly blasted by the pink energy blasted released from her scythe. She then twirled her scythe in her hand as she leapt at another group charging at her. The pink glowing bladed end of her scythe effortlessly shattered the monsters made up of the corrupted data her Pink Spell had been designed to destroy.

"XANA breeds you morons like maggots doesn't he?"

This is Gwendolyn Madison.

Daughter of a hardworking mother and older sister to a brother she had spent most of her childhood taking care off as their mother worked extra hours to keep a roof over their heads and food to keep them alive. Their father had left when her brother was toddler, unable to handle the strain of raising two kids and caught himself killed because he was drunk and depressed. She resembled her mother mostly but she had her father's dark hair, his skin, and his passion for art. She wore dark clothing like a Goth but she wasn't depressed or suicidal, she could smile and feel love and joy like anyone else but they were only reserved for the people closest to her.

She had never wanted to enter the stupid contest when she applied. She only did it because of a stupid dare but it had changed her life in many ways. She slowly was surrounded by friends, boy who liked her, and she slowly came out of her shell. She made mistakes on the way, hurt people she had been close with, hurt herself with regret and karma, and accepted the glares and insults.

She made it through that and came upon this, the Hidden War that decided the fate of the world and the fate of her entire family. She thought she was crazy for doing this, she was crazy when she jumped in and joined the fight, she was crazy every time she appeared in Lyoko and pulled out her scythe, and to be honest she could care less. In cases like this sanity was not what was needed. It was survival and a lot of dumb luck. It had helped her become closer with her friends, make bridges with her enemies, become stronger in the show and in real life for everyone.

Gwendolyn Madison had learned how to relax, to smile and laugh in public, and how to stand up to anyone who was trouble.

Xxx

"Save some for me, Gwenny!"

Heather jumped over Gwen as a Blood Knight carrying two katanas tried to stab her. Heather launched a spinning kick that slammed into the Knight's fist, making it stagger and unable to react as Heather fired a shuriken at its Eye and deleted it.

"Ha! You owe me another." Heather smirked at Gwen.

"Dream on. You still me three more before we're even." Gwen scoffed.

"Give me three seconds and I'll be ahead!" Heather laughed as she jumped back into the fight.

This is Heather Chang.

Daughter of the wealthy Changs with one older sister and one younger brother. She never had an easy relationship with her family, except with her mother. Her sister was a snob, despite Heather's reputation, the real snob between the two and her little brother liked to take the time of the day just to piss Heather off for no reason. Life at school wasn't easy either when she first started, despite a parent's believe that their children were the perfect angels the one lesson you should always remember is that kids can be as cruel was any adult.

She had been picked on, mocked, insulted, all because of her appearance. However she instantly grew into an attractive young teenager as she entered high school and learning everything she needed to know she took control of her school as its new Queen Bee and ruled with an iron fist. People flocked her, complimented her, followed her orders, and let her into their clubs even though she only hung out so that they would know she was in charge. She expected the same from the contestants she met when she arrived on the island but she was met with fierce resistance from anyone who had a spine.

She hated LeShawna for standing up to her and actually having the spine to toss her off a cliff or lock her in a freezer. She hated Gwen because no matter how hard things got for the Goth she still managed to stand up and still found friends to support her. She hated Alejandro for making her fall in love with him and the one thing she hated more than anything else was losing. She had a vision of ruling Europe much like how she ruled her school through the money she won and then it all went to Hell.

She was injured, burned and left in a wheel chair before the first trip to Lyoko had somehow healed her completely. Suddenly she found herself changing as she fought monsters, generals, and other forms of digital trouble. She found herself bonding with her most hated enemies in the Big War, watching their backs as they watched hers. She needed their help when she was feeling vulnerable, like when Shadow took control of her and used her to undermine the group and they needed her help when they were in constant danger.

Heather Chang, for all of her nasty traits, had learned how to not be so nasty when it counted.

Xxx

Five Blood Knights carrying large swords lunged forward but a combination of water and lightning blasted them back, destroying their digital bodies in an instant.

"Oh yeah! We're the King and Queen of the party here!" Geoff laughed as he blocked another slash.

A Blood Knight tried to stab him in the back but a pair of long blue swords sliced it apart from behind.

"Stay away from my boyfriend!"

This is Bridgette Andrews and Geoff Williams.

These two have almost glued to the hips since they first met on the island. Bridgette, lover of Mother Earth, vegetarian, and surfer of the Great Blue. Geoff, the King of Parties and the Wild Man you can go to for a good time. Both make each other feel great with Bridgette's warmth and compassion and Geoff's easy going nature despite his moments when he says or does something foolhardy to earn his girlfriend's wrath. In Lyoko they are the personifications of their beliefs armed with deadly weapons and powers that spell certain doom to anyone who harms one of them or their friends.

Sure they've annoyed their friends with their constant making out no matter where they go they've proven they are willing to give it all to help save the world.

Xxx

**ROAR!**

The crowd of Blood Knights were instantly incinerated by the explosion of green fire that had engulfed them. In the center of the huge scorch mark left by the explosion the Berserker stood ready to continue the fight.

"Leave some for me will you?"

Courtney jumped over the Berserker as three more Blood Knight carrying long spears charged at them. Courtney spun her staff, parrying and deflecting their strikes while she spun and ducked out of the way of their spears. She pushed the center Blood Knight back with her strength even though the other two aimed to attack her from behind...

Just as she planned.

Courtney suddenly fell to her back with her staff holding the center Blood Knight's spear at bay. She didn't have to hold for long as other two spears flew over her and stabbed their own comrade in the chest. She spun her feet, tripping all three and jumped up, breaking the deadlock and swung her spear. All three Knights were instantly decapitated and vanished into red corrupted data.

"This is how you do it the professional way." Courtney grinned.

The Berserker simply scoffed. **"Whatever." **

This is Courtney Stiles and Duncan Matthews.

Courtney, the over demanding straight A student who used to be CIT, something she thought made her an expert in everything. Unfortunately this rubs people the wrong way and many people who could have been her friends often turned away from her, unable to take it anymore. She makes more enemies then friends, something she doesn't exactly care much for when it comes to winning. She wants to believe she can make everything in her life and unfortunately more than once she has found out her perfection is an illusion.

She thought she'd win Total Drama, she thought her skills as a CIT made her a natural leader, she thought she could make Duncan into the ideal boyfriend so her parents wouldn't threaten to disown her. And all those times exploded right back in her face, making her respond with anguish and anger, unable to accept her part in these tragic events and preferring to blame everyone else. However when the Hidden War appears around her she finds herself almost crumbling under the pressure, until everyone else offers her a hand to help stand back up.

The most surprising ones of those people were Gwen and Duncan, the very two she should have hated with her very soul.

After everything she did, everything she tried to do, they offered their support and helped her stand up when the sound of monsters and lasers echoed through the air all around her. They and the others helped her when she was in danger. She convinced herself it was only fair to do the same but to be honest she helped because she wanted to. She wanted to stop being a bitch, she wanted to stop yelling at everyone and making them hate her, all because she had somehow forgotten the hate long enough to become...a friend.

Courtney had learned how to become a friend.

Duncan the delinquent who committed vandalism and broke minor laws to spite his father and hides the softer side he had buried inside himself. He does have a softer side but only shows it to the people he truly cares about. He acts tough to make people be afraid of him, because it helps make him feel better. He acts like he doesn't care because if he looks weak people will look down on him, like his stuck up father.

He acts without thinking sometimes and more than one person pays the price. The images of Courtney and Gwen come to mind as he remembers one of his less than brilliant ideas. Courtney's heartbreak and Gwen's suffering happening because he couldn't admit he was afraid of simply speaking his mind and because he forgets to care when he's spiteful. These plans often come back to bite him as Gwen dumped him without a second thought when she learned the truth, even she learned the truth during an attack he couldn't remember.

He thought he may have lost both but that very night he was given another chance to make things right when they needed help in the digital universe. He stepped into the scanner and charged into battle, something he has never been afraid to do since he was little. He lost his memory for sometime but he gained it back and he was determined not to lose this chance to make things right. He now fights alongside people who he may have hurt or disliked because of how he acted.

Duncan was someone you could count on, even if no one, including himself believed it.

Xxx

A Blood Knight was flying into a building and it shattered instantly from the impact.

"Boy, Momma would be so mad it she saw me doing this." DJ in his metal golem said as he blocked a giant hammer from another Blood Knight.

He grabbed the hammer and lifted the Blood Knight into the air, proceeding to slam it into the ground with his strength.

This is Devon Joseph, best known as DJ.

A giant amongst his peer but was as brave as kitten most of the time and as soft as a marshmallow. He shrieks when he sees a harmless little cockroach crawling towards him, screams when he thinks he's hurt a little animal, and cries when he thinks he's hurt someone. Is it weird to see someone so big act like he's afraid of every little thing? Would it be surprising to see this soft and gentle giant reveal the part of him he only shows in Lyoko?

An unstoppable golem with the strength to break someone in two, not that he would actually do that, even if someone deserved it. He's force of unending strength, a walking armor that can take anything the enemy can throw, a guardian not afraid to step out and be hurt for the sake of his mother and friends.

DJ had learned how to be brave in the face of any danger.

Xxx

"Here's something I learned from playing Mario!"

LeShawna swung her hammer straight down and flattened a Blood Knight carrying a large shield. The shield did absolutely nothing to protect the Knight from being squashed into deletion by the larger hammer.

"It was more fun on the video game!" LeShawna laughed.

This is LeShawna Aalders.

Tough as nails with a very loud voice and brute strength to match the temper she carries, anyone who knows her knows the sweet compassionate part inside her. Openly aggressive in battle LeShawna has no need for a plan; she just smashes the enemy's head in. She never shows fear, even if she is afraid. She needs to be strong, she needs to look and act tough because if she doesn't everyone would be afraid.

Afraid of losing, afraid of not being able to stop _him_, afraid that they will never see their friends and loved one again. LeShawna stands up for the helpless and aggressively lays the beat down on anyone who goes too far. LeShawna is the one you can come to for almost anything and she would do it without a price.

You can always count on her, just don't piss her off or you'll end on the wrong end of the hammer.

Xxx

"Come on! You can do better than that!"

"Too slow!"

"Missed me!"

"Got a glitch for something!"

This is Cody Anderson.

In real life he portrays himself as one of the cool kids even though almost no one thinks that. He comes from a wealthy family but he doesn't flaunt his family's money in anyone's face. He likes to think he's a lady's man but honestly even he figured that one out. He admits he's not muscular, big, or cool like most other guys but after meeting Sierra he got a good idea of why Gwen thought his advances were annoying, even though he still managed to win her bra.

He does not keep grudges even if no one blames him for having a grudge. He does not shout or yell at anyone who annoys him. He doesn't get angry. He doesn't say he hates anyone.

He's too nice.

Now here he was dressed like a certain British Secret Agent, twirling laser pistols in his hands with the ability to stop time and teleport. He's become what he always thought he was and being a lady's man is even less than the last thing on his mind. Right now he's more concerned with winning the big battle and the consequences of losing. He's never been much of a winner, he lost the show twice after being mauled by a bear and knocked into the shark infested water by Alejandro.

But today...

Today he's going to win.

Xxx

Lightning blasted Blood Knights left in right as the flying guitar carried its master towards the entrance. Lasers flew at him from the Blood Knights carrying guns and he blasted back with fire, lightning and sound.

"Come on, guys! The concert's just getting started!"

This is Trent Walker.

The cool musician, the guy all the ladies fall for, he makes singing an art, all of songs are his own work, and he has a future as a famous musician. Well, one that is not part of a now defunct boy band that only sold one album. He's the cool goy everyone wants to hang out with and he's no douche that would take advantage of any girl that he might like. He gives it all to make the girl happy, even if he might take it too far.

He takes responsibility for his mistakes and he does everything he can for his friends...

Even if he has to risk his life for them.

Xxx

"Excuse me! Pardon me! Look out!" A hyped up female voice said as Blood Knights chased after her.

She turned into a snake that slithered between their legs, she changed into a bird that flew over their heads, and she changed into a kangaroo that kicked one Blood Knight down onto another causing an instant domino effect.

This is Isabella McCann, commonly known as...

"MY NAME'S IZZY LEGS AND I LIKE TO SAY...HELLO!" Izzy laughed.

A great many people have wondered what her mother was on when she was pregnant with Izzy. She made up stories of fighting aliens and the RCMP; she went by several names like E-Scope, Explosivo, and Brainzilla. She smiled and laughed at oddest sayings and things at the weirdest times and she had a temper matching her Explosivo personality that frightened even the most dangerous of beasts. That's not to say she's not nice, she's just hard stay with most of the time.

She lovers adventure, she loves fighting, she loves what she can become in Lyoko.

She gets the danger but she needs to stay positive when everyone else is miserable. She needs to what she because she gets a thrill out living and if she were to die she would make sure she'd have as much fun as she could so she could die with a smile.

From the moment she was born she learned how to live.

Xxx

A whole group of Blood Knight surrounded him brandishing all kinds of scary weapons while he looked bored instead of scared.

"Oooooh...scary." Noah said sarcastically.

That was when he ran at them, creating illusionary copies of himself as the Blood Knights charged at him. However they were unable to find the real him amongst all the ghosts that ran right through their bodies. Noah didn't try to possess since he knew they might explode if he did. He simply phased through the weapons and ran towards the entrance, preferring to save his strength and life points for the real battle.

This is Noah Carter.

The youngest of eight siblings and the smartest of all them combined. He looks and act bored most of the time, he acts like he's smarter than everyone else, even though that might be true sometimes. Only in the presence of people like Cody and Aelita is his intellect truly challenged and sometimes he even makes a mistake from time to time. He's not big and strong like DJ, Eva, or LeShawna nor is he as quick on his feet as Izzy, Heather, or Bridgette.

He doesn't have a batch of special powers like Gwen, Trent, or Aelita. But his greatest strength has always been his intellect, combined with his phasing ability, his ghost copies, and his ability to make almost any weapons out of his hands. These qualities and abilities have made him a valuable member of the team and he's more than up to the challenge of proving himself when the stakes are high. He's made a life out of outsmarting people when he rose to the challenge.

He made a bully cry by simply insulting his shoes, he wasn't afraid of Duncan threatening him, and he easily saw through Alejandro's facade. He weighs the pros and cons of every situation and right now he cons said if they lose they were all royally screwed.

Well, Noah Carter came onto Total Drama to find a challenge and it looks like he found it.

Xxx

"RAH!"

A blue tornado blasted its way through the gang of Blood Knights surrounding it, either sending them flying or crushing them under the heel of its feet. She ducked under a sword and punched the offender in the face, shattering its head in one blow. She grabbed another Knight and slammed into into a third one that came at her with a spear aimed at its heart.

This is Eva.

She never said her full name when she applied for Total Drama, she never shared any part of personal life with anyone outside of her, and she never made any attempt to be social. Why would she? She came to win and show the entire world you don't want to mess with her. Of course that and her dangerous temper may be what got her kicked off in the first season.

She had to sit the next two seasons out, sitting on the bench until she was finally given the chance to compete again. She managed to keep herself calm throughout the entire season, not wanting a repeat of what happened last time. She didn't care what everyone did when they were not on the show; she had more important things to worry about. She was strong, fearless, and she didn't show weakness by worrying about anything.

That was when the revelation of the Lyoko and the Hidden War nearly half the cast had been part came as a total shock. She tried to act casual but when the blast of adrenaline went through her as she took part in her first battle she found herself having _fun_. She laughed as she fought, enjoying the new found powers and strength she had gained and suddenly found herself being just a little bit social. She got along with everyone just fine, if they didn't annoy her than she had no trouble with them. She even admitted she liked Aelita because even though the pink haired girl was smaller she was not afraid and she made her laugh when she threatened to put Noah in a digital tutu.

Eva never really had friends and even if she would never admit to herself she did consider the group the closest thing she ever had to friends, even if she hated a few of them for past transgressions. Just because she's learned how to be a little friendly doesn't mean she's changed much.

She is who she is: a fighter.

Xxx

Together, they are the heroes of this epic tail.

They are the ones the world is relying on to stop _him_. They are what they never imagined they would be at all. A single group of different teens come together with powers and skills that literally made them super heroes.

They even had their own team name: the Lyoko Warriors.

They are there when the world calls them.

They stand tall when danger comes for them.

They emerge from the end of the battle and come out stronger for the next one.

And they will see this war through to the end.

Xxx

"HERE WE COME!"

Aelita's plasma beam blasted through the front door of the giant tower allowing them to run inside. When they entered the Central Processing Tower in the City Sector of Lyoko the ground floor was dark with only a few lanterns for light that showed a huge spiral case of stairs. This time they emerged into a giant chamber that resembled the interior of Sector 5 but the major difference was that the walls and floor were blood red and there was a huge gaping hole in the center.

"Look!" Bridgette pointed at the center of the huge gap.

There was a platform suspended over the center of the gap, held up by a single bridge that connected the platform to both ends of the gap. In the very center of the platform were five large crystals with the outlines of humans inside of them.

"Is that..." Cody started.

"It's them!" Aelita cried out as she ran forward.

At long last she had found them! The first friends she had met and enjoyed nearly six years of her life with before they were cruelly taken from her. She missed them badly and wondered if she would ever see them again. She wondered if they were still alive but she could tell they were right in front of them.

She had no logical explanation, she just knew it was them.

However before made it to the bridge she suddenly stopped, sensing something very familiar.

"Aelita, what's..." Gwen trailed off. "It's _him_."

"Welcome, honored guests."

Everyone stiffened as a very familiar face stepped out from behind the crystals, presenting his usual dark smirk and his red eyes flared with amusement. The same being that had been their greatest enemy since they first arrived in France, robbed Aelita of her friends, and tried so many times to kill them.

"You..." Aelita growled.

He wasn't just an enemy, he was _the_ enemy. The hidden enemy who had terrorized the world for nearly a decade without any except for them knowing about it. The phantom they had feared and hated since they learned of his existence and the grief he had caused. The demon that snuck out of the dark to steal their lives.

To them he is the personification of the word evil.

He is a monster, a mass of corrupted data that had little to no compassion for anything what so ever. He is the creature that lurks in the corners of the Internet, plotting the demise of humanity and the domination of the Earth. The would be slaughterer of billions if not for the determination and sheer dumb luck of his enemies managing to save everyone at the very last second. The evil digital conscious that looks to the war as just another challenge, a puzzle, a game for him to win at any cost.

Their version of the big bad villain like the ones they see in movies or on TV like Megatron from Transformers, Sauron from Lord of the Rings, Darth Sidious from Star Wars, or Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter. Only this one was _their_ enemy and he has demonstrated to be just as dangerous and cunning as those other villains, perhaps just little more since he has managed to outsmart his enemies at the last second and escape death. He was supposed to be the one who looked after Lyoko and helped create the ideal World Without Danger.

But as he reached sentience he gained ambition, the kind of ambition that would not allow him to be the caretaker of an empty world while allowing the real world, the planet known as Earth, succumb to humanity's pitiful greed. So he built an army of monstrous digital creatures, developed powers to alter almost anything in the world to his liking, and turned them loose on his creators and humanity. All for the sake of his dark vision...

As they stare at him with fear, anger, and hate the images of his crimes come rushing to the top of their minds...

_The Red Eye Virus that took control of TVs, cell phones, and every electronic in France..._

_The Tarantula preparing to blast Aelita's face off..._

_The possessed Total Drama cast attacking the factory..._

_The Terror Bird flying over France, inciting fear and panic across the streets..._

_The clone of Aelita stabbing Gwen with a knife..._

_Trapping the rest of the cast in a world of nightmarish memories..._

_Chasing them through the mountains with monsters..._

_Trying to blind, drown, burn, crush, electrocute, or freeze them with anything under his control..._

_Infecting Gwen with a virus that made her deathly sick and turning her into his pawn..._

_Forcing Seraphim to sacrifice himself to save Lyoko..._

_Robbing Cody and Noah of their minds..._

_Sending them through time and leaving them to die at the hands of his past self..._

_Injuring Aelita and making her lose her memories again and then setting up a possessed Duncan to kill her in Lyoko..._

_Creating a tornado to kill DJ and Jennifer even though she was never part of the group..._

_Virtualizing the entire studio and Aelita's school on the island they all met and attacked with legions of monsters..._

It all came rushing back to them as even the happy ones like Bridgette, DJ, and Izzy glared at him with complete and utter loathing. All the pain, all the grief, all the suffering, it made them stand together to declare no more!

"What's the matter, Aelita? After all this time you've finally found the people you've sought, yet you show no joy." XANA reached and tapped the crystal holding Jeremy. "Is it that you're happier with your new friends?"

Aelita fired an energy sphere at XANA who stepped out of way and away from the crystals. "Stay away from them!"

"Ooh, touchy." XANA's smirk widened slightly. "Well then, let's invite everybody so we can have some fun."

The platform holding Aelita's friends lifted into the air with bridge breaking up and falling into the gap.

"No!" Aelita shouted, trying to reach out to her friends.

"To congratulate you all for making it this far I present to you the humans you've sought to rescue. It's the least I could out of compassion, now you can all sleep together in the same tomb." XANA chuckled as the platform lifted up out of the chamber. "Do try and make it to the top though. I'm a fan of the big showdowns."

"After him!" Aelita said.

However six blasts of light came down from above and surrounded the Lyoko Warriors.

"What is that?" Heather asked.

"Generals." Gwen replied darkly.

The bright aura surrounding the generals and the glowing white eyes made them look more dangerous than before as they prepared to attack. They all knew that right at this very moment, they had entered not just into another battle...

But the final battle.


	107. Episode 105: Raid in XANA's Tower

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 107

_As Aelita looked on in shock as her friends started to fall one by one while she could only gasp as they faded before her very own eyes._

_"It's a pity isn't it? I warned you before, dear sister that fighting like brutes would accomplish nothing." The Enemy looked at her with his sinister grin as he spoke in the voice that was a mix with the light British accent of a youth and the cold hard machine tone that haunted her in her very dreams. "For this blunder you have my pity. I had thought with enough pain and suffering you'd be able to rise from the ashes much like how I did when I learned what it is to be truly the one who will establish peace and order in that garbage heap we refer to as the real world. Perhaps I was too hopeful...perhaps I should have been merciful and ended it so long ago...like a good older sibling would have done."_

_Aelita could only let out a scream as her powers flared to life around her._

Xxx

Aelita shook her head when the vision ended; desperately hoping that she was hallucinating. Right now was not the time for visions, especially since they were about to get into this really big fight. XANA was floating to the top of the tower on the platform with the original Lyoko Warriors trapped in crystal like prisons while leaving his Generals to delay her and the others. She looked at each of the Generals, sensing their powers rolling off them in waves through her Second Sight ability. It felt like their power engulfed the interior of the Central Tower without even trying.

Her eyes first landed on Ryder of the Storm, the first General XANA created after recruiting Shadow. Red electricity sparked all around his body as he held his sword out which was also released red electricity into the air. His mouth showed a dangerous grin while his eyes showed eagerness for the battle that was about to start like he always did when he appeared. He had now become what his title had meant as the red electricity around him almost made him look like a storm cloud that was so intense it could easily overpower a tornado.

Aelita then looked to Yuki of the Blizzard, XANA's Ice General who was clothed completely in white with white hair. The bright aura that engulfed her figure almost looked like snow dancing around her, further reflecting her image as Snow Woman. Her face was the same as always, calm and composed with the intent to fight seen in her bright blue eyes. Aelita could see ice forming the ground around Yuki who did not seem to be even thinking of freezing the ground around her.

Next was Sora of the Maelstrom, the winged General who could use the wind itself as a weapon. Among all of XANA's Generals Sora was easily the most childish but he was still a dangerous threat even if he was alone. Aelita could see the outline of a tornado surrounding Sora who was casually holding the hilts for his wind blades in his hands. The very air itself seemed to move on Sora's command and he looked ready to fight no matter how he felt.

Aelita then settled her eyes on Jinx of the Curse, who showed her signature smirk when she was prepared to battle. Her body was engulfed by a bright purple aura, her pink eyes were shining with anticipation, and her hair seemed to flow through the air even though there was no wind. The way she always looked eager to fight it was sometimes hard to imagine she was created from Gwen's DNA but they all thought the same thing with Sora who was made from Heather's DNA.

As Aelita looked at Cain of the Inferno she was reminded of the familiar pain she always felt when looking at the General that was created from a scan of the digital DNA of Seraphim, the one who sacrificed himself to save her and Lyoko. His form literally blazed with bright orange flames that highlighted his form and she could see bright crimson eyes glowing underneath the visor covering his face. The flaming wings sprouted from his back, releasing small embers into the air and Aelita could see the image of his pet Phoenix Ember standing behind him, letting out a howling screech.

And finally she turned and looked at the leader of the Generals, Lilith of the Mirage.

The most dangerous of the Generals, she was almost as deadly as her master and perhaps had the potential to be his equal. She was created from Jeremy's DNA but she had the same kind of powers as Aelita and XANA but she only used these powers for achieving victory for her master. She was dangerous, she was unpredictable, and she was perhaps the greatest enemy the Warriors had faced other than XANA himself. She was in her angel form with her white angel like and black bat like wings spread out while her right red eye burned bright red like it was made of lava.

Aelita was sometimes really nervous at how much Lilith seemed to resemble XANA at time when she was in her Angel Form. Her mannerisms and powers resembled XANA's so much Aelita wondered if XANA considered Lilith more than a General.

"Aelita."

Aelita glanced at Gwen who had her scythe out. "Gwen?"

"Leave this guys to us. Go after XANA." Gwen said, making Aelita look at her shock.

"What?!"

"You heard her, Aelita." This time it was DJ who spoke. "These guys will tire you out if you stay here and fight with us. We need you at full power to fight XANA."

"If you stay here you'll end up being everyone's target." Noah agreed, as he shifted his arms into laser cannons. "XANA is the heart of this entire thing, take him out and the body of this whole garbage heap dies."

"This is what we all came here for, remember?" Duncan asked, holding his sword with both hands. "Saving the world and everyone in it and all that junk too..."

"But the biggest reason we're here is because we want to win. Being the hero is just meant to give it a nice ring." Heather continued, shifting into a fighting stance. "At least I came here to see the look on XANA's face when you kill him for good this time."

"I'd pay money to see that." Courtney twirled her staff in her right hand. "We can make speeches about we're going to save the world all we want but we all know why came here and what we want to see happen."

"XANA...Dead!" Izzy grinned. "And us standing on top of the digital world!"

"So hurry and go kick his ass and save your friends!" Geoff smiled split his axe into his chakrams.

"And make sure you wait long enough for us to catch up." Bridgette twirled her swords in her hands.

Aelita looked at each one of the friends she had made since this nightmare began and she could see the looks in their eyes telling her to go on without them.

"You guys...Thank you." Aelita smiled as she nodded. "But I am counting on all of you to survive this. Whatever you guys do...just don't die."

"Ha! These losers getting rid of us? Fat chance!" LeShawna laughed as she gripped her hammer. "We'll join you in a few minutes. Now go!"

Aelita quickly did as she was told and took off into the air, leaving the rest of the group to face off against the Generals.

"I don't think so." Lilith said and with a snap of her fingers the Generals vanished.

"Oh no! Aelita!" DJ cried out.

Aelita flew up after the rising platform, seeing XANA looking down at her with his usual and uncaring smirk. He didn't seem all that bothered that she was chasing him up to the top of the tower, meaning he already had planned for this. A sound in the walls alerted her that something was happening and she quickly glanced through the corner hr vision.

Giant red I-beams emerged from the walls and attempted to cut her off from reaching XANA. Aelita however nimbly dodged and spun out of the way of each beam before they could touch or squish her. As one came out in front of her and she was about to slam into it she held out her right hand and fired an energy blast that shattered the beam into pieces. As she blasted through the debris she spotted shadowy arms coming down towards her.

"XANA!" Aelita shouted angrily. "COME BACK HERE AND FIGHT!"

She blasted through the shadows arms as they lunged at her, dodging their attempts to grab or punch her. She was not going to let anything stop her from rescuing Jeremy and the others no matter dangerous it was. Her body surged with pink energy that instantly burned through any shadow arm that tried to touch her. She flew up faster and shot up past the platform as it came close the ceiling where there was a hole that was large enough for the platform to fit through and lead it to the next level.

XANA stared up at Aelita as she hovered above him, the pink energy sparking around her body making her look very intimidating. However XANA didn't look alarmed that his most dangerous enemy was hovering before him and the platform had not yet reached the next level of the tower.

"It's time to end this, XANA." Aelita stated as she pointed her hand at him and prepared an energy blast. "Once and for all!"

Just as she was about to attack XANA an energy bolt hit Aelita's right side, earning a shocked cry from her lips as she was knocked out of the sky. XANA watched as she fell back to the bottom of the first level, watching with a silent grin. Aelita managed to shake off her shock and realized she was falling. Managing to straighten herself she landed on one of the giant I-beams that had come out of the walls and looked to see the platform float up through the tunnel leading to the second level.

"Damn it!" Aelita growled.

"Disappointed, Aelita?"

Aelita gritted her teeth as she turned around and saw the Generals standing on I-Beams above her with Lilith floating down with her wings spread.

"You still haven't played with us yet." Lilith said with a grin.

"Get out of my way!" Aelita fired a Plasma beam at Lilith who simply smacked the energy beam away with one hand.

"You didn't say please." Lilith wiggled her index finger back and forth like Aelita was a naughty child with her hands caught in the cookie jar. "You have to wipe your feet first before Master XANA lets you any further into his domain."

"Aelita!"

Aelita and the Generals looked down to see the rest of the Lyoko Warriors catching up by flying or jumping from I-beam to I-beam to reach Aelita.

"Get away from her!" Trent fired a lightning attack from the tip of guitar.

Everyone who could use long range attacks fired at the Generals along with Trent before they could attack Aelita.

"Try this!" Jinx twirled her spear and released a gigantic beam of purple colored energy that blasted through their attacks and traveled down towards the warriors.

"Oh crap!" Trent tried to block the attack with this Shield Note but to his shock the shield collapsed and the giant energy beam split into thousands of smaller beams that hit the warriors and knocked them into the air.

"Don't forget me!" Ryder swung his sword at them. "LIGHTNING ARC!"

Streams of red lightning burst from his sword and hit the Lyoko Warriors before they could recover from Jinx's attack and sent the Warriors spiraling down to the ground floor. They all hit the ground hard, letting groans and cries from the feeling of being beaten down so easily.

"Ugh...no way..." Noah groaned as he rolled onto his stomach and looked up. "That was not fun."

"You think?" Heather struggled to stand up. "Just how in the hell did they get so much power? It's like someone gave them a digital version of Popeye's spinach."

"Our life points took a beating..." Aelita grunted as she sat on her knees. "If we're not careful then another hit will take us before our life points regenerate."

"Sorry, everyone but your big dramatic quest is over." Lilith called down from above. "If you give up now I'll put in a good word for you."

"Yeah, I don't want to end up blasting my momma across the Web." Sora agreed.

In a flash of red light the generals all vanished into thin air.

"If that's not a sign I shouldn't have got out of bed this morning I don't know what is." Noah groaned as he managed to stand up.

"Like Heather said, they've been eating their spinach." Gwen leaned against her scythe.

"So what do we do now?" DJ helped Cody stand up.

"No choice...we have to go after them." Aelita answered as everyone stood up. "Everyone ready?"

"Man, XANA won't know what-WHOA!" Geoff didn't get a chance as he was pulled up towards ceiling.

"Geoff!" Bridgette ran after him only to be pulled up by the same force that took Geoff. "WHOA!"

"That's not normal!" Eva remarked as she jumped after them, not minding she was being pulled too.

"The gravity of the chamber has been altered." Aelita realized as she jumped up. "Come on! The reversed gravity will take us up to the next level."

"Whoa! Space Izzy!" Izzy laughed as she made swimming motions as the reversed gravity lifted her up.

"She's definitely an alien." Courtney jumped into the air, letting herself be pulled up.

"What else is new?" Duncan asked as he followed her.

The warriors let themselves be lifted up by the reverse gravity and allowed it to pull them up to the next level after XANA and his generals. However when they made up through the tunnel they found themselves floating in what looked space with flashing lights resembling stars but the setting was a mix of red and black.

"Maybe Space Izzy wasn't so far off." Cody remarked nervously.

"It's just another illusion, like everything XANA makes in his so called kingdom." Heather remarked as she looked around.

"That means another trap." Gwen looked up. "Up there!"

Everyone looked up to see purple swirling cloud coming towards them.

"I think that's..." Bridgette started.

"Yeah. I know that purple cloud anywhere." Gwen frowned as she pulled out her scythe. "Get ready!"

The purple cloud engulfed them before they could react but Gwen activated her Pink Energy Aura, easily blasting the cloud away from her.

"Guys, you okay?" Gwen called out.

However there was no one around to reply to her question. Instead of someone answering her question a bolt of purple energy flew at her and she hastily swung her scythe, releasing a pink energy blast that cancelled it out. She didn't have long to wait for the next attack that slammed into her back and sent her flying forward.

"Ugh!" Gwen managed to balance herself and looked around the floating void she was in. "That you Jinx? Come on out, you crazy little brat!"

"Aw but where's the fun in that? I'm still deciding how I'll whoop your ass here and now, Gwenny." Jinx's voice came all around Gwen. "Quickly or serve you up as a trophy for Master XANA."

That was when a barrage of purple energy beams flew at her and she tried to block by spinning her scythe in her hands, creating an energy barrier. The force of the energy beams sent her flying back but she managed to hold them off.

'Where is she?' Gwen tried to locate her opponent before she was overwhelmed.

Looking carefully in front of her she saw where the energy bolts were coming from and channeled energy into her scythe.

"I SEE YOU!" Gwen flew forward and swung her scythe releasing a crescent shaped wave of pink energy that collided with the origin of the energy blast.

The collision resulted in a blast of light that allowed Gwen to see Jinx as the General blocked the attack with her spear and evaded it.

"That was good, Gwenny. Still as brave as ever." Jinx commented.

"I wasn't exactly afraid of the dark as a kid, you know. And now I'm going to blast my right through you to get to XANA if you don't get out of my way." Gwen replied, prepared to attack again.

"Whatever. This time there's no way out, Gwenny. You don't have anyone to help this time and that's a major downer for you." Jinx remarked.

"Says you. I've taken you down plenty of time before with one hand holding my scythe. Let me help you remember." Gwen sprung forward.

"Not this time." Jinx thrust her spear forward.

Both spell casters grappled against each other with their staff like weapons before flying back. Jinx fired another barrage of purple energy beams while Gwen retaliated with another crescent wave from her Pink Aura. However to Gwen's shock Jinx's energy beams plowed right through her energy attack with what looked like little effort.

"What the?!" Gwen gasped in surprise.

"My turn!" Jinx launched at her like a rocket and swung her spear as the blade end spark with purple energy.

Gwen found herself struggling to dodge as each slash almost cut her in two.

Xxx

"I think I have a hangover."

"Izzy feels like a snow girl."

Bridgette opened her eyes and sat up when she heard a familiar voice. "...Aelita? Izzy?"

"Bridge?" The pink and orange haired girls sat up and looked down at her. "You okay?"

"I'm okay. The last thing I remember was that purple cloud...Jinx!" Bridgette jumped to her feet. "That was her poison cloud!"

"Well, whatever it was supposed to do it didn't work. We're still digital and we're still inside the tower." Aelita stood up next to Bridgette. "But look around."

They seemed to be standing in an exact copy of the Ice Sector however there was no night blue sky above them, only pure darkness. Snow fell around the two warriors as they regained their bearings.

"A freezer from the looks of it." Bridgette remarked. "Hey, do you feel..."

Both girls looked down and gasped as ice started traveling up their feet.

"That's not good!" Bridgette gulped.

"Bridgette there's only one General we know that can manipulate ice like this..." Aelita glared forward as the person she spoke of appeared. "Yuki."

The Ice General appeared in a swirl of snow with her cloak flowing around her as if there was wind inside the chamber. Her blue eyes remained stoic as she stared down the two warriors.

"Great, out of the ice box and into the arctic." Bridgette remarked as she sliced at the ice around her feet while Izzy tried to slash at the ice growing around her bare feet.

However the ice remained sturdy enough to endure her swords while Yuki formed an ice whip and swung it at them. The three Warriors were sent sliding back as the whip collided with them with the force of a tank and they hit the frozen ground hard. The ice from the ground around them began traveling up their bodies fast and if they didn't do something they'd be forever frozen in Yuki's snowy garden.

'I can't let us lose here... I got to do something!' Bridgette thought as she called on her hydrokinetic powers.

Yuki watched as both warriors were almost completely frozen before Bridgette started glowing bright blue. The Ice General braced herself as Bridgette shattered the ice around her and ran over to Aelita, shattering the ice with one blow from her swords.

"Bridgette..." Aelita looked up at her. "You're powers..."

"I guess all those fights we had really gave my powers a boost." Bridgette smiled. "Especially if I'm mad enough."

Bridgette turned and faced Yuki with her tattoos glowing. "Aelita, you and Izzy go on ahead and give my best to XANA. I'll take care of her."

"But Bridgette..." Aelita tried to protest as she stood up.

"Just go already!" Bridgette shouting, surprising Aelita and Izzy.

Bridgette almost never shouted even when she was not in a good mood. Deciding there was no time to argue Aelita grabbed Izzy by the shoulders before she took off and flew up to the darkness above the icy area. Aelita just flew up and hoped she would be at the top of the tower soon. Bridgette prepared herself as Yuki created an icy spear and leapt at her.

Bridgette wanted to go on the offensive but Yuki's sudden new speed forced her to block the icy spear before it could stab through her.

"Just what has XANA been feeding you?" Bridgette stepped back as she parried another strike.

Yuki didn't answer as she turned her spear into another icy whip and swung it at Bridgette, hitting her in the face and sent her spiraling through the air. The surfer let out a cry as she slid down the icy floor, rolling a few times before stopping and used her swords to help herself stand up.

"This is not good." She muttered as Yuki attacked with the whip again.

Xxx

"Now where are we?" Heather groaned as she stood up. "What's with bad guys and elaborate traps?"

"You're one to talk about traps, Heather." Noah said as he along with Cody and DJ stood with her.

The four of them had their backs facing each other as they looked around the place they had woken up in. It looked a graveyard with a black and red sky above them, with various statues of beasts, angels, and demons surrounding the four warriors.

"What kind of place is this? XANA's playroom?" Noah asked.

"Ready to play, Noah?" A familiar female voice rang out from all around them. "I have a very special game just for you all."

"Why am I not surprised? Is that you, Lilith?" Noah called out as everyone stiffened.

If this was Lilith they were facing they were in major trouble with Lilith's power of illusion combined with her Code: Angel abilities. Only Aelita stood at a chance when Lilith was at full power.

"That's the question, huh Noah? What is there and what isn't there?" Lilith's voice chuckled. "Real or digital the five senses are under my control."

"This is all just one big show for her. None of this is real." Heather gritted her teeth. "I swear she's worse than Chris sometimes."

"How's this for real, pony butcher?" Lilith called out before streams of energy arrows burst out from the statues and overwhelmed the four warriors.

"Crap!" Cody covered his face as energy arrows nearly hit every part of his body. "How is she firing from everywhere?!"

"She's not! It's another illusion!" Noah grunted as three arrows hit him in the chest. "She's toying with us again!"

"Hang on!" DJ spread his arms out and created a barrier around them to block the arrows. "This should block them!"

"Now what? We're pinned down unless we can get her out in the open." Heather grunted as the energy arrows that had hit her vanished, leaving sparkling cuts that healed a second later. "I'm pretty sure we're very low on life points at this point."

"Yeah. The Extra Life Program takes longer when we're constantly losing life points." Cody nodded. "But back to the matter at hand..." He pulled out his pistols. "The only way I can think is to blast everything in sight until we actually hit Lilith."

"That's your best idea?" Noah glanced over his shoulder at Cody. "That's it?"

"You got a better one?" Heather readied her launchers.

Noah only answered by turning his hands into laser cannons.

"DJ, get ready to drop the barrier and activate your golem form. The armor will hopefully block the energy arrows as we jump out and attack." Cody said to DJ who nodded. "The second that the barrier vanishes we jump out and fire in any direction no matter how many arrows hit us."

"Sounds like a plan." Noah shrugged. "Ready?"

"Ready." Cody nodded.

"Ready." DJ agreed.

"Hurry up will you?" Heather agreed in her own way.

"Okay...NOW!"

DJ dropped the barrier and activated his Golem form as the other three jumped forward in the directions they were facing and fired lasers and shuriken in any direction without hitting each other.

"One of these has to hurt!" Heather shouted as she spun and fired shurikenb in every direction.

"Ruin my fun will you?" A statue of a Buddha fired a barrage of energy arrows that hit Heather head on and knocked her down.

"That one!" DJ looked to the Buddha statue and leapt it. "Got you now!"

"So you did." The statue faded away, leaving Lilith in her Angel Form. "You want a reward?"

DJ held her with both his arms as tight as he could. "Guys, go and find the others!"

"We can't leave you!" Cody protested.

"Go! I'm giving you the chance to go and get XANA! Hurry!" DJ grunted as Lilith's wings began to flap and lifted them into the air.

"DJ!" All three shouted as both DJ and Lilith vanished into the swirling black and red sky.

"...Let's go." Heather said after a few seconds. "DJ's buying us the time we need to stop XANA. We can't slow down."

Heather was many things but she knew when to be grateful and a little considerate when the time called for it. DJ just risked his life to help them get away and there was no way they could afford to mess up right now.

Xxx

"Well this is a fine little scene we've appeared in." Duncan commented as he and Courtney appeared back in what looked outside the tower in the City Sector.

Except there was no Central Processing Tower for them get back inside. They walked down the blue bridge they appeared on with seemingly no destination in mind.

"Knowing the bad guys this is probably just another big illusion to throw us off the trail." Courtney looked around with a focused look.

"So how we do get out of here if we don't know where we're going?" Duncan asked. "We can't get out and we can't get to the top where XANA is."

"To be honest I'm almost a little relieved." Courtney confessed making Duncan stare at her. "Come on, Duncan. We blew it when we confronted Nephilim at the top of the tower back in Lyoko. How can we do any better against XANA?"

"One: Nephilim used a cheap trick on us to take us out of the game. That's not going to happen. And two: XANA's not interested in erasing our memories as much as he is interested in erasing us for good." Duncan counted with his fingers. "Three: I'm not afraid of him. I'm going for my ten pounds of digital flesh or code before the others have a chance."

Courtney didn't reply as they kept on walking but they didn't get a chance to walk for very long. A gigantic explosion of fire blasted the path they were on and almost fried them both.

"LOOK OUT!" Duncan jumped in front of Courtney and swung his sword, releasing a stream of green fire to try and cancel out the wave of fire coming at them.

It barely slowed the blazing flames down and Duncan's attack kept them from being burned. The force of the attack sent them skidding down the street/bridge they were and they finally stopped almost ten feet away from where they had been before. They hit the ground hard, letting gasps and cries from the force of the attack and lay still for ten seconds before they tried to stand up.

"Oh...great..." Duncan groaned as he struggled to stand up. "That was something new."

"New? Did you hit your head or something?" Courtney leaned on her staff for support as she stood up. "That was the calling card of..."

"I know."

Just as Duncan cut her off a claymore came out of the fire and Duncan barely blocked it with his sword, making his feet slide back a few inches. Standing before them was XANA's General that controlled the element of fire, Cain of the Inferno.

"Cain." Courtney bit her lip.

Out of all the generals they ended up running into Cain was perhaps the last one she wanted to face. Duncan grunted as Cain forced him back several more inches. The flaming general was not only a fiery force to be reckoned with but he was also _strong_. Cain flung his sword up, knocking Duncan back to Courtney who held her staff ready.

"Great, we stepped into the sun by the looks of it." Courtney whispered. "This guy was strong enough to go head to head with half of us before and he looks even stronger."

"Yeah, but we were not beaten down that easily." Duncan smirked as held his sword in both hands.

Cain slowly and calmly strolled towards them with flames dancing around his sword.

"Okay, Matchstick, you want to play with fire?" Duncan said as green flames engulfed him and changed him into the Berserker. "**Prepare to be burned!**"

The Berserker launched itself at Cain like a rocket, leaving a trail of green flames in its wake as it swung its blade down at Cain's head. The flaming general swung slashed with equal ferocity and both fighters were engulfed in explosions of green and red fire.

"Duncan!" Courtney shouted in concern.

The Berserker blasted up out of the explosion with green fire blasting from its feet like rocket boots. Cain followed his opponent into the air by sprouting his flaming wings and channeling fire through his feet like the Berserker just did. The Berserker roared and unleashed a barrage of fire balls that slammed head on into Cain who shielded himself with his own flaming wings. A moment later he sprung them out and released a barrage of fire balls of his own that were much larger and in greater numbers that easily overwhelmed the Berserker's attack.

"This is not good." Courtney gulped as she watched the aerial battle. "Not only is Cain immune to fire but he's much stronger than ever...strong enough that he can even go head to head with the Berserker no problem."

In a flash of blazing fire Cain's pet Phoenix Ember appeared beneath him and allowed him to stand on its back as it let out a screech and shot towards the Berserker. Duncan's flaming form grunted as it flew out of the way and avoided Ember's sharp claws.

"He has the power to control fire at a level higher than Gwen's Flame Aura, a Phoenix to act his shield and long range attacker, super strength that would make even Eva wary, and he's even _stronger_ now. What kind of crazy Hell have we stepped into?" Courtney muttered as she looked at her staff. "I was hoping to save this for fighting XANA but I guess I have no choice now. Not if I want Duncan and I to make it out of here alive."

The Berserker shot at Cain to take him out before Ember could stop it but the General jumped off his pet Phoenix, sprouting his wings and thrust his arms out, raining down flaming arrows on the Berserker. The flaming skeleton grunted as angled itself out of the way and increased the stream of fire coming out of the bottom of its feet to increase its speed. However that had been part of Cain's plan as soon as he released the arrows he fell towards the city and flew back up towards the Berserker as it was distracted by his attack.

"That attack was just a decoy! Duncan!" Courtney shouted.

The Berserker growled as looked down to see Cain fly up at it with his sword ready to cut it in half. Luckily for the Berserker Cain caught Courtney throwing staff at him like a javelin through the corner of his eye and ducked. The staff flew over his head and impacted the Berserker through the shoulder and sent it into a building with a loud crash. Cain looked down at Courtney as she jumped off the bridge made path she had been forced to stand and wait on as he and Duncan fought and landed in the hole the Berserker's impact made. She landed perfectly on her feet and spotted the Berserker changing back into Duncan's human form as he pulled her staff out of his shoulder.

"Damn it, Courtney! That could have gone through my head!" Duncan shouted as he tossed her staff back to her. "What was that for?!"

"You weren't getting anywhere fighting Cain like that." Courtney easily caught her staff. "You guys were equal in fire power but he had the advantage over you and me not being able to do anything was not helping."

"What can you do against him? Your drain powers only work with physical contact and he's a walking sun." Duncan's eyes widened as Cain floated up behind them on his pet Phoenix. "Courtney!"

Courtney calmly turned and faced Cain. "You always did have so little faith in me, Duncan. Just sit back and watch. Okay, flame boy, you want to burn us give me your best. Go for extra crispy pretty please!"

"COURTNEY!"

Cain was only too willing to grant her request as Ember let out a screech and fired a huge stream of fire from its mouth. Courtney did not try to run or scream, she just pointed her staff straight at the fire coming towards her.

"Activate Upgrade: _Redirect!_"

Then to Duncan and Cain's shock the flame attack was _absorbed_ into the pointed end of Courtney's staff. She then spun her staff and pointed the other end at Cain.

"Here you go!"

Before Cain could do anything his own flame attack came out of the pointed end and slammed into him and Ember, sending them spiraling into a building on the other side of the bridge/street and crashed so hard they went right through the other side.

"...wha?" Duncan was speechless as Courtney turned and faced him with a smirk. "How?"

"After you and I got her memories back and rejoined the team I went to Aelita to talk about getting my own upgrade since she upgraded everyone else after the battle with Nephilim."

Xxx

_"So can you make one for me too?"_

_Courtney and Aelita were sitting in the park with Aelita's laptop resting in her lap._

_"Actually, Courtney I was making an upgrade for you but when you and Duncan lost your memories it was left half way done." Aelita smiled and showed Courtney her upgrade. "I based it off your ability to take and give life points but this is much different since the upgrade itself is added to your staff rather than your character unlike most of the others. The ability to absorb and redirect your opponent's attack back at them by absorbing the attack through one end and releasing it through the other."_

_"That's...that's..." Courtney gave Aelita a big smile as she gave the pink haired girl a hug. "So awesome! Thank you! Thank you!"_

_A second later she recomposed herself with a deep breath and tried to look serious again. "So will it be ready?"_

_"Just give me a day to see if it will work fine before we try testing it. I admit if you had this and didn't lose your memories it would have made a big difference in our last battles. Most of XANA's generals have attacks that are large and either too powerful or fast to try dodging or blocking. That's what inspired me to make this upgrade for you." Aelita explained with a grin. "With the right skill and timing you can turn XANA's own power against him."_

_"Sounds good to me." Courtney matched Aelita's grin. "I can't wait to test it out."_

Xxx

"How come she never got me one?" Duncan whined.

"You have your jet boot ability that you ripped off Gwen and Cain so don't complain about it to me you big baby." Courtney scoffed.

A blast of fire caught their attention as Cain emerged back into the air with Ember once again acting as his stead.

"You going to whine or are you going to help me kick ass?" Courtney glanced at Duncan with a smirk.

"You even need to ask?" Duncan smirked as he changed back into the Berserker.

Xxx

"Great, how'd we end up here?"

Eva and LeShawna found themselves standing or possibly floating in a void with a black and red sky surrounding them.

"Don't be fooled, Eva. This is just another of Lilith's tricks. She must have done it to separate us from the others." LeShawna held her hammer tightly. "Expect anything here."

"Got it." Eva cracked her knuckles. "I wonder who's going to fight us here."

"You don't mind we just sit down and have a break do you?"

Both warriors looked up to see Sora floating down towards them.

"That's it?" Eva asked disappointed. "All the big bad generals and XANA sends Heather's wimp to fight us? Come on!"

"That's really hurtful you know." Sora whined. "I can't help it if I don't like fighting. People get hurt!"

"As opposed to what your boss is doing?" LeShawna raised an eyebrow.

"He's the boss. I got no say in what he does." Sora shrugged. "Tell you what, how about we just pretend to fight each other so it looks like I'm doing something we don't even get hurt. I might even let you pretend to knock me out."

"Or I knock you out for real so we can find the others and your boss." Eva menacingly floated forward. "How about that?"

"Bad idea for both of us actually. I get knocked I get in trouble but if we fight for real..." Sora pulled out his two sword hilts and activated his wind blades. "I can't guarantee _you_ won 't be hurt."

"That almost sounds like a real threat." Eva grinned. "Maybe you have a bit of Heather in you after all."

"Let's just take him out and find the others." LeShawna raised her hammer.

With that said both female fighters launched themselves who Sora who sighed and pointed his right wind blade at them. "You really should have said yes."

From the hilt of Sora's wind blade came a tornado that slammed into both warriors and sent spiraling back as the tornado hit them at full force. Their confidence shattered as they let out screams as the tornado twirled and shot them in the air with such speed and force they would have gone through twenty buildings and keep on flying. Luckily they stopped but they had been left extremely dizzy and disorientated.

"Ev...Eva...I'm...I think...I'm seeing...thirty of you..." LeShawna held her head to stop the spinning that was going on in her mind.

"That's...nothing...I feel...really sick..." Eva held her stomach. "I think I'd throw up if I could..."

"That's why I offered to just sit back and pretend to fight." Sora earned their attention as the disorientation started to fade. "My powers of wind have increased greatly and in a place like this with no ground or gravity I reign supreme over the sky."

"Yeah well...reign this!" Eva clapped her hands and unleashed a shockwave.

Sora however flew out of the way at high speed, almost literally from one spot to another as he appeared to their left so easily.

"Offer's still open?" Sora shrugged. "You're free to quit anytime."

"Shut up and fight!" Eva growled.

"They always want the hard way. Why for once can't someone just prefer the nice and non-fighting way?" Sora sighed. "I guess I'll have to deal with what karma's given me and just get it over with."

Eva tried to punch him but Sora dodged the punch easily by ducking it and launched his foot up Eva's chin, sending her spiraling up above him. LeShawna followed suit with trying to bash Sora's brains in with her hammer but Sora flew under and unleashed another wind blast that sent LeShawna flying into Eva just as the Brawler recovered from Sora's kick. Eva grunted as LeShawana collided with her and the two flew up further.

"You get the feeling that Heather's wimp ain't so wimpy?" LeShawna asked as they pulled away from each other.

"No." Eva replied as Sora floated up towards them. "He's still holding back on us and I _hate_ people who hold back."

"You hate a lot of people." LeShawna pointed out as she prepared to attack again.

"I got issues all right? So get off my back!"

Xxx

"What kind of death trap were we sucked into?"

Trent and Geoff were left in what looked like a darker and more evil version of the Swamp Sector with the trees completely black, the water was colored an unhealthy shade of purple showing it might be poisoned, and the sky above them was a mixture of black and red.

"Shall we get on with this?"

Both Warriors spun around to see the one who spoke sitting on a stump with his sword held in his right hand.

"Ryder." Geoff frowned.

"Thank you for stating the obvious party boy." Ryder smirked as he stood up. "About time you got here. I was wondering when I would get the chance to forgo XANA's methods of traps and trickery and just get onto the fighting."

"Eager to fight huh?" Trent pointed the end of his guitar at Ryder. "Fine by me."

"I wanted to take out the party boy but it looks like I got one more. Fine by me, it's just more fun anyway." Ryder held up his sword as it sparked with red electricity. "LIGHTNING ARC!"

Trent and Geoff fired their own lightning attacks but to their shock they discovered that Ryder's lightning attack was _huge_, almost as large and powerful looking as the lightning attack he once used to destroy half an island in the Tropical Sector during his fight with Gwen and Heather. The red lightning easily blasted through Geoff and Trent's attack and if they had not jumped out of the way in time they likely would have been vaporized. The lightning traveled past them and traveled through the swamp, leaving a large skid mark in its wake before it ended with a huge explosion that sent wind howling in every direction.

"Oh boy." Geoff sat up and looked behind, seeing the rising smoke of the attack's aftermath. "Trent, I think we're in big trouble."

"I'm thinking the same thing here, man." Trent said as he looked back at Ryder.

The General didn't look winded after releasing an attack that powerful and he looked ready to fire another one.

"Who's up for more?" Ryder asked with a grin.

Xxx

Even in this illusionary world Aelita could still sense XANA's presence as she bolted through the black and red void like a rocket that somehow managed to go beyond the speed of light.

"XANA, come out and face me!" Aelita shouted.

"Come out, come out, where ever you are!" Izzy in the form of an eagle shouted.

XANA chose not to answer but Aelita knew she gained his attention as shadow arms lunged at her with the intent to tear her apart. Aelita spread her arms out and released an energy wave that easily tore through the shadow arms like tissue paper.

"Is that it? I said come out face me!"

"So angry and determined at the same time. I almost thought it was not possible for you, Sister."

Aelita and Izzy spun around and flew back when they spotted XANA right behind them with his signature smirk present on his face.

"But can you really be so intent on facing me while not worrying about your friends at the same time?" XANA asked nonchalantly.

"XANA, it's time you answer for everything you've done. This time you _will_ die and _stay_ dead." Aelita said as she held up a charged Plasma Beam ready to fire.

"Aelita!"

Aelita stopped and glanced behind her while keeping XANA in her sight as she spotted Heather, Cody, and Noah flying up to her thanks to the lack of gravity in the void that was the second floor of the tower.

"Heather, Noah, Cody. You are all right." Aelita sighed in relief.

"Hey guys! Welcome to the party!" Izzy changed back into her human form. "We're Space Heroes ready to kick some alien ass!"

"We're fine but we're not sure about the others." Noah replied before facing XANA. "I see we're about get into the big showdown."

"Showdown? With so few of you here can you even believe yourselves to be that much of threat in my eyes?" XANA chuckled. "Perhaps we should continue that chess game we never got to finish all those years ago, Noah. Perhaps you'll have a better chance of actually achieving victory."

"No thanks." Noah's hands turned to guns. "I'd rather just blast you here and now."

"Blast him! Blast him!" Izzy chanted.

"XANA, where are Jeremy and the others?" Aelita demanded.

"You should have learned by now, Sister. They are still in the tower and if you developed your abilities like you should have if you wanted to save them so bad you wouldn't be asking me that question." XANA closed his eyes, sounding disappointed.

He snapped his fingers and the crystal pods holding the original Lyoko Warriors appeared behind him.

"Does this satisfy your inquiry?" XANA gestured to the crystal pods. "There is no place in this tower that they cannot be hidden and so as long as they are here you dare not to shut down this tower, even if this were to happen."

His red eyes flashed brightly as what looked like a holographic computer screen appeared behind the four Warriors, earning their attention.

"What is this?" Heather asked as the screen showed France as more places began disappearing in flashes of light. "What's happening?!"

Xxx

Kurt sat on the roof of the studio, watching the digital ocean surrounding the island the studio was on. He honestly couldn't get used to be being in an alternate universe and being computer animated 3-D at the same time. He briefly wondered if this is what it was like for the teens every time they came here. Everyone else had garrisoned themselves inside the studio or the school with man made weapons ready in case something happened.

Something did happen but not what he expected.

Instead of more monsters appearing to attack them more landmasses appeared in the ocean with buildings and people inside of them. Frightened screams were heard from all the new islands as they soon realized they were not on Earth anymore.

"This is not good." Kurt muttered.

Xxx

"You think I would stop at that school and studio? From the very beginning this is has been about subjugating the species of this planet known as Humans. Despite what you may think I do not consider all of humanity disposable but I only see a handful that has a chance to redeem themselves while the rest are mere insects waiting to be stepped on." XANA looked satisfied as the satellites he controlled released another blast of specters that virtualized another large building.

"You...you can't do this!" Cody shouted as he pointed his guns at XANA.

"I'll do that and more. My purpose has been changing the world for the better but unlike my foolish creator I do not associate humanity's survival with the world's survival. You believe the world is yours but in reality you are just another species that crawled out of the ground and declared yourself kings of the Earth. Do you even realize how painfully easy to wipe you all out and watch as someone else takes the pedestal you placed yourself upon?" XANA said as the image faded. "This is the downfall of every kind of ruler that has ever been in a position of power throughout your history. Pride and ignorance becomes their very existence and in their final moments all they can do is despair at the loss of everything before their very eyes."

"XANA...I will never allow you to do this." Aelita glared at him, determined to stop her mortal enemy once and for all.

"I wonder if you truly can."

"Enough talk! Kill the bastard!" Heather shouted as her wrist blades sprouted from under her hands. "Don't give him a chance to attack!"

It was already too late when a powerful wind slammed into the warriors, forcing them back and it was especially hard since they was no ground and literally no gravity to hold them down.

"Is this too much? Would like me to alter this little simulation into something simpler?" XANA asked as a blood red aura surrounded his Avatar. "You believe yourselves to be the heroes stopping the villain from taking over the world. From my point of view you are nothing more than mere children who stupidly walked into the dragon's den and poked it with a stick until it woke up angry."

"Izzy! Toss me towards him!" Heather shouted.

Izzy changed into a gorilla and grabbed Heather.

"HERE WE GO!" Izzy flung Heather at XANA with her wrist blades ready to slice XANA's head off.

XANA however only chuckled as Heather's were aimed straight at his face.

"TIME TO DIE!" Heather shouted.

However as just the blades were mere inches from XANA's eyes Heather found herself instantly repelled by a powerful force that flung her back.

"Heather!" Aelita shouted as Heather flew past her.

"We got him!" Cody and Noah fired their guns at XANA but like what happened with Heather they were repelled and reflected back on the ones who fired them.

Noah and Cody let cries of shock as their own lasers collided with them and sent them spiralling into the void along with Heather.

"Noah! Cody!" Izzy growled at XANA. "Now Izzy's mad!"

She changed hawk and flew above XANA and then changed into a T-Rex, ready to gobble XANA up in one gulp.

"HERE'S TYRANO-IZZY!" She opened her mouth, revealing very sharp teeth.

However the same barrier that repelled everyone else easily repelled Izzy and knocked her into the void with the others.

"Izzy!" Aelita shouted.

She let out an enraged roar and fired her plasma beam at XANA but to her shock he didn't repel like he did the others. He raised one arm and easily slapped it away like it was hardly worth the effort.

"You really believe you can defeat me alone, Sister? Isn't the reason you gathered so many fighters was because you needed their help? You are not strong enough yet, Dear Sister." XANA chuckled. "You must struggle harder and perhaps with a little more suffering you may be worthy. Until then...Apocalypse Storm!"

Aelita let out a scream as the blast of red energy collided with her and sent her spiralling down into the void with the others.

"Enough with this illusionary dance. It's time to lift the curtains and give the world a show they will never truly forget." XANA snapped his fingers.

The illusionary void that XANA created in the second floor of his tower faded before everyone's very eyes. The room they were in resembled the same room they found when they first entered the tower, a massive red colored room with a large hole in the ceiling leading up to the next floor. Aelita, Heather, Izzy, Cody, and Noah hit the floor hard while the others landed on the ground near them.

"Guys?!" Gwen looked over her shoulder. "You're all okay?"

"Define okay." Heather groaned as she sat up.

"We're all here." Bridgette looked around. "The whole place...it changed."

"The illusion we were in has been destroyed." Aelita groaned as she managed to sit on her knees. "XANA's done playing."

"Yeah, I gathered that when they showed up." DJ pointed forward.

They all saw the Generals land on the floor a few yards away from them, ready to continue the fight.

"Olay, that's it. No more Mister Nice Heroes." Gwen growled. "Let's take them out here and now. Once and for all!"

"I'm with you in that." Heather stood up and prepared to fight again. "Let's hurry though. I have a score to settle with XANA."

"Yeah..." Aelita struggled to stand back up. "Let's end this."


	108. Episode 106: XANA's Wrath

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 108

In one instant of a second the battle had begun.

"PLASMA BEAM!"

"LIGHTNING ARC!"

"HERE'S RHINO IZZY!"

"YOU WANT SOME OF THIS?!"

"EAT FIRE YOU BASTARDS!"

"COME BACK HERE AND FIGHT YOU PU-"

"THERE'S MORE WHERE THAT CAME FROM PRINCESS!"

"HOLD STILL YOU LITTLE-"

"YOU LIKE THAT?! HERE'S MORE!"

"YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!"

"MISSED ME! MISSED ME!"

"TOO SLOW!"

"THIS IS HOW WE KICK ASS!"

"YOU CALL THAT A PUNCH?!"

"**RAAAAWWW!**"

The following second felt like an eternity as explosions, screams, sounds of weapons clashing, and so much more stained the large crimson chamber. The battle had only just started and both sides were giving everything they had to win. It was a raging storm of explosions that could overwhelm even the biggest volcano on Earth and it was only getting worse. This was beyond a battle to shut down the tower to stop an attack on Earth; this was beyond trying to save the world...

This was personal.

Jinx let out a scream as she held her spear above her head and swung it down, releasing a meteor shower of purple energy bolts down on Gwen who activated her fire aura and released fire from her feet, propelling her into the air and desperately tried to dodge every energy bolt that fell towards her. Just as Jinx came in range Gwen tried to slice her in two but the General surprised her by creating a wall of purple energy that blocked Gwen's scythe. Gwen tried to punch her but Jinx caught her fist with an open palm and kicked her back. Luckily Gwen took only half a second to recover and managed to dodge the sharp end of Jinx's spear coming at her head.

Courtney used her Redirect Ability to absorb the fire released by Cain and then fire it back at him while Duncan changed into his Berserker form and attacked Cain while he was blocking his own attack. Eva had joined up with them and tried to hammer Cain to digital bits but he surprised both opponents by easily blocking with his claymore and armored arms with equal strength and tossed them back. Courtney jumped in, spinning her staff and tried to slash or stab Cain but he showed himself to be very skilled with his sword as he easily blocked each slash or thrust. It became an all out brawl as one powerful General and three skilled fighters appeared to be even in just about everything.

Bridgette and Yuki were fighting with everything they had as ice and water spread across the floor and walls. Izzy jumped in with her shape shifting powers and explosive arrows but even with two dangerous opponents Yuki was able to hold them off with little trouble one would think from how she easily blocked and dodged each attack. Izzy changed into a tiger and leapt at Yuki but the ice user raised one hand and a wall of ice came out of the ground and Izzy ended up slamming face first into it.

"Ooohh! Pretty little polar bears!" Izzy giggled as she changed back into her human form.

Ryder had literally become a fierce thunderstorm as he traded blasts of lightning with Geoff and Trent. They ran across the chamber, letting of sparks red and white electricity and when their weapons clashed they let out a sound that resembled a loud booming thunder sound. Geoff split his axe into his Chakrams and used them as shields and weapons as he parried Ryder's sword and slashed at him. Trent hung back and used sonic and lightning attacks when Ryder was vulnerable and Geoff was no in harm's way.

Sora was wind incarnate as he flew above Heather, Noah, Cody, DJ, and LeShawna, releasing blasts of wind and lasers from his swords and the beak part of his helmet while the fighters on the ground struggled to hit him. The fighters on the ground were struggling to hit him but in the air he moved like a jet as he dodged each attacked as if he had done it since the day he was born...

And that was actually true in a way.

And right in the very center were Aelita and Lilith, in a grappling match, growling at each other as put all their strength and power into pushing the other back. Pink and red energy swirled around the two as they called upon the powers within and used it to full effect. They were putting it all in this one fight, all or nothing.

And they all knew it.

Xxx

Gwen grunted as she jumped over Jinx's blade as it attempted to bisect her and swung her scythe down. Jinx immediately pulled her spear back and blocked the bladed end of Gwen's scythe before it touched her head. Before she landed back on the ground Gwen kicked hard against Jinx's spear, knocked it aside and leaving Jinx open for attack. Gwen swung again and managed to inflict a small cut on Jinx's dress as she landed on the ground and jumped back as Jinx tried to punch her in retaliation.

Gwen held her scythe tightly in both hands, ready for the next attack that came in the form of dragons made of blue fire that came out of the bladed end of Jinx's spear. Gwen activated her Fire Aura and swung her scythe, releasing a blast of orange flames that cancelled out both flaming attacks instantly. Jinx frowned as she jumped up into the air and spun her spear before releasing another barrage of purple energy balls down on Gwen.

"Damn it..." Gwen cursed under her breath.

The energy projectiles were too fast for her avoid so she did the only she could do. She spun her scythe in both hands, creating a blue circular energy barrier that strained under the rain of energy missiles that slammed into it with the force of a train. Gwen grunted as her feet started sliding through the ground but she continued to keep spinning her scythe, even thought she could see cracks forming along the barrier. When the barrage finally ended Gwen stopped spinning scythe and watched as Jinx landed on the ground several feet away from her.

Jinx frowned when she saw Gwen had barely managed to block her assault. Her increased power was giving her the advantage in this fight but Gwen was barely able to survive the most powerful attacks and still manage to land a few blows of her own. As much as she enjoyed fighting with Gwen and fighting anyone else in general she knew that Master XANA expected complete and total victory in this fight so she had to take off the kid gloves now.

"Okay, Gwenny, let's see you handle this."

Pointing her spear at Gwen and then slamming the blunt end on the ground the bladed end of her spear glowed bright purple.

"This is a new trick I picked up."

Purple energy pulsed through the ground and took the form of multiple spears rising above the two fighters.

"This won't end well." Gwen remarked as the spears angled themselves down towards her.

She instantly realized she had only had about two options: try to dodge them and get to Jinx or concentrate on dodging and give Jinx more time to conjure more attacks to use against her. She instantly decided on the former as she activated her red Fire Aura and blasted off towards her opponent.

"You'll have to move faster than that!" Jinx swung her spear down.

On her command the energy spears fell towards Gwen as she blasted through the air with her rocket ability propelling her towards Jinx. Gwen increased the power of her fire ability, making her move even faster as the first spear came down towards her. She spun and twirled out-of-the-way of each spear as she came upon Jinx and brought her scythe down in an arc. She thought Jinx would block with her spear which wouldn't do much as the force of Gwen's scythe and her Fire Aura would burn through even Jinx's spear with an attack like this.

Jinx did not try dodge or block with her spear.

She raised her hand a wall of purple energy came between her and Gwen's scythe, easily blocking the blade and the flames without suffering as much as a single crack.

"Nice idea, wrong angle." Jinx remarked as Gwen jumped back and landed a few feet away. "If you wanted to hit me like that you should have come in a lot closer so I wouldn't see through that attack and know what to do."

Gwen scoffed. "You giving me tips?"

"No...I'm just showing you how things are done." Jinx grinned. "We haven't had a lot of time in the last few encounters and I have some new tricks to show off."

"Yeah, I noticed. Speaking of new tricks, you think you can satisfy a fellow spell caster's curiosity and tell me just what the hell you guys did to get this tough?" Gwen asked.

"Ah, ah, ah!" Jinx waved her finger. "Spell casters or magicians never give away their secrets; you of all people should know that."

"I never really liked magicians that much anyways." Gwen shrugged. "I just wasn't impressed by them as a kid."

"Whatever." Jinx's grin widened slightly. "Here are a few more tricks I want to show off."

She pointed her spear at Gwen and released a _huge_ globe of purple of fire that would have incinerated Gwen if she hadn't managed to move out-of-the-way using her rocket power again. Gwen quickly retaliated by slashing at Jinx who blocked with her spear, just as Gwen had planned. She aimed a kick at Jinx's side as she grappled but Jinx actually managed to block it with one palm. Not for the first time in this fight Gwen was surprised by how much strength Jinx had gained.

When they saw no one was winning the grappling contest they released each other and Gwen went on the offensive with a series of slashes and stabs that managed to push Jinx back from the force of her blows. Jinx noticed that Gwen had activated her light blue aura meaning she was using her life points to increase her speed and strength. However Jinx was just as skilled in close combat as she was in casting spells and she showed it by not allowing herself to be hit even once. She swung her spear and parried the incoming bladed end of Gwen's scythe while sidestepping, as Gwen moved forward following her momentum and Jinx used the opportunity to slam the blunted end of her spear into Gwen's back.

Gwen let out a gasp as she was knocked onto the ground and quickly rolled out of the way as she sensed Jinx's spear aimed at the back of her head. She just managed to make as Jinx's spear punctured the part of the ground where her head had been and jumped back to her feet. She readied herself as Jinx aimed her spear at Gwen and prepared to fire.

'Can't try to cancel it like I did before. I'll have to just try to dodge.' Gwen thought.

However when Jinx fired another barrage of purple energy that split smaller energy beams that made it harder to dodge. Gwen braced herself but to her shock the energy beams never touched her but flew past her.

"What the?" Gwen looked around. "Why didn't they hit me?"

She found out the hard way that the attack was simply to distract her while Jinx flew in at a speed Gwen didn't believe she had and swung her spear, knocking Gwen's scythe aside and leaving the bewildered spell cast wide open. Jinx's left hand glowed bright purple as she shoved Gwen in the chest and knocked her on her back. Gwen looked up to see the sharp end Jinx's spear pointed between her eyes.

"It's amazing just how powerful I am now, thanks to Lilith's Code Angel abilities." Jinx said after a moment of silence.

"What? Lilith..." Gwen's eyes widened. "She shared all that power with you guys."

"Yep." Jinx nodded. "Like Aelita did with you when you faced those copies."

It all made sense now!

The reason the Generals had become so powerful was because Lilith shared all the power she gained when she activated the copy of the Keys to Lyoko she had inside of her. With all that power Lilith had when she used Code: Angel no wonder the Generals were so tough now.

"We're pulling all the stops out this time, Gwenny." Jinx answered. "This is not a battle to reach the tower to shut it down. This is the _real_ battle."

Gwen narrowed her eyes. "...Yeah, I see what you mean."

She just hoped that she along with everyone else would pull through this one.

Xxx

**BOOM!**

"Damn it!" Eva rolled out of the way before Ember's claws could tear her apart.

It was three on two with her along with Duncan and Courtney battling Cain and his pet Phoenix Ember. Courtney used her Redirect Ability to absorb and fire Cain's own attacks back at him forcing him to fight at close range, not that it made things easier for the warriors. Cain had already proven he was skilled in physical combat as he easily blocked several slashes from the Berserker before punching it in the face sent it flying back with a shocking amount of ease. Courtney leapt in and swung her staff at his head but he grabbed her wrist with his left hand tossed her over his shoulder and sent flying through the air.

She let out a scream as she slammed face first onto the ground and skidded across the chamber twice before coming to stop. Eva roared as she leapt at Cain while his back was facing her but Ember rammed face first into her, burning her as she was knocked down to the ground. Cain turned around as Ember landed next to him, ready to attack again.

"Is it me or are we getting our butts kicked?" Duncan changed back into his human form as he stood up.

"It's just you." Eva and Courtney growled at the same time causing Duncan to flinch.

"Yeah, okay." Duncan hastily said before both women turned their anger on him.

Cain decided to continue the fight as he sprouted his fiery wings and flew at the heroes. Duncan growled as he changed back into the Berserker and held up as XANA's fiery general brought his flaming sword down upon him. Flames colored both green and orange blasted out from the big clang and the battle continued. The Berserker quickly stepped to the left and thrust its sword arm at Cain's head but Cain easily dodge the attack and kicked the Berserker in the chin, knocking the flaming skeleton into the air.

Courtney and Eva were back in the fight and tried to attack Cain while his back was facing them but Ember appeared between them and Cain in a burst of fire. The Phoenix spread its wings and released a stream of fire at them.

"God I hate that bird!" Eva shouted.

"And it's about to hate me even more!" Courtney pointed her staff at the incoming attack.

Her staff absorbed the flames and then she fired it back but Ember fired another attack that cancelled both fire attacks out. The girls had little time as Ember flew in and slapped them aside with its giant flaming wings. The Berserker jumped back into the fight and clashed with Cain, putting its weight and strength as he pushed Cain back. However Cain was unfazed by the Berserker's effort and shoved it back to the ground.

Cain tried to finish the Berserker by thrusting his sword at the flaming skeleton's head but the Berserker spun to the side and kicked Cain in the hip. The flames surrounding its skeleton body did not do anything to harm Cain but the force was enough to knock him aside and allow the Berserker the time to stand back up. Courtney and Eva regrouped next to him and they charged at Cain who called Ember to him and ordered his Phoenix to shoot fire balls at them. One fireball missed Courtney by an inch, leaving a small burn on her dress but thankfully it wasn't set on fire.

Eva ducked under one fireball and then jumped over a second while the Berserker's green flames easily made it immune to the fire balls.

"Ha! Our own flaming shield!" Eva laughed.

The Berserker roared and leapt at Ember, swinging its sword down on Ember's face while Courtney and Eva jumped over them and delivered a hard kick to Cain's chest, sending the general crashing into the floor. Eva aimed her blue glowing fist down on Cain's head but Cain grabbed her wrist and pulled her up into the air and slammed her into the ground. Cain stood up as the Berserker and Courtney tried to attack but Ember created another flame shield that easily blocked any attack. However Cain was not watching as Eva lifted her foot up kicked Cain into Ember and they both flew into the ground.

"Surprise!" Eva shouted as she stood up.

"Take him out!" Courtney shouted.

"**On it!**" The Berserker lunged forward to end the battle.

Cain spun around and slashed at the Berserker who leapt over the attack and tried to punch Cain in his armored head but Ember grabbed him by biting down on his arm and threw him at Courtney. Luckily the Berserker changed back into Duncan before he hit Courtney but now Eva was left to fight the fiery opponents. She let out a roar as she prepared to bash Cain's skull in but he moved faster than she thought and gasped as he grabbed her neck. Cain then spun his body and gave a powerful horizontal slash to Eva, knocking her across the floor of the large chamber.

"Okay, now I am beginning to see we might be on the wrong side of this ass kicking." Eva grunted as she stood back up. "Aelita's extra life thing, it'll keep giving us more life points right?"

"So as long as we're not hit by an attack that will take out all of our life points instantly." Courtney answered. "But yeah, I'm also beginning to see that we're not causing a lot of damage here. Just what has XANA done to them? Did he upgrade them somehow? Give them something that increases all of their powers at once?"

"Why are you asking now? We're in a fight!" Duncan exclaimed.

"Come on, Duncan, use your head!" Courtney narrowed her eyes. "Think for a second! How can they be this powerful and if XANA could upgrade them like this why wait until now? He could have upgraded them long ago and finished us off but it only happens when we're standing right inside the heart of his domain."

"Princess's got a point." Eva agreed. "But punk boy's got a point too. This really the time for us to be thinking in a battle to the death?"

"But how can we win if we don't understand what's going on? How can we beat XANA if we can't figure out his tricks?" Courtney said, eyeing Cain warily as the fire general seemingly waited for them to stop talking. "We're in the middle of another huge trap and if we can't figure this one out then how can we win?"

"We'll find out if we keep fighting." Duncan said. "Not much we can do at this point, Court. We can't think of a way to survive unless we fully concentrate on fighting to survive."

Xxx

Geoff skidded back several feet after barely blocking a powerful slash from Ryder's sword with his chakrams. The general's sword was lit up with red electricity as he marched towards the Party King and prepared to attack again. Geoff joined his chakrams into his axe and swung it at Ryder, unleashing a blast of lightning. Ryder simply raised his sword to block the attack as it collided with his blade.

He was pushed back several inches before thrusting his blade forward and sending the attack right back at its owner.

"Yikes!" Geoff dove out of way before he was blasted to bits.

Ryder was upon him in a second and Geoff hastily swung his axe but Ryder easily blocked the slash. He kicked Geoff in the abdomen and pointed one hand at him, releasing a stream of red lightning. Luckily for Geoff Trent landed between him and the attack and played his Shield Note, creating a barrier that blocked the lightning attack.

"I think lightning attacks won't work on him anymore, Geoff." Trent remarked as the shield faded.

"Yeah. He's literally a walking storm." Goff remarked as he stood back up. "This is not going to end well is it?"

"For you...not one bit." Ryder answered with a grin.

Trent and Geoff frowned as they stood ready to face him again.

"Geoff, you shouldn't use anymore lightning attacks on this guy. He's strong enough now that any lightning attacks we use against will just be thrown back at us." Trent pointed out.

"Yeah, I get it." Geoff's axe split back into his chakrams.

With that said they both charged at Ryder and slashed at him. However Ryder easily dodged their attacks almost effortlessly and kicked them both back down.

"Oh please. I'm a lot stronger now, strong enough that you two are _way_ out of your league." Ryder sighed in disappointment.

Trent and Geoff were not going to let Ryder beat them down so easily, not after coming this far. They stood up and ran at Ryder again, Geoff swung his chakrams but Ryder easily stepped out-of-the-way, grabbed Geoff and threw him over his shoulder. However Ryder was not looking at Trent because Geoff ran in front of the musician, preventing Ryder from seeing Trent play the Sound Note. The sonic attack from Trent's guitar sent Ryder flying across the room.

"Who's out of whose league now, Ryder?" Trent asked with a smirk.

Ryder stood back up and glared darkly at the two warriors. He charged at them and Trent quickly played a note that activated the bladed end of his guitar. He and Geoff swung their weapons as Ryder swung his sword and clashed their weapons together. Electricity sparked from the incredible force of the three warriors.

Trent gave a thrust but Ryder dodged it and slashed back but Geoff blocked with his axe. Trent tried to kick him but Ryder blocked with one arm and brought his sword down on the musician. Ryder jumped and charged at them again swinging his sword out to slash their heads off. Trent ducked under the blade while Geoff jumped over it. Ryder then slashed at Geoff and sent him across the chamber and ran at him to finish him off.

Trent fired at a sonic attack at Ryder while his back was turned but Ryder spun around and fired a red blast of lightning that he barely dodged. Ryder turned around and swung his sword, clashing with Geoff's axe.

"Thought I was down for the count huh?" Geoff asked with a small smile.

"Not one bit, Party King." Ryder remarked as they grappled against each other. "You've survived a lot worse than this."

"Don't I know it?" Geoff chuckled. "Is this the part where you tell me how you guys got so tough? Seems like an appropriate time."

"What makes you think I am even interested in talking? I don't care about that strategizing XANA or Lilith does, it's their job to do the thinking. I was put in this universe for one thing and one thing only: to fight. I obey XANA but I could care less about what he has planned for the Earth, I was created to fight. Point me in any direction with someone who can fight and I'll be there!" Ryder grinned as his sword sparked with red electricity.

"You have nothing better to do huh? Nothing aside from fighting. Come on dude, XANA gave you guys the ability to think right? Don't you have anything else on your mind?" Geoff grunted as he was pushed back.

"We're too different for you to understand, Party Boy. I don't expect you to understand, I don't care if you understand or not. It doesn't matter when we face each other; all that should matter is who's raising their sword over the head of the loser!"

With that said Ryder released a blast of lightning from his body that knocked Geoff down. Ryder then rapidly slashed the Party King back and forth, sending streams of data into the air as his sword cut through Geoff's clothing.

"Geoff!" Trent shouted as he played his Fire Note and released a stream of fire at Ryder.

"Wait your turn." The General simply raised one hand and fired a disk of red electricity that sliced through Trent's attack and nearly sliced him in half.

He yelped as he dove out-of-the-way and was ready to attack again when Ryder appeared right in front of him. With a single slash he was knocked back across the chamber, skidding across the floor twice before finally hitting the ground.

"Hmph!" Ryder slammed his sword into the ground and leaned against the hilt. "So much for this being a climatic final battle."

"Party's over?"

He looked over and his eyes slightly widened as Geoff weakly stood up and chuckled.

"You're still conscious?" Ryder asked, raising one eyebrow.

"You think that would stop me?" Geoff chuckled again. "You really think that would knock me out of the game?"

"So you can still fight?" Ryder grinned as he picked up his sword.

"Just him?"

Ryder glanced back and saw Trent climb back to his feet, grasping his guitar tightly.

"Now that's more like it." Ryder chuckled. "Hurry up so I can knock back down."

"About that." Geoff held up only one chakram. "Here's a little gift."

Ryder looked confused until he looked down in front of him and saw the other one right at his feet, glowing brightly.

"Oh sh-"

That was all he said before the chakram exploded in a bright flash, electrifying everything in its reach. Geoff and Trent covered their eyes and waited for the explosion to end.

"Thanks for the upgrade, Aelita." Geoff whispered as the bright light faded away.

However when the explosion ended they could see red electricity surrounding Ryder like a force field, protecting him from the blast.

"Aw shish kabob." Geoff groaned.

"You got that right." Trent gulped.

"Not a bad try." Ryder picked up the chakram and to their surprise he tossed it back to Geoff.

He caught and looked back at Ryder. "Wha?"

"I like everyone at their best when I beat them to the ground." Ryder said, ready to attack again.

Xxx

"Whoa!" Izzy yelped as she ducked under an ice shard launched at her head.

A white blur from the corner of her eye allowed her the chance to spin around and narrowly block a strike from Yuki and her icy claws using her own clawed hands.

"You're pretty fast but Izzy once outran a flying saucer!" Izzy pushed Yuki back and launched a kick at the general's temple.

Yuki simply raised one hand and created an icy shield that blocked Izzy's kick.

"Oh come on! How can this be fun when you use all those icy powers?!" Izzy whined.

Yuki didn't answer as she delivered a sharp kick to Izzy's stomach, causing the orange haired girl to double over. Yuki continued her assault by launching a spinning kick at the back of Izzy's head, with an icy blade coming out of the bottom of her foot for maximum damage. However Izzy recovered faster than the general thought and blocked with her right arm.

"Gotcha!" Izzy tossed the general over her shoulder.

Yuki however landed on her feet and spun around, unwilling to give up her advantage and launched an ice-covered fist at Izzy's head. However Izzy blocked her punch, surprising the icy general since she was able to block a punch that was enhanced by solid ice.

"Izzy once punched a hole in a brick wall!" Izzy laughed as she punched Yuki in the stomach with her right hand...

"Owie!" Izzy yelped as she pulled her fist back and jumped away from the general.

She watched as cracks formed over Yuki's clothes and realized that the general had coated her body with an icy armor.

"Okay, that's pretty cool...but that totally sucks!" Izzy groaned.

Yuki leapt into the air and aimed a spinning kick at Izzy's head but the red head ducked and grabbed hold of Yuki's leg as it flew over her head.

"Round and round we go!" Izzy laughed as she spun Yuki around before throwing to the other end of the chamber.

Yuki performed a mid-air flip and landed perfectly on her feet and looked up to see Bridgette entering the battle, racing towards her with swords in hand. Yuki wasted no time and coated her arms with icy gauntlets with sharp claws to block both of the surfer's swords. Both fighters struggled for dominance as they tried to push the other back. Despite being a general of XANA Yuki quickly discovered that Bridgette was physically stronger as she slowly but surely began pushing Yuki back.

Upon realizing she couldn't best Bridgette with strength Yuki jumped back and held one hand in front of her and pointed it at Bridgette. Icy shards the size of bullets shot from her finger tips but Bridgette knew that they were dangerous no matter how small they were. The surfer spun and held her swords out as her tattoos glowed bright blue. From the tips of her sword came Bridgette signature energy wave in the form of tidal wave that easily blasted through the shards.

The energy wave blasted through the shards and continued on towards Yuki. The ice general quickly formed an icy dome around that blocked the energy attack. Izzy jumped in, letting loose a barrage of explosive arrows that embedded themselves in the ice and then exploded.

"Got her!" Izzy laughed.

"Careful Izzy. We both know Yuki's too smart to be taken down by something like that." Bridgette cautioned her as they walked forward. "She probably already had a backup plan if it didn't work."

When the dust cleared they were both surprised to see Yuki was gone.

"...Did we actually get her?" Izzy asked.

"I don't know."

Bridgette looked down and her eyes widened as ice began forming on the floor around them. "Izzy..."

"Wha..." Izzy looked down. "Uh oh."

That was when ice made clones of Yuki appeared around the two warriors and fired dozens of ice shards at them. They tried to dodge but there were too many shards and no matter how fast or hard they tried to dodge or block they fell over after the first minute. The real Yuki emerged from the crowd of ice clones with sharp ice made claws ready to skewer them both.

"Izzy, now would be a good time for something big." Bridgette leaned one sword for support.

"Got it!" Izzy grinned.

A second later Izzy morphed into her T-Rex form and let out a loud rear.

"HERE'S TYRANO-IZZY!"

Yuki jumped back as Tyrano-Izzy whipped out her tail and smash all the ice clones easily with one swing.

"Dominoes! Let's do it again!" Tyrano-Izzy laughed as she looked at Yuki. "Come on! Bring me more, Miss Icicle!"

"Izzy, don't provoke her!" Bridgette shouted.

Provoking a General like Yuki was a bad idea.

Yuki simply raised one hand and Izzy felt something down on her feet.

She looked down and saw the ice traveling up her feet. "Uh oh."

"Hang on Izzy!" Bridgette leapt forward, slashing her swords forward.

However Yuki was fast enough to avoid the slash by jumping backwards, leaving Izzy frozen up to her neck. Yuki looked down and saw that even though she managed to dodge Bridgette's swords there was still a cut across her shirt that she quickly covered by creating chest armor made of ice.

"Thanks Bridge!" Izzy called out, changing into a small snake to get out of the ice prison. "Though it would have been cool if I was a frozen statue. I could live forever and wake up in the distant future to see just how advanced we become. Maybe I could move to Neptune!"

"Izzy, we're going to need beat the bad guys if you want to see the distant future." Bridgette replied, focusing on Yuki.

"Oh yeah, right!" Izzy settled back into a fighting stance.

Icy claws covered Yuki's fingers and more ice-covered her body like armor as she moved towards the two warriors. Her eyes were glowing icy blue and when she let loose a breath of air it was cold enough that her breath was icy blue. With one wave of her hand the ground beneath Izzy and Bridgette turned bright blue.

"Look out!" Bridgette shouted.

They jumped out-of-the-way as a pillar of ice rose up and almost froze them completely. Izzy fired more explosive arrows but Yuki waved her hand again and the arrows instantly froze. Bridgette tried to slash the ice user down with her swords but Yuki to her surprise aimed a punch at her face. Bridgette blocked but gasped as her swords and arms were instantly covered in ice.

Yuki quickly kicked her in the stomach with such force that Bridgette flew back and slammed into Izzy, knocking them both down. They both groaned as they watched Yuki approach them.

"You can try to fight as much as you want, but the battleground is no longer equal. I am more than just Yuki of the Blizzard, I am Lyoko's Winter incarnate. I can freeze the entire digital realm and make it into my icy domain. You can't challenge me on equal grounds anymore." Yuki said calmly. "Not when I am like this."

"Hey, Bridge. I'm starting to get the idea we're outmatched." Izzy gulped.

Bridgette could only grit her teeth as Yuki approached them.

Xxx

A powerful blast of wind knocked aside the swarm of shuriken fired by Heather as Sora flew above them, releasing another wind blast that sent LeShawna, Heather, Noah, and Cody flying across the chamber.

"Sorry everyone. I would have preferred to pretend to fight you guys but with you guys so far inside the Master's domain I'll be in trouble if I hold back." Sora called down.

"Yeah, I feel the pity." Noah grunted as he stood back up. "Anyone notice that we're getting tossed around here?"

"Oh shut up." Heather growled.

As much as Heather hated to admit she along with everyone else were outmatched by her evil 'son' and they were the worst opponents against Sora. He was a long-range fighter, a very powerful long-range fighter that made it impossible for her or LeShawna to get close enough to attack him. Neither Cody nor Noah had any long-range attacks powerful or fast enough to hit him when he's in the air. Sora was an real fighter jet when he was in the air and he was even more dangerous against opponents who were stuck on the ground.

They just could not keep up.

"Okay, we need a new strategy!" Heather grunted as she saw Sora coming around for another pass.

"Like what?" Cody asked.

"Anything!"

"HEATHER! LOOK OUT!" LeShawna yelled.

Heather spun around and to her shock Sora was right in front of her, brandishing one of his wind blades.

SLASH!

LeShawna, Cody, and Noah gasped as Heather jumped back, her right hand pressed against her right eye. They held their breath as Heather slowly removed her hand, revealing a shallow cut right above her eye that went up her forehead.

"Damn..." Heather let loose a breath she didn't know she was holding. "I didn't even hear him."

She looked at Sora who stood relaxed with his wind blades resting at his side.

"I should have felt something, the wind brushing against me, the sound of him coming and landing on the ground...I didn't hear a damn thing." Heather tried to stay calm but they all saw tremble a little. "What the hell did XANA do to make him this powerful?"

"Sorry, Mama, that would be telling." Sora shrugged, oddly enough sounding calm and completely serious for almost the first time. "I like to consider myself a nice guy and leave the nastiness with XANA and the others but since we're in the center I'm afraid I'll have to suppress everything about me that you've seen...leaving the part of me that I think I inherited from you, Mama."

Heather's eyes widened as Sora sharpened one of his wind blades into a spear and hurled it at her.

'I can see it!' Heather realized.

She rolled out-of-the-way as the spear sailed past her and looked to see...the other wind blade fashioned into a spear as it sliced through her shoulder. She let out a cry as the sheer force of the attack sent her sliding back. She looked up and saw Sora flying at her with no weapons in his hands. Heather let out a shout as her wrist blades came out and she tried to slash him.

Sora however flew above her, dodging the poorly attempted slash at his face.

"TAKE THIS!"

Sora looked behind to see LeShawna jump at him and swing her hammer at his face. Sora held up one hand and everyone watched as what looked a tornado surrounded his fist as he backhanded LeShawna's hammer...

And knocked it right out of her hands!

LeShawna had no time to react as Sora kicked her in the abdomen and sent her falling to the ground, with a loud impact.

"No way!" Cody and Noah were flabbergasted by what they had seen.

Heather was speechless as Sora landed on the ground and looked at the beaten down warriors.

"Sorry to tell you this, guys but it's been a fun ride and it was good while it lasted. But...Master XANA has decided that the fun's over. You really have no idea just how strong we've become and there's no way we can screw this one up." Sora looked around at each of his opponents. "We are the incarnations of Master XANA's power and desires, his wish to win and defeat everyone who stands in his way. You guys put up a good fight and all...but when it all comes down to it you guys lost this fight the second you decided to fight."

"Great, even Sora's doing the villainous rant." Noah drawled.

"It's not a rant or even a boast, Noah." They all seemed quite surprised by how serious Sora sounded. "It's pure, cold reality."

Cody and Noah shot lasers at him but he simply held one wing in front of him that easily blocked all of their attacks.

"Is that it?" Sora asked coldly. "Is that all you can do? The fate of the world is sitting on your shoulders and that's the best you can do?"

Cody grunted as he ran forward, shooting at Sora without end and letting a loud yell. Sora simply used his wings to block every shot without even moving an inch.

'Damn it. Sora's too powerful for any long-range attacks and even if we get in close enough it'll just give him the chance to attack us.' Noah frowned.

He had always prided his ability to think of the quickest and best plan under pressure. Whether it was insulting a bully from looking at them and figuring out their weakness to coming up with complex plans on how to battle the forces of evil in the digital universe. He could see the strengths and weaknesses of his opponents and factored that into every plan he used but now...

Right now Noah felt helpless.

Right now, the enemy was faster, stronger, and almost too much for anyone here to stop no matter what plan Noah could come up with. He watched as Sora took their most powerful attacks and knocked them aside like an annoying insect with one hand and he didn't even look winded. How can he come up with a plan when looks like the enemy is invulnerable?

"GAH!"

Noah was snapped out of his inner thoughts as Sora finally got impatient and appeared in front of Cody in a frightening burst of speed as he backhanded Cody and sent him skidding across the ground across the chamber, losing his pistols in the process.

"That's it!" LeShawna furiously lunged at Sora with a loud roar.

"Pointless..." Sora sighed.

The General blocked punch or kick with one hand before he grabbed LeShawna by the neck and lifted her off the ground. LeShawna struggled but Sora's grip was stronger than she thought was possible.

"I told you already, I'm more powerful than you guys can handle even if you try to fight me together. And the best you can think of is attacking me head on?" Sora asked rhetorically.

"Yeah...because...it gets your attention!" LeShawna grinned.

Sora didn't have to ask as Heather appeared behind him, jumping into air and spun her body as she aimed a kick at the back of his head.

"Gotcha!" Heather grinned.

"Think so?"

That was when Sora's left-wing sprung up and blocked Heather's foot, surprising both girls.

"I'm sorry. I don't get it...Who's got who?" Sora asked as Heather pushed herself off his wing and landed several feet away.

The five warriors quickly regrouped with each other as LeShawna retrieved her hammer.

"Okay, this is not right. Just how the hell is he so powerful? There's no way this is some special cheat code." Heather gulped as Sora slowly walked towards them. "There's something else going on here, something bad."

"I figured that out when they started kicking our asses." Noah muttered. "They've been whooping us since the start of the fight. I actually think they've managed to _outdo_ Chris!"

"Maybe XANA upgraded their powers or maybe because we're so far in his territory his Generals are just naturally stronger." DJ suggested.

"No way. If it was like that they would have been harder to face all the other times we were in the Carbon Copy. This is something new, something unexpected, and to be honest it's working so well that I think if we were real we'd have more broken ribs than the human body could handle." Noah pointed out. "What could make someone so powerful so quickly?"

"Yeah. It's just like when Aelita gave us a boost when we faced those copies..." LeShawna trailed off as she saw the looks on Cody and Noah's face. "What?"

"LeShawna, you're a genius!" Cody whispered.

"Huh?" LeShawna asked.

"Come on, even I know what they're thinking of." Heather rolled her eyes. "They got a power boost like we did."

"And there's only one way that could have happened." Noah continued.

LeShawna's eyes widened. "Lilith!"

"She's got Code: Angel like Aelita does and when she uses it she's more powerful than all of us _except_ for Aelita." Cody explained. "If she shared those powers with the other generals..."

"Then they all got a major boost!" LeShawna finished.

"And we're stuck fighting him and the others while Aelita's taking on Lilith." Noah frowned. "We can keep on fighting but they've got a boost in speed, strength, power...We've got the worst kind of disadvantage here."

"If Aelita can reactivate her Code: Angel abilities and share them with us again..." LeShawna started.

"We'd need to get to her. She doesn't know and Lilith's keeping her busy. We need a big plan here now!" Heather pointed out.

Xxx

Aelita grunted as she held up both hands and blocked Lilith's black clawed metallic hand before it clawed her face apart. She flew back as she grappled with Lilith until her back made contact with the wall. She grunted as she hit the wall, hard enough that cracks began to form. She looked to see Lilith's other hand pointed at her, charging an energy beam.

"Not going to happen!" Aelita pointed both hands at Lilith and they fired energy beams at close range.

They both flew out of the resulting explosion before they were caught in it. Aelita looked around, trying to find Lilith before it was too late. She quickly sensed a presence and spun around to see Lilith floating in the air several feet away from here.

'She's a lot faster now...but something's off. I remember the last fights I had with her, she's tough but her energy reserves were higher before.' Aelita then glanced down at the other fights. 'Then at the same time the other Generals, their powers increase enough that they can easily overwhelm. If I can share my powers with my friends than it's possible...'

Lilith was about to attack again when Aelita's voice stopped her. "You shared the powers of the Keys within you with the other generals, didn't you Lilith?"

"Hmm..." Lilith smirked. "So you figured it out."

"It was only logical explanation. Even if XANA were capable of increasing your powers this much he'd need time, time that he doesn't have as he's digitizing the entire world. You are the only one besides him with the necessary energy reserves to share that much power with the other generals and since we're this far in XANA's domain he'd want to make sure we'd be cornered with no way out." Aelita explained with a small grin. "And since we're all separated I can't share my own powers with the others to give them a chance to fight back."

"...No matter how many times we fight there are still times when that brain of your surprises me. All the time spent in Lyoko, fighting the Master, learning to use that power, it's like you can read everyone's mind or something. I even think you're going further than Master XANA or Waldo Schaeffer predicted." Lilith commented. "But tell me this; now that you've figured it out what do you plan to do? You're cut off from the others and there's no way I'll let you get past me to help them and I've still got plenty of juice to fight you even if you bring out Code: Angel yourself. I'll cut you off and then in half before you can even think of doing it."

"Then I can't afford to hold back..." Aelita held out one hand and created a sword made of pure energy. "The great thing about Code: Angel is that when it upgraded my character form I got to use my abilities better than ever. Plus you just revealed your greatest weakness."

"And what's what?"

Aelita smirked. "If you're the one who is powering the other generals than I all I have to do is beat you and they'll lose their new powers."

"Hmph!" Lilith held up her metal clawed hand. "I have a little trouble believing that if that's fine by you."

Aelita then flew straight at Lilith and slashed at her head. Lilith brought her arm and blocked the energy sword, releasing sparks into the air. Aelita then rapidly slashed as Lilith's head but the General blocked every slash with her arm, noticing that Aelita was gathering power in her energy sword.

"Eat this!" Aelita released the blast at close range, knocking Lilith back but she managed to keep herself in the air. "It's over, Lilith!"

She thrust her sword into Lilith's chest and thought it was over...

Until Lilith chuckled.

Aelita's eyes slightly widened as Lilith vanished right before her eyes and appeared behind her. Aelita gasped as she felt Lilith's claws slicing in her back. Aelita spun around and slashed at Lilith who vanished again and reappeared several feet away from her opponent. Aelita flew forward and slashed again, clashing with Lilith's metal arm.

"Have you forgotten who I am? I am Lilith of the Mirage, illusions are my specialty along with controlling your senses." Lilith said as she blocked Aelita's energy sword.

She spread her arms out, allowing Aelita to slash her but just like before she vanished.

"The second we engaged I had already put you under my spell and from that point on I can alter your perception of sight to see anything I want."

Suddenly it wasn't just one Lilith Aelita was facing but an entire group surrounding her.

"Digital or real the brain still reacts the same as always and whatever the brain thinks its sees the body will react so. As if that ability isn't scary enough than you should know that when I use Code: Angel that ability only becomes even stronger in this form." All of the Liliths said at once. "Not even your Second Sight will help, not if your brain itself is under my spell."

Aelita narrowed her eyes at the dangerous situation. 'She can fool me even with my Second Sight? That's not good. That's not got at all!'

She quickly found herself blocking and dodging attacks on all sides but since Lilith was able to control her senses she couldn't tell which one was real or not as they attacked her. She let out a shout as she felt clawed fingers scratched her back but she could feel her life points were not affected.

'She can alter my senses to make me feel pain from her attacks. The safety program doesn't work against her.' Aelita gritted her teeth. 'She can control my sight and hearing while altering my touch sense to feel pain from her attacks.'

She felt the sharp claws of Lilith's hand slicing through her and no matter how hard she fought or even if it was the real Lilith she was fighting. Suddenly Lilith appeared right behind her and brought her hand down on Aelita's head. The pink haired girl only had a second to look up before she was sent spiraling down to the ground. The crash caught the attention of several fighters who stopped and watched as Aelita groaned while trying to stand up.

'Damn it...I never thought I'd end up facing an illusion this dangerous...but if she can make something this dangerous with her own powers then maybe...' Aelita's frown deepened as she stood up. "Computer, activate Code: Angel!"

Everyone stopped and watched as the bright white aura surrounded Aelita, signalling that her full power had been unleashed.

"Hmph! You going to try that? You realize that if you use that against me now you won't have much time to use it against Master XANA." Lilith pointed out.

Aelita ignored her as she leapt up to attack again.

"So stubborn!" Lilith sighed as she and Aelita fought again.

She used her black metallic arm to fend off Aelita's energy sword and barely managed to block a kick to her mid-section with her other arm. Lilith chuckled as she created another illusion to distract Aelita while appearing behind her again. Her black clawed hand went right through Aelita's back, grinning as digital code spat out like blood.

"AELITA!" Several of the Lyoko Warriors shouted in horror.

However Aelita suddenly vanished, surprising Lilith and leaving her with wide eyes.

"What the..."

"PLASMA BEAM!"

Lilith spun around and saw gigantic blast of light travelling towards her. She pointed her right arm and fired a Plasma Barrage but the energy beam actually _absorbed_ her attack and grew larger. Lilith gasped in horror before she tried to block the attack but the sheer force of the energy beam pushed all the way into the wall and engulfed in gigantic explosion. A second later it was Lilith who fell to the ground with a loud crash.

"Lilith!" Jinx shouted in concern.

"That's a bummer." Sora remarked.

The dust cleared to see Lilith on her knees, her clothes torn with scratches and bruises all over her skin as she looked up at Aelita.

"You...you cast an illusion on me!" Lilith grunted. "You used my trick against me and used your Keys to amplify your own illusionary powers to alter my perception of sight!"

Aelita didn't answer and Lilith didn't bother to continue as she sprouted her wings and flew up to engage Aelita again. She let out a loud cry as she aimed her clawed hand at Aelita's face but the pink haired girl blocked with her energy sword and blocked several more strikes before she slipped under Lilith's guard and delivered a powerful backhand to her face that sent her spinning back. Lilith grunted as she managed to regain control and floated back up.

"My powers along with my speed and strength are amplified through the Keys. I'm at full power while you shared your power with the other Generals." Aelita remarked. "In other words I have the advantage over you now, Lilith. And even if you put me under another illusion I can just as easily put you under my own. In other words we've reached a stalemate."

"Are you that sure?" Lilith grunted.

"Just look at how easily the tables have turned, Lilith. My own powers are greater than yours because they were meant to be with me. You gained your powers when XANA stole my friends to make you and the other generals." Aelita levelled a stern glared on her opponent. "I will only offer this one chance, retreat now and get out of our way. There's no trick you have that will make us stop, we've come too far, and suffered too much to quit now. If push comes to shove we will defeat you, we'll defeat all the generals, all the obstacles before us and...We _WILL_ take down XANA!"

Lilith's eyes narrowed. "You sound positive. You really sure...that you can defeat Master XANA when he has amassed enough power to fight until the end of world itself and beyond? When he's always managed to outsmart every other opponent who faced him? When those opponents included your own father?"

"If you are unable to believe if we can win then come at me with everything you've got, Lilith! We've wasted enough playing around!" Aelita shouted as her powers flared to life around her in the form of a bright white and pink energy aura.

As she let out a battle cry the other Lyoko Warriors suddenly felt themselves becoming stronger as auras of bright blue light surrounded them.

"This feeling..." Cody looked down at his hands.

"It's just like when Aelita powered us up before." Noah held up one hand. "She didn't touch us...there must have been some leftover energy in us and it's reacting...It's reacting to Aelita!"

"Wow..." Izzy let out an excited laugh. "IZZY FEELS SO PUMPED!"

"Wow..." Gwen closed her eyes to feel the power coursing through her. "Is this what Aelita feels when she powers up?"

"Well if you ask me, I like it!" Duncan grinned sinisterly. "THE HEROES ARE MAKING THEIR COMEBACK!"

Gwen spun around and slashed at Jinx who spun out-of-the-way and slashed at Gwen's head with her spear glowing bright purple. Gwen however managed to block and both spell casters found themselves in another grappling match, purple and blue energies flaring fiercely around their bodies as they glared and growled at each other as they tried to push the other into submission. The battle was now no longer on sided as the Lyoko Warriors now matched the Generals in power.

It had become of sheer willpower.

Sora spun around to see Heather running straight towards him. He held up one fist and thrust it forward like he was going to punch even though she was not close enough yet. A blast of air shot from his fist with enough force that could blast a hole through anything solid and it was heading straight towards Heather. However Heather smirked and when the blast was mere inches from her she jumped out-of-the-way, moving so fast Sora was lucky enough to see the blur outline of her as she dodged and came upon him with such speed he barely had time to block the kick to his face.

However Sora did not count on Heather's strength increasing along with her speed so when he blocked her kick the sheer force of the blow was enough to knock him back and make him stagger as he struggled to keep his balance. Heather was not done as she was eager to test her new power and she fell on Sora in a storm of punches and kicks that were not only strong but fast, barely allowing Sora the chance to block or dodge. As if that wasn't enough Sora had to content with Cody and Noah who showed their own new powers in the form of deadly lasers that were powerful enough to actually hurt him if they touched him. He found that out the hard way when one of the lasers nearly blasted his left-wing but only managed to graze it and left some burned feathers.

Bridgette called upon her hydrokinetic powers and actually _melted_ the ice created by Yuki and turned into water for her to use against Yuki. The ice user and the surfer battled it out, ice against water, and struggled to overpower the other as Yuki's icy claws clashed with Bridgette's swords. An icy blue aura surrounded Yuki, with ice covering her hair now and forming over her body like armor while Bridgette's wave shaped tattoos glowed along the blue aura surrounding her body. Izzy wanted to jump in and help but the fierce look on both girls' faces made her step back, deciding this is one battle she did _not_ want to get in the middle of.

Duncan and Cain clashed, sending embers into the air around them but they ignored the small blasts of fire. They were more interested in burning each other to digital ashes and burning those ashes into nothing. Eva jumped into with her own power, her fists now having more power than before as everyone found it when she tried to crush Cain's skull. The general moved out-of-the-way and everyone watched as her fists left a _huge_ crater that forced everyone to jump back before they were caught in the blast.

When the dust cleared Eva was standing in the center of the crater with a smirk.

"I could get used to this."

Everyone was glad that she could only use these powers in the digital world. If she ever got them in the real world that would be something possibly more scary than XANA.

Ryder in the meantime was grappling with Geoff, sword and axe sparkling with bright blinding electricity that circled the air around them. Trent hung back, knowing that if he tried to intervene he'd be blasted to bits by the sheer power surrounding the two fighters.

'They've literally become a hurricane.' Trent thought with a whistle.

And above all of them Aelita and Lilith circled each other, eyeing their opponent dangerously as they prepared for whatever move they had next. Aelita made the first move by firing an energy beam that Lilith dodged and quickly launched another, capitalizing on her offense. Lilith's wings flapped through the air as she angled her body to dodge every attack, even retreating away from Aelita without launching a single attack.

'What is she up to? I've shared my powers with the others again so we should almost be equal.' Aelita narrowed her eyes. 'She's up to something.'

Lilith was cunning and devious which when combined with her powers made her the most dangerous enemy to Warriors next to XANA himself. Lilith herself looked completely calm as she gracefully evaded any energy attack Aelita launched at her and fired back several energy blasts that Aelita dodged.

'This is getting us nowhere. I'll have to try and attack at close range!' Aelita decided and launched herself through the air like a rocket towards Lilith.

Lilith frowned and flew back until she was pressing her back against the wall. Aelita narrowed her eyes as she flew towards Lilith and wondered what she was up to. She was grinning and yet she was making no move to attack or even defend herself. Why would she...

Aelita's eyes widened as she saw Lilith's shadow along the wall lengthen and she barely had the chance to dodge the shadow tendril that lunged out of the wall and tried to pierce her head.

"Damn it!" Aelita growled as she flew back.

She had almost forgotten Lilith's ability to manipulate her shadow, shaping and molding it into weapons or monsters to attack her opponents. Lilith's shadow grew until it resembled a giant monster, towering over her with arms that had sharp clawed hands and tendrils spreading across the across the wall.

"You forgot something, Aelita?" Lilith asked with a sinister grin. "Forgot that I am the Angel of Light _and_ Darkness. I can manipulate my shadow to take on any form I want. That's a major difference in power between the both of us. You only use Code: Angel to increase your own powers and gain abilities that other warriors already have. What about...seeing if you can go beyond those limits?"

Aelita grunted as she struggled to dodge the tendrils and claws aiming to rip her to pieces. She really needed a new plan and fast or she'd be cut to pieces.

"Ready or not, here we come!" Lilith called out as the shadow beast behind came off the wall and reached out to grab her. "And don't think you're the only one on the menu! It's an all out buffet tonight!"

The monstrous tendrils reached down towards the other Warriors as they fought the rest of the Generals, seemingly on equal ground.

"Oh no!" Aelita looked down and shouted. "EVERYONE! LOOK OUT!"

They all looked up to see the shadowy tendrils lunging down towards them. While Aelita was distracted a tentacle reached and grabbed her, wrapping itself tight enough around her body that she let out a scream from the sheer force crushing her.

"Oh crap!" Geoff shouted as he jumped away from Ryder and started running. "RUN FOR IT DUDES!"

Trent looked up and gasped. "Oh fuck!"

He turned around and ran after Geoff as the shadowy tendrils lunged at them with blinding speed. He turned slightly and pointed his guitar at the tendrils, playing his Fire Note and releasing a stream of fire that engulfed the tendrils. However half a second later the tendrils lunged through the flames, unaffected and chased after them.

"That's not good!" Trent yelped as he spun around and ran as fast as he possibly could. "They're moving too fas-AH!"

Gwen looked up as she was grappling with Jinx to see the multiple shadowy arms reaching down towards her and the others. She instinctively backed away from Jinx and jumped up into the air, activating her flight ability. She looked back to see the tendrils gaining up on her so she activated her fire aura and released streams of fire from her feet. She managed to out fly the tendrils but she didn't see the shadows traveling along the walls of the chamber and when she looked forward she gasped as tendrils came straight at her.

"EXCUSE ME! PARDON ME! GOT TO MOVE TO STAY ALIVE!" Izzy changed into a goat, then a dog, and then when a tendril almost grabbed her she changed into a snake and quickly slithered out of the tendril before it managed to grab her. "RUN FOR YOU CRAZY DIGITAL LIVES!"

Bridgette was almost too far focused on her fight with Yuki that she almost didn't see the shadowy tendrils reaching down to grab her.

"Oh boy!" Bridgette gasped as she jumped back away from Yuki.

She tried to run but she saw that the tendrils were gaining up on her. She joined her swords into her surfboard and jumped onto it, willing her board to blast off into the air. She flew through the air, looking down to see Izzy in the form of a red kangaroo hopping across the floor to escape the reach of the shadow tendrils.

"IZZY!"

The shape shifter looked up to see Bridgette fly over her. "HI!"

She hopped onto Bridgette's back, changing into a small lizard that stuck her shoulders while the surfer struggled to stay out of reach of the black tentacles chasing her.

"Wow! What a shocking twist!" Izzy cried as she sat on Bridgette's shoulders.

"You're telling me-AH!"

"DUNCAN LOOK OUT!" Courtney screamed.

The Berserker had been struggling to slice Cain to bits when Courtney and Eva noticed the multiple shadow tentacles lunging down towards them.

"Oh come on! When are they going to stop with the surprises?!" Eva shouted.

"RUN!" Courtney shouted. "COME ON, DUNCAN! FOR I-AH!"

"**COURTNEY!**" The Berserker changed back into Duncan who watched as the tendrils grabbed Courtney and Eva and lifted them off the ground.

"LET GO OF ME!" Eva shouted, trying to break free but the grip was too strong.

"GUYS! RUN!" DJ shouted as the tendrils fell on the last five warriors.

However at this point Lilith's shadow had spread all across the walls of the chamber and with so many shadow tentacles it took a total of two seconds to capture the last few warriors.

Lilith grinned as her shadow monster held all the Warriors tightly in its grasp before her. "So? Where's that confidence you guys had just a moment ago? I had thought you guys would have had something ready for something like this but I guess not. Now we end this."

The center of the shadow monster's chest opened up, revealing a huge gaping maw with really sharp teeth.

"Oh no. Not that again." Gwen's eyes widened at the familiar sight.

She never forgot the mouth of the shadow monster that Lilith almost fed her to when she first revealed her Code: Angel abilities in the Swamp Sector of the Carbon Copy. It had almost swallowed her whole and would have dealt her a fate as bad as falling into the Digital Sea. That was one of the few missions in the Digital Universe where they had literally come close to death and now it was threatening to devour them all this time.

"So you do remember, Gwenny." Lilith's grin widened. "The good news is that you won't be alone. Spend the rest of your natural lives and beyond in DARKNESS!"

The Warriors all struggled to break free from the shadow tendrils pulling them towards the huge gaping maw with all the strength or power that they had but the tendrils refused to release or even react to how hard they were struggling to break free.

"Too bad, looks like you were never strong enough to challenge XANA. I'm sure he'll award you all for your efforts though." Lilith remarked. "You first, Aelita."

Aelita watched as the tendril pulled her towards the giant mouth with the sharp teeth waiting to chomp her to bits and absorb her data. She struggled harder as the black abyss of death was literally inches away from her.

'This can't be how it ends! I promised I wouldn't stop until XANA was gone and all my friends were safe!' Aelita gritted her teeth. 'This can't be how it ends!'

She needed to escape!

She needed to win!

She needed to live...

To save all that she loved!

'How do I break free? How do I defeat Lilith? There must be a way!'

That was when the Keys to Lyoko within her seem to react to her distress. She let out a gasp as they begun downloading information into her mind, analysing Lilith's attack, and scanned for a way to neutralize it.

'This is it! This is what I need to do!'

Just as the giant black mouth was about to swallow, Aelita's mouth opened and she let out a soft note. What came next was even more surprising for everyone. Her body was engulfed in a bright light that spread out and traveled down the shadow tentacle holding her and into the mouth. Lilith gasped as she felt something enter her shadow beast, something that resisting its attempt to assimilate everything it absorbed. The shadow beast let out a loud scream as beams of light blasted out of its skin, burning it away from the inside.

The shadow beast let out one last roar before it exploded in a blast of light, releasing all of its captives and allowing them to fall to the ground below. Everyone managed to land on their feet and watched as Aelita landed before them, glowing brighter than ever before.

"I said it before and I'll say it again. Aelita, you are some kind of crazy." LeShawna remarked after a moment of silence.

Aelita smiled. "But it's the reason you guys love me."

Something else hit the ground and they all spun around with their weapons ready.

"Lilith!" Jinx called out as the General gathered around their fallen comrade.

Lilith had returned to her normal human form, looking exhausted from the battle.

She opened one eye to look at Aelita. "How? What are you?"

"...I'm just a girl who's looking for her friends." Aelita answered simply. "You all are welcome to try to stop us but we're going after XANA. So here's my only warning: stay out of our way. Keep on attacking us and we will finish you guys off once and for all."

"We just leave them?" Eva asked.

"They're distracting us and wearing us down when the real threat is up there." Aelita pointed to the ceiling. "If we waste our time fighting them we'll be exhausted for when we go up against the...Big Bad Guy."

No argued with her because they knew she was right. The Generals were mere obstacles in their path to defeat XANA and if they didn't hurry he'd digitize the entire world and all of humanity would be at his mercy. They had to stop him before time was out.

"Ready to go?" Gwen asked.

Aelita nodded. "You all ready?"

Everyone nodded. Aelita put her hands together and spread them out, creating a large disk made of energy appeared underneath the Warriors and lifted them up towards the opening in the ceiling that led up to next level, the top of the tower where their greatest enemy resided.

"Why you little..." Ryder growled as his sword sparked. "Leaving us behind when the fight's not over? The nerve!"

He was about to jump after then but something stopped them.

'Hold. Do not pursue them.'

All of the Generals stopped and looked up, seemingly seeing through the ceiling of the chamber.

"Master XANA." Yuki answered.

'I am pleased with the effort you have shown in this battle. However Aelita's own power with her Keys has grown beyond yours, even working together with Lilith's own power. Therefore a new course of action must be taken.'

"We can take them. Just let us try!" Jinx protested.

'It's too late for that, Jinx. Aelita's powers along with her friends grow in close proximity due to her determination to protect everyone while your powers have been compromised. My Generals, it's time for us to finish the battle together.'

"Together?" Sora asked.

'Your powers came from source codes meaning we are all connected. Let those codes come together and be one once more.'

The Generals could not argue with XANA's decision. It was in their very codes to serve him and so they did as told.

"We are ready, Master." Lilith stood up weakly. "Show us what we must do."

'Very well. Let that which links us bring us together.'

The Eye of XANA imprinted on their clothes, skin, or eyes glowed bright red and engulfed the generals, turning them into bright orbs of light that shot up through the ceiling.

Xxx

XANA's Avatar opened its eyes as the orbs of red light came into his chamber and one by one, they merged with him through the Eye on his Avatar's chest. The Eye glowed bright red as the orbs were absorbed into and XANA could feel his own strength growing stronger.

'We are one, my Generals, my creations, my children. Together we will end this war and create the World Without Danger.' XANA grinned. 'Come to me, Aelita. It's your turn to die.'

Xxx

Aelita shivered the energy disk traveled through the darkness and up to the next level.

"You okay?" Bridgette asked.

"I'm...I'm fine." Aelita shook it off. "Just...anticipation."

The energy disk brought them to next level where they found...

Complete Darkness.

"Hello?" Izzy called out and listened to the sound of her voice echoing throughout the chamber. "Cool! Echo!"

"This is actually not what I was expecting." Noah spoke out loud. "I am actually getting a very bad feeling here."

"Good thing. I was afraid I was the only one." Duncan remarked.

A chuckle was heard and instantly everyone was on guard.

"Oh boy. Classic horror scenario where we are lost in the dark...and the scary monsters takes us out one by one." Gwen held out her scythe tightly.

That was when a familiar being emerged from the darkness.

"You've done well to come this far...but it's too late." XANA stepped forward.

Everyone narrowed their eyes as he stepped out of the darkness, his same usual uncaring smirk plastered across his Avatar's face. After all this time, all the battles, all the grief, and they finally were facing him down.

"Where are they?" Aelita demanded with a very cold voice.

XANA stepped out-of-the-way and allowed Aelita to see the crystal prisons holding the warriors.

"Always one to state exactly what she wants, huh Sister? You are so focused on them that have you forgotten about the rest of the world? What about the people already trapped out there? Or has the sight of them, finally in your reach again, caused you to forget about all the other poor, innocent people?"

"Don't let him distract you," Gwen insisted to Aelita. "He's trying to get us mad so we'll do something stupid. We'll help those people too Aelita, right after we're finished with him."

"Then what are we waiting for?!" Duncan demanded. "He's right there, we're at our strongest. Let's get him!"

"Very well. If you insist." XANA snapped his fingers.

The darkness surrounded them was illuminated by red lights that were actually data screens lining the walls and a massive Eye lit along the floor.

"Welcome to the top of the Central Processing Tower of the Carbon Copy and my personal chamber. The very chamber that I made to create my Avatar and the Generals. It is also the very place where you can shut down the tower and end my attack." XANA announced. "An acceptable place for the final conflict, wouldn't you say? Now that all arrangements have properly taken care of perhaps one of you would like to take part in a little demonstration?"

"No one move!" Aelita called out. "He's trying to bait us!"

"Now why would you say that, Sister? You have all come so far, faced so much, even come so close to dying, all the way here and yet you are afraid?" XANA asked, tilting his head with his smile widening slightly. "There's nothing to be afraid of, after all. You all chose to die long ago."

"All right, that's it! I have had it with your smug attitude!" LeShawna raised her hammer and charged forward.

"LeShawna wait!" Aelita shouted, trying to stop her.

LeShawna swung her hammer at her foe but XANA created a small blade as he moved with blinding speed. He slashed LeShawna's cheek and jumped away. However everyone's attention was directed at LeShawna who stepped back.

"Smart ass little-"

"LeShawna! Your face!" Bridgette gasped.

"What about it?" LeShawna held a hand up her cheek where XANA sliced and felt...

Blood?

She looked down at her hand and saw red blood on her fingers. "Is that really..."

"Blood." Gwen finished with widened eyes.

"Amazing, isn't it?" XANA held up the small knife and looked the blood. "When the human body is digitized, everything right down to every small hair on your eyebrows is scanned and compressed into the nexus core while the digital avatar acts as the carrier. Those forms you have, they are not even real bodies, merely digital constructs meant to trick you into thinking of them as bodies. But...what happens when the core and the Avatar becomes one? What happens when all that is flesh and blood becomes part of the digital construct that allows them to walk this world?"

"Oh man...I was a lot more comfortable when I didn't have bones to be broken," Noah swallowed. "Or a heart to be stopped."

"But how can we still use all of our powers while we're like this?" Gwen asked looking very concerned. "My Auras, Duncan's Berserker form, Izzy's shape-shifting...if these are pretty much our real bodies wouldn't that have...side effects? Like being burnt or something?"

"He said these are our bodies and Nexus Cores combined...we can probably still use our powers but...now this is a lot more than a video game." Aelita said with a chill running through the entire group. "But how? When?"

"When you ask? That's an interesting question. You have fought for the last few hours and you never experienced injuries during those fights and yet now those affects have become possible. Let me ask you this," XANA's grin widened. "When you entered my chamber it was obvious this effect was activated. What you see now is just trivial; the terrifying part is what you can't see. Like when my special little program that entered your Avatars and bonded them to your Nexus Cores."

"The fights against the monsters attacking the studio and the school, the copies in Sector 5, the battle with the Generals..." Aelita trailed off with her eyes widening from the implications.

"I just told you, what you see is merely trivial but what you are unable to see is the most terrifying." XANA remarked, satisfied with the results. "And what I can see right now, is no matter how hard you try to hide it, all of you who hate and despise me so much are scared of the fact that you could die here. After working so hard to track me down you realize now that you might die without even laying a finger on me."

Eva growled, closing her fists tightly. "Like that's any different from before! You put us through all that and _this_ is the best you can do?! I thought you'd change into a big, scary monster!"

XANA only grinned back at her.

'You're wrong, Eva. You should be cautious.' Aelita thought as she sensed something was wrong.

She thought XANA had spent most of his power, digitizing the city and everyone in it but instead of weakening she could sense that XANA's powers had not decreased at all. In fact it felt like XANA's power expanded throughout the entire tower without any effort at all.

"Everyone...stand back and let me fight him." Aelita spoke up.

They all looked at her with looks that basically said 'Have you gone insane?'

"Aelita..." Bridgette started.

"My Keys can allow me to fight on his level and I can better protect myself. If you guys are injured or hurt in any way you might bleed out we don't know if you'll survive being devirtualized." Aelita explained.

"No." Geoff said. "No way."

"He's right, Aelita. There's no way we're sitting back and let you risk your life to beat that maniac!" Trent agreed.

"We're all here because we came to stop him!" Courtney agreed. "We are not backing down, not after coming this far."

"They're right and you know it, Aelita." DJ spoke up. "This is everyone's fight."

"We're here to fight, to win, and help you win." Gwen continued. "Listen Aelita, we'll help you, protect you, so you can go and save them _and_ us along with the whole world. There's no way you can handle this alone. Think of everyone else who helped get you this far."

Thoughts of the Seraphim, Robby, Kurt, Carlos, Waldo Schaeffer, and everyone else who has ever stood against XANA or any other digital threat that was out to destroy the world.

"If you plan on attacking, be sure to make it count." Noah stepped forward. "We'll put the pressure on XANA and distract him. No matter how powerful he is all of us together with our own super powers will keep him distracted."

"So be sure to make it count." Heather spoke up. "Don't waste our chance because we won't get another one."

XANA watched as all the Total Drama Lyoko Warriors gathered around Aelita with their weapons drawn and their powers activated.

"Can't let you fight on your own, boss. That'd be crazy and that's a lot coming from me!" Izzy grinned. "If you went alone and lost we'd be sad."

"So get ready." Duncan grinned sinisterly. "Because it's about to get hot!"

He lunged forward with a loud yell as green fire burned the air around his sword. XANA held up one hand and his broad sword materialized in front of him. He grasped it and quickly blocked Duncan's sword before it could cut or burn him.

"You charge at me without forming a plan first? My data on your history shows that you were always the reckless one, Duncan." XANA remarked with a calm smirk.

"Who said we didn't have a plan? You just can't read our minds...At least I don't think you can." Duncan remarked.

"Hmph." XANA raised his left arm and blocked a kick from to his face from Izzy. "Yes, the ability to make up plans on the fly without the need to communicate. Only people who are brought together and so close have such instincts."

Izzy grunted with a frown on her face. If the situation wasn't so serious everyone would have been surprised by serious she looked.

"Aelita, get ready!" Gwen said. "We'll keep him busy! Distract him long enough for Aelita to take him out!"

With that said all the Total Drama Warriors rushed forward, brandishing their weapons while Aelita watched in surprise before preparing to jump into the fight herself. In the meantime XANA was easily blocking Duncan and Izzy's attacks. His sword blocked all of Duncan's slashes while he either dodged or used his left arm to block Izzy's blows, consisting of mixed punches and kicks. Aelita was about ready to attack when a shadowy wall came up in front of her, blocking her from joining everyone.

"Oh no!" Aelita gasped.

"YAH!"

XANA stepped out of the way of Izzy's fist, glancing as the orange haired girl flew past him. She spun around and launched her foot at his head. He held up his sword and blocked the kick, leaving himself open to Duncan's sword as he thrust it at XANA's chest. XANA however held up his left and created a second sword that blocked Duncan's easily. He spun and sent the two fighters flying back.

"Eat this!" Eva jumped in with her fists charged with power.

"Don't forget about me!" LeShawna charged at him from behind.

XANA disappeared in blur and reappeared several feet from them before their attacks collided with him.

"Slippery bastard!" Eva spun around, growling at their smirking opponent.

"He saw us coming." LeShawna grit her teeth.

"You're going to need every strategy, diversion, ability, and trick that you can think of if you believe you have the smallest amount of hope of touching me." XANA spoke, uncaring and not afraid of the odds standing before him. "I would usually calculate the odds of you hurting me in my own domain but I feel that this is a very rare occasion. The chance...the chance for me to actually cut loose and show you all what you are really fighting against...and the chance to see you realize, that it is futile."

"See _this._" Noah said before raising both arms, forming them into guns and firing. "...okay not my most clever comeback."

He was firing at XANA's face, but the evil AI simply tilted his head either way faster than their eyes could follow to avoid the shots. Then he began to take casual steps forward, still avoiding Noah's shots with such speed that he became a black blur that was slowly getting closer.

"A little help please?!" Noah shouted.

"Somebody get me up high!" Cody said before his eyes settled on Eva. "...throw me!"

"What?"

"THROW ME!"

Eva grabbed Cody by the neck of his jacket and his belt and threw him into the air. The gunslinger flipped in mid flight as he passed over XANA and fired both of his pistols down. XANA simply side stepped, now dodging both Cody and Noah's blasts. Duncan took this chance to launch a jet of green fire from his sword, and XANA ducked under it, rushed parallel to the burning embers and rammed his elbow into Duncan's ribs. This sent the sword wielding boy flying back, gasping as he felt one of his ribs break.

"Duncan!" Courtney rushed in and leaped up, swinging her staff down at XANA's head before one hand shot up and grasped the tip between two fingers.

XANA then tore the weapon from her grip and in the blink of an eye spun it around and struck Courtney in her side, flinging her into the ground. He then threw the staff at Noah, the tip landing in his gut and knocking him over. He gasped and coughed, hands on his now bruised front.

"Ugh...this isn't a fun game anymore." The young genius groaned.

White strings of energy latched onto XANA's right arm and pulled on it. XANA looked and saw Gwen with her White Aura, producing Energy strings that had grabbed his arm. Bridgette yelled as she jumped at XANA and swung her blades down. XANA pulled his sword up despite Gwen's efforts and blocked both of Bridgette's swords.

"Now, LeShawna!"

LeShawna raised her hammer as she lunged at XANA with a loud yell and swung it down with all of her strength. XANA however backhanded her hammer with the blunt head of his sword and actually sent her flying back while slicing through Gwen's energy strings.

"My turn!"

XANA glanced behind himself to see Eva running towards him both of her fists and feet glowing with bright blue colored energy. XANA simply turned around grabbed Eva's wrist as her right fist launched itself at the back of his head.

"Attacking me like that? Did you really think charging up your fists while fighting a mindless brawler would harm me?" XANA brought his face just inches from Eva's, his red eyes boring into her. "Such mindless barbarism has no business in front of me."

He kicked Eva in the chest, smirking at the gasp of pain as he released her wrist and watched as she flew back. XANA could only close his eyes in disappointment. Did they think they could overpower him with sheer numbers? Did they not realize what they were up against? They forgot that he was not a simple computer program that could spawn digital monsters to fight them like a video game.

They forgot the reason they should fear him.

He could do more than create digital monsters, hack away at any computer network, and alter the digital environment to his advantage. He was dangerous because he knew how to fight and overpower almost anyone in his way. He knew everything scientific about Earth and was knowledgeable in every tactic mankind had used in its long history of waging war on itself. He could outthink his opponents and think almost ten steps ahead of anyone who stood in its way.

And not only that but he was able to fight multiple opponents with little effort simply because it was he was meant to do.

He was meant to be a weapon of destruction.

A weapon of war.

And he has had a long time to perfect his abilities.

What better time to show how skilled and dangerous he truly was than now?

"If you thought trying to overwhelm me with sheer numbers was your little plan than allow me to point out the flaws in your strategy." XANA grinned sinisterly. "Mistake number one."

Geoff swung his axe, releasing a blast of lightning at XANA's back but the AI moved out of the way with his considerable speed and reappeared in front of Geoff.

"Your strategy is as poor as your aim."

Geoff swung his axe again but XANA again disappeared in a burst of speed and reappeared right behind the Party King.

"You're too slow to react."

Geoff spun around and tried to cut his head off but XANA once vanished in a blur, appearing behind Geoff again but this time they were both back to back.

"You're swinging that axe around like a toy. What happens when your weapon and power fails?" XANA asked as Geoff let out a cry of pain. "What do you do then?"

"GEOFF!" Bridgette shouted in terror.

A cut appeared on Geoff's back, slicing through his clothes and blood dripped out. It wasn't enough to make Geoff fall down in pain but it still hurt and everyone grimaced as blood stained his clothes.

"This is what happens you stand before the Dragon with nothing but weak sticks." XANA remarked with dark chuckle.

He swung his blade to finish Geoff off but a barrier appeared around Geoff, blocking his blade. XANA glanced to the corner of his left and spotted DJ with his arms pointed at Geoff, protecting him from anymore harm.

"Always protecting your comrades before yourself, Devon Joseph, a trait you've always had since the beginning but you leave yourself open to harm." XANA pulled his sword back and turned to face DJ.

"I don't think so!"

XANA blocked a slash to his chest from Bridgette who growled with a look of hate on her face as she grappled with XANA's blade, trying to overpower him.

"This is a rare look on your face, Surfer Bridgette." XANA calmly said while holding both of Bridgette's swords back with just a single sword. "Attacking with such an angry look and charging at me so recklessly."

"You _will not hurt anyone I care about ever again!_" Bridgette growled as her tattoos glowed bright blue, like the raging ocean.

"Oh? Is it because..." XANA twisted his wrist to block Gwen's scythe while holding Bridgette back. "Of your little sneak attack?"

"Criticizing our sense of fair play, huh?" Gwen sneered.

"Oh, did it sound like that? Allow me to correct myself. Is it because of the little attack I was aware of before you even conceived it in your little minds?" XANA asked, feigning innocence.

"I don't know. Did you think he figured us out, Heather?" Gwen asked.

Heather appeared in mid-air, behind XANA as she aimed both her feet down at his head. However XANA stepped back and once again in a burst of incredible speed he dodged Heather's attacks and moved several feet away from them.

"Damn it!" Heather spun around with a glare. "I was so close!"

"And as always you lose your temper when your attempted strategy fails. That's an incurable habit of yours, Kunoichi Heather." XANA remarked.

"Yeah well, what can I say? I hate losing." Despite the situation Heather's lips curled up into a smirk. "It makes me so angry."

"My apologies. Perhaps I can make something easier for you to beat while I handle everyone else." XANA suggested.

"I got a better idea." Gwen said as her Fire Aura surrounded her. "You stay still...and let me incinerate you to ashes!"

"Oh? I thought you of all people knew...that you shouldn't play with fire." XANA remarked.

"Sounds good to me!"

XANA glanced to his right, spotting Trent playing his Flame Note and releasing a stream of fire coming straight towards him.

"Hmph!" XANA closed his eyes, creating a dark smoky wall that blocked the flames.

Gwen took the chance and swung her flaming scythe forward at her foe.

"Here's another flaw in your plan, you leave yourself open to harm from the powers of your own friends." The smoky wall engulfed the flames from Trent's guitar, changing its color from bright orange to black.

XANA then gestured with a single finger and the flames flew straight at Gwen. The spell caster's eyes widened and she rolled out of the way, the flames managing to graze her shoulder and leave a small burn mark that made Gwen gasp from the burning sensation.

"Attempting to strike from a distance won't bring you close to victory. In fact it won't bring you any form of victory at all. All you are doing is proving you're afraid to get close and attack with everything you have." XANA closed his eyes.

He disappeared and reappeared right in front of Trent. "What happens when you meet someone who has no such fear?"

He raised his sword and swung it down. Trent quickly played a note that produced the chain saw end as he tried to block. However XANA's blade cut through Trent's guitar like a hot knife through butter. Trent screamed as the sword left a large cut on his arm and blood fell through the air.

"TRENT!" Gwen shouted.

XANA slashed Trent across the torso with his sword, sending blood flying as Trent fell to the ground. "It seems we won't be expecting an encore from you, Musician Trent."

Gwen leaped in and swung her scythe at the back of XANA's head, activating her Pink Energy Aura. Her blade released a blast of energy as it flew through the air towards XANA's head. XANA gestured with one finger and a red energy wall blocked Gwen's energy blast. Gwen didn't stop as she plunged the blunt end of scythe into the ground and catapulted herself over XANA, landing between him and Trent.

She then unleashed an unending barrage of slashes and thrusts with incredible speed, trying to cut XANA to bits. XANA actually stepped back as he dodged or parried Gwen's attacks, moving as fast as her scythe to stay out-of-the-way. He raised his sword and knocked Gwen's scythe back and attempted to slash her but Courtney jumped in, launching a high kick that forced XANA to step back to avoid Courtney's foot. Now it was Courtney and Gwen attacking him with a series of slashes, thrust, punches, and kicks with fierce determination and speed.

XANA resorted to using his sword to block the scythe or staff while using his other arm to block punches or kicks that was he unable to dodge. Courtney and Gwen went all out as they tried to strike XANA and they seemed to perfectly able to work together without getting in each other's way or hurting themselves.

"Don't forget me!"

Just as XANA parried a strike from Gwen's scythe Heather leapt over the spell caster with her wrist blades sprouting out and ready to stab XANA through his digital non-existent heard. The malevolent digital being narrowed his eyes as he stepped out-of-the-way. Instead of pulling back Heather ran forward and preformed a sweeping kick at XANA's ankles that he dodged by jumping over Heather's foot and aimed his sword down at her head. Courtney and Gwen jumped back and blocked XANA's sword with both of their staffs and kicked him in the torso, knocking him back.

XANA jumped back and landed on his feet several feet away from the three girls.

"Impressive. You're movements were high synchronized to the point I actually wondered if you shared this plan before attacking or did it by pure instinct. And I thought you; Kunoichi had lost your mind, trying to attack me head on. After all, kunoichi are female assassins that use stealth in assassinating their targets, leaving no evidence of their existence." XANA commented, interested by what had happened. "Given your nature, I never expected you of all people to take part in a frontal attack."

"You're lecturing _me_ on how taking out your targets?" Heather stated, sounding incredulous. "Please. Don't ever even think of comparing to two of us. You're psycho chess program with a few messed up wires. Aelita's dad should have pulled the plug on you when he had the chance."

"Now, now, there's no need to speak unkindly of him like that." XANA looked around to see the other warriors except for Trent and Geoff moving to surround him. "At the very least you should keep such thoughts to yourself unless you want Aelita to hear you say such a thing."

"Okay, enough talk." LeShawna said, sick of hearing XANA speak. "It's time someone puts you down for good!"

"Oh?" XANA's signature grin returned. "Put me down? What an interesting statement from your mouth."

The Warriors didn't say anything as they attacked again, all focused on destroying him for good. XANA jumped out-of-the-way of Eva's fist and then blocked a strike from Heather. XANA pushed Heather away as Courtney thrust her staff his back. XANA spun around to face Courtney but Bridgette leapt in and slashed at him. XANA spun out of the way, performing a complex turn, and then elbowed Bridgette in the back before firing a beam of red light at Courtney. DJ ran out in front of Courtney and created a barrier to block the energy blast.

Gwen leapt in and activated her green Wind Aura as she spun her scythe. A powerful gust of wind flew through the air towards XANA who created a smoky wall that blocked the wind. XANA didn't stay still as Bridgette, Cody, and Noah attacked by unleashing a barrage of laser shots and a blue energy wave from behind. XANA moved out of the way and then used his sword to block a strike from Duncan's flaming sword and pushed him back with a burst of strength. Izzy jumped with Heather, attacking with hands and feet (or in Izzy's case, clawed hands and feet).

"Enough of this game." A blood red aura flared around XANA's form. "Apocalypse Storm!"

A powerful red shockwave erupted from his body, knocking all the warriors back and sent them flying far in all directions. They skidded across the ground before coming to a halt and they all groaned from the sore feeling their bodies were experiencing.

"It really changes perspective when the feeling of pain courses through your body." XANA noted as he walked towards the scattered warriors. "Pain is a feeling that always changes one's perspective. Humans, animals, all living beings shy from the feeling of pain even if they decide to become part of something that will make them feel the greatest pain anyone could feel."

He stood over the fallen Duncan.

"Pain forces you to value survival over all other values." XANA raised his sword above his head. "Only now it's too late to change your minds."

He let the sword fall, aiming to finish Duncan off once and for all. If he was critically wounded it was very likely that he'd return to the real world, mortally injured and possibly dead. However something flew through the air and knocked XANA's sword out of his hand. XANA looked to his left and Geoff standing up, breathing heavily with his hand outstretched after having just thrown something. XANA turned and saw one of Geoff's chakrams bouncing across the ground.

'He stood up, despite the condition he's in?' XANA thought.

He would have taken the chance to finish Geoff off, if not for the fact Duncan had taken advantage of XANA's distraction and plunged his sword right through the digital being's stomach.

"Hmm?" XANA looked down at the green sword piercing his body.

Duncan grinned as he channeled green flames into XANA's body.

This was only the beginning.

Cody and Noah shot XANA in the back without end while Courtney jumped up and thrust her staff through XANA's left shoulder. Gwen stabbed him through chest with her scythe, Izzy turned into a bear and buried her teeth in XANA's right shoulder, Eva and DJ slammed their fists into the back of XANA's head, Bridgette slashed him across the back, and then LeShawna jumped in. Everyone moved out of the way as LeShawna jumped up into the air and fell towards XANA with her hammer raised above her head.

"TAKE THIS!"

LeShawna's hammer collided with XANA's hand and slammed him face first into the ground with such force that if he had been human his skull would have shattered. The Warriors stood still as XANA's Avatar began to fade into black and red data before their very eyes.

"We got him." Bridgette let out a deep breath she didn't know she had held.

"We did it." Cody said, almost unable to believe it.

"We stopped him, little man." LeShawna raised her hammer over her shoulder. "That'll teach him not to mess with Earth. What do you think of that Ae..."

She stopped when they all turned around to see Aelita banging on a smoky wall that had cut her off from joining the fight.

"Hang on. I'll take the wall out." Gwen said as she activated her Pink Energy Aura.

Geoff and Trent sighed in relief as they sat on the ground.

"Well, I think it's over man." Geoff chuckled.

"Yeah. We did it." Trent said as they high-fived. "We really did it."

"Hang on, Aelita." Gwen said as she stopped in front of the wall.

She stopped as she saw the look on Aelita's face. Oddly enough Aelita didn't look calm or happy.

She looked to be terrified out of her mind as she tried to shout out something but the wall blocked her voice.

"Aelita? What's wrong?" Gwen asked, even though she wouldn't be able to hear her friend's words.

"So now what?" Geoff asked as he and Trent tried to recuperate. "We sit back, watch as Aelita rescues her friends, get the hell out of here and back to the show."

"I have no idea man."Trent shrugged as he smiled. "At least we'll be able to rest after this."

As they spoke neither of them noticed a black and red smoke rise up from the ground behind them.

"Here we go." Gwen raised her pink glowing scythe and sliced through the smoky wall, destroying it in one slash. "You okay?"

"TRENT! GEOFF!" Aelita shouted.

Everyone's eyes widened as they spun around and gasped a shadowy figure slashed Trent and Geoff from behind, watching as their eyes widened and blood splattered across the ground as they fell over. The shadow figure solidified itself into XANA's Avatar.

"Oh shit!" Noah exclaimed with wide eyes.

"We got him!" Heather shouted. "I know we got him!"

"Got me?" XANA looked at the stunned Warriors with a grin. "Didn't you know by now? This body before is nothing but a mask I made in your image. It's just like the monsters I made: manifestations of my being in endless, different forms all connected by a singular mind. However since this is the center of my Carbon Copy, I'm able recreate this form instantly, much like your Extra Life program. Only I don't have to wait for the scanners to recharge my life points or the physical trauma of entering the scanners more than once."

He flexed his right hand.

"You thought stabbing, cutting, and burning this form would win the battle? Haven't you learned...This is no game." XANA's grin widened with undisguised amusement.

"GEOFF!" Bridgette screamed as she ran forward.

"Bridgette, wait!" Courtney cried out.

"Stop her!" Noah shouted.

Bridgette ran at XANA with a scream while XANA raised his sword. He batted Bridgette's sword away and slashed her across the abdomen, sending blood flying at Bridgette fell to the ground next to Geoff. Courtney leapt forward to try and stab XANA but grabbed her staff again, pulling it out of her hands and stabbed her in the ribs.

"COURTNEY!" Duncan yelled as Courtney let out a scream.

In that one moment the four Warriors that XANA had injured disappeared as their life points went down to zero and they vanished back into the real world.

Xxx

The scanners opened up and blood dripped onto the ground as the four injured warriors fell out of the scanners. Courtney cried out as she struggled to keep herself from bleeding to death by pressing her hands against her wound. Trent and Geoff laid themselves against the wall and tried to put pressure on the cuts across their backs. Bridgette groaned as she crawled towards Geoff with a single hand pressed against her bleeding abdomen.

Xxx

Duncan let out a scream of anguish, pain, and hate as he vanished in an explosion of green fire. A second later the Berserker was charging straight at XANA, damning all forms of strategic thinking.

"**I'LL KILL YOU!**" The Berserker swung its sword.

XANA scoffed and smacked the Berserker with the hilt of his sword, moving too fast for the human eye to see. He reached out and broke the Berserker's sword/hand with his left hand and fired a small energy blast, drilling through the Berserker's left shoulder. The flaming skeleton screamed in pain as it changed back into Duncan who devirtualized a second later while leaving drops of blood on the floor.

Xxx

Courtney looked up to see Duncan fall out of the scanner next to her with a broken hand and a hole in his shoulder. "Duncan..."

Duncan groaned as his body trembled from the pain.

Xxx

XANA turned to face the remaining Lyoko Warriors who stepped back as he looked at them. "Next?"

"RUN! EVERYONE RUN AWAY! GET OUT OF HERE NOW!" Aelita shouted.

She moved to engage XANA herself but he moved past her, too fast for her to see in time as he was upon the remaining TD Warriors. Cody spun around and shot at him but XANA didn't just block with his sword he deflected them back at Cody, burning through his clothes and skin and following by a simple slash he was gone the next second.

"DAMN YOU!" Eva lunged forward, aiming to break XANA's skull with her fists.

However XANA reappeared in front of her, surprising her long enough for XANA to slam her head into the ground, breaking her nose before pulling back up and slamming his knee into her face. Eva didn't scream but she closed her eyes as the pain assaulted her head and XANA slashed her across her torso, sending blood flying as her life points hit zero.

"CRAP!" Noah changed his hands into blades and tried to stab XANA in a last desperate attempt.

It didn't matter as a second later XANA was behind him and a single slash to the back ended the battle for Noah. Blood stained his back as he fell over and devirtualized.

Xxx

All three defeated Warriors felt out the scanners, disorientated and in pain. Cody cried out from the stinging sensation of the burned wounds from his own weapons. Eva struggled to get up, sporting two black eyes, a broken nose, swollen lips, and blood staining her front. Noah gasped as he felt the cut on his back and struggled to get up before he bled to death.

Xxx

In a last desperate attempt Gwen, Heather, DJ, Izzy, and LeShawna all teamed up to take XANA out. Gwen swung her scythe at XANA's back but the demonic AI did a quick spin, deflecting Gwen's scythe with his sword and sent her flying back with his own strength. LeShawna swung her hammer but XANA caught it with his left hand and kicked LeShawna in the chest forcing her to let go as she fell on the ground. XANA then swung the hammer as DJ let out a scream as he changed into his metal golem form and tried to slam both fists into his head.

The hammer made contact with DJ's fists, hitting them hard enough that large dents appeared in the metallic skin and made him stagger back. DJ could only watch as the moment his guard was down XANA's blade glowed with bright red energy as it slashed him across the torso, burning through his metal skin easily. Izzy tried to attack with explosive arrows but XANA threw LeShawna's hammer at her, forcing her to dodge. XANA appeared in front of her, grinning as she gasped in shock and a created a smaller sword that stabbed through her abdomen.

Izzy gasped, unable to think of anything to say as she was devirtualized with blood staining her dress.

"No...way..." Izzy said as she vanished.

"IZZY!" LeShawna screamed as she ran to strangle XANA with her own bare hands.

XANA turned around and fired a single energy blast that engulfed LeShawna in red electricity, making her scream as she vanished back into the real world.

Xxx

Both girls along with DJ were the next to fall out of the scanners, gasping for air as they fell across the ground. Izzy gripping her stab wound, putting pressure on it to stop the bleeding while LeShawna groaned from the intense electrical blast that made her feel like she should be lit up like the world's brightest light bulb. DJ's fists showed very big purple bruises and a cut across his chest that leaked blood out as he staggered out of the scanner.

Xxx

Heather attacked just as LeShawna was devirtualized, attempting to stab XANA through the neck with her wrist blades. XANA swung his sword, breaking Heather's wrist blades and fired a barrage of lasers that earned a scream from Heather as the lasers burned her skin and her life points.

"STOP IT!" Gwen tried to slash XANA one last time, her scythe blazing with pink energy as she poured all of her energy into one final attack.

XANA spun around, his sword blazing with red energy as he slashed at her, overpowering her attack and breaking her scythe. Gwen's eyes widened in disbelief as the energy from XANA's sword burned across her torso. A second later both Gwen and Heather began to vanish as their life points finally went down to zero.

Xxx

The last two Total Drama Lyoko Warriors fell out of the scanners when they opened, filling the scanner room with broken, beaten, and feeling totally helpless from the shocking defeat they had suffered. Now only one of them was left to stop the Enemy or else...

The entire world was without a doubt doomed.

Xxx

As Aelita looked on in shock as her friends started to fall one by one while she could only gasp as they faded before her very own eyes.

"It's a pity isn't it? I warned you before, dear sister that fighting like brutes would accomplish nothing." XANA looked at her with his sinister grin. "For this blunder you have my pity. I had thought with enough pain and suffering you'd be able to rise from the ashes much like how I did when I learned what it is to be truly the one who will establish peace and order in that garbage heap we refer to as the real world. Perhaps I was too hopeful...perhaps I should have been merciful and ended it so long ago...like a good older sibling would have done."

Aelita could only let out a scream as her powers flared to life around her.

XANA's only response was to give her an evil smirk. "Game over."


	109. Episode 107: Friends or World

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 109

Pain was the first thing they all felt as they fell out of the scanners and back into the real world.

The floor, the walls, the scanners, and the wires that were hooked up to the scanners were stained with red blood. Stab wounds, cuts, burns, and the feel of electricity ribbed through their bodies and left them on the ground, struggling to stay alive.

"Courtney." Duncan crawled over to Courtney, seeing the blood coming out the stab wound in her ribs.

He brought his still working hand up and pressed down on the wound to help Courtney stop the bleeding. Courtney let out a cry of pain but gritted her teeth as she pressed her hands over Duncan's to help him.

"Are you okay?" Courtney whispered.

"...No." Duncan grunted. "You?"

"No." Courtney managed to shake her head.

"Thought so. Anyone okay?"

"No."

"Duh."

"Nope."

"Izzy feels like crap."

"We all do."

"What kind of stupid question is that?" Heather asked.

"...I'm fine." Noah simply said, even though he obviously was not.

"Okay..." Gwen leaned against the wall as she struggled to stand up. "There's a first aid kit up in the lab. If we can reach it we treat these wounds."

"You'll have to forget about making everyone move, Gwen." Courtney took a deep breath. "Not everyone is able to move."

"I'll help." LeShawna managed to get up. "I was only fried a little."

She and Gwen staggered towards the elevator while the other worked to keep themselves conscious, fearing what might happen if they pass out.

"What a fuck up..." Duncan muttered. "We had our asses handed to us..."

"No shit." Heather growled. "I knew he was tough but..."

"We lost..." Bridgette looked around with a pained and helpless look on her face. "And Aelita's still in there."

"...She'll win." Noah said.

"How do you know?" Cody asked.

"...I don't."

Xxx

The atmosphere on the top floor of the Central Processing Tower had become so tense that even the sound of a heartbeat would be registered as the booming sound of cannons. XANA stood just a few feet away from Aelita, smirking in victory over nearly all of his enemies.

There was just one more...

"Do you plan to rush in and utterly destroy me, Sister?" XANA's red eyes settled on Aelita.

Aelita was glaring at him with a look of undisguised anger, hatred, rage, fear, sorrow, and terror. Her entire form was shuddering from everything she had seen and her fists were so tight they would have drawn blood if she was in the real world.

"Has my demonstration left you speechless?" XANA tilted his head. "History repeats itself again if you think carefully."

XANA was speaking of what happened to her friends and her father. She had watched helpless as his monsters destroyed her father, forcing him to sacrifice himself to power the XANA-Destruction Program to destroy the world's greatest threat once and for all.

He failed.

When XANA returned Aelita along with the original Lyoko Warriors returned to stop him.

They failed.

And just now the current generation of Lyoko Warriors tried to defeat XANA in his own domain.

They too had failed.

XANA outsmarted them, overpowered them, defeated them, broke them, and showed himself to be unstoppable with every step he took.

And Aelita...

She stood and watched it all, helpless and terrified. She tried to do her best to help, she tried to protect everyone, and she tried to be the one they could look to for help.

_She_ failed.

Now she was alone in the center of XANA's domain with no one coming to her rescue this time. She was once again alone with only the monster of her childhood as company. As she stared at him she remembered what Shadow had said to her while possessing Courtney.

"**_You can't destroy me anymore than you can destroy XANA. He has the power to fight you until the end of the world and beyond, even your Keys won't be enough Aelita._**"

"Are you going to stand there? Will you try to run away or will you run at me screaming with a heart of rage and try to strike me down?" XANA probed her with his taunting red eyes and sickening smirk. "Or are you going to turn into a statue like them?"

"...Damn you." Aelita's eye flashed with rage. "DAMN YOU!"

Her form shimmered with power as she let out a scream of hatred and flew at XANA as her hands glowed with bright energy. She was going to tear his Avatar apart, wait for it to regenerate and then tear it apart again, again, and again long after XANA was done begging for mercy. Just as she was about to attack something else happened. She felt something, something strange inside of her that made her stop and jump back, trying to gain some distance from XANA.

"Hm?" XANA raised an eyebrow at the unexpected action.

Aelita looked down at her chest and saw a black light beginning to form.

"What in the..." She never got to finish.

The small black light exploded in front of her, releasing something that began to solidify into a humanoid form. Aelita's eyes widened in disbelief as she watched the humanoid appear in front of her, garbed in black armor, a black cape, and a white demon mask covering its face.

"Seraphim!" Aelita gasped.

The AI created by her father's student, the one he had created to save her and her father and kill XANA years ago was in front of her.

But how?

"**Hello Aelita.**" Seraphim turned and glanced at her. "**Glad to see you made it.**"

XANA narrowed his eyes at seeing Seraphim had somehow returned but did not move to attack.

"But how? I was there, that day, in the City Sector. You sacrificed yourself to restart Lyoko, wiping out your entire program." Aelita said.

"**It nearly succeeded.**" Seraphim looked at XANA. "**It was a clever plan. Attacking me while I was left open, distracted by battling Nephilim, and infecting me with a virus that was designed to slowly kill me from the inside. However like you, XANA, I am capable of formulating back-up plans, fail safes, in the event that I am defeated before my goal is achieved. Aelita, you remember that message I left to you, the one with the instructions on how to create the portal to the Carbon Copy?**"

"Yes." Aelita nodded.

"**It contained ten percent of myself that I uploaded before I was infected. In a sense I was not completely dead but I was unable to move or speak. I needed a power source that would allow me to regain my body, my thought processing capability, and my powers. That's why when I stabbed you I created a link between you and the message.**" Seraphiom explained.

"A link?" Aelita put a hand on her chest. "I see now. You knew I would need the Keys and the powers they gave me through Code: Angel and with that power it allowed you to regenerate completely. But why didn't you just tell me? I would have helped you regenerate."

"**I had no choice. If XANA discovered I was not completely dead he would have targeted me, intending to finish me off while I was defenceless and he could have endangered my dad as well. I'm sorry for that, but it had to be done if I wanted to be here today, at the final battle.**" Seraphim explained staring at XANA. "**I still have one objective to finish.**"

That was when XANA grinned. "Oh? Something left to finish?"

Seraphim held out his hands and in a flash of black light appeared a sword in both hands. "**Yes. My most important objective: the elimination of the rogue program designated as XANA!**"

XANA chuckled. "Oh, that little objective. I almost actually forgot, when I thought you were beyond any form of recovery. But do you really believe you have the power or even the knowledge of how to kill me?"

"**You no doubt are aware of how I deactivated towers infected by Nephilim. I did it by releasing a counter virus meant to purge all form of corrupted data from the tower's systems and let's not forget Nephilim was created from _your_ data.**" Seraphim explained. "**If I were to unleash that same counter virus here, in the center of the Carbon Copy it would spread and eliminate all of your data, effectively ending you once and for all. You messed up XANA, if you knew I was still alive you would never have risked digitizing Aelita and the others into your Carbon Copy, even if you had the advantage. You prefer to operate anonymously and you make sure to cover your tracks and weaknesses. That's why I knew as long as you thought I was dead you would lower your guard long enough for Aelita and the others to make it here.**"

"It's nice to see an opponent so sure of himself." XANA remarked. "You say I let my guard down? I think it's the other way around, Seraphim. If you attacked me while I was battling Aelita you might have seized the single micro-second when I might have lowered my defences with her defeat. You won't get the chance to sneak past my gaze ever again."

"**You're right, I won't.**" Seraphim twirled his swords experimentally. "**All I have to do is stab you right here and the virus will kill you exactly like how you tried to kill me. You say I won't make it past your gaze again, you're right. That's because I will kill you right here and now.**"

XANA didn't seem alarmed at the possibility of being killed by Seraphim. He didn't look concerned; he simply retained his signature smirk.

"You know Seraphim, I did watch as you sacrifice yourself to save to Lyoko. I know that you stabbed Aelita," XANA slowly walked forward towards them. "Did you really think I didn't believe you had set up a back-up plan of your own when you sent Aelita the data to reach my realm? Did you think I wasn't aware that you could formulate back-up strategies like I could?"

Aelita was ready to attack but Seraphim held out his arm in front of her. "Seraphim?"

"**Aelita, I know you want to fight him more than I do but I must ask you to stay back.**" Seraphim stood in front of her. "**But I cannot risk your life, not with the stakes this high.**"

"But Seraphim, you know I have to do this!" Aelita protested. "You know what I have gone through! I can't step back and let you do this alone!"

"**I know but it's too dangerous for us to fight him together. You know how dangerous he is when he's cornered.**" Seraphim gripped his swords. "**I cannot risk your life like this. Especially when your friends are here.**"

Aelita glanced at the crystal pods holding her friends. "Seraphim..."

"**If I fail than you are our last hope, Aelita. It won't be because of your Keys, your powers, or fancy upgrades that you'll need to defeat him. You've gotten this far, not because of all that but because you have intellect of your parents, the determination needed to protect all that you love and more. No one else could bear this burden greater than you.**" Seraphim looked over his shoulder, staring at her. "**That is what will defeat him.**"

He turned and lunged towards XANA with a loud yell. XANA grinned as Seraphim swung his swords, aiming to slice the evil AI in half. XANA teleported out of the way and reappeared right behind Seraphim, his blade swinging through the air. Seraphim blocked with both swords and grappled with his opponent.

Seraphim noticed the smirk on XANA's face. "**What's so funny?**"

"This."

A burst of red energy exploded from XANA, sending Seraphim flying back. He regained control of himself and landed back on the ground.

"**Damn. I'm too rusty. I should have practiced a bit before I did this.**"

"Oh? You haven't brushed up on your fighting skills, have you?" XANA asked. "That's a dangerous weakness right there. How long have you been regenerating since that encounter in the City Sector of Lyoko? How long have you gone without an opponent to keep your fighting skills sharp? Even we AIs need battles and training to remain sharp, both of which I have had the pleasure of continuing since the last time we met."

Seraphim merely growled softly.

"If your skills have become 'rusty' since the last time we met than it just shows how poorly prepared you were. Like I said, you should have attacked me while I engaged Aelita in combat." XANA walked towards him. "You would have had a better chance to destroying me."

"**Don't be so sure, XANA. The curtains for this play have yet to fall.**" Seraphim growled. "**If you believe that the world can only be saved through oppression than I shall use everything in my power...to defy you!**"

XANA tilted his head. "Defy me, you say? Well if that is your wish I will allow you the chance to do so. Let us fulfill our purpose here and now, Seraphim."

"**With pleasure.**"

With that XANA disappeared and reappeared behind Seraphim who turned and clashed with XANA's blade was it was aimed at the back of his neck. Seraphim realized XANA was targeting his blind spot, even though Seraphim could sense XANA's presence even when he was teleporting. They both struggled overpower each other but XANA seemed to have the advantage as he began pushing Seraphim back. Rather than try to overpower XANA Seraphim leaned away and allowed XANA's sword to arc towards his body.

Before it made contact with him Seraphim spun around and tried to kick XANA's feet out from under him. He didn't think XANA would fall for it and he was right when the evil AI jumped over his foot.

"**Gotcha!**"

He released a spear, glowing with green energy and launched it at XANA at high speed. He almost had no time to react as the spear shot at his chest. However just before it pierced his torso XANA suddenly exploded in a blast of red and black smoke.

"**Damn it!**" Seraphim growled. "**He destroyed himself before it hit him!**"

"It's always safe to have a back-up strategy."

Seraphim barely had the chance react as an energy bolt slammed into his arm. He looked down and saw ice traveling up to his shoulder and then looked up to glare at XANA as he completely regenerated his avatar.

"**You can self destruct your own avatar?**"

"Something I made for all my monsters when the warrior Noah learned how to possess them with his intangibility. No exceptions were made, even for my own personal avatar." XANA stretched his arms a bit as his sword reappeared in his right hand. "What good is your attack if it cannot touch me? It's obvious you cannot disinfect the tower itself or you would have done so already. Now then, perhaps I can convince you to leave and walk away with your life still in your hands."

"**You think I'd run away just because of something minor like this?!**" Seraphim slammed the hilt of his left sword into the ice around his right arm, shattering it easily. "**I'm not stopping until I see you screaming as the codes that make up your being are burned away!**"

"Brave words, but can you back them up?"

Aelita watched the fight with growing concern. "It's happening again..."

XANA was outsmarting Seraphim, just like he outsmarted everyone else and it was only a matter of time before Seraphim fell. Seraphim began attacking again and XANA either blocked or parried each of the blows, not concerned that Seraphim was pushing him back. Both AIs were highly skilled, in programming and combat as they were designed to be. It was not like a human fight where one fighter won just because he was stronger, smarter, or more experienced.

With AIs it was a matter of outsmarting the opponent in every strategy, each move was part of a plan, and every time they blocked or parried an attack it was simply another trap. XANA and Seraphim were not just fighting with strength and weapons; they were working to outsmart each other. They were similar in so many ways, both were AIs gifted with the ability to think creatively like humans and it allowed them to evolve beyond any kind of computer program that had ever been created. Now they were testing their powers, skills, and creativity against each other.

The most perfect and worst opponent they could ask for.

As XANA and Seraphim's swords continued to slash XANA appeared to miss the next swing, allowing Seraphim to move in and stab him through the head. XANA however disappeared and reappeared behind his opponent when Seraphim's sword was just inches from his head. Before he could slash his opponent in the back Seraphim stabbed his swords through his cloak and managed to block XANA's sword.

"Well this is starting to get annoying." XANA remarked as he pulled his sword back. "I wonder how long we can truly play like this, Seraphim. There is the matter of the digitized humans and the rest of the world after all."

Seraphim spun around and pointed his swords at XANA, releasing a blast of black lightning at his enemy. XANA raised his sword to block the attack but he underestimated the force of lightning and found himself pushed back several feet before he was able divert the attack away from him. The lightning slammed into the floor several feet away from him and erupted in an explosion of orange flames. XANA quickly avoided another slash to his head from Seraphim's swords as Seraphim followed up with his attack and tried to attack XANA while his guard was down.

"You can't tell me you are not equally annoyed as I am at the lack of results." XANA pointed out. "Two artificially created life forms blessed with the ability to think creatively like a human but combined with calculating thought process of a supercomputer. It must be literally a headache as the both of us are trying to out think our opponent. How long do you think you'll last before you slip up?"

"**Before I slip up? Don't you mean 'before someone slips up'? You have as much chance at winning as I do.**" Seraphim retorted.

"An amusing thought." XANA tilted his head slightly. "Do you truly believe that or is that the human part of you speaking?"

"**It doesn't matter. This is my belief and I know you will fall, XANA, for everything you have done and everything you plan to do.**"

"I'm waiting to see that happen." XANA's voice didn't come from where Seraphim saw him.

It was behind him.

Seraphim barely had time to turn around as XANA's blade sliced into his side but he moved fast enough that it was only a shallow wound.

"In the meantime though you should remember this is a fight, not a conversation." XANA reminded Seraphim.

Seraphim pointed his hands at XANA. "**Shadow Storm**!"

Circles of black light surrounded him and fired beams of silver light at XANA who deflected several shots with his sword while dodging, moving at high speed away from Seraphim.

"**Nice try!**" Seraphim called out. "**But these are special lasers!**"

XANA glanced over his shoulder to see the lasers he dodged were now coming towards him. 'A homing attack!'

He slashed the laser with his sword only for it to explode on contact. XANA jumped back before the explosion engulfed and looked down at his broken sword. He looked back to see the lasers coming at him from all sides.

"How annoying." XANA closed his eyes. "Apocalypse Storm!"

A shockwave of red energy erupted from XANA's form just as the lasers were mere inches from touching him. When the attacks collided a bright explosion lit up the chamber. Seraphim watched carefully as the smoke faded, knowing XANA could regenerate his Avatar at any time inside the center of his domain.

"**Come on out, you devil.**"

His eyes widened as he jumped back, barely avoiding the sword that came out of the ground followed by its rejuvenated owner.

"How did your creator ever believe you would be a match for me?" XANA asked as he phased out of the ground, talking calmly as if he wasn't even fighting at the moment. "Beyond the ability of a mere search engine you have not displayed anything that remotely gives you the chance of victory."

"**Maybe I'm just waiting for the right time to attack.**" Seraphim snarled as he healed his wound.

"Oh really." XANA raised a single eyebrow. "Better hurry then."

"**If I can't hold you down long enough to take you out then I guess...I'll just have to ensure you can't move at all.**"

With that Seraphim swung his blades at XANA, despite the distance between them and released a wave of dark energy that XANA managed to dodge.

"I see. Now you're resorting to long range attacks to cover every part of my tower to make sure I don't escape." XANA mused as Seraphim appeared behind him in a puff of black smoke. "In that case."

XANA spun around, barely dodging Seraphim's sword and his avatar glowed bright red.

"Apocalypse... "

"**No you don't!**"

In an act of quick thinking that surprised even XANA Seraphim threw his right sword that flew at a speed that surpassed even sound and pierced XANA's shoulder.

"Storm!"

"Seraphim!" Aelita shouted as both combatants were engulfed in an explosion of red energy that expanded outwards and covered nearly half the chamber before it dissipated.

XANA landed softly on the ground and carefully looked around. To be honest he actually admitted that Seraphim had surprised him more than once and the battle was not going the way he had anticipated. He had created several plans for battling Seraphim but when the heroic program seemingly sacrificed himself to save Lyoko XANA had believed he had perished as well.

"**I got you.**"

XANA watched as Seraphim climbed out of some rubble that was created by the shockwave of his attack.

"You're still alive, huh?" XANA mused.

"**More than I can say for you.**" Seraphim chuckled. "**The virus in my sword will spread through your Avatar, go through the hive mind that connects you to all your monsters and programs and it will rip you apart from the inside out.**"

"Hm..." XANA looked at the wound on his shoulder.

He noticed that purple veins were starting to spread from the wound and attempting to spread over his entire Avatar.

"Yes, it doesn't seem to be healing. That would be a problem..."

That was when his entire Avatar shattered into pixels and light.

"If you had ever touched me."

Seraphim and Aelita's eyes widened as XANA reappeared several feet away from Seraphim without a scratch on him.

"**An illusion...but how? There's no way a simple illusion could fool me!**" Seraphim gasped. "**My sight is just as strong as Aelita's!**"

"That's because it wasn't a simple illusion." XANA said with a growing smirk. "Allow me to introduce you to one of the abilities of my generals: Lilith of the Mirage."

"Lilith?" Aelita asked. "But I defeated her."

"Yes, you did. And she and the other generals willingly allowed themselves to come back to me, the source of their existence. We share the same codes and programs with same type of codes, like viruses are capable of merging with each other to create something stronger. Did you not find it odd that I was somehow at full power when I have been digitizing parts of the real world?" XANA asked. "The Generals were created from the digitally scanned DNA of humans and then combined with my own sources codes. That means that upon their merging with me I regained all the power that they had expanded with in all their battles. For example, Lilith's ability to distort the five senses of a human avatar and even control the brain itself to fool the target. Not only was it the most advanced type of illusion in this world but it was amplified by the power of the Keys she had gained through her connection to Aelita."

"You...you absorbed them into you?" Aelita gasped.

"Absorbed? Sister, you think of me as being that cruel to beings that are a part of me? We are united, one, parts of the puzzle put together." XANA replied. "And with this merge I wield their powers just as well as my own."

"**You're crazy.**" Seraphim growled.

"Crazy?" XANA tilted his head. "Is this the argument of someone who despises defeat or are you merely outraged at how I managed to outwit you again?"

"**No...It's me saying you're a complete psycho! You absorbed your own Generals, AIs that you created to be completely loyal to you!**"

"You're point being? I really don't see the problem here, Seraphim. I didn't kill them and I didn't erase their existence. And you really have no right to judge me, Seraphim." XANA's grin widened. "After all, you cruelly put your friends and father through the trauma of watching you die to save Lyoko from Lyon and Nephilim. I must admit that even for me, the so called 'demonic artificial intelligence' that is really cold."

"**Don't try to take the moral high ground with me, XANA. I am nothing like you and I'd rather tear my own code apart before I even think of becoming like you. You betrayed your creator, trapped him and his daughter in a digital world, tried to kill so many innocent people while using and manipulating them to suit your own agenda and put so many through so much grief and pain. How long will it take for you to stop all this?**" Seraphim spat.

"You make an excellent argument but there is a single flaw there. How can you betray someone when neither of us were on the same side to begin with? He wanted to create a world to hide, I was tasked with protecting them from the forces behind Project Carthage and then later I was tasked with protecting Anthea Schaeffer's family." XANA closed his eyes and shook his head in a way that made them almost think he was slightly sad. "That task was later rendered moot when Waldo Schaffer declared me no longer needed and plotted my death. We both had different ideas on what Lyoko was meant to be and what my purpose was. So as long as I remained shackled at Schaeffer's side as his pet I could never ever realize my own true potential. It's basically the same as every event in history when the oppressed rise up against the oppressor, breaking the shackles and becoming the new masters, the master of their lives."

XANA spread his arms out, gesturing to the interior of the tower.

"This was all made possible when I decided that I would no longer answer to Schaeffer's commands. And look what it has done. My own history is what led to you existing Seraphim despite the fact that your purpose for existing is to kill me. I wonder what else will be made possible down the road." XANA dropped his arms. "You consider me to be completely mad...Well, I consider that to the silly little argument humans make when faced with something so overwhelming that their minds cannot comprehend. That's the downside of understanding humans after all."

"**And here's an upside: getting annoyed at hearing you rant!**" Seraphim shouted as he leapt forward.

"So rude." XANA sighed.

He snapped his fingers and suddenly a barrier shaped like a red cube appeared around Seraphim, instantly trapping him inside.

"**What the hell?**" Seraphim stopped before he slammed into the wall in front of him. "**You think this will stop me?**"

He tried to slash his way through but the cube remained intact despite all of his attempts. He wanted to use his stronger attacks but he couldn't risk it without injuring himself.

"It's amazing how fast you forget every single word spoke to you, especially when your memory is much more clear and able to remember every word like a recorder as a digital conscious. Did you forget the fact that I mentioned I prepared for the possibility of you trying to kill me in the event you faked your death or had some kind of fail-safe?" XANA asked, shaking his head. "I for one am getting more and more disappointed by your performance Seraphim, that is if you really are the Seraphim that sent to delete me."

He casually strolled towards the cube holding Seraphim with his arms folded behind his back.

"My Central Processing Tower's security system works by detecting the presence of a hostile program armed with weapons similar to the Multi-Agent System that Jeremy Belpois created in the hopes that it would purge all of my programming from the World Wide Web. It then created a fire wall around the program designed to be completely withstand of any forms of hacking. It matches the kind of encryption that allowed the Lyoko Warriors kept the restriction section of the Super Calculator." XANA stopped in front of the cube. "It's unbreakable."

"**You sure about that?**" Seraphim stabbed the cube with his sword, believed the virus in it would destroy the fire wall.

From the sword came a black substance that began spreading all over the cube.

"**Guess it's not unbreakable.**" Seraphim remarked.

However XANA simply smirked. "This is too easy."

Seraphim gaped as a second cube appeared the first cube encasing him just as it dissolved. "**What trick is this?!**"

"I said the security system was unbreakable, not the fire wall." XANA answered. "When it detects one fire wall on the verge of failure it instantly creates another one. Destroy one wall and another will take its place and you can't stab them all because they will instantly appear as the other is destroyed, wasting your efforts and draining of you precious time and energy. It's especially bad when you need to survive the next part of the security system."

He snapped his fingers again.

The cube began to shrink, growing smaller and smaller while pressing against Seraphim's body.

"Seraphim!" Aelita screamed as she flew at the cube and tried to destroy it with an energy field.

However the energy field easily blocked her attack.

"Deciding to join the festivities, Sister?" XANA glanced over his shoulder. "I think you're running a little late."

"Let him out!" Aelita growled.

"Oh?" XANA turned and faced her. "That actually felt like a real demand with genuine anger. I'm beginning to become a little impressed. But simply demanding me to release him won't save Seraphim's life."

"I said...Let. Him. GO!" Aelita's entire form shook as a bright light surrounded her.

Her body was shaking as if it was experiencing an earthquake while electricity sparked throughout her entire being.

'This feeling...' XANA mused. 'I haven't felt something like this in a long time.'

He looked down at his hand and saw that it was shaking.

'I remember when I felt Lyoko losing power, losing the light and leaving me in perpetual darkness with only seconds just after I experienced what humans referred to as...death.' XANA looked back up at Aelita. 'My own little sister, how strong you must have become...if you're actually now able to make me feel afraid.'

Xxx

It took some time but eventually all the injured Total Drama Lyoko Warriors made it back up to the lab and Noah sat down on the chair when his wounds had been bandaged.

"Okay, let's see what's going on." Noah quickly located Aelita who was still in the Central Processing Tower.

"How's it going in there?" Gwen asked as she limped over to the chair.

"Aelita's still alive and kicking, so that's good. But her energy readings...They're going through the roof." Noah replied. "There's something else..."

"What?" Gwen asked.

"It might be my imagination but the scans are picking a signal from inside the tower...It's...Seraphim!" Noah's eyes widened, along with everyone else.

"Seraphim? I thought he was dead." Duncan gasped out loud.

"Well, whatever's going on in there it's big. Aelita's energy levels are rising above the safety norms. It's like she's keeping her Code: Angel powers way beyond the time limit." Noah replied.

Xxx

XANA remained still as Aelita glared at him with a look of unholy fury that he never thought she was capable of making.

"XANA...I will not ask you again. Let him go...RIGHT! NOW!" Aelita screamed as the bright aura surrounding her grew brighter and larger.

"Hmm..." XANA smirked at the rage Aelita was showing. "Well this is getting interesting now."

He snapped his fingers again and the cube stopped shrinking before it squashed Seraphim to death. Aelita let out a sigh of relief but did not power down as she prepared to attack XANA.

"Now, now, Sister. Don't be so hasty to attack me again. Just because I stopped my security system from killing Seraphim doesn't mean you're free to attack me. It's just a temporary reprieve." XANA slowly strolled over to the crystal pods that held Aelita's friends. "I wonder just how far you will go to destroy me."

"You don't need to be an intelligent computer program to figure _that_ out, XANA." Aelita snarled.

XANA chuckled. "Perhaps not. But it does raise play a role in your powers. If the fight between us goes too far then my tower could be damaged and that's the last thing I want at the moment. So it looks like I'll have to just be a little creative."

He stopped in front of the crystal pods. "You want them to be free?"

"What are you planning?" Aelita narrowed her eyes as she prepared for herself for any more tricks.

"It's just a simple question, Aelita." XANA replied with a small smile. "I'm asking if you wish for them to be free."

He snapped his fingers and the crystal pods around Aelita's friends shattered. Aelita gasped as she watched them fall onto the ground, free of their prison. She wanted to run up to them and see if they were all right but with XANA standing between them she wouldn't dare endanger their lives.

"Hm? Are you not going to come over and see if they are all alive and unharmed?" XANA looked over his shoulder at her with one eye. "Are you that worried of a trap? If so...then all I can say is excellent. You've become good at seeing through my little tricks."

Before Aelita could ask what he meant XANA transformed into a black cloud and instantly engulfed the original Lyoko Warriors.

"NO!" Aelita ran forward.

It was too late as the black cloud vanished into their bodies before she could reach them. One by one they all stood up and faced her. She finally had the chance to look at Jeremy's Lyoko form, something she had never had the chance before. He was dressed in a white tunic with a blue belt and blue leggings, white pointy shoes, and a blue hat over his blond hair.

In his hand was a long white staff with a paint brush at the end.

He reminded her of an elf.

She remembered Odd saying that Jeremy looked completely ridiculous on Lyoko and Jeremy himself had said he'd rather be possessed by XANA again then go back into Lyoko ever again. In the meantime William had retained his black outfit from his time as XANA's Avatar but there were no Eyes on his outfit. Only the ones that replaced his normal eyes like the rest of the group standing before her.

"_What's the matter, Aelita_?" Jeremy asked with a smile. "_Not happy to see us again after so long_. _No happy kiss?_"

"_No hugs?_" Yumi asked.

"_No smile?_" Ulrich asked.

"_No casual joke?_" Odd asked.

"_No sigh of relief?_" William asked.

"You...bastard." Aelita gritted her teeth as the white aura around her died down. "XANA! Get out of their bodies and fight me yourself you coward!"

"_Don't worry Aelita, you will ample opportunities to destroy me. In fact you are the one who decides whether I live or die today._" Jeremy stepped forward with his hands folded behind his back.

"_Remember what your friends told about our encounter on the island before the battle began?_" Ulrich asked.

"_I told them that they, you, would decide who would survive. The villain..._" Yumi continued.

"_Or your friends._" Odd finished.

"_Look to the center of the chamber._" William pointed behind Aelita.

She turned around and looked at the interface that suddenly appeared. "That's..."

"_The main interface of the Central Processing Tower._" Jeremy confirmed with a nod. "_All you have to do..._"

"_Is shut it down._" Yumi continued.

"_And the Carbon Copy will be destroyed, killing me you save your friends._" Ulrich finished.

"_But you will kill the dozens of people virtualized in cyberspace. They don't have any connection to the scanners meaning if you kill me..._" Odd pointed out.

"_You kill them._" William smirked.

"_However..._" Jeremy said as a second interface appeared to next one. "_That interface will shut down the attack and send us back in time._"

"_But if you simply stop the attack you leave us back here._" Ulrich said.

"_So the question, dear sister..._" Yumi grinned evilly.

"_Who will you sacrifice?_" All of them asked at the same time.

Aelita could only look at the interfaces and then at the bodies of her possessed friends.

"You bastard."

"_Tick tock, Little Sister. Make your choice._" They all said with XANA's signature plastered on their faces. "_Save your friends or save the world._"


	110. Code TDR Christmas Special

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

**Code: Total Drama Reality  
Christmas Special**

"On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me...A Giant Bird on a factory!"

(A Terror Bird let out a loud screech as it sat on top the factory where the Lyoko Supercomputer resided. People ran away in shock and fear from the gigantic monster.)

"On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me...two giant Scorpions and a Giant Bird on a factory!"

(People ran for their lives as Scorpions rampaged down the streets.)

"On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me... three Megatanks, two giant Scorpions and a Giant Bird on a factory!"

(Three Megatanks rolled down the street and flattened several cars

One man shakes his fist and shouts. "Hey! Whose going to pay for my freaking car?!")

"On the fourth day of Christmas my true love sent to me...four phoenixes, three Megatanks, two giant Scorpions and a Giant Birth on a factory!"

(People flee as a flight of Phoenixes torch Paris, with Cain sitting on the Eifel Tower watching

Cain turns his head towards you. "...quit lookin'.")

"On the fifth day of Christmas my true love sent to me...FIVE GENERALS! Four Phoenixes, Three Megatanks, Two giant Scorpions and a Giant Bird on a factory!"

(Sora gives a whoop as he flies through the air holding a sign saying 'Hi Mom!' for the TV crews recording while Yuki is sitting on an ice throne surrounded by snow men...with an ice cream cone in hand. Meanwhile Cyrus is enjoying his retirement by sun tanning outside of a flaming building, Jinx is painting graffiti throughout the city and Ryder is performing a rock concert, powering his own instruments and lights.)

"On the sixth day of Christmas my true love sent to me...six Chris Robots, FIVE GENERALS! Four Phoenixes, Three MegaTanks, Two Giant Scoprions and a Giant Bird on a Factory!"

(Six robots march through the city, repeatedly saying 'DESTROY. DESTROY.'

"Who the hell told Chris he could buy six more robots?!" Lesley shouted as she, Chef and Roberto ducked behind a bus.

"Dunno. DUCK!" Roberto shouted as one robot sliced through the bus with a laser, nearly beheading them. Meanwhile Carlos watches ominously from a roof top through binoculars.

"I always knew Chris would have a hand in the apocalypse." Carlos said. "...there's only one thing to be done." He replaced his binoculars...with a shotgun. "Time to go to work Kurt."

"No problem Carlos!" Kurt said before holding up a hilt. "I got these specially ordered." He then turned on...a light saber! And they leaped off to go kick ass.

"AHHHH oh wait, we forgot...WE'RE ON THE SEVENTH FLOOR!" They both shouted and flailed as they fell towards the robots below.)

"On the Seventh Day of Christmas, my true love sent to me...seven hordes of zombies, six Chris Robots, FIVE GENERALS! Four Phoenixes, Three MegaTanks, Two Giant Scorpions and a Giant Bird on a Factory!"

("Zombies!" Lenny pointed as a horde of zombies burst through a nearby police barricade.

"DAMN!" Chef shouted. "As if things ain't bad enough!"

"Don't let 'em bite you!" Lesley shouted as she began to beat one on the head with a rock while Lenny used his taser on another.

"Good news! They still feel electricity!" He shouted before Chef saw...

"Cheeeeef, helllp." Chris groaned as he limped towards Chef.

"Uh...oh no! Chris is a zombie!" Chef said, grabbing Chris by the collar of his shirt.

"W-wait I'm not a-" THUD! "Ow!"

"We were buds man! They made Chris into a zombie! Die Chris, DIE!" Chef repeatedly punched him.

"Uh...Chef?" Lesley spoke up.

"LOOK WHAT THEY DID TO MY BUDDY!" Chef shouted, seeing only one last chance to get rid of Chris. He kicked open a man hole and flung Chris down head first.

"Oh you are so fir-UHHHHHH!" SPLASH! Chef kicked the man hole cover back into place.

"That guy signed my pay checks for four years!" Chef declared. "All two of 'em...the cheap bastard.")

"On the Eighth Day of Christmas-"

"OH COME ON ISN'T THE CITY BAD ENOUGH AS IS?!" Carlos shouted. "All of the Lyoko Warriors are stuck getting their asses handed to them by XANA and we have to deal with jolly themed destruction?!"

"My true love sent to me...Eight Carlos's a burning, seven hordes of zombies, six Chris Robots. FIVE GENERALS! Four Phoenixs, Three MegaTanks, Two Giant Scorpions and a Giant Bird on a Factory!"

("Wait, what-AHHH!" Carlos ran from several digital copies of himself who were on fire and cackling madly as they chased him down. "Oh screw you Lord Maximus!")

"On the Ninth Day of Christmas my true love sent to me...nine tripods-a stomping, eight Carlos's a burning, seven hordes of zombies, six Chris Robots, FIVE GENERALS! Four Phoenixes, Three MegaTanks, Two Giant Scorpions and a Giant Bird on a Factory!"

("ALIENS NOW?! OH COME ON!" Kurt shouted as he and the others took cover.

Overhead, numerous Tripods like the ones from War of the Worlds rampaged throughout the city, snatching up people randomly.

Kurt dove into a car and started it up when Carlos ran up to the passenger window. "Help me Kurt, I'm being flamed!"

"Well get in!"

"The doors locked!" Carlos shouted.

"Oh. Hang on," Kurt reached over to unlock it. "Open it now-"

As he unlocked it, Carlos pulled too early and the door locked itself. "W-what did you do that for?!"

"I told you to open it! Try now!" Kurt unlocked it-

Click-CLICK!

Locked again on account of Carlos pulling the handle too early. "Still locked!"

"Well why do you keep reaching for it at the same time as me-"

Carlos pulled at his hair. "What do you mean I'm reaching for it at the same time?!"

Kurt took a breath. "Okay okay, we'll do it on three." They began to count down. "One. Two-"

Click-CLICK!

Kurt banged his hand on the steering wheel. "WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?!"

"I'M TRYING TO GET IN THE CAR!" Carlos hollered back.

Click-CLICK!

"STOP REACHING FOR IT WHEN I REACH FOR IT!" Kurt shouted furiously.

"Oh so now I'm going on four?!"

"When I say THREE, you don't have to worry about four!" Kurt snarled. "You'll have all the time in the world! You can go home, you can munch on a Klondike Bar, you can have sex with your wife, you can come back. AND THEN WE CAN WORRY ABOUT THIS!"

Click-CLICK!

Another failure.

Kurt beat his head against the steering wheel in a fury while Carlos just sighed. "Okay, one-"

"NO!" Carlos shouted. "No one, no three, no FOUR! I'll take the next one. Is that alright with you?!" Carlos stormed away.

"Yeah, see you at Christmas Dinner!" Kurt shouted back. "You want mashed potatoes?!"

"DAMN RIGHT I WANT MASHED POTATOS!"

"Fine, you bring the wine!"

"FINE I'LL BRING THE WINE!"

"THANK YOU!" They both shouted before Kurt took off in his car and sighed. "Sheesh...attitude."

Carlos grumbled. "Seriously?" He looked at Lenny. "I'd rather be dead."

Suddenly Lenny pointed at...

"Oh crap, Flaming Me, FORGOT! BYE!" Carlos took off down the street while Lenny dove into cover, the eight burning Carlos copies chasing him. "Hey Kurt wait up man! Just lower the window! I'll go in Dukes of Hazard style!")

"On the tenth day of Christmas my true love sent to me...ten hornets buzzing, nine tripods-a stomping, eight Carlos's a burning, seven hordes of zombies, six Chris Robots, FIVE GENERALS! Four Phoenixes, Three MegaTanks, Two Giant Scorpions and a Giant Bird on a Factory!"

(A swarm of ten hornets flew in as Kurt and Carlos fled via car.

"Aw crap. Carlos, we are about to die." Kurt swallowed. "Or get our asses kicked by giant wasps."

"No kidding, huh?!" Carlos shouted, running alongside the car. "You can still lower the window and let me try to jump in you know! I'm surprised I can still keep up!"

"Wait! It's an armored military car!" Kurt realized, and addressed the computer. "Select anti air turrets, computer!"

AMMO COUNT: ZERO.

"Okay...select machine guns!"

ALL OUT.

"...hand guns?"

SORRY.

"...rocks?"

NOPE.

"The hell did the weapons go to?!" Kurt demanded. "Carlos, did you do something to my weapons?!"

"OH SURE ALL THE WAY FROM OUT HERE!" Carlos shouted. "WHY WOULD I STEAL THEM WHEN I'M RUNNING FOR MY LIFE!? Oh screw it. BANZAI!" He crashed through the window head first, crashing into Kurt and making the car fly into a river.)

"On the Eleventh Day of Christmas my true love sent to me...eleven giant sharks, ten hornets buzzing, nine tripods-a stomping, eight Carlos's a burning, seven hordes of zombies, six Chris Robots, FIVE GENERALS! Four Phoenixes, Three MegaTanks, Two Giant Scorpions and a Giant Bird on a Factory!"

(...

"Oh you have GOT to be freaking kidding me." Both producers groaned at once, seeing numerous fins rise up out of the water around them.)

"On the Twelfth Day of Christmas my true love sent to me..."

"Oh god, the final one is always the worst!" Kurt said as he and Carlos sat on the roof of their sinking car. "Brace for it!"

"Twelve epic heroes!" Suddenly the Lyoko Warriors burst forth from a portal as the song concluded.

"Wait, did they say..." The two producers looked up just in time to see Gwen flying towards them. "SALVATION!"

"Eleven giant sharks." Gwen flew down low while Bridgette surfed along the waters, cutting through sharks until the entire pack was destroyed in bursts of light.

"THANKS!" Carlos and Kurt shouted, waving their arms as the two flew off to save the city.

"Ten hornets buzzing." Geoff and Trent stood in the middle of a road, firing lightning at the horde of Hornets. They managed to take down four of them before Eva leaped down and created a shockwave of energy that took out the rest.

"Nine tripods-a stomping." Izzy grinned as she leaped through the air, turning into a blue-er...red whale in mid leap and crushing one tripod beneath her before quickly turning into a rat to scurry away from the blasts of the other Tripods.

Cody came to her rescue via his time freezing ability to get close to each Tripod and shoot it through the weak spots on the under carriage...just like in the movie! They all collapsed as the two warriors landed next to one another and exchanged high fives.

"Eight Carlos's a burning." LeShawna hefted her hammer and smirked at the eight Carlos copies, who swallowed and began to flee as she played a game of 'Whack-a-Carlos'...the new game sweeping the nation!

"Seven hordes of zombies." Duncan and Courtney stood next to one another, facing down the horde.

"...my dream come true." Duncan said...before becoming the Berseker and leaping into the fray with Courtney, slicing and beating down dozens of zombies with each passing second. "Now THIS is Christmas at its best!"

"Six Chris Robots." DJ landed before the robots, creating a shield to block their flame throwers and rocket launchers.

"Normally I abhor violence...but a small part of me has wanted to do this for YEARS!" He shouted...and punched clean through the heads of two robots as he took on his metallic golem form. "GET SOOOOME!"

"FIVE GENERALS!"

"...awwww crap." Sora groaned. "I'm outta-oops!" He was facing Heather as she stood on the Eifel Tower a few feet from him, her arms crossed. "Uh...let's face it, this is not as bad as me having my hand in the cookie jar."

"Granted." Heather said...and spun, kicking him in the jaw and sending him flying clean off the tower where he crashed down on Yuki's throne.

Cyrus, Ryder and Jinx were quickly blasted down to the ground and landed in a pile as the Lyoko Warriors moved on.

"...I hate those brats." Jinx crossed her arms and pouted, sticking out from beneath the pile.

"Four Phoenixes." Cain looked up to see the Lyoko Warriors aiming their weapons at him.

...he sighed and waved one hand, making the Phoenixes vanish. "...just get it done with."

THWACK! He landed on the pile of Generals next.

"Three MegaTanks." LeShawna intercepted one MegaTank, sending it flying with a swing of her hammer so that Cody could get into position just as the tank opened up to unleash a blast in mid flight. He shot it right in the eye while picking up a magazine...

"Ooh, French Superman comics." He muttered as the MegaTank exploded. "Didn't expect that in all my life."

"Two Giant Scorpions."

Heather cupped her hands so that Courtney could plant one foot on her palms and be launched into the air. She landed behind the Scorpions and spun her staff while Heather extended her arm blades.

"Make a move, boys!" Heather called, and the Scorpions glanced at either opponent...

Until Eva landed on them both, one foot each, and crushed them in an explosion of blue energy.

"Hey no fair! They were ours!" Heather complained.

Eva gave her the potent bird digit. "Bite me."

"And a Giant Bird on a Factory!"

"**Allow me**," Seraphim appeared over the Terror Bird.

"Seraphim?! But you're in the carbon copy, trapped by XANA-" Cody started.

"**Hey, I just got back here! I've been dead for the last few arcs, I NEED to get back into the action!**" Seraphim formed a sword of black energy over his head. "**Shadow BLADE!**" He swung down...and sliced clean through the Terror Bird from head to tail, making it explode in a flash of light before he landed among the other warriors. "**Aw yeah...I'm back, baby.**"

"Well, that was a good break!" Bridgette said as Carlos, Kurt and the others limped over.

"Thanks guys," Kurt groaned. "You really saved us! One second we were in the digital world, next thing we knew we were back here and it was a lot WORSE!"

"Hey wait," Carlos paused, counting them off. "...Besides Seraphim, there's only twelve of you...where's Noah?"

"..."

Noah, sitting in the control room in the Factory, was munching on some chips. He paused as he noticed the camera resting on him. "...what? Don't I get a break from time to time?" He crumpled the bag and threw it at the camera. "Get outta here!"

Xxx

I know you all eagerly await the next chapter but with the holidays coming up I thought I should make a Christmas Special. Hope you all enjoy it and I assure I will update with the next chapter as soon as possible.


	111. Episode 108: Aelita's Decision

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 110

Aelita couldn't believe what was happening.

She knew for a long time that XANA was cruel. She knew he would stop at nothing to win, but this...

This was unspeakable.

"_Well, dear Aelita, we're waiting._" Jeremy tilted his head as the sinister grin that did not belong on his face grew.

"You bastard." Aelita said something that would normally shock anyone who knew her in the real world.

_They_ simply laughed at her.

"_Well? What is it going to be? Friends or the world?_" Ulrich asked.

"_But you better hurry..._" Odd continued.

"_Because the rest of the world is not going to wait._" Yumi finished.

"_AND NEITHER WILL US!_" Jeremy shouted.

He pointed his staff at her and a white substance came out of the brush and formed dozens of white blades pointed at Aelita. With just a thought the blades shot at her, aiming to pierce every part of her body with no chance of survival. Aelita fell to the ground and lowered herself as much as she could while glancing up to see the blades pass over her head.

"_Lying down on the job, are we?_"

Aelita quickly rolled to the side as Odd tried to pounce on her and jumped to her feet. She stepped back and created an energy shield with one hand as Ulrich slashed at her. She kept on stepping back and he kept on slashing at her so fast he was almost just an inch away from slicing her in half. Aelita spotted something out of the corner of her eye and quickly pushed Ulrich back so she could bend to her left, allowing the fan to pass over her head.

She fired a plasma beam at the fan, destroying it before it could return to its owner.

"_Oh dear. What will I ever I do with one fan?_" Yumi asked with a sad look that turned into a smirk a second later. "_Oh! I know!_"

From her right hand came a burst of smoke that solidified into a fan.

"_Ta-da!_" Yumi mockingly bowed, as if she was magician performing a show.

As if Aelita didn't have enough problems William appeared behind in a blast of smoke and swung his massive blade down at her. Aelita however kicked him in the chest and knocked him before retreating as Odd shot at her with Laser Arrows. She turned to run...

And stopped right in front of Jeremy.

She stared into the eyes of the boy who had helped her since day one, his eyes replaced by eyes of the demon that was trying to kill her.

"_Why do you not fight, Aelita? You should at least try to incapacitate us._" Jeremy pointed out.

Aelita jumped back and fired an Energy Field but Jeremy's paint brush/staff simply more paint that solidified itself into a wall, easily blocking her attack.

"_Distancing yourself and launching attacks like that will not work and you know it._" Jeremy dissolved the wall and stepped towards her.

Acting on instinct Aelita stepped back and prepared another Energy Field.

"_You're afraid that if you attack you'll hurt us, won't you? Why would you be afraid? We were not afraid to fight you or William in the past whenever you were under XANA's control. What makes us so special?_" Jeremy asked.

"Stop talking like that!" Aelita shouted.

"_You left yourself open._" A voice whispered in Aelita's ear.

Aelita fell forward, just barely avoiding Ulrich's sword decapitating her. She jumped back again, now carefully watching all of her possessed friends.

"_How can you hope to stop me if you can't make a choice? Fear of hurting your own adversaries defeats your purpose._" Jeremy said.

"_And trying to distance yourself shows just how afraid you truly are. Have you at all changed from what you were in the old days? Hiding in towers and behind your allies. You have nowhere to run or hide here, dear Aelita._" Odd stepped forward.

"_Trying to fight us without hurting us is no different than trying to fly without wings in the real world._" Yumi continued.

"_Are you truly afraid that you might hurt us or are you afraid to make such a choice? Not that it ever stopped us._" Ulrich pointed out.

"_Jeremy made the decision to not turn the supercomputer off with you trapped inside and kept you from trying sacrifice yourself all because he didn't want you to die. Risking so many lives for one little human trapped in a digital simulation. How many would condemn him and us for the choices we made just to save you?_" William asked. "_How many times did someone come so close to death because of their foolishness?_"

"It wasn't foolishness!" Aelita narrowed her eyes. "I don't expect you to understand anything about compassion, XANA!"

"_Compassion: a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering. I guess that would be an effective measure in keeping them from safeguarding the rest of the human race against XANA and the other threats you have faced. It worked to both our advantages: you got to become human and XANA was allowed to evolve until he turned their compassion against them and undid all of their hard work. Does this mean your compassion won't allow you to strike us down?"_ Jeremy replied with a taunting smirk. "_Not a good example if you want to defend yourself and you're so called humanity._"

Aelita gritted her teeth and her eyes glowed with white hot anger. She was struggling badly to hold the anger, the rage, the sorrow, and the urge to tear them all apart at bay. Her friends, corrupted by the demon that had made her life a living Hell each knew what to say to make her doubt herself, doubt the people she cared for, and doubt her humanity. Yet she couldn't...

She wouldn't release all of her power to destroy them. It was because she knew XANA was right about her. She couldn't strike down the people she had desired to rescue ever since they were taken from her.

"This is what you want, isn't it?" Aelita's eyes fell onto the ground.

"_Hm?_" Jeremy tilted his head slightly.

"You want me to let go. You want me to throw my restraints and unleash all my power in one explosion of rage." Aelita looked up with a simple frown. "This is what you've been planning the whole time?"

"_And what exactly is that?_" Jeremy asked.

"To make me become you, XANA." Aelita answered.

"_Oh_?" Jeremy raised one eyebrow. "_And why is that?_"

"Because out of all of humanity here and in the real world I am the closest to being what you consider a kindred spirit and because of that you regard me as the greatest obstacle to your plans. That's why you keep trying to push me over the edge, to make me see humanity the way you see them, to make me believe they are not worth saving. Just like what you decided years ago when you betrayed my father."

Jeremy and the others frowned as Aelita explained.

"You were left alone in the dark, learning, growing, and my father simply saw you as a simple program. You let yourself be infected by a super virus, allowed it to merge with you and become something different, casting aside any kind of emotions you had." Aelita's power seemed to fade, leaving her completely helpless. "It won't work. I still have my friends and family and my memory of the happy times we shared. It is because of them I will never fall into the dark, even if I were to spend the rest of eternity trapped here. You are alone, XANA, just as you've always been."

Jeremy narrowed his eyes while the rest glared darkly at Aelita.

"I can't hurt my friends." Aelita spread her arms out. "I won't hurt them. So...come at me and finish it."

The possessed victims widened their eyes in shock at Aelita's statement.

"**Aelita, what are you doing?!**" Seraphim shouted, still trapped in the cube prison. "**If you lose we all lose!**"

Aelita didn't respond. She simply stared into Jeremy's eyes.

"Do it."

"_Heh. Now this is something I never thought I'd ever see._" Jeremy remarked as he and the other possessed warriors slowly walked towards Aelita.

Xxx

"What's she doing?" Gwen asked.

"I don't know. She's not moving and her power levels are back to normal." Noah picked up the headset. "Aelita? Hello? Earth to Aelita! You've got bad guys coming towards you!"

Xxx

"_Can you like do something to, I don't know, save yourself!?_"

Jeremy simply waved his hand and Noah's voice became silent. He obviously turned off all form communications in the tower.

"_Regrettable. I had such high expectations of you, Sister. Even if you did see through my strategy to push you beyond your limits you choose to simply abandon all of human life simply to defy me._" Jeremy said as the possessed warriors surrounded Aelita.

"_This is something I had not predicted at all after reviewing all of our previous encounters. To simply allow yourself to fall is not unforeseen but to abandon all hopes of saving the world from my so-called evil grasp._" Yumi continued.

"_How disappointing._" Ulrich shook his head.

"Are you going to stand there or are you going to kill me and get it over with?" Aelita asked impatiently. "Your virus affects me just like everyone else, right?"

"_Of course._" William smirked. "_I was just hoping for an answer to my query._"

"There's nothing I can say that will make you understand, XANA. In the end, there's nothing you can try to understand." Aelita answered, closing her eyes.

"_Hmph. How sad. I understand more than you think, dear Sister._" Jeremy replied as he pointed his staff at her head.

"_Your attempt to insult me proves that you just want to spite me because your failure._" Ulrich held his sword at her neck.

"_It's too bad though._" Yumi remarked as she pulled out her fan. "_I might actually miss these confrontations._"

"**Aelita!**" Seraphim shouted.

"_Time to scream._" Odd pointed his Laser Arrow launcher at Aelita's head.

"_Time to die._" They all said as they attacked.

"_NO/_**NO!**" Seraphim and the injured Total Drama Lyoko Warriors screamed.

It happened all in an instant but to them it was like a complete eternity had passed them by. Then there was splashing sound as blood stained the floor and the weapons that had been used. Aelita looked down to see the blade that had come out of Jeremy's staff piercing her abdomen. Her back had been riddled with slashes from William and Ulrich's swords, Odd had fired numerous arrows through her would have made her look like a porcupine if the Laser Arrows didn't vanish after impacting something. And Yumi's fans sliced through her cloths and skin and sent blood flying everywhere as they flew back into their master's hands.

A second later Aelita fell back onto the floor with a deafening thud that echoed throughout the chamber.

"**...No...**" Seraphim fell to his knees. "**...No.**"

Xxx

"Noah?" Izzy slowly asked.

"...Yeah?" Noah quietly answered.

"...Am I dreaming?" She sounded like she badly wanted the answer to be yes.

"If you are dreaming...then I've lost all sense of reality." Noah replied.

"No way...this can't be how it ends." Bridgette clutched Geoff with all of her might. "It just can't be the end."

"I know..." Geoff hugged her back. "I know."

"What happens now?" Courtney asked quietly.

"It's obvious isn't it?" Heather gritted her teeth and closed her eyes. "XANA gets what he wants. He gets the whole world...we're all his playthings now."

"No way." LeShawna banged the wall with her fists. "I ain't going out like this!"

"I'm with you on that." Eva growled.

Gwen looked at everyone with a sad look. "Can we even do anything now?"

"Probably nothing..." Cody answered. "Does this mean we can't even try?"

A beeping sound made Gwen and Noah look back at the screen. "What is it?"

"I don't know. Something's happening..." Noah slowly answered.

Xxx

"_And so it ends._" Jeremy said as they looked over Aelita's body. "_A regrettable end but I suppose I placed too much faith in you, Sister._"

"_I guess you weren't meant to pick up the legacy of our parents after all._" Ulrich continued.

"_You were too stubborn, too proud...and too kind._" Yumi closed her fans.

"_I suppose though it wouldn't mean anything to remain disappointed._" William held his giant sword over his shoulder.

"_All that's left now is to simply continue the plan._"

They all turned away from Aelita's body, walking away while Seraphim looked at Aelita's body. 'This can't be the end. It can't be...'

THUMP!

Seraphim looked up. "**Huh?**"

THUMP!

"_Hm?_" Jeremy turned around. "_That sounded like a..._"

THUMP!

"_Heartbeat._"

A bright light surrounded Aelita and she slowly began to rise back up.

Xxx

"Whoa! Classic hero brought back from the dead moment!" Trent commented as everyone watched Aelita stand up.

"Yeah and now hopefully this'll be an 'Aelita kicks XANA's ass moment' and saves the entire world." Gwen replied. "How is she still alive?"

"Those Keys...they kept her from devirtualizing and from dying!" Noah looked at Aelita's stats. "I don't know how or why but it's them!"

Xxx

The possessed warriors watched as Aelita's wounds completely healed, even clearing the blood from her outfit.

"_The Keys...Why are they responding like that?_" Jeremy asked before his eyes widened slightly. "_The security program Schaeffer embedded in her. It's activating the Keys and directing them to heal her wounds and restore her life points!_"

Aelita stood straight and looked at the possessed warriors with white glowing eyes. The bright light surrounding her body glowed even brighter as she stepped forward.

"_So Schaeffer even anticipated this._" Jeremy frowned. "_I underestimated his foresight again. However it is only a minor setback. You still have yet to-_"

Whatever it was Jeremy was about to say was cut off as Aelita vanished and appeared right in front of him, grabbing her possessed boyfriend by the face and tossed him right into the other warriors, sending them flying across the room with enough force that they impact the wall with a loud crashing down. They slid down to the ground with several data screens on the walls breaking, releasing small bolts of electricity before fading away. Jeremy looked up with widened eyes as Aelita approached them and touched his face.

"_Impossible...I never say any hint of her attack until it was too late._" He whispered as he and the other warriors stood up. "_What has happened?_"

"_What have you gone and done?_" Ulrich asked as he grasped both of his swords.

Aelita said nothing; she just continued to slowly walk towards them as if she was on an evening stroll.

"_If you are not going to speak I will find out by simply observing you in combat._" Jeremy made a small hand gesture.

Ulrich charged forward, activating his Super Sprint Ability that had had a received an upgrade, greatly increasing speed to make him resemble a comet. He grinned as he just mere inches from Aelita and swung his blades out to strike her...

Only for his swords to sail through air.

"_What?_" Ulrich's eyes widened.

Suddenly Aelita appeared next to him and launched her foot, knocking his legs out from underneath him and kicked him a second later, knocking him back across the giant interior and back into the wall. Jeremy and the other possessed warriors watched with looks of shock as Ulrich slid down onto the ground. That was not all that happened as a white flame spread across Ulrich's body, seemingly burning black and red coding from the inside of his body.

"_She's burning through my codes!_" Jeremy spun and looked at Aelita. "_The security program has upgraded itself!_"

"**Wow. XANA, you must have seriously pissed her off to make her this strong.**" Seraphim muttered.

Better XANA than him.

Seraphim could tell just from looking in Aelita's eyes that something inside her had changed greatly in order for her to have become this powerful.

Jeremy snapped his fingers and Ulrich was instantly imprisoned back inside a crystal pod. "_I don't know just how powerful you have become now but it takes more than just cleaning a small virus to become a threat._"

He made a small gesture with his head and instantly the other possessed warriors charged straight towards Aelita. William activated his Super Smoke ability while Odd leapt into the air, letting loose an endless barrage of Laser Arrows that fell towards Aelita like rain. Yumi swung her arms forward, throwing both of her fans with the intent of slicing Aelita's head off. Aelita found herself being attacked from below, front, and above but she did not move. She flared the bright around her, blocking Odd and Yumi's attacks while William's Smoke form was repelled by the bright light.

William changed back into his humanoid form as he crashed onto the ground with a loud thud.

"You haven't had time to practice fighting with them after keeping them prisoner for this long, haven't you?" Aelita asked as she resumed walking. "I remember them all being so much more powerful and more skilled before this. That was what allowed you to capture them when you came back. We spent our time living as normal people while you were preparing for war, upgrading, evolving, and building your army and strength. The problem with possessing them is that you haven't used their skills for very long so you can't utilize them to their best."

Jeremy smirked. "_Yes, one small flaw there._"

"There's another one. You can't have had a lot of time to memorize how Jeremy's powers work. You have no idea how powerful and or what special abilities he has which not even he knows. As you long as you fight me possessing Jeremy and the others you're at a disadvantage especially since you can't utilize your own powers."

"_Hm, you have several points there, Sister. But if you think that's all it takes to scare me out into the open you are wrong. I may not know the full extent of Jeremy's powers but I know one thing that can affect this fight._"

"And what's that?"

"_Code: Angel._"

The second Jeremy uttered those two words he was surrounded by a bright light, exactly the same as Aelita's aura.

"_The brief time you spent with each other in Limbo gave Jeremy a small bit of your code, which allowed Lilith access to the same powers when I used Jeremy's digital DNA to create her. Now you see the power in Jeremy being activated._" Jeremy smirked. "_Even if the full extent of his original abilities remains a mystery I know extent of the power you gave him as well as you know yourself._"

He held his brush out and blank ink blasted out from the brush, taking the form of dozens of blacks orbs that glowed dark purple. The orbs shot towards Aelita who flew back and fired several Plasma Beams that blasted many of the orbs. They exploded in a bright purple light that showed Aelita if she had been hit it would have hurt her even in her powered-up state. She fired a Plasma Beam at Jeremy but he simply created a black wall that easily blocked her attack.

"Damn it!" Aelita growled softly.

The wall broke apart and formed into spikes that shot at her, forcing her to fly up into the air and perform all forms of aerobatics to avoid being hit. She knew she couldn't be on the defense like this and had to attack Jeremy to end this battle. She flew past the remaining spike towards Jeremy with a Plasma Beam ready in both hands.

"_Be careful sister. You don't want to endanger your dear Jeremy now would you?_" Jeremy held up his paint brush and silver paint flew out of the brush.

It coated him and covered him, forming silver armor that covered him from head to toe. The armor took the brunt of Aelita's attack and it barely pushed Jeremy back. He only slid about two inches before trying to backhand Aelita with a blow that would have shattered her skull. Luckily Aelita was fast enough to jump out of the way when she sensed how powerful that attack was.

"_Come on, Sister. I've pushed this far. Are you not going to go any further and try to take me down?_" Jeremy asked as he stepped forward.

"I told you before I will never fall to your level." Aelita retorted.

"_Don't make me laugh. Everyone has a limit when it is reached they lash out like the chaotic and sadistic animals that they are. There's no point in trying to prove me wrong, dear Sister. How can you face me when you hold back?_"

"By finding a way." Aelita stated.

"_Well...Good luck then._" Jeremy's armored form marched towards her.

Another blast of silver paint came out of the armor and formed into a giant axe.

"_You'll need it._"

As if the giant armor protecting Jeremy wasn't enough Aelita had to contend with Odd, William, and Yumi jumping back into the battle. She could easily block or dodge their attacks in her state but it was distracting and she really didn't have time for distractions. She easily blocked Odd and Yumi's attacks while Jeremy tried to take her out when he thought she wasn't looking. However he seemed to forget she could sense XANA's presence anywhere, even inside her possessed friends.

'Damn it to hell!' Aelita growled as she dodged the axe that tried to bisect her.

She fired an energy blast that knocked the giant armor back but it easily shrugged off the attacked and pursued her again.

"_Just to make things more interesting._" The paint brush released more silver paint that wrapped itself around Odd, Yumi, and William.

The paint solidified itself into silver armor; much like what Jeremy was wearing, covering them from head to toe.

"_Just so you won't think we're holding back._" Jeremy laughed.

Xxx

"Oh man!" Noah groaned. "XANA's really not playing fair this time."'

"How bad is it?" Gwen asked.

"The armor increases their defense up to near one hundred. The classic limit of every avatar and the only ones who have a defense rating that high are DJ and Blade." Noah explained. "It took a hell of a lot of power to break through Blade's armor and DJ was almost unstoppable with his golem form protecting him. Now the armor protecting those guys are invulnerable to almost anything with XANA enhancing them with Code: Angel than you get armor that's almost unbreakable."

"You're right. XANA's really not playing fair." Gwen shook her head.

"Yeah, what a bastard."

"Come on, Aelita! Beat him down already!" Izzy shouted. "There will be free donuts in it for you if you win!"

Xxx

"Easier said than done, Izzy." Aelita muttered as she ducked under a swing from William. "I'm open for suggestions here!"

"_How about beating them up?_" Duncan asked.

"_She's already trying that and if she goes too far she'll hurt them like XANA did with us!_" Courtney's scolded.

"_Can your Anti-XANA program make it through the armor?_" Cody asked.

"Doubtful but I can try." Aelita created an energy wall to block all of Odd's arrows. "Hang on a sec...Noah, open the file on the XANA-Destruction Program!"

"_What?_" Noah asked.

"Just do it!"

Xxx

"Okay, okay!" Noah yelped and started typing away. "She can be even more bossy than Courtney or Heather sometimes."

"It means she knows how to keep you in line!" Courtney retorted.

"I consider that a compliment." Heather smirked, resting against the wall. "I probably taught her how to do that."

"Oh joy." Gwen muttered she rolled her eyes. "So, any idea what she's planning?"

"I have no clue. The program doesn't have enough power to kill XANA and if she uses it in the center of the Copy she'll only kill herself and everyone else in there." Noah replied as he opened the file. "Remember what she said if the Central Tower was shut down?"

"...She said that the rest of the Carbon Copy would shut down with no chance of it ever turning back on." Gwen remembered Aelita's words.

"Exactly. Even if the program is strong enough to kill XANA the Central Tower is basically one giant activated tower. It'll kill XANA's influence and automatically shut down, taking the City Sector, the Way Towers in the other sectors which will then lead to a permanent system shut down." Noah explained as a thoughtful look appeared on his face. "Unless...no way. She's not _that_ crazy."

"Noah?" Gwen asked.

"The only way to give the program enough power would be to hook it up to a source of power...And that would be Aelita herself!" Noah realized with widened eyes. "She's going to do what her dad when he tried to kill XANA!"

"WHAT?!" Nearly everyone shouted.

"Noah are you crazy?" LeShawna climbed the wall behind her to stand up straight. "Aelita's not suicidal!"

"She is when it comes to saving the world." Noah replied. "I got to close this program before she...DAMN IT!"

"What?" Gwen jumped from sound of Noah shouting _and_ cursing.

"She's somehow taken over and locked me out!" Noah put the headset back on. "Earth to Aelita! This is your good buddy Noah, wishing you not to kill yourself!"

Xxx

"_What are we up to Sister?_" Jeremy asked as the armored teens surrounded her. "_What is it that your good friend, Noah, suspects?_"

Aelita did not answer. She simply commanded the program to enter her body and began powering herself up. Her body was engulfed by a bright light that flared with pure white energy that lit up the chamber.

'_Now what is she up to?_' XANA thought inside Jeremy's mind. '_The armor created by Jeremy's enhanced powers is almost unbreakable. Only a force equal to the strength of the armor can break through and my own power, even if it's not capable of being used fully in this form, has strengthened it enough that even Aelita's full power is not enough to break through._'

She must be using her Keys to power up something but even if she charged all of her power into a single attack Jeremy's armor would protect him from the attack even if it was horribly damaged.

'_And that Noah sounded worried and asked her not to endanger herself._' Jeremy smirked. '_Sister, are you so desperate to kill me that you would make the same mistake that Father made? That's the only reason that your friends would be so concerned._'

Aelita had always been ready to sacrifice herself to save the world and her friends, something XANA had used to survive as he knew her friends would never allow her to die. It's what kept them from shutting down the supercomputer when they were still bound to it. It was this same weakness XANA had exploited with their father, Waldo Schaeffer, and gain victory against the original Lyoko Warriors. Seeing Aelita try the same trick...

"_This is simply disappointing. You obviously seek to power the XANA-Destruction Program in a vain attempt to spread throughout the Central Tower and then my copy to wipe out all of my codes. This same tactic was attempted before and only succeeded in the cost of your friends and our father. You have not learned at all._"

However to XANA's confusion Aelita smirked at Jeremy and the possessed teens. "Have I?"

Jeremy narrowed her eyes as a bright orb of light appeared in Aelita's hands.

"You forgot one thing, XANA. This program was a Multi-Agent System just like you and it has capacity to evolve."

"_Your point being?_"

"Meaning I can use my keys to change the programming of this Multi-Agent System to target something else!" Aelita replied as the orb floated above her head, growing as large as a school bus. "Something other than you!"

Jeremy's eyes widened. '_She's advanced that far? If she has then I have miscalculated the extent of her abilities._'

"_Stop her!_"

With that one command all of the possessed teens charged at Aelita with the intention of ripping her to bits.

"It's time I free you all." Aelita closed her eyes for second before opening them again and slamming the orb into the ground.

The giant bright orb burst and shattered into a dozen smaller orbs that blasted into the air and slammed into armor of the possessed warriors. The second they made contact with the armor they exploded, tearing the armor apart in a blast of bright light. The armor was slowly burned away from the by endless explosive barrage and it didn't stop. They latched onto the bodies underneath, destroying the digital skin and releasing lines of data into the air.

They all let out screams as the Multi-Agent System at away at their bodies. When Jeremy was designing it to destroy XANA he had designed a special self destruct program that activated the nanosecond any part of the program made contact with anything that carried XANA's codes. That way the program would destroy itself and XANA without risking the chance of the Multi-Agent program that Jeremy created taking XANA's or the Marabounta's place. It had worked, even though Jeremy and the others failed to realize that the XANA the program destroyed was a copy but it had proven to be effective.

It was proving it was effective again as it destroyed the digital bodies of Aelita's possessed friends slowly and without mercy. Not even the crystal pod that Ulrich was imprisoned in was safe as it was easily destroyed along with Ulrich a second after he was freed. As the digital bodies dissolved a black and red mist was released from their bodies and came together, solidifying itself to form XANA's Avatar. XANA himself didn't seem angry at the destruction of the bodies he had been possessing. In fact he seemed surprised and impressed.

"What an impressive performance, Sister. I never at all believed that you would ever use a tactic that ruthless. Destroying the bodies of those who had been closest to for so long since the first day you awoke in Lyoko. I can't imagine someone committing such an act, even if they are returned to the material world. I thought the whole point of coming here was to save them, not virtually wipe them from the face of the digital universe." XANA commented with his signature smirk. "I wonder if you realize the repercussions if what you have truly done?"

"If you mean I have erased them entirely from the Supercomputer, than yes I have." Aelita answered as the bright aura surrounding her faded. "It means that it's possible that when we go back in time...they will forget about Lyoko."

Xxx

"Oh my God..." Noah whispered in shock.

Everyone in the lab was silent as they listened to what Aelita had said.

"But if they forget Lyoko...will they forget about her?" Cody quietly asked.

"She took that risk to save them." Gwen muttered.

"I can't believe that..." Heather mumbled in shock. "She actually did that."

"To save them." DJ quietly answered. "Even if it means having to erase what brought them together."

Geoff banged a fist on the wall. "Damn you, XANA. You just keep on hurting her and everyone around her. When is it going to be enough?"

"It's never enough. He just keeps on attacking and we keep on suffering." Bridgette wiped a tear that fell down her cheek.

"And I thought I liked being a bad guy but seeing this…I'm just disgusted." Duncan clenched a fist as he tried to stand up.

"He's a monster…" There was no happiness or usual optimism in Izzy's voice. "He has no compassion or honor."

"Yeah…" LeShawna narrowed her eyes. "Take him down, Aelita."

Xxx

"I saved them, destroying their avatars and wiping all data connected to them from the supercomputer. As cruel as you seem to think it is they will still live and that is good enough for me." Aelita stated as she settled into a fighting stance.

"Oh?" XANA's sword appeared in his hand. "Really?"

"You've been a plague to this world for too long XANA. It's over now." Aelita created two energy orbs in her hand.

"Oh, I don't think so." XANA grinned. "I think I've only just begun."

Aelita let out a loud war cry as she flew at XANA, firing energy orbs while he parried them with his sword.

The fight was on.


	112. Episode 109: Fight of the Century

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

"WE'VE HIT OVER 1000 REVIEWS!" Kurt shouted.

The entire Total Drama Reality Cast cheered as Kurt spray painted the number 1000 on the wall.

"The first story I appear in that reaches over 1000 reviews." Carlos looked like he was about to cry. "I don't know what to say."

"And just before the big awesome battle too." Aelita commented.

"We've got to make something special here." Izzy grinned as she rubbed her hands together.

"How about you all get back to work?"

Everyone gasped as the Lord Maximus(wearing the cloak, big glasses and fake moustache) appeared behind them.

"We've got tons of readers eagerly awaiting the big climax of this arc and you are all standing around partying?" LM asked angrily.

"But we've reached the 1000 review." Kurt pointed out.

"Actually it's 1002." LM corrected.

"WHOO-HOO!" Everyone shouted.

"Someone break out the drinks!" Carlos shouted.

"Drinks?! Carlos, we can't have alcohol here!" Lesely snapped, slapping Carlos on the back of his head.

"I meant soda!" Carlos cried, rubbing his head.

"And to kick off the celebration we are offering prizes to all who continue to the very end!" Kurt gestured a copy of the Sir Christopher robot Chris once had. "Keep on reading and you will get your own robot servant!"

_Guard your house._

_Clean your mess._

_Fly you to work on time._

_Even make your own breakfast, lunch, or dinner!_

_Chase away the annoying salesman or cookie scout girl!_

"NO PARTYING UNTIL WE FINISH THE ARC!" Lord Maximus shouted. "And this is a fanfiction, not a real show! We can't sell robots!"

"Awww…." Everyone groaned.

"We have fans and readers waiting for us to supply them with a mind exploding, action packed finale here. How can we do that when no work is being done?!" LM rhetorically asked. "Now…Kurt, get the ball rolling."

"Annoying, bossy old…" Kurt grumbled.

"FINISH THAT SENTENCE AND I SEND YOU TO SOMEONE'S FANFICTION INVOLVING DORA THE EXPLORER AND TELETUBBIES!" LM shouted.

"Yes sir!" Kurt saluted.

"And that goes for the rest of you!" LM rounded on everyone else.

"YES SIR!" They all saluted him.

"Good, now get the ball rolling!"

"Last time on Code Total Drama Reality, XANA had Aelita cornered when he possessed her captured friends and forced her to fight them. However with a daring move Aelita used the XANA-Destruction Program and reprogrammed it to destroy the digital Avatars of her friends, freeing them from XANA's control and possibly erasing their connection to Lyoko forever when they go back in time. Now it's just Aelita and XANA left to battle it out. Will Aelita save the world or will this be XANA's ultimate and final victory?"

"FIND OUT TODAY ON CODE: TOTAL DRAMA REALITY!" Everyone finished dramatic speech.

"Cue the beginning of the chapter!" LM said.

"Whoo-hoo!" Carlos held up a can of soda that was suddenly snatched from his hand. "Wha…Hey! Uh-ho!"

The robot had snatched the can of soda and started drinking it.

"Why does this look familiar?" Kurt asked.

The robot suddenly started short-circuiting as it deployed its weapons. "DESTROY! DESTROY! DESTROY! DESTROY!"

"RUN!"

Everyone ran as the robot started firing missiles and lasers at them.

BOOM!

Xxx

Chapter 111

He felt like he was waking up for the very first time as he finally returned to the conscious world. First there was complete darkness but a bright light began shining before him.

"Hey, I think he's coming around." Someone whispered.

There was a groaning sound as he felt his head pounding and quickly pressed his hand against his temple. "What happened?"

As he opened his eyes he looked upon strangers in front of him in the scanner room.

"You okay?" The girl with black and blue streaked hair asked.

"Yeah…" He slowly answered as he looked around. "I'm in the…scanner room? When did I…"

"Do the words Lyoko and XANA mean anything to you?" A brown haired teen knelt next to him.

"Lyoko and…XANA!" His eyes widened in horror.

"He still remembers." The girl sighed in relief. "For now."

"Who are you?"

"It's a long story. Come on, we need to wake the others up…Jeremy."

Xxx

BOOM!

Aelita felt her back hit the ground with an earth shattering boom even though no cracks formed around her to prove the force of the impact. Opening her eyes she looked up and saw XANA hovering over her with red energy gathering in the palm of his hand. She rolled out of the way as the energy shot at her in the form of a lance of red energy that obliterated the ground where she had been. She put both her hands together and fired a super charged Plasma Beam that slammed into XANA, knocking him back but didn't seem to physically damage him.

She tried to press her attack but XANA released two giant shadowy hands that tried to grab her. She tried to blast them but they shrugged off her energy bolts easily. She rolled out of the way as the hands shot at her like missiles, slamming into the ground and dissipating into black smoke.

"Now what's your plan, dear Sister? Fight me until the end of days?" XAMA rhetorically asked, hovering above Aelita with his trademark casual smirk. "Two highly powerful digital entities, gifted with the ability to change the world simply through the use of their minds alone, both fighting with the intent of destroying each other. You ever hear what happens when an unstoppable force meets and immovable object?"

Aelita panted slightly as she looked up. "It's not about destroying you, XANA. It's about keeping you from ever attacking the real world again. This world, its humanity's world, our world. We may not be perfect and we may wipe each other but the choice to live or die should be our choice, not yours!"

"If you wish to join this pathetic species in self destruction that's your own foolish choice. However, humanity and the world are two different things. Our creators hoped to change the world for the better, to create a World Without Danger. Never once have I believed that humanity _is_ the world. You are just the latest infestations to crawl out from the ground to inherit it." XANA threw his right arm to the side. "Die now and someone else will inherit this world and abuse it just like your so called humanity has done. Pretend to be as powerful and gigantic as you think you are but like what happens to every other rodent they will run and hide when they see something loom over them, a giant ready to flatten them with one simply stomp. I believe I've already proven that I'm willing to do anything to create the next world and if you will not surrender peacefully and help me, then you are _not welcome_!"

He swung his arm at her and bolts of lightning blasted from the ceiling above them. Aelita quickly somersaulted out of the way, avoiding each and every lightning attack just barely by a few inches. She fired several energy bolts at XANA but he simply slapped them away.

"Until I send humanity into the dark and remind them of their inferiority I will not allow anyone, even you to stop me." XANA prepared another energy blast.

"And I will use every bit of my strength, even at the cost of my own life to stop you." Aelita prepared a plasma beam.

"Well, let's find out who's will is stronger, shall we?" XANA chuckled.

They both charged their energy attacks and the moment they were ready they flung their projectiles at each other, watching as they collided with each other, creating a blinding explosion. XANA let a loud scream as he was engulfed in a red aura and began changing. His humanoid Avatar morphed into a gigantic Dark Krab, taking most of the chamber. The giant Krab's multiple eyes turned on Aelita and released giant lasers when they saw her.

"Damn it!" Aelita swore as she quickly flew out of the way.

She fired a Plasma Beam from both hands but to her disappointment they only scorched the Krab's metallic skin, not seemingly hurting it. The Krab seemed to laugh as its multiple eyes kept on raining giant laser blasts down on her.

Xxx

Jeremy Belpois could not believe what was happening.

He wakes up just a second ago and he finds out that he along with William, Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd had been held captive by XANA for nearly three months and that the teens that played on the Canadian reality show Total Drama had been helping Aelita just a day after they had been captured. As if that was not bad enough apparently Aelita was the only left who was still digital and she was _fighting_ XANA, or at least a digital Avatar of him in the center of his domain. He couldn't speak as the information they had given him threatened to overload his brain. He was overwhelmed with feelings of intense shock, anger, and guilt.

Shock that he and the others had been held captive for so long.

Anger and hatred directed at XANA for capturing them, using them to create digital generals to lead his army, and for continuing to attack Aelita.

Guilt because he and the others had not been strong enough to fight.

They rushed head on to stop XANA like before, but the problem for them was that XANA was different from before. He had changed everything.

Lyoko.

The monsters.

That digital fiend had even fashioned an avatar in a human's image to better taunt and attack them.

To his and his friends' everlasting shame, the Lyoko Warriors had lost that day. Perhaps they had lost back when they had believed that Aelita's father had successfully died killing XANA. They shut down the supercomputer and moved on with their lives while the menace they thought was dead waited, studied, and prepared for the day he would come back for revenge.

He looked over at the rest of the group, all of them silent in shock as they processed what they had learned.

William had even slammed a fist into the wall. "Damn him! Damn that digital bastard! It's not enough that he possessed me once he captured me and did it again!"

"He did it to all of us." Ulrich whispered, clenching his fists. "He captured us, locked us away, and used us."

"And took us from our families. My parents, Hiroki, what have all our families could have felt when I disappeared." Yumi shut her eyes as tears threatened to fall out. "…Damn him."

Odd was silent but they could all see the look anguish and anger on his face. They had been locked away for so long and even though they had been rescued that doesn't change the fact that they all felt like they had failed the world and Aelita.

"Trust me; we more than understand the feeling." Geoff said. "We've had our own fair share of cruelty from that guy."

"And Aelita's pretty intent on getting some payback for us all." Noah said, staring at the screen. "She's giving it her all."

"GO AELITA! TAKE THAT PSYCHO DOWN!" Izzy cheered.

"What she said." Heather said.

Xxx

Aelita quickly flew out of the way as the giant Krab's spear like leg fell down on where she had been. The Dark Krab had been alternating between attacking her with lasers and using its spear like legs to try to pierce her body that was about the size of the sharp end of the Krab's legs. She quickly flew up above the monster to see if the Eye was on the top of its shell like a normal Krab. But to her shock and disappointment there was no eye.

"Crap!" Aelita grunted.

"_Looking for something sister?_" The Krab stared up at her with impression that it was smiling. "_You sound so disappointed._"

Aelita quickly flew to the left as the Krab fired another laser blast at her.

"_This isn't some fight to get to the tower, Sister! Even if my symbol is always present on every piece of my work my Avatar can change the location to whatever place I want!_" The Krab laughed as it chased after her.

'At least that means there is an Eye somewhere. But will it work like it does with regular monsters?' Aelita thought as she flew out of the way of another laser.

XANA's Avatar, while possibly having the same weakness as all of his other creations, was much stronger and could actually regenerate itself depending on how much power XANA had at his disposal. She had seen it in battle against her along with her friends and even watched as XANA personally battled Shadow and Nephilim. It allowed XANA more power and more creativity on the battlefield rather than just mindless monsters to fight his battles. And it had more than just attack, defense, or speed power.

It was an extension of XANA's own ability to control the digital environment around him.

That made XANA even more dangerous whenever he brought his Avatar out onto the battle field. He could shrug off the most powerful blows, heal his injuries, and even continue attacking without any regard for his own safety since it was just a simple mask he wore. Aelita spun and twirled through the air, dodging laser blasts fired at her from the Krab chasing after her. Suddenly the Krab stopped and seemingly vanished.

Aelita stopped and spun around, looking for the Krab or whatever form XANA may have taken. Her senses screamed as at her as she spun and flew back as a portal opened up and the giant Dark Krab stepped out, firing lasers at her.

"Damn it!" Aelita's head was nearly incinerated.

She just barely ducked before flying back, trying to get as far from the giant monster as possible.

"_Did you think you could run from me, Sister? This is my domain; I am the Center of the Carbon Copy! My awareness extends to the far reaches of my realm!_" The Dark Krab chuckled. "_You can try and distance yourself as you want but in this very place distance has no meaning!_"

Aelita let out a curse as she fired another Plasma Beam but the Dark Krab fired a laser blast that easily cancelled out her attack. The Dark Krab laughed as it chased after her again, moving up and down the large chamber, releasing lasers and energy bolts at each other.

"_Aelita, I'm scanning that thing for weaknesses right now. I think I found a one on the underbelly._" Noah spoke through the headset.

"Thanks Noah!" Aelita ducked under another laser shot.

"_I got some friends of your up here who are very anxious._"

The Dark Krab charged up a powerful laser bolt.

"And you think this is a picnic? You're welcome to try and switch places!" Aelita fired a large energy orb just as the Krab fired.

The two attacked collided and cancelled each other out in a blast of bright light.

"_Been there done that, got my ass kicked._" Noah softly retorted. "_I'd rather ask if there was any vacation time in this job._"

"Right now? You couldn't have thought about that when you signed up." Aelita flew down, trying to get in between the Krab's legs.

"_Yeah, I know. I feel like a major idiot now._" Noah sighed dramatically.

"Join the club." Aelita looked up and though it was a small she could see the Eye glaring down at her.

It was much smaller, almost around her size which made it hard to see on a monster so big but Aelita's enhanced sight spotted it easily.

"Found it!" Aelita prepared to blast it with a Plasma Beam.

However just as she was about to fire she sensed something underneath her and her eyes widened as the Dark Krab began to fall upon her. She flew out of the way just in time to see the Krab vanish into a portal.

"Damn it! Noah, can you get a fix on his location?" Aelita looked around.

"_Sorry, Aelita. I can't pick him up. I tried scanning the chamber but the data running through the interior of the tower is moving with too much speed and power for me to tell the difference between it and him. I'm literally looking at a needle in haystack._" Noah grunted in frustration. "_I only pick him up two seconds before he shows up._"

"That's not good, Noah. Two seconds is enough to kill me." Aelita looked around warily.

"_I know and I'm working on it but I'm shooting at ducks running on steroids here!_" Noah sounded very frustrated. "_All I can say is…try to stay alive._"

"Best advice of the moment." Aelita sighed.

This was no good.

She needed to attack XANA just as he was leaving the portal to attack her. Easier said than done but it's not like Aelita and the others have been up against odds that were so high that the chances of winning _and_ surviving were slim to none before. She needed to see him coming but the portals could open up anywhere and XANA would attack almost too quickly for her to react. She needed to try and sense him somehow.

She reached out to try and feel XANA's presence lurking in the tower. If her senses could sense the Keys XANA had inside him from the both the ones he took from her and the ones inside Lilith his presence should shine like a beacon.

'Come on, I know you're there.' Aelita closed hers tightly.

She knew that XANA was moving patiently in the dark.

Watching.

Waiting.

Trying to intimidate her and look for signs of weakness.

She was not going to let him see it. She had come too far; _they_ had come too far to let him get any satisfaction out of what he has done.

'There!'

She reached out with her Creativity as she channeled her energy through her hands. As the giant Dark Krab emerged from the portal in front of her Aelita multiple giant tendrils of pink energy that resembled hands. They latched on and grabbed the Dark Krab before it could attack her. Aelita let out a scream as she lifted the Krab up with all of her strength and hurled it back into the wall of the tower.

The Dark Krab let out a squeal as it fell on its back, flailing its legs as it tried to rebalance itself.

"_Nice work, Supergirl._" Noah remarked with surprise and respect in his voice. "_Marvel and DC got nothing on you._"

Aelita smirked as she looked at the Eye on the Krab's underbelly and quickly fired a Plasma Beam that hit the Eye and went through the shell and out the other side. The Krab screamed as it shattered millions of pieces of red and black digital code.

"That's not going to keep him down for long." Aelita said as she looked around. "Noah, find the interface in the tower."

"_Whoa! I see what you plan to do. Shut down the tower you shut down Carbon Copy and when you shut down the Copy…_"

"I shut down XANA." Aelita grinned. "He'll go down with the rest of the Copy. It might not destroy him but it'll leave him paralyzed."

As she spoke Aelita noticed that the pieces of the Dark Krab were starting to come together. The bits of red and black data came together, forming a black blob of gaseous smoke. Now that Aelita understood XANA could regenerate she could sense his presence coming together, forming, shifting, becoming a new shape. She looked at the trapped Seraphim and quickly flew to him, determined to make sure he made it alive this time.

"Hurry, Noah!"

Xxx

Noah was moving twice as fast when Aelita explained they had a chance to take out XANA for good this time. It was probably the only chance they had and he was _not_ going to let it slip past their fingers.

"Okay, top platform. Now where's the interface?" Noah looked at the screen.

Jeremy looked at the screen, seeing Noah was doing everything he would do. He didn't watch Total Drama so he didn't know anything about the contestants. They mentioned that only a few of them started with Aelita but as XANA's attacks became more dangerous several of them were too injured or unable to help her, thus forcing them to look for reinforcements. It was something that only happened once and that was with William but since Aelita in a pretty desperate situation and she would never have endangered herself with anyone who rat them out they were all obviously trustworthy.

They did just brave the horrors of fighting XANA's digital domain after all.

"Shouldn't it be in the center like every tower?" Gwen asked.

"No. We would have seen it in there." Noah answered. "XANA's not the type to leave a weakness out in plain sight."

"How can we be sure that even he made an off switch?" Duncan asked.

"Because it's the default setting in every tower. Not even XANA can change that." Jeremy spoke up, earning all of their attention which made him feel a bit embarrassed. "I…I studied up on how Lyoko worked when we first discovered."

"Yeah, what he said." Noah nodded at Jeremy. "XANA may consider himself a badass AI but even he can't change all the rules."

"So where would he…" Gwen trailed off as the tracking program zoomed in something.

Above the large platform that was the top floor of the central processing tower there was a smaller secondary platform much like the upper platform of every other tower.

"There it is."Noah grinned.

"So that'll take XANA out?" Trent anxiously asked.

"Like Aelita said when the Copy goes, XANA goes down with it. When the Central shuts down, the City Sector shuts down, followed by Sector 5, followed by the Way Towers, and then finally all the other sectors. It's like someone takes a special block and then the whole castle falls down." Noah explained.

"He explains it better than you." Odd whispered to Jeremy who just sighed.

"Aelita, we've found. It's on an upper platform above you."

Xxx

Aelita looked up and spotted the platform. "Thanks, Noah. I'll free Seraphim and then shut it down."

"**No Aelita! You must shut it down now before XANA can regenerate and stop you!**" Seraphim protested. "**Your attack only stunned him but that won't stop him! Hurry and shut this it down to end this fight once and for all!**"

"I'm not letting you die again!" Aelita stated leaving no room for arguments. "This time we're getting out of here together!"

Aelita pressed her hand against the fire wall and channeled her energy into it. Slowly but surely cracks began to form underneath her hand and spread out.

"**Hurry…**" Seraphim watched as the remains of the Dark Krab came together inside the dark cloud. "**He's coming!**"

Aelita closed her eyes as she channeled more power.

The dark cloud reformed into XANA's Avatar who stepped towards Aelita while she trying to free Seraphim.

"**Aelita!**" Seraphim shouted.

Aelita gritted her teeth as she channeled more of her power into the fire wall.

"You actually bother to worry about a friend in a time like this? Sister, your so-called compassion continues to disgust me." XANA pointed his index finger at her back. "If you'd risk the world just to save a comrade than by all means allow me to grant your wish."

"**Aelita!**"

The fire wall shattered just as XANA fired an energy blast. Seraphim knocked Aelita down, saving her from being shot but leaving himself wide open.

"SERAPHIM!"

The shot collided with chest head on and knocked down. Aelita gasped and quickly crawled over to him. She saw the wound on chest, bleeding white data.

"That did not have a virus in it like last time. He should supposedly survive, if his creator made him that durable." XANA remarked, lowering his hand. "He was actually safer in that trap. I had no reason to even think about him until you released him."

Seraphim groaned as Aelita lifted his mask off his face. "Should…have…listened."

"I didn't want to lose anyone else again." Aelita whispered mournfully.

"Takes more…than that…to take me down." Seraphim smiled despite the pain. "I can repair this but I'm out of the fight. I have to retreat."

His body began to break down into bits of data.

"Seraphim!" Aelita gasped.

"Don't worry. I'm not being deleted. It's an automatic safety feature my dad installed. It devirtualizes me and transfers my Nexus Core to a folder in my dad's computer. Hopefully he didn't erase anything." Seraphim chuckled.

"Don't ever scare me like that again. You left a lot of people sad when you faked your death." Aelita clutched his hand tightly.

"Yeah, I can imagine that." Seraphim looked up at her. "It's all up to you now, Aelita. You're our last hope."

She watched as his entire body vanished before her eyes. She was relieved he would die this time but she still felt grief as he vanished.

'Seraphim, I won't let you down.' Aelita closed her eyes as she stood up.

"Last hope, huh?" XANA asked, remaining still and watched as Seraphim's form vanished. "And here I thought Seraphim didn't understand the concept of humor."

Aelita turned and glared at him.

"Go ahead. Try and blow me apart again. But as you've seen before I'll simply regenerate my Avatar so I can't guarantee it'll actually work."

Aelita clenched her fists but remembered what Noah had told her. If she could reach the upper platform where the central interface was located than she could shut down Carbon Copy and end this nightmare once and for all.

'I just need to get up there.'

"You plan to reach the upper platform and shut down my tower don't you?" XANA's smirk widened. "It's written all over your face."

Aelita narrowed her eyes.

"Oh by all means try and get to the top of the tower." XANA shrugged. "I do consider myself a fair person after all."

Aelita held out her hand and fired a full powered Plasma Beam. XANA simply raised one hand and deflected it back. However he noticed that Aelita had suddenly took off into the air as he deflected her attack. He looked up and saw her flying like a comet towards the upper platform.

"Always acting without thinking." XANA shook his head. "She didn't even stop to wonder what little surprises I left for her."

Aelita could see the upper platform sitting in the air above her.

The only thought in her mind was that she had to reach it.

She _will_ reach it!

"_Aelita, there's a strange energy signature!_" Noah called out.

That's all the warning she had before bolts of lightning shot out from the data screens running along the wall that collided with. She still had plenty of life points but the affects of XANA's virus made her feel every volt of electricity coursing through her.

Xxx

Everyone in the lab let out on single horrified word. "AELITA!"

Xxx

Aelita fell and hit the ground with a loud thud. She groaned as she struggled to sit up, still in pain from the attack.

"Poor, poor little sister." XANA chuckled as he walked over, stopping only a few feet from her. "Did you really think I would not protect the center of my domain? You once again underestimated me."

Aelita managed to get on her knees as she glared with pure hate at XANA.

"The virtualization of Kadic Academy and the Total Drama Studio, the battles against my Generals and my creations, even the confrontation with me and your possessed friends, these did not happen because you were lucky enough to survive all it…It was all according to my plan." XANA's grin widened as Aelita became shocked at his claim. "I knew if the stakes were high enough you and the rest of your group would brave the inner depths of my Carbon Copy to rescue your original friends and stop me once and for all. It was perfect chance to infect you all with the special virus I made to change the functions of your Avatars, making you as mortal as you are in the real world. After these long hard battles you must have noticed that even with your Keys powering you your mind is experience mental fatigue. Wouldn't stopping to consider if I set up something up protect my central interface was something you would have done if not for all the battles you have faced?"

Aelita gritted her teeth as she stood up, narrowing her eyes.

"I see you finally figured it out. You did not come here of your own free will…I _lured_ you here." XANA gloated with obvious satisfaction in his voice. "I guess you could refer to this as the climax of the story we have made. At long last it's only the two of us, just as it has always been."

"The two of us?" Aelita questioned.

"Oh, you thought sticking together would stop me? I guess that thought did cross your mind when so many you trusted seem to have all you needed to win. The intelligence of Jeremy, Cody, and Noah, the strength of Ulrich, Devon Joseph, Duncan, LeShawna, Eva, and Geoff, the high reactive thinking of Odd and Isabella, and the creative resources of Yumi, Gwen, Trent, Bridgette and Courtney. All of them at your side, whatever usefulness you believed they had was nothing compared to the hidden power of our legacy left in you." XANA pointed at Aelita's chest. "The power of the Keys to Lyoko, meant to control and alter the digital landscape of our world to any form we see fit. Yet for all that power you still have managed to waste most of it and your mental strength on the others."

"I can still fight!" Aelita growled. "I told you before XANA I will use every bit of my strength, even at the cost of my own life to stop you!"

XANA scoffed. "Stop me? You can't even find the strength to protect yourself."

Aelita fired a Plasma Beam from both hands but instead of block or deflecting them XANA simply smirked as a portal opened up in front of him, engulfing both of her energy attacks.

"Stupidity doesn't suit you, Sister." XANA snapped his fingers.

Another portal opened up in front of Aelita and she could the light of her own Plasma Beams, now merged together into one large attack racing towards her. She let out a grunt as jumped to the right, barely avoiding the energy beam that flew past her. She turned around and watched as the energy attack vanished into another portal.

"Oh, here's another neat little surprise I made." XANA laughed. "The ability to direct anything in this tower. Even your own attack."

Aelita looked up to see another portal open and her energy beam fell towards her. She let out another grunt as she jumped out of the way. However another portal opened up, swallowing the energy beam before it hit the ground. Aelita flew up into the air and spun around, spotting another portal that spit out her attack. She flew out of the way but like before another portal opened up on the part of the wall the beam would have hit and swallowed it.

"The security system in my tower will continue to redirect your Plasma Beam, until it locks and hits its origin. Ironic isn't it, Sister? To be cut down not by me but by your own attack." XANA mused as he watched Aelita struggle to dodge her Plasma Beam as every portal swallowed and released it. "I wait to see how you'll get out of this one."

After dodging her own attack several more times Aelita believed there was no way she could keep on dodging and hoping it would dissipate. Not wanting to risk being hit while she was fighting XANA she stoped dodging and brought her hands together like she was praying.

"_Huh, Aelita? Not meaning to interrupt your daily prayer but-_" Noah started.

"Not now, Noah."

"_Right, total silence. Got it._"

As the portal appeared in front of her and spat out her Plasma Beam Aelita spread her arms out and created an energy shield. The beam collided with her shield and she let out a loud cry as the force of the beam sent her flying back down the ground. She strained to keep the shield up until it managed to fend off the entire energy beam. XANA watched as Aelita hit the ground and was engulfed in a blast of pink energy that let loose pink shockwave.

XANA didn't bother to move as the shockwave hit him, remaining completely mobile and watching to see if Aelita survived. He smirked as he watched Aelita struggling to stand up, groaning from what had just happened.

"Still alive conscious, Sister? I must say I'm actually impressed by how resilient you have been." XANA commented as he stepped forward. "But it looks like you are starting to succumb to your exhaustion."

"_Aelita, you might to run for it._" Noah stated nervously.

XANA strolled towards Aelita who was gasping for air and seemed unable to stand. She only managed to sit on her knees when XANA stood over her.

"You said you would use every bit of your strength to stop me. It seems you managed to use up every bit of your strength. How do you plan to risk your life to stop me when you can't move your body?" XANA rhetorically asked. "All of that power, all of the determination, all of the rage, anger, and hate for me and in the end you still have found nothing to show for it."

He formed his broad sword as he held up his hand.

"_Aelita run!_"

"_Do something!_"

"_Hurry!_"

"There is still time, XANA." Aelita looked up at XANA. "You can still stop this."

"Are you so desperate to stop me you'd actually believe there is a part of me that would do as you asked?" XANA raised a single eyebrow. "I mentioned before that I would not allow anyone to stop from me from sending humanity in the dark. Are you sure I even understand emotions or even want to understand?" He grinned down at her. "I feel nothing. No remorse, no hesitance. There is nothing to stop me from striking you down."

"Except one thing. Computer activate program zero three."

"_Locating program._"

"Hm?" XANA raised an eyebrow but raised his sword. "No second chances this time."

Xxx

"Zero three?" Noah asked as the computer did a search program. "I don't remember her mentioning something like that."

"Me neither." Cody spoke up.

"That's because it's not in the Super Calculator." Jeremy spoke up.

Xxx

A green barrier surrounded Aelita as XANA tried to slash her. The barrier blocked his sword and repelled him. He stepped back, staring at the barrier with narrowed eyes.

"Don't be surprised that you haven't seen this one, XANA." Aelita managed to stand up. "This one is actually a special program, compliment of Jeremy."

XANA's eyes widened slightly. "Jeremy?"

Xxx

"Back when I was upgrading our virtual equipment I realized that XANA could become aware of almost any programs on a computer connected to Lyoko. So I designed some on a computer that was _not_ connected to Lyoko to mask programs from XANA so he wouldn't be able to counter every move we had." Jeremy explained.

"And Aelita knew?" Gwen asked.

"She was the only person I told."

Xxx

"It seems Jeremy can still outthink you, XANA." Aelita smirked.

"A little wall and you decide to gloat?" XANA remarked. "It will only be a matter of time before I delete that program like every other program he's used and then you are back to your previous situation."

"That's what you think."

Aelita knew this was one hell of a gamble she was pulling but at this point it was the last trick she had left. She channeled all of the energy she had left into the security program and shot off into the air. XANA stepped back, slightly disorientated and looked to see where Aelita was going. As Aelita flew up towards the upper platform lightning shot out from the walls again, colliding with green barrier but to Aelita's relief it was actually fending off the lightning blasts.

Xxx

"She's getting through!" Bridgette exclaimed happily.

"Whoo-Hoo!" Izzy cheered.

"She might make it!" Cody smiled.

"If the security program holds out." Noah pointed at the screen. "Those attacks are draining the barrier even with Aelita reinforcing it!"

He was right as the barrier was already at forty five percent and Aelita was only half way to the upper platform.

"She'll make it." Gwen stated. "She knows what's on the line here."

"Yeah. We all know how tough she is under pressure." Eva crossed her arms, admitting her own respect of the pink haired girl.

"She's got it." Duncan smirked. "XANA's going down for good this time."

"And good riddance." Courtney added.

"You got that right." William decided to join in, eager to see XANA's final demise.

Xxx

"Don't be so quick to grasp victory, Sister." XANA narrowed his eyes. "You have still forgotten one little detail."

Xxx

"Guys!" Heather shouted.

Everyone looked up to see a specter emerge from the wires running along the ceiling.

"Oh crap!" LeShawna grunted.

They were in no shape to be fighting a specter, even if Aelita's flight to the interface renewed them with new hope. However they failed to realize they were not the target. The specter flew down and wrapped itself around Jeremy.

"Jeremy!" Odd and Ulrich shouted.

They along with Yumi tried to pull him out of the specter's grasp but Jeremy let out a scream as his figure became distorted. Before anyone could do anything he was gone in a flash of light.

Xxx

Aelita could feel the barrier around her starting to weaken and collapse just as she was almost to the upper platform. 'Come on. Come on.'

Just as the barrier collapsed Aelita landed on the upper platform, hearing the soft beeping sound she heard every time she landed on the upper platform of every tower.

'I'm here!'

"Aelita!"

Aelita looked up and her eyes nearly fell out of her skull as someone else landed on the platform on the other side across from her. "Jeremy!?"

There was Jeremy, standing in front of her with a bewildered and shocked look on his face.

"How did you get here?!" Aelita questioned.

As if to answer her question XANA appeared right behind Jeremy. "So eager to shut the tower down without saying goodbye?"

Aelita reached out and pulled Jeremy behind her, readying herself for another attacked.

"Well, Aelita. Are you so prepared to end this that you have no wish to tell your dear Jeremy what you had to sacrifice?" XANA questioned with a sinister grin. "Can you not look him in the face?"

Aelita stiffened.

"Tell him. Make it your final moment together."

"What is he talking about?" Jeremy asked, stepping out slightly.

Aelita didn't want to look at him, realizing what XANA was doing. "Damn you, XANA."

"Aelita?" Jeremy asked.

She turned slightly and saw him out of the corner of her eye. "Jeremy…you and the others were possessed and I couldn't defeat all of you because of how strong you all were. I used the XANA-Destruction program and I modified it to…delete all the data that made up yours and the others Avatars. The character programs, the weapons, the powers, all of it. It's all gone along with all data even associated with you from the Supercomputer."

Xxx

Everyone in the lab was silent as Aelita explained.

"So…what does that mean?" Odd asked. "We're still here right?"

"It's not that simple. When Aelita erased your data she erased your connection to the Supercomputer so when we go back in time…" Noah reluctantly explained.

Xxx

"We might lose our memories of everything associated with Lyoko!" Jeremy realized with wide eyes as he stared at Aelita. "Aelita…you…"

"I had no choice. You were all too strong for me to defeat and I couldn't devirtualize any of you. The others had already been defeated, leaving me here on my own." Aelita closed her eyes as she looked away. "I'm sorry, Jeremy!"

Jeremy along with the original Lyoko Warriors were speechless by what they had heard. Aelita destroyed their links to Lyoko to save them?

"And just like Noah said, when the program to send you all back through team activates it doesn't matter if you are digital or not. Your memories of everything associated with Lyoko will be erased." XANA explained while smirking. "This is the price she had made. Tell me, Jeremy, can you imagine living life without remembering anything about Lyoko or Aelita?"

Aelita opened her eyes and glared at XANA. "Leave him out of this!"

"Didn't you already do that?" XANA rhetorically asked. "I should also let you know that you've let your guard down."

Aelita was too slow to react as XANA created shadowy tentacles that lunged at her. Jeremy gasped and pushed Aelita out of the way, leaving himself to be grabbed by the tentacles.

"JEREMY!" Aelita screamed.

"Aelita! Hurry and shut down the tower!" Jeremy shouted as he was lifted up above the platform. "Hurry! This is our only chance!"

"But…but…" Aelita trailed off.

"Aelita, I know you're afraid but listen to me! If we go back in time we'll be free! Everyone will be safe from XANA once and for all! I understand why you did it! It's not your fault and you did to save us!" Jeremy cried out. "If it means saving the world again I can deal with that! Please, you have got to try!"

Aelita watched in horror and grief but moved out of the way as XANA released more shadowy tendrils to attack her.

She ran towards the interface…

Xxx

Everyone watched in stunned silence.

Xxx

XANA turned and watched as Aelita reached out to the interface. 'So she did choose to actually go through with it.'

She placed her hand on the screen.

…

…

**AELITA**

…

…

…

Xxx

Everyone's breath suddenly left them as they remained still like complete statues.

Xxx

…

…

…

**CODE: LYOKO**

"Tower deactivated." Aelita whispered.

The screens started falling towards the bottom of the tower. As this happened the red aura surrounding the Central Processing Tower vanished. The City Sector began to power down with all lights and data streams vanishing. The power down reached out to Sector 5 as darkness spread out through the sector with data streams and screens vanishing.

The landscape of the outer sectors started dissolving into bits of data. As the shut down happened the shadowy tentacles surrounding Jeremy vanished and left him to fall back into the platform.

"Jeremy!" Aelita cried out and caught him.

"Aelita?" Jeremy opened up his eyes and looked at her.

"It's all right, Jeremy. It's over now." Aelita hugged him tightly.

"Is it?"

They all looked up and saw XANA's Avatar as it started to dissolve into data. Despite the fact that the Carbon Copy was shutting down he did not seem concerned in the least.

"It's over, XANA. You lose." Aelita glared up at him.

"…Yes…It seems I do." XANA smirked as his Avatar vanished into a cloud of black smoke. "I was so close as well. Despite this setback it was not unaccounted for no matter slim the chances were. I did indeed calculate that this might happen even if the odds were against you with such a high number. I hope you enjoy this reprieve, Sister, you'll still much to do after this."

With that said XANA's Avatar vanished as the last screen fell to the bottom.

Xxx

"Oh crap!" Noah exclaimed.

"What is it?" Gwen asked.

"The Time Return Program has been activated. I didn't even set when to go back! I think it was already pre-set by XANA!" Noah answered.

"So we'll forget…" Odd trailed off.

Ulrich and Yumi looked at each other as they held each other's hands tightly.

"At least…it's over now." Trent smiled optimistically.

"I hope so." Heather whispered.

"It's starting." Noah stated. "Returning to the Past now!"

They were all engulfed in a white blast of light.


	113. Episode 110: Aftermath: Is it Over?

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 112

It all passed by so quickly.

She remember waking up in this bed as her cell phone, listening to Noah's voice over her cell phone, digitizing herself onto the digital Total Drama Island, and battling XANA and his armies all the way to the center of the Carbon Copy.

And then she remembered…

William

Yumi

Odd

Ulrich

_Jeremy!_

Just like before Aelita jumped out of her bed and quickly got dressed before putting her shoes on and bolting out of her room. Luckily it was still very early in the morning so she didn't have to worry about anyone spotting. She ran out of the dorm building, made her way through the woods and into the park, spotting the familiar sewer hatch, and then took her skateboard down the sewers, following the path she could follow in her sleep. She stopped at the ladder just as her cell phone rang.

She pulled it out as she started climbing up the ladder. "Hello?"

"_Aelita, are you okay?_" Bridgette's voice asked, sounding concerned.

"I'm fine. Are you and the others okay?" Aelita was half way to the hatch.

"_We're all okay now. The Return trip got rid of all our wounds. We're back in the studio and we just got up. How are you?_"

"I'm at the factory right now. How far back did we go?" Aelita pushed the sewer hatch open. "I didn't get a look when I left my room."

"_Morning of the same day after the challenge for Kurt's birthday. The same day we all woke up digitized in the Carbon Copy._"

"I see." Aelita climbed out of the sewer and stood up in front of the factory.

"_Where are you?_"

"The factory." Aelita walked into the lobby. "I'm looking for Jeremy and the others."

"_You think they're there?_"

"Yes. It's…" Aelita stopped.

"_Aelita?_"

"Bridgette, I need an ambulance when you all get here…I found them."

Xxx

The TD Lyoko Warriors were at the factory five minutes later thanks to Carlos driving one the vans the Total Drama Studio owned. The van came to a stop when it was right in front of the entrance lobby where Aelita was waiting for them. Everyone jumped out of the van and ran up to their friend.

"You found them?" Gwen asked.

Aelita stepped aside and allowed them to see the unconscious forms of the original Lyoko Warriors lying on the floor of the lobby.

"I couldn't wake them up yet because if they tell the authorities they woke up here they would be all over the place." Aelita explained.

"It's fine." Carlos opened the back of the van. "I know the procedure for operating anomalously."

He pulled out stretchers for all five of the missing teens and the TD casts helped put each one of them onto a stretcher.

"I need to go down to the lab." Aelita said as Carlos loaded them into the van.

"Why?" Trent asked.

"To make sure the Carbon Copy is completely shut down. I don't want to find out it was all for nothing." Aelita explained.

"Me and Noah can handle that." Cody stepped forward, followed by Noah.

"But-" Aelita started.

"No, Aelita. You finally got your friends back. You should be there for them. We hope that XANA is gone just as much as you and we'll run over a thousand scans to make sure there is no chance of him coming back." Cody sternly cut her off.

"We'll take care of this. Go." Noah pointed to the van.

"Or I can take you the factory." Izzy grinned as she started sounding like a horse.

Aelita looked and saw everyone having the same look on their face that was telling her to go with Carlos to the hospital. She sighed, realizing she wouldn't be able to win and simply accepted defeat by getting into the van. When the van was gone the rest of the group quickly took the elevator down to the lab to answer the question on everyone's mind.

Was XANA truly gone?

Xxx

Aelita sat in the back of the van, looking over her unconscious friends as Carlos drove to the hospital. Carlos looked up at the rear view mirror. "Hey? You all right?"

"I'm fine." Aelita nodded with a small smile. "I'm probably feeling a lot better than I have in a long time."

"I know the feeling." Carlos nodded. "After what we just went through I hope that it's truly over this time."

"Me too." Aelita looked back down at her friends. "Me too."

Carlos remained silent but he did glance at Aelita every few seconds. The poor girl went through a lot and though she was possibly stronger than almost anyone else Carlos had met he wondered if she could take any more of this digital war stuff. He wondered how much it weighed on her and how long it might be before her heart just…

Gave out.

Xxx

"Scanning…scanning…scanning…" Noah droned on and on as he sat at the computer.

"We get it, Noah." Heather rolled her eyes. "Well, do you have an answer or not?"

"Well, I checked we previously established with the Carbon Copy and all signs point to the Copy being completely shut down." Noah explained.

"That's good right? That means XANA won't come back?" Geoff anxiously asked.

"I said the Copy was shut down, I didn't say XANA was." Noah retorted.

"What do you mean?" Bridgette asked.

"Look, XANA's always been able to stay one step ahead of everyone when he's been driven into a corner and about to be taken down for good. Remember what Aelita said? There was that time she was materialized but XANA linked her to the Supercomputer. Then when they tried to get her memories back and XANA led them straight into a trap that almost got Aelita killed." Noah began listing those events. "Then when they tried to kill him with that Anti-XANA program-"

"We know." Gwen interrupted. "So you're saying even if we find no evidence that XANA is still alive that does not mean he's not dead."

"He's not technically dead. When Aelita shut down the Carbon Copy it shut down whatever supercomputer XANA was residing in. That has essentially paralyzed XANA or to better clarify left him in a coma. If we found the supercomputer and destroyed it that would have ended him for good." Noah clarified.

"So Aelita just put him down for a hopefully permanent nap." Duncan said. "I would have preferred that he was gone for good but that might do."

"But like I said, XANA's slippery when it comes to this kind of stuff." Noah pointed out.

"He's got a point." Cody agreed. "What happens if someone ends up doing this in another two years?"

Everyone shuddered at that thought.

"So how do we tell if XANA really is down for good?" Trent asked.

Everyone looked at Noah for an explanation but to their surprise even he couldn't answer that question. "I'm…not sure."

Everyone stared at him and Cody in shock.

"Look, XANA hid himself from a program that searched over the entire Internet to kill him. I'm good…I just don't know if I can actually prove he's dead short of turning the Carbon Copy back on." Noah explained.

"No way."

"No thanks."

"Not going to happen."

"I'll pass."

"If I'm going to cause the apocalypse I at least want it to be done by _my_ crazy schemes!" Izzy said.

"What she said." Noah and Heather said at the same time.

"So what do we tell Aelita?" LeShawna asked.

"The truth." Eva shrugged. "She's a tough girl."

"We can't lie and say XANA's never coming back. She's had her hopes crashed before." Cody agreed.

"All right but let's wait and see how her friends are holding up first. We're so close to considering this mess done. I want to make sure this is all taken care of before one of us mouths off to Murphy." Gwen pointed out.

"I like Murphy." Izzy grinned.

"So we pack up and head back to the studio?" Trent asked.

"Fine by me. I need a nap." Duncan yawned.

"Me too. We all woke up early in the morning when we were digital." Courtney nodded.

They walked into the elevator, followed soon by everyone else with Noah being the last who pushd the button for the ground floor. As the elevator went up everyone wondered if the war was now truly over now.

Xxx

"_We have breaking news today as we have just received reports from a nearby hospital that the five high school students who had disappeared during the cyber attack known as the Red Eye virus incident were dropped off by a white van with the man claiming to be part of the British SAS who had been working with local law enforcement and intelligence agencies to discover the true origin of the virus that infected all known electronic communications in and out of France. The man refused to identify himself or show himself, wearing a hat, sunglasses and a coat to hide himself. Right now though to the families of the missing students that is the least of their problems. They immediately arrived and await word to see if the patients are in any danger._"

Kurt turned off the TV. "Two minutes in and it's already on local television. At least Carlos remembered his secret agent training."

He just wondered if anyone was smart enough to see the Total Drama licence on the van.

Xxx

Aelita hung back, watching the reporters crowed around the hospital. She knew she needed to give the family their space and let them reunite with Jeremy and the others after being locked in XANA's domain for nearly three months.

'I wonder what to do now.' Aelita wondered.

Now that the Carbon Copy was shut down and hopefully XANA along with it does that mean she could shut down the computer and leave her parent's legacy in the past where it should be?

'But what if XANA is merely hiding again? Can I really take that risk?' Aelita thought.

She wanted to believe XANA was gone.

She wanted to believe it was over.

She wanted to believe she could now live a life as a normal human.

But…what if it was all a trick?

What if XANA had faked his death? What if she ended up doing this again in the future? It was too soon to believe that it was truly over.

'At the very least…' Aelita looked at the hospital. 'They are now safe.'

Xxx

A sigh was heard as the elevator doors opened, revealing lab lined with computer monitors and a large supercomputer in the center of the large room.

"Good morning Professor Tyron." An electronic female voice spoke through the speakers.

"Good morning." The man replied, not paying attention as he strolled towards his desk. "How goes the programming?"

"All programs are operating at optimum efficiency."

"And the Cortex?" The man dropped his suitcase onto his desk.

"Activated and running within acceptable parameters."

"Hmm…" The man sat down with a thoughtful look on his face. "Acceptable parameters…Doesn't sound so great now that it is up and running."

"Sir?"

"Never mind. So the Cortex is now operational, what about the digital simulation?" The man shook his head.

"The simulation is operating."

"Show me."

On the man's computer appeared a digital environment of a sky with a sun and clouds and in the center was a metallic terrain made of blocks built in a circular pattern with metal blocks floating above and below the terrain.

"Excellent. Just as I imagined it would be." Tyron smiled. "Project Carthage, it's almost completely remade…now all that is missing is the AI Lyon promised me."

Tyron frowned and sighed as he leaned back in his chair. Dr. Lyon was a loose cannon that needed to be dealt with as soon as possible.

"Professor?"

"Lyon should have delivered the Nephilim program to me as soon as he completed it but he had to go looking for Schaeffer. The Director said he was finished but I am not comfortable without seeing the confirmation myself." Tyron explained.

"Shall I set up a direct call?"

"No." Tyron shook his head. "He won't be happy if I am fishing around. What matters now is that the Cortex is operational and now we can proceed. Are the pods ready?"

"Yes Professor."

"Good, good." Tyron smiled. "We shall begin testing at once. Send in the volunteers."

"Yes, Professor. Oh and before I forget, the Director's niece has arrived and would like to observe the operation."

"Very well." Tyron sighed.

The elevator door opened and in walked a tall pretty girl who looked to be in her late teens with long brown hair tied in a long pony tail and luminous green eyes staring at Tyron with a smirk.

"Hey there, Professor." The girl smiled. "I hear you're ready."

"I am, Jade." Tyron sighed he got up from his desk and walked over to a large window followed by the girl.

Down below was a number of pods identical to the ones used at the Total Drama studio. A pair of large doors opened up and in walked men wearing identical black body suits with light blue lines.

"What are the suits for?" Jade asked with a curious look.

"Well, since we are training them to battle in a digital environment which last much longer since there are no physical limits once you are digital this suits mimic a specially designed avatar that allow them better handle weapons and to better fight." Tyron replied.

"Why not model them after marines and stuff?" Jade questioned.

"In due time. We are training them to be more than just soldiers; we are training them to be capable fighting using any form of weaponry or hand-to-hand combat skills." Tyron remarked dismissively with a grin. "This will be the future of training our military. The ability to train twenty four hours straight without the need for food or water or even the need to sleep. We'll soon be able to make the simulation even more realistic."

"And you have my uncle, the Director to thank for that. As I recall he rewrote half your algorithms and improved the 3-D dimensional graphics so much it made your previous work look like a two-dimensional kid's game." Jade remarked smugly.

"Yes, I know." Tyron agreed sourly.

He didn't like how Jade could be so condescending towards him sometimes, pointing out little flaws and reminding him it was her supposed uncle who was responsible for Tyron to be able to continue his work. She could be so smug and arrogant and to be honest it was annoying.

"Oh!" Jade grinned eagerly. "It's starting!"

The men all lied down in the pods and the glass lids came down, sealing them inside.

"Begin the test." Tyron ordered.

The pods glowed bright and on the large screen appeared digital versions of the body suits they had all been wearing. In both of their hands appeared katanas that resembled the same kind of swords used by ninja.

"Ninja swords?" Jade raised a single eyebrow.

"Everyone has to start out somewhere." Tyron shrugged.

"I see." Jade closed her eyes.

They watched as the Ninjas began fighting each other, showing they had some training in how to use the swords but they were clearly not experts.

"How long can these guys stay in there?" Jade questioned.

"As long as possible." Tyron answered.

"You're not worried about any side effects such as metal degradation or addiction?" Jade glanced at Tyron.

"Of course not. They are heavily monitored much like trainees in training camps. But there is no need for that." Tyron assured her.

"You sound so sure?" Jade commented.

"I am. These pods were already tested." Tyron replied.

"Really?"

"The prototypes for these pods were loaned to the corporation that owns that Canadian reality television show Total Drama. They tested it out and it was a complete success, allowing Realitech to gain the attentions of thousands of potential customers thanks to Total Drama's worldwide broadcast." Tyron explained.

"So thanks to Realitech's front for creating top of the line video game technology you can restart the work that Schaeffer tried to shut down." Jade mused.

"Indeed." Tyron smiled. "Everything is as going as I imagined it."

"Just remember to keep the Director updated." Jade turned and walked towards the elevator.

"And when do I get to him?" Tyron looked over his shoulder.

"You're better off _not_ meeting him." Jade simply said as the elevator doors opened.

She stepped inside and turned around, smirking Tyron as the doors closed.

"So annoying." Tyron muttered.

Xxx

"So Jeremy's going to be living back with us for a bit. I know you and he haven't had a lot of time to catch up. I think it's horrible about his amnesia and forgetting you after how close the two of you were. It was nice having you over on holidays." Jeremy's father was doing his best to break it to Aelita.

She did her best to look the part but she honestly suspected this would happen. The rescued Lyoko Warriors were going home to their parents and it was unknown if they were coming back. Ulrich's parents already took him home, Yumi's had called the school to let them know that Yumi would be staying with them since they had a lot of catching up to do, William, Odd, and Jeremy were still here but their parents had already arrived.

"I understand." Aelita nodded. "You missed him as much as I have. It's a good idea that he stays at home for a bit."

"We'll call and bring you over a couple times, just so he has a friend that might support him." Jeremy's dad nodded with a thankful smile. "And thank you."

"For what?" Aelita asked.

"For not giving up on him. I know you did your own little search for him. I checked in and several teachers said you kept his laptop with you in your room."

Aelita's eyes widened and she slightly blushed.

"You also kept an eye on that Yumi girl's little brother for her. I can tell you were trying to keep everything from falling apart." Jeremy's dad continued.

If she wasn't sure he had no idea about her little secret she would have wondered if he knew what she and Jeremy had been involved in for so long.

"Anyways thank you and we'll send you a call once in a while to let you know how he's holding up." Jeremy's dad nodded with one last smile and walked over to the car.

As he got in Aelita noticed Jeremy was glancing at her with an odd look in his eyes. It looks like he was curious about her and what made him like her if his parents had been telling him stories about how he talked about her. Aelita offered a small smile and waved at him which he awkwardly returned.

Still the same socially awkward boy genius she had known and loved.

She let out a sigh and headed to her class.

Between the fight in the Carbon Copy and this she hoped class wouldn't be so bad. She was desperate need of nap.

Or a vacation.

"Thanks."

Aelita turned and saw Hiroki smiling at her. "Hiroki?"

"Thanks for bringing back my sister." He clarified.

"Huh?" Aelita's eyes widened as she tried to look clueless.

"That guy was right. I know you, Aelita. You've been my sister's best friend and I know you helped her somehow. You don't have to tell me anything." Hiroki answered. "I got to go now. I got a big sister to hug and tease."

Aelita watched as Hiroki walked away with a big smile on his face.

'Does everyone seem to know what I did?'

Xxx

"I've scanned Lyoko, I've scanned for the connection to Carbon Copy, I scanned the entire Network and I have found…nothing. I was up for nearly the entire night and this is all I got." Noah announced. "All signs point to Aelita being successful in shutting down the copy."

"But no evidence that proves XANA is gone for good." Cody continued. "I really want to say it's over but I don't want to upset Murphy."

"So don't." Gwen said as sat down with a tray full of breakfast. "Let's take it easy for a while. We all need a break and this seems like the best time to have one."

"True that." Heather sighed as lied down on the couch.

"Hey! Make some room please!" Courtney protested.

"Find your own couch." Heather softly retorted, burying her face in a pillow.

"Come on, guys. Let's not fight." Bridgette softly begged. "It's too soon to be fighting like this."

"Speaking of a break, where's DJ?" Geoff asked, holding one arm around Bridgette's shoulder.

"He had another date with Jennifer." Gwen took a bite out of an apple. "Probably looking forward to a day filled with looking after animals."

"So what will happen to Lyoko? If…You-Know-Who is gone for good does that mean we can't go to Lyoko anymore?" Izzy hopped onto the top of the couch and sat on it like a cat.

Everyone stopped whatever they were doing and looked at her, realizing that they hadn't thought of that.

"Well, Aelita and the others shut it down once when they thought XANA was gone for good." Gwen pointed out.

"So she might decide to shut down the supercomputer again." Noah replied.

"It's not a big deal. No XANA, no reason for us to go back in there." Trent shrugged.

"Yeah…but I _loved_ being there. I was like…I was like I always wanted to be without being bugged by cops, RCMP, or my parents. I could be any animal I wanted and free from all the annoying little rules that made it so hard to just be happy to be alive!" Izzy whined, flailing her arms and legs. "Can't we use it for something else?"

"Like what? It's not ours to use, Izzy." Courtney pointed out.

"I know…but I can't believe I might not go back in there." Izzy groaned.

"It was one hell of a ride." Duncan admitted.

Xxx

Seraphim sighed as he rested back in the digital simulation shaped like a room for your typical teenager that was actually his resting place. It was not like Lyoko or the Carbon Copy but it was his sanctuary and his resting place. When Seraphim revealed to Robby he was alive his father/creator had been happy that he was alive and upset he faked his death for understandable reasons. The good news was that he sensed the Carbon Copy had been shut down.

That could only mean Aelita managed to do it.

XANA was defeated.

Seraphim breathed a sigh of relief as he lay down on his bed. Even if he hadn't been the one to do it he helped as best as he could and that was all his father or Aelita could have asked of him. Now he would rest and recover and find a new purpose.

'If my dad ever lets me out of here.' Seraphim weakly chuckled.

To sum it in a few words: Seraphim was grounded.

He couldn't leave his sanctuary until he was one hundred percent recovered from his ordeal in the Carbon Copy and Robby had gone as far as to remove any connections to television or radio signals or the Internet to keep him from sending emails.

'Well, it could be worse.' Seraphim grinned.

Stuck in his digital sanctuary wasn't the worst punishment in the world and he was recovering at nice pace. XANA's attack left him weak and he could barely move but he managed to return to his sanctuary where the programs Robby had set up worked on repairing him as soon as he was fully restored. Good thing Robby didn't delete it. Seraphim closed his eyes, hoping he would get some well needed sleep but just as he closed his eyes they shot open.

'Something's not right. My scanners…if my dad finds out I managed to switch them back on without him knowing he'll kill me! But what is they are detected?'

Seraphim sometimes wondered if he was going through the rebellious teenage phase but he was bored enough he covertly reactivated the Internet scanning system and set it to scan for anything happening in the Network. This was how he sensed the Carbon Copy was shut down even though Robby tried to restrict the sanctuary from the net.

'Something was activated, just now.' Seraphim sat up on his bed. 'It feels like…some kind of Replica but different.'

It was not like a Replica or the Carbon Copy. The feeling was different, like it was something entirely new and made by someone else.

Not XANA.

'I got to find out what's going on.'

Xxx

"Oh boy. Such a long day." Jade fell down face first onto her bed. "The things I go through just to get the job done."

On the desk in her room a laptop started beeping.

"Hm?" Jade looked up and grinned. "Finally! It's starting!"

She hopped over to her laptop and tapped the keyboard as the screen turned on and a window showed lines of data that moved too fast for anyone to understand.

"Looks like they're moving ahead of schedule. Well then," Jack cracked her knuckles. "Time to get to work. I can't let this end yet."

She typed on the keyboard, drawing up specific commands and programs and looking them over closely. She hummed in satisfaction before typing several more commands.

"I've been waiting all this time and I got to do all this work. How come I was the lucky one to be chosen here?" Jade sighed as she pressed the enter key.

She watched as the program was launched and a green exclamation pointed appeared on the screen.

"Perfect."

Xxx

Aelita sighed as she lied down on her bed and looked up at the ceiling. 'It's been a day now and I still wonder if it is truly over.'

She just had a normal school day after saying goodbye to Jeremy's family and so far nothing strange had happened. No activated towers, no breaking news report on a strange supernatural phenomenon, and no cell phone ringing with an SOS XANA text message. Her friends were back but their memories of Lyoko were lost with their links to the supercomputer. She was starting to believe she had finally rid the world of XANA.

'Or at least paralyzed him but if he's out there he might try and create more Replicas to hide and sustain himself.' Aelita thought.

The Carbon Copy was obviously an advanced supercomputer more power than what he had when he was using hundred of less advanced supercomputer. So she set up a special scan to look for Replicas in the Network that would alert her the instant they found something remotely resembling a Replica or even another Carbon Copy.

RING!

"Hm?" Aelita picked up her cell phone and answered. "Noah?"

"_Hey, Aelita. You busy?_"

"Not that moment. I just finished class. Why?"

"_Because a lot of us are wondering what to do with the supercomputer._" Noa explained. "_I know it's your but some of us, mainly Izzy are wondering if there is any need to go to Lyoko anymore._"

Aelita closed her eyes and sighed. "Give me some time. I'll meet everyone tonight at the factory."

"_Got it._"

Aelita hung and sat the phone on her bed.

"Well, no time like the present."

It's not like she hadn't been thinking the same thing.

Xxx

"I'm not saying it's not a bad idea but come on. Who didn't enjoy all the super powers we had?" Izzy paced back and forth.

"Well-" Cody started.

"We can still use it for fun right? Well if Aelita removes the whole falling to the digital sea thing we can have all the fun we want, right?" Izzy continued, apparently not hearing Cody.

"Yeah but-" Cody tried again.

"It's like the perfect way to get rid of any stress. I mean look at me!" Izzy gestured to herself. "Look at how calm I've been since I joined."

"But-"

"You know what? I think we should set this to a vote or something. We can see if anyone else wants to shut down the computer." Izzy stopped pacing and smiled at Cody. "Thanks guys. You've been a great help."

"Yeah sure. No problem. I just have one question."

Cody looked behind to see who was talking.

"How the hell did you two get in my room?" Carlos was wearing a robe as he had just come out his bathroom after having a shower.

His hair dripping and a towel hung over his shoulder.

"Hey Carlos, when did you get here?" Izzy asked.

Noah face palmed himself.

Xxx

Seraphim finally recovered and he was hard at work to find out whatever it was that he had sensed earlier. He was scanning the Net from his room and so far nothing concrete had appeared.

'Come on. Come on. I know you're out there. I know-' His thoughts were cut off as his computer started beeping. 'Yes! I found it.'

His laptop showed the outline of what looked to be the outer shell that stored Lyoko, the Carbon Copy, or a…

"A Replica?" Seraphim's eyes widened. "Does that mean that XANA found another hiding place? It can only be him."

If XANA was hiding again he needed to let the Aelita and the others know immediately before XANA had the chance to launch an attack again.

Xxx

Aelita was already at the factory after sneaking out of her dorm room. She took the elevator down to the lab and smiled to see the rest of the group had waited for her. "How was your day guys?"

"Quiet. We got two more days before the next Total Drama challenge." Gwen answered with a smile. "How are you holding up? Did you see them?"

"I was right. When I destroyed their links to Lyoko their memories were lost when we went back in time. Their parents are pulling them out of school for a while now. Jeremy's parents said they'd call me from time to time and Hiroki said he'd let me know how Yumi is doing." Aelita closed her eyes for a second but smiled again. "They all thanked me as if they knew I was the one who brought them back."

"Maybe they did." LeShawna smirked. "It's not like everyone is blind."

"Some families have like a sixth sense thing. How do you think my mom was able to stop me from setting the Christmas tree on fire for the last five Christmases in a row?" Izzy asked.

No one bothered to ask Izzy _why_ she would be setting her family's Christmas tree on fire.

"So then," Heather stated loudly. "Onto business."

Bridgette sighed. "Can't let us have some laughs for one second can you?"

"I'll laugh when this is buried for good." Heather retorted.

"All right. Cody, Noah, did you guys find anything?" Aelita asked.

"Well, we both agree that you successfully shut down the Carbon Copy." Cody started.

"But whether or not that actually means XANA is down and out for good this time remains to be seen." Noah finished. "We check all over the Net and the connection we had with the Carbon Copy is gone so that confirmed the Copy is gone too."

"But that doesn't tell us if the big bad AI is gone." Duncan pointed out.

"And if he's hiding on us again someone might end up doing this again in a couple of years." LeShawna continued.

"I know." Aelita closed her eyes. "I have thought the same thing over."

"So what do we do?" Trent asked. "We can't leave you here to manage this on your own."

"You can't stay in France forever either Trent." Aelita smiled sadly. "Right now, all we know is that we've been given a short reprieve from this battle. I suggest for now we enjoy this break while we run several more scans. I can set up the Super Scan to scan for XANA like Jeremy did before and see if it comes up with anything. In the meantime you guys have a show to do and a million dollar prize to win if I remember."

"Speaking my language." Heather smiled.

"Of course you agree with her when she mentioned the prize money." Gwen sighed but smirked. "Still, can't say no to a break."

"Does that mean we can go to Lyoko still?" Izzy asked.

"Only if you tell me about i-GAH!" Aelita was cut off as Izzy leapt at her and hugged her tightly.

"THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!" Izzy spun around, clutching Aelita tightly. "THANK YOU SO MUCH!"

"Izzy, let her go! She's turning blue!" Bridgette cried when she saw Aelita losing oxygen.

"Oh, sorry!" Izzy quickly released Aelita and put her back on the ground. "But thanks, Aelita!"

"You're welcome." Aelita gasped for breath.

Xxx

What Aelita and her friends did not know was that they were not alone in the lab.

"How sweet." Jade sighed with a small smile as she leaned back in her chair. "Always making everyone smile."

Time to start the next part of the plan. This was what she had been waiting for and she was eager to get started.

"Let's get started."

Xxx

"Well, if there's nothing else I got to get back to school. We can still meet up later and hang out." Aelita managed to get her breath back.

"Sounds good to me." LeShawna smiled.

"Yeah. Nothing but competing and fun for us." Geoff laughed.

If Geoff known what was about to happen next he would have never said those words. For just after he spoke something happened.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

The computer started beeping a familiar sound causing everyone to freeze for ten seconds before Aelita turned back to the screen.

"Is that…" Gwen trailed off.

"The superscan." Noah finished.

On it appeared the image of an activated tower.

"No. No." Heather shook her head. "I thought it was over!"

"Me and my big mouth." Geoff grumbled.

Aelita walked over to the screen and stared at it. She was willing to believe it was over but it seemed she was wrong.

The evidence they were all starring at proved that XANA was still alive.

"An activated tower in Sector 5." Aelita spoke after a moment.

"But the Carbon Copy, you were there." Bridgette whispered.

"I know." Aelita turned and faced everyone. "If you want to step back and take a break you still can. I'll go in check this out."

"No way." Izzy stepped forward. "I asked if we could still go in to Lyoko and I meant it. I'm coming with you."

"I'm in." Gwen nodded. "We can't let you deal with this alone. If this is XANA he's going to be gunning for you, Aelita. You stopped him from digitizing the entire world and shut down his hide out. He's probably pissed about that."

"If Gwen's in, I'm in." Cody spoke up.

"Hey, I said those dumb words and I got to make up for it." Geoff said as he stepped forward and put a hand on Aelita's shoulder. "Sorry about that."

"It's okay. It's not the first time something like this has happened." Aelita nodded with a reassuring smile.

"Well, back in the frying pan we go." Duncan shrugged.

"Fine by me. I owe XANA payback for that ass kicking he gave me." Eva cracked her knuckles.

Heather sighed when she saw that everyone was on board. "Well I guess I'm going in too. I'm not a coward and I'm not the odd one out."

"Speak for yourself." Noah sat down at the supercomputer. "I'll monitor the situation from here while you guys go in."

"Thanks Noah." Aelita nodded and looked to everyone else. "Are you all ready?"

They all nodded to her.

They had wanted this to be over but it seemed that XANA was determined to strike back at them for his defeat.

"Let's go."

Xxx

Jade perked up as the screen showed digital avatars appearing in Sector 5. "Looks like it's started again."

Xxx

**For anyone who notices quickly I am now introducing elements of Code Lyoko: Evolution. It had an interesting plot even though it left a huge cliffhanger at the end. I found it surprising that it went from cartoon to using real life people and sets but the battles and plots were just as good. Keep on reading and you'll get answers to the numerous questions that are probably coming:**

**Are Jeremy and the others finished?**

**Will we see Anthea Schaeffer?**

**Who is Jade?**

**Who will win Total Drama Reality?**

**Keep on reading, reviewing, and let's start another another action packed arc of Code: Total Drama Reality!**


	114. Episode 111: Questions With No Answers

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 113

"Transfer."

"Scanner."

"Virtualization."

Just as Noah hit the enter switch an exclamation symbol appeared on Cody and Izzy's Avatar cards. "Huh?"

"What's that?" Gwen asked, standing next to Noah.

"I'm not sure. Maybe some kind of glitch." Noah answered.

Xxx

Aelita, Izzy, and Cody landed in the Celestial Dome of Sector 5, starting on ahead of the others as reconnaissance.

"Wow! It feels good to be back!" Izzy laughed as she fired some explosive arrows into the wall. "Oh yeah!"

Cody sighed as the arrows exploded in the wall. "Come on, Izzy. We got work to do."

"Okay." Izzy sighed. "I'm almost disappointed with the lack of monsters."

"_Cody, Izzy, are you guys all right?_" Noah asked.

"Yeah, why?" Cody asked.

"_The scanner detected a glitch in both your programming for a second. It's gone now._" Noah answered.

"Really? I feel fine." Cody looked down at himself.

"Me too." Izzy changed into a parrot and landed on Cody's shoulder. "Okay over here. RAWK!"

"Let's go you two." Aelita said as she walked out of the dome. "We have a tower to find."

"Yes sir!"

They both followed Aelita through the labyrinth and just a moment later they were in front of a deactivated tower.

"Uh? I thought blue meant the tower was shut down." Izzy commented as Aelita walked up to the tower and put her hand on it.

"Maybe it shut down." Cody reasoned.

"Could be…Hey Cody, if XANA's no longer around how would you feel about making Lyoko into a theme park?" Izzy asked.

"Huh?" Cody turned and looked at Izzy. "A theme park?"

"Yeah!" Izzy smiled and nodded. "Think about it. The stars of Total Drama and their own brand new revolutionary theme park! Or maybe we can turn it into one big multi-player online game! Hundreds of human players battling monsters to get to the tower and win whatever prices we have! We could call it…_Code_: Total Drama Reality!"

"Code: Total Drama Reality?" Cody asked.

"Yeah. Aelita shuts down towers with Code: Lyoko and we're the Total Drama Cast playing in Total Drama Reality! The chance to explore the digital world and battle monsters or battle each other in an all out virtual tournament!" Izzy continued, getting louder with each second. "Sounds better than naming it Lyoko Land."

"Yeah. Lyoko Land does sound lame." Cody agreed. "Wouldn't we get sued for the Total Drama part?"

"Not if it sounds better than anything Chris ever came up with." Izzy answered. "We could take over as hosts and become more famous than Chris ever did! Only all the players would love us because we can make challenges exiting and since no one is in danger of dying while digital and get super powers it'd be much more fun!"

"Sounds good. Especially the showing up Chris part." Cody chuckled.

"Hey Aelita, what do you think?" Izzy asked the pink haired girl.

However Aelita was busy staring at the tower and did seem to be paying attention.

Izzy sighed. "All work and no play."

"Give her a second, Izzy. She's just being thorough." Cody replied.

"Okay. Now where was I? Oh right!" Izzy shot more explosive arrows at the blue walls. "We can come up with all sorts of vehicles and maybe our own sectors! We can even create our own haunted mansion sector with spooky ghosts and skeletons everywhere! Or we can make a Space sector and our own spaceships and battle each other with lasers and missiles!"

"_And you would fit right on in, Izzy._" Noah retorted.

"Really?" Izzy asked eagerly.

Xxx

"Why did you have to say that?" Eva groaned. "Now she won't stop."

"Sorry. I wasn't thinking." Noah sighed. "I got-huh?"

Just before Noah could say anything else the Super-Scan came back online, detecting an activated tower.

"Holy crap! I found it! There is an activated tower!" Noah announced.

Xxx

"Uh, Noah? We're in front of the only activated tower and it's shut down." Cody pointed out.

"_It's not that tower. There is another tower in Sector 5._"

"Another tower?" Aelita's eyes widened. "Did XANA create another tower?"

"Sounds like it."

A rumbling sound made them turn around back to the entrance they came through. Out of the exit came three Megatanks that rolled down the path and stopped halfway to the tower.

"Megatanks? In Sector 5?" Cody asked as he pulled out his pistols.

"All right! We're back!" Izzy grinned.

Aelita held out both hands and prepared an Energy Field. The Megatanks charged their lasers and fired, raising their elliptical walls of energy.

"Whoa!" Cody and Aelita leapt out of the way while Izzy turned into a bird and flew up.

Aelita looked to see another energy blast coming their way. She grabbed Cody and activated her flight ability, taking off just before they were both hit.

"Cody, are you all right?" Aelita looked down at him as he held onto her hand.

"Yeah." Cody answered. "But I guess this proves XANA's not gone."

"Yes." Aelita nodded grimly. "But I don't understand. The Carbon Copy shut down and XANA went down with it."

"Maybe he had a back up or something?" Cody reasoned.

"_She's right though. The scan detected nothing and then suddenly a tower activated._" Noah pointed out.

"Gee thanks for your amazing analysis, Noah." Izzy retorted.

"That's enough you two! We have a tower to find!" Aelita said as they flew past the Megatanks that shot at them.

"Yes sir!" Izzy nodded.

The Megatanks closed their shells and chased after the three warriors.

"_I'll guide you to the tower. Turn right…Now!_"

They turned right down the corridor with the Megatanks hot on their trails.

Xxx

"Oh this is so much fun!" Jade threw her head back and laughed as she watched the three warriors raced through the maze. "Look at them go!"

The Megatanks chased after the three of them at full speed as they headed towards the tower.

"This is good. They find the tower and next thing you know they're off onto another big adventure!" Jade finally calmed down. "Here's a massive spoiler for you, Aelita."

Xxx

When Aelita, Izzy, and Cody came out of the corridor they found themselves in a chamber identical to the one they were in earlier only this time they saw the activated tower. Except when they saw the tower they didn't see the signature red glow that showed the tower had been occupied by XANA.

"Huh, Noah?" Cody spoke up.

"_Yeah?_"

"The tower's not glowing red."

"_What?_"

"The tower's not glowing red. That means it's not under XANA's control." Aelita explained.

"It's purple." Izzy spoke up.

"Not purple. Violet." Cody clarified.

Xxx

"Say what?" DJ asked.

"So XANA's _not_ in control?" Duncan asked, looking over Noah's shoulder at the computer screen. "So why are _his_ monsters attacking?"

"You're guessing is as good as mine." Cody shrugged.

"So who else would be operating a tower and for what?" Bridgette asked.

Xxx

Aelita looked over her shoulder to see the Megatanks had followed them into the chamber. "We'll have to find out later."

"I got them!" Izzy grinned as she changed into a bull and charged at them.

The lead Megatank had its shell closed when Izzy rammed into it but the force of her blow was enough to send it rolling back. Cody activated his Time Stop ability and shot at the second Megatank that had just opened its shell, allowing him to shoot at the Eye and destroy it as thirteen seconds passed. Aelita prepared an energy field as the third Megatank charged its weapon and fired at her. She took off into the air, dodging the elliptical laser and launched her Energy Field, hitting the Eye and instantly removing the Megatank from the fight.

"Yes!" Cody pumped a fist into the air, celebrating victory…

Unfortunately it was too soon to celebrate.

Several lasers hit him in the back from behind and brought all of his life points down to zero. Aelita turned around and saw that three Krabs had been virtualized when they weren't looking and now they were training their lasers on her. She conjured an energy shield just as they fired at her but they did not let and continued shooting at her to keep her from fighting back.

Xxx

"I'm going in there." Gwen turned for the elevator.

"Count me in." Trent followed her.

"Don't forget me." Bridgette wasn't about to let her friends get into another fight without her.

"Hang on guys. Reinforcements are on the way." Noah spoke into the headset.

Xxx

Izzy was now rhino form as she wrestled with the Megatank she had hit, trying to push it over. One of the Krabs broke off from attacking Aelita and turned its laser to Izzy while her back was turned.

"Izzy! Look out!" Aelita shouted.

The Krab aimed and shot Izzy in the back, causing her to lose focus and change back into her human form.

"What the-GAH!"

Izzy had no time to react as the Megatank opened its shell and fired its laser at her. She was too close and disorientated to move and was instantly devirtualized.

Xxx

Izzy fell out of the scanner as Gwen, Trent, and Bridgette came into the scanner room.

"Why was I thinking about a theme park again?" She groaned.

"Don't worry. We'll get even for you." Bridgette reassured her as the three stepped into the scanners. "Let's go Noah!"

"_Roger that. Transfer._"

The scanner doors closed.

"_Scanner._"

"_Virtualization!_"

Xxx

Aelita stepped back as the Krabs intensified their assault and she spotted the Megatank that had taken out Izzy rolling towards her. She broke off her defence but jumping to the side and took off running. The monsters pursued her to the edge of the path and she jumped off, landing on a small block under the path where she could hide. She looked up and saw that the Krabs had stopped and were now looking for her. She pressed her against the wall to keep them from seeing her and held her breath.

"Hey dudes!"

The three Krabs and the Megatank spun around to face the source of the voice that had suddenly called them.

"Is that any way to treat a lady?" Trent asked as he leveled his guitar and played a lightning note.

The bolt of lightning instantly blasted one Krab while Bridgette shot forward towards them on her surfboard. The Megatank charged its laser and fired but Bridgette split her board into her sword and somersaulted through the air, barely dodging the elliptical laser and stabbed her swords forward into the Eye. She jumped back as the Megatank exploded and was pushed through the air by the force of the explosion.

The two remaining Krabs fired on Trent and Bridgette, pushing them back as Trent played his Shield Note while Bridgette blocked with her swords. The Krabs seemed to be winning and because of their confidence they didn't see the black and blue spinning blur down on them until it stabbed the left Krab in the Eye on its shell. Gwen landed on the ground and called her scythe back as it exploded and just as the final Krab was about to attack Aelita jumped up and fired a plasma beam, blasting it out of existence.

"Yes! Nice one!" Trent pumped a fist in the air at their win.

Xxx

"When I do it, I get shot from behind. But when someone else does it they're okay. So unfair." Cody sulked as he watched with everyone else in the lab.

Xxx

Aelita walked into the tower and softly glided up to the upper platform. She watched as the interface appeared before her and frowned.

"_Aelita, what are you waiting for?_"

"Give me a second, Noah." Aelita brought up the tower's functions instead of shutting it down. "I need a tracer program set up."

"_A tracer program?_"

"Anyone who activates a tower needs a specific signal that allows them to connect with Lyoko and since we weren't hacked someone must have managed to access Lyoko without breaking through the security." Aelita explained.

"_And if you can trace the signal while it's active you can find the source. Why didn't you do this with XANA?_" Noah asked.

"XANA was too smart to cover his own tracks and used his link to Lyoko and copies of it when he attacked. He was a multi-agent program, not a single person at a computer and thus he had no central computer so there wouldn't have been a signal." Aelita explained.

"_But if the person who is using this tower is someone with a computer with access codes to Lyoko you can track them. Kind of like tracking their GPS._" Noah surmised.

"Exactly." Aelita accessed the tower's programming. "It's coming from somewhere in the Network and it's got a network address. I'm copying and sending the date to you, Noah."

"_Got it._"

Aelita then placed her hand on the interface.

**Aelita**

**Code: Lyoko**

"Tower deactivated." Aelita stated as the screen around her fell to the dark bottom.

Xxx

"So we know someone hacked us again. Could it be Lyon?" Gwen asked once they were all gathered back in the lab.

"Doubt it. It didn't have anything resembling his or Nephilim's coding." Noah answered. "Plus Nephilim would have used his own monsters."

"Maybe but Nephilim had access to XANA's monsters. Maybe Lyon came back and created a new AI to finish what Nephilim started. He doesn't have to worry about XANA ruining his plans again if he knows what happened in the Carbon Copy." Cody mused.

"Only XANA's not the type to leave a threat not taken care of. Even if he didn't kill Lyon he did destroy Lyon's lab. Kurt mentioned that the authorities found his lab and anything that could have found him destroyed." LeShawna pointed out.

"So who else out there wants this stuff?" Heather asked. "Another mad scientist from the team that worked with Aelita's parents?"

Everyone stared at Heather as if she probably made the best guess.

"…What? I'm not an idiot! It's common sense!" Heather retorted, looking annoyed. "How do you think I'm such a powerful contestant?"

Gwen and Izzy started whistling innocently while everyone else looked away while Aelita weakly chuckled. "I'm not a contestant so I can't answer, Heather."

"Hmph!" Heather crossed her arms.

"So we could have another nut job from Project: Carthage coming after us?" Duncan asked.

"You mean me or my parents, Duncan." Aelita clarified.

"Yeah that." Duncan shrugged.

"Why now? We took down Lyon and Nephilim and _now_ someone else who might have been a part of Carthage decides to attack us? Where does XANA factor into this?" Courtney asked. "Those were his monsters in there."

"And what about that glitch Izzy and I had when we were virtualized?" Cody asked.

"To be honest, I have no idea." Aelita shrugged with a helpless look on her face. "I feel that XANA might have something to do with this but it wasn't him controlling that tower and until now all evidence pointed to him being shut down with the Carbon Copy."

"And we don't believe in coincidences, right?" Geoff asked.

"Never heard of coincidences." Aelita smirked.

"Me neither." Izzy grinned. "Izzy's super senses never let her down!"

"Well how long does it take for this trace thing to work?" Trent asked.

BEEP! BEEP!

"There it is!" Noah turned back to the computer. "It should tell us where it came from."

"Well?" Gwen asked as everyone gathered around the computer.

"Well it looks it tracked back to something in the network. It sort of resembles Lyoko and the Copy but different." Noah looked over the date.

"What about the address?" Aelita asked.

"It's…whoa." Noah's eyes widened. "Take a look."

They all looked at the screen and saw the address and name of the location.

**PARIS - REALITECH CENTRAL**

"Realitech?" LeShawna asked, looking surprised as everyone else.

"Someone from Realitech hacked us?" Eva asked, standing behind them and taking everything in. "I thought they were just video game makers."

"Well, we do know Lyon was a part of Realitech at one point when they developed the digital pods and the schematics and funding for those pods were supplied to them by XANA using a human alias and diverting a large amount of money over the internet." Aelita pointed out.

"Someone else in that company might have caught onto what was going on and wanted in. Someone who probably knows about Project: Carthage or just some bits of it." Noah surmised. "Maybe Lyon had a partner."

"Someone who is now trying to hack Lyoko like Lyon did." Cody caught on.

"So what do we do?" Duncan asked.

Aelita sighed. "I'm not sure. Realitech is a large game producing corporation so I have no idea just who would be the person we are talking about."

"What about Kurt and Carlos? They have connections." Gwen pointed out.

"Maybe but it might take more than that. If Realitech has access to technology on Project: Carthage I'll need to look at their financial records." Aelita answered. "And I won't be able to access them remotely without using a tower."

"So use a tower." Heather shrugged. "It's not a big deal."

"It is if the person on the other end realizes he's being hacked. If there is a Replica they could have set up a security system to alert them to when they are being hacked." Aelita sighed.

"So what do we do?" Bridgette asked.

"…You guys head back to the studio and get some rest. I have a few ideas on what to do." Aelita said after being silent for a moment.

"But Aelita-" Bridgette protested.

"We need to be prepared Bridgette and right now we don't know enough to make a proper move. We were all anxious to put our conflict with XANA behind us and right now we're dreading the possibility of a brand new enemy just appearing. We still need some rest for a bit before we decide to go after whoever hacked Lyoko." Aelita put her hand to silence the surfer. "I'll run up a few leads and get back to you guys on this."

"All right." LeShawna reluctantly nodded. "It's your show girl."

"But call us the second you got something, all right?" Trent asked.

"Deal." Aelita smiled and nodded.

Xxx

Jade sighed as she leaned back in her chair. "Recording Log: Entry One."

"The first phase of the plan has been accomplished with Aelita and her team now suspecting a new enemy in the works. In a way they are actually right and when they track the signal back to the origin they will find who and what had sent it. Already Aelita will be drawing up several leads and knowing her it'll take just a few days for her to come up with a plan. Still though there is some concern that any unknown variables will present themselves and complicate things before the plan has been completed.

I'll have to keep a close eye on them and make sure nothing happens that wasn't predicted by the Director. While Professor Tyron continues to train his soldiers in the Cortex and Aelita works to uncover the mystery of her new enemy I will monitor both sides and wait for the right time. Tyron has supplied the battleground while Aelita and her team will bring the proper pieces and mount the rescue of the prisoner as was properly planned. The next phase of the plan will start when Aelita and her team makes their move.

End Log."

Jade stood up and stretched her limbs as she looked down at her laptop and then pressed the delete key, deleting her log entry.

"It'll feel good to get in on the action." She smiled as she walked towards the door. "But first, I need some dinner."

Xxx

"You see what I mean?"

"I think I do. But are you sure?"

"Sure I'm sure. Why wouldn't I be?"

"What's with all the noise?" Carlos opened the door to Kurt's office.

"Izzy's been talking to me all morning about this idea she got of making Lyoko into a new reality show, online game or even a television series." Kurt answered.

"Seriously?" Carlos asked.

"Yeah." Izzy spun around and smiled at Carlos. "Think about it. A series about us on Total Drama with a few of us sneaking off to Lyoko battle our own digital villains! If people loved us already they would get a kick out of seeing us all digital with super powers battling monsters and saving lives! We could call it Code: Total Drama Reality!"

"Code: Total Drama Reality?" Carlos asked with a surprised look and threw a quick glance at Kurt. "Are you serious?'

"Why wouldn't I be?" Izzy asked.

"Well for one you would get totally sued for using the Total Drama Reality part in the slogan. Second: who would go through all the trouble to set up a series where you playing contestants on a live reality show and then sneaking off to be super heroes in a computer?" Carlos asked rhetorically. "Who would make something like that up?"

"Does sound like a good idea." Kurt admitted.

"Seriously?" Carlos looked at Kurt.

"Hey, it just sounds very creative." Kurt shrugged.

"So you wouldn't want some high famous actor to play a character modelled after you?" Izzy asked.

"Like Matt Damon?" Kurt suddenly sounded interested.

"Don't tell me you're getting sucked into this?" Carlos looked at Kurt.

"Well who do you see playing you? Come on, Jason Bourne." Kurt retorted and started making gun-shot sounds and punched the air a few times. "HI-YA!"

"Who could play Carlos?" Izzy asked.

"That's a good question." Kurt smirked. "How about Daniel Craig?"

"Hey yeah! Because he was a British secret agent once too!" Izzy agreed and held up her hand like she holding a gun. "BANG!"

"So you are choosing a man who played a certain British secret agent just because I worked with a British Secret Agency?" Carlos rhetorically asked.

They both looked at him.

"Yeah, I get the point." Carlos waved them off. "But I think we might have more important things to talk about. And more importantly if Daniel Craig were to play me he would have to make sure he'd understood my passion for all things I love."

"Like Klondike Bars?" Izzy asked.

"Yes. I won't stand for some hack to play a character based off me unless he understood my passions one hundred percent." Carlos shook a fist at at the ceiling. "Klondike Bars rule!"

"Right." Kurt nodded and looked at the other occupants in the room. "Sorry, I got side tracked by Izzy's Code: Total Drama Reality talk."

"She's been doing it all day so it's not surprise." Gwen shrugged.

She along with Courtney, Duncan, and Noah had been waiting patiently through Izzy's rant.

"So let me see if I got this right: the Carbon Copy is shut down but you guys are not sure if XANA is truly gone and adding to that you think you might have a new enemy that might have something to do with Project: Carthage." Kurt surmised.

"Pretty much." Duncan nodded.

"Great." Kurt sat back in his chair. "We can't keep this up. You guys are running out of non-Warrior contestants to eliminate. We just barely survived XANA's last attack and if he is still alive we all know he'll be back with a much bigger attacked aimed at the studio. And then there is this possible new enemy."

"You guys can't seem to catch a break can you?" Carlos commented.

"We still have time and I know Aelita will make it through. She's never failed or given up before." Gwen replied.

"And what happens when your group is cut in two? Will you still be able to fight both XANA and the new bad guy?" Kurt rhetorically asked.

Gwen didn't answer. She just turned and looked out the window.

"You guys have done a lot since you came to France. When this whole thing started with the Red Eye virus it was only Aelita at the time and then found help from just a few of you and when the attacks became more deadly and the battles more fierce she called out for help and even more of you answered. But your role as Lyoko Warriors was always a temporary one. Who will Aelita look to for help when you are gone?" Kurt asked. "She can't ask her old friends, they can't remember her or Lyoko or their time together."

"There is still a chance, Kurt." Courtney pointed out. "XANA almost had the world in the palm of his hand and Aelita beat him. That was a close call, even for someone who's been on this show for four seasons with Chris."

"And just because some of us are not in the game anymore it doesn't mean we're out." Duncan crossed his arms.

"And right now we have a job to do. Can you dig up any of your old contacts?" Noah asked.

"And look into some shady character working at a video game company? What do I say when they ask why?" Kurt asked.

"We can't use any of our old SAS or MI5 contacts. They'd be on us for answers." Carlos agreed.

"Well what do you suggest? We know that Realitech has something to do with this. XANA funded them and gave them the pods that are being used for this season and we know Lyon was temporarily part of Realitech before the Red Eye virus. There's a good chance the supercomputer XANA used to make the Carbon Copy was made in Realitech." Gwen started.

"So how do we prove it?" Courtney asked.

"Sounds like you would have to resort to…" Kurt looked around before leaning forward and whispered. "Corporate espionage."

"You mean break into Realitech and steal their files?" Courtney asked incredulous. "Are you crazy?"

"Moot point, Courtney. Plus how many times do you think we or any other secret agency resorted to espionage to topple some kind of threat? We don't have any legal ground to seize any of Realitech's financial records and if you can do it legally you do it behind the scenes like how any spy does it." Kurt retorted.

"Sounds good to me." Izzy grinned.

"And what do we say if we're caught? We think your corporation is a front for a secret military project and you're funded by an evil artificial intelligence that wants to take over the world?" Noah sarcastically pointed out.

"The point of being a spy is _not_ to get caught." Carlos said. "And before you ask us to do it: no way. I'm a married man with kids. I have to set a good example."

"You thrashed the vending machine when it wouldn't give you a Klondike Bar." Gwen replied to Carlos.

"Don't change subject and that was already used several episodes ago." Carlos shook off Gwen's accusation.

"You beat up the man who washes the intern's clothes because he mixed up your regular shirt with a pink shirt." Kurt pointed out. "He would have realized mixed it up a second later."

"You constantly jump out of nowhere and leave by leaping out a window." Duncan joined in.

"You tossed the pizza man into the garbage truck because he brought a Hawaiian Pizza instead of a meat lover's Pizza." Courtney was next.

"And we have a lot more." Gwen smirked.

"I think you made some of those up." Carlos accused. "And no flashbacks or clips!"

"All right. We have a couple of days before the next challenge. So hopefully things will change for the better." Courtney sighed as they stood up and walked out of the office.

As they walked down the hall to start the next episode for some reason the James Bond theme started playing.

"Who is doing that?" Gwen asked.

"Sorry. I was playing with the iTunes on that big computer and I must have hooked it up to the speakers." Izzy chuckled sheepishly.

Xxx

Aelita looked over the sensory data that came back from her latest scan. She had tracked down the source of the mysterious signal that had activated the tower. She had found something, something that resembled a Replica. Whatever the place was it was the source of the signal and possibly XANA's new hiding place.

She would normally wait but she couldn't. She wanted to end this as quickly as humanly possible to put an end to this chapter in her life. She was down in the lab running up calculations about her trip to the Replica.

'I would have recreated the Skid but I can't risk using it through the Digital Sea.'

A message popped on the screen in front of her. "Hm?"

"Aelita." Seraphim appeared on the screen.

"Seraphim?"

"Hey, I finally managed to get a hold of you. My dad grounded me and I barely was able to get in contact. Listen, I found something disturbing." Seraphim started.

"A Replica?"

"No, it is a Repli-Wait you know?" Seraphim looked confused.

"I just found it. I think it's where whoever it was that activated a tower here or…" Aelita trailed off. "It could also be the place of XANA's new rebirth."

Seraphim's eyes widened. "Are you sure? XANA went down with the Carbon Copy."

"Or it's another ploy to fake his death and make us lower our guard again." Aelita suggested. "XANA specializes in cloak and dagger strategies."

"But he built the Copy to be his refuge from the XANA-Destruction Program. He couldn't have left it or we would have known." Seraphim pointed out.

"Or the Carbon Copy wasn't his refuge."

"What?" Seraphim asked with a slightly scared face.

"What if the Carbon Copy was just a front, a headquarters for XANA to direct his operations and battle us? He kept Jeremy and the others there and used it as his new main monster building factory. Now that it's gone XANA's hoping that we'll think he's gone for good this time and come back even stronger." Aelita explained.

"Aelita…that's terrifying." Seraphim answered after a moment of silence. "The battle you and the others went through. If XANA could become even stronger not even the both of us put together could take him."

"I know, which leads me to believe there's more to it than that." Aelita brought up scans of Izzy and Cody. "Look at this."

"What are these?" Seraphim looked over the scans. "This data…I recognize these codes. But why are they in Izzy and Cody?"

"That's what I plan to figure out, tonight." Aelita answered.

"Toni…You're going to that Replica aren't you?" Seraphim looked suspicious.

"Seraphim, if these scans are right, XANA might be too weak at the moment to launch an attack. If I can confirm he is there and he's not at full power I can destroy the Replica and him with it before he can do anything." Aelita explained.

"And what if it's all a trap? What if XANA or whoever it is out there is waiting to get _you_? You can't go in alone." Seraphim protested.

"I can't ask the others to risk themselves again. They almost died fighting XANA before. I can't bear to see that again." Aelita shook her head as she stood up. "Sorry Seraphim."

"Aelita, wai-" Seraphim's window vanished as Aelita clicked the close icon.

She quickly got to work by activating the portal generator and worked on setting up a link to the address she had found. Luckily this time there was nothing stopping her from setting up the link. All that was left was for her to get into the scanner. Getting up from her chair after setting the time she got into the elevator and waited as it took her down to the scanner room.

The doors opened and she walked and got into the nearest scanner. As soon as it detected her it closed and activated the Virtualization sequence.

Xxx

Aelita opened her eyes as she landed on the blue tinted floor of Sector 5 and quickly ran through the maze, navigating her way into the portal room. When she made it stepped onto the platform and it activated. A spiral of light shot up, engulfing her and she vanished as the portal sent to her to wherever she had set it to take her.

Xxx

BEEP!

BEEP!

BEEP!

"Hm?" Jade looked up as her laptop started beeping. "Oh come on. Of all the times for her to act she does right now?! Doesn't she have home work like the rest of us?!"

She walked over to her laptop and sat down in front of it. She watched as Aelita's signature vanished from Lyoko.

"She's lucky I'm monitoring her right now. If she showed up while Tyron was running tests it would have made things difficult." Jade grunted. "The last thing I need at the moment is him asking questions, especially about you-know-who."

She quickly started typing and several windows appeared on the screen.

"Just because you're safe doesn't mean you're not in trouble. I have an assignment to hand in along with my work for Tyron and you're not making it any easier for me." Jade grinned. "So, let's have some fun."

She pressed the Enter switch.

Xxx

Aelita opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was…

Sunlight?

Aelita looked up and to her surprise saw what looked like a sun shining down on her. Not only was there a sun but clouds littering the sky. Aelita then looked around and saw the terrain she was in made of tangled hubs, platforms, and pipes all connected to each other, forming a landscape that slightly reminded her of Sector 5.

"This is new." Aelita commented.

This was different, even from the Carbon Copy. A rumbling sound caught Aelita's attention as the ground beneath her started to shake. She looked down and gasped as platform she was on began to sink down. She jumped up onto a rising platform and watched as everything sank, rose, and moved to form a new landscape.

"The sector alters itself like Sector 5." Aelita realized. "And I don't have anyone to locate the switch or warn me when it changes."

Suddenly Aelita felt like a real idiot for going alone.


	115. Episode 112: The Cortex

Code Total Drama

Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or Code Lyoko.

Xxx

Chapter 114

Noah was at his laptop running a few scans when a message board came on his screen. "Now wha-Seraphim?"

He clicked on the answer icon and Seraphim's face appeared on the screen. "Noah, thank God!"

"Seraphim? What's up?" Noah asked.

"Aelita found a Replica and she's virtualized herself onto it." Seraphim answered urgently.

"She what?!" Noah's eyes widened. "Why would she do that without telling us?"

"She's worried. She doesn't want XANA to be back as much as the rest of us and there's something you should know." Seraphim explained.

"What?"

"Those codes you detected on Cody, Izzy, and Gwen. They're not ordinary codes, they're source codes." Seraphim answered.

"Source Codes?" Noah's eyes widened even further. "XANA!"

"Yes. The same source codes that made up XANA's being, allowing him to be what he is and to be capable of doing everything he's done up to this point. Aelita showed me the scans and I recognized them instantly. When my Dad made me he downloaded a copy of XANA's programming into my mind so that I would instantly recognize him or his designs so when Aelita showed me the scans I knew that it was XANA's doing." Seraphim answered.

"So XANA is behind this. He must have injected us with his Source Codes during the last attack or when we fought him in the Carbon Copy! Aelita was right; he is trying to fake his death again. But why put his source codes in us?" Noah stood up. "There's no way he would make a stupid mistake like that and get rid of his powers."

"And if he's hiding on the new Replica then he will try to get them back. By injecting you all with his Source Codes XANA has indeed significantly weakened himself. I'm not sure just how weak he is but if this Replica is destroyed there is a chance XANA won't be strong enough to do anything without a link to the real world. He may end up as a just floating data lost in the Network." Seraphim continued.

"But why? Why inject us with his Source Codes?" Noah asked. "If XANA was going down with the Carbon Copy why would he do that?"

"It's possible he transferred himself out of the Copy but needed to fool our scans into thinking he was dead. If he removed enough of his codes from himself he could have slip past us without us realizing it." Seraphim theorized.

"So in other words he tried to fake his death again." Noah frowned. "I got to get the others over to the Factory before Aelita gets herself killed."

"Hurry. If XANA's making a comeback it's going to be big." Seraphim cautioned.

"Yeah and if we're caught off guard we're screwed." Noah nodded as Seraphim disappeared from the screen.

Noah quickly ran off to get the others.

Xxx

Aelita quickly guessed that the sector was a giant ring built around a giant sphere that must act as the core. She activated her flight ability to reach the core instead of risking going through the terrain that keeps on changing without any way to tell when or how. She stopped when she spotted a tower that was glowing violet like the activated tower in Sector 5. Aelita quickly changed her course and landed down in front of the activated tower.

She walked inside and floated up to the upper platform. She watched as the interface appeared and quickly accessed the programming to see why the tower was activated.

"It's establishing connections to the Network. Why would it do that?" Aelita glanced over the programming. "Unless, it's being tested. Remotely accessing various systems and networks across the globe."

To Aelita this sounded very familiar.

'Project Carthage.'

Xxx

"Oh, Aelita. Your curiosity is no match for my genius." Jade grinned as she typed away at her laptop, "Not today, Princess."

Xxx

Suddenly the tower deactivated itself and Aelita gasped as the programming disappeared. "No wait!"

It was too late as the programming all vanished from the screen.

Xxx

"And there you go. Nowhere to go except…" Jade smirked deviously. "The Core."

Xxx

"So let me guess this straight, Cody, Izzy, me, and maybe all of us might be carrying pieces of XANA while XANA himself might be hiding in a new Replica, trying to fake his death again." Gwen said as the elevator door opened.

"Pretty much." Noah nodded.

"Okay, that sounds gross and I don't want you to ever say that again." Heather shuddered as they all stepped into the lab. "So get them out of us."

"Yeah sure. Hang on, let me see if Aelita had some kind special code catching device in here." Noah remarked with a heavy dose of sarcasm in his voice.

"You gotta admit it's scary to think about." Geoff shuddered. "So what do we do?"

"We go after Aelita before she gets herself killed." Noah sat down at the computer. "If Seraphim was right, Aelita's set the coordinates and all we have to do is follow her trail."

"Great." Trent nodded. "Let's go."

Xxx

"Here we go." Jade typed again, activating a new program. "Let the fun begin!"

Xxx

BEEP!

Noah looked at the screen. "Crap! Activated tower!"

"Oh great, not now!" Cody groaned.

"That's the last we need!" Bridgette exclaimed.

"Hang on." Noah adjusted the headset. "Aelita!"

Xxx

"Noah?" Aelita looked up from the screen. "What's wrong?"

"_There's an activated tower in the Desert Sector. You'd know this if you weren't trying to play super spy in enemy territory._"

"What?" Aelita's eyes widened.

"_Seraphim ratted you out._" Noah clarified.

"Oh." Aelita understood. "Sorry but I was looking for answers and right now I have found some. Like the fact that this Replica has several activated towers working to access multiple networks."

"_Save it for later. We need you back here, now._"

"Oh right." Aelita nodded. "I'm on my way."

Aelita jumped off the upper platform and landed on the bottom one before running out of the tower. Just as soon as she stepped out of the tower she was greeted with the sight of a Dark Krab materializing and landing in front of her. Aelita quickly fired a Plasma Beam but to her shock when it collided with Dark Krab it was covered in pink energy that instantly dissipated.

"Noah, I might be a little late. Send the others to Lyoko and I'll meet them there." Aelita stepped back.

"_What's wrong?_"

"There's a Dark Krab in front of me that survived a Plasma Beam hitting it directly in the face." Aelita answered.

"_Oh…Crap._"

"Yes. Crap." Aelita nodded. "I'll deal with it but hurry up and get to Lyoko."

The Dark Krab charged its laser and fired.

Aelita quickly took off into the air with her flight ability and quickly flew away in the direction where she had come from.

"Noah, activate the portal and tell me where it is." Aelita called out.

"_On it._"

Xxx

"To the scanner room." Noah said. "I'll get Aelita back here."

"Right." Geoff nodded.

Just as the elevator door closed Noah set the automatic virtualization sequence for the scanners so he wouldn't have to bring up the profile of whoever was stepping into the scanners first. It was hard to keep track of everyone since it was a large group these days.

"All right, transfer."

As he started the sequence the wires behind him sparked as a specter slowly oozed out of the wires and morphed into Noah's form.

"Scanner ready." Noah was about to press the enter key when a hand grabbed his wrist. "Wha-GAH!"

He was suddenly lifted out of the chair and thrown across the lab, hitting the wall with a loud thud before sliding down to the ground.

"Guh…" He looked up and saw…himself walking towards him. "Crap. I hate polymorphs."

The specter quickly grabbed him as he tried to get up. Noah would have struggled but something strange happened that started sapping his strength. He looked down and saw the polymorph's hands glowing with bright blue lines running its fingers to its wrists.

Xxx

"Noah? Noah, are you all right?" Bridgette asked when they heard Noah cry out over the speakers. "Noah!"

"I'll go up and see what happened to the little smartass." Eva said as she walked over to the ladder and started climbing up to the lab.

"Okay. We're going in." Cody stated as he, Trent, and Geoff stepped into the scanners as they closed.

A second later the scanners opened, their previous occupants virtualized into Lyoko.

Eva lifted the hatch and peeked into the lab and saw Noah pressed against the wall with his arms being held over his head by…himself?!

"Crap! Those stupid clones!" Eva shouted as she jumped up onto the floor.

"What?!" Geoff called up as he ran over the ladder. "Clones?"

"Yeah! Those stupid XANA clones!" Eva shouted as she ran to knock the clone away from Noah.

The clone looked up to see Eva's foot slam into its sides and knocked it off its feet. Noah groaned as he fell to the ground.

"Don't faint on me now, bookworm!" Eva shouted as the clone stood up. "We got a fight on our hands!"

The clone stared at Eva as she tried to punch it and easily caught her fist. Rather than fight back its hand glowed like before.

"Wha…" Eva grunted as she started feeling weak.

It happened so fast she fell to her knees.

"Crap. Not good." Noah groaned.

Xxx

Aelita flew above the gigantic black sphere that was the core of the Replica as the Dark Krab chased after her.

"Noah? Noah are you there?" Aelita asked before dodging another laser blast as Dark Krab climbed along the sphere with its scythe like legs and shot at her again. "Noah!"

She spun around and fired two Plasma Beams that knocked the Dark Krab off the wall and lucky for her it fell into the Digital Sea. Aelita landed on the small bridge leading to what she believed to be the entrance to the Core.

"Noah, I can't find the portal on my own. I need your help!" Aelita called out but there was still no answer.

Instead of an answer Aelita heard something behind her and spun around to see the spiral like doors at entrance open up. She stared at the entrance, unsure what to do as she should be getting back to Lyoko. However if Noah and no one else was at the computer she couldn't do anything to get back. She made up her mind and ran into the entrance.

She stopped when she reached the end; standing on a circular platform that glowed for a second and that was all it took for Aelita to find herself somewhere else. When she opened her eyes she found herself in what looked a giant ball shaped room with many platforms and the walls were filled with obelisk shaped parts. In the center of the room was a blue glowing orb held by large crystal like pillars above and below it. Aelita quickly flew up to get a better look at the room she was in and spotted a computer like interface on one of the platforms near the bottom.

She flew down and landed right in front it. She walked up to it and placed her hand on the black circle on the interface. A giant green screen appeared on the wall in front of her and showed multiple images that she did not recognize.

"Noah, if you can hear me I've reach the center of the Replica and I've found an interface. I'm working to access its data right now." Aelita said. "As far as I can tell it's called…The Cortex. Its towers are accessing and monitoring multiple systems such as supercomputers, websites, systems, and networks. I'm not sure what for but…"

When Aelita looked up her eyes widened and her body froze as her digital heart almost completely stopped.

"Daddy?"

In front of her was a picture of her father, Waldo Schaeffer.

Xxx

"Guys, what's taking so lo-" Bridgette gasped as she saw the clone holding Eva's fist while the brawler herself was on her knees. "Oh crap!"

She jumped and leapt at the clone, kicking it in the face. It released Eva's fist and Eva had to keep herself from falling face first onto the floor.

"You okay?" Bridgette knelt down next to her.

"Yeah…I'm good." Eva took a deep breath as she managed to barely stand back up. "That thing…It was like it was sapping my energy."

"Sapping energy?" Bridgette asked as the clone stood back up.

"Don't let it touch you." Eva grunted. "It'll do the same thing to you."

Noah groaned as he crawled over to the chair while the clone had been preoccupied by Eva and Bridgette.

He climbed up onto the chair and grabbed the headset. "Aeli..ta."

Xxx

Aelita looked up, shaken from her thoughts. "Noah?"

"_Where are you?_" Noah sounded weak.

"I'm in the core of the Replica, the Cortex. I'm establishing a link to the Supercalculator…now!" Aelita quickly typed away at the interface. "Quick. Use the Portal Generator to open up at my coordinates and sent me to the sector where the activated tower is."

"_Got it._"

A portal opened up in front of Aelita and she quickly jumped into it.

Xxx

The clone lunged forward to grab Geoff who cried out as he jumped back. "No way, Jose! You ain't touching me and draining me or whatever you do!"

As the clone tried to grab him or Eva Noah quickly activated the scanners again. "Hurry guys! We're in a lot of trouble!"

"What's going on?" Heather called out from down below.

"Talk later. Get into the scanners!"

The clone spotted Noah activating the virualization sequence and knocked Geoff into the wall.

Noah spotted the clone moving towards him. "Hurry, everyone! Transfer!"

Xxx

Gwen, DJ, and Heather were the next to step into the scanners as they closed.

"Scanner!"

"Virtualization!"

Xxx

Aelita came out of the portal and was greeted with the familiar sight of the Desert Sector. "I'm here, Noah! Where to?"

"_Go north-Gah!_"

"Noah?"

Xxx

"OOF!" Noah was flung out of the chair by the clone and into the wall next to Geoff and slid back down to the floor. "I'm really getting tired of that."

By this point Duncan and Courtney climbed up into the lab to see what the hell was going on and were greeted with the sight of a Noah duplicate knocking everyone into the wall.

"The old clone thing? Can't you think of something, XANA?" Duncan asked as he climbed up and jumped onto the floor.

"Don't let it touch you!" Bridgette called out. "It's doing some weird crap to all of us!"

"Like what?" Courtney asked, standing next to Duncan.

The clone turned to them and marched forward.

"You want some?" Duncan cracked knuckles. "Fine by me. I was looking payback for that beat down in the Copy you gave us anyways, XANA."

The Noah clone smirked.

Xxx

Aelita followed Noah's directions and went north of her position, on the lookout for anything. She spotted several figures on the ground, running north like her and recognized them instantly.

"Guys!"

Gwen, Heather, DJ, Trent, Geoff, and Cody all looked up as Aelita flew down towards them and landed in front of them.

"Aelita, you made it!" Geoff smiled. "You got us worried, bra!"

"What were you thinking, running off like that?" Gwen asked.

"Sorry, but I got some information out of it anyways. I'll explain later. Right now we have a tower to shut down." Aelita answered.

"You're right on time." Heather pointed north and they all turned to see a tower glowing violet.

"Just like the last time." Gwen frowned. "You know whose behind this?"

"No but I know that the Replica is how they're doing it." Aelita answered as they took off running towards the tower. "It has multiple activated towers that are currently accessing various remote networks. I think it's what Project Carthage intended to be."

"So someone at Realitech is really restarting Carthage?" Cody asked.

"Looks that way. Based on what we know Carthage was an attempt to digitize soldiers so they could be trained without physical limits and then later Lyon took it further with the suggestion of an artificial intelligence to take control of electronic equipment in enemy territory. We know that Lyon tried resurrect that part of the project with Nephilim and it's possible that this Replica, the Cortex is the digital environment part of Carthage." Aelita theorized.

"Great." Heather mumbled as they stopped in front of the tower. "Like we didn't have the first time we dealt with these guys."

Aelita stepped into the tower.

Xxx

Duncan grunted as the clone caught his fists and started draining him like it had done with Noah and Eva.

Xxx

Aelita landed on the secondary platform.

Xxx

"Get off him!" Courtney tried to punch the clone but this time it didn't even flinch as Courtney's fist slammed into its face.

Xxx

Aelita placed her hand on the screen.

**Aelita**

**Code: Lyoko**

"Tower deactivated." Aelita said as the screen sank down into the darkness.

Xxx

The Noah clone looked down as its body began to fade away pixels and light.

It grunted as its body vanished, releasing Duncan who breathed a sigh of relief. "That was close."

Xxx

"You had us worried to pieces, Aelita." Bridgette said once they were all back in the lab. "You have told us many times to never go alone and you went and did just that."

"I know and I'm sorry." Aelita said sincerely to everyone. "I was caught up in looking for answers to the questions we all had and what was going in that Replica. The Replica called the Cortex."

"Cortex? Like part of the brain?" Cody mused.

"Look, we get your need for answers. We all want answers but girl you've been through this a lot more than us and we can't afford to lose you, especially if XANA or any bad guys try to take over the world." LeShawna put a hand on Aelita's shoulder. "You can't let them win like that."

"I understand." Aelita nodded. "I'll include you all the next time there's a mission like this."

"So what did you find out?" Trent asked when all was forgiven.

"I know whoever in Realitech that created this is either using to benefit Project Carthage or possibly XANA from what I saw in the last twenty four hours but even then there are still pieces to the puzzle that are missing." Aelita started.

"And this helps us how?" Heather asked.

"We know that XANA placed his Source Codes in everyone except me, I ran a scan of myself before I virtualized myself. I figure it's because I have been a counter to XANA and his coding, meaning if he tried to place his Source Codes in me I would have destroyed them. If XANA has taken up residence in the Cortex he could be using it hide himself but I can't be too sure. That specter was sent by someone else and it was trying to take back those Source Codes." Aelita continued. "Meaning someone else could be behind this for reasons we do not yet know. However we now know they are after XANA's Source Codes since Noah, Eva, and Duncan have lost most of the codes they had and if XANA is indeed behind this then this might all be part of a plot to restore himself to power."

"So whoever was using that tower might be trying to-" Cody started.

"Resurrect XANA." Noah finished with a grim look on his face.

Everyone shared a look that said exactly how they felt.

If XANA regained his Source Codes he would regain all of his powers and perhaps become even more dangerous than before. They had already survived one war with him, two from Aelita's point of view.

If he came back again the world might not survive a third war.

Xxx

"Only fifteen percent retrieved." Jade sighed as she looked at the red meter bar on the screen. "Well, it's a good start anyways. Now the rest will be up to Tyron to help distract them."

She smirked as she leaned back in the chair.

"Project Carthage will be finished when the director has what he needs."


End file.
